History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses, 1861-65, by Henry Wilson, 1865.

CHAPTER VI.

CERTAIN SLAVES TO BE MADE FREE.

MR. FOMEROY'S BILL, — MR. TRUMBILL'S BILL. — MR. MORRILL'S JOINT RESOLUTION, REPORT OP THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, — MR. SUMNER'S AMENDMENT. — MR. SHERMAN'S AMENDMENT. — REMARKS OP MR. WILLEY. — MR. HALE'S REPLY. MR. HARRIS'S AMENDMENT. REMARKS OF MR. HOWARD. — MR. COLLAMER'S AMENDMENT. — MOTION TO REFER TO A SELECT COMMITTEE, — REMARKS OF MR. WILMOT, — MR. WILSON'S AMENDMENT. — MR. COLLAMER. — MOTION TO REFER TO A SELECT COMMITTEE BY MR. CLARK, — REMARKS OP MR. HALE, — MR. WILSON'S REPLY. — SELECT COMMITTEE, — MR. CLARK'S REPORT. — MR. SUMNER'S AMENDMENT. — MR. DAVIS'S AMENDMENT. — MR. SAULBURY’S amendment, — MR. Wilson's amendment, — MR. Clark’s AMENDMENT. — MR. SUMNER'S AMENDMENT. — PASSAGE OF THE BILL. — HOUSE, — MR. ELIOT'S RESOLUTION. — MR. ROSCOE CONKLING'S AMEND MENT. — MR. CAMPBELL'S RESOLUTION. — MR. STEVENS'S RESOLUTION. — MR. CONWAY'S RESOLUTION. — BILLS REFERED TO JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. — MR, HICKMAN'S REPORT.— MR. BINGHAM'S SUBSTITUTE, — MR. PORTERS’S AMENDMENT. — MR, ELIOT'S REPORT, — BILL DEFEATED. RECONSIDERATION. — RECOMMITTED ON MOTION OF MR. PORTER, REPORTED BACK BY MR. ELIOT. — MR. CLARK'S AMENDMENT. SEN ATE AMENDMENT LOST IN THE HOUSE, — SENATE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE. — HOUSE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE. — REPORT OF CONFERENCE COMMITTEE, — MR. CLARK'S SENATE AMENDMENT ADOPTED.

THE Thirty-seventh Congress assembled on the 4th of July, 1861. In the Senate, on the 16th, Mr. Pomeroy (Rep.) of Kansas introduced a bill "to sup press the Slaveholders' Rebellion." This bill set forth that slavery had culminated in a formidable Rebellion ; that it presented to the nation the great question, which it must settle now, and settle for ever, whether Ameri can slavery shall die, or American freedom shall live ; Page 111 that by virtue of the Constitution, and as a great military necessity, it be enacted that there shall be no slavery in any of the States that claim to have seceded from the Goverment, and are in open and armed resistance to the laws and Constitution of the United States. The bill was read twice, and ordered to be on the table and be printed.

On the 5th of December, 1861, Mr. Trumbull (Rep.) of Illinois introduced a bill, which provided that the slaves of persons who shall take up arms against the United States, or in any manner aid or abet this Rebellion, shall be discharged from service or labor, and become forever thereafter free, any law to the contrary notwithstanding. In presenting his bill, Mr. Trumbull said, " The right to free the slaves of rebels would, be equally clear with that to confiscate their property generally ; for it is as property that they profess to hold them : but, as one of the most efficient means for attaining the end for which the armies of the Union have been called forth, the right to restore to them the God-given liberty of which they have been unjustly deprived is doubly clear. It only remains to inquire, whether, in making use of lawful means to crush this wicked Rebellion, it is policy to confiscate the property of rebels, and take from them the support of unrequited labor. Can there be a question on this point ? Who does not know that treason has gained strength by the leniency with which it has been treated? We have dallied with it quite too long already. Instead of being looked upon as the worst of crimes, — as it really is, — it has come to be regarded as a trivial offence, to be atoned for by a promise to do so no more. The despoilers Page 112 of loyal citizens, the conspirators against the peace of a nation, the plunderers of the public property, the assassins of liberty, when they have fallen into our hands, have been suffered to escape on taking an oath of allegiance which many have not scrupled to violate on the first opportunity.

On the llth of December, Mr. Morrill (Rep.) of Maine introduced a joint resolution to confiscate the property of rebels, and satisfy the just claims of loyal persons. This joint resolution provided that any and all claim or right of a person, who shall conspire with others to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force, the Government of the United States, to the labor of any other person under the laws of any State or Terri tory, shall be declared to be annulled, any law or usage of any State or Territory or of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. Mr. Morrill's resolution was read twice, referred to the Judiciary Committee, and ordered to be printed. Mr. Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to which the bill he had introduced was referred, reported it back on the 15th of January, 1862. On the 25th of February, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Trumbull, proceeded to its consideration, as in Committee of the whole. Mr. Pomeroy of Kansas" inquired " if the senator from Illinois intended by the third section to commit the Government to the returning of fugitive slaves." — " Unquestionably not," replied Mr. Trumbull ; " and I do not think the language of the bill warrants that construction. It says to the commissioners, to the United States judges, to everybody, 'You shall never make an order, under the Fugitive-slave Act, to surrender up a Page 113 man claimed as a fugitive from service or labor, until it Is first proved to your satisfaction that the claimant is and has been loyal to the Government.' That is the intention of the provision." Mr. Pomeroy was opposed to the section favoring the colonization of the emancipated slaves. If that provision was insisted on, he should feel called upon " to offer an amendment for the transportation, colonization, and settlement, in some country be yond the limits of the United States, of such slaveholders as have been engaged in the Rebellion." Mr. Willey (Union) of Virginia thought an immense number of negroes would be enfranchised before the close of the war, and thrown upon the community. He was " in favor of colonization ; but where was the money to come from ?" — "I may be in error," said Mr. Ten Eyck (Rep.) of New Jersey; "but, for one, I should be opposed to the second section, which provides for the enlargement or liberation of persons held to service or labor, unless the third section, or a section similar to it, becomes a law also at the same time." — "I concur," said Mr. Sumner (Rep.) of Massachusetts, "with the senator from Kansas in all he has said in relation to the Fugitive slave bill. I have never called that a law, or even an act. I regard it simply as a bill ; still, a bill having no authority under the Constitution of the United States. There is no fountain in that instrument out of which that enormity can be derived. That is my idea : I believe it is the idea of the senator from Kansas. I therefore propose an amendment which shall remove all such implication or possibility of recognition, on our part, of that bill ; while at the same time I believe it will carry out completely, adequately, in every respect, the Page 114 idea of the senator from Illinois in the measure which Is now under consideration. I propose to strike out all after the word ' before,' in the sixteenth line, down to the word 'that,' in the nineteenth line, being these words, 'Any order for the surrender of the person whose service is claimed, establish not only his title to such service, as now provided by law, but also,' and, instead thereof, insert, ' proceeding with the trial of his claim, satisfactorily prove : ' so that the sentence will read, ' He shall in the first instance, and before proceeding with the trial of his claim, satisfactorily prove that his, and has been during the existing Rebellion, loyal to the Government of the United States." Mr. Trumbull was entirely wiling the Senate should adopt it ; and it was agreed to.

Mr. M'Dougall (Dem.) of California, on the 3d and 4th of March, addressed the Senate in a speech of great : length in opposition to the enactment of the pending bill or any kindred measure. He was followed by Mr. Cowan (Rep.) of Pennsylvania in opposition to the measure. "If it passed," he said, "I think it will be the great historic event of the times, — times which are as fruitful of events as any the world has ever witnessed. Upon the disposition we may make of it, perhaps the fate of the American Republic may depend ; and no one surely can overrate the magnitude of any thing which may be attended with such consequences. . . . Pass this bill, and the same messenger who carries it to the South will come back to us with the news of their complete consolidation as one man. We shall then have done that which treason could not do : we ourselves shall then have dissolved the Union ; we shall have rent Page 115 its sacred charter, and extinguished the last vestige of affection for it in the slave States by our blind and passionate folly."

Mr. Morrill of Maine, on the 5th, addressed the Sen ate earnestly and eloquently in favor of the bill. " The great measure before us," said Mr. Morrill, "and none greater has ever been before the Senate, has been characterized in this debate in earnest, eloquent, indignant, and, I think I am authorized to say, satirical speech, as extraordinary, unconstitutional, oppressive, and inexpedient. ... If slavery makes war on the nation for any purpose, I maintain the right of the Government, under the Constitution, to defend itself, and, in doing so, 'to liberate the slaves ' of rebels ; and that whenever and howsoever the question arises between ' the existence of the institution ' and the Constitution, slavery and the Union, the former must go to the wall, must perish, if necessary to preserve the latter ; and that this may be done in the name and in the behalf of ' American constitutional liberty.' . . . The right of slavery to ' exemption from interference within its locality ' is lost in its audacious revolt and armed assault on the Government. Its cry ' to be let alone,' amid the cannonading of Sumter, is a shallow pretence to conceal a wicked purpose."

Mr. Browning (Rep.) of Illinois followed, on the 10th, in a lengthy and elaborate speech in opposition to the passage of the bill. He thought legislation of this character dangerous, and maintained that "the war powers of the Goverment were fully adequate to the needs of the occasion." Mr. Carlie (Dem.) of Virginia followed, on the llth, in a long and discursive speech in Page 116 opposition. He declared that " self-preservation would compel the States within which slavery now exists, if the slaves were emancipated, either to expel them from the State, or re-enslave them. If expelled, where would they go? The non-slaveholding States, many of them, exclude them by express constitutional provision;, others would do so : for we are told by the advocates of emancipation, that the negro is not to be permitted, when liberated, to come into their States. What follows? — extermination or re-enslavement. Can it be possible that the Christian sentiment of the North, which, it is said, demands the abolition of slavery, desires the extermination of the negro race ? The well-being, if not the existence, of the white race, would demand their re-enslavement ; and it would be done."

