as an amendment to the Constitution, to examine it and
understand it, and see it in all its bearings and effects, as far as
my intellect will enable me, and to propose it or to withhold it by my
vote, as I shall be guided by my judgment. I can see no other position
of a Senator.

Now, sir, what are the facts? The country was convulsed by the success
in the late presidential election of one of the political parties of
the country. The tremor was evinced at once in all the Southern
States, in a belief that their existence and their safety was
imperilled by that election. Congress met. As was proper and
necessary, the very first act in each House was to appoint a committee
to take the condition of the country into consideration, and see if,
by any mode of amendment to the Constitution, those perils could be
avoided. A committee was raised in the collateral branch. A committee
was raised in this Senate, I think upon the motion of the honorable
Senator from Kentucky, actuated as he always is by principles of the
highest patriotism. Those committees met. They remained in anxious
deliberation for weeks. What was the result? They were unable to
agree. I think the committee came before the Senate and admitted the
fact. They could agree upon no form of amendment which they believed
would remedy the evils and avert the perils under which the country
suffered.

In that state of things, the Legislature of Virginia--my own honored
State--having been called into special session on the 19th of January,
passed a series of resolutions, one of which recites this:

"That on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, an
invitation is hereby extended to all such States, whether
slaveholding or non-slaveholding, as are willing to unite
with Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the present
unhappy controversies in the spirit in which the
Constitution was originally formed, and consistently with
its principles, so as to afford to the people of the
slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the security of
their rights."

That is the recital of the resolution of the Legislature of Virginia:
"to afford to the people of the slaveholding States adequate
guarantees for the security of their rights;" and there was a further
provision, that, if those States should meet and agree upon any form
of adjustment, it should be submitted to Congress. A number of the
States--some twenty or twenty-one, it see