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S. SENATE, ON EMANCIPATION—THE WHOLE VILLANOUS +HISTORY OF SLAVERY, LAID BARE—SPEECHES OF TRUMBULL, HENRY WILSON, +HARLAN, SHERMAN, CLARK, HALL, HENDERSON, SUMNER, REVERDY JOHNSON, +MCDOUGALL, SAULSBURY, GARRETT DAVIS, POWELL, AND HENDRICKS—BRILLIANT +ARRAIGNMENT AND DEFENSE OF "THE INSTITUTION"—U. S. GRANT, NOW "GENERAL +IN CHIEF"—HIS PLANS PERFECTED, HE GOES TO THE VIRGINIA FRONT—MR. +LINCOLN'S SOLICITUDE FOR THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT—BORDER—STATE +OBSTRUCTIVE MOTIONS, AMENDMENTS, AND SUBSTITUTES, ALL VOTED DOWN—MR. +LINCOLN'S LETTER TO HODGES, OF KENTUCKY, REVIEWING EMANCIPATION AS A +WAR MEASURE—THE DECISIVE FIELD-DAY (APRIL 8, 1864)—THE DEBATE ABLY +CLOSED—THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PASSED BY THE SENATE +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br> + TREASON IN THE NORTHERN CAMPS.<br></h2> +<br> +EMANCIPATION TEST—VOTES IN THE HOUSE—ARNOLD'S RESOLUTION—BLUE +PROSPECTS FOR THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT—LINCOLN'S ANXIETY—CONGRESSIONAL +COPPERHEADS—THINLY-DISGUISED TREASON—SPEECHES OF VOORHEES, WASHBURNE, +AND KELLEY—SPRINGFIELD COPPERHEAD PEACE-CONVENTION—"THE UNION AS IT +WAS"—PEACE ON ANY TERMS—VALLANDIGHAM'S LIEUTENANTS—ATTITUDE OF COX, +DAVIS, SAULSBURY, WOOD, LONG, ALLEN, HOLMAN, AND OTHERS—NORTHERN +ENCOURAGEMENT TO REBELS—CONSEQUENT SECOND INVASION, OF THE NORTH, BY +LEE—500,000 TREASONABLE NORTHERN "SONS OF LIBERTY"—RITUAL AND OATHS OF +THE "K. G. C." AND "O. A. K."—COPPERHEAD EFFORTS TO SPLIT THE NORTH +AND WEST, ON TARIFF-ISSUES—SPALDING AND THAD. STEVENS DENOUNCE +TREASON-BREEDING COPPERHEADS +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch25">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br> + THE "FIRE IN THE REAR."<br></h2> +<br> +THE REBEL MANDATE—"AGITATE THE NORTH!"—OBEDIENT COPPERHEADS—THEIR +DENUNCIATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT—BROOKS, FERNANDO WOOD, AND WHITE, ON +THE "FOLLY" OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION—EDGERTON'S PEACE +RESOLUTIONS—ECKLEY, ON COPPERHEAD MALIGNITY—ALEXANDER LONG GOES "A BOW-SHOT BEYOND +THEM ALL"—HE PROPOSES THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SOUTHERN +INDEPENDENCE—GARFIELD ELOQUENTLY DENOUNCES LONG'S TREASON—LONG DEFIANTLY REITERATES +IT—SPEAKER COLFAX OFFERS A RESOLUTION TO EXPEL LONG—COX AND JULIAN'S +VERBAL DUEL—HARRIS'S TREASONABLE BID FOR EXPULSION—EXTRAORDINARY SCENE +IN THE HOUSE—FERNANDO WOOD'S BID—HE SUBSEQUENTLY "WEAKENS"—EXCITING +DEBATE—LONG AND HARRIS VOTED "UNWORTHY MEMBERS" OF THE HOUSE +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br> + "THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT" DEFEATED IN THE HOUSE.<br></h2> +<br> +GLANCE AT THE MILITARY SITUATION—"BEGINNING OF THE END"—THE +CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT—HOLMAN "OBJECTS" TO "SECOND READING"—KELLOGG +SCORES THE COPPERHEAD-DEMOCRACY—CONTINUOUS "FIRE IN THE REAR" IN BOTH +HOUSES—THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT ATTACKED—THE ADMINISTRATION +ATTACKED—THE TARIFF ATTACKED—SPEECHES OF GARRETT DAVIS, AND +COX—PEACE-RESOLUTIONS OF LAZEAR AND DAVIS—GRINNELL AND STEVENS, SCORE COX AND +WOOD—HENDRICKS ON THE DRAFT—"ON" TO RICHMOND AND ATLANTA—VIOLENT +DIATRIBES OF WOOD, AND HOLMAN—FARNSWORTH'S REPLY TO ROSS, PRUYN, AND +OTHERS—ARNOLD, ON THE ETHICS OF SLAVERY—INGERSOLL'S ELOQUENT +BURST—RANDALL, ROLLINS, AND PENDLETON, CLOSING THE DEBATE—THE THIRTEENTH +AMENDMENT DEFEATED—ASHLEY'S MOTION TO RECONSIDER—CONGRESS ADJOURNS +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br> + SLAVERY DOOMED AT THE POLLS.<br></h2> +<br> +THE ISSUE BETWEEN FREEDOM AND SLAVERY—MR. LINCOLN'S +RENOMINATION—ENDORSED, AT ALL POINTS, BY HIS PARTY—HIS FAITH IN THE PEOPLE—HORATIO +SEYMOUR'S COPPERHEAD DECLARATIONS—THE NATIONAL DEMOCRACY DECLARE THE +WAR "A FAILURE"—THEIR COPPERHEAD PLATFORM, AND UNION +CANDIDATE—MCCLELLAN THEIR NOMINEE—VICTORIES AT ATLANTA AND MOBILE—FREMONT'S +THIRD PARTY—SUCCESSES OF GRANT AND SHERIDAN—DEATH OF CHIEF-JUSTICE +TANEY—MARYLAND BECOMES "FREE"—MORE UNION VICTORIES—REPUBLICAN +"TIDAL-WAVE" SUCCESS—LINCOLN RE-ELECTED—HIS SERENADE-SPEECHES—AMAZING +CONGRESSIONAL-RETURNS—THE DEATH OF SLAVERY INSURED—IT BECOMES SIMPLY A +MATTER OF TIME +<br> +<br> +<br><br><br><br> +<h4>PORTRAITS.</h4> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + +<a href="#butler">BENJ. F. BUTLER</a><br> +<a href="#trumbell">LYMAN TRUMBULL</a><br> +<a href="#wade">BENJ. F. WADE</a><br> +<a href="#mcclellan">GEO. B. MCCLELLAN</a><br> + + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br><br> +<br><br><br> +<a name="butler"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p502-butler.jpg (85K)" src="images/p502-butler.jpg" height="863" width="584"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch22"></a> +<br><br> + + +<center><h2> + CHAPTER XXII.<br> +<br> + FREEDOM'S SUN STILL RISING.<br> +</h2> +<br> +</center> +<p>After President Lincoln had issued his Proclamation of Emancipation, the +friends of Freedom clearly perceived—and none of them more clearly than +himself that until the incorporation of that great Act into the +Constitution of the United States itself, there could be no real +assurance of safety to the liberties of the emancipated; that unless +this were done there would be left, even after the suppression of the +Rebellion, a living spark of dissension which might at any time again be +fanned into the flames of Civil War.</p> + +<p>Hence, at all proper times, Mr. Lincoln favored and even +urged Congressional action upon the subject. It was not, however, until +the following year that definite action may be said to have commenced in +Congress toward that end; and, as Congress was slow, he found it +necessary to say in his third Annual Message: "while I remain in my +present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the +Emancipation Proclamation; nor shall I return to Slavery any person who +is Free by the terms of that Proclamation, or by any of the Acts of +Congress."</p> + +<p>Meantime, however, occurred the series of glorious +Union victories in the West, ending with the surrender to Grant's +triumphant Forces on the 4th of July, 1863, of Vicksburg—"the Gibraltar +of the West"—with its Garrison, Army, and enormous quantities of arms +and munitions of war; thus closing a brilliant and successful Campaign +with a blow which literally "broke the back" of the Rebellion; while, +almost simultaneously, July 1-3, the Union Forces of the East, under +Meade, gained the great victory of Gettysburg, and, driving the hosts of +Lee from Pennsylvania, put a second and final end to Rebel invasion of +Northern soil; gaining it, on ground dedicated by President Lincoln, +before that year had closed—as a place of sepulture for the +Patriot-soldiers who there had fallen in a brief, touching and immortal Address, +which every American child should learn by heart, and every American +adult ponder deeply, as embodying the very essence of true +Republicanism.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [President Lincoln's Address, when the National Cemetery at + Gettysburg, Pa., was dedicated Nov. 19, 1863, was in these + memorable words:</p> + +<p> "Fourscore and seven years ago, our Fathers brought forth upon this + continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the + proposition that all men are created equal.</p> + +<p> "Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that + Nation, or any Nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long + endure.</p> + +<p> "We are met on a great battlefield of that War. We have come here + to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for + those who here gave their lives that that Nation might live.</p> + +<p> "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.</p> + +<p> "But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, + we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, + who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add + or detract.</p> + +<p> "The World will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; + but it can never forget what they did here.</p> + +<p> "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the + unfinished work which they who fought here have, thus far, so nobly + advanced.</p> + +<p> "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task + remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased + devotion to that Cause for which they gave the last full measure of + devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not + have died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new + birth of Freedom; and that Government of the People, by the People, + and for the People, shall not perish front the Earth."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>That season of victory for the Union arms, coming, as it did, upon a +season of depression and doubtfulness, was doubly grateful to the loyal +heart of the Nation. Daylight seemed to be breaking at last. +Gettysburg had hurled back the Southern invader from our soil; and +Vicksburg, with the immediately resulting surrender of Port Hudson, had +opened the Mississippi river from Cairo to the Gulf, and split the +Confederacy in twain.</p> + +<p>But it happened just about this time that, the enrollment of the whole +Militia of the United States (under the Act of March, 1863), having been +completed, and a Draft for 300,000 men ordered to be made and executed, +if by a subsequent time the quotas of the various States should not be +filled by volunteering, certain malcontents and Copperheads, inspired by +agents and other friends of the Southern Conspirators, started and +fomented, in the city of New York, a spirit of unreasoning opposition +both to voluntary enlistment, and conscription under the Draft, that +finally culminated, July 13th, in a terrible Riot, lasting several days, +during which that great metropolis was in the hands, and completely at +the mercy, of a brutal mob of Secession sympathizers, who made day and +night hideous with their drunken bellowings, terrorized everybody even +suspected of love for the Union, plundered and burned dwellings, +including a Colored Orphan Asylum, and added to the crime of arson, that +of murdering the mob-chased, terror-stricken Negroes, by hanging them to +the lamp-posts.</p> + +<p>These Riots constituted a part of that "Fire in the Rear" with which the +Rebels and their Northern Democratic sympathizers had so frequently +menaced the Armies of the Union.