issouri. I
have only besides to express my full conviction that if the North will
not give us these guarantees, we are henceforth a divided people.

Mr. GOODRICH:--Mr. President, the object of this Convention, assembled
on the call or invitation of Virginia, is, as set forth in the
preamble and resolutions of her General Assembly,

"To restore the Union and Constitution in the spirit in
which they were established by the fathers of the Republic;"
or, as otherwise expressed, "to adjust the present unhappy
controversies in the spirit in which the Constitution was
originally made, and consistently with its principles."

This agrees, in substance, with the purpose of the Republican party,
which, in the words of the Philadelphia platform, is declared to be
that of "restoring the action of the Federal Government to the
principles of WASHINGTON and JEFFERSON."

Virginia announces to the other States that she "is desirous of
employing every reasonable means," and is "willing to unite" with them
"in an earnest effort" for the accomplishment of this common end and
object of that State and the Republican party; and she is moved to
make this her "final effort," by "the deliberate opinion of her
General Assembly, that unless the unhappy controversy which now
divides the States of this Confederacy shall be satisfactorily
adjusted, a permanent dissolution of the Union is inevitable," and by
a desire to "avert so dire a calamity."

Massachusetts, equally willing to unite with the other States in an
earnest effort to further the same end, accepted the invitation of
Virginia, and sent Commissioners here to represent her.

The honorable Chairman (Mr. GUTHRIE) of the committee to report a plan
of adjustment, in his opening speech, advocated with earnestness and
eloquence a restoration of the Constitution to the principles of the
fathers. The distinguished gentleman (Mr. RIVES) from Virginia
demands a "restoration of the Constitution to the landmarks of our
fathers," and his colleague (Mr. SEDDON) urges a return to the "policy
of our fathers in 1787."

This assumes that we have departed from the principles and landmarks
of our fathers, and from the policy of 1787. The call of the
Convention assumes this; the platform of the Republican party assumes
it, and the gentlemen whose remarks I have quoted assume it, and it is
true.

The particular object of a return to the principles and landmarks of
the policy o