While the contest over Kansas was raging and threatening to involve the country in war, an entirely new method of solving the problem was tried. It was planned to take slavery com pletely out of politics by means of a Supreme Court decision. The case of Dred Scott (q.v.) offered the opportunity. Dred Scott had sued for his freedom on the ground that having re sided in a free State he could not be held in slavery on return to a slave State. The de cision contained two points of historical im portance. The first denied that the negro was entitled to the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and the second as serted that neither Congress nor the Territorial legislature could prohibit slavery in the Terri tories. The South rejoiced over the decision, but public sentiment at the North refused to accept its conclusion because it not only refused to the negro his natural rights as a man, but in effeot asserted that Douglas' doctrine of Popu lar Sovereignty and the Republican free soil principles were opposed to the Constitution. Instead of taking slavery out of politics, this decision drove the question in so deep that the country was hastened rapidly toward the crisis.
The joint debates (1858) so widened the breach between Northern and Southern Democrats that the national conven tion of the party in Charleston in 1860 wit nessed its complete disruption. The Southern delegates utterly repudiated Douglas and popu lar sovereignty, the only man and the only principle on which the Northern wing of the party could conduct a campaign with any show of success. Four parties were in the field and the Republicans with Lincoln won. During the fall and winter following, seven Southern States seceded from the Union. They had done what had been threatened for several years. The North had not believed the threats and was alarmed at the result. The Union of the Fathers was in danger of annihilation. "What could be done to save was a ques tion asked by thousands of persons. Nothing decisive could be done. An old administration and a timid President were passing out. The new President and an untried administration had not yet assumed responsibility. In such a period how naturally men turned to compro mises in order to ensure the return of the seceded States and to prevent others from with drawing.
President Buchanan in his message to Con gress declared that concessions to the South were the only means of saving the Union. Both houses entered on the work of conciliation by carefully appointing committees. The Senate's committee of 13 was made up of six Republi cans and six Democrats. A seventh member was the venerable John J. Crittenden of Ken tucky, a non-partisan. The House committee of 33 was made up in the same careful way. The Senate committee soon fell into hopeless disagreement and accomplished nothing. The House committee worked under great disad vantages. Two Southern members refused to serve, and after the events at Fort Sumter others left the committee. More than 40 propositions and plans were submitted. Some were wise and some were foolish. Some pro posed that no changes be made in either the laws or in the Constitution respecting slavery. Others proposed changes which involved the reconstruction of the very foundations of the government. The report of the committee, however, recommended a number of far-reach ing concessions: (1) The repeal of all Personal Liberty bills by which States had hindered the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law; (2) An amendment to the Constitution prohibiting future amendments, interfering with slavery, which were not proposed by slave States; (3) Immediate admission of New Mexico as a slave State; (4) The trial of fugitive slaves in the States from which they escaped. No less than
seven minority reports from members of the committee were presented to the House. The report was finally adopted, after fruitless dis cussion, but too late to check the tide of seces sion. It probably convinced the border slave States that they were safe within the Union. The impression made by the Southern members on the border State men was not so favorable, particularly because they refused to accept the simple statement "that peaceful acquiescence in the election of a President, constitutionally ac complished, was the paramount duty of every good The House modified and passed the amendment so that no future amendment might be made granting Congress power to in terfere with the domestic institutions of any State. The Senate accepted the amendment by the requisite two-thirds vote. Eight Republican senators voted in its favor. But two States ratified it, Ohio and Maryland, one free State and one slave State. The most famous advocate of compromise was the venerable Senator. John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, the successor of Henry Clay. Although the Committee of Thir teen accomplished but little, Crittenden pre sented to the Senate a series of six amend ments to the Constitution: (1) That in all the Territories north of 36° 30' slavery should be prohibited, in those south of that line slavery should be protected; (2) That Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places where Congress has jurisdiction; (3) Tkat Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia or prevent Federal officers from taking their slaves into the District; (4) That the United States shall indemnify slave holders for loss of slaves through failure of officers caused by violence or intimidation; (5) That no future amendment shall destroy the preceding amendments or give Congress power to interfere with slavery in any State whose laws permit slavery. Petitions from all parts of the North prayed for the acceptation of the Crittenden Compromise. Although peti tions came in from the South, and although the compromise was almost entirely in the interest of slavery, it was defeated by six Southern sen ators refusing to vote. Three days after this defeat, the legislature of Virginia invited the other States to send commissioners to Washing ton to "adjust the present unhappy controver sies . . . so as to afford to the people of the slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the security of their All the States sent commissioners except five free and eight slave States. Ex-President John Tyler was elected chairman. From 4 to 27 February the "Peace Convention,° as it was called, discussed propo sitions for conciliation. It finally recommended to Congress the amendment of the Constitution very much after the plan of Senator Crittenden. But the Confederacy was already organized. Federal forts had been seized, and Lincoln's administration was about to enter upon its duties. The situation had moved beyond the point of compromise. Men were no longer willing to follow in the footsteps of the 'Fathers,° and Congress save little or no heed to the work of the Peace Congress. See UNITED STATES— SLAVERY.
Bibliography.— Dubois, W. E. B., 'Select Bibliography of the American Negro' (1901) ; Griffin, A. P. C.,