</p> + +<p>Alluding to them, the N. Y. Tribune on July 15th, while its office was +invested and threatened with attack and demolition, bravely said: "They +are, in purpose and in essence, a Diversion in favor of Jefferson Davis +and Lee. Listen to the yells of the mob and the harangues of its +favorite orators, and you will find them surcharged with 'Nigger,' +'Abolition,' 'Black Republican,' denunciation of prominent Republicans, +The Tribune, etc. etc.—all very wide of the Draft and the exemption. +Had the Abolitionists, instead of the Slaveholders, revolted, and +undertaken to upset the Government and dissolve the Union, nine-tenths +of these rioters would have eagerly volunteered to put them down. It is +the fear, stimulated by the recent and glorious triumphs of the Union +Arms, that Slavery and the Rebellion must suffer, which is at the bottom +of all this arson, devastation, robbery, and murder."</p> + +<p>The Democratic Governor, Seymour, by promising to "have this Draft +suspended and stopped," did something toward quieting the Riots, but it +was not until the Army of the Potomac, now following Lee's retreat, was +weakened by the sending of several regiments to New York that the +Draft-rioting spirit, in that city, and to a less extent in other cities, was +thoroughly cowed.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [In reply to Gov. Seymour's appeal for delay in the execution of + the Draft Law, in order to test its Constitutionality, Mr. Lincoln, + on the 7th of August, said he could not consent to lose the time + that would be involved in obtaining a decision from the U. S. + Supreme Court on that point, and proceeded: "We are contending with + an Enemy who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can + reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a + slaughter-pen. No time is wasted, no argument is used.</p> + +<p> "This system produces an Army which will soon turn upon our now + victorious soldiers already in the field, if they shall not be + sustained by recruits as they should be.</p> + +<p> It produces an Army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side, + if we first waste time to re-experiment with the Volunteer system, + already deemed by Congress, and palpably, in fact, so far exhausted + as to be inadequate; and then more time to obtain a Court decision + as to whether a law is Constitutional which requires a part of + those not now in the Service to go to those who are already in it, + and still more time to determine with absolute certainty that we + get those who are to go, in the precisely legal proportion to those + who are not to go.</p> + +<p> "My purpose is to be in my action Just and Constitutional, and yet + Practical, in performing the important duty with which I am + charged, of maintaining the Unity and the Free principles of our + common Country."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Worried and weakened by this Democratic opposition to the Draft, and the +threatened consequent delays and dangers to the success of the Union +Cause, and depressed moreover by the defeat of the National forces under +Rosecrans at Chickamauga; yet, the favorable determination of the Fall +elections on the side of Union and Freedom, and the immense majorities +upholding those issues, together with Grant's great victory (November, +1863) of Chattanooga—where the three days of fighting in the +Chattanooga Valley and up among the clouds of Lookout Mountain and +Mission Ridge, not only effaced the memory of Rosecrans's previous +disaster, but brought fresh and imperishable laurels to the Union +Arms—stiffened the President's backbone, and that of Union men everywhere.</p> + +<p>Not that Mr. Lincoln had shown any signs of weakness or wavering, or any +loss of hope in the ultimate result of this War for the preservation of +the Union—which now also involved Freedom to all beneath its banner. +On the contrary, a letter of his written late in August shows +conclusively enough that he even then began to see clearly the coming +final triumph—not perhaps as "speedy," as he would like, in its coming, +but none the less sure to come in God's "own good time," and furthermore +not appearing "to be so distant as it did" before Gettysburg, and +especially Vicksburg, was won; for, said he: "The signs look better. +The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the Sea".</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [This admirable letter, reviewing "the situation" and his policy, + was in these words</p> + +<p> EXECUTIVE MANSION,<br> + WASHINGTON, August 26. 1863.</p> + +<p> HON. JAMES C. CONKLING</p> + +<p> MY DEAR SIR; Your letter inviting me to attend a Mass Meeting of + unconditional Union men to be held at the Capital of Illinois, on + the 3rd day of September, has been received. It would be very + agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home; but I + cannot just now be absent from here so long a time as a visit there + would require.</p> + +<p> The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional + devotion to the Union; and I am sure that my old political friends + will thank me for tendering, as I do, the Nation's gratitude to + those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can + make false to the Nation's life.</p> + +<p> There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: + you desire Peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But how + can we attain it? There are but three conceivable ways: First, to + suppress the Rebellion by force of Arms. This I am trying to do. + Are you for it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are not + for it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. + Are you for it? If you are, you should say so plainly. If you are + not for Force, nor yet for Dissolution, there only remains some + imaginable Compromise.</p> + +<p> I do not believe that any Compromise embracing the maintenance of + the Union is now possible. All that I learn leads to a directly + opposite belief. The strength of the Rebellion is its Military, + its Army. That Army dominates all the Country, and all the people, + within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or men within + that range, in opposition to that Army, is simply nothing for the + present: because such man or men have no power whatever to enforce + their side of a Compromise, if one were made with them.</p> + +<p> To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the South, and Peace men of + the North, get together in Convention, and frame and proclaim a + Compromise embracing a restoration of the Union. In what way can + that Compromise be used to keep Lee's Army out of Pennsylvania? + Meade's Army can keep Lee's Army out of Pennsylvania, and, I think, + can ultimately drive it out of existence. But no paper Compromise + to which the controllers of Lee's Army are not agreed, can at all + affect that Army. In an effort at such Compromise we would waste + time, which the Enemy would improve to our disadvantage; and that + would be all.</p> + +<p> A Compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who + control the Rebel Army, or with the people, first liberated from + the domination of that Army, by the success of our own Army. Now, + allow me to assure you that no word or intimation from that Rebel + Army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any + Peace Compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All + charges and insinuations to the contrary are deceptive and + groundless. And I promise you that if any such proposition shall + hereafter come, it shall not be rejected and kept a secret from + you. I freely acknowledge myself to be the servant of the People, + according to the bond of service, the United States Constitution; + and that, as such, I am responsible to them.</p> + +<p> But, to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the Negro. + Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and + myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be + Free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have neither adopted nor + proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view, + provided that you are for the Union. I suggested compensated + Emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to + buy Negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy Negroes, + except in such a way as to save you from greater taxation to save + the Union, exclusively by other means.</p> + +<p> You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have + it retracted. You say it is Unconstitutional. I think + differently. I think the Constitution invests the + Commander-in-Chief with the Law of War in Time of War. The most that can be + said, if so much, is, that Slaves are property. Is there, has + there ever been, any question that, by the Law of War, property, + both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it + not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the Enemy? Armies, the + World over, destroy enemies' property when they cannot use it; and + even destroy their own to keep it from the Enemy. Civilized + belligerents do all in their power to help themselves or hurt the + Enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among + the exceptions are the massacre of vanquished foes and + non-combatants, male and female.</p> + +<p> But the Proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If + it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot + be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some + of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for + the Union. Why better after the retraction than before the issue? + There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the + Rebellion before the Proclamation was issued, the last one hundred + days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, + unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. + The War has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the + issue of the Proclamation as before.</p> + +<p> I know as fully as one can know the opinions of others that some of + the Commanders of our Armies in the field, who have given us our + most important victories, believe the Emancipation policy and the + use of Colored troops constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt to + the Rebellion, and that at least one of those important successes + could not have been achieved when it was, but for the aid of Black + soldiers.