On the 7th of April, on motion of Mr. Trumbull, the Senate resumed the consideration of the bill ; and Mr.. Trumbull defended it against the assaults made upon it, in an elaborate speech, which he closed by saying, " Such an opportunity to strike a blow for freedom seldom occurs as that now presented to the American Congress, As most of the owners of slaves are en gaged in the Rebellion, and will probably continue so for some time, the effect would be, if this bill were speedily enacted into a law, that they would by their own act give freedom to most of the slaves in the country ; and thus would be solved in a great measure, through the agency of this wicked Rebellion, the great question. What is to be done with African slavery? — a subject in view of which Jefferson in his day exclaimed, that ' he trembled when he remembered that God was just.' I appeal to senators, as philanthropists, as patriots, as  Page 117 lovers of the Union and of constitutional liberty, not to let pass this opportunity, which a wicked Rebellion presents, of making it the means of giving freedom to millions of the human race, and thereby destroying to a great extent the source and origin of the Rebellion, and the only thing which has ever seriously threatened the peace of the Union,"

Mr. Henderson (Union) of Missouri, on the 8th, made a lengthy but eloquent speech against the bill. " It is useless," said Mr. Henderson, " to devise cunning schemes to effect the destruction of slavery. It is worse than useless to violate the least of constitutional safe guards to accomplish it. The shells that passed from rebel batteries to Fort Sumter, twelve months ago, wrote its doom in living letters upon the Southern skies. If they will destroy it themselves, let all the responsibility of evils to spring from this sudden change in the labor and social system of the country rest upon the authors of the war,"

Mr. Sherman, on the 10th, moved an amendment in the nature of a substitute. It provided for confiscating the property and freeing the slaves of certain leading classes of rebels. Mr. Willey again spoke in earnest condemnation of the bill and all kindred measures. "What will be," he asked, "the necessary and inevitable result of this policy if it be carried into effect? It will be, that Virginia, by this increase of the free negro population under the operation of this bill, will be driven not only to re-enslave those who may be manumitted under the operation of the present bill, but also to re-enslave the sixty thousand free negroes already there. That will be the policy that my honorable friend from Page 118 Kentucky (Mr. Davis) will see take effect in his State ; and as it must be in Maryland, and in every State where the operation of this bill -will, to any extent, increase the number of the free negro population. . . .You are surrounding us by an impassable barrier of constitutional interdictions against the diffusion of this population ; while at the same time you want to manumit our slaves, and throw them broadcast on our community. Sir, the evil will be unendurable ; and the result will be the re-enslavement of the slaves thus manumitted, as well as those already free in our State." Mr. Hale replied to Mr. Wiley's intimation, that the emancipated slaves would be re-enslaved, in a defiant and effective speech. " I have," he said, " as high regard for the chivalry, bravery, and power of Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland, and any of these States, as any man has ; but I tell them, and I tell the legislature of every State in the Union, that, when they undertake that, they under take a job that they cannot do : they set themselves in opposition to the moral sentiment of the country and of the world. There is not a monarch to-day on the throne of any of the kingdom of Europe situated there so firmly, that he dare to set himself in opposition to the moral sentiment of mankind. I take it, sir, that, it is neither fanaticism nor superstition to say, that when the Creator of the earth made the earth, and the same Power made colored men, he intended that the colored men he had made should dwell upon the earth that he had made ; and that when the broad earth was subjected to the servitude of man, and the fiat went forth that by the sweat of the brow of man should his living be obtained from the earth, it was a universal edict, Page 119 irrespective of complexion, and that the earth is subject to the servitude of supporting the black man as well as the white. I laugh to scorn all attempts and all threats at re-enslaving this people. I tell you, it cannot be done," " If the honorable gentleman," replied Mr. Willey, "had been better cognizant of my antecedents, humble as they are, on this subject, he certainly would never have conceived it to be his duty to rise here; and rebuke me for having uttered sentiments that were contrary even to his peculiar theories. It is not becoming a man to speak of himself; but, rightfully or wrongfully, I have that consciousness which satisfies my own heart, having devoted nearly half of all I had in setting negroes free. Thousands of dollars out of my poor pittance and estate have been surrendered as attestations of my belief in the doctrine for which the honorable Senator from New Hampshire has thought it necessary to rise up here and rebuke me."

Mr. Harris (Rep.) of New York, on the 14th, sub mitted a substitute he intended to offer, and addressed the Senate in exposition of his views of the duty de manded by the needs of the country. Of the seventh section of his intended amendment he said, " The seventh section of the substitute, which is in substance the same as the second section of the original bill, relates exclusively to the slave property of rebels. Unlike the provisions of preceding sections, the forfeiture declared is applicable alike to all persons who shall be found engaged in the Rebellion. This is clearly right. All must agree, I think, that slavery is the chief, indeed the sole, producing cause of the Rebellion. It has long been, and, so long as it continues to exist. It will be, Page 120 the great disturbing element in our political system. Northern politicians, seeking to obtain political power, have cowered before it, and ignominiously yielded to its imperious exactions. In this way, it has been able to hold the reins and control the policy of the Government for most of the time since our history as a nation began, — often, very often, to the serious prejudice of our best interests as a nation. It was because, and only because, this power had been wrested from its hands by an indignant and long-suffering people, that this Rebellion was inaugurated."

Mr. Powell (Dem.) of Kentucky, on the 16th, spoke in opposition to the bill, and in severe denunciation of the antislavery policy of the administration, Mr. Howard (Rep.) of Michigan addressed the Senate in support of the policy of confiscation, and the emancipation of the slaves of rebels, in a speech of great clearness and logical power. He arraigned the slaveholding leaders of the Rebellion for their " deceptive, delusive, and wicked words and deeds," He said, " Sir, even Satan, disguising his horrid form, and —

' Squat like a toad fest by the ear of Eve,'

practised no more deliberate deceit upon the sleeping mother of the race. They alarmed the fears of the timid and unthinking ; they aroused the vigilance which ever presides over property ; they stirred up the gall and bitterness of the bigot and fanatic, who deduce the right of slavery from the gospel itself; they inflamed the sectional pride of those who mistakenly claim personal and heroic qualities superior to those of North ern men ; addressing the rich planter, they scoffed at Page 121 labor as fit only for slaves ; they spoke of the rapid increase of population in the free States as an alarming portent, and sorrowed deeply over the prospect of being compelled to submit to the will of a majority. Finding that, by their own incautious haste in forcing the North ern Democracy to adopt obnoxious measures, they had united the Northern people to resist the further triumphs of their ambition, and had thus lost the balance of power, they invoked eloquently the memories of their former domination, and wept over its decline. At every public gathering, the air was burdened with their im passioned appeals to the masses to rise, and resist the imaginary wrongs threatened by the North, or, as they derisively called the friends of the Goverment, Yankees. Every court-house, every church, every fair ground, was vocal with traitorous eloquence ; and God's innocent air was loaded with execrations against a Goverment, the work of their and our fathers, which never harmed a hair of their heads, and whose only fault — shown in the compromise measures of 1833 — was, that it had loved them, not wisely, but too well. To the aspirant after place and honor, they held out the prospect of a separate Congress, President, separate cabinet ministers, judges, and ambassadors and consuls abroad ; to the lovers of adventure and booty, they pointed to the weak and distracted governments of Mexico and the Central- American States, to their mines, their cotton and sugar lands, and the ornaments of their churches. Their ambition grasped Cuba ; and that island was soon to undergo a practical verification of the doctrines of the Ostend Conference, which had received the blind adhesion of the President whom their votes had elected in Page 122 1856. And at the foundation of this splendid chimera of revolution and dominion, the pivot on which the whole structure was to tum, was the Idea, repelled by all the accredited teachers of morals and public law, that the black man was born to be a slave, and that it was to defy the decrees of God and Nature to allow him to be free."

Mr. Davis (Opp.) of Kentucky followed, on the 22d and 23d, in a very long and exhaustive speech in opposition. He averred that "neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution was ever intended to embrace slaves, nor any of the negro race, nor any of the Indian race, nor foreigners. It has been attempted in this argument to apply the prohibitions of the Constitution to foreigners. It no more erabraces foreigners than it does quadrupeds. It no more embraces Indiana or slaves, except one or two prohibitions that are intended to preserve the humanity of our laws, than it does quadrupeds or wild beasts. The only partners to our political partnership were the white men. The negro was no party, and he cannot now constitutionally be any party, to it. He was outside of it at the time the Constitution was formed, and will be for ever, to this fundamental law of our Government."

Mr. Sherman (Rep.) of Ohio spoke in support of his substitute. On the 24th, Mr. Collamer (Rep.) of Vermont addressed the Senate in an elaborate and able and effective speech. "The slaves," he said, "are now in the possession and control of their masters, except so far as our army goes. If they try to get away, especially if they are at any considerable distance from our armies, their masters will not allow them to do it. Of Page 123 course, the masters are not going to let them get away to join us to shoot them : they will stop them, perhaps kill them in the attempt. If we knew people were going from us to join the enemy and fight us, we should not let them go : neither do they. Now, by this bill, we say to these slaves, if they are ever to learn what we do at all (and, if they do not, it can have no effect), ' You need not run any risk about offending your master : perhaps your master will succeed in the Rebellion ; and you will suffer pretty hard if you undertake to run away, and he catches you. You may remain quietly with your master, and not incur the hazard of his displeasure or punishment ; but if, after all, your master does not succeed, you shall be free, whether you help us or not.' Is that good policy? That is the bill. It does not seem to me to be a very wise means to the end, if such an end is had in view, as I suppose."

 Mr. Sherman withdrew his amendment, to enable the senator from Vermont to submit his substitute ; and Mr. Trumbull then addressed the Senate upon the various substituted proposed. On the 29th, Mr. Cowan moved "that all bills, substitutes, and amendments relating to the punishment of rebels, and the forfeiture and confiscation of their property, be referred to a select committee of seven, to examine and report upon the same."

Mr. Browning addressed the Senate at great length in earnest remonstrance against the policy embodied in these bills. On the 30th, Mr. Wilmot addressed the Senate in earnest advocacy of the bill. He said, " the second section, that providing for the emancipation of the slaves of rebels, I sustain in the whole length and breadth of its provisions. While I shall claim for the Page 124 Government full power over the subject of slavery, I would not at this time go beyond the provisions of this bill. I would to-day give freedom to the slaves of every traitor ; and, after that, would confidently look for the early adoption of the policy recommended by the President, gradually to work out the great result of universal emancipation. . . . This great revolt against the integrity and sovereignty of the nation has no other foundation than slavery. Democratic government is a perpetual danger to slavery. The government of an oligarchy is demanded as security for its perpetuity and power. Here is the cause of the Rebellion, with its immense sacrifices of life and treasure. Amidst the sacrifices of. this hour, this universal wreck of interests, shall the slaveholding traitor grasp securely his human chattel ? " Mr. Wright (Union) of Indiana followed in support of the policy of confiscation. The President stated that the pending question was the motion of Mr. Cowan to commit the bill and all the amendments to a special committee, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Wade, Mr. Hale, and Mr. Trumbull, earnestly opposed the motion ; and Mr. Cowan made an equally earnest appeal for reference, Mr. Howard moved to submit an amendment to the pending resolution, in' the following words : — "

With instructions to bring in a bill for the confiscation of all the property of the leading insurgents, and the emancipation of the slaves of all persons who have taken up arms against the United States during the present insurrection.''

Mr. Davis moved to strike out the words, "and the emancipation of the slaves of all persons." The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted — yeas 11, nays 29 : so the amendment to the amendment was rejected.

Page 125 Mr. Howard then withdrew his amendment. The question was taken on Mr. Cowan's motion to refer all the bills and amendments to a special committee, — yeas 18, nays 22.

On the lst of May, the Senate resumed the consideration of the bill ; the pending question being Mr. Collamer's substitute. Mr. Wilson (Rep.) of Massachusetts moved to strike out the sixth section of the amendment proposed by Mr. Collamer, and to substitute in lieu of it, "That, in any State in which the inhabitants have by the President been heretofore declared in a state of insurrection, the President is required, for the speedy and more effectual suppression of said insurrection, within thirty days after the passage of this act, to appoint a day when all persons holden to service in any such State, whose service is by the law of said State due to one, who, after the passage of this act, shall levy war or participate in insurrection against the United States, or give aid to the same, shall be for ever free, any law to the contrary notwithstanding." In support of this amendment, Mr. Wilson said, " I am free to confess that the provision emancipating the slaves of rebels is, with me, the chief object of solicitude. I do not expect that we shall realize any large amount of property by any confiscation bill that we shall pass. After the conflict, when the din of battle has ceased; the humane and kindly and charitable feelings of the country and of the world will require us to deal gently with the masses of the people who are engaged in this Rebellion. It will be pleaded, that wives and children will suffer for the crimes of husbands and fathers; and such appeals will have more or less effect upon the future policy of the Government.

