Lincoln’s Party of No Compromise

The Republican party was the party of disunion in 1860-1861 and would accept no compromises to save the Union of the Founders. The Crittenden Compromise would have given the North 900,000 of the existing 1,200,000 square miles of territories for their free soil projects; and left the remaining are to be either free or slave-holding States at the option of the voters when the States were admitted to the Union. This peaceful compromise was offered to Lincoln and his party as a measure to avert war, but found rejection as an answer.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Lincoln’s Party of No Compromise:

“Senator [Stephen A.] Douglas, on the 3rd of January, 1861, only three days after the report of the Committee of Thirteen had been submitted, and within hearing if its members, thus expressed himself in the Senate:

“If you of the Republican side are not willing to accept this [a proposition of his own] nor the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky {Mr. Crittenden], pray tell us what you are willing to do? I address the inquiry to Republicans alone, for the reason, that in the Committee of Thirteen, a few days ago, every member from the South, including those from the Cotton States [Messrs. [Robert] Toombs and [Jefferson] Davis, expressed their readiness to accept the proposition of my venerable friend from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden] as a final settlement of the controversy, if tendered and sustained by the Republican members. Hence the sole responsibility of our disagreement, and the only difficulty in the way of amicable adjustment, is with the Republican party.”

Again, on the 2d of March, 1861, Mr. Douglas re-affirmed this important statement. Said he:

“The Senator has said that if the Crittenden proposition could have been passed early in the session, it would have saved all the States except South Carolina. I firmly believe it would. While the Crittenden proposition was not in accordance with my cherished views, I avowed my readiness and eagerness to accept it.”

Hon. [Samuel] S. Cox, for several years an able and eloquent member of Congress from Ohio made the most interesting statement upon this subject:

“The vote on the Crittenden proposition was well defined, but is not so well understood. From the frequency of inquiries since the war as to this latter vote, the people were eager to know upon whom to fix the responsibility of failure. It may as well be stated that all other propositions, whether of the Peace Convention or the Border State project, or the measures of the committees, were comparatively of no moment; for the Crittenden proposition was the only one which could have arrested the [secession] struggle.”

(Life of Jefferson Davis, Frank H. Alfriend, Caxton Publishing House, 1868, pp. 217)

Lincoln’s Party of No Compromise