? Are
we to be gravely told that secession and treason are not proper
subjects for our consideration? To be told this when every mail that
comes to us from the South is loaded with both these crimes? Sir, we
have commenced wrong. The first thing we ought to have done was to
declare that these were crimes, and that we would not negotiate with
those who denied the authority of the Government, and claimed to have
thrown off their allegiance to it. Far better would it be for the
country if, instead of debating the question of slavery in reference
to our Territories, we had set to work to strengthen the hands of the
Government, and to put down the treason which threatens its existence.

You, gentlemen of the slave States, say that we of the North use fair
words, that we promise fairly, but you insist that you will not rely
upon our promises, and you demand our bond as security that we will
keep them. I return the statement to you with interest. You,
gentlemen, talk fairly also--give us your bond! You have been talking
fairly for the last dozen or twenty years, and yet this treason, black
as night, has been plotted among you, and twelve years ago one of your
statesmen predicted the very state of things which now exists. I am
willing to give bonds, but I want our action in this respect to be
reciprocal. I want your bond against secession, and I ask it because
seven States in sympathy with you have undertaken to set up an
independent Government--have placed over it a military chieftain who
asserts that we, the people of the United States, are foreigners, and
must be treated with as a foreign nation.

You charged JOHN BROWN with treason. You convicted and executed him;
and yet among you are thousands of men guilty of treason, beside which
that of JOHN BROWN was paltry and insignificant. If we are to act at
all, gentlemen, we must act upon reciprocal terms. I am willing to
make every reasonable concession. Will you do the same? Will you,
gentlemen of the South, declare that you will stand by the Union, and
brand secession as treasonable? If you will, you must vote for this
amendment.

Mr. HOWARD:--I am sure no member of this Conference could have
listened to the remarks of the two gentlemen who have last spoken
without the deepest regret. It has been intimated here that Maryland
will secede unless she secures these guarantees. I do not know whether
she will or not. I know there is danger that she will.

I agree that there is