that the Union was not to be preserved by compromises
nor by sacrifice of principle. They regarded the discontent and
hostility in the South as without just cause, and intimated that
those States might purchase at a high price some valuable information
to be learned only in the school of experience. They embodied
their entire recommendations in a single resolution in which they
declared that the provisions of the Constitution were ample for
the preservation of the Union; that it needed to be obeyed rather
than amended; and that "our extrication from present difficulties
is to be looked for in efforts to preserve and protect the public
property and enforce the laws, rather than in new guaranties for
particular interests, or in compromises, or concessions to unreasonable
demands."

When the report of the committee of thirty-three came before the
House for action, the series of resolution were first tested by a
motion to lay upon the table, which was defeated by a vote of nearly
two to one; and after angry debate running through several days,
the resolutions, which were only directory in their character, were
adopted by a large majority. When the constitutional amendment was
reached, Mr. Corwin substituted for that which was originally
draughted by Mr. Adams, an amendment declaring that "no amendment
shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to
Congress the power to abolish, or interfere, within any State, with
the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held
to labor or service by the laws of said State." This was adopted
by a vote of 133 to 65. It was numbered as the thirteenth amendment
to the Federal Constitution, and would have made slavery perpetual
in the United States, so far as any influence or power of the
National Government could affect it. It intrenched slavery securely
in the organic law of the land, and elevated the privilege of the
slave-holder beyond that of the owner of any other species of
property. It received the votes of a large number of Republicans
who were then and afterwards prominent in the councils of the party.
Among the most distinguished were Mr. Sherman of Ohio, Mr. Colfax,
Mr. C. F. Adams, Mr. Howard of Michigan, Mr. Windom of Minnesota,
and Messrs. Moorhead and McPherson of Pennsylvania. The sixty-five
negative votes were all Republicans whom the excitement of the hour
did not drag from their moorings, and many of whom have since done,
as th