Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [208] rebellion against Providence, and destruction to the colored race in our land.” These sentences indicate the scope of this society's operations. It was the germ of that powerful “Peace party” which played a conspicuous part, as we shall observe, during the last three years of the civil war that ensued.

While the Legislature of New York was firmly resolved to support the National Government with arms, if necessary, it was ever willing to try first the power of peaceful measures. It responded to Virginia's proposition for a Peace Congress, by appointing five delegates thereto, who were instructed not to take any part in the proceedings, unless a majority of the Free-labor States were represented. From that time forth, the people of New York watched the course of events with intense interest; and when the National flag was dishonored at Fort Sumter, their patriotism was most conspicuous, as we shall observe hereafter.

New Jersey, intimately connected with New York, was the theater of early movements in relation to secession. So early as the 11th of December, 1860, a convention of “all national men in favor of constitutional Union measures” was held at Trenton, the capital. They adopted a series of resolutions declaring that there was danger of a dissolution of the Union; that the interference of “Northern agitators with the rights and property of fifteen States of the Union” was the cause of “the portentous crisis;” that they saw no remedy excepting in the “avowal of the North, in the most prompt and explicit manner,” of its determination to remove all political agitation for the abolition of Slavery; repeal all Personal Liberty Acts; execute the Fugitive Slave Law; allow the slaveholder to have the attendance of his slaves during his temporary sojourn in any of the Free-labor States, “on business or pleasure ;” accord to the South all the rights of property in man, and accept the decrees of the Supreme Court of the United States, on the Slavery question, as their rule of action. They appointed five commissioners to confer with sister States on the great topic of the time.

The Legislature of New Jersey met at Trenton, the capital, on the 8th of January. The Governor, Charles S. Olden, in his message, expressed a hope that the compromise measures in Congress might be adopted; if not, he recommended a convention of all the States, to agree upon some plan of pacification. On the 15th, a majority of the Committee on National Affairs reported a series of resolutions as the sense of the people of New Jersey, the vital point of which was the indorsement of, the Crittenden Compromise. They were adopted on the 31st of January, the Democrats voting in the affirmative. The Republican members adopted a series of resolutions, totally dissenting from the declaration of the majority, that their indorsement of the Crittenden Compromise was “the sentiment of the people of the State.” They declared the willingness of the people to aid in the execution of all the laws of Congress; affirmed their adhesion to the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, with a qualification; asserted the nationality of the Government, in opposition to the doctrine of State Supremacy; declared it to be the duty of the National Government to maintain its authority everywhere within the limits of the Republic, and pledged the faith and power of New Jersey in aid of that Government,