e proposed conference.
If they could agree with the Commissioners of other States upon any plan
of settlement requiring amendments to the Federal Constitution, they
were instructed to communicate them to Congress, with a view to their
submission to the several States for ratification.

The "border States" in general promptly acceded to this proposition of
Virginia, and others followed, so that in the "Peace Congress," or
conference, which assembled, according to appointment, on the 4th, and
adjourned on the 27th of February, twenty-one States were eventually
represented, of which fourteen were Northern, or "non-slaveholding," and
seven slaveholding States. The six States which had already seceded were
of course not of the number represented; nor were Texas and Arkansas,
the secession of which, although not consummated, was obviously
inevitable. Three of the Northwestern States--Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Minnesota--and the two Pacific States--Oregon and California--also held
aloof from the conference. In the case of these last two, distance and
lack of time perhaps hindered action. With regard to the other three,
their reasons for declining to participate in the movement were not
officially assigned, and are therefore only subjects for conjecture.
Some remarkable revelations were afterward made, however, with regard to
the action of one of them. It appears, from correspondence read in the
Senate on the 27th of February, that the two Senators from Michigan had
at first opposed the participation of that State in the conference, on
the ground that it was, as one of them expressed it, "a step toward
obtaining that concession which the imperious slave power so insolently
demands."[130]--that is to say, in plain terms, they objected to it
because it might lead to a compromise and pacification. Finding,
however, that most of the other Northern States were represented--some
of them by men of moderate and conciliatory temper--that writer had
subsequently changed his mind, and at a late period of the session of
the conference recommended the sending of delegations of "true,
unflinching men," who would be "in favor of the Constitution as it
is"--that is, who would oppose any amendment proposed in the interests
of harmony and pacification.

The other Senator exhibits a similar alarm at the prospect of compromise
and a concurrent change of opinion. He urges the sending of
"stiff-backed" men, to thwart the threatened success of the fr