Year: 1861



 Mr. Seward of N. Y., took the floor. He re- marked that Congress had assembled this winter in presence of great Arrangement of business, and disturbance of public and private credit and in face of seditious combinations to over throw the Union. The alarm is appalling, for the Union is not more the body than Liberty is the soul of the Nation.

 He avowed his adherence to the Union, in its integrity, with his friends, his party, his State his country, or without either, as they may de- termine, in every event-whether peace or war !: with every consequence of honor or dishonor- of life or death. After stating that the Union cannot be saved by mutual recriminationss or continuance of debate on the constitutional pow. CT or Congress over the subject of slavery in the Territories, or discussing the right of the Fede- rai Government to coerce seceding States into obedience he says:-If disunion is to 20 on. the latter question will give way to the more practi- cal one-whether many seeding States have the right to eoerce the remaining ones to acquiescc in dissolution.

 He abhorred civil war, and did not know what the Union would be worth if saved by the sword; yet he did not agree with those who, with de- sire 10 avert that great calamity, advised con- rentlonal or unopposed separation with view to what they call a reconstruction. The Union can be dissolved, not by secession, but only by the voluntary consent of the people of the Uni ted States. Congress ought not to remain im- passive; it ought, if it can, redress any real grievances that have offended States, and then ought to supply the next President with all the means necessary to maintain the Union in the full exhibition and discreet exercise of his au- fhority. Beyond this, with proper activity on the part of the Executive, the responsibility of saving the Union belongs to the people-and they are abundautly competent to discharge it. He argued at length she advantages of the Union, and the effect of o s.nion, and proceeded to ask what is the ground of the discomfort.

 Beyond doubt union is vitaly important to the Republican citizens of the United States |; but it is just as important to the whole people. Republication and Union are, therefore not con- sertibie terms. Redublicanism is subordinate to Union, as everything else is and ought to be -Repnblicanism, Democracy, every other polit- ieal name and thing, are all subordinate-and they ought to disappear in presence of the great question of Union. So far as I am concerned, it shall be so; it should be so if the question sure to be tried it ought only to be determined by the peaceful ordeal of the ballot. It shall be so all the more since there is on one side pre- paredness to refer it to the arbitration of civil war. have such faith in this republican sys- tenn of ours, that there is no political good which l desire that am not content to seek through it's peaceful forms of administration without invok- ing revolutionary action. If others shall invoke that form of action to oppose and overthrow gov srpment, they shall not, so far it depends on rue, have the excuse that Obstinatcly left my self to be misunderstood. In such a case can afford to meet prejudice with conciliation, exac- tion with concession which surrenders no prin- ciple, and violence with the right hand of peace Therefore, sir, so far the abstract question whether by the Constitution of the United States the bondmen, who is made such by the laws of statc, Is still a man or only property, 1 answer that, within that State. its laws on that subject are supreme that when he has escaped from that state into another; the constitution regards him hnnA At.a,, ,rrt,r iaton of that state, be discharged from his ser vice. but shall be delivered up, on claim, to the party to whom his services is due. While prr- dence and justice would combine in persuatiinp you to modify the acts of Congress on that sub ject SO AS to 0blige private persons to assist in their execution, and to protect freemcn from be- ing, by abuse of laws, carried into slavery I agree that all lags of the states, whether free states or slave states, which relate to this class of persons, or any others recently coming from or resident in other states, and which laws con- trayene the Constitution of the United States, or any law of Congress passed in conformity thereto, ought to be repealed.

 Secondly. Experience in public affairs has confirmed my opinion, that domestic slavery, ex- isting in any state, is wisely left by the Consti- tuition of the United States exclusively to the care. management and disposition of that state: and if it were in Thy power, l would not alter the constitution in that respect. If misappre- hension of my position needs 80 strong reme- dy, am willing to vote for an amendment of the constitution, declaring that it shall not, by any future amendment, be altered as to con- fer on Congress q power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any state.

 Thirdly. While think that Congress has ex- elusive and sovereign authority to lcgslate on all subjects whatever, in the common territories of the United States; and while 1 shall never, directly or indirectly, give my vote to establish or sanction slavery in such territories, or any where else in the world, yet the question what constitutional laws shall at any time be passed in regard to the territories, is, like every other question, to be determined on practical grounds. l voted for enabling acts in the cases of Oregon Minnesota and Kansas, without being able to secure in them such provisions as I would have preferred; and yet voted wisely. So now, am well satisfied that, under existing circum- stances, . happy and satisfactory solution of the difficulties in the remaining territories would be obtained by similar laws providing for their or gsnization, if such organization were otherwise practicable If, therefore, Kansas were admit ted as a state under the Wyandott Constitution, as think she ought to be, and if the organic laws of all the other territories could be repealed l could vote to authorize the organization and admission of two new states which should in- clude them, reserving the right to effect subdi- visions of them whenever accessory, into several convenient states; but do not find that such

 

 Without them, the ulterior embarrassments which would result from the nasty incorporation of states of such vast extent and various interests and character would outweigh all the immediate advantages of such measure. But if the measure were practicable, I should prefer a different course, namely :-when the eccentric movements of secession and disunion shall have ended, in whatever form that end may come, and the angry settlements of the hour shall have subsided, and calmHess once more shall have re- sumed it's accustomed sway over the public mind, then, and not until then-one, two or three years hepco-I should cheerfully advise a con- yention of the people, to be assembled in pur- ance of the constitution to consider and decide whether any and what amendments of the or ganic national law ought to be made. A repub- lican now-as have heretofore been 8 member of other parties existing in my day-I never theless hold and cherish as I have always done, the principle that this government exists in it's present form only by the consent of the govern ed, and that it-is as necessary as it is wise to resort to the people for revisions of the orgau- ic law when the troubles and dangers of the state certainly transcend the powers delegated by it to the public authorities. Nor ought the suggestion to excite surprise. Government in any form is machine: this is the most com- plex one that the mind of man has ever in vent ed, or the hand of man has ever framed. Per fact as it s it ought to be expected that it will at least as often as once in a century, require some modification to adapt it to the changes of society and alternations of empire.