Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: John Tyler and the Peace Conference of 1861
[Originally posted in the community on August 18, 2013]
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November of 1860, John Tyler was the only living former president from a southern state. Other former presidents still living were all northerners: Martin Van Buren (New York), Millard Fillmore (New York), Franklin Pierce (New Hampshire) and outgoing President James Buchanan (Pennsylvania).
On the eve of the Civil War, Tyler re-entered public life as sponsor and chairman of the Virginia Peace Convention, held in Washington, D.C., in February 1861 as an effort to devise means to prevent a war. Also known as the Peace Conference of 1861, this was a meeting of more than 100 of the leading politicians of the antebellum United States held in Washington, D.C. that was intended as a last ditch effort to prevent what ultimately became the Civil War. The election of Abraham Lincoln and the success of the Republican Party in the national election of 1860 led to a flurry of political activity in much of the South, where elections were held to select delegates for special conventions empowered to consider secession from the Union.
In Congress, efforts were made in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to reach compromise over the issues relating to slavery that were dividing the nation. The Peace Conference of 1861 was the final effort by the individual states to resolve the crisis. By this time seven states of the south were already committed to secession. The emphasis for peacefully preserving the Union focused on the eight slaveholding states representing the Upper and Border South, with the states of Virginia and Kentucky playing key roles.
The convention opened on February 4, 1861 at the Willard Hotel in Washington. At the same time, the seven Deep South states that had already passed ordinances of secession were preparing to form a new government in Montgomery, Alabama. John Tyler was selected to head the Peace Convention. No delegates were sent by the Deep South states, or by Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Oregon. Fourteen free states and seven slave states were represented. Many of the delegates were sincere in their belief that they could be successful, while many others, from both sides of the spectrum, came simply as “watchdogs” for their sectional interests. The 131 delegates included six former cabinet members, nineteen ex-governors, fourteen former senators, fifty former representatives, twelve state supreme court justices, and one former president. The group were considered to be “senior statesmen”, prompting some in the press to refer to the meeting derisively as the “Old Gentleman’s Convention”.
On February 6 a separate committee charged with drafting a proposal for the entire convention to consider was formed. The committee consisted of one representative from each state and was headed by James Guthrie. The entire convention met for three weeks, and its final product was a proposed seven point constitutional amendment. The key issue, slavery in the territories, was addressed simply by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific coast with no provision for newly acquired territory. This section barely passed by a 9-8 vote of the states. Other parts of the proposed constitutional amendment required that the acquisition of all future territories had to be approved by a majority of both the slave states and the free states, a prohibition on Congress passing any legislation that would affect the status of slavery where it currently existed, a prohibition on state legislatures from passing laws that would restrict the ability of officials to apprehend and return fugitive slaves, a permanent prohibition on the foreign slave trade, and 100% compensation to anyone whose fugitive slave was freed by illegal mob action or intimidation of officials required to administer the Fugitive Slave Act.
By failing to limit the expansion of slavery to all new territories, the compromise failed to satisfy hard line Republicans. The proposal was rejected in the Senate in a 28 to 7 vote and never came to a vote in the House. With the adjournment of Congress and the inauguration of Lincoln as president, compromise became less likely. A final convention of strictly the slave states still in the Union scheduled for June 1861 never occurred because of the events at Fort Sumter.
When the convention's proposals were rejected by Congress, Tyler abandoned hope of compromise and saw secession as the only option. He incorrectly predicted that a clean split of all Southern states would not result in war. When war ultimately broke out, Tyler unhesitatingly sided with the Confederacy and became a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress from February 4, 1861. He was then elected to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress. On January 5, 1862, he left for Richmond, Virginia, in anticipation of his congressional service, but he would not live to see the opening sessions. On January 12, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed. He was revived, but suffered the same symptoms the next day. He died in Richmond on January 18, 1862 at the age of 71.
