I also quoted and commented on the Vir-
ginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and
1799, which from that period have formed
the creed of the democratic party, as fully
sustaining the resolutions I submitted.
1 also read, on that occasion, the extracts
from "Rawle on the Constitution of the
United States," which I read to the Conven-
tion in the debate on the fourth article of this
Bill of Rights.
During the intervening thirty years I have
carefully read the debales in the Convention
which framed the Constitution of the United
States and in the State Conventions which
ratified it, and many other writings and
speeches on both sides of the controverted
questions, and I have watched the practical
operation of the Federal Government, and I
repeat, all have but confirmed the views I
held on the occasion referred to, as to the
only basis on which the Union of our fathers
can be sustained.
Whether the prediction in the resolution
"that the contrary doctrine would convert
the government into a military despotism,"
has been fulfilled, or is in course of fulfill-
ment, I submit upon existing and prospec-
tive condition of the country, and upon the
admission of the President in his letter to
Mr. Hodges, of Kentucky, and of the gentle-
man from Baltimore city, (Mr. Stirling,) in
his speech the other day, that in conducting
this war the President has been driven by
military necessity to go outside of the Con-
stitution and laws, in other words, to usurp
powers not granted by the Constitution.
How this war is to terminate, God only
knows! I would trust that the prediction
that the end of such a civil war would be a
military despotism, or a monarchy establish-
ed over us, may fail of fulfillment, and that
we may come out of this war with all our
liberties preserved.
But I desire to read for the reflection of
gentlemen here, a letter written by Gen.
Scott just upon the eve of this outbreak, just
at the very moment when the incoming
President was to determine whether he would
have war or peace, whether he would say to
our wayward sisters of the South, "Depart
inpeace,"—or whether be would undertake
to subjugate them by force. I will just read
that letter, and then trespass no further upon
the kindness of the Convention. This is
what this first general of his age expressed as
his opinion:
"WASHINGTON, March 3,1861.
"Dear Sir :—
" Hoping that in a day or two the new
President will have happily passed through
all personal dangers, and find himself in-
stalled an honored successor of the great
WASHINGTON, with you as the chief of his
Cabinet, I beg leave to repeat, in writing,
what I have before said to you orally—this
supplement to my printed "views "(dated |
in October last,)—on the highly disordered
condition of our (so late) happy and glori-
ous Union. To meet the extraordinary exi-
gencies of the times, it seems to me that I am
guilty of no arrogance in limiting the Presi-
dent's field of selection to one of the four
plans of procedure subjoined :
" 1. Throw off the old and assume a new
designation—the Union party. Adopt the
conciliatory measures proposed by Mr. CRIT-
TEDEN, or the Peace Convention, and my
life upon it, we shall have no new case of
secession; but, on the contrary, an early re-
turn of many, if not of all the State's which
have already broken off from the Union.
Without some equally benign measure, the
remaining slaveholding States will probably
join the Montgomery Confederacy in less
than sixty days, when this city, being in-
cluded in a foreign country, would require a
permanent garrison of at least thirty-five
thousand troops to protect the Government
within it-
"II. Collect the duties on foreign goods
outside the ports of which the Government
has lost the command, or close such ports by
Act of Congress and blockade them,
" III. Conquer the seceded States by in-
vading armies. No doubt this might be
done in two or three years by a young and
able General—a WOLFE, a DESAIX, or a
HOCHE—with three hundred thousand disci-
plined men, estimating a third for garrisons
and the loss of a yet greater cumber by
skirmishes, sieges, battles, and Southern fe-
vers. The destruction of life and property
on the other side would be frightful, however
perfect the moral discipline of the invaders.
"The conquest completed at that enormous
waste of human life to the North and North-
west—with an enormous public debt of at
least $250,000,000 added thereto, and
cui bono ! Fifteen devastated provinces !
not to be brought into harmony with their
conquerors, but to be held for generations by
heavy garrisons, at an expense quadruple the
net duties or taxes which it would be possi-
ble to extort from them, followed by a Pro-
tector or an Emperor.
"IV. Say to the seceded States:—'Way-
ward sisters, depart in peace.'
"In haste, I remain, very truly, yours,
" WINFIELD SCOTT.
" Hon WM. H. SEWARD, &c., &c,"
Thus it seems that the same conclusion
that thirty years ago forced itself upon my
mind as the result of a civil war, and an at-
tempt to maintain this Union by arms, forced
itself upon the mind of Gen. Scott upon the
3d of March, 1861, and he felt himself culled
upon to make it known to the incoming
Secretary of State.
Thanking the Convention for their kind
attention and indulgence, I take my seat.
Mr. ABBOTT. I move this Convention now
take a recess until half-past four o'clock this |
