e on the 2nd of March, and were rejected
by a vote of 3 yeas and 34 nays. Subsequently they were again
offered by Mr. Crittenden and rejected by a vote of 7 yeas and 28
nays. They were presented to the House on the 1st of March, 1861,
and were there rejected.

A Senate committee of 13 was organized on the 18th of December,
1860, to consider the condition of the country, but its report was
disagreed to by the Senate. Many other propositions of adjustment
were made both in the Senate and House, but none of them were agreed
to. Not only were no measures adopted to prevent secession, but
it was proposed by Mr. Mason, that, to avoid the possibility of a
conflict between the forces of the army and navy and of the seceding
states, all the laws providing for the use of the army in aid of
the civil authorities in executing the laws of the United States,
should be suspended and made inoperative in those states. These
were the laws passed during the term of President Jackson and, at
his earnest request, to enable the government to enforce the laws
of the United States against the opposition of the State of South
Carolina. It was a striking presentation of the difference between
General Jackson and James Buchanan.

Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, proposed to retrocede to the seceding
states, the property of the United States. The last act of Jefferson
Davis was to offer a joint resolution providing:

"That upon the application of a state, either through a convention
or legislature thereof, asking that the federal forces of the army
and navy may be withdrawn from its limits, the President of the
United States shall order the withdrawal of the federal garrisons,
and take the needful security for the safety of the public property
which may remain in said state.

"That whenever a state convention, duly and lawfully assembled,
shall enact that the safety of the state requires it to keep troops
and ships of war, the President of the United States be, and he is
hereby authorized and directed to recognize the exercise of that
power by the state, and by proclamation to give notice of the fact
for the information and government of all parties concerned."

On the 11th of February, 1861, Burton Craige, of North Carolina,
offered a joint resolution:

"That the President of the United States be, and is hereby required
to acknowledge the independence of said government (The Confederacy
of the United States South) as soon as he is informed