ke.'"[610]

[Footnote 610: _Congressional Globe_, 1860-61, _Appendix_, p. 221.
"Never, with my consent, shall the Constitution ordain or protect
human slavery in any territory. Where it exists by law I will
recognise it, but never shall it be extended over one acre of free
territory." Speech of James Humphrey of Brooklyn.--_Ibid._, p. 158.
"Why should we now make any concessions to them? With our experience
of the little importance attached to former compromises by the South,
it is ridiculous to talk about entering into another. The restoration
of the Missouri line, with the protection of slavery south of it, will
not save the Union." Speech of John B. Haskin of Fordham.--_Ibid._, p.
264. "The people of the North regard the election of Mr. Lincoln as
the assurance that the day of compromise has ended; that henceforth
slavery shall have all the consideration which is constitutionally due
it and no more; that freedom shall have all its rights recognised and
respected." Speech of Charles L. Beale of Kinderhook.--_Ibid._, p.
974. "We of the North are called upon to save the Union by making
concessions and giving new guarantees to the South.... But I am
opposed to tinkering with the Constitution, especially in these
exciting times. I am satisfied with it as it is." Speech of Alfred Ely
of Rochester.--_Ibid._, _Appendix_, p. 243. "I should be opposed to
any alteration of the Constitution which would extend the area of
slavery." Speech of Luther C. Carter of Flushing.--_Ibid._, p. 278. "I
am opposed to all changes in the Constitution whatever." Edwin R.
Reynolds of Albion.--_Ibid._, p. 1008.]

Nevertheless, Weed kept at work. In an elaborate article, he suggested
a "Convention of the people consisting of delegates appointed by the
States, to which North and South might bring their respective griefs,
claims, and reforms to a common arbitrament, to meet, discuss, and
determine upon a future. It will be said that we have done nothing
wrong, and have nothing to offer. This is precisely why we should both
purpose and offer whatever may, by possibility, avert the evils of
civil war and prevent the destruction of our hitherto unexampled
blessings of Union."[611]

[Footnote 611: Albany _Evening Journal_, November 30, 1860.]

Preston King, the junior United States senator from New York, clearly
voicing the sentiment of the majority of his party in Congress and out
of it, bitterly opposed such a policy. "It cannot be done," he wrote