This is no place to talk about devotion to the
Union. To be a Union at all it must be one that recognizes and
protects the rights of all. Any other Union is not worth the name; is
not worth preserving. We came here, it is true, to save the Union. We
came here to devise the means of saving it. Practically the Union is
already dissolved. If not dissolved it is disintegrated.

We ask first, additional guarantees for our rights--for Southern
rights. They must be such as will satisfy our people, and bring back
the States that have left the Union. Short of this they will amount to
nothing. I know the public opinion of the South on these important
questions. I have closely watched its growth. My own convictions as to
what it will require are decided. Unless you use language and adopt
terms in your proposals of amendment which will satisfy the seceded
States--which will induce them to return to the Union--your labors
will have been in vain.

What is our claim? It is this, in short: We claim that every Southern
man has the right to go into the Territories with his property,
wherever these Territories may be. The Territories belong to both; to
the South as well as to the North. We want equality. We have no wish
to propagate slavery, but every man at the South does wish to insist
upon his right to enter the Territories upon terms of perfect equality
with the North, if he chooses to do so. He may not exercise the right,
but he will not give it up.

We want a division of the Territories. We want to set up landmarks so
that neither we nor our posterity shall dispute hereafter about the
line.

North Carolina has instructed us to say to this Conference, that if
the CRITTENDEN amendment can be adopted here, we can carry it almost
with unanimity. There will be a struggle even with our own people, but
we can induce them to adopt it.

We have three hundred miles of border in common with South Carolina.
Our trade and our associations are in that direction. It is useless to
deny that South Carolina has sympathizers among us in her recent
movement. You must consider these things, and give us a chance. We
must base our argument on principle; we must stand upon terms of
perfect equality.

The proposition needs this amendment. As it stands it is ambiguous. It
is worse than that, for its construction will depend on the opinion of
a Territorial Judge.

Mr. CRISFIELD:--I come from a State that is deeply interested in the
subject of slaver