n
provoked by it might result in working out some plan to avoid
disunion.[608] Raymond, in the _Times_, and Webb in the _Courier_,
gave it cordial support; the leading New York business men of all
parties expressed themselves favourable to conciliation and
compromise. "I can assure you," wrote August Belmont to Governor
Sprague of Rhode Island, on December 13, "that all the leaders of the
Republican party in our State and city, with a few exceptions of the
ultra radicals, are in favour of concessions, and that the popular
mind of the North is ripe for them." On December 19 he wrote again:
"Last evening I was present at an informal meeting of about thirty
gentlemen, comprising our leading men, Republicans, Union men, and
Democrats, composed of such names as Astor, Aspinwall, Moses H.
Grinnell, Hamilton Fish, R.M. Blatchford, &c. They were unanimous in
their voice for reconciliation, and that the first steps have to be
taken by the North."[609]

[Footnote 608: Albany _Evening Journal_, December 1, 1860.]

[Footnote 609: _Letters of August Belmont_, privately printed, pp. 15,
16.]

Belmont undoubtedly voiced the New York supporters of Douglas,
Breckenridge, and Bell, and many conservative Republicans,
representing the business interests of the great metropolis; but the
bulk of the Republicans did not like a plan that overthrew the
cornerstone of their party, which had won on its opposition to the
extension of slavery into free territory. To go back to the line of
36 deg. 30', permitting slavery to the south of it, meant the loss of all
that had been gained, and a renewal of old issues and hostilities in
the near future. Republican congressmen from the State, almost without
exception, yielded to this view, voicing the sentiment that it was
vain to temporise longer with compromises. With fluent invective,
James B. McKean of Saratoga assailed the South in a speech that
recalled the eloquence of John W. Taylor, his distinguished
predecessor, who, in 1820, led the forces of freedom against the
Missouri Compromise. "The slave-holders," he said, "have been fairly
defeated in a presidential election. They now demand that the victors
shall concede to the vanquished all that the latter have ever claimed,
and vastly more than they could secure when they themselves were
victors. They take their principles in one hand, and the sword in the
other, and reaching out the former they say to us, 'Take these for
your own, or we will stri