General Assembly of Virginia.
[extra session.]
Senate.
Richmond, Jan. 8th, 1861.
The Senate was called to order at 12 o'clock, by Lieut. Gov. Montague.
Prayer by Rev. Geo. W. Nolley of the Methodist Church.
Election of Doorkeeper.--Col. Thomas P. Chisman, of Elizabeth City, was elected Doorkeeper, vice D. Sheffey Baldwin, resigned, who has removed from the State.
The Anti-Coercion Resolutions.--A communication from the House was read, informing the Senate of the adoption of resolutions against the coercion of any State into re-union or submission by the Federal Government.
After the resolutions were read, the President stated that the question was on concurring in the resolutions.
Mr. Stuart moved to lay on the table and print.
The subject was debated pro and con by Messrs. Douglass, August, Armstrong and others, and the vote being taken, the motion to lay on the table was rejected — yeas 18; nay 21.
A separate vote on each resolution being called for, the first resolution was then read and adopted unanimously, (yeas 39) as follows: ‘
Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Union being formed by the assent of the States respectively, and being consistent only with freedom, and the republican institutions guaranteed to each, cannot and ought not to be maintained by force. ’
The second resolution being read, Mr. Stuart expressed his objection to the phraseology, as it involved a palpable absurdity.
Mr. Douglass briefly replied to the criticism, and the roll being then called, the resolution was adopted, as follows — yeas 35; no, Mr. Caldwell: ‘
Resolved. That the Government of the Union has no power to declare or make war against any of the States which have been its constituent members. ’
The third resolution was then read, as follows: ‘
Resolved. That when any one or more of the States has determined, or shall determine under existing circumstances, to withdraw from the Union, we are unalterably opposed to any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to coerce the same into re-union or submission, and that we will resist the same by all the means in our power. ’
Mr. Rives moved to amend the resolution by striking out all after the word "submission."
The motion was rejected — yeas 5, nays 33.--Those voting in the affirmative were Messrs. Caldwell, Carter, Rives, Stuart and Marshall.
The resolution was then adopted by a vote of 35 to 1--Mr. Caldwell, of Wheeling, voted in the negative.
The Alabama Commissioners.--The President laid before the Senate the following communication from the Executive, which was read, and, with the accompanying documents, was laid upon the table and ordered to be printed:
Executive Department, Jan. 7, 1861.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates: I have the honor to communicate herewith the credentials of the Hon. Arthur F. Hopkins and F. M. Gilmer, Jr., Esq., distinguished citizens of Alabama, appointed by his Excellency the Governor of that State, Commissioners to the sovereign State of Virginia, to consult and advise with you and the Executive as to what is best to be done to protect our mutual interests and honor.
Circumstances which have occurred, and events which are occurring daily, surround this movement with unusual interest, and more than ordinary significance and importance, in times of calamity and peril, when the peace of the nation is disturbed; when panic and distress prevail in the financial, commercial, mercantile, agricultural, planting, and manufacturing interests; when the laborer and the artisan dismissed from employment, are threatened with want, and when the Union is disrupted and almost in the throes of dissolution, such consultations as are proposed, may result in devising some practical and efficient means of relief from the evils now upon us and those that are impending over us.
In 1850 the question was propounded to Mr. Calhoun, can the Union be saved?
His answer was, "The North has only to will it to accomplish it — to do justice, by conceding to the South an equal right in the acquired territory, and to do her duty, by causing stipulations relative to fugitive slaves to be faithfully fulfilled to cease the agitation of the slavery question." &c. This will cost the North no sacrifice of her honor, her dignity or her rights.
The South asks nothing more than her safety requires, and she will be satisfied with nothing less.
The continued existence of the Union, therefore, depends upon the decision the North may make.
These gentlemen desire to address the two Houses of the General Assembly, and I am sure it will be your pleasure to extend to them that courtesy.
They are natives of our beloved Commonwealth, and now return to her as the honored representatives of a Southern sister State.
Give them a cordial welcome, hear them calmly, and weigh dispassionately the views they may present.
The credentials above referred to are in the following form — the name of either commissioner being inserted where the blanks occur. They are dated at the Executive Department, Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 10th, 1860, and are addressed to Gov. Letcher: ‘ This will be handed you by — a distinguished citizen of Alabama, who has been appointed (in conjunction with.--) a Commissioner to the State of Virginia, for the purpose of consulting and advising with your Excellency and the members of your General Assembly, as to what is best to be done to protect the rights, interests, and honor of the slaveholding States in the emergency which has been forced upon them by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States--is commended to your favorable consideration and that of your Legislature. He bears a commission which will disclose more fully the object of his mission ’
Report of Harper's Ferry Commissioners.
--The President laid before the Senate a report of the Board of Commissioners to audit and pay the expense attending the invasion of the State. Laid on the table. [See House proceedings.] National Convention Proposed.--Mr. Armstrong, of Hampshire, offered the following resolutions:- Resolved. That the General Assembly of Virginia do hereby request the Congress of the United States to call a Convention of the States to propose amendments to the Constitution of the U. States.
- 2. That the authorities of the several States be requested to call, immediately, conventions of their people to consider such amendments to the Federal Constitution as the general Convention may propose, and, in the event that the sectional differences now threatening the peace of the country cannot be satisfactorily adjusted, to provide for the peaceable dissolution of the Union, and a just and fair division of the public property, and for the payment of the public debt.
- 3. That the General Assembly, for and on behalf of the people of Virginia, earnestly request the authorities of the Federal Government not to take any steps towards the coercion of any State, which has or may withdraw from the Union; and we earnestly request any such State to refrain from any measures likely to conduce to a collision of arms with the Federal authorities, until time is afforded the people of Virginia to act through their Convention; and we urge the people of all parts of the country to pause in their action until proper efforts are made to ascertain if the people of the several States, through their State authorities, cannot adjust the differences between the North and South, or separate in peace, and thus prevent the flames of civil war from being lighted over our whole land.
- 4. That the Governor be requested to communicate copies of the foregoing resolutions to the Federal and State authorities.
- 5. That a joint committee be appointed to prepare, immediately, an address to the States of the Union, setting forth the anxious desire of the people of Virginia to preserve the Union on terms consistent with their rights, their honor and safety; their firm determination not to surrender any of their equal rights under the Federal Constitution; urging upon the people of the non-slave-holding States the necessity of the speedy adoption of such amendments to the Federal Constitution as will satisfy the people of Virginia and of the South that its provision, are intended to protect and secure them in the quiet possession of their slave property, shall be observed, their just and equal rights in the Territories respected, and that the powers of the Federal Government will not be used to their injury.