Page 126 But, sir, take from rebel masters their bondmen, and from the hour you do so until the end of the world, to 'the last syllable of recorded time,' the judgment of the country and the judgment of the. world will sanction the act. . . . Slavery is the great rebel, the giant criminal, the murderer striving with bloody hands to throttle our Goverment and destroy our country. Senators may talk round it, if they please ; they may scold at its agents, and denounce its tools : I care little about its agents or its tools. I think not of Davis and his compeers in crime : I look at the thing itself, — to the great rebel with hands dripping with the blood of my murdered countrymen. I give the criminal no quarter. If I, with the light I have, could utter a word or give a vote to continue for one moment the life of the great rebel that is now striking at the vitals of my country, I should feel that I was a traitor to my native land, and deserved a traitor's doom. . . . While I would not take the lives of many, if any ; while I would not take the property of more than the leaders, — I would take the bondmen from every rebel on the continent ; and, in doing it, I should have the sanction of my own judgment, the sanction of the enlightened world, the sanction of the coming ages, and the blessing of Almighty God. Every day, while the world stands, the act will be approved and applauded by the human heart all over the globe. . . . When slavery is stricken down, they will come back again, and offer their hands, red though they be with the blood of our brethren ; and we shall forgive the past, take them to our bosoms, and be again one people. But, senators, keep slavery ; let it stand ; shrink from duty ; let men whose hands are stained Page 127 with the blood of our countrymen, whose hearts are dis loyal to our country, hold fast to the chains that bind three millions of men in bondage, — and we shall have an enemy to hate us, ready to seize on all fit opportunities to smite down all that we love, and again to raise their disloyal hands against the perpetuity of the Republic. Sir, I believe this to be as true as the holy evangelists of Almighty God ; and nothing but the prejudices of association on the one side, or timidity on the other, can hold us back from doing the duty we owe to our country in this crisis." Mr. Morrill made an effective reply to Mr. Cowan and Mr. Collamer, and an earnest appeal for the bill. Mr. Howe (Rep.) of Wisconsin expressed his doubts. Mr. Davis again addressed the Senate. He asked " that slaves should have the same fate with other property." He did " not object to confiscating slaves with other property, upon condition that the proceeds should go into the treasury." Mr. Clark (Rep.) of New Hampshire would not sell the confiscated slaves. "You take," he said, "a negro from a rebel, as the senator proposes. He belongs to the United States. The senator contends that you must sell him. You sell him. Who buys him? Where do you sell him? Where do you find your market? Not in a free State, but in a slave State. You sell him to one of these slaveholders ; and the rebels come and seize him, and have him engaged on fortifications in a week." On the 2d of May, Mr. Doolittle (Rep.) of Wisconsin addressed the Senate. Mr. Wade made an emphatic speech in favor of action. He declared, that " if every man in this Senate, if every man in this Congress, stood forth as an advocate for perpetual and eternal slavery, it Page 128 would only be the poor instrumentalities of man fighting against God. God and Nature have determined the question, and we shall not affect it much either way. But I throw out these hints to those gentlemen who seem to believe that the world will not go round when slavery is abolished. As the Almighty sometimes over rules the wickedness of man to perfect a glorious end, so the hand of God was never more obvious than in this Rebellion. Slavery might have staggered along against the improvement of the age, against the common consent of mankind, a scoff and a byword on the tongue of all civilized nations, for a great many years ; but this Rebellion has sealed Its fate, and antedated the time when it becomes impossible. You cannot escape from this war, without the emancipation of your negroes. It will not be because I am going to preach it ; it will not be because I am going to move any thing in that direction : but it is because I see the hand of God taking hold of your own delinquency to overrule for good what your rulers meant for_ evil. Proslavery men seem to suppose that the Ruler of the universe is a proslavery Being ; but, if I have not mistaken him greatly, he is at least a gradual emancipationist." Mr. Collamer followed in reply to Mr. Wade, and in support of his amendment. He declared that " our legislation should be consecutive and in certain progress, rising from step to step, as the necessities of the occasion may require ; " and he " had attempted to frame his bill on that principle." The sixth section provided, when the insurrection has existed six months, " then, in that case, the President is authorized. If in his opinion it is necessary to the successful suppression of said insurrection, by proclamation to fix Page 129 and appoint a day when all persons holden to service or labor in any such State, or part thereof, as he shall declare, whose service or labor is by the law or custom of said State due to any person or persons, who, after the day so fixed by said proclamation, shall levy war or participate in insurrection, shall be free." — "It is proposed," he said, " by the senator from Massachusetts, that the section shall be entirely changed. By this amendment, the proclamation Is made a matter of no consequence at all. The President is left no discretion about it. It is a simple declaration, that, in thirty days, the President shall issue a proclamation, fixing a day' when the slaves shall be free, — the slaves of any person who shall be engaged in rebellion after the passage of the act, not after the time fixed by proclamation. . . . The honorable senator from Massachusetts, and the honorable senator from Ohio, seem never to have understood the explanation which I gave before, and I do not know that they ever will. Perhaps it is because they do not want to understand it. The honorable senator from Massachusetts especially, in offering his amendment and in speaking upon it yesterday, seemed to be set upon the idea, — he entertains it strongly, and he expresses it strongly, as belongs to him, — that the existence of slavery and the existence of this country under the General Goverment are incompatible. I shall not misrepresent him : I may have misunderstood him ; but, if I did understand him, that is his belief. He thinks slavery is the origin of all the difficulty, and that the trouble will continue as long as it exists ; and he comes in with this amendment, to effect — what ? That purpose, of course." Mr. Saulsbury (Dem.) of Delaware Page 130 predicted "that in 1870, let this war terminate as it may, whether you conquer the seceded States or not, if local State governments are preserved in this country, there will then be more slaves In the United States than there were in 1860. . . . I presume that local State governments will be preserved. If they are, if the people have a right to make their own laws and to govern themselves, — and I presume that even my friend from Massachusetts will not object to that, — they will not only re-enslave every person that you attempt to set free, but they will re-enslave the whole race. I do not mean to suggest a thing that I will not favor : I take all the responsibility of the utterance in my own person. I say to you, sir, and I say to the country, that if you send five thousand slaves into the State of Delaware, — we have got about two thousand slaves now, and we have about twenty thousand free negroes, — if you send five thousand more of that class of people among us, contrary to our law, contrary to our will, I avow upon the floor of the American Senate, that I will go before my people for en slaving the whole race, because I say that this country is the white man's country. God, nature, everything, has made a distinction between the white man and the negro ; and by your legislation you cannot bring up a filthy negro to the elevation of the white man, if you try to put him upon that platform."

The Senate, on the 5th of May, resumed the con sideration of the bill; and Mr. Howe of Wisconsin spoke in opposition to it, and in reply to several senators. Mr. Foster (Rep.) of Connecticut followed in a review of the bill and amendments, and in support of Mr. Collamer's substitute.

Page 131 On the 6th, the Senate having resumed the consideration of the bill, Mr. Wilson withdrew his amendment to the sixth section of Mr. Collamer's amendment, and moved an amendment in eight sections as a substitute for Mr. Collamer’s substitute for the original bill. Mr. Wilson, in explanation of the sixth section relating to slavery, said, that " the amendment of the senator from Vermont provides for discharging the slaves of persons under certain conditions ; that is, that the President may do it if he deems it necessary for the suppression of the Rebellion. He puts it in the discretion of the President. My amendment makes it imperative upon the President to issue his proclamation, immediately after the passage of the act, to fix a day, not more than thirty days after the act is passed, when the slaves of all persons who engage in insurrection or rebellion after they have had the warning of thirty days, after the time is fixed, shall be made free." Mr. Clark said, " The amendment proposed by the senator from Massachusetts, it strikes me, Is an important one. I think it goes a good way towards harmonizing some of the differences in the minds of senators. If there could be time for considering it further, or for maturing it, or if it were sent to a committee to perfect it, it seems to me the Senate might readily come to some conclusion that would be satisfactory. I will move that the whole subject, this amendment and all the other bills, be committed to a select committee of five, for the purpose of being perfected." Mr. Sumner (Rep.) of Massachusetts suggested that the committee should consist of seven members ; and Mr. Clark accepted that suggestion. Mr. Hale said, " There is a Page 132 difficulty in my mind in regard to the amendment of the senator from Massachusetts. I think I have been as anxious and as earnest as anybody to advance the cause of free principles, so far as might be done consistently with the rights we owe under the Constitution ; but it seems to me the machinery of the sixth action of the amendment of the senator from Massachusetts is objectionable to the exception that it is not in accordance with the Constitution." Mr. Wilson said, in response to Mr. Hale, "Slavery has made this Rebellion, and alone is responsible for it ; and yet such has been the overshadowing power of slavery, so omnipotent has it been in these halls and over this Goverment, that when we, who are the children of democratic in situations, who have in our blood, in our being, in our very souls, love of liberty, and hatred of oppression, are called upon to act ; when our brethren have been foully murdered, and wives and children and fathers are bowed in agony of soul all over the country ; when the existence of this nation is threatened by this system of slavery, — when we, under all these circumstances, are called upon to deal with it, such is its lingering power over even us, that we can take rebel lives, take rebel property, take any thing and every thing, but are reluctant to touch slavery, the cause of all. Sir, if the Congress of the United States shall fail to free the slaves of rebel masters, the men who are endeavoring to destroy the national life, I believe Congress will fall to do the duties of the hour, — the duties that the nation and God require at their hands. I feel deeply upon this question. The conviction is upon me, that this is the path of duty to my country, and that the future Page 133 peace of the nation requires that this slave interest shall be broken down; and now is the opportunity, — an opportunity that only comes to nations once in ages. It comes to us now. Let us hail and improve it." Mr. Hale said, in reply, " I am willing to go as far as anybody, within the limits of the Constitution, to cripple slavery ; and I think the Government ought to make use of that as a physical agency in suppressing the Rebellion, when it is brought in contact against it. All that I suggested to the senator was, that I did not think the machinery he had prescribed in this sixth section was precisely the mode and manner of doing the thing ; because it does not look like a war measure, and it does not look like availing ourselves of the physical assistance of that body of men, but it is simply in the form of a judicial trial for crime, and pronounces, as a punishment for crime, the liberation of the slaves. Sir, this new Republican party came into power upon the destruction of two parties that had been false on this subject ; and now, whatever party may succeed this Republican party, — and God only knows what it will be, — I hope that they may not write on our tomb stones that we split on the rock on which our predecessors did; and that is in want of fidelity to our declared principles. If there is one principle that we have declared often, early, and long, it is fidelity to the Constitution, — to its requirements and its restrictions. The mourners go about the streets in all the places that used to be the high places of power of those two old parties, mourning over their derelictions ; and I trust that will not be left to us. No, sir : let us, under the flag, — the old flag, — under the Constitution, — the old Page 134 Constitution, — carry on the warfare in which we are engaged ; and, if we fail, we shall not fall because the Constitution does not give us power enough, but because we are recreant, and do not use the power that it does give us."

