February 16, 1861; The New York Herald
The Committee of the Peace Congress at Washington, yesterday agreed upon a plan of adjustment, substantially the same as that presented by Mr. Crittenden in the Senate. The vote stood 12 to 9.
We continue our accounts of the progress of the President elect and party towards the White House. Mr. Lincoln made a speech at Pittsburg yesterday morning, which, as it was a carefully considered effort, demands more consideration than is usually bestowed upon ordinary oratorical displays. He spoke upon the crisis and the Tariff bill now before Congress. With regard to the crisis he advises everybody to keep cool, and predicts a peaceful settlement of all our troubles. Respecting the tariff, he confesses his unacquaintance with the subject, but is of the opinion that the subject should remain over for the next Congress to act upon. The Presidential party will arrive in this city on Tuesday next.
Accounts from Montgomery, Alabama, received at Washington, state that the Southern Confederacy have made arrangements by which they will have, on the 1st of March, fourteen millions of dollars, and fifty regiments of troops ready to take the field.
We publish today an official copy of the ‘Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America.’ As we have heretofore remarked, the instrument follows in the main the original constitution of the country. The first article relates to the powers of Congress, with reference to its own body and the confederacy at large; the second to the duties of the Executive; the third to the judicial authority; the fourth to the duties of the citizens of the several States; the fifth to future amendments of the constitution, and the sixth to the constitution and general government itself as the supreme law of the land.