</p> + +<p> Among the Commanders who hold these views are some who have never + had an affinity with what is called "Abolitionism," or with + "Republican party politics," but who hold them purely as Military + opinions. I submit their opinions as entitled to some weight + against the objections often urged that Emancipation and arming the + Blacks are unwise as Military measures, and were not adopted as + such, in good faith.</p> + +<p> You say that you will not fight to Free Negroes. Some of them seem + willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, + exclusively to save the Union. I issued the Proclamation on + purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have + conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to + continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare + you will not fight to Free Negroes. I thought that in your + struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the Negroes should cease + helping the Enemy, to that extent it weakened the Enemy in his + resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought whatever + Negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for + White soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise + to you? But Negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why + should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If + they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the + strongest motives, even the promise of Freedom. And the promise, + being made, must be kept.</p> + +<p> The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to + the Sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to + them. Three hundred miles up, they met New England, Empire, + Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The Sunny + South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping hand. On + the spot, their part of the history was jotted down in Black and + White. The job was a great National one, and let none be slighted + who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have cleared + the Great River may well be proud, even that is not all. It is + hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than + at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less + note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the + watery margins they have been present, not only on the deep Sea, + the broad Bay, and the rapid River, but also up the narrow, muddy + Bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp they had been, and + made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the Great Republic—for the + principle it lives by, and keeps alive—for Man's vast + future—thanks to all.</p> + +<p> Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come + soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in + all future time. It will then have been proved that among Freemen + there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, + and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and + pay the cost. And there will be some Black men who can remember + that, with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and + well poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great + consummation, while I fear there will be some White ones unable to + forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have + striven to hinder it.</p> + +<p> Still, let us not be over sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let + us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never + doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the + rightful result.</p> + +<p> Yours very truly,<br> + A. LINCOLN.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<br><br> +<p> +But Chattanooga, and the grand majorities in all the Fall +State-elections, save that of New Jersey,—and especially the manner in which +loyal Ohio sat down upon the chief Copperhead-Democrat and +Treason-breeder of the North, Vallandigham—came most auspiciously to strengthen +the President's hands.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The head of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and the Democratic + candidate for Governor of Ohio]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>And now he saw, more clearly still, the approach of that time when the +solemn promise and declaration of Emancipation might be recorded upon +the sacred roll of the Constitution, and thus be made safe for all time.</p> + +<p>In his Annual Message of December, 1863, therefore, President Lincoln, +after adverting to the fact that "a year ago the War had already lasted +nearly twenty months," without much ground for hopefulness, proceeded to +say:</p> + +<p>"The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, issued in September, was +running its assigned period to the beginning of the New Year. A month +later the final Proclamation came, including the announcement that +Colored men of suitable condition would be received into the War +service. The policy of Emancipation, and of employing Black soldiers, +gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope, and fear, and doubt, +contended in uncertain conflict.</p> + +<p>"According to our political system, as a matter of Civil Administration, +the General Government had no lawful power to effect Emancipation in any +State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the Rebellion could be +suppressed without resorting to it as a Military measure. It was all +the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and that +if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be presented. It +came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and doubtful +days.</p> + +<p>"Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take another view +* * * Of those who were Slaves at the beginning of the Rebellion, full +one hundred thousand are now in the United States Military service, +about one half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks; thus +giving the double advantage of taking so much labor from the Insurgent +cause, and supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so +many White men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not +as good soldiers as any.</p> + +<p>"No servile insurrection, or tendency to violence or cruelty, has marked +the measures of Emancipation and arming the Blacks. These measures have +been much discussed in Foreign Countries, and contemporary with such +discussion the tone of public sentiment there is much improved. At +home, the same measures have been fully discussed, supported, +criticised, and denounced, and the annual elections following are highly +encouraging to those whose official duty it is to bear the Country +through this great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The crisis +which threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past."</p> + +<p>After alluding to his Proclamation of Amnesty, issued simultaneously +with this Message, to all repentant Rebels who would take an oath +therein prescribed, and contending that such an oath should be (as he +had drawn it) to uphold not alone the Constitution and the Union, but +the Laws and Proclamations touching Slavery as well, President Lincoln +continued:</p> + +<p>"In my judgment they have aided and will further aid, the Cause for +which they were intended. To now abandon them, would be not only to +relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel and an astounding +breach of faith." And, toward the close of the Message, he added:</p> + +<p>"The movements by State action, for Emancipation, in several of the +States not included in the Emancipation Proclamation, are matters of +profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I have +heretofore so earnestly urged upon the subject, my general views remain +unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of +AIDING THESE IMPORTANT STEPS TO A GREAT CONSUMMATION."</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln's patient but persistent solicitude, his earnest and +unintermitted efforts—exercised publicly through his Messages and +speeches, and privately upon Members of Congress who called upon, or +whose presence was requested by him at the White House—in behalf of +incorporating Emancipation in the Constitution, were now to give +promise, at least, of bearing good fruit.</p> + +<p>Measures looking to this end were submitted in both Houses of Congress +soon after its meeting, and were referred to the respective Judiciary +Committees of the same, and on the 10th of February, 1864, Mr. Trumbull +reported to the Senate, from the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he +was Chairman, a substitute Joint Resolution providing for the submission +to the States of an Amendment to the United States Constitution in the +following words:</p> + +<p>"ART. XIII., SEC. I. Neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude, except +as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to +their jurisdiction.</p> + +<p>"SEC. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by +appropriate legislation."</p> + +<p>This proposed Amendment came up for consideration in the Senate, on the +28th of March, and a notable debate ensued.</p> + +<p>On the same day, in the House of Representatives, Thaddeus Stevens—with +the object perhaps of ascertaining the strength, in that Body, of the +friends of out-and-out Emancipation—offered a Resolution proposing to +the States the following Amendments to the United States Constitution:</p> + +<p>"ART. I. Slavery and Involuntary Servitude, except for the punishment +of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, is forever +prohibited in the United States and all its Territories.</p> + +<p>"ART. II. So much of Article four, Section two, as refers to the +delivery up of Persons held to Service or Labor, escaping into another +State, is annulled."</p> + +<p>The test was made upon a motion to table the Resolution, which motion +was defeated by 38 yeas to 69 nays, and showed the necessity for +converting three members from the Opposition. Subsequently, at the +instance of Mr. Stevens himself, the second Article of the Resolution +was struck out by 72 yeas to 26 nays.</p> + +<p>The proceedings in both Houses of Congress upon these propositions to +engraft upon the National Constitution a provision guaranteeing Freedom +to all men upon our soil, were now interrupted by the death of one who +would almost have been willing to die twice over, if, by doing so, he +could have hastened their adoption.