Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/395

Rh several States, he said, &quot;It has been petitioned for by a larger number of electors of the United States, than any proposition that was ever before Congress, and I believe in my heart to-day, that it would carry an overwhelming-majority of the people of my State, and of nearly every other State in the Union. Before the senators from Mississippi left the chamber, I heard one of them, who now assumes at least to be President of the Southern Confederacy (Mr. Davis), propose to accept it and to maintain the Union if that proposition could receive the vote it ought to receive from this part of this chamber (the Republican side). Therefore of all your propositions, of all your amendments, knowing that the historian will write it down that at any time before the first of January (1861) a two-thirds vote for the Crittenden resolutions in this chamber would have saved every State in the Union but South Carolina, Georgia would be here by her representatives, and Louisiana also those two great States which would have broken the column of secession. Yet, sir, it has been staved off, staved off for your futile railroad bill, and where is it tonight? Staved off by your tariff bill; staved off by your pension bill!&quot; Mr. Douglas concurred in the opinion of Senator Pugh and confirmed the statement that Mr. Jefferson Davis when on the committee of thirteen, was ready at all times to compromise on the Crittenden proposition, and that Mr. Toombs was also.

One vote after another was taken in both houses during the last hours of the session, of which it is remarked &quot; a more conclusive proof of a determination somewhere to prevent every settlement of difficulties by any concession on the part of the North could not be furnished.&quot; (American Encyclopedia, 1861, p. 225.)