Henry Clay to John J. Crittenden, August 22, 1825

Washington, August 22, 1825.

Dear Crittenden, — Upon my arrival here, yesterday, I found your agreeable favor of the 7th instant. Although it is a moment of severe affliction with me, I cannot refuse myself the satisfaction of addressing a line to you. I rejoice most heartily in the event of our elections. I rejoice in your election, to which I attach the greatest importance. I rejoice that the vile and disgusting means employed to defeat you have failed, as they ought to have failed. Your presence in the House will be highly necessary. The pruning-knife should be applied with a considerate and steady hand. The majority should dismiss from their minds all vindictive feelings, and act for the good and the honor of Kentucky, and for the preservation of her constitution. You will have some trouble in preserving the proper temper, but you should do it; nothing should be done from passion or in passion. Undoubtedly restore the constitutional judges, repeal bad laws, but preserve good ones, even if they have been passed by the late dominant party. When you have the power of appointment, put in good and faithful men, but make no stretches of authority even to get rid of bad ones. Such would be some of my rules if I were a member of the G. Assembly. I hope we shall preserve the public peace with Georgia, notwithstanding the bad humor of her governor. Nor do we intend that the treaty with the Creeks shall be executed before the time fixed by its own stipulations for its execution, which, happily, will again bring that instrument in review before Congress.

Your faithful friend,

Henry Clay.

Respects and congratulations to Harvie.

John J. Crittenden.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 62

George M. Bibb to John J. Crittenden, March 8, 1824

Washington, March 8, 1824.

DEAR JOHN,—That there are men who will ascribe my actions to any motive but a reasonable one, I know, but that any should suppose that I have come to Washington for the purpose of electioneering against Mr. Clay is an extravagance that I did not anticipate would have been charged against me. My great motive in coming here was to get a hearing and decision in my suit for the land at Falmouth; in this I have succeeded. The opinion is delivered, and is in my favor. I endeavored to lay a contribution on other suitors in the court to help pay expenses of the trip, but the people of Kentucky are not drilled to paying fees to the lawyers. They pay in promises. As to Mr. Clay, he has broken the cords of friendship which bound me to him; they can never again be tied. I have no desire to interfere with your friendship for him, nor to trouble you with complaints of his conduct to me. Beware of such sunshine friends! As to electioneering upon the subject of President, I am as far removed from it as Washington is from Kentucky. I have heard a great deal; said little. I am not a member of Congress, and have, therefore, no right to go to caucus or vote in caucus, nor have I a vote when the question shall come before the House of Representatives. A listener, who hears all parties, is perhaps better able to form his opinions than those who are heated, busy, bustling managers. The grand Harrisburg Convention has decided, with but a single dissenting voice, for Jackson. Roberts was the only man who did not, upon the first vote, declare for Jackson. This has given a new impetus to him. The anticipation that Pennsylvania would declare for him gave him great advantages. The undivided voice of the Convention at Harrisburg has surprised the friends of all the other candidates, — save those of Calhoun, — they looked for it after the meeting in the county of Philadelphia, for the purpose of choosing a delegate to the Convention at Harrisburg. It seems that the people of North Carolina are taking up Jackson, as Pennsylvania did, against their politicians and of their own mere will. So it is in New York. The majority of the Senate are disposed to keep the appointment of electors in the legislature, — that is their calculation for Crawford; but a large majority of the House of Representatives of that State are decidedly opposed to Crawford. Adams is the most potent there. With the people, Jackson is next to Adams, and should the election go to the people Jackson may prevail in that State. The indications in Maryland are for Jackson. Tennessee and Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri, for Jackson. All New England for Adams. As for Indiana and Ohio, it is difficult now to say for whom their vote will be. The most knowing say that the substantial controversy is now between Adams and Jackson, and by a union of the slaveholding States with Pennsylvania Jackson may be elected. Unless Clay gets the votes of New York he cannot be one of the three from whom the House of Representatives is to choose. What revolutions in the electoral votes may take place before the time of choosing the Electoral College, should the friends of Crawford find out what everybody else seems to have found out (that he cannot be elected either by the people or the House of Representatives), cannot be foreseen. Jackson's ticket is every day acquiring new friends. Since the Convention at Harrisburg his pretensions are placed before the people by means of newspapers that were devoted before to other candidates. So much for politics. The great case, between Jersey and New York as it is called, upon the constitutionality of the law of New York, giving to Fulton the exclusive right to navigate the waters of New York by steamboats, is decided against New York. In this cause, I heard from Wirt the greatest display that I have ever heard at the bar since the days of Patrick Henry. His legal argument was very strong; his peroration was beautiful and grand. I did not hear Webster, nor Oakley, nor Emmett in this case, but all are said to have exhibited great talents. I have heard Webster, Sergeant, and White, of Tennessee. Wirt, Webster, White, and Ogden are the ablest lawyers, and Walter Jones should also be ranked among the first. Emmett I have not heard, but his reputation is high. After all, I have not been convinced that the bar of Kentucky does not contain as much talent and force as any other bar in the Union.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 60-1

