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
We talk about the events of the Revolution and their consequences.
Have we forgotten our revolutionary history? Have we forgotten the
MARIONS, the SUMTERS, the PICKENS, of those times? Has the spirit of
sacrifice which, animated those men wholly departed from their
descendants? God forbid!
Our body politic is not free from disease. The disease should be
treated properly and judiciously. Whenever disease shows itself we
should apply a suitable remedy--one that is suggested by the pharmacy
of mutual brotherhood, and yet powerful enough to reach every nerve in
our political system.
It is to accomplish this purpose that we have come together. It is to
secure this desirable result that I urge the adoption of this
amendment. I press it because I feel that it will give peace to all
sections. Adopt it, and from that moment you may date the beginning of
the return of the seceded States into the fold of the Union. How
heartily would we welcome their return! Do we not all desire it? Has
not Virginia a heart large enough to give them their old place in the
Union? Has not Rhode Island and New Jersey?
I say my proposition will accomplish this, and a single reason will
disclose the ground of my faith. It preserves the equilibrium, the
balance of power, between the sections. It enables each section to
appoint its own officers, to protect its own interests, to regulate
its own concerns. It is fair and equal in its operations. With it, no
section can have any excuse for dissatisfaction. I pledge the united
support of the South to the Union, if it is adopted.
The latter branch of the amendment looks to the annual distribution of
the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the several
States. This was one of the favorite ideas of HENRY CLAY. His argument
upon this subject, to my mind, was always conclusive. Will the party
which has adopted his principles repudiate this, or will its members
put their feet down firmly and give it their support?
I have watched the operations of this Government with great interest
and care, and I have noticed that every approach toward making each
source of revenue or expenditure separate and independent of all
others, tended to the profit and advantage of the Government, and
increased the chances of securing honorable and honest agents to
transact its business. A marked instance of this will be found in the
administration of the affairs of the Post Office Department. And here
I cannot refrain from relating an anecdote which is strongly in
point, and which forms one of the pleasantest recollections of my own
connection with the administration of the General Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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