</p> + +<p>Owen Lovejoy, the life-long apostle of Abolitionism, the fervid +gospeller of Emancipation, was dead; and it seemed almost the irony of +Fate that, at such a time, when Emancipation most needed all its friends +to make it secure, its doughtiest champion should fall.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the eloquent tributes paid to his memory, in the Halls of +Congress, helped the Cause no less. They at least brought back to the +public mind the old and abhorrent tyrannies of the Southern Slave power; +how it had sought not not only to destroy freedom of Action, but freedom +of Speech, and hesitated not to destroy human Life with these; reminded +the Loyal People of the Union of much that was hateful, from which they +had escaped; and strengthened the purpose of Patriots to fix in the +chief corner-stone of the Constitution, imperishable muniments of human +Liberty.</p> + +<p>Lovejoy's brother had been murdered at Alton, Illinois, while +vindicating freedom of Speech and of the Press; and the blood of that +martyr truly became "the seed of the Church." Arnold—recalling a +speech of Owen Lovejoy's at Chicago, and a passage in it, descriptive of +the martyrdom,—said to the House, on this sad occasion: "I remember +that, after describing the scene of that death, in words—which stirred +every heart, he said he went a pilgrim to his brother's grave, and, +kneeling upon the sod beneath which sleeps that brother, he swore, by +the everlasting God, eternal hostility to African Slavery." And, +continued Arnold, "Well and nobly has he kept that oath."</p> + +<p>Washburne, too, reminded the House of the memorable episode in that very +Hall when, (April 5, 1860), the adherents of Slavery crowding around +Lovejoy with fierce imprecations and threats, seeking then and there to +prevent Free Speech, "he displayed that undaunted courage and matchless +bearing which extorted the admiration of even his most deadly foes." +"His"—continued the same speaker—"was the eloquence of Mirabeau, which +in the Tiers Etat and in the National Assembly made to totter the throne +of France; it was the eloquence of Danton, who made all France to +tremble from his tempestuous utterances in the National Convention. +Like those apostles of the French Revolution, his eloquence could stir +from the lowest depths all the passions of Man; but unlike them, he was +as good and as pure as he was eloquent and brave, a noble minded +Christian man, a lover of the whole human Race, and of universal Liberty +regulated by Law."</p> + +<p>Grinnell, in his turn, told also with real pathos, of his having +recently seen Lovejoy in the chamber of sickness. "When," said +Grinnell, "I expressed fears for his recovery, I saw the tears course +down his manly cheek, as he said 'Ah! God's will be done, but I have +been laboring, voting, and praying for twenty years that I might see the +great day of Freedom which is so near and which I hope God will let me +live to rejoice in. I want a vote on my Bill for the destruction of +Slavery, root and branch.'"</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> + [Sumner, afterward speaking of Lovejoy and this Measure, said: "On + the 14th of December, 1863, he introduced a Bill, whose title + discloses its character: 'A Bill to give effect to the Declaration + of Independence, and also to certain Provisions of the Constitution + of the United States.' It proceeds to recite that All Men were + Created Equal, and were Endowed by the Creator with the Inalienable + Right to Life, Liberty and the Fruits of honest Toil; that the + Government of the United States was Instituted to Secure those + Rights; that the Constitution declares that No Person shall be + Deprived of Liberty without due Process of Law, and also + provides—article five, clause two—that this Constitution, and the Laws of + the United States made in pursuance thereof, shall be the Supreme + Law of the Land, and the Judges in each State shall be bound + thereby, anything in the Constitution and Laws of any State to the + contrary notwithstanding; that it is now demonstrated by the + Rebellion that Slavery is absolutely incompatible with the Union, + Peace, and General Welfare for which Congress is to Provide; and it + therefore Enacts that All Persons heretofore held in Slavery in any + of the States or Territories of the United States are declared + Freedmen, and are Forever Released from Slavery or Involuntary + Servitude except as Punishment for Crime on due conviction. On the + same day he introduced another Bill to Protect Freedmen and to + Punish any one for Enslaving them. These were among his last + Public acts,"—Cong. Globe, 1st S., 38th C., Pt. 2, p. 1334]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>And staunch old Thaddeus Stevens said: "The change to him, is great +gain. The only regret we can feel is that he did not live to see the +salvation of his Country; to see Peace and Union restored, and universal +Emancipation given to his native land. But such are the ways of +Providence. Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land with +those he had led out of Bondage; he beheld it from afar off, and slept +with his fathers." "The deceased," he impressively added, "needs no +perishable monuments of brass or marble to perpetuate his name. So long +as the English language shall be spoken or deciphered, so long as +Liberty shall have a worshipper, his name will be known!"</p> + +<p>What influence the death of Owen Lovejoy may have had on the subsequent +proceedings touching Emancipation interrupted as we have seen by his +demise—cannot be known; but among all the eloquent tributes to his +memory called forth by the mournful incident, perhaps none, could he +have heard it, would have better pleased him than those two opening +sentences of Charles Summer's oration in the Senate—where he said of +Owen Lovejoy: "Could his wishes prevail, he would prefer much that +Senators should continue in their seats and help to enact into Law some +one of the several Measures now pending to secure the obliteration of +Slavery. Such an Act would be more acceptable to him than any personal +tribute,—" unless it might be these other words, which followed from +the same lips: "How his enfranchised Soul would be elevated even in +those Abodes to which he has been removed, to know that his voice was +still heard on Earth encouraging, exhorting, insisting that there should +be no hesitation anywhere in striking at Slavery; that this unpardonable +wrong, from which alone the Rebellion draws its wicked life, must be +blasted by Presidential proclamation, blasted by Act of Congress, +blasted by Constitutional prohibition, blasted in every possible way, by +every available agency, and at every occurring opportunity, so that no +trace of the outrage may continue in the institutions of the Land, and +especially that its accursed foot-prints may no longer defile the +National Statute-book. Sir, it will be in vain that you pass +Resolutions in tribute to him, if you neglect that Cause for which he +lived, and do not hearken to his voice!"</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="trumbell"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p528-trumbell.jpg (65K)" src="images/p528-trumbell.jpg" height="827" width="584"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch23"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII.<br><br> + + "THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT" IN THE SENATE. + +</h2> +</center> +<br> +<p>During the great debate, which now opened in the Senate, upon the +Judiciary Committee's substitute resolution for the Amendment of the +Constitution, so as forever to prohibit Slavery within the United +States, and to empower Congress to pass such laws as would make that +prohibition effective—participated in by Messrs. Trumbull, Wilson, +Saulsbury, Davis, Harlan, Powell, Sherman, Clark, Hale, Hendricks, +Henderson, Sumner, McDougall and others—the whole history of Slavery +was enquired into and laid bare.</p> + +<p>Trumbull insisted that Slavery was at the bottom of all the internal +troubles with which the Nation had from its birth been afflicted, down +to this wicked Rebellion, with all the resulting "distress, desolation, +and death;" and that by 1860, it had grown to such power and arrogance +that "its advocates demanded the control of the Nation in +its interests, failing in which, they attempted its overthrow." He +reviewed, at some length, what had been done by our Government with +regard to Slavery, since the breaking out of hostilities against us in +that mad attempt against the National life; how, "in the earlier stages +of the War, there was an indisposition on the part of the Executive +Authority to interfere with Slavery at all;" how, for a long time, +Slaves, escaping to our lines, were driven back to their Rebel masters; +how the Act of Congress of July, 1861, which gave Freedom to all Slaves +allowed by their Rebel masters to assist in the erection of Rebel works +and fortifications, had "not been executed," and, said Mr. Trumbull, "so +far as I am advised, not a single Slave has been set at liberty under +it;" how, "it was more than a year after its enactment before any +considerable number of Persons of African descent were organized and +armed" under the subsequent law of December, 1861, which not only gave +Freedom to all Slaves entering our Military lines, or who, belonging to +Rebel masters, were deserted by them, or were found in regions once +occupied by Rebel forces and later by those of the Union, but also +empowered the President to organize and arm them to aid in the +suppression of the Rebellion; how, it was not until this law had been +enacted that Union officers ceased to expel Slaves coming within our +lines—and then only when dismissal from the public service was made the +penalty for such expulsion; how, by his Proclamations of Emancipation, +of September, 1862, and January, 1863, the President undertook to +supplement Congressional action—which had, theretofore, been confined +to freeing the Slaves of Rebels, and of such of these only as had come +within the lines of our Military power-by also declaring, Free, the +Slaves "who were in regions of country from which the authority of the +United States was expelled;" and how, the "force and effect" of these +Proclamations were variously understood by the enemies and friends of +those measures—it being insisted on the one side that Emancipation as a +War-stroke was within the Constitutional War-power of the President as +Commander-in-Chief, and that, by virtue of those Proclamations, "all +Slaves within the localities designated become ipso facto Free," and on +the other, that the Proclamations were "issued without competent +authority," and had not effected and could not effect, "the Emancipation +of a single Slave," nor indeed could at any time, without additional +legislation, go farther than to liberate Slaves coming within the Union +Army lines.