George M. Bibb to John J. Crittenden, March 17, 1824

March17th. I have heard Wirt in another great case, opposed by Clay and Harper. Wirt rises with the occasion and the opposing force. The bill for putting the choice of the electors of New York to the people has been rejected by the Senate, so that it cannot now be foreseen how New York will be. The majority of the Senate for Crawford, the majority of the House of Representatives against him. Mr. Clay's prospects there, feeble as they were, are gone. We may now begin to settle down between Jackson and Adams. I can have no hesitation; my voice is for Jackson.

Monroe is here, our Tom, and is charged with a speech. I have no mission in view; I expect to be a pleader of causes as long as I am able to follow the profession. I had not, in coming here, any other motive or prospect. This day week I expect to be off to Kentucky.

Yours, as ever,

George M. Bibb.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 61-2

Henry Clay to John J. Crittenden, September 13, 1823

Ashland, September 13, 1823.

Dear Crittenden, — I received your letter by Mr. Davis. I participate most cordially with you in the just solicitude which the dispute between Messrs. Breckenridge and Wickliffe awakens. When it was first mentioned to me, considering the peculiar circumstances and the character of one of the parties, I feared that all private interference would be unavailing, and that the best course would be an appeal to the civil authority, with its chances of delay, — cooling of the passions, and possible ultimate accommodation. Supposing the intercession of the civil power, would not Mr. W. be relieved from the necessity of having the interview, and Mr. B. be stripped of any ground to carry into effect the alternative, which it is said he menaced? There is, however, no incompatibility between the two courses, which may be tried in succession, or simultaneously, according to circumstances. I have therefore prepared and, on my own part, signed a letter addressed to the parties, and which may be signed by both, or either of you, and the governor. If the relations of one of them to your brother should induce you to withhold your signature, that of the governor may be affixed without yours. I would advise a copy of this letter to be delivered to each of the seconds; and considering that it is uncertain where they may meet, I would suggest that one of the judges of the Court of Appeals or Circuit Courts be applied to for a warrant to bind the parties. The public rumor of their intention to meet will form a sufficient ground for his action. One of the motives which took me to Woodford was to see you. The melancholy event which occurred there of private affliction to you (on which I offer you my sincere condolence) deprived me of that pleasure. My health is not re-established, but is improving, and I begin to feel that I see land, or rather, that I may not get under it.

I am faithfully yours,

Henry Clay.

Hon. J. J. Crittenden.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 59

Isaac Shelby to John J. Crittenden, June 16, 1823

Danville, June 16th, 1823.

My Dear Sir,—You have no doubt before this seen the replies of both General Preston and his son to my publication. Colonel Preston proposes to establish for his own father the merit of planning the expedition which led to Ferguson's defeat .

I have examined the subject in my own mind in every point of view, and cannot, in the remotest manner, discover wherein General Preston could have had any agency in this exploit. I lived nearly one hundred and twenty miles from him, in a different State, and had no kind of communication with him on the subject, and from every recollection, I am convinced that the statement I gave you is indisputably true. I recollect, however, that Major Cloyd, with three hundred men from the county of Montgomery, commanded by Colonel Preston, fought an action with the Tories at the shallow ford of the Yadkin River, nearly one hundred miles north of King's Mountain, about two weeks after the defeat of Ferguson. It has always been a mystery to me as to Cloyd's destination, or that of the enemy whom he encountered. I have only understood that they met accidentally in the road, and that the enemy was composed of the Tories in the neighborhood, and of the Bryants, of Kentucky, some of whom were killed in the fight.

