Year: 1861




Speech of Senator Pugh at an Immense Union


Meeting in Cincinnati, on Monday, December


81, 1860


Mr.. President and Fellow Citizens: | am con-
strained 10y sense of gratitude for the past and
of duty in the present. duty both to myself and
the large number of respectable constituents
which | represent-to deliver to you my senti-
ments in regard to the present crisis of affairs.
But first of all l must say that / did not come
here to fatter. That were to avoid the rough
and thorny path of duty-to deceive you, and
possibly to deceive your and my countrymen.
Wehavebeen accustomed, all the years of my life,
to regard the preservation of our present Union
the first and highest duty of every American citi-
zen. Applause. We have even believed, until
within few years, that the disruption of this
Confederacy was a thing impossible. But l
should deceive you, my fellow citizens, if l were
to tell you that thought there was no danger in
the present crisis. On the contrary-and say it
with full sense of my responsibility to my coun-
trymen-there is no hope for the Union except
in the exercise of the wisdom and the virtue of
the people. Applause.l


When went from this city to resume my seat
in the Senate of the United States, discovered
that the people of the border slaveholding States,
including North Carolina and Tennessee, felt ag-
grieved at what they considered the rash and un-
justifable conduct of South Carolina and many of
the Gulf States. / found them ready and anxious
to commune with their brethren of the border nom
slaveholding States. There much to be con-
ceded on both sides, much to be forgiven on both
sides-but at last we cOncurred substantially on
compromise which we thought would be honorable
and right on both sides. We concurred upon a
general proposition, which was afterwards reduced
to writing and introduced in Congress by the most
venerable and most eminent Senator in the whole
Senate of the United States. Applause. A voice:
"Hurrah for John Bell" A voice: "Hurrah for
Crittenden."


i say there was much to be forgiven. There
was much to be sacrificed; much of personal pride,
| of personal consistency much, too, of partisan
allegiance. But did hope for one that my
rifce individually was great enough to enable me
to call with confidence upon all men of all parties
to make an equal degree of sacrifice, to the end
that, with Mr.. Critendens resolutions, the peace
and harmony of the country might be restored
[ApPause]
My fellow-ctizens, there was at one time a
strong probability that that proposition would re
ccive the requisite majorities in both Houses of
Congress, and that being remanded to the seve-
raj States for ratification, it would have been in
cOrporated into the Constitution of the United
States, and thus we would have been restored to
that degree of friendship and qnet between the
slaveholdng and non-slaveholding States for
which we all long. Applause. But am sorry
to say that within the last week before / left
Il
permitted to say that the immediate cause of that
change was the declaration in the New York
Tribune, purporting to be made in the authority
of the President elect, to the effect that he would
not yield single hairs breadth of the position
which, as he understood, his party has taken in
the last canvass A voice-"Do you want to
fghtf" Laughter. / believe if the President
eect-and here let me be understood as speaking
of that gentleman in all personal respect Zap
plause II wish to speak of him the Chief
Magistrate of my country, with whom how much
sOever may differ with him in questions of pub
lie policy, yet shall treat him with that respect
which | believe every citizen owes to his Pres-
dent. believe if the President elect had been
there, (in Washington his sense of patriotism
| would have led him to take different course.
But it is remarkable that, although Mr.. Lincoln
has declared it beneath his dignity to give any
assurances that would quiet the alarm of the
people of the Southern States, since his election
he has not thought it beneath his dignity to au-
thorize declaration which brings to bear upon
the more moderate men of his party in Congress
the whole power and influence of his incoming
Administration. / think it was an error. Ap-
plause. l believe the President elect will live to
find it an error. Renewed applause.


What the people have to say, what they must
say, is whether not they will insist upon com
promise on all sides, or whether they will allow
one party to remain unyelding and determined to
give nothing, while all Others are ready to sacri-
fee their particular creeds, their positions, their
consistency, even, upon the altar of our common
country. Applause l do not mean to say that
the party with which / have acted has not
committed very great faults. 1t has. Applause.
How far the future historian will carry them, it
is not for me to say. A voce-"Hell carry
them d. of ways, | guess"


: When we acquired that Territory from Mexico
constituting the State of California and the Ter
, ritores of New Mexico and Utah, was at that
time of the same opinion as | am now, that the
Missouri Compromise line should have been ex
tended to the Pacific Coast If you will go back
with me to the formation of our present govern
ment, to the year i7S7-before the adoption OF
the present Constitution-you will find that it had
been sufficiently ascertained that from the States
North of Mason and Dixon's Line, that slavery
, must soon disappear and henceforth be forever ex
cluded. South of Mason and Dxon's Line it was al
that time an economical problem whether slavery
should continue whether it should be abolished
In dividing the concession made by the original
States, the Ohio river was selected as the line
of division between the saveholdng and non


sav eholdng States thereafter to be admitted


1t is also remarkable that not one of the nine
slaveholdng States had any territory to cede
Virginia llad every thing that had not been
, carved out of her; but the New England
! States and the State of New York, when theii
lines were protracted, soon struck the lakes and
5 the shores OF the boundaries. The purchase OF
William Penn was of fixed tract of land. The
grant OF the State of Maryland was only that part
of Virginia north elst of the Potomac river, ex


tending westward to the sources of that river. The
territory cf South Carolina had been cut off by tn,


..FIN 4.