for
the party which the border States are about to choose, and that to which
they will perhaps attach themselves afterwards, will have a great
influence over the general course of the crisis. The point in question
is no longer, doubtless, to retain Virginia, whose well-known passions
impel her to the side of Charleston, but to induce the other States to
take an attitude in conformity with their interests and their duties. It
will not, therefore, be useless to give an account of the disposition
that prevails among many Americans with respect to compromise.

What was produced by that Peace Conference, convoked with so much noise
by Virginia, the ancient political State, the country of Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe? Nothing worth the trouble of mentioning.
A considerable number of States refused to be present at this
conference, which, had it been general, would have become transformed
into a convention, and have annulled Congress, in point of fact, then in
session in the same city? Its plan, accepted with great difficulty by a
factitious majority, never appeared to have much chance of adoption. The
point in question, above all, was to decide that, below a fixed
latitude, the majority of the inhabitants of a Territory could not
prohibit the introduction of slavery, (disguised, it is true, under the
euphuistic expression, "involuntary servitude;") this measure was to be
declared irrevocable, unless by the unanimous consent of the States.
Despite the support of Mr. Buchanan, and that of the higher branches of
trade in New York, seconded, as usual, by some fashionable circles of
Boston, the almost unanimous public opinion of the North forbade all
belief in the success of such an amendment to the Constitution, which,
in accordance with the Constitution itself, could be adopted only on
condition of uniting two-thirds of the votes of Congress to the
affirmative votes of three-fourths of the States composing the
Confederation.

Another project was put forward: all the members of Congress were to
tender their resignation, and the new elections were to manifest the
definitive will of the country on the question of slavery. That is, from
the intense excitement of the country, were to be demanded some final
elements of reaction, some means of disavowing the election of Mr.
Lincoln. In either case, it would have been thus proved by an
exceptional act that an election which is not ratified by the South may
rightfully de