If Ferguson was Cloyd's object, he was too weak to effect anything, and besides, Lord Cornwallis, with the British army, lay directly in the route between them. My convictions are so clear on this point I have no fear that General Preston can render my statement doubtful. He proposes, too, to invalidate the testimony of Moses Shelby. I will, for your own satisfaction, give you a short sketch of his history. Moses was in his nineteenth year when he left his father's house to join the expedition against Ferguson, and had never before, to my knowledge, been more than forty miles from home. It is well known that our march was too rapid for a youth of that age to trespass in any manner, the army having marched two or three hundred miles, and fought the battle in twelve days, three of which we were detained on the road from different causes. Moses was severely wounded at the Mountain, and the bone of one thigh being fractured, he could be carried but a short distance from the battle-ground, where he lay on his back nearly three months, and was only able to ride out a few days before General Morgan came up into the district of Ninety-Six. He joined Morgan but a day or two before the battle of the Cowpens, on the 17th of January, 1781. Here he was wounded more severely than at the Mountain, and lay, until March or April, under the hands of a surgeon. When Colonel Clarke, of Georgia, came on with his followers to commence the siege of Augusta, his wounds were still sore and open, but at the warm solicitations of Clarke, Moses joined the expedition, and was appointed captain of horse. It is well known that the siege lasted until May or June following, in which Moses was actively engaged, and Clarke asserted to many that he made several charges on the enemy, who sallied during the siege, which would have done honor to Count Pulaski. Moses returned home shortly after the siege, and never crossed the mountains again during the war. The next year, 1782, he, with other adventurers, went to the new settlements, then forming where Nashville now stands, where he continued off and on until he married, two or three years afterwards. As the settlements progressed down the Cumberland, he was always among the foremost of the pioneers. He finally settled in what is now called Livingston County, Kentucky, where, at the unanimous solicitation of the inhabitants, he was appointed colonel of the new county, about the year 1793. He had the command for a number of years. And after the acquisition of Louisiana, he removed to that territory, and now resides on the west side of the Mississippi, two miles below New Madrid, covered with the scars of thirteen deep wounds, received in defense of his country, from which he is too proud to receive a pension, always disdaining to apply for one. In his youth he was of a warm and ardent disposition, always ready to risk his life for a friend, and profuse of his property (of which he had a considerable inheritance), even to a fault. It would exceed the bounds of a letter to give you a statement of the many hair-breadth escapes and imminent dangers through which he passed. Soon after his marriage he became impressed with religious sentiments, joined the Methodist Church, liberated his slaves, and, so far as I know and believe, has always supported a good character in that county.

It is possible, while at the South, in 1780-81, from his ardent disposition and the prevailing excitement of the times, that he may in some cases have acted imprudently. The war between the Whigs and Tories was carried on with the utmost rancor and malice, each endeavoring to do the greatest injury to the other.

Colonel Willoughby, whose affidavit has been published, swears to no point. He lived three hundred miles from the scene of action, and his information may have been very erroneous.

If, however, General Preston proves apparently anything more, he shall be answered.

I have made this hasty sketch for your own satisfaction.

I remain, dear sir, very respectfully, your friend,

Isaac Shelby.

John J. Crittenden.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 56-8

Congressman Robert Toombs to Governor John J. Crittenden. September 27, 1848

Washington, Ga., Sept. 27th, 1848.

Dear Sir: Upon reaching home two nights since after an absence of three weeks, I found your letter of the 2nd inst. It gave me real pleasure to find that you corroborated some of the good accounts I had received from the West, especially from Ohio. We are in the midst of a bitter fight among editors and candidates; but there is so little excitement among the people that one can hardly tell which way the current is moving. You have doubtless seen that Stephens was cut down by a cowardly assassin on the 3rd inst. He is yet unable to get out. His invaluable services have been thus far wholly lost in the campaign, which has thrown double duty on me. I have not been at home but four days since I arrived in Georgia. Stephens is getting well slowly — the muscles connecting the thumb and forefinger of his right hand were cut asunder and the wound extended down to the junction of the two. This is now his most serious wound, those on the body being nearly well and doing well. His phy[si]cians are still under some apprehension that he [will] have to lose the hand to escape lockjaw, tho' the chances of such a calamity are daily lessening, and I hope all may yet be well with him.

