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  1. Overview: The Road to Civil War
  2. Full Record: The Road to Civil War
  3. Committee:The House of Representatives
  4. Session: 1861-01-14 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE

The Road to Civil War

The House of Representatives

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Document introduced in:

Session 11968: 1861-01-14 12:00:00

Mr. English and Mr. Florence present resolutions on the Crittenden Compromise. The Committee of Thirty-Three reports.

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Resolutions on the Constitutional Duty of the Government

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Whereas the present alarming condition of our national affairs, while demanding of the General Government, as the common national representatives of the whole people of the United States, the execution of its duties, moderation and prudence, and a spirit of fraternal conciliation and forbearance, also demands temperate firmness and a distinct declaration of the policy which will control the Government in the execution of the constitutional duty of maintaining the common rights of all of the States of the Union:

Therefore, as expressive of the opinion of this House on the pending questions.

1. Resolved, That the right of a State to withdraw from the Union, recently asserted in certain quarters of the Confederacy, is not, in the judgment of this House, recognized by the Constitution of the United States, but is wholly inconsistent with the manifest design and declared purpose of that instrument; and neither the President nor the Congress of the United States have been invested by the people in the organization of their Government with authority to recognize a State, once admitted into the Confederacy, in any other character than as one of the States of the Union.

2. Resolved, That by the Constitution the General Government is invested with the powers necessary for the collection of the public revenues under all circumstances whatever, and for the protection of the common property of the people of the United States, wherever the same may be situated, and generally to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; the exercise of which powers, so far as is necessary to protect and maintain the common rights of all of the States, is demanded of the General Government as an act of good faith, and of imperative duty in the execution of the constitutional trust.

3. Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee be instructed to report to the House whether the laws now in force are sufficient to enable the Government to effectually sustain it rights of property situate in the several States, or elsewhere, and to collect its revenues where an attempt shall be made to resist their collection; and if, in the opinion of said committee, the laws are insufficient, the said committee is instructed to report the necessary bill to accomplish effectually the objects aforesaid, and making it the imperative duty of the Government to call into requisition all the powers with which it is invested by the Constitution to protect the property of the United States wherever situated, and collect the revenues of the Government in all cases whatever, by the employment of the Navy, or otherwise, as the exigencies of the case may require.

4. Resolved further, That the measures of the Government, in the temperate vindication of the laws, and in the temperate vindication of the laws, and in the maintenance of the constitutional rights of all of the States of the Union, shall receive the firm and unwavering support of this branch of the national Congress.

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