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MARCH, 1861. DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 427 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] the old and fully developed States. Twenty-four such States as this of New York are yet to be fully organized within the remaining Territories of the United States. Now, under what is accepted by the Administration and the Government as a judicial decree, upheld by it, and put in practical operation by it, every inch of that teritory is slave territory. I speak of that decision not as I accept it, but as it is accepted and enforced by the existing Administration. Every foot of it is slave territory as much as South Carolina. Over a considerable portion of it a Slave Code, made by a Government created by the Congress of the United States, is enforced, so that, according to the claims of those who insist upon their rights in the Territory of the United States for Slavery, the whole of this 1,063,500 square miles is slave territory. How many slaves are there in it? How many have been brought into it during these twelve years in which it has been not only relinquished to Slavery, but in which the Supreme Court, the Legislature, and the Administration have maintained, protected, and guaranteed Slavery there? Twenty-four African slaves! One slave for every forty-four thousand square miles. One slave for every one of the twenty-four States, which supposing them each to be of the dimensions of New York, or Pennsylvania, or Indiana, cover that portion of the area of our Republic. Sir, I have followed this thing in good faith, and with zeal and energy, but I confess that I have no fears of Slavery anywhere.--In the peculiar condition of things which has existed, Slavery has succeeded in planting only one Slave upon every 44,000 square miles of Territory. This, then, has ceased to be a practical question. In lieu of this comes up a great, and vital, and fearful question--the question of union or of dissolution of the Union; the question of country or of no country; the question of hope, the question of greatness, or the question of sinking forever under the contempt of mankind. Why, then, should I despair that a great nation of thirty millions will be able to meet this crisis? I have no fears of this Confederacy. It is not an imperial government, or the government of a single State. It is a Confederacy, and it is, as it ought to be, dependent upon the continued assent of all the members of the Confederacy to its existence, and subject to dissolution by their action. But that assent is to be always taken by virtue of the original assent, and held until, in the form prescribed by the Constitution itself, and in the time, and in the manner, and with all the conditions which the Constitution prescribes, and those who constitute the Union, shall declare that it shall be no longer be thirty days, and sixty days, and ninety days given us by the Disunionists; it may not be enough for their purposes. I hope and wish that it may be time enough for the policy and purposes of the Union. God grant that it may be so; but if thirteen shall turn out not to be enough, then I see how and when all these great controversies will be settled, just as our forefathers saw when they framed the Constitution.--They provided, seventy years ago, for this controversy. This whole controversy shall be submitted to the people of the United States, in a Convention called according to the forms of the Constitution, and acting in the manner prescribed by it. Then, Sir, this country will find sudden relief in the prompt and unanimous adoption of measures necessary for its salvation, and the world will see how well and how wisely a great, enlightened, educated, Christian people, consisting of thirty-four sovereign States, can adjust difficulties which had seemed, even to themselves, as well as to mankind, to be insurmountable. Mr. MASON, (Dem., V.:)--Now that the union is in process of disintegration, what do we hear from the honorable Senator from N.Y.? Why, the honorable Senator, in the midst of a maze of generalities, which marked his speech--and it was a maze and a misty one--in that general maze, he marched to the line, and told us what his policy was, and I assume it is the policy of those he is to bring into power. And what was it he told us? His recommendation to these gentlemen, who have sent here this enormous petition? Not adopting their views, not looking to any amendment of the Constitution whatever. But his recommendation is to give us, in four distinct propositions, what is to be the policy of those whom he is to lead. Why, he recommended that these gentlemen, when they went home, should employ themselves in the great [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] work of restoring the breaches made in the Union. How? Why, he said, speak first, next vote for the Union, next give money for the Union, and the last, fight for the Union. These are the four measures proposed by the Senator to heal the gaping breach in the Union.--I can understand what he means when he recommends his constituents to speak for the Union. I can understand when he recommends them to vote for the Union. But I would like to know what he means when he recommends them to give money for the Union. Mr. SEWARD--During the present session of Congress, the Government has seen a sudden depreciation in its finances from the condition of things a year or two ago, when the stocks of the Government were at a premium. Since then they have fallen, until the credit of the Government was at a discount of 30 per cent., while the credit of the State of New York is at a premium. To this commercial community I have recommended here publicly, as I have heretofore privately, that they should advance to the Union, as they are advancing to the Union, and as they are now furnishing to the Union funds by which the President, Congress, the Departments, yourself and myself, and, in short, every Department of the Government, is sustained; I have recommended to them at this crisis that they should sustain the Government of their country, and maintain the credit to which is entitled. Mr. MASON--I presumed that was the use he intended should be made of this money which he advised these gentlemen to contribute. I did not, in mind, do the honorable Senator the injustice to believe that with this money he proposed to subsidize or demoralize the Southern States. I took it for granted that it was to sustain the army that was to conduct the fight, which he recommends. Mr. SEWARD--I am sure the honorable Senator does not intend to misrepresent me. I contemplated, after the expiration of all compromises, a Convention of the people of the United States, called in the Constitutional form; and after that Convention shall be held, or refused to be held--when it is impossible anything can be done but that, by force of arms, this Union is to stand or fall, I have advised my [[illegible]] do as I shall be ready to do myself--to stand by