The Democrats here are fighting for existence, and fight with a determination I never before witnessed. They refrain from opposing Taylor in any way, but furiously denounce Fillmore all the time. We were turning the tide very well on to him until that infernal letter of 1838 to the abolitionists was dug up. That has fallen upon us like a wet blankett and has very much injured us in the State. It gave an excuse to all Democrats who wanted to go back to their party to abandon Taylor. Our election takes place next Monday for Members of Congress — I feel confident of our carrying five — I think the chances with us for six Members out of the eight. We shall carry the state I think certainly for Taylor, but by a hard, close vote. But it will be done. The Congressional election I think will show between 500 and 1000 votes in our favour which will settle the matter for Old Zach by between 2,000 and 4,000 votes. We can lose the popular vote on Members of Congress by 1,000 and carry the State, tho' that would make it a desperate conflict. The Clay men in the State will do nothing; some of them would be glad to lose it with the hope of breaking down Stephens and myself in the State. They will lessen my vote in my district some two or three hundred unless I can get them from the Democrats. I think I shall do so. Had not Mr. Clay put himself up there would not have been even a contest in Georgia, the friends of Clay being the only men here who ever dared to attack Taylor. But I will no longer fatigue you with speculations or facts on our State politics. You may set this state down safe and certain for Taylor, in my judgment.

Florida I still hear is safe, not much dispute about it I think. Alabama is in a perfect turmoil — we have gained more leading respectable Democrats in that State than in any other in the Union. They count pretty confidently on carrying their State and the Democrats greatly fear it. But after witnessing the power of party drill in Georgia, I must confess I have but small hope of overcoming their large majority in that State. I think Carolina will go for Cass. Calhoun, Burt and Woodard and Simpson profess neutrality!! What miserable creatures! I think the solution of all this is that Calhoun found all the upper part of the State strongly against him and was afraid to risk an avowal for Old Zach; but, thank God, the contest will make a party in the State. Charleston is with us by a large majority, and will return Holmes,¹ who stands firm for Taylor. In many other districts there are warm contests going on, but the Mercury having been forced to come out for "the equivocating betrayer of Southern rights" I take to be pretty conclusive evidence of how the State will go. Calhoun stands off too, in order to make a Southern party "all his own" on slavery in the new Territories. Poor old dotard, to suppose he could get a party now on any terms!! Hereafter treachery itself will not trust him. I hear nothing from Mississippi — definite. Louisiana I think altogether safe. My accounts from Tennessee agree with yours, tho' our friends there will have a harder fight than they expected. Your election greatly disheartened me, — I knew if the Democracy could so thoroughly rally against you in Kentucky we should have rough work everywhere; and all the subsequent elections have strengthened that conviction. If we are safe in Ohio we shall elect Taylor, but if we lose Ohio I much fear the result.

I suppose after the New York flare up we shall have no more of the "Sage of Ashland." I think no man in the nation is now so heartily and justly despised by the Whig party in the Union as Mr. Clay, and I doubt not but that the feeling is heartily reciprocated by him. Upon the whole, tho' our prospects are not so good as I had hoped and expected, still I firmly believe we shall succeed in electing Genl. Taylor. Every day of my own time shall be given to that object until the sun goes down on the 7th Nov. If we succeed handsomely in Georgia next week it will greatly improve Taylor stock in the South, and I now believe we shall. I will write you next week. I shall be able to tell before you could learn thro' the newspapers and will write or telegraff you as soon as I have sufficient information to know all about it.

Mrs. Toombs and the girls are at home and very well. She complains a good deal at my absence but she is becoming herself warmly enlisted for “Old Zach.” She sends her best love to Mrs. Crittenden and yourself, and says her greatest interest in the success of Genl. Taylor arises from the hope that she may then again have the pleasure of meeting you all in Washington. Lou and Sally send love to both of you. My kindest regards to Mrs. C. Hoping I shall be able to send you cheering news next week.

P. S.—I find talking politics to two or three gentlemen and writing you a letter at the same time “a mixed up” business, as I fear you will find on reading it. Write me the first pieces of good news you hear.

_______________

1 As Member of Congress.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 127-9

James W. Barbour to John J. Crittenden, May 31, 1820

Bardoursville, May 31, 1820.