Mr. Harris would vote for the proposition of Mr. Clark to commit all the bills and amendments to a special committee. "The recommittal," said Mr. Wade, " of this bill, after it has been for four months under our consideration, and at a period which I hope is towards the end of this session, will be a proclamation to the people that will fill them with more despondency for your Government than the loss of half a dozen battles ; and it will be viewed with as much regret by all the loyal people in the seceded States as by those in the Northern States." — "The senator from Ohio knows well," said Mr. Sumner, " that I always differ from him with regret ; he knows also that I differ from him very rarely ; but I do differ from him to-day. I shall not follow him in what he has said on the constitutional question ; nor shall I follow the senator from New Hampshire in what he has said on that question. The precise point on which we are to vote, as I understand it, has been stated by the senator from New York. It is. Shall the pending bill and all the associate propositions and amendments be referred to a select committee, with instructions to report forthwith ? Sir, it seems to me, in the present stage of this discussion, the time has arrived for such a motion." Mr. Trumbull was opposed to recommitting the bill to a special committee ; but " senators favorable to the bill insist upon it : I can only acquiesce ; and Page 135 that I desire to do gracefully." Explanatory speeches were then made by Messrs. Ten Eyck, Foster, Wade, Collamer, Fessenden, and Cowan. Mr. Wilson moved to amend Mr. Clark's motion, so that the committee should consist of nine members ; and Mr. Clark accepted the amendment. Mr. Foster called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered ; and, being taken, resulted — yeas 24, nays 14. The President appointed as the committee, — Mr. Clark, chairman ; Mr. Col lamer, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Cowan, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts, Mr. Harris, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Willey. Mr. Trumbull, at his own request, was excused; and Mr. Harlan was appointed in his place.

Mr. Clark, Chairman of the Select Committee, reported " a bill to suppress insurrection, and punish treason and rebellion ; " and asked to be discharged from the further consideration of the several bills referred to the committee. On the 16th, on motion of Mr. Clark, the Senate, by a vote of 23 to 19, took it up for consideration. The bill provided, that at any time, after the passage of the act, the President might issue his proclamation, proclaiming that the slaves of persons found, thirty days after the issuing of the proclamation. In arms against the Government, will be free, any law or custom to the contrary ; that no slave escaping from his master shall be given up, unless the claimant proves he has not given aid or comfort to the Rebellion ; and that the President shall be authorized to employ persons of African descent for the suppression of the Rebellion. Mr. Davis moved to amend the bill by striking out the words, "and all his slaves, i' any shall be declared and made free."

Page 136  "Then," remarked Mr. Clark, " as I understand it, the objection is, not that we take the negro from the master by way of punishment, but that we do not give him to somebody else, or put him into the public treasury." — "Yes, sir," replied Mr. Davis, "that is the objection; that you do not sell the negro, — do not appropriate the negro as you would other property." The question was taken on Mr. Davis's motion, — yeas 7, nays 31. Mr. Sumner moved to amend the bill by striking out all after the enacting clause of the original bill, and inserting an amendment in the form of a new bill. He then addressed the Senate in an elaborate, exhaustive, and eloquent speech. " There is a saying," said Mr. Sumner, " often repeated by statesmen, and often recorded by publicists, which embodies the direct object of the war which we are now unhappily compelled to wage, — an object sometimes avowed in European wars, and more than once made a watchword in our own country, — ' indemnity for the past, and security for the future.' Such should be our comprehensive aim ; nor more, nor less. Without indemnity for the past, this war will have been waged at our cost. Without security for the future, this war will have been waged in vain. Treasure and blood will have been lavished for nothing. But indemnity and security are both means to an end ; and that end is the national unity under the Constitution of the United States. It is not enough if we preserve the Constitution at the expense of the national unity ; nor is it enough if we enforce the national unity at the expense of the Constitution. Both must be maintained. Both will be maintained, if we do not fail to take counsel of that prudent courage which is never so much needed Page 137 as at a moment like the present. In declaring the slaves free, you will at once do more than in any other way, whether to conquer, to pacify, to punish, or to bless : you will take from the Rebellion its mainspring of activity and strength ; you will stop its chief source of provisions and supplies ; you will remove a motive and temptation to prolonged resistance ; and you will destroy for ever that disturbing Influence, which, so long as it is allowed to exist, will keep this land a volcano, ever ready to break forth anew. But, while accomplishing this work, you will at the same time do an act of wise economy, giving new value to all the lands of slavery, and opening untold springs of wealth ; and you will also do an act of justice, destined to raise our national name more than any triumph of War or any skill in peace. God, in his beneficence, offers to nations, as to individuals, opportunity, opportunity, opportunity, which, of all things, is most to be desired. Never before in history has he offered such as is now ours. Do not fail to seize it. The blow with which we sraite an accursed rebellion will at the same time enrich and bless ; nor is there any prosperity or happiness which it will not scatter abundantly throughout the land. And such an act will be an epoch marking the change from barbarism to civilization. By the old rights of war, still prevalent in Africa, freemen were made slaves ; but by the rights of war, which I ask you to declare, ' slaves will be made freemen."

Mr. Davis said, "I have an amendment to offer, to come in at the close of the bill, — that no slave shall be emancipated under this act until such slave shall be taken into the possession of some agent of the United Page 138 States, and be in transitu, to be colonized without the United States of America," — yeas 6, nays 30. Mr. Saulsbury moved to strike out the ninth section of the bill. Mr. Trumbull would vote with the senator from Delaware to strike out the section. He hoped the friends of a really efficient measure would vote to strike it out. "I would," he said, "free the slaves of all who shall continue in arms after the passage of the act. That would be my proposition ; and I cannot conceive how it is, when these men are with arms in their hands, as the senator from New Hampshire said, shooting our brothers and our sons, that we can insist upon holding their negroes in their possession to enable them to shoot our sons and our brothers." Mr. Wilson said, " The motion that has been made, and what has been said upon it, impose upon me the necessity of making now a motion that I intended to make at some time ; and that is, to strike out in the ninth section the words ' at any time,' in the first line, and insert ' immediately ; ' and to strike out the word ' whenever,' in the second line ; and, in the third and fourth lines, to strike out ' shall deem It necessary for the suppression of this Rebellion, he : ' so that the section, if amended as I propose, will read, 'That, immediately after the passage of this act, the President of the United States shall issue his proclamation, commanding all persons immediately to lay down their arms,' making it imperative. I think, that, since this bill was reported, there are reasons why I shall vote that way." Mr. Clark said, "The Senate, perhaps, will pardon me for saying, that, in the committee, the original proposition stood as the senator from Massachusetts proposed now to have it : but we found Page 139 that the measure now reported was the measure upon which we could agree, and that we could not agree upon any other measure ; and therefore it was reported as it stands here. I shall vote for the proposition as it stands in the bill, for that reason." — "I shall," said Mr. Cowan, " oppose the amendment of the senator from Massachusetts, and I believe that I shall vote to strike out the section : and I shall do so for a very simple reason ; and that is, that it is utterly valueless a in the bill." He thought "the President and his generals, under the war power, clothed with ample authority." Mr. Sumner was " very glad to hear the senator make that declaration, that Gen. Hunter, in his opinion, has the power." " If," said Mr. Cowan, " the senator from Massachusetts wants an exceedingly fine point to stand upon, I will allow him the benefit of it. I hope he understands me ; and I hope, too, that he is honorable and manly enough to understand what I say in its true sense. I do not mean to say that Gen. Hunter has the power as against the will of the President, his superior ; but I mean to say that the President, the commander-in-chief of the army, and the generals of the army, acting in obedience to that superior authority, have the power."

Mr. Fessenden (Rep.) of Maine supported the bill reported by the Select Committee. Mr. Wade said, " I do not know that we shall get any thing ; but, if we only get this bill, we shall get next to nothing." Mr. Willey opposed the emancipation of the slaves of rebels by proclamations. On the 20th, the Senate resumed the consideration of the bill ; and Mr. Davis addressed the Senate in a very lengthy speech, consuming the day, in opposition to the measure.

Page 140 In the House of Representatives, on the 2d of December, 1861, Mr. Eliot (Rep.) of Massachusetts introduced, on leave, a joint resolution, setting forth, that while we disclaim all power under the Constitution to interfere by ordinary legislation with the institutional of the States, yet the war now existing must be conducted according to the usages and rights of military service : " That therefore we do hereby declare the President, as the commander-in-chief of our army, and the officers In command under him, have the right to emancipate all persons held as slaves in any military district in a state of insurrection against the National Government ; and that we respectfully advise that such order of emancipation be issued, whenever the same will avail to weaken the power of the rebels in arms, or to strengthen the military power of the loyal forces." Mr. Dunn (Rep.) of Indiana moved to lay the resolution on the table. Mr. Vallandigham (Dem.) of Ohio demanded the yeas and nays; and they were ordered, — yeas 56, nays 70, Mr. Roscoe Conkling (Rep.) of New York moved to amend the resolution so as to confine it to slaves held by disloyal persons. Mr. Stevens (Rep.) of Pennsylvania moved the postponement of the resolution to the 10th ; and his motion was agreed to. Mr. Campbell (Rep.) of Pennsylvania introduced a resolution declaring that Congress should confiscate the property, slaves included, of all rebels ; and, on his motion, it was postponed to the 10th. Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania offered a resolution setting forth that slavery has caused the Rebellion ; that there can be no solid and permanent peace and union so long as it exists ; that slaves are used as an essential means of" supporting the war ; that, by the law of Page 141 nations, it is right to liberate the slaves of an enemy to weaken his power ; and that the President be requested to declare free, and to direct all our generals to order freedom to, all slaves who shall leave their masters, or who shall aid in quelling the Rebellion. The resolution of Mr. Stevens was postponed to the 10th, — the day fixed for the consideration of the resolutions introduced by Mr. Eliot and Mr. Campbell.

