If sectional hostility had been engendered by
dissimilarity of institutions, and by a mistaken idea of moral
responsibilities, and by irreconcilable creeds--if the family could no
longer live and grow harmoniously together--by patriarchal teaching
older than Christianity, it might have been learned that it was better
to part, to part peaceably, and to continue, from one to another, the
good offices of neighbors who by sacred memories were forbidden ever to
be foes. The nomination of the members of the commission was made on the
25th of February--within a week after my inauguration--and confirmed by
Congress on the same day. The Commissioners appointed were Messrs. A. B.
Roman, of Louisiana; Martin J. Crawford, of Georgia; and John Forsyth,
of Alabama. Mr. Roman was an honored citizen, and had been Governor of
his native State. Mr. Crawford had served with distinction in Congress
for several years. Mr. Forsyth was an influential journalist, and had
been Minister to Mexico under appointment of Mr. Pierce near the close
of his term, and continued so under that of Mr. Buchanan. These
gentlemen, moreover, represented the three great parties which had
ineffectually opposed the sectionalism of the so-called "Republicans."
Ex-Governor Roman had been a Whig in former years, and one of the
"Constitutional Union," or Bell-and-Everett, party in the canvass of
1860. Mr. Crawford, as a State-rights Democrat, had supported Mr.
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