Dear Sir, — I had intended to have written to you by Judge Logan, who left us before the adjournment without any anticipation, on my part, that he meant to do so. I most cordially wish that you may very soon realize your golden prospects, as well for yourself as for your country. Take care, however, that your limits do not recede as you advance upon them. Enough has never yet been accurately bounded. Independence is a jewel of inestimable price, and should be forever kept in view, at least by the head of a family. In pursuing it, you give high proofs of prudence. That you will soon reach it I have no doubt. The session closed with the catastrophe of the tariff; not quite as important as the Missouri question, but probably the undisputed progeny of the policy that seeks to promote the interest of one portion of the Union at the expense of another. Deprived, however, of much of its consequence, from the circumstance that it was not so sectional in the support given it. Had Tompkins been elected governor of New York, there would have been considerable commotion among the aspirants to the two great offices. His defeat was a perfect damper. They are, for the present, in the language of diplomacy, placed “ad referendum.” In a year or two they will be, like Falstaff's reasons, as thick as blackberries. The old Revolutionary generation has passed away. The new presents so many who are really equal, or think themselves so (which is the same thing), that every section of the Union will have its claims, except Virginia. She, by common consent, is to repose on the recollection of what she has done. I fear, however, that the slave question will be revived in all its fury, and will be sufficient to bar the door against either a Southern or Western man. Time, however, will decide these things. It is not my nature to anticipate evil. I inclose you thirty dollars, as the fee in my case. Let me hear from you as soon as possible after its decision, or in the mean time, if convenient.

Your friend,

J. W. Barbour.

SOURCE: Mrs. Chapman Coleman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, Volume 1, p. 47-8

Alexander H. Stephens to John J. Crittenden,* September 26, 1848

Crawfordville, Ga., 26, Sep. 1848.

Dear Sir: I reached home a few days ago and found your kind letter, for which I felt truly obliged to you. You have doubtless heard of the occurrence¹ which put me out of the canvass in this [state] for three weeks past and upwards. I am now recovering slowly. My right hand is still in bad condition and I fear I shall never be able to use it as formerly. I now can only scribble with my left hand — but enough of this. Our election for Congress comes off next Monday and trust we shall send you a good report. The Democrats however are making a most desperate fight. But I think you may rely on Georgia for Taylor. It is true I can't form so satisfactory an opinion as if I had been in the field for the last few weeks. But I know we were gaining fast when I was amongst them. The whole campaign since then has rested entirely upon the shoulders of Mr. Toombs, and I assure you he has done gallant service. The real Clay men here as elsewhere I believe are doing nothing for Taylor, while many of them are openly in opposition; but I think we shall triumph notwithstanding.

We were greatly rejoiced to hear of your great triumph in Kentucky. The Locos in Congress were making extravagant brags just before the election but I would not permit myself even to feel apprehension. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Crittenden. I cannot say more now and I fear that you cannot read what I have said.

_______________

* United States Senator from Kentucky, Attorney-General, etc.

¹ Assault upon Stephens by F. H. Cone at Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 3, in which Stephens's right band was severely injured.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 127

William Coffee Daniell* to Howell Cobb, June 20, 1848

Near Gainesville [ga.], 20th June, 1848.

My Dear Sir: If the Report of Fremont's last exploration has been printed and you have a spare copy you will oblige me by sending it to me. I would not ask this of you if I knew where to purchase a copy.

I fear that the Whigs have by the nomination of Taylor imposed the duties of a laborious and arduous campaign upon the Democratic leaders in this state. I was taken sick the day I reached Savannah from my plantation. I have only recently recovered my strength since my arrival here. I can therefore say but little of the manner in which Cass's nomination has been received, but as far as I have heard there is every disposition among our friends to yield him their support. It would not by any means be safe to count on his getting the vote of this State, though I hope he may. Woodbury would have been a stronger man with us here, but I suppose that Cass has been chosen because he was deemed the strongest in the country.

I see Old Bullion¹ is out in a new part, and seems to be quite pleased to play the second fiddle. How are the mighty fallen. No one has asked him to be and no paper has (I believe) spoken of him as a candidate for the Presidency this time, and it is quite manifest I think that he does not mean to be forgotten and consequently overlooked. He is in a worse box than my friend (Calhoun) whom he denominated to Crittenden (so said Toombs who was present) as the “Nigger King.”

_______________

* A substantial planter whose summer home lay in Cobb's congressional district.

¹ Thomas H. Benton.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 109-10

Robert Toombs to James Thomas, April 16, 1848

Washington, D. C. Apr. 16, 1848.