On the 3d, Mr. Gurley (Rep.) of Ohio gave no tice of his intention to introduce a bill to confiscate the property and make free the slaves of persons en gaged in the Rebellion. Mr. Conway (Rep.) of Kansas, on the 4th, introduced a resolution touching the treatment of slaves in the seceded States ; and it was postponed to the 10th for consideration. Mr. Bingham (Rep.) of Ohio introduced a bill to confiscate the property and free the slaves of rebels ; and, on his motion, it was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member. On the 12th of December, the House proceeded to the consideration of the resolution introduced by Mr. Elliot the first day of the session. Mr. Eliot addressed the House in an earnest speech in favor of expressing, at the earliest moment, the judgment of the House and the people. "It is no time," he said, " for set speech. The times them selves are not set. Speech is demanded, but such as shall crystallize into acts and deeds. Thoughts of men go beyond the form of words into the realities of things." Mr. Eliot deplored the modification of Fremont's proclamation. The slaves stood " with arms stretched out to us, yearning to help us. The shackles have fallen from their limbs ; and, as they work for the Page 142 Government, it does not need that I should say to you, that thenceforth and for evermore they become free men." Mr. Steele (Dem.) of New York denied the proposition that slavery was the cause of this war. " I declare," he said, "that the unnecessary agitation of the slavery question was the cause of the war." Mr. Conway, (Rep.) of Kansas followed Mr. Steele in a speech of rare eloquence and power. He declared that " the inexorable and eternal condition of the life of slavery is, that it must not only hold its own, but it must get more. Such is the unchangeable law, developed from the conflict of slavery with the order of justice ; and no one is competent to render a judgment in the case who does not recognize it. Sir, we cannot afford to despise the opinion of the civilized world in this matter. Our present policy narrows our cause down to an ignoble struggle for mere physical supremacy ; and for this the world can have no genuine respect. Our claim of authority, based on a trivial technicality about the proper distinction between a Federal Government and a mere confederacy, amounts to nothing. The human mind has outgrown that superstitious reverence for government of any kind which makes rebellion a crime per se ; and right of secession, or no right of secession, what the world demands to know in the case is, upon which side does the morality of the question lie ? As a bloody and brutal encounter between slaveholders for dominion, it is justly offensive to the enlightened and Christian sentiment of the age. Yet the fate of nations, no less than that of individuals, is moulded by the actions, and these by the opinions, of mankind, so that public opinion  the real sovereign, after all ; and no policy can be Page 143 permanently successful which defies or disregards it. The human mind, wherever found, however limited in development or rude in culture, is essentially logical ; the heart, however hardened by selfishness or sin, has a chord to be touched in sympathy with suffering ; and the conscience has its ' still small voice,' which never dies, to whisper to both heart and understanding of eternal justice. Therefore, in an age of free thought and free expression, the brain and heart and conscience of mankind are the lords who rule the rulers of the world ; and no mean attribute of statesmanship is quick ness to discern and promptness to interpret and improve the admonitions of this august trinity."

Mr. Harding (Opp.) of Kentucky, on the 17th, spoke earnestly against the resolution, and the policy of emancipating the slaves of rebels. He emphatically asserted that " a war upon the institution of slavery would be not only unconstitutional and revolutionary, not only a criminal violation of the plighted faith of Congress and of the Administration, but utterly at war with every principle of sound policy. Whoever lives to see that fearful and mad policy inaugurated, will see the sun of American liberty go down in clouds and darkness, to rise no more. The last hope of a restoration of the Union — the last hope of free goverment upon this continent — will then sink, and utterly perish. If the war, righteously begun for the preservation of the Constitution and the Union, should be changed to an anti- slavery war, then Kentucky will unitedly make war upon that war ; and, if an army from the North should move toward Kentucky to visit upon her the horrors of a war for emancipation, then Kentucky will meet Page 144 that army at the threshold, dispute every inch of ground, burn every blade of grass, and resist to the last extremity." Mr. Kellogg (Rep.) of Illinois moved to refer the resolution of Mr. Eliot and all other kindred propositions to the Judiciary Committee, — yeas 77, nays 57.

Mr. Hickman (Rep.) of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, on the 20th of March reported back the resolutions and bills referred to the committee, with a recommendation that they do not pass. Mr. Bingham submitted a minority report, as a substitute for the bill he had introduced early in the session. This substitute declared free, and for ever released from servitude, the slaves of persons giving aid to the Rebellion. Mr. Porter (Rep.) of Indiana moved to amend the substitute by striking it out, and inserting the bill proposed by Mr. Sherman of Ohio in the Senate. Mr. Porter said that "the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Bingham) , out of his honest and implacable hatred of slavery, desires, through the provisions of his amendment, to give it a stunning blow. While my amendment is aimed only at weakening the Rebellion, it will go, perhaps, very far towards the end which the gentleman desires to see accomplished. The slaveholders in the rebel service are chiefly among the officers. Few privates own slaves." Mr. Porter then moved to re commit the bill, with instructions to report the bill he had offered as a substitute. Mr. Walton (Rep.) of Vermont moved to amend the instructions, so that the committee shall be instructed to report back Mr. Collamer's bill, — yeas 33, nays 69. On Mr. Porter’s motion, the yeas were 25 ; the nays, 73.

Page 145 On the 23d of April, Mr. Sheffield of Rhode Island moved to lay Mr. Bingham's amendment on the table, — yeas 54, nays 49. Mr. Olin (Rep.) of New York moved to refer the bills and resolutions reported back by the Committee on the Judiciary to a special committee of seven. Mr. Colfax (Rep.) of Indiana " plead ed only for action." He would cheerfully support Mr. Trumbull's bill, or the bill of Mr. Sherman. "I can vote," he declared, "for nearly any one of them, variant as their provisions are." Mr. Dunn of Indiana would "adopt a moderate but steadfast policy." Mr. Bing ham eloquently appealed for such legislation as should punish treason, and give security and repose to the country. " I beg gentlemen to consider that whoever lays violent hands upon the fabric of just civil government, for the purpose of its overthrow, lays violent hands upon the very ark of the covenant of the living God, and forfeits and should be deprived at once of property and life. Why, sir, there is no interest visible to the eye of man this side of the grave more important to all classes, old and young, to the innocent and guilty alike, than a wise and just government. That Is precisely the instrumentality through which it comes to be that men live apart, and separate in families. That is the precise instrumentality through which it comes to be that mothers and daughters are respected and protected in the land, and are not owned and sold as slaves. That is the precise instrumentality through which it comes to be that little children are secure and protected by the hearthstone. The gentleman knows that never, since the morning stars sang together, have any people upon this planet come up out of the darkness of savage Page 146 life to the beautiful and brilliant light of civilization, save under the shelter, care, and protection of civil government ; and yet, when these armed traitors strike at this most beneficent and wisest of all governments ever given to the children of men, and we propose to disarm them by taking from them the means by which and through which they would accomplish their destructive purposes, the gentleman rises, and talks about the inhumanity of such legislation."

Mr. Duell (Rep.) of New York said, "In view of these things, it becomes a question of no small moment. What ought the Government to do with slavery now ? That policy, if any, should the loyal men of the country adopt respecting the future treatment of this cancer upon the body politic? The reply which ought, in my judgment, to be made to these questions, is this : 'Since slavery made the war, let slavery feel the war.' "

Mr. Patton (Rep.) of Pennsylvania urged action; and Mr. Hickman opposed the bills, " because the President had all power now." Mr. Crittenden thought these bills tended to create the idea, " that our whole aim is to make the war an abolition measure." Mr. Love joy (Rep.) of Illinois resumed the discussion on the 24th of April. " I am for the Union entire," declared Mr. Lovejoy ; " but I am not for the return of the domination and tyranny of slavery, which has not allowed me for the last quarter of a century to tread the soil of more than one-half of the Territories of these United States. ... I insist, therefore, that slavery must perish, in order that American citizens may have the enjoyment of all their rights. I desire the seceded States to come back, but to come in such manner that I can enjoy the Page 147 privileges of an American citizen within their limits. I have been excluded long enough. In other words, I want them to come back free, and not slave States. Long enough have American citizens been subjected to the cord and knife, and last, and worst of all, the terrible indignity of the scourge, for no other cause than holding and uttering principles in favor of freedom, im partial and universal. . . . The gentleman from Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham Lincoln. Where is it? He pointed upward. But, air, should the President follow the counsels of that gentleman, and become the defender and perpetuator of human slavery, he should point downward to some dungeon in the temple of Moloch, who feeds on human blood, and Is surrounded with fires, where are forged manacles and chains for human limbs ; in the crypts and recesses of whose temple, woman is scourged and man tortured, and out-side the walls are lying dogs gorged with human flesh, as Byron describes them stretched around Stamboul. , That Is a suitable place for the statue of one who would defend and perpetuate human slavery. . . .1, too, have a niche for Abraham Lincoln ; but it is in Freedom's holy fane, and not in the blood-besmeared temple of 'human bondage; not surrounded by slaves, fetters, and chains, but with the symbols of freedom ; not dark with bondage, but radiant with the light of liberty. In that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered fetters and broken chains and slave-whips beneath his feet. If Abraham Lincoln pursues the path evidently pointed out for him in the providence of God, as I believe he will, then he will occupy the proud position I have indicated. That is a fame worth living for ; Page 148 ay, more, that is a fame worth dying for, though that death lead through the blood of Gethsemane and the agony of the accursed tree. That is a fame which has glory and honor and immortality and eternal life. Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the emancipator, the liberator, as he has the opportunity of doing, and his name shall not only be enrolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the living stones of that temple which rears Itself amid the thrones and hierarchies of heaven, whose top stone is to be brought in with shouting of ' Grace, grace unto it 1 '"

Mr. Roscoe Conkling demanded the previous question on Mr. Olin's resolution to refer the resolutions and bills to a select committee, — yeas 71, nays 47. The question recurring on the adoption of the resolution, Mr. Vallandigham demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered, — yeas 8_90, nays 31 ; and the Speaker announced, on the 28th, the following as the committee, — Abraham B. Olin of New York, Thomas D. Eliot of Massachusetts, John W. Noell of Missouri, John Hutchins of Ohio, Robert Mallory of Kentucky, Fernando C. Beaman of Michigan, and George T. Cobb of New Jersey. Mr. Olin, at his own request, was excused from serving on the committee ; and Mr. Sedgwick (Rep.) of New York was appointed.

On the 30th, Mr. Eliot, by unanimous consent. Introduced two bills, which were severally read a first and second time, referred to the special committee on the confiscation of rebel property, and ordered to be printed : " A bill to confiscate the property of rebels for the payment of the expenses of the present Rebellion, and for other purposes ; ' and " A bill to free from Page 149 servitude the slaves of rebels engaged in abetting the existing Rebellion against the Government of the United States." On the 14th of May, Mr. Eliot reported back these bills by the direction of the committee ; and, on the 20th, the House proceeded to their consideration. The debate ran through several days, and was participated in by several members.

Mr. Eliot (Rep.) of Massachusetts opened the debate in support of these twin measures of confiscation and emancipation, and closed by saying, "The strength of our Government, the resources of its loyal citizens, the young men of our homes, the hope and the pride of our life, have been offered up a free sacrifice upon the altar of their country. The war yet continues. Hundreds of thousands of rebel soldiers compose their armies, led on in the field, and sustained in council and in Congress, by traitors, whose property, employed for your destruction , this bill will confiscate, and whose slaves your rightful action will set free. My friends, let there be no hesitation here. The time has come. Your country demands your intervention. By your allegiance to the Constitution you have sworn to protect, and the free institutions our fathers established, I invoke you to consummate quickly this needful legislation, which shall crush out this foul Rebellion, and insure domestic tranquility for evermore."