</p> + +<p>After demonstrating that "any and all these laws and Proclamations, +giving to each the largest effect claimed by its friends, are +ineffectual to the destruction of Slavery," and protesting that some +more effectual method of getting rid of that Institution must be +adopted, he declared, as his judgment, that "the only effectual way of +ridding the Country of Slavery, so that it cannot be resuscitated, is by +an Amendment of the Constitution forever prohibiting it within the +jurisdiction of the United States."</p> + +<p>He then canvassed the chances of adoption of such an Amendment by an +affirmative vote of two thirds in each House of Congress, and of its +subsequent ratification by three-fourths of the States of the Union, and +declared that "it is reasonable to suppose that if this proposed +Amendment passes Congress, it will, within a year, receive the +ratification of the requisite number of States to make it a part of the +Constitution." His prediction proved correct—but only after a +protracted struggle.</p> + +<p>Henry Wilson also made a strong speech, but on different grounds. He +held that the Emancipation Proclamations formed, together, a "complete, +absolute, and final decree of Emancipation in Rebel States," and, being +"born of Military necessity" and "proclaimed by the Commander-in-Chief +of the Army and Navy, is the settled and irrepealable Law of the +Republic, to be observed, obeyed, and enforced, by Army and Navy, and is +the irreversible voice of the Nation."</p> + +<p>He also reviewed what had been done since the outbreak of the Rebellion, +by Congress and the President, by Laws and Proclamations; and, while +standing by the Emancipation Proclamations, declared that "the crowning +Act, in this series of Acts, for the restriction and extinction of +Slavery in America, is this proposed Amendment to the Constitution +prohibiting the existence of Slavery in the Republic of the United +States."</p> + +<p>The Emancipation Proclamation, according to his view, only needed +enforcement, to give "Peace and Order, Freedom and Unity, to a now +distracted Country;" but the "crowning act" of incorporating this +Amendment into the Constitution would do even more than all this, in +that it would "obliterate the last lingering vestiges of the Slave +System; its chattelizing, degrading, and bloody codes; its malignant, +barbarizing spirit; all it was, and is; everything connected with it or +pertaining to it, from the face of the Nation it has scarred with moral +desolation, from the bosom of the Country it has reddened with the blood +and strewn with the graves of patriotism."</p> + +<p>While the debate proceeded, President Lincoln watched it with careful +interest. Other matters, however, had, since the Battle of Chattanooga, +largely engrossed his attention.</p> + +<p>The right man had at last been found—it was believed—to control as +well as to lead our Armies. That man was Ulysses S. Grant. The grade +of Lieutenant General of the Army of the United States—in desuetude +since the days of Washington, except by brevet, in the case of Winfield +Scott,—having been especially revived by Congress for and filled by the +appointment and confirmation of Grant, March 2, 1864, that great soldier +immediately came on to Washington, received his commission at the hands +of President Lincoln, in the cabinet chamber of the White House, on the +9th, paid a flying visit to the Army of the Potomac, on the 10th, and at +once returned to Nashville to plan future movements.</p> + +<p>On the 12th, a General Order of the War Department (No. 98) was issued, +relieving Major-General Halleck, "at his own request," from duty as +"General-in-Chief" of the Army, and assigning Lieutenant-General U. S. +Grant to "the command of the Armies of the United States," "the +Headquarters of the Army" to be in Washington, and also with +Lieutenant-General Grant in the Field, Halleck being assigned to "duty, in +Washington, as Chief-of-staff of the Army, under the direction of the +Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General commanding."</p> + +<p>By the same order, Sherman was assigned to the command of the "Military +Division of the Mississippi," composed of the Departments of the Ohio, +the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas; and McPherson to that +of the Department and Army of the Tennessee.</p> + +<p>On the 23rd of March, Grant was back again at Washington, and at once +proceeded to Culpepper Court-house, Virginia, where his Headquarters in +the field were, for a time, to be.</p> + +<p>Here he completed his plans, and reorganized his Forces, for the coming +conflicts, in the South-west and South-east, which were to result in a +full triumph to the Union Arms, and Peace to a preserved Union.</p> + +<p>It is evident, from the utterances of Mr. Lincoln when Vicksburg fell, +that he had then become pretty well satisfied that Grant was "the coming +man," to whom it would be safe to confide the management and chief +leadership of our Armies. Chattanooga merely confirmed that belief—as +indeed it did that of Union men generally. But the concurrent judgment +of Congress and the President had now, as we have seen, placed Grant in +that chief command; and the consequent relief to Mr. Lincoln, in thus +having the heavy responsibility of Army-control, long unwillingly +exercised by him, taken from his own shoulders and placed upon those of +the one great soldier in whom he had learned to have implicit faith,—a +faith earned by steady and unvaryingly successful achievements in the +Field—must have been most grateful.</p> + +<p>Other responsibilities would still press heavily enough upon the +President's time and attention. Questions touching the Military and +Civil government of regions of the Enemy's country, conquered by the +Union arms; of the rehabilitation or reconstruction of the Rebel States; +of a thousand and one other matters, of greater or lesser perplexity, +growing out of these and other questions; besides the ever pressing and +gigantic problems involved in the raising of enormous levies of troops, +and prodigious sums of money, needed in securing, moving, and supplying +them, and defraying the extraordinary expenses growing out of the +necessary blockade of thousands of miles of Southern Coast, and other +Naval movements; not to speak of those expenditures belonging to the +more ordinary business transactions of the Government.</p> + +<p>But chief of all things claiming his especial solicitude, as we have +seen, was this question of Emancipation by Constitutional enactment, the +debate upon which was now proceeding in the Senate. That solicitude was +necessarily increased by the bitter opposition to it of Northern +Copperheads, and by the attitude of the Border-State men, upon whose +final action, the triumph or defeat of this great measure must +ultimately depend.</p> + +<p>Many of the latter, were, as has already been shown in these pages, +loyal men; but the loyalty of some of these to their Country, was still +so questionably and so thoroughly tainted with their worshipful devotion +to Slavery—although they must have been blind indeed not to have +discovered, long ere this, that it was a "slowly-dying cause"—that they +were ever on the alert to delay, hamper, and defeat, any action, whether +Executive or Legislative, and however necessary for the preservation of +the Union and the overthrow of its mortal enemies, which, never so +lightly, impinged upon their "sacred Institution."</p> + +<p>This fact was well set forth, in this very debate, by a Senator from New +England—[Wilson of Massachusetts]—when, after adjuring the +anti-Slavery men of the age, not to forget the long list of Slavery's crimes, +he eloquently proceeded:</p> + +<p>"Let them remember, too, that hundreds of thousands of our countrymen in +Loyal States—since Slavery raised the banners of Insurrection, and sent +death, wounds, sickness, and sorrow, into the homes of the People—have +resisted, and still continue to resist, any measure for the defense of +the Nation, if that measure tended to impair the vital and animating +powers of Slavery. They resisted the Act making Free the Slaves used by +Rebels for Military purposes; the Confiscation of Rebel property and the +Freedom of the Slaves of Rebel masters; the Abolition of Slavery in the +Capital of the Nation, and the consecration of the Territories to Free +Labor and Free laboring men; the Proclamation of Emancipation; the +enlistment of Colored men to fight the battles of the Country; the +Freedom of the Black soldier, who is fighting, bleeding, dying for the +Country; and the Freedom of his wife and children. And now, when War +has for nearly three years menaced the life of the Nation, bathed the +Land in blood, and filled two hundred thousand graves with our slain +sons, these men of the Loyal States still cling to the falling fortunes +of the relentless and unappeasable Enemy of their Country and its +democratic institutions; they mourn, and will not be comforted, over the +expiring System, in the Border Slave-States; and, in tones of +indignation or of anguish, they utter lamentations over the Proclamation +of Emancipation, and the policy that is bringing Rebel States back again +radiant with Freedom."</p> + +<p>Among these "loyal" Democratic opponents of Emancipation, in any shape, +or any where, were not wanting men—whether from Loyal Northern or +Border States—who still openly avowed that Slavery was right; that +Rebellion, to preserve its continuance, was justifiable; and that there +was no Constitutional method of uprooting it.</p> + +<p>Saulsbury of Delaware, was representative and spokesman of this class, +and he took occasion during this very debate—[In the Senate, March 31, +1864.]—to defend Slavery as a Divine Institution, which had the +sanction both of the Mosaic and Christian Dispensations!