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[308] Southern States joined by California, Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It was as solemnly denied by ten Northern States in solid array, with Ohio and New Jersey divided, and with Delaware and Illinois not voting. Conservatives divided on the fourth resolution, which denied the power of the people of a territory to abolish slavery except in framing a State constitution, but there was no portion of the seven resolutions which in any degree prepared the way for any further action through which disunion could be effected. The passage of the resolutions was a political movement, simply designed to draw the lines strictly between the States upon that issue, although it incidentally at that period, in the course of the long-continued controversy between the two ideas of our confederate Union, closed in around the question of the interference with slave property by the general government. Upon that issue the Democratic party fully expected at that time to make another successful canvass in 1860 for the Presidency, as had been done in 1856, when Buchanan was elected. The resolutions were voted for by many who remained supporters of the Union through the entire Confederate war. Five Northern States gave them their full votes. Three border States which did not secede voted for them. Mr. Douglas would have voted for the first resolution which contained the main issue if he had been present. There could have been no revolutionary intent in the minds of the Senators North and South, who were so earnestly advocating principles on which they hoped to achieve success before the people and pacify the country. The vote, in fact, was not strictly a party vote, although designed especially to favor one particular party organization. Crittenden, Pearce and Kennedy, Old Line Whigs, supported the first resolution with as much heartiness as any Senators. That there were individual disunionists who were favorable to disunion per se, there can be no
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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