Dear Thomas, I received your letter of the 9th inst. today and I am very glad to hear you are improving. You did not state to what point in Kentucky you expected to direct your steps. I have an extensive acquaintance with the public men of Kentucky and could give or furnish you letters to almost any point, and if you know where you will probably remain longest and will write me I will procure such letters as would no doubt greatly increase the comfort and pleasure of your trip. I could send them to any point you might designate, if you are about leaving. Mr. Crittenden, my particular friend and messmate, will leave here for Kentucky about the first of June on a gubernatorial canvass in Kentucky. I will commend you to him especially, and I hope you may fall in with him somewhere in the state, if not at Frankfort, his residence. I will send by this mail or the next some letters for Louisville where I suppose you will most likely land in Kentucky. I hope you will find it convenient to call by Washington. There is much to see here to interest an intelligent stranger; men, if not things.

Clay has behaved very badly this winter. His ambition is as fierce as at any time of his life, and he is determined to rule or ruin the party. He has only power enough to ruin it. Rule it he never can again. In February while at Washington he ascertained that the Kentucky convention would nominate Taylor. He procured letters to [McMillen ?] that he would decline when he went home, and the Taylor men from Kentucky under this assurance wrote home to their friends not to push him off the track by nominating Taylor. Mr. Clay never intended to comply, but without now having the boldness to deny it he meanly hints at having changed his determination. Bah! He now can deceive nobody here. The truth is he has sold himself body and soul to the Northern Anti-slavery Whigs, and as little as they now think it, his friends in Georgia will find themselves embarrassed before the campaign is half over. I find myself a good deal denounced in my district for avowing my determination not to vote for him. It gives me not the least concern. I shall never be traitor enough to the true interests of my constituents to gratify them in this respect. I would rather offend than betray them. Mr. Botts of the House and Mr. Berrien of the Senate and Mr. Buckner of Kentucky are the only three men from the slave states who prefer Mr. Clay for our candidate, and there are not ten Southern representatives who would not support Genl. Taylor against him if he were nominated. The real truth is Clay was put up and pushed by Corwin and McLean, Greeley & Co. to break down Taylor in the South. Having made that use of him they will toss him overboard at the convention without decent burial. It is more than probable that a third candidate may be brought forward, and Scott stands a good chance to be the man. For my part I am a Taylor man without a second choice.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 103-4

The Crittenden Compromise, December 18, 1860

[in United States Senate, December 18, I860.]

A joint resolution (§ 50) proposing certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas, Serious and alarming dissensions have arisen between the Northern and Southern States concerning the rights and security of the rights of the slaveholding states, and especially the rights in the common territory of the United States; and

Whereas, It is eminently desirable and proper that these dissensions, which now threaten the very existence of this Union, should be permanently quieted and settled by constitutional provisions which shall do equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore to the people that peace and good-will which ought to prevail between all citizens of the United States; therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses concurring), That the following articles he and are hereby proposed and submitted as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution, when ratified by conventions of three fourths of the several states:

Article 1. In all the territory of the United States now held, or hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude 36° 30', slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited while such territory shall remain under territorial government. In all the territory south of said line of latitude slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing and shall not be interfered with by Congress, but shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance. And when any territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the population requisite for a member of Congress according to the then federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it shall, if its form of government be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, with or without slavery, as the constitution of such new state may provide.

Article 2. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of states that permit the holding of slaves.

Article 3. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia so long as it exists in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or members of Congress, whose duties require them to be in said district, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding them as such during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards taking them from the district.

ARTICLE 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one state to another, or to a territory in which slaves are by law permitted to he held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea.

Article 5. That in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, and it shall he its duty so to provide, that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave in all cases when the marshal or other officer whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of his fugitive slave under the said clause of the Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof. And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, and to recover from it, with interest and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave. And the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrong-doers or rescuers by whom the owner was prevented from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner ns the owner himself might have sued and recovered.

Article 6. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles; nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of said Constitution; and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the states by whose laws it is, or may be, allowed or permitted.

And Whereas, also, besides those causes of dissension embraced in the foregoing amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States, there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be remedied by its legislative power; and

Whereas, It is the desire of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove all just cause for the popular discontent and agitation which now disturb the peace of the country and threaten the stability of its institutions; therefore,

1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and mandatory provisions of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States; that the slave-holding states are entitled to the faithful observance and execution of those laws, and that they ought not to be repealed or so modified or changed as to impair their efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the slave or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of said laws.