</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Said he: "Slavery had existed under some form or other from the + first period of recorded history. It dates back even beyond the + period of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, in whose seed all + the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed. We find that, + immediately after the Flood, the Almighty, for purposes inscrutable + to us, condemned a whole race to Servitude: 'Vayomer Orur Knoan + Efet Afoatim Yeahio Le-echot:' 'And he said, Cursed be Canaan; + Slave of Slaves he shall be to his brethren.' It continued among + all people until the advent of the Christian era. It was + recognized in that New Dispensation, which was to supersede the + Old. It has the sanction of God's own Apostle; for when Paul sent + back Onesimus to Philemon, whom did he send? A Freeman? No, Sir. + He sent his (doulos,) a Slave, born as such, not even his + andrapodon, who was such by captivity in War. Among all people, + and in all ages, has this Institution, if such it is to be called, + existed, and had the countenance of wise and good men, and even of + the Christian Church itself, until these modern times, up at least + to the Nineteenth Century. It exists in this Country, and has + existed from the beginning."</p> + +<p> Mr. Harlan's reply to the position of Mr. Saulsbury that Slavery is + right, is a Divine Institution, etc., was very able and + interesting. He piled up authority after authority, English as + well as American, to show that there is no support of Slavery—and + especially of the title to services of the adult offspring of a + Slave—at Common Law; and, after also proving, by the mouth of a + favorite son of Virginia, that it has no legal existence by virtue + of any Municipal or Statutory Law, he declared that the only + remaining Law that can be cited for its support is the Levitical + Code"—as follows:</p> + +<p> "'Both thy Bondmen, and thy Bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall + be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy + Bondmen and Bondmaids.</p> + +<p> "'Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among + you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, + which they begat in your land; and they shall be your possession.</p> + +<p> "'And ye shall take them as an Inheritance for your children after + you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your Bondmen + forever."'</p> + +<p> "I remark," said he, "in this connection, that the Levitical Code, + or the Hebrew Law, contains a provision for the Naturalization of + Foreigners, whether captives of War, or voluntary emigrants. By + compliance with the requirements of this law they became citizens, + entitled to all the rights and privileges and immunities of native + Hebrews. The Hebrew Slave Code, applicable to Enslaved Hebrews, is + in these words:</p> + +<p> "'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold + unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou + shalt let him go Free from thee.'</p> + +<p> "Here I request the attention of those who claim compensation for + Emancipated Slaves to the text:</p> + +<p> "'And when thou sendest him out Free from thee, thou shalt not let + him go away empty:</p> + +<p> "'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy floor'—</p> + +<p> "Which means granaries—</p> + +<p> "'and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God + hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him.'</p> + +<p> "'It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away Free + from thee, for he hath been worth a double-hired servant to thee, + in serving thee six years.'</p> + +<p> "These Hebrew Statutes provide that the heathen might be purchased + and held as Slaves, and their posterity after them; that under + their Naturalization Laws all strangers and sojourners, Bond and + Free, have the privilege of acquiring the rights of citizenship; + that all Hebrews, natives or naturalized, might assert and maintain + their right to Freedom.</p> + +<p> "At the end of six years a Hebrew Slave thus demanding his Liberty, + was not to be sent away empty; the owner, so far from claiming + compensation from his neighbors or from the Public Treasury for + setting him Free, was bound to divide with the Freedman, of his own + possessions: to give him of his flocks, of his herds, of his + granary, and of his winepress, of everything with which the Lord + Almighty had blessed the master during the years of his Servitude; + and then the owner was admonished that he was not to regard it as a + hardship to be required to Liberate the Slave, and to divide with + him of his substance.</p> + +<p> "The Almighty places the Liberated Slave's claim to a division of + his former master's property on the eternal principles of Justice, + the duty to render an equivalent for an equivalent. The Slave + having served six years must be paid for his Service, must be paid + liberally because he had been worth even more than a hired servant + during the period of his enslavement.</p> + +<p> "If, then," continued Mr. Harlan, "the justice of this claim cannot + be found either in Reason, Natural Justice, or the principles of + the Common Law, or in any positive Municipal or Statute regulation + of any State, or in the Hebrew Code written by the Finger of God + protruded from the flame of fire on the summit of Sinai, I ask + whence the origin of the title to the services of the adult + offspring of the Slave mother? or is it not manifest that there is + no just title? Is it not a mere usurpation without any known mode + of justification, under any existing Code of Laws, human or + Divine?"]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>He also undertook to justify Secession on the singular ground that "we +are sprung from a Race of Secessionists," the proof of which he held to +be in the fact that, while the preamble to, as well as the body of the +Convention of Ratification of, the old Articles of Confederation between +the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and +Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and +Georgia, declared that Confederation to be a "Perpetual Union," yet, +within nine years thereafter, all the other States Seceded from New +York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island by ratifying the new +Constitution for "a more perfect Union."</p> + +<p>He also endeavored to maintain the extraordinary proposition that "if +the Senate of the United States were to adopt this Joint-resolution, and +were to submit it to all the States of this Union, and if three-fourths +of the States should ratify the Amendment, it would not be binding on +any State whose interest was affected by it, if that State protested +against it!" And beyond all this, he re-echoed the old, old cry of the +Border-state men, that "the time is unpropitious for such a measure as +this."</p> + +<p>Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, however, by his great speech, of April +5th, in the Senate, did much to clear the tangle in the minds of some +faltering Union statesmen on this important subject.</p> + +<p>He reviewed the question of human Slavery from the time when the +Constitutional Convention was held; showed that at that period, as well +as at the time of the Declaration of our Independence "there was but one +sentiment upon the subject among enlightened Southern statesmen"—and +that was, that Slavery "is a great affliction to any Country where it +prevails;" and declared that "a prosperous and permanent Peace can never +be secured if the Institution is permitted to survive."</p> + +<p>He then traversed the various methods by which statesmen were seeking to +prevent that survival of Slavery, addressing himself by turns to the +arguments of those who, with John Sherman, "seemed," said he, "to +consider it as within the power of Congress by virtue of its Legislative +authority;" to those of the "many well-judging men, with the President +at their head, who," to again use his own words, "seem to suppose that +it is within the reach of the Executive;" and lastly, to those "who +express the opinion that it is not within the scope of either Executive +or Legislative authority, or of Constitutional Amendment;" and after +demolishing the arguments of those who held the two former of these +positions, he proceeded to rebut the assumption that Slavery could not +be abolished at all because it was not originally abolished by the +Constitution.</p> + +<p>Continuing, he said: "Remember, now, the question is, can that +Institution, which deals with Humanity as Property, which claims to +shackle the mind, the soul, and the body, which brings to the level of +the brute a portion of the race of Man, cease to be within the reach of +the political power of the People of the United States, not because it +was not at one time within their power, but because at that time they +did not exert the power?</p> + +<p>"What says the Preamble to the Constitution? How pregnant with a +conclusive answer is the Preamble, to the proposition that Slavery +cannot be abolished! What does that Preamble state to have been the +chief objects that the great and wise and good men had at heart, in +recommending the Constitution, with that Preamble, to the adoption of +the American People? That Justice might be established; that +Tranquillity might be preserved; that the common Defense and general +Welfare might be maintained; and, last and chief of all, that Liberty +might be secured.</p> + +<p>"Is there no Justice in putting an end to human Slavery? Is there no +danger to the Tranquillity of the Country in its existence? May it not +interfere with the common Defense and general Welfare? And, above all, +is it consistent with any notion, which the mind of man can conceive, of +human Liberty?"</p> + +<p>He held that the very Amendatory clause of the Constitution under which +it was proposed to make this Amendment, was probably inserted there from +a conviction of that coming time "when Justice would call so loudly for +the extinction of the Institution that her call could not be disobeyed," +and, when "the Peace and Tranquillity of the Land would demand, in +thunder tones," its destruction, "as inconsistent with such Peace and +Tranquillity."