Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/84

if compromises must be the order of the day, that compromise must not be a concession by one side of all the other side demands, nor all for which the conceding side had been contending. In other words, the North must not be expected to yield all the South asks, all the North has contended for and won, and then call that a compromise. That is not compromise, and would not bring peace.”

In the proceedings of the “Peace Conference” each State had one vote, and after deliberating twenty-three days, a plan for compromise was adopted by a vote of a majority of the States, and submitted to Congress with a request that it be submitted by that body to the different States to be by them adopted as an amendment to the constitution. The proposition was rejected by the Senate by the decisive vote of seven yeas to twenty-eight nays. The House took no action upon it. Various plans for compromise were proposed in Congress and urged with great earnestness and eloquence; but no agreement could be reached by that body acceptable to the leaders of the secession movement.

Early in January, 1861, Governor Kirkwood made a visit to Abraham Lincoln, President-elect, to confer with him in a quiet way upon the perilous condition of the country. At this conference Governor Kirkwood said to Mr. Lincoln:

“The people of Iowa are very much excited over the condition of the country; that they are devotedly attached to the Union of the States and will never consent to its dissolution on any terms. They are not to be frightened into abandoning their principles by bluster or bravado. You may depend upon them to sustain you to the utmost in their power in preserving peace, if that can be fairly done, and in preserving the Union in any event and at whatever cost.”

Mr. Lincoln expressed great satisfaction at what the Governor said of the intentions of the people of Iowa to give earnest support to his administration. He said he had strong hopes that a safe and peaceful solution of our troubles might yet be had. That it seemed to him incredible that any large portion of our people, even in the States