2. That all state laws which conflict with the fugitive-slave acts of Congress, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or which, in their operation, impede, hinder, or delay the free course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; yet those state laws, void as they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences, which have obstructed the duo administration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem it improper respectfully and earnestly to recommend the repeal of those laws to the several states which have enacted them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.

3. That the act of September 18, 1850, commonly called the Fugitive-slave Law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which authorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave to summon to his aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall be resistance, or danger of resistance, or rescue.

4. That the laws for the suppression of the African slave-trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of slaves in the United States, ought to be made effectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed; and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made.

SOURCES: George Ticknor Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States from Their Declaration of Independence to the Close of Their Civil War, Volume 2 , p. 525-8 which sites as its source Congressional Globe, Part I., Second Session, Thirty-sixth Congress, p. 114, Dec. 18, 1860.

Horace Greeley to Abraham Lincoln, July 29, 1861

New York, Monday, July 29, 1861.

Midnight.

Dear Sir:

This is my seventh sleepless night – yours too, doubtless – yet I think I shall not die, because I have no right to die. I must struggle to live , however, bitterly. But to business.

You are not considered a great man, and I am a hopelessly broken one. You are now undergoing a terrible ordeal, and God has thrown the gravest responsibility upon you. Do not fear to meet them.

Can the Rebels be beaten after all that has occurred, and in view of the actual disaster state of feeling caused by our late awful disaster? If they can – and it is your business to ascertain and decide – write me that such is your judgment, so that I may know and do my duty.

And if they cannot be beaten – if our recent disaster is fatal – do not fear to sacrifice yourself to your country. If the Rebels are not to be beaten – if that is your judgment in view of all the light you can get – then every drop of blood henceforth shed in this quarrel will be wantonly, wickedly shed, and the guilt will rest heavily on the soul of every promoter of the crime. I pray you to decide quickly, and let me know my duty.

If the Union is irrevocably gone, an Armistice for thirty, sixty, ninety, 120 days – better still, for a year – ought at once to be proposed with a view to a peaceful adjustment. Then Congress should call a National convention to meet at the earliest possible day. And there should be an immediate and mutual exchange or release of prisoners and a disbandment of forces.

I do not consider myself at present a judge of any thing but the public sentiment. That seems to me every where gathering and deepening against a prosecution of the war. The gloom in this city is funereal for our dead at Bull Run were many, and they lie unburied yet. On every brow sits sullen, scowling, black despair.

It would be easy to have Mr. Crittenden move any proposition that ought to be adopted, or to have it come from any proper quarter. The first point is to ascertain what is best that can be done – which is the measure of our duty – and do that very thing at the earliest moment.

This letter is written in the strictest confidence, and is for your eye alone. But you are at liberty to say to members of your Cabinet that you know I will second any move you may see fit to make. But do nothing timidly nor by halves.

Send me word what to do. I will live till I can hear it at all events. If it is best for the country and for mankind that we make peace with the Rebels at once and on their own terms, do not shrink even from that. But bear in mind the greatest truth – “Whoso would lose his life for my sake shall save it,” do the thing that is the highest right, and tell me how I am to second you.

Yours, in the depths of bitterness,

Horace Greeley

SOURCE: The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, November 24, 1859

Philadelphia, November 24, 1859.

I am safely in this beautiful city of brotherly love, and shall be compelled to remain here a week, to close up some old business that has been dangling on my hands for years.

From Galesburg to Wheaton I was in company with Dr. Blanchard. He wished to be kindly remembered to you, and expressed the hope that you would be led at no distant day to change your religious views, though, I believe, he seemed to entertain a faint hope that you was good enough to go to heaven with your present heterodox opinions. He uttered no word of reproach, remonstrance, or persuasion to me, for having no settled religious convictions; so you perceive that in the view of some of our orthodox friends it is a good deal more dangerous to believe too much than not to believe at all. But Dr. Blanchard is an able, honest, ultra, enthusiastic, and somewhat bigoted man — a great friend of ours, and I entertain great respect for him. We also had on board Mr. Lovejoy, member of Congress of Illinois, a talented and agreeable man. From Crestline, Ohio, to this place, I have been in company with Mr. Crittenden and his wife, who are on their way to Washington. Perhaps I have told you that Mrs. Crittenden, though a rather elderly lady, is one of the leaders of the ton in Washington, as she is in Kentucky, and as she used to be in St. Louis, when she was the wife and widow of General Ashley. She is a very kind, amiable lady, but there is so much precision and mock dignity about everything she says and does, that intercourse with her is not so pleasant as it would be if one could only persuade himself that her heart would come gushing out of her mouth once in a while.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 120-1

