38 time tlie Rebel and the loyal States may come together in a national convention, and settle onr difficulties. How will this thing work ? Let ns see. As my first metliod of shedding light npon the point, I will read to yon that clanse of the Constitntion which prescribes the method of calling a convention of the States. "" Congress * * * on a])plication of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which * * * shall be valid to all intents and purposes as parts of this Constitution when ratified bv the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the ctther mode may be proposed by Congress." This is the law for a convention of the States. You must first have the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of these States, asking for it ; you must next have the action of Congress calling the convention ; and finally the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States or conventions in three-fourths thereof, must ratify amendments before they can be a part of the fundamental law of the land. How then will you get the Eebel States into such a convention, and what will you do with them when they are there ? They must be parties to the application for a convention, and then they must be parties in it. What a strange muddle you will have ! Think of it. Jefferson Davis and his army held still by an armistice ! Legislatures of Rebel States applying for a convention under the Constitution which they utterly ignore and repudiate ! Delegates from these liebel States members of that convention ! Two conflicting allegiances there represented —one to the Confederate Government of which Jefferson Davis claims to be the Executive head, and the other to this Government ! Alas ! alas ! and is this what wise men submit as a platform for a candidate to stand upon, and the people to accept. If the Rebel States appear in this proposed convention, the very act concedes that they are already in the Union ; and if so, why have a convention to bring them in ? If they do not thus appear, of what use is a convention as the means of negotiating a peace ? There is still another difficulty in the case. The Constitution requires, that " the members of the several State Legislatures
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