the Union, to stand or perish with it. [Applause in the galleries.] Mr. MASON--I wanted to bring the honorable Senator, who was the exponent of the new Administration, to the policy by which it is to be directed. I understand from him now, that all remedies failing, through the Constitution or a Convention of the States, his recommendation is battle--bloodshed to preserve the Union. His recommendation to the people is, that they shall contribute money, which shall march an army upon the South--for what? To preserve the Union. It is gone. It is broken. There is no union now in this country. Sir, those States were out; and if the battle is to be fought, it is to be fought against them for the purpose of reducing them to subjection and dependence. Mr. SEWARD--I looked to no such contingency as seceded States and a dissevered Union. I looked to no such condition of things. The honorable Senator and I differ equally in regard to the future and in regard to the present. He, with the earnestness of an ardent imagination, sees this country hereafter rent and dissevered into separate confederacies. I see no such thing in the future. But I do see a returning of reason and judgement of the American people, and a return of harmony, and a consolidation of the Union firmer than ever before. The honorable senator may very well see that we may differ in our anticipations of the future, because we differ so much in regard to the actual living present. Sir, I am in the Union of the United States--this same blessed, glorious, highly-inherited, God-given Union. I am in the Senate Chamber of the United States, pleading for maintaining the Union. The honorable Senator says it is gone--that there is no Union, yet he is here, on the same floor with me, and where is he? In the Union or out of it?--He is actually present here, and I hold him to be in the Union. I will not refer to those associates of his and mine who are not here now. But the Senate Chamber is here.--The seats are here, the States are here, the Union is here, here are all these, and I expect that there will be in the returning of reason, a further choice from those States, and these places will be filled. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] If I contemplated that, in any case, it would be necessary to fight for this Union, it is because I know that treason and sedition may--not alone in the States at the South, but in the States of the North, anywhere and everywhere--be excited and alarmed so as to assail the Union. And whenever it shall come to that, whether in my State or any other State of the Union, then I expect whatever can be done shall be done, that reason can do; then I expect what is left to be done shall be done in the way that is necessary. Mr. MASON--I give the Senator the full advantage of his present commentary upon the speech which preceded. I want to place before the American people the fact that he proposes but one remedy, either to preserve this Union or restore it, and that is that [[italics]] ultima ratio regio. [[/italics]] Mr. SEWARD [in his seat]--I did no say restored. I said preserve. Mr. MASON--Well, let the Senator choose his language. He has presented the argument of the tyrant--force, compulsion and power--as the only resort. He says he is to punish treason and sedition, whether he finds it North or South, and that is the only remedy he proposes in the existing state of facts. The next thing in the four acts of the drama which is to be enacted, is battle. I trust, in despite of these counsels, these reports which are now making through the mediation of my honored State may restore harmony to the Government, and that there is an enlightened patriotism in this country that will meet and separate in peace. Mr. SEWARD--I have been amazed and surprised at the delusion of the Senator from Virginia to make out of a speech, pacific, fraternal, and cordial, such as I have made, a declaration of war. I cannot account for it. While his sense of honor remains so clear and bright that he avoids all those personalities which might vitiate, yes his judgment is somehow so under his passion, as he cannot see anything but war. In a speech which proposes simply this--that, since this Union is in danger, every other question must yield to the consideration of the removal of that danger by the pacific constitutional action of the American people, by speaking first, by voting, by defending the Union where it stands, by supplying and maintaining the credit of the Government, and last, in the last alternative, after everything is exhausted, all the existing modes of settlement, and all others that may be suggested, and finally a Convention, a constitutional Convention, then to stand by this good old flag, and if it is to fall from its eminence, to be wrapped in its folds. Sir, that the honorable Senator should have recollected that when I came into the Committee of thirteen, I listened to every proposition which was made. And will any one say that I offered up no prejudices, no concessions to propitiate an agreement? What propositions did I refuse to consider? None. And when I voted to substitute a constitutional provision for the settlement of this question, in preference to a proposition which requires to take, in an unconstitutional and ineffectual way, the sentiments of the people upon the resolutions of the Senator from Kentucky? I did it in a spirit of kindness and concession. This very proceeding of the State of which the Hon. Senator speaks so proudly, I recommended to my own State, and it is now acting in sending Commissioners to meet the other States in their Convention. And does not the Hon. Senator know that the State of New York stands ready to hear and consider every plan to settle this question peaceably and without resort to the sword? And that I am with the State of New York in that? But I learn from the interest, for which the Senator seems to speak, that no suggestion which has been made, or which can be made, will satisfy the interest of Secession. If after all this has failed, the States of this Union who agree to stand by the Constitution will take up and settle this controversy about twenty-four slaves in a territory of 1,050,000 square miles, or whether, with the Senator from Virginia, they are willing to sacrifice all this liberty, all this greatness, all this happiness, all this hope, wisdom, virtue, and intelligence, this common dispute. Mr. MASON said he was speaking for Virginia. She would never remain in the confederation unless guarantees be effectually made for the preservation of her rights. He said that he was not willing to submit the question to the mass of the American people, but the Constitution recognizes the people as people of the states. PASSAGE BETWEEN SUMNER AND CRITTENDEN. In the Senate, Feb.12, the following discussion took place between Senators Sumner and Crittenden: Mr. CRITTENDEN (S. Am., Ky.) presented a petition signed by 23,230 citizens of Massachusetts in favor of the Crittenden resolu- [[/column 3]]
