MR. CORWIN'S SPEECH. differences removed; and believing the Crittenden plan of adjustment is an acceptable and honorable compromise, involving no sacrifice; therefore, "Resolved, That the Select Committee of Thirtythree be instructed, without delay, to take the necessary measures to carry it into practical effect." To get this before the House he moved a suspension of the rules. Lost, by 67 to 92. Mr. English, with some feeling, called the attention of the country to the fact that the Republicans would not allow a vote on a plan promising peace. On motion of Mr. Morris, (Dem.,) of Ill., the Committee on Judiciary was instructed to inquire into the propriety of amending the neutrality laws so as to prevent persons of one State from fitting out military expeditions to aid persons in States which have declared themselves out of the Union, and occupy a position outside of the rightful authority and laws of the United States. Mr. Vandever, (Rep.,) of Iowa, asked leave to offer resolutions declaring that the Federal Government has no power to interfere with Slavery in the States; that whatever may be the power of the Government relative to Slavery in the Territories, &c., it is no ground for a dissolution of the Union; that it is not expedient to amend the Constitution at this time. A government without power to maintain itself is not worthy to be preserved. He withdrew the resolutions, in view of the consideration of the report of the Committee of Thirty-three. Members on the Democratic side wished a vote and objected to their withdrawal. 263 Corwin's Speech. the question whether the Government had any legislative power, as it was supposed it had, to coerce a portion of this great national combination to obey the laws of the Government of the United States, he would, so far as he could, look into the matter as a question of constitutional law. He thought gentlemen on both sides had misunderstood the facts bearing on the question, and the meaning of the word coercion, as applied to the Government. Again, they were mistaken in the supposition that all the laws that might be considered fatal to the existence of the Republic of the United States, as now constituted, might not be enforced without any attempt whatever at coercing any State taking this or that position. If it were true that a State might withdraw itself from all connection with its fellow States of the Union, it did not follow that if a State did not choose to avail itself of the benefits conferred by the Union and the laws, that each law vital to the existence of the Union, may not be enforced without disturbing the peace of that State. That is, if a State ever did withdraw all the laws might be enforced without disturbing her political relations to the general Union; and if a State should secede, whether it did so under the specious garb of State Sovereignty or not, he was unable to see how it was that any distinct number of men, combined to give force and countenance to the existence of the laws of the United States, could pass laws to make any difference in the measure of the offense, if it be an offense, denominated treason. The facts which had come to his knowledge of the course taken had been fully submitted to the Committee. Now it was supposed that the causes of the complaint which had led to this strange and eccentric movement of the Southern States either had no foundation in fact, or, if they had, these causes of complaint could be removed, and the people might hope that the public tranquillity would be restored. That brought him to the consideration of one or two topics which he would briefly present. The House then proceeded to the consideration of the Majority Report of the Committee of Thirty-three, when Mr. Corwin, Chairman of the Committee, proceeded to address the House in advocacy of the adoption of the Report. He had served in the House thirty years ago, and then was called upon to consider a question analogous to that now presented, of the power of a State to sit in judgment on acts of Congress, and to withdraw from the Federal Union. He little dreamed that at the close of his public He then adverted to those acts and relacareer he should be called upon to legislate tions of the Northern States to which the on a revolution created by the same State Southern States took exception and offered upon the same assumption. In considering as a justification of their revolutionary steps Corwin's Speech. to dissolve all political con- | find out what injury had, Corwin's Speech. non-execution in consequence of these State acts. This led him to consider the question of property. He looked upon that as property which, owing a man labor, could be converted into value in goods or money. That he called property. He did not mean to say that constitutional in character, was the proper ju-sonal Liberty laws and the Fugitive Slave law's dicature to determine the character of that law placed in a sovereign State. If that were so, a State would have the right to absolve itself from all allegiance, and absolve its citizens from allegiance to the Government of the United States. Undeniably, if this were the case, if this was sufficient cause for break-man had property in man, but there was a ing up the Union, they might have a thousand reasons with as much propriety for breaking up and dissolving the Union as now. The judicial reports of the Courts over