</p> + +<p>To the atrocious pretence that "there was a right to make a Slave of any +human being"—which he said would have shocked every one of the framers +of the Constitution had they heard it; and, what he termed, the nauseous +declaration that "Slavery of the Black race is of Divine origin," and +was intended to be perpetual; he said:</p> + +<p>"The Saviour of Mankind did not put an end to it by physical power, or +by the declaration of any existing illegality, in word. His mission +upon Earth was not to propagate His doctrines by force. He came to +save, not to conquer. His purpose was not to march armed legions +throughout the habitable Globe, securing the allegiance of those for +whose safety He was striving. He warred by other influences. He aimed +at the heart, principally. He inculcated his doctrines, more ennobling +than any that the World, enlightened as it was before His advent upon +Earth, had been able to discover. He taught to Man the obligation of +brotherhood. He announced that the true duty of Man was to do to others +as he would have others do to him—to all men, the World over; and +unless some convert to the modern doctrine that Slavery itself finds not +only a guarantee for its existence, but for its legal existence, in the +Scripture, excepts from the operation of the influences which His +morality brought to bear on the mind of the Christian world, the Black +man, and shows that it was not intended to apply to Black men, then it +is not true, it cannot be true, that He designed His doctrine not to be +equally applicable to the Black and to the White, to the Race of Man as +he then existed, or as he might exist in all after-time."</p> + +<p>To the assumption that the African Slaves were too utterly deficient and +degraded, mentally and morally, to appreciate the blessings of Freedom, +he opposed the eloquent fact that "wherever the flag of the United +States, the symbol of human Liberty, now goes; under it, from their +hereditary bondage, are to be found men and women and children +assembling and craving its protection 'fleeing from' the iron of +oppression that had pierced their souls, to the protection of that flag +where they are 'gladdened by the light of Liberty.'"</p> + +<p>"It is idle to deny," said he—"we feel it in our own persons—how, with +reference to that sentiment, all men are brethren. Look to the +illustrations which the times now afford, how, in the illustration of +that sentiment, do we differ from the Black man? He is willing to incur +every personal danger which promises to result in throwing down his +shackles, and making him tread the Earth, which God has created for all, +as a man, and not as a Slave."</p> + +<p>Said he: "It is an instinct of the Soul. Tyranny may oppress it for +ages and centuries; the pall of despotism may hang over it; but the +sentiment is ever there; it kindles into a flame in the very furnace of +affliction, and it avails itself of the first opportunity that offers, +promising the least chance of escape, and wades through blood and +slaughter to achieve it, and, whether it succeeds or fails, +demonstrates, vindicates in the very effort, the inextinguishable right +to Liberty."</p> + +<p>He thought that mischiefs might result from this measure, owing to the +uneducated condition of the Slave, but they would be but temporary. At +all events to "suffer those Africans," said he, "whom we are calling +around our standard, and asking to aid us in restoring the Constitution +and the power of the Government to its rightful authority, to be reduced +to bondage again," would be "a disgrace to the Nation." The +"Institution" must be terminated.</p> + +<p>"Terminate it," continued he, "and the wit of man will, as I think, be +unable to devise any other topic upon which we can be involved in a +fratricidal strife. God and nature, judging by the history of the past, +intend us to be one. Our unity is written in the mountains and the +rivers, in which we all have an interest. The very differences of +climate render each important to the other, and alike important.</p> + +<p>"That mighty horde which, from time to time, have gone from the +Atlantic, imbued with all the principles of human Freedom which animated +their fathers in running the perils of the mighty Deep and seeking +Liberty here, are now there; and as they have said, they will continue +to say, until time shall be no more: 'We mean that the Government in +future shall be, as it has been in the past—Once an exemplar of human +Freedom, for the light and example of the World; illustrating in the +blessings and the happiness it confers, the truth of the principles +incorporated into the Declaration of Independence, that Life and Liberty +are Man's inalienable right."</p> + +<p>Fortunately the Democratic opposition, in the Senate, to +this measure, was too small in numbers to beat the proposed Amendment, +but by offering amendments to it, its enemies succeeded in delaying its +adoption.</p> + +<p>However, on the 5th of April, an amendment, offered by Garrett Davis, +was acted upon. It was to strike out all after the preamble of the +XIIIth Article of Amendment to the Constitution, proposed by the +Judiciary Committee, and insert the words:</p> + +<p>"No Negro, or Person whose mother or grandmother is or was a Negro, +shall be a citizen of the United States and be eligible to any Civil or +Military office, or to any place of trust or profit under the United +States."</p> + +<p>Mr. Davis's amendment was rejected by a vote of 5 yeas to 32 nays; when +he immediately moved to amend, by adding precisely the same words at the +end of Section 1 of the proposed Article. It was again rejected. He +then moved to amend by adding to the said Section these words:</p> + +<p>"But no Slave shall be entitled to his or her Freedom under this +Amendment if resident at the time it takes effect in any State, the laws +of which forbid Free Negroes to reside therein, until removed from such +State by the Government of the United States."</p> + +<p>This also was rejected. Whereupon Mr. Powell moved to add, at the end +of the first Section, the words:</p> + +<p>"No Slave shall be Emancipated by this Article unless the owner thereof +shall be first paid the value of the Slave or Slaves so Emancipated."</p> + +<p>This likewise was rejected, on a yea and nay vote, by 2 yeas (Davis and +Powell) to 34 nays; when Mr. Davis moved another amendment, viz.: to add +at the end of Section 2 of the proposed Article, the following:</p> + +<p>"And when this Amendment of the Constitution shall have taken effect by +Freeing the Slaves, Congress shall provide for the distribution and +settlement of all the population of African descent in the United States +among the several States and Territories thereof, in proportion to the +White population of each State and Territory to the aggregate population +of those of African descent."</p> + +<p>This met a like fate; whereupon the Senate adjourned, but, on the +following day, the matter came up again for consideration:</p> + +<p>Hale, of New Hampshire, jubilantly declared that "this is a day that I +and many others have long wished for, long hoped for, long striven for. +* * * A day when the Nation is to commence its real life; or, if it is +not the day, it is the dawning of the day; the day is near at hand * * * +when the American People are to wake up to the meaning of the sublime +truths which their fathers uttered years ago, and which have slumbered, +dead-letters, upon the pages of our Constitution, of our Declaration of +Independence, and of our history."</p> + +<p>McDougall, of California, on the other hand,—utterly regardless of the +grandly patriotic resolutions of the Legislature of his State, which had +just been presented to the Senate by his colleague—lugubriously +declared:</p> + +<p>"In my judgment, it may well be said of us:</p> + +<center> 'Let the Heavens be hung in black<br> + And let the Earth put mourning on,'</center> + +<p>for in the history of no Free People, since the time the Persians came +down upon Athens, have I known as melancholy a period as this day and +year of Our Lord in our history; and if we can, by the blessing of God +and by His favor, rise above it, it will be by His special providence, +and by no act of ours."</p> + +<p>The obstructive tactics were now resumed, Mr. Powell leading off by a +motion to amend, by adding to the Judiciary Committee's proposed +Thirteenth Article of the Constitution, the following:</p> + +<p>"ART. 14.—The President and Vice-President shall hold their Offices for +the term of four—[Which he subsequently modified to: +'six years']—years. The person who has filled the Office of President shall not be +reeligible."</p> + +<p>This amendment was rejected by 12 yeas to 32 nays; whereupon Mr. Powell +moved to add to the Committee's Proposition another new Article, as +follows:</p> + +<p>"ART. 14.—The principal Officer in each of the Executive Departments, +and all persons connected with the Diplomatic Service, may be removed +from office at the pleasure of the President. All other officers of the +Executive Departments may be removed at any time by the President or +other appointing power when their services are unnecessary, or for +dishonesty, incapacity, inefficiency, misconduct, or neglect of duty, +and when so removed, the removal shall be reported to the Senate, +together with the reasons therefor."</p> + +<p>This amendment also being rejected, Mr. Powell offered another, which +was to add a separate Article as follows:</p> + +<p>"ART. 14.—Every law, or Resolution having the force of law, shall +relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in its title."</p> + +<p>This also being rejected—the negative vote being, as in other cases, +without reference to the merits of the proposition—and Mr. Powell +having now apparently exhausted his obstructive amendatory talents, Mr. +Davis came to the aid of his Kentucky colleague by moving an amendment, +to come in as an additional Article, being a new plan of Presidential +election designed to do away with the quadrennial Presidential campaign +before the People by giving to each State the right to nominate one +candidate, and leaving it to a Convention of both Houses of +Congress—and, in case of disagreement, to the Supreme Court of the United States +—to elect a President and a Vice-President.</p> + +<p>The rejection of this proposition apparently exhausted the stock of +possible amendments possessed by the Democratic opposition, and the +Joint Resolution, precisely as it came from the Judiciary Committee, +having been agreed to by that body, "as in Committee of the Whole," was +now, April 6th, reported to the Senate for its concurrence.