d project of government was that gravely
suggested in the House on the 7th of February, 1861, by Clement L.
Vallandigham, of Ohio, who, not content with the clogs of a dual form,
proposed the following absurd quadruple machinery: The Union to be
divided into four sections: North, West, Pacific, and South. On demand
of one-third of the Senators from any section, for any action to which
the concurrence of the House of Representatives may be necessary,--except
on adjournment,--a vote shall be by sections, and a majority of
Senators from each section shall be necessary to the validity of such
action. A majority of all the electors in each of the four sections to
be necessary to choice of President and Vice-President; they should
hold the office six years; not to be eligible to reelection except by
vote of two-thirds of the electors of each section; or of the States of
each section whenever the choice devolved upon the Legislature;
Congress to provide for the election of President and Vice-President
when electors failed. No State might secede without consent of the
Legislatures of all States of that section, the President to have power
to adjust differences with seceding States, the terms of agreement to
be submitted to Congress; neither Congress nor Territorial Legislatures
should have power to interfere with citizens immigrating--on equal
terms--to the Territories, nor to interfere with the rights of person
or property in the Territories. New States to be admitted on an equal
footing with old ones.

The adoption of any or all of the legislative nostrums which were
severally suggested, presupposed a willingness on the part of the South
to carry them out and be governed thereby. The authors of these
projects lost sight of the vital difficulty, that if the South refused
obedience to laws in the past she would equally refuse obedience to any
in the future when they became unpalatable. It was not temporary
satisfaction, but perpetual domination which she demanded. She did not
need an amendment of the fugitive-slave act, or a repeal of personal
liberty bills, but a change in the public sentiment of the free-States.
Give her the simple affirmation that slaves are property, to be
recognized and protected like other property, embody the proposition in
the Constitution, and secure its popular acceptance, and she would snap
her fingers at an enumeration of other details. Fugitive-slave laws,
inter-State slave trade, a Congressional s