all the country were full of decisions which had declared that such and such a law of the United States was unconstitutional, and that such and such a law was null and void. It was to meet such cases that the correcting tribunal of the United States Supreme Court was established. It was the arbiter and judge, and all State laws declared by it to be unconstitutional were, by the nature of the powers vested in that Court, null and void. It, therefore, was the judge of the propriety of Congressional and State enactments --not the States themselves. The law for the recapture and surrender of fugitive slaves was passed in 1850, and was sustained by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the State Courts had no more to do with it than they had with the act of 1793. It must follow, as a legal consequence inevitable, that the Supreme Court of the United States, if it deem the law of 1850, or the law of 1790, as amended by that of 1850, as within the Constitution and province of Congress, it must follow that it will execute that law; and therefore every law coming in contact with any portion of the constitutional law, and interposing to its execution, must be deemed by them totally void and of no effect. When he asserted this he presumed no man, whether a lawyer or a layman, would disagree with him. If, then, any of those laws passed in the North, entered into conflict with the laws of the United States which were declared to be constitutional by the courts of the Federal Government, they were simply null and of no possible effect. The Committee had been anxious, however, to relationship existing between a slave and his owner, which was recognized by the Constitution of the United States, in this, to wit— that every State recognizes the right of a master to establish his claim to his runaway slave. That relationship which existed between a man who owes labor and him to whom it was due was called Slavery. He believed that the word "slave" had been strangely perverted from its original meaning. The word "slave" was formerly applied to white men-the blue-eyed, fair-skinned man the slaves who had raised the great Russian empire to its present stupendous and brilliant height. He confessed, therefore, that in law a slave was property, and the Fugitive Slave law having been passed by the highest judicial authority, must be acknowledged by States, and must be strictly enforced so long as it was the law. It was futile for any State Legislature to lift its puny arm against the strong, gigantic arm of the glorious Constitution, which declares that all its laws, made in pursuance of that instrument, must be regarded as paramount to all State laws and State Constitutions. The speaker then adverted to the freedom of the press, and, though he might be called an "Old Federalist" for his opinion, he believed that every society had the right to protect its own interests and welfare, when those interests became menaced by danger. He wished to say that every man who had anything to do with the concerns of the Government, whether he be a newspaper editor, or other individual, who goes abroad through the States, circulating publications, with intent to excite domestic insurrections, should be seized and punished; and it was in the power of every State Government to punish that intent according to the constitutional Corwin's Speech. definition of treason. He was the last man in the world who would interfere with the institution of the Press; but the man who went about the country circulating documents, with intent of exciting domestic insurrection against the law-any man who would thus raise his suicidal arm against the Southern bosom, and raise his fratricidal arm against his brother's heart-he would have him duly and commensurately punished. Corwin's Speech. to show how impossible it The clamor of rights in the Territories he would settle by giving the South, for its "peculiar institution," all the territory South of the meridian 36 deg. 30 min. But, what did the Slaveowners want of more territory? They had not slave labor enough at the present moment to develop the resources of their own States. There were three hundred millions of acres in Texas on which cotton could be cultivated, and he was told that one good hand was equal to the production of five bales of cotton. Calculations would show that instead of wanting room for expansion, instead of choking for breathing room, they had as much productive soil within their own States as would give employment to forty-five millions of negroes, and their whole negro population was only four millions. He closed by repeating that the North had no desire to interfere with Slavery in the States, and any guarantees to further assure them of that fact it was ready to grant. He hoped to see this mighty Republic bound together by closer ties in the future than any that had yet bound them in the past. As to the policy and spirit of the Republican party, the South had made a great bugbear, without just cause or propriety. It had been sedulously and zealously attempted by a certain set of politicians, to induce the people of the South to believe that the party, when it should have attained command of Congress-when it should have command of the Executive and the Judiciary, that one of its first acts would be, by some means never explained, to seize the power of the Federal Government, and