Mr. Noel (Union) of Missouri supported these bills, " as the only means by which our loyal people can be protected." — "I would set free," said Mr. Riddle (Rep.) of Ohio, " the slaves of every man and woman engaged in this Rebellion. The guilt of the master should inure at least to the benefit of the slave, and Page 150 from this huge crime should spring a greater beneficence." — "It is slavery," said Mr. Windom (Rep.) of Minnesota, " that vitiated the conscience, destroyed the morals, brutalized the soul, and, in its own foul fens, generated these monsters of wickedness, whose mad attempts to destroy the Republic are characterized by the frightful excesses to which I have referred. All he want, misery, strife, treachery, bloodshed, barbarity, and desolation, which now stalks through this once happy country, have their origin in the fell system of human bondage which it has nourished and protected." Mr. Voorhees (Dem.) of Indiana addressed the House in condemnation of the policy of the Government. Mr. Lansing (Rep.) of New York, in an earnest speech, said, " As my abhorrence of slavery could not be increased by its abuses, if it is capable of them ; so no mitigation of the system, if it is capable of mitigation, could lessen that abhorrence. No matter to me whether every slaveholder were either a Legree or a Sf, Clair : my detestation of the system would be the same in either case ; for, sooner or later, it will involve in itself every other crime," Mr. Mallory (Dem.) of Kentucky followed Mr. Lansing in an elaborate speech. He " entered his solemn protest " against the charge, that slavery was the cause of the war, "I am no propagandist of slavery," he avowed, " I am the owner of slaves, and the descendant of men, who, as far back as I can trace them in America, were the owners of slaves ; and I have made the declaration upon this floor, that the condition of slavery is the very best condition in which you can place the African race. That is my deliberate conviction. I mean here in the United Page 151 States of America, and in those States where slavery exists." Mr. Wallace (Rep.) of Pennsylvania spoke for the adoption of these measures, and Mr. Phelps (Dem.) of Missouri followed in opposition. "We have held back," said Mr. Blair (Rep.) of Pennsylvania, " these powerful engines of military policy, in the hope that the enemies of the nation would return to reason and repentance. At all events. It is time for us to try what virtue there is in downright earnestness of purpose, I have not a fear of its results, either upon the war, or upon the welfare of the people South or North, I believe that even this generation will realize the blessings which will flow from such a policy. It will teach the world two things better than they have ever been taught before, — the unity of this nation, and the unity of the human family. When Peace shall come again, she will not tarry with us as a wayfarer, but will dwell with us. The nation, with all cause of fraternal strife banished, will be fitted for a better life ; and, wherever its flag shall float, it will command the respect and the honor and the love of men." Mr. Rollins (Rep.) of New Hampshire earnestly advocated the measures. "The path of duty," he said, "never shone as bright for a people as it does for us to-day. As we advance, it grows brighter. The President's message recommending emancipation was the rending of the veil. The gift of freedom to a few poor, but oh I how grate ful recipients, has returned to bless the hearts of millions who bestowed it. A deed more rich in virtue, more fruitful in the approving of conscience, more blessed with the smiles of Almighty God, stands not on the records of this nation." Mr. Kerrigan (Dem.) of  Page 152 New York spoke next in opposition to these bills, because they tended " to create distrust in the publio mind." Mr. Menzies (Opp.) of Kentucky opposed any legislation, but declared that " we are not bound to prevent the escape of the slaves of rebels, if they are in the way of our armies. We are not bound to prevent our soldiers fi-om using them, when they can be turned to our advantage. We make no war upon slavery in the States. We are fighting for the Constitution, if slavery is necessarily and incidentally injured in the progress of the war, set the injury down to the account of the Rebellion. They would have it. The rebels must attempt the destruction of their bulwark, the Constitution : we must defend it. Their slaves may take advantage of the conflict and confusion to desert such sly masters. Such injury is chargeable to those who make war upon the Government." Mr. S. C. Fessenden (Rep.) of Maine thought "the early antislavery men have lived to see that ' he who has God on his side is always in the majority.' We learned the lesson at their feet, and from their success to rely upon the merits of our cause and upon God, who to the right will give the victory," Mr. Grider (Opp.) of Kentucky was now opposed to confiscation and emancipation. Mr. Babbitt (Rep.) of Pennsylvania was compelled by his settled convictions to say, that, in his opinion, " one of the most efficient means of speedily crushing out the Rebellion and preserving the Union would be the adoption of measures upon the basis in dictated in the bill before us for freeing from servitude the slaves of persistent rebel masters." Mr. Sheffield (Dem.) of Rhode Island earnestly opposed the policy Page 153 of confiscation and emancipation embodied in these bills, as unauthorized by the Constitution,

Mr. Sedgwick (Rep.) of New York offered an amendment to the bill. " The recital of that amendment avers," said Mr. Sedgwick, " that eleven States formerly of the Union, combined together under the title of ' The Con federate States of America,' have made war upon and rebelled against the Government of the United States, and continue in such war and rebellion. Upon that fact I propose to base an enactment, by which it shall be the duty of every commanding officer of a naval or military department, within any portion of those States, in some way, by proclamation or otherwise, to invite all loyal persons — and I mean to include in that slaves — to come within the lines, and be enrolled in the service of the United States ; and I mean by that any service which they can render, civil or military : and that it shall be the duty of such commanding officers to enroll every such person, and employ such of them as may be necessary in the service of the United States ; and the reward for that service I propose to make freedom to them and their descendants for ever. I include in that the slaves not only of rebels, but of persons claiming to be loyal ; but I propose for these compensation, and I also propose compensation for the services of all such as may be claimed by widows and minors. I claim the right to this enactment under the war power ; and I shall attempt to show that it exists, and that it is within the power of Congress to legislate in regard to it. I will have no disguise of my opinions or intentions. My stand upon the subject is open to all observation. I am for destroying this hostile institution in every State Page 154 that has made war upon this Government : and, if we have military strength enough to reduce them to pos session, I propose to leave not one slave in the wake of our advancing armies ; not one." — "I believe," declared Mr. F. P. Blair, jun. (Rep.) , of Missouri, " that, as long as the negro race remains here, there is no hope, no possibility, nor is it In any aspect desirable, that they should have any share in the political power of the country. I think that the Almighty intended them for the tropics, or that the tropics were intended for them : one or the other is true. Every attempt on the part of the human race to frustrate that intention has brought destruction on the men who attempted it." — "Are we," Inquired Mr. Spaulding (Rep.) of New York, "to be struck hard at every opportunity, without giving hard blows in return ? I trust not. War means to strike often, and strike hard on both sides, — ' an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' War teaches us to use all the means within our power to strengthen ourselves and to weaken our enemy. Let us weaken him in every possible way within the rules of civilized warfare. We should strike him personally, strip him of his property, and strike the shackles from every slave, that, by his labor and services, gives him support. These are the rights of war ; and I am prepared to see them fully enforced." Mr. Sargent (Rep.) of California desired "to see this Rebellion utterly overthrown ; and therefore I vote for these measures." Mr. Loomis (Rep.) of Connecticut said, • " We are told that the Constitution is in the way. But I remember how the Constitution has been perverted from the first in aid of these conspirators against the life of the nation. It has been like a jug, with the handle Page 155 on the rebel side. Every single step which the National Government has taken in the assertion of its rightful prerogatives has been met with the same cry, — ' Stop ! you are violating the Constitution I ' At the Commencement of the Rebellion, the Constitution had become so perverted in its construction, as to become Uke MU- ton's bridge, that led —

' Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to hell.'

As we look backward through the history of the usurpations of the slave power in our land, it seems to have been a deliberate purpose as to emasculate our organic law as to make secession easy. The Constitution was all bristling with vitality and power to guarantee, protect, and extend slavery, although slavery was nowhere named in that sacred instrument ; while liberty, though every where guarded by the most explicit guaranties, has had no more meaning for many years past, in the estimation of proslavery commentators, than it had in the old French dictionary, where it was defined only as ' a word of three syllables.' "

Mr. Holman (war Dem.) of Indiana made an ear nest and eloquent speech against the policy of emancipation, because it would " divide your councils, and weaken the strength of your armies." "As one of the representatives of Indiana," he said, "I have supported, sir, and will still support, every just measure of this Administration to restore the Union. No partisan interest shall control me when the Republic is in danger. I place the interest of my country far above every other interest. I will make any sacrifice to uphold the Government ; but I will not be deterred from condemning, Page 156 at this time, this or any other series of measures — the offspring of misguided zeal and passion, or the want of faith in our people — ^' which tends to defeat the hope of a restoration of the Union, The citizen soldier, stricken down in battle or worn out by the weary march, falls a willing sacrifice for the Constitution of his country, and his dying eyes light up with hope as they catch the gleam of its starry symbol, while we deliberate on measures which would overthrow the one, and blot out the stars from the other,"

Mr. Julian (Rep.) of Indiana made a vigorous and eloquent speech in favor of the extinction of slavery in the rebel States, "This clamor for the Union as it was," he said, "comes from men who believe in the divinity of slavery. It comes from those who would restore slavery in this district if they dared ; who would put back the chains upon every slave made free by our army; who would completely re-establish the slave power over the National Government, as in the evil days of the past, which have culminated at last in the present bloody strife ; and who are now exhorting us to ' leave off" agitating the negro question, and attend to the work of putting down the Rebellion,' Sir, the people of the loyal States understand this question. They know that slavery lies at the bottom of all our troubles. They know, that, but for this curse, this horrid revolt against liberty and law would not have occurred. They know that all the unutterable agonies of our many battle-fields, all the terrible sorrows which rend so many thousands of loving hearts, all the ravages and desolation of this stupendous conflict, are to be charged to slavery. They know that its barbarism has moulded the leaders Page 157 of this Rebellion into the most atrocious scoundrels of the nineteenth century, or of any century or age of the world. They know that it gives arsenic to our soldiers, mocks at the agonies of wounded enemies, fires on defenceless women and children, plants torpedoes and infernal machines in its path, boils the dead bodies of our soldiers in caldrons, so that it may make drinking-cups of their skulls, spurs of their jaw-bones and finger joints as holiday presents for ' the first families of Virginia ' and the ' descendants of the daughter of Pocahontas.' They know that it has originated whole broods of crimes never enacted in all the ages of the past ; and that, were It possible, Satan himself would now be ashamed of his achievements, and seek a change of occupation. They know that it hatches into life, under its infernal incubation, the very scum of all the villanies and abominations that ever defied God or cursed his footstool ; and they know that it is just as impossible for them to pass through the fiery trials of this war, without feeling that slavery is their grand antagonist, as it is for a man to hold his breath, and live."

Mr. Arnold (Rep.) of Illinois eloquently said, "The cause which bore the cross in 1850 wears the crown to day. ' No power can die that ever wrought for truth, while the political graves of recreant statesmen are eloquent with warnings against their mistakes. Where are those Northern statesmen who betrayed liberty in 1820 ? They are already forgotten, or remembered only in their dishonor. Who now believes that any fresh laurels were won in 1850 by the great men who sought to gag the people of the free States, and lay the slab of silence on those truths which to-day write themselves down, Page 158 along with the guilt of slavery, in the flames of civil war ? Has any man in the whole history of American politics, however deeply rooted his reputation or godlike his gifts, been able to hold dalliance with slavery, and live ? I believe the spirit of liberty is the spirit of God ; and, if the giants of a past generation were not strong enough to wrestle with it, can the pigmies of the present? It has been beautifully said of Wilberforce, that he ' ascended to the throne of God with a million of broken shackles in his hands as the evidence of a life well spent.' , History will take care of his memory ; and when our own bleeding country shall again put on the robes of peace, and Freedom shall have leave to gather up her jewels, she will not search for them among the political fossils who are now seeking to spare the rebels by pettifogging their cause in the name of the Constitution, while the slave power is feeling for the nation's throat."

