Year: 1861

present circumstances, is certainly not de.
manded by the magnitude Of the grievances
of which we complain. nor BY the certain
tty that they cannot be otherwise and more
peacefully remedied. nor BY the hope thai
they would be remsdied or even diminish.
ed BY such revolution.


The position Of Missouri in relation te
the adjacent States which would continue
in the Uaion, would necessarily expose her,
il she became a member of the new con.
federacy, 10 utter destruction, whenever
any rupture might take place between the
different republics. In a military aspect
secession and connection with Southern
Confederacy is annihilation for our State.


Many Of our largest interests would per.
ish under q system Of free trade.


Emigration to The State must eesss. Nc
southern man owning slaves would COM
to the frontier State; no northern man
would come to this foreign country avowed-
ly hostile TO his native land.


Our slave interest would be destroyed
because we would have no better right to
recapture a slave found in free State
than we now have in Canada. The owners
Of slaves must either remove with them to
the South, or sell them, and so we would
In few years exhibit the spectacle Of q
State breaking up its most advantageous
and important relations to the old Union, in
order to enter into slavsholding eonfedsr-
acy, and having itself no slaves.


The thought Of revolution by Missouri,
under present circumstances, is not, we
believe, seriously entertained by any men,
Der Of this Convention.


But what is now the true position for
Missouri to assumep Evidently that of Q
State whose interests are bound up in the
maintenance Of the Union, and whose kind
feelings and strong sympathies are with the
people Of the Southern States, with whom
we are connected BY ties Of friendship and
Of blood. We want the peace and harmo-
py Of the country restored, and we want
them with US. To 60 with them as they
are now, 10 leave government our fathers
builded. 10 blot out the star Of Missouri
from the constellation of .bs Union, is to
ruin ourselves without doing them any
good. We cannot now follow them; we
cannot now give up the Union; yet we will
do all in our power to induce them to take
their places with Us in the family from
which they have attempted to separate them
selves. For this purpose we will not only
recommend compromise with which they
ought to be satisfied, but we will unite in
the endeavor to procure an assenblage of
the whole family Of States in order that in
General Convention such amendments to
the Constitution may be agreed upon as
shall permanently restore harmony to the
whole nation.


While attempts are being made 10 heal
the present divisions, 1t is a matter Of the
highest importance that there should occur
no military conflict between the Federal
Government and the government Of any Of
the seeded States. Such conflict will cer-
tainly produce high state Of evaporation
and very probably render abortivs all at
tsmpts to adjust the matters Of difference.


While it is admitted that every govern
ment must possess the power to execute its
own laws, and that Government Of the Uni.
ted States is no exception to this necessary
and universal rule, still, in a case such as
that with which we are now dealing it is
all important that those in authority should
remember that such power Is net given
to be exercised for the destruction Of the
government, under the guiss of maintaining
its authority. The question of exercising
such power is to be determined with .
view TO all existing circumstances, and
while the power itself cannot be abandoned
the greatest patience and forbearasce may
often be required in order to prsvsn. evils
in the highest degree dangerous to the peace
Of the nation.


Placed as Missouri is in the vsry centre
OF the confederacy, united to all its parts
and interested in the pros perity Of each
part, she would speak 10 ths Government
Of the United States and to the Government
Of the seeding States. not in the language
of menace but Of kindness, net threatening
but entrsating; and with this feeling she
would ask all concerned in the govern
msnts to avoid all military collision. which
would without doubt prodliee uncomfortable
excitement. and very probably ruinous civil
war. Civil war among the American pso.
pie, the citizens Of the fFeest nation Of the
world, blsst Of God, snvisd Of man, would
be spectacle at which humanity would
shudder, over which freedom would weep,


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