Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 29

12. Massachusetts, Senate, [Report of the Peace Commissioners], Senate no. 123 (N.p., [1861]). (13 p.)

Report of the proceedings of the peace conference held in Washington, D. C., from February 4 to 27, 1861. Delegates from the slave states hoped to garner support for several constitutional amendments that would guarantee the extension of slavery into western territories, strengthen fugitive slave laws, and give senators from Southern states the sole right to make governmental appointments in western territories south of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes north. The Massachusetts delegation refused to accept these proposals. “The concessions demanded by the discontented States, seemed to be inconsistent with honor, justice, and freedom, and calculated to render permanent the existing causes of disturbance,” the commissioners from Massachusetts report. “A union restored by unmanly concessions would be productive of bitter criminations and lasting hostilities, and would contain within itself the seeds of a violent death.”