done or said relative to a suggestion which he threw out. His
suggestion was that a proposition should be made for a general
convention of the States as provided for under the Constitution,
and to propose some plan of compromising the angry disputes
between the North and the South. He said if this were done, and
the North or non-slaveholding States should refuse it, the South
would stand justified before the whole world for refusing longer
to remain in a confederacy where her rights were so shamefully
violated. He said he was compelled to notice at length the
alarming condition of the country, and that he would not shrink
from the duty.

General Cass spoke with earnestness and much feeling about the
impending crisis--admitted fully all the great wrongs and
outrages which had been committed against the South by Northern
fanaticism, and deplored it. But he was emphatic in his
condemnation of the doctrine of secession by any State from the
Union. He doubted the efficacy of the appeal for a convention,
but seemed to think it might do well enough to try it. He spoke
warmly in favor of using force to coerce a State that attempted
to secede.

Judge Black, the Attorney-General, was emphatic in his advocacy
of coercion, and advocated earnestly the propriety of sending at
once a strong force into the forts in Charleston harbor, enough
to deter, if possible, the people from, any attempt at disunion.
He seemed to favor the idea of an appeal for a general convention
of all the States.

Governor Cobb, the Secretary of the Treasury, declared his very
decided approbation of the proposition for two reasons--first,
that it afforded the President a great opportunity for a high and
statesmanlike treatment of the whole subject of agitation, and
the proper remedies to prevent it; secondly, because, in his
judgment, the failure to procure that redress which the South
would be entitled to and would demand (and that failure he
thought certain), would tend to unite the entire South in a
decided disunion movement. He thought disunion inevitable, and
under present circumstances most desirable.

Mr. Holt, the Postmaster-General, thought the proposition for the
convention dangerous, for the reason that if the call should be
made and it should fail to procure redress, those States which