</p> + +<p>On the following day, Mr. Hendricks uttered a lengthy jeremiad on the +War, and its lamentable results; intimated that along the Mississippi, +the Negroes, freed by the advance of our invading Armies and Navies, +instead of being happy and industrious, were without protection or +provision and almost without clothing, while at least 200,000 of them +had prematurely perished, and that such was the fate reserved for the +4,000,000 Negroes if liberated; and declared he would not vote for the +Resolution, "because," said he, "the times are not auspicious."</p> + +<p>Very different indeed was the attitude of Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, +Border-State man though he was. In the course of a speech, of much +power, which he opened with an allusion to the 115,000 Slaves owned in +his State in 1860—as showing how deeply interested Missouri "must be in +the pending proposition"—the Senator announced that: "Our great +interest, as lovers of the Union, is in the preservation and +perpetuation of the Union." He declared himself a Slaveholder, yet none +the less desired the adoption of this Thirteenth Article of Amendment, +for, said he: "We cannot save the Institution if we would. We ought not +if we could. * * * If it were a blessing, I, for one, would be +defending it to the last. It is a curse, and not a blessing. Therefore +let it go. * * * Let the iniquity be cast away!"</p> + +<p>It was about this time that a remarkable letter written by Mr. Lincoln +to a Kentuckian, on the subject of Emancipation, appeared in print. It +is interesting as being not alone the President's own statement of his +views, from the beginning, as to Slavery, and how he came to be "driven" +to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation, and as showing how the Union +Cause had gained by its issue, but also in disclosing, indirectly, how +incessantly the subject was revolved in his own mind, and urged by him +upon the minds of others. The publication of the letter, moreover, was +not without its effect on the ultimate action of the Congress and the +States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment. It ran thus:</p> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<p> "EXECUTIVE MANSION.<br> + "WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864.</p> + +<p>"A. G. HODGES, Esq., Frankfort, Ky.</p> + +<p>"MY DEAR SIR: You ask me to put in writing the substance of—what I +verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette and +Senator Dixon. It was about as follows:</p> + +<p>"I am naturally anti-Slavery. If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I +have never understood that the 'Presidency conferred upon me an +unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.</p> + +<p>"It was in the oath I took, that I would to the best of my ability +preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I +could not take the Office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view +that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the +power.</p> + +<p>"I understood, too, that in ordinary and Civil Administration this oath +even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on +the moral question of Slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, +and in many ways.</p> + +<p>"And I aver that, to this day, I have done no Official act in mere +deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on Slavery.</p> + +<p>"I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to +the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every +indispensable means, that Government—that Nation, of which that +Constitution was the Organic Law.</p> + +<p>"Was it possible to lose the Nation and yet preserve the Constitution?</p> + +<p>"By General Law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must +be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a +limb. I felt that measures, otherwise Unconstitutional, might become +lawful, by becoming Indispensable to the Constitution through the +preservation of the Nation.</p> + +<p>"Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not +feel that, to the best of my ability, I have even tried to preserve the +Constitution, if, to save Slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit +the wreck of Government, Country, and Constitution, altogether.</p> + +<p>"When, early in the War, General Fremont attempted Military +Emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an +Indispensable Necessity.</p> + +<p>"When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested +the Arming of the Blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an +Indispensable Necessity.</p> + +<p>"When, still later, General Hunter attempted Military Emancipation, I +again forbade it, because I did not yet think the Indispensable +Necessity had come.</p> + +<p>"When in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive +appeals to the Border-States to favor compensated Emancipation, I +believed the Indispensable Necessity for Military Emancipation and +arming the Blacks would come, unless averted by that measure.</p> + +<p>"They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven +to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it, the +Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the Colored element. I +chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, +but of this I was not entirely confident.</p> + +<p>"More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our Foreign +Relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white +Military force, no loss by it anyhow, or anywhere. On the contrary, it +shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, +and laborers.</p> + +<p>"These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no +cavilling. We have the men; and we could not have had them without the +measure.</p> + +<p>"And now let any Union man who complains of this measure, test himself +by writing down in one line, that he is for subduing the Rebellion by +force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking one hundred and +thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they +would be best for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case +so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth.</p> + +<p>"I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this +tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have +controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. +Now at the end of three years' struggle, the Nation's condition is not +what either Party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim +it.</p> + +<p>"Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a +great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the +South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial +history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the Justice +and goodness of God.<br> + "Yours truly,<br> + "A. LINCOLN."</p> +<br><br> +<p> +The 8th of April (1864) turned out to be the decisive field-day in the +Senate. Sumner endeavored to close the debate on that day in a speech +remarkable no less for its power and eloquence of statement, its +strength of Constitutional exposition, and its abounding evidences of +extensive historical research and varied learning, than for its +patriotic fervor and devotion to human Freedom.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of that great speech, however, he somewhat weakened its +force by suggesting a change in the phraseology of the proposed +Thirteenth Amendment, so that, instead of almost precisely following the +language of the Jeffersonian Ordinance of 1787, as recommended by the +Judiciary Committee of the Senate, it should read thus:</p> + +<p>"All Persons are Equal before the Law, so that no person can hold +another as a Slave; and the Congress may make all laws necessary and +proper to carry this Article into effect everywhere within the United +States and the jurisdiction thereof."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sumner's idea in antagonizing the Judiciary Committee's proposition +with this, was to introduce into our Organic Act, distinctive words +asserting the "Equality before the Law" of all persons, as expressed in +the Constitutional Charters of Belgium, Italy and Greece, as well as in +the various Constitutions of France—beginning with that of September, +1791, which declared (Art. 1) that "Men are born and continue Free and +Equal in Rights;" continuing in that of June, 1793, which declares that +"All Men are Equal by Nature and before the Law:" in that of June, 1814, +which declares that "Frenchmen are Equal before the Law, whatever may be +otherwise their title and ranks;" and in the Constitutional Charter of +August, 1830 in similar terms to the last.</p> + +<p>"But," said he, "while desirous of seeing the great rule of Freedom +which we are about to ordain, embodied in a text which shall be like the +precious casket to the more precious treasure, yet * * * I am consoled +by the thought that the most homely text containing such a rule will be +more beautiful far than any words of poetry or eloquence, and that it +will endure to be read with gratitude when the rising dome of this +Capitol, with the Statue of Liberty which surmounts it, has crumbled to +dust."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sumner's great speech, however, by no means ended the debate. It +brought Mr. Powell to his feet with a long and elaborate contention +against the general proposition, in the course of which he took occasion +to sneer at Sumner's "most remarkable effort," as one of his "long +illogical rhapsodies on Slavery, like:</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> '—a Tale + Told by an Idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing.'"</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>He professed that he wanted "the Union to be restored with the +Constitution as it is;" that he verily believed the passage of this +Amendment would be "the most effective Disunion measure that could be +passed by Congress"—and, said he, "As a lover of the Union I oppose +it."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [This phrase slightly altered, in words, but not in meaning, to + "The Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is," afterward + became the Shibboleth under which the Democratic Party in the + Presidential Campaