, in this Conference, have
selected a Committee of One from each State--a committee of able men,
and we have placed this subject in their charge. They have consulted
together. They have ascertained the views and feeling of the different
sections of the country; they have embodied the result of their labors
in this report. The question now presented appears to my mind to be
this: After all the time and ability they have given to their report
in the present distracted and perilous condition of the country, shall
I consent to put words into the amendment of the Constitution which
they recommend, that will ensure its defeat when it comes before the
people?

I know as certainly as that GOD rules in heaven, that unless we come
to some satisfactory adjustment in this Conference, a convulsion will
ensue such as the world has never seen.

I have been travelling for nearly two months in the seceded States. I
believe I understand the temper of their people. I have found there an
all-pervading dissatisfaction with the existing state of things, but I
have also found great devotion to the Union. I think we can yet save
the seceded States. But at least let us save Texas and Arkansas. As it
is, black ruin sits nursing the earthquake which threatens to level
this Government to its foundations. Can you not feel it, while there
is yet time to prepare for the shock? If this giant frenzy of disunion
raises its crested head--if red battle stamps his foot, the North will
feel the shock as severely as the South.

Such is the prospect before us, and near to us, and yet gentlemen say
that they will not give _one_ guarantee to avert such dire calamities.
Will not the gentleman from New York do one thing to save that Ship of
State of which he spoke so eloquently, when she is already among the
breakers, and driving so rapidly toward that rocky shore against which
her ribs of steel cannot long protect her? We are patriots all--we are
bound to act together--to do something--to do our duty, and our whole
duty--to do what will ultimately preserve the Union.

Mr. PALMER:--A few days ago the Conference listened to a deliberate
defence of the institution of slavery by its friends from the slave
States, in which at least one gentleman from a free State (Mr. EWING)
participated. That defence could have had but one object. That object
was to place us who do not believe in slavery in such a position that
we could not agree to a compromise without endorsin