THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE - A SURRENDER

Speech of Henry Wilson, of Mass.,

Delivered in the Senate, February 21st, 1861

ON THE RESOLUTIONS OF MR. CRITTENDEN PROPOSING

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF

THE UNITED STATES

[1861]

Original sixteen page pamphlet, never bound with light edgewear, many pages remain uncut at top and with first page separated.  Number written in margin of page two, light dampstaining in top corner and a little toning in margins.  RARE FIRST EDITION.

Wilson gives a passionate speech against the proposed Crittenden Compromise.  This speech in the Senate was given before Abraham Lincoln even took office and the a few days after Jefferson Davis was inaugurated the President of the  Confederate States of America.   Seven of the Southern States (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) had already seceded from the Union.   Four more states (North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia) would soon join them.  It would be over three months until the firing on Fort Sumter.

Extract, "Adopt this proposition — amend the Constitution, and the wild cry will go up for the removal of the free colored men, whose freedom and prosperity, even under the almost crushing burdens imposed upon them, excites the jealousy of master and the hope of the slave. Put this proposition in the Constitution, and the farmers, mechanics, and working-men of the tree States will be forced to contribute millions, earned by the sweat of their brows, to enable the people of the slave States to banish their free colored men. Gladly would I so amend the Constitution as to authorize the Federal Government to acquire territory, in Mexico, or Central or South America, for the colonization, at the public expense, of such persons as the humanity of slave masters may emancipate, on condition of removal, and for the free people of color who may choose to emigrate at their own expense ; but, I never can — I never will consent to this proposition for eternizing slavery, and imposing this burden upon the toiling people of the North. No, sir, never, never!"
 

Henry Wilson (February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was a Senator from Massachusetts and the eighteenth Vice President of the United States. He was a leading Republican who devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the slavocracy, that is the conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty.

Wilson was born Jeremiah Jones Colbath in Farmington, New Hampshire. In 1833 he had his name legally changed by the legislature to Henry Wilson. Henry Wilson moved to Natick, Massachusetts in 1833 and became a shoemaker. He attended several local academies, and also taught school in Natick, where he later engaged in the manufacture of shoes. He was a member of the state legislature between 1841 and 1852, and was owner and editor of the Boston Republican from 1848 to 1851.

Wilson was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1852 to Congress. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1853 and was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1853. In 1855 he was elected to the United States Senate by a coalition of Free-Soilers, Americans (aka Know Nothings), and Democrats to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Everett. He was reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865 and 1871, and served from January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned to become Vice President. He was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia and the Committee on Military Affairs. In 1861 he raised and commanded the Twenty-second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Wilson was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with President Ulysses S. Grant to replace the controversial Schuyler Colfax and served from March 4, 1873, until his death in the United States Capitol Building at Washington, D.C.. He had suffered from paralysis from 1873-75. Among his works are: History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses, 1861-64 (1864); History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-68 (1868); and an exceedingly valuable publication, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, (three volumes, 1872-77).   SOURCE
 

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