A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention: For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861Chittenden, L. E. (Lucius Eugene)
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A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention: For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861
Chittenden, L. E. (Lucius Eugene)
Conference Convention (1861 : Washington, D.C.); United States -- Politics and government -- 1857-1861
It is of little use to make patriotic speeches here. The South demands
guarantees, and I feel under obligations to respond to that demand. I
assert as a general principle, that whoever has a right is entitled
to have it guaranteed. I believe there is not a gentleman here, who,
in his heart, does not think so. If it is right for them to have these
guarantees at all, they should have them to-day. I do not care whether
Virginia occupies a menacing attitude or not, my moral code is still
the same; it is not effected by any thing that has been done or can be
done by Virginia or any other State. It is my belief that
nineteen-twentieths of the people of the North to-day are in favor of
giving to the South all the guarantees it asks against all
interference with slavery in the territories. Some say, "We admit
this, but we will do nothing until the Republican President is
inaugurated on the 4th of March." I am ready to do it now; and my
obligations to do right will not be changed by the 4th of March
rolling over my head.
Gentlemen have made eloquent and patriotic speeches asserting their
determination not to interfere with the rights of the South. That is
very pleasant and very proper. But those speeches are the expressions
of individuals, and they pass away. Where is the man who will consent
to hold any political right at the will of any man or class of men, no
matter how kindly disposed? We all require security. The highest and
grandest aim and object of government is not the stability and peace
of society, but a well-grounded confidence in the minds of the people
of the perpetuity of that stability and peace.
The South asks the right to use and occupy a portion of the common
territory of the country. As a northern man I will accept the
compromise, and I believe a large majority of the people will agree
with me. You, gentlemen of the South, have asked that the arrangement
may be extended to territory hereafter to be acquired. New Jersey has
voted in this Convention against interference with slavery in the
territory, present or future, and she is the only northern State that
has cast her vote in favor of your demand. Her representatives have
been told somewhat sneeringly, that while slaveholding States voted
against this proposition, New Jersey was the only free State that
voted for it. Well, we accept the responsibility, and will bear it.
New Jersey has made up her record. There it stands, and there let it
stand forever. We are proud of it. If civil war is to come, if this
land is to be deluged with fraternal blood, when that time comes
there will not be a northern State represented here that would not
give untold millions to be placed upon that record by the side of New
Jersey.
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