Diary of Rutherford B. Hayes, January 4, 1861

South Carolina has passed a secession ordinance, and Federal laws are set at naught in the State. Overt acts enough have been committed. Forts and arsenal taken, a revenue cutter seized, and Major Anderson besieged in Fort Sumter. Other cotton States are about to follow. Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation. Twenty millions in the temperate zone, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, full of vigor, industry, inventive genius, educated, and moral; increasing by immigration rapidly, and, above all, free — all free — will form a confederacy of twenty States scarcely inferior in real power to the unfortunate Union of thirty-three States which we had on the first of November. I do not even feel gloomy when I look forward. The reality is less frightful than the apprehension which we have all had these many years. Let us be temperate, calm, and just, but firm and resolute. Crittenden's compromise! *

Windham speaking of the rumor that Bonaparte was about to invade England said: "The danger of invasion is by no means equal to that of peace. A man may escape a pistol however near his head, but not a dose of poison."

__________

*Hayes's disapproval of the Crittenden Compromise is indicated by the exclamation point. The venerable John J. Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky, sought by eloquent appeals to induce Congress to submit to the States for approval an amendment to the Constitution forbidding Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in Virginia or Maryland, or to abolish it in national territory south of latitude 36° 30' — the southern line of Kansas. This was to be irrepealable by any subsequent amendment, as were also certain existing paragraphs in the Constitution relating to slavery. Further, Mr. Crittenden wished Congress to strengthen the Fugitive Slave Law and to appeal to the States and to the people for its thorough enforcement.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 2-3

Our Generals

Major-Gen. Halleck is a native of Oneida County. He entered the Military academy at West Point as a cadet in 1835, stood third in the class and was brevetted Second Lieutenant of Engineers in 1839. In 1845 he was appointed First Lieutenant. In 1847 he was promoted for his gallantry in California. In 1853 he was appointed Captain of Engineers. He is the author of a book on “Bitumen and its Uses,” and a series of lectures on Military Science, delivered before the Lowell Institute, in Boston. He was a member of the Committee to draft the Constitution for the State of California; he had previously been Secretary of State for the Territory of California. In the naval and military operations on the Pacific Coast, he was Chief of Commodore Shubric’s Staff. He is an astute lawyer – a man of fortune, and is now comparatively a young man, being only 42 years of age. His grandfather now in his hundredth year, is living in the village of Western, near Utica.

Gen. Crittenden is a Kentuckian, son of the Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and brother to the rebel Gen. George B. Crittenden. When the rebels first assumed a warlike attitude in Kentucky, he took command of the Home Guards {not the stay-at home,} and checked the progress of the Rebels toward Louisville. He comes of a good stock, and gives a good account of himself.

Gen. Hurlbut is a Carolinian by birth, but a citizen of the State of Illinois. At the outbreak of our troubles, he served in Missouri under Gen. Fremont. He now commands a part of Gen. Grant’s glorious army. He has the chivalry, the courage, and the magnanimity [of] the true soldier.

Gen. Buell is a native of Ohio, a graduate of West Point, and now in the meridian of life. He has been in the service twenty years, was in the Mexican War. When the present war broke out he was in the regular service in California. Congress made him a Brig-General and gave him command of a division of the army of the Potomac. When Gen. Anderson resigned his command, Gen. Buell was appointed to take his place in the department of Ohio. It was under his supervision the army that marched from Bowling Green to Nashville was raised and disciplined. On the reconstruction of the Departments he was created a Major General. He is a man of great physical strength and powers of endurance; has light hair, blue eyes, and wears a full beard. He is 42 years of age. Though slow to move, he is terrible in execution.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862

A Free National Capital

On the evening of the 11th inst. the House of Representatives passed the Senate bill for the emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia by a vote of 92 to 39. Only three Democrats voted for the measure! John J. Crittenden of Kentucky made a bitter speech against it. The Republicans made no response save by their votes, for those embraced eloquence enough! Before this time the President has probably signed the bill, and the way is thus prepared for the permanent removal of Slavery from the District of Columbia! So far, so good! Now, then, let the Border States co-operate with Congress to drive this social and political curse from their soil and they will rapidly move forward to positions of prosperity and power!

– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday, April 17, 1862