Mr. FIELD: I would sacrifice all I have-lay down my life, for the Union. But I will not give these guarantees to slavery. If the Union can not be preserved without them, it can not long be preserved with them. Let me ask you if you will recommend to the people of the Southern States, in case these guarantees are conceded, to accept them, and abide by their obligations to the Union? You answer, Yes! Do you suppose you can induce the seceded States to return? You answer, We do not know! What will you yourselves do, if, after all, they refuse? Your answer is, "We will go with them." We are to understand, then, that this is the language of the slave States, which have not seceded, toward the free States: "If you will support our amendments, we will try to induce the seceded States to return to the Union. We rather think we can induce them to return; but, if we can not, then we will go with them." What is to be done by the Government of the United States while you are trying this experiment? The seceded States are organizing a government with all its departments. They are levying taxes, raising military forces, and engaging in commerce with foreign nations, in plain violation of the provisions of the Constitution. If this condition of affairs lasts six months longer, France and England will recognize theirs as a government de facto. Do you suppose we will submit to this, that we can submit to it? I speak only for myself. I undertake to commit no one but myself; but I here declare that an Administration which fails to assert by force its authority over the whole country will be a disgrace to the nation. There is no middle ground; we must keep this country unbroken, or we give it up to ruin! We are told that one State has a hundred thousand men ready for the field, and that if we do not assent to these propositions she will fight us. If I believed this to be true, I would not consent to treat on any terms. From the ports of these seceded States have sailed all the filibustering expeditions which have heretofore disgraced this land. There have those enterprises been conceived and fitted out. Their new government will enter upon a career of conquest unless prevented. Even if these propositions of amend ment are received and submitted to the people, I see nothing but war in the future, unless those States are quickly brought back to their allegiance. I do not propose to use harsh language. I will not stigmatize this Convention as a political body, or assert that this is a movement toward a revolution counter to a political revolution just accomplished by the elections. Nor will I speak of personal liberty bills, or of Northern State legislation, about which so much complaint has been made. If I went into those questions, much might be said on both sides. We might ask you whether you had not thrown stones at us? Did not the Governor of Louisiana, in his message to the Legislature of his State, recommend special legislation against the supporters of Mr. Lincoln? Is there not on the statutebook of Maryland a law which prohibits a "Black Republican from holding certain offices in that State? Mr. JOHNSON: There was a police bill before the Legislature of Maryland, in which some provision of that kind was inserted by one who wished to defeat it. Its friends were compelled to accept the provision in order to save the bill. The courts at once held the provision unconstitutional. All that is so. Mr. FIELD: I am answered. It is admitted that the Legislature of that ancient State did place upon her statute-book an act passed with all the forms of law, containing a provision so insulting to millions of American citizens. Mr. HOWARD: Will Mr. Field permit me a single question? I ask it for information, and because I am unable to answer it myself. I therefore rely upon his superior judgment and better means of knowledge. It appears to me that Massachusetts, Maine, and New York have gone much further. The charge is a serious one. Maryland has never refused to submit to the decisions of the proper judicial tribunals. The Constitution has provided for the erection of a tribunal which should finally decide all questions of constitutional law. That tribunal has decided that the people of the slave States have a legal right to go into the Territories with their property. The gentleman from New York tells us he is in favor of free territory, and his people are also. Now, I wish to ask where in the Constitution he finds the right to appeal from the decision of the Supreme Court to the popular voice? In what clause of the Constitution is this power lodged? Where does he find this right of appeal to the people, a right which he insists the North will not give up? Mr. FIELD: I am happy to answer the question of the gentleman from Maryland, and I reply that, when once the Supreme Court has decided a question, I know of no way in which the decision can be reversed, except through an amendment of the Constitution. I have the greatest respect for the authority of the Supreme Court. I would take up arms, if necessary, to execute its decisions. I say that States, as well as persons, should respect and conform to its judgments, and I would say they must. they must. But I am bound in candor to add that, in my view, the Supreme Court has never adjudged the point to which the gentlemen refers; it gave opinions, but no decision. I was about to state, when I was first interrupted, that the majority report altogether omits those guarantees which, if the Constitution is to be amended, ought to be there before any others that have been suggested. I mean those which will secure protection in the South to the citizens of the free States, and those which will protect the Union against future attempts at secession; guarantees which are contained in the propositions that I have submitted as proper to be added to the report of the majority. But, sir, I must insist that, if amendments to the Constitution are required at all, it is better that they should be proposed and considered in a general convention. Although I do not regard this Conference as exactly unconstitutional, it is certainly a bad precedent. It is a body nominally composed of representatives of the States, and is called to urge upon Congress propositions of amendment to the Constitution. Its recommendations will have something of force in them; it will undoubtedly be claimed for them in Congress that they possess such force. I do not like to see an irregular body sitting by the side of a legislative body and attempting to influence its action. Again, all the States are not here. Oregon and California -the great Pacific dominions, with all their wealth and power, present and prospective-have not been consulted at all. Will it be replied that all the States can vote upon the amendments? That is a very different thing from proposing them. California and Oregon may have interests of their own to protect, propositions of their own to make. Is it right for us to act without consulting them? I will go for a convention, because I believe it is the best way to avoid civil war. Mr. WICKLIFFE: If a general convention is held, what amendments will you propose? Mr. FIELD: I have already said that I have none to propose. I am satisfied with the Constitution as it is. Mr. WICKLIFFE: Then, for God's sake, let us have no general convention! Mr. FIELD: I think the gentleman's observation is not logical. He wants amendments, I do not. But I say, if we are to have them, let us have them through a general convention. And I say, further, that this is the quickest way to secure them. If a general convention is to be called, let it be held at once, just as soon as possible. If gentlemen from eight of the States in this Conference represent truly the public sentiment of their people, as I will assume they do, there is no other alternative. We must have either the arbitrament of reason or the arbitrament of the sword. The gloomy future alone can tell whether the latter is to be the one adopted. I greatly fear it is. The conviction presses upon me in my waking and my sleeping hours. Only last night I dreamed of marching armies and news from the seat of war. [A laugh from the Kentucky and Virginia benches.] The gentlemen laugh. I thought they, too, had fears of war. I thought their threats and prophecies were sincere. God grant that I may not hereafter have to say, "I had a dream that was not all a dream!" Sir, I have but little more to trouble you with. In what I have said I trust there has been no expression that will be taken in ill part. I have spoken what I sincerely felt. If there has been an unkind word in my remarks I did not intend it, and am sorry for having uttered it. For my own State and for the North I have only to say that they are devoted to the Union. We have been reminded of Hamilton's opinion that the States are stronger than the Union, and that when the collision comes the Union must fall. This is a mistake. In the North the love for the Union is the strongest of political affections. New York will stand by the flag of the country while there is a star left in its folds. If the Union should be reduced to thirteen States-if it should be reduced to three States-if all should fall away but herself, she will stand alone to bear and uphold that honored flag, and recover the Union of which it is the pledge and symbol. God grant that time may never come, but that New York may stand side by side with Kentucky and Virginia to the end! That we may all stand by the Union, negotiate for it, fight for it, if the necessity comes, is my wish, my hope, my prayer. The Constitution made for us by Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton, and the wise and patriotic men who labored with them, is good enough for us. We stand for the country, for the Union, for the Constitution. I found yesterday upon my table a pamphlet bearing the title of "The Governing Race." It contains a sublime passage from Longfellow's poem of "The Ship," which, as it closes the pamphlet, shall also close my observations: "Thou, too, sail on, O ship of state! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee-are all with thee!" |