s State, then he feared that Kentucky and Ohio would soon be
enemies. He felt confident however that "the views expressed do
not represent the sentiments of Kentucky's patriotic citizens."
On the contrary, no person with the authority of President Lincoln
"ever forbore so patiently." The people of the loyal States had
"forborne with the Disunionists of the Southern States too much
and too long." There was not a line, not a syllable, not a promise,
in the Constitution which the people of the loyal States did not
religiously obey. "The South has no right to demand any other
compromise. The Constitution was the bond of union; and it was
the South that sought to change it by amendments, or to subvert it
by force. The Disunionists of the Southern States are traitors to
their country, and must be, and will be, subdued."

--Mr. Breckinridge, replying to Mr. Sherman, believed that he truly
represented the sentiment of Kentucky, and would submit the matter
to the people of his State. "If they should decide that the
prosperity and peace of the country would be best promoted by an
unnatural and horrible fraternal war, and should throw their own
energies into the struggle," he would "acquiesce in sadness and
tears, but would no longer be the representative of Kentucky in
the American Senate." He characterized personal allusion which
had been made to himself as ungenerous and unjust, and declared
that he had "never uttered a word or cherished a thought that was
false to the Constitution and Union."

--Mr. Browning of Illinois, the successor of Stephen A. Douglas in
the Senate, closed the debate. He spoke of "the indulgence shown
to Mr. Breckinridge," and of his having used it to "assail the
President vehemently, almost vindictively, while he had not a single
word of condemnation for the atrocious conduct of the rebellious
States." Was the senator from Kentucky here to vindicate them,
and the hurl unceasing denunciations at the President, "who was
never surpassed by any ruler in patriotism, honor, integrity, and
devotion to the great cause of human rights?"

The resolution was adopted with only five dissenting votes,--
Breckinridge and Powell of Kentucky, Johnson and Polk of Missouri,
and Trumbull of Illinois. Mr. Trumbull voted in the negative,
because he did not like the form of expression.

The Crittenden Resolution, as it has always been termed, was thus
adopted respectively, not jointly, by the two Houses of Cong