Mr. Harding (Opp.) of Kentucky pronounced the policy of emancipating the slaves of rebels " the weak est and most disastrous policy ever thought of." Mr. Richardson (Dem.) of Illinois said, "The bills now under consideration propose to violate not only your pledges, but, at the same time, the Constitution. You forget your promises : you advocate these bills, and urge their passage through this House." — " Pass these bills under consideration," said Mr. Dunlap (Opp.) of Kentucky, " and we enter upon a new life. A new stage is erected before us ; and upon it, for weal or for woe, we shall have to encounter the realities of an untried experiment." Mr. Clements (Union) of Tennessee opposed the bills. Mr. Noel of Missouri earnestly Page 159 advocated the bills. He said, " Perhaps, sir, in standing up here for the safety and security of the loyal people there, I may be signing ray political death-warrant : but, sir, if I go down, I will go down, like the heroes of the ' Cumberland,' with my flag still flying ; and my last act shall be that of pouring a broadside into the ranks of treason. . , , I was charmed with the eloquence of the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Thomas) a few days since. To his patriotic sentiments I heartily subscribe. In devotion to the Constitution, I claim to go as far as he. We look at it, however, from a different standpoint, and give it a different construction. When I heard his impassioned language, my pleasure was not unmixed with pain. My mind ran back to the desolation and ruin of my own section. I wondered how it could be that a gentleman hailing from a district in the Old Bay State, which had furnished so many jewels in the crown of our national glory, could find no balm in the Constitution to cure the ills of patriots and loyalists, or guaranties for their security and protection. Sir, must I go back to the persecuted Union men of Missouri, who have been robbed and plundered without mercy by their rebel enemies, and tell them that the Constitution is in the way of any effective legislation that would hold the enemy's property as security for their safety ? Must I tell them that their wives will have again to 'do like the mother of Ishmael, — take up their little ones, and flee to the wilderness ? "

The men who have instigated this Rebellion," said Mr. Ely (Rep.) of New York, "not upon the impulse of a day, but as the culmination of passions which have Page 160 been nursed for a generation, and which have not merely become as enduring as life, but which will be transmit ted as heir-looms of hate from father to son, are the great land barons of the South. They have nursed their pride in stately mansions, and by the contemplation of broad acres. They will never forgive or forget the grief of the defeat which is impending over them. They never can or will become truly loyal ; and, if we leave them in possession of the estates which have made them powerful, it is impossible that the South will be in our day any thing but a slumbering political volcano, liable at any moment to belch forth smoke and fire and devastating lava." Mr. Shanks (Rep.) of Indiana thought it " strange that an American Congress should _ be as unaccountably infatuated with the high crime of slavery also falter and fall before It even in its treasons." Mr. Hutchins (Rep.) of Ohio could " see no reason why loyal white men should be obliged to go to the South, with its sultry climate, and endure all the dangers and hard ships of that climate, from tenderness to the views of loyal slaveholders." Mr. Beaman (Rep.) of Michigan eloquently advocated these measure of confiscation and emancipation, " Can it be doubted that the rebels are in earnest? Does any man imagine that they will ever yield, and lay down their arms, until compelled to do so by force ? Do they now employ any thing less than their entire resources, energy, and skill? Will the taking away of four millions of their population — three- fourths or more of their industrial classes — increase their hopes, courage, and capacity for evil? , . . It has been repeatedly intimated on this floor, that the passage of these bills, and especially of the one contemplating Page 161 a contingent emancipation of slaves, would create dissensions at the North, and seriously impair the efficiency of the army. Indeed, gentlemen have gone the length to predict that it would result in mutiny, and cause the troops to lay down their arras, and disband. . . . Does any sane man believe that Northern freemen engaged in this war for the purpose of protecting and sustaining slavery ? Why should they secure to the master his slave, rather than his cotton, his horse, or his ox? What cause of animosity have they against the poor bondman ? What interest have they in maintaining and perpetuating the peculiar institution? What object have they in strengthening the resources of the enemy ? Whence comes this deep and all-absorbing love of slavery in the hearts of Northern freemen, — a love that commands them to forget country, the graves of murdered brothers, and even the necessary means of self-preservation ? Does it come from party ties and party influences ? The love of country is stronger than the love of party. Republicans are not wedded to the institution , and Slavery slew Democracy in the Charles ton Convention. Slavery, according to a senator from South Carolina, made these same Northern freemen mud-sills. Slavery made Kansas a field of blood. Slavery has destroyed freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Slavery has whipped, driven from their homes, and even hung, inoffensive native-born American citizens. Slavery has smitten with blight and mildew fifteen States of the Union, and barbarized millions of our population. And, finally, Slavery has made war upon the United States, and has already slain fifty thousand of her loyal men. Mutiny, disband, and lay down Page 162 their arms, because you remove poison from their cups, and turn pistols from their breasts ! Mutiny, disband, and lay down their arms, lest you should, in self-defence, strangle the monster, the serpent in this our garden of Eden, — the author of all our woes I " — "Slavery, being in itself wrong," said Mr. Rice (Rep.) of Maine, "can, as a system, only be secure in wrong government ; being contrary to natural right and justice. It knows no laws but those of aggression and force ; being in the habitual exercise of despotic power over an Inferior race, it learns to despise and disregard the rights of all races. It has ' sown the wind ; ' let it ' reap the whirlwind.' By the laws of peace, it was entitled to protection, and had it ; by the laws of war, it is entitled to annihilation. In God's name, let it still have its right." Mr. Hanchett (Rep.) of Wisconsin declared, that he "who chooses to brave the moral sense of mankind, by affecting to own man as property, does so with a full appreciation of all moral, social, and political consequences. He who pays his money for human brains and human legs does as with the full knowledge that brains were made to think, and that legs were made to run. He takes his risk for time and for eternity, for peace and for war, for good or for evil, subject to all the incidents of his unnatural tenure." Mr. Hanchett closed his remarks with the declaration, that "all the people ask of the Administration is, that they yield neither to local pre judices or interest on the one hand, nor neglect the plain suggestions afforded by current events on the other ; and that, to save the loyalty of a few slaveholders, the patriotic aspirations of millions of unconditional Union men be not divided and crushed."

Page 163Mr. Price (Opp.) of Missouri was "utterly opposed to any measure which looks to the emancipation of slaves, without the free consent of their masters." Mr. Price thought, for " the origin of the war," we must " go quite behind the negro : " the true cause was " the lust of power, restless and insatiable ambition. It is," he declared, "this unrepublican fondness for distinction, parade, and display, this itching for fame, and insatiable thirst for power, that has led to all our present troubles. South-Carolina politicians and wealthy planters desired to become lords temporal ; and Charleston merchants desired to become princes under King Cotton, and control the commerce of the world. With the madman's purpose of accomplishing these objects, they inaugurated a revolution. I utter no threats nor im precautions, nor shall I shed tears of pity if the bold traitors who invoked this storm should be whelmed for ever beneath its fiery waves. It would only be poetic justice if that pestilent triangle, that has never grown any thing but rice, tar, and treason, should be devoured by the fires of its own kindling." Mr. Kellogg (Rep.) of Illinois would "Support these measures to cripple the energies of the rebels, and put an end to this desolating war. "We should not in our legislation," he said, " strike at the unthinking and the unwitting dupes of designing men ; but we should strike at those whose heads have conceived, and whose hearts have been enlisted in, this work." Mr. Thomas (Opp.) of Massachusetts made an elaborate, able, and eloquent speech in opposition to these twin measures of confiscation and emancipation. "That the bills," he said, "before the House are in violation of the law of nations, and of Page 164 the Constitution, I cannot — I say it with all deference to others — I cannot entertain a doubt. My path of duty is plain. The duty of obedience to that Constitution was never more imperative than now. I am not disposed to deny that I have for it a superstitious reverence. I have ' worshipped it from my forefathers.' In the school of rigid discipline by which we were prepared for it, in the struggles out of which it was born, the seven years of bitter conflict, and the seven darker years in which that conflict seemed to be fruitless of good, in the wisdom with which it was constructed and first administered and set in motion, in the beneficent Government it has secured for more than two generations, in the blessed influences it has exerted upon the cause of freedom and humanity the world over, I cannot fail to recognize the hand of a guiding and loving Providence. But not for the blessed memories of the past only do I cling to it. He must be blinded ' with excess of light,' or with the want of it, who does not see that to this nation, trembling on the verge of dissolution, it is the only possible bond of unity."

Mr. Train (Rep.) of Massachusetts thought the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, originally brought forward to embarrass the administration of John Adams, have done their work ; that " the germ of dissolution then planted has been industriously nursed by de signing men and inborn traitors, until now the country is reaping the bitter fruit. Slavery has added its influence in bringing about the Rebellion, and a most potent and sinful one. It is an unmitigated curse, and a deadly evil ; but this Rebellion would have occurred without it. When you add the workings of slavery to the doctrines Page 165 I have alluded to, every hour brings you with lightning speed to practical secession. Slavery debases every white person with which it comes in contact, socially and politically. It creates a difference of classes incompatible with a republican form of government ; it makes the master impatient of control, and insubordinate as a citizen of the State, as it compels the master to hold a large amount of land to make slavery profitable ; it creates a landed aristocracy, who, living upon the labor of others, learn to look down with contempt upon those who regard labor as honorable ; and finally it creates a class of poor whites, who, with the rights of citizens, are as ignorant and degraded as the blacks, and who were easily inflamed to political madness, when the masters, ranking at the loss of political power, and to some of them the still greater loss of the opportunity to steal from the public treasury, applied the doctrine of State rights, and practically of open secession. If, then, the event of the Rebellion shall annihilate the doc trine of State rights, the Union may be restored, though slavery remains stat nominis umbra." Mr. Whalley (Union) of Virginia briefly and earnestly advocated the pending bills. Virginia, he declared, was mobbed out of the Union ; and the people of Western Virginia ap pealed to the people of the loyal States for aid, and "Massachusetts, responding to our call, loaned us ten thousand stand of arms." He emphatically declared, " If the policy is carried out which is contended for by some of the gentlemen who are opposed to confiscation, let me tell them, however honest they may be in their opinions to the contrary, the united South and their sympathizers in the North will once more take possession Page 166 of this Government, and fill every seat in this House with traitors, and our liberty will be at an end. If we receive them back into full fellowship, with their hands all dripping with the blood of their countrymen, do you suppose that we of Western Virginia can live upon Virginia soil? Do you suppose that the patriots of East Tennessee can remain quietly in their homes ? No, sir. I say to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Thomas), if it is unconstitutional to confiscate the property of these rebels, our Constitution is a failure, and our Government Is at an end ; and I had rather go with my family, and live among the wild savages of the West, than remain in Western Virginia." Mr. Ashley (Rep.) of Ohio assert ed, that, "more than a year ago, I proclaimed, to the constituency which I have the honor to represent, my purpose to destroy the institution of slavery, if it became necessary to save the country, — as I believed then, and still believe it is, — in every State which had rebelled, or which should rebel, and make war upon the Government. I then demanded, as I now demand, ' that not a single slave claimed by a rebel slave-master shall be delivered up if he escape, or be left in the wake of our advancing and victorious armies.' I then declared, as I now declare, that 'justice, no less than our own self-preservation as a nation, required that we should confiscate and emancipate, and thus secure indemnity for the past, and security for the future.' " Mr. Killinger (Rep.) of Pennsylvania thought we were "in danger of doing too much, not too little, on this interminable negro question."