then, interfering with the Slave States, seize and deprive you of your property. The newspapers of the South had zealously fostered this idea, and kept the Southern mind excited upon this bugbear of the predominancy of Black Republicanism-not from anything that the party had ever avowed-not from any principles ever put forth by them, but from the ravings of the Abolition party, greatly magnified. The Constitution of the United States gave to Congress and the President no more power over Slavery in the States where Mr. Millson, (Dem.,) of it exists than it gave them power to regulate Virginia, followed, repreover the people of England, the affairs of senting one of the Minority Ireland or Scotland. This they had not the Reports submitted from the Committee. He power to do, nor could it be for a moment spoke of the priceless nature of the Union, supposed that they would attempt to over- and considered one of the worst signs of the leap all constitutional bounds. If any of the times to be the levity with which Disunion States should continue in their secession, was regarded. He did not expect statesmen from such vain and improbable causes as of the present day to attain to the wisdom of these, it was plain and obvious that the fu- the authors of the Constitution, but he did ture historian, looking at the events of these expect that they would at least aspire to the times, would come to the conclusion that the capacity of comprehending the results which great experiment which this continent was must follow from their action at this time. intended to demonstrate, that man was ca- He had been asked, shall Virginia submit to pable of self-government, had entirely failed Lincoln? Certainly! What though the peo-that it failed from the insanity of the ple of Virginia gave their vote against Linpeople, exhibited in this question now before coln; what though Virginia, through her the country. He, at some length, proceeded Representatives here, may give her vote Millson's Speech. Millson's Speech. the Territorial question was Millson's Speech. against the passage of a law enacted by Congress, it is still Virginia that says the laws shall be obeyed. It is still Virginia that settled by the Constitution-settled by the says her will is potential, and that whoever re- Supreme Court-and settled, too, in favor of ceives a majority of the electoral votes shall the South! He, therefore, saw nothing which be the President. Submitting to Lincoln is would justify them in abandoning their prebut submitting to the sovereign will of Vir- sent securities, and rushing hastily into disginia. He had seen no other cause assigned for union. Neophytes in States Rights views secession than the passage of Personal Liberty addressed him, veteran States Rights men, bills. He stood there a States' rights man of with the argument that they must vindicate the strictest sect, and regarded the Constitu- the rights of the States. What were they? tion as a compact between States. He even It would seem that some gentlemen supposed believed that a violation of the Constitution, there were no other rights of a State than by some of the parties to it, justified the other those which involved her destruction — the parties in refusing to comply with its remain-right to sacrifice her interest, the right to lay ing obligations; but, he denied that the Le-heavy burdens on her people, the right to exgislature of a State was one of the parties to pose herself to extreme peril, the right to the compact, and if the assumption of uncon- throw away all her rights. He would defend stitutional power on the part of a Legislature all those rights of his State if she chose to was to be regarded as an infraction of the exercise them. He would defend her right Constitution, discharging any of the parties to commit suicide if she was tired of prosfrom their reciprocal obligations, then the perity, and renown, and life itself. But the like assumption of unconstitutional power by rights of Virginia, which he was most eager a President, a Governor, a State or Federal to maintain, were those connected with the Judge, a Postmaster, or a Collector of Cus- welfare of her safety, her commerce, her intoms, should also be so regarded. But when dustry, her peace, her consideration at home the people, after remonstrance, sanctioned and abroad, the comfort and happiness and the unconstitutional act of their Legislature, lives of her citizens-in short, all those inesthat made it an infraction of the compact, timable blessings and benefits which the Conand it was then the privilege, not the duty, stitution secured her, and of which she was of any other State to avail herself of that now or had lately been in the actual enjoybroken faith. It could not be considered her ment. These were the rights of his State duty to do so, for then Massachusetts might which he would have her maintain against be compelled to secede because Connecticut all comers. These were the rights which passed a Personal Liberty bill. He held that some men wanted her to throw away, only to among the most valuable State rights belong-show her right to do so. ing to Virginia, were those which belonged to her as a member of the Union. She was not bound to choose the alternative of submitting to Personal Liberty bills or breaking up the Union. He would refuse to submit to unconstitutional law, and he would not throw away his