[Subsequent to when this was first posted, author Mark Tooley wrote an excellent book about the 1861 Peace Conference entitled The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War. This book is reviewed in this community here.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November of 1860, John Tyler was the only living former president from a southern state. Other former presidents still living were all northerners: Martin Van Buren (New York), Millard Fillmore (New York), Franklin Pierce (New Hampshire) and outgoing President James Buchanan (Pennsylvania).
On the eve of the Civil War, Tyler re-entered public life as sponsor and chairman of the Virginia Peace Convention, held in Washington, D.C., in February 1861 as an effort to devise means to prevent a war. Also known as the Peace Conference of 1861, this was a meeting of more than 100 of the leading politicians of the antebellum United States held in Washington, D.C. that was intended as a last ditch effort to prevent what ultimately became the Civil War. The election of Abraham Lincoln and the success of the Republican Party in the national election of 1860 led to a flurry of political activity in much of the South, where elections were held to select delegates for special conventions empowered to consider secession from the Union.
In Congress, efforts were made in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to reach compromise over the issues relating to slavery that were dividing the nation. The Peace Conference of 1861 was the final effort by the individual states to resolve the crisis. By this time seven states of the south were already committed to secession. The emphasis for peacefully preserving the Union focused on the eight slaveholding states representing the Upper and Border South, with the states of Virginia and Kentucky playing key roles.
The convention opened on February 4, 1861 at the Willard Hotel in Washington. At the same time, the seven Deep South states that had already passed ordinances of secession were preparing to form a new government in Montgomery, Alabama. John Tyler was selected to head the Peace Convention. No delegates were sent by the Deep South states, or by Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Oregon. Fourteen free states and seven slave states were represented. Many of the delegates were sincere in their belief that they could be successful, while many others, from both sides of the spectrum, came simply as “watchdogs” for their sectional interests. The 131 delegates included six former cabinet members, nineteen ex-governors, fourteen former senators, fifty former representatives, twelve state supreme court justices, and one former president. The group were considered to be “senior statesmen”, prompting some in the press to refer to the meeting derisively as the “Old Gentleman’s Convention”.
On February 6 a separate committee charged with drafting a proposal for the entire convention to consider was formed. The committee consisted of one representative from each state and was headed by James Guthrie. The entire convention met for three weeks, and its final product was a proposed seven point constitutional amendment. The key issue, slavery in the territories, was addressed simply by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific coast with no provision for newly acquired territory. This section barely passed by a 9-8 vote of the states. Other parts of the proposed constitutional amendment required that the acquisition of all future territories had to be approved by a majority of both the slave states and the free states, a prohibition on Congress passing any legislation that would affect the status of slavery where it currently existed, a prohibition on state legislatures from passing laws that would restrict the ability of officials to apprehend and return fugitive slaves, a permanent prohibition on the foreign slave trade, and 100% compensation to anyone whose fugitive slave was freed by illegal mob action or intimidation of officials required to administer the Fugitive Slave Act.
By failing to limit the expansion of slavery to all new territories, the compromise failed to satisfy hard line Republicans. The proposal was rejected in the Senate in a 28 to 7 vote and never came to a vote in the House. With the adjournment of Congress and the inauguration of Lincoln as president, compromise became less likely. A final convention of strictly the slave states still in the Union scheduled for June 1861 never occurred because of the events at Fort Sumter.
When the convention's proposals were rejected by Congress, Tyler abandoned hope of compromise and saw secession as the only option. He incorrectly predicted that a clean split of all Southern states would not result in war. When war ultimately broke out, Tyler unhesitatingly sided with the Confederacy and became a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress from February 4, 1861. He was then elected to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress. On January 5, 1862, he left for Richmond, Virginia, in anticipation of his congressional service, but he would not live to see the opening sessions. On January 12, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed. He was revived, but suffered the same symptoms the next day. He died in Richmond on January 18, 1862 at the age of 71.
[Subsequent to when this was first posted, author Mark Tooley wrote an excellent book about the 1861 Peace Conference entitled The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War. This book is reviewed in this community here.