Mr. Gurley (Rep.) of Ohio earnestly pressed the duty of extending confiscation to the slaves of disloyal Page 167 masters, " I see not," he said, " why property in slaves so called should be regarded as more sacred in title than houses, lands, gold, and silver. True, the man who is called a slave bears the image of God ; there is upon him the moral impress of the Almighty ; it is generally believed also that he has a soul, or spirit, that is immortal ; and it is the common expectation, that he will sit down in heaven side by side with his master : but is it for this that he must, amid all the changes and chances of government, of war and peace, irrevocably remain in servitude, while every other species of property is taken from rebels ? Is it, then, true that property in husbands, wives, and children, is so intensified in value, that even hard coin may be taken, but these never? By what rule, pray, of justice, human or divine, or of law, shall we seize the horses of rebels, and pass by their slaves, when one of the latter is practically worth in this war twenty of the former?" Mr. White (Rep.) of Indiana advocated the bills, and Mr. Nugen (Dem.) of Ohio opposed their enactment. Mr. Cox (Dem.) of Ohio delivered a lengthy 'and discursive speech on emancipation and its results. He denied that " slavery was the cause of the Rebellion : " it was " the occasion, not the cause," He believed secession "the worst crime since Calvary," but was " at as great a loss how to apportion the guilt between secession, and abolition which begat it, as I would be to apportion the guilt of the crucifixion between Judas and the Roman soldiers, , , , Must these Northern fanatics," he asked, "be sated with negroes, taxes, and blood, with division North and devastation South, and peril to constitutional liberty everywhere, before relief shall come? They will not Page 168 halt until their darling schemes are consummated. History tells us that such zealots do not and cannot go backward." Mr. Wickliffe (Opp.) of Kentucky had been nearly fifty years devoted to the service of the country ; and, old and crippled, he was sent there to do all he could to restore the Union as it was, to preserve the Constitution, and enforce the laws. He had served with John Quincy Adams in Congress, and he was " bound to ascribe his hatred of the South and its institutions to his overthrow in 1828 as President. Mr. Adams had been the founder, and for life the leader, of that party in the North which made constant war upon the institution of slavery within the States. It is on his wild, heated, and monstrous doctrine," he declared, " that the advocates of emancipation by the war of the present day base their claim of the power." No language could express his abhorrence of the act of organizing a brigade of slaves by Gen. Hunter. " I have," he declared, "introduced a bill to prohibit this outrage, this wrong upon humanity, this stigma upon the character of the nation, which no 'repentance, not of long rolling years, will efface." Mr. Walton (Rep.) of Vermont made an elaborate argument on the power to enact the pending bills, and in favor of the Senate bill, Mr. Law (Dem.) of Indiana emphatically declared that " the man who dreams of closing the present unhappy contest by reconstructing this Union upon any other basis than that prescribed by our fathers, in the compact formed by them, is a madman, — ay, worse, a traitor ; and should be hung as high as Haman. Sir, pass these acts, confiscate under these bills the property of these men, emancipate their negroes, place arms Page 169 in the hands of these human gorillas to murder their masters and violate their wives and daughters, and you will have a war such as was never witnessed in the worst days of the French Revolution, and horrors never exceeded in St. Domingo, for the balance of this century at least."

Mr. Maynard (Union) of Tennessee doubted " the power of Congress under the Constitution to pass either of these bills ; " and he was " opposed to the exercise by Congress of any doubtful powers." Mr. Eliot, Chairman of the Select Committee, closed the debate in an earnest appeal to the House to " show, that so far as we are concerned, as the Legislature of the country, as the Congress of the United States, we are willing, so far as we are constitutionally able, to hearken to the cry of our people, to uphold and strengthen the arms of the Government, and condemn the property of rebel enemies, which is now employed for the overthrow of our Constitution and our laws." After the passage of the Confiscation Bill, the speaker stated that the next question was the House bill to free from servitude the slaves of rebels engaged in or abet ting the existing Rebellion, and that the question was first on Mr. Blair's amendment to Mr. Sedgwick's amendment. Mr. Blair demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered, — yeas 52, nays 95. The question then recurred on Mr. Sedgwick's amendment ; and Mr. Holman demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered, — yeas 32, nays 116. The question recurred on Mr. Walton’s amendment to Mr. Morell’s amendment, and it was lost, — yeas 29, nays 121 ; and the question recurred on Mr. Morrill's Page 170 substitute, and It was lost, — yeas 16, nays 126. Mr. Eliot's bill was then read a third time. Mr. Vallandigham demanded the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill, and they were ordered, — yeas 74, nays 78. So the bill was rejected on the 26th of May.

On the 27th, Mr. Porter moved a reconsideration of the vote, for the purpose of moving to recommit the bill, with instructions to report as a substitute the amendment he had proposed. The motion coming up on the 28th, Mr. Porter moved to postpone the consideration of the motion to the 4th of June. Mr. Holman moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, — yeas 69, nays 73. The motion to postpone to the 4th of June was agreed to. On the 4th of June, the Speaker stated the business in order to be Mr. Porter's motion to reconsider the vote rejecting the bill to free the slaves of rebels, and recommit the bill with instructions. Mr. Porter addressed the House in support of his motion to reconsider and recommit. Mr. Vallandigham moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, — yeas 65, nays 86 ; and Mr. Porter's motion to reconsider was then agreed to, — yeas 84, nays 64. Mr. Porter then moved to recommit, the bill to the Special Committee, with instructions to report his substitute ; and the motion was agreed to, — yeas 84, nays 66.

Mr. Eliot, Chairman of the Special Committee, on the 17th of June reported back the original bill, with Mr. Porter’s substitute ; and moved several ' amendments, all of which were ordered to be printed. On the 18th, Mr. Eliot moved a substitute for Mr. Porter’s amendment, reported by the Select Committee, Page 171 under the instructions of the House. Mr. Eliot's substitute provided that all right, title, interest, and claim whatever of every person belonging to six classes, — the sixth including all persons in armed rebellion sixty days after the President shall issue his proclamation, — in and to the service of any other persons, shall be forfeited, and such persons shall be for ever discharged from service, and be freemen ; and that the President appoint commissioners to carry the act into effect. Mr. Eliot's amendment was agreed to, — yeas 82, nays 54; the substitute, as amended, was agreed to, — yeas 83, nays 52 ; and the bill, as amended, was passed, — yeas 82, nays 54.

On the 23d of June, the Senate proceeded to the con sideration of the House bill, passed on the 26th of May, to confiscate the property of rebels. Mr. Clark moved to amend it by striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting the bill reported by the Select Committee of the Senate, which combined confiscation and emancipation. Mr. Saulsbury (Dem.) of Delaware addressed the Senate on the 24th of June in op position to the policy of confiscation and emancipation. On the 27th, the debate was resumed by Mr. Cowan, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Howard, Mr. Browning, Mr. Dix on, and Mr. Sumner. Mr. Trumbull, in reply to Mr. Saulsbury, said; " When a negro rushes in to save the life of my brother or my son from the bayonet of a traitor against this Government, and knocks up the weapon that is aimed at his lie, I will say ' God speed' to the negro, and I will encourage him to do it again. Sir, no traitor shall come and murder my child or my brother, or any soldier of my State or my country, Page 172 who is fighting for this Union, with ray consent. If there is a negro or anybody else in God's world that has got an arms to strike him down, I will say, ' Strike ! ' I care not who it Is." — "Let me confess frankly," said Mr. Sumner, " that I look with more hope and confidence to liberation than to confiscation. To give freedom is nobler than to take property : and, on this occasion, it cannot fail to be more efficacious ; for, in this way, the rear-guard of the Rebellion will be surely changed into the advance-guard of the Union. There is in confiscation, unless when directed against the criminal authors of the Rebellion, a harshness inconsistent with that mercy which it is always a sacred duty to cultivate, and which should be manifest in proportion to bur triumphs, — 'mightiest in the mightiest.' But liberation is not harsh ; and it is certain, if properly conducted, to carry with it the smiles of a beneficent Providence." On the 28th, the debate was continued by Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Cowan, Mr. Sumner, Mr. Clark, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Wade, Mr. Fessenden, and other senators. Mr. Clark's amendment to the Confiscation Bill of the House was agreed to, — yeas 21, nays 17. Mr. Trumbull moved to amend by inserting the House bill to free the slaves of rebels. After debate, Mr. Trumbull withdrew his amendment. . The vote was taken on concurring in Mr. Clark’s amendment adopted in committee, — yeas 19, nays 17 ; and the bill as amended was then passed, — yeas 28, nays 13.

In the House, on the 3d of July, the Confiscation Bill, as amended by the Senate, was taken up for consideration. Mr. Crisfield (Dem.) moved to lay the amendment Page 173 on the table, — yeas 48, nays 81. The question was then taken on the Senate amendment, and it was non-concurred in, — yeas 8, nays 124.

The Senate, on the 8th, proceeded to the consideration of the Confiscation Bill. Mr. Clark moved to insist, and ask a Committee of Conference. Mr. Sherman moved to recede, — yeas 14, nays 23. On Mr. Clark's motion to insist, and ask a Committee of Conference, the yeas were 28, and the nays 10; and Mr. Clark, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Wright, were appointed. The House, on the same day, on motion of Mr. Eliot, voted to insist on its disagreement to the Senate amendment, and appointed Mr. Eliot, Mr. Wilson (Rep.) of Iowa, and Mr. Corning (Dem.) of New York, a Committee of Conference on the part of the House. On the llth of July, Mr. Eliot, from the Conference Committee, reported in substance the Senate amendment prepared by Mr. Clark. This report combined confiscation and emancipation in one bill. It provided that all slaves of persons who shall give aid or comfort to the Rebellionwho shall take refuge within the lines of the array ; all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government ; and all slaves of such persons found on being within any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, — shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free, and not again held as slaves ; that fugitive slaves shall not be surrendered to persons who have given aid and comfort to the Rebellion ; that no person engaged in the military or naval service shall surrender fugitive slaves, on pain of being dismissed from the service ; and that the President Page 174 may employ persona of African descent for the suppression of the Rebellion, and organize and use them in such manner as he may judge best for the public welfare. Mr. Allen (Dem.) of Illinois moved to lay the report of the Conference Committee on the table, — yeas 42, nays 78; and the report was then agreed to, — yeas 82, nays 42. In the Senate, on the 12th, the Conference Committee’s report was considered. Mr. M'Dougall moved to lay it on the table, — yeas 12, nays 28. Mr. Carlile demanded the yeas and nays on the acceptance of the report, — yeas 27, nays 12. So the report was accepted ; and the bill received, on the 17th of July, the approval of the President of the United States.

Source: Wilson, Henry. History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth United States Congresses, 1861-1865, Boston: Walker, Fuller, & Co., 1865.