precious stake in the Union either. He did not see anything in the passage of Personal Liberty bills which justified the dissolution of the Union, particularly as evidence had been given by Northern Legislatures of a purpose to repeal such laws. The Territorial rights question he disposed of in a brief but effective manner. It seemed, he said, to be strangely overlooked that Mr. Millson regretted that he could not share in Mr. Corwin's conclusions respecting future aggressions. He could not conscien tiously accept the declarations of his political opponents against aggressions, present and prospective, and preferred that the Constitution should have such an interpretation given it as would forbid any future misconstructions. The men of the South required no new guarantees for their States-required no surrender either of consistency, or power, or advantages, on the part of the Northern States. The Territorial constitutional law had been settled by the decision of the Supreme Court. Upon that decision they rested, and upon it MR. MILLSON'S SPEECH. 267 Millson's Speech. Millson's Speech. they relied for the whole | asked now was already in settlement of that question. the Constitution; but they He referred with great wanted some stipulation logical force to the secession of the State made to end forever the controversy. They of South Carolina as an impossibility. She did not ask this as suppliants. There was nohad not withdrawn from Congress, for she thing practical to contend for. If the North never had been a member of Congress. She did not want Slavery in the Territories it was had not dissolved her connection with the not there, and could not be got there. No Federal Government, for she never was a Southern man would bring his slaves into part of the Federal Government. The peo- Territory either South or North of New ple only were represented in Congress Mexico. But no one could tell what would the people only were a part of the Federal be the temper and spirit of the majority in Government-they had ordained the Con- some future time. They might exercise their federacy, they had accepted the Constitu- power insultingly, for the purpose of tramption, and not the State; and they alone, in ling on the sensibilities of the Southern National Convention represented, could adju- people. The South had a right to be prodicate upon the question - South Carolina tected against that danger. He could not must withdraw from them. They had no offi- conceive what just ground could be urged cial information that South Carolina had against the insertion of such plain stipulations withdrawn from the Union, but yet they had in the Constitution as would forever put to such accumulated knowledge of the fact that rest this agitated question. they must act in the matter as if they knew officially that she had withdrawn. But having withdrawn, she must not be coerced. While he had no sympathy with the mode adopted by South Carolina for leaving the Union, while he had little sympathy with her with reference to the cause of her seceding from the Union, while he thought he saw that there was a purpose in her so acting, so that she might compel the other States to give a reluctant acquiescence in her course, yet not only for the sake of South Carolina, not only for the sake of the other States, but for his own State, which desired to remain in the Union, he protested against the application of coercion in any form for the purpose of subjecting a State. No; call a Convention of the States; submit the question to them. Let the States meet on equal terms, as when they formed the present Constitution, and let them determine what shall be done in this grave emergency. He again adverted to the necessity for such Constitutional amendments as would put the Southern mind at rest. Beyond the present the Republicans of to-day could not answer -they could not answer for their successors; and, therefore, there should be some definite, satisfactory adjustment of the controversy. He did not see that the Constitution should be altered, for he maintained that what was Who could penetrate the dismal future? Whether this great Government was to be preserved or destroyed-whether this Union was to be maintained or dissolved-whether peace was again to spread her wings over the nation, or whether it was to be exposed to all the horrors of a desolating civil war, he could not divine. He knew how strong were the inducements to peace. He knew that the interests of the North, as well as of the South, demanded peace, continued peace. Even if the Government was to be overthrown and the Union dissolved, there might be a general Convention of the States, and if they could not live peaceably together they might determine peaceably to separate. He looked upon the waging of war, not only as a violation of the Constitution, but as a crime against humanity. Still, there might be war. He feared there would be war. mortal man rarely died without strong convulsions and paroxysms, and it was not to be supposed that a first-class power of the earth -a Republic of thirty millions-would exhale its breath classically and tranquilly. But, though his fears were active, he did not permit himself altogether to despond. Union might yet be reconstructed and preserved, and the historian, in referring to this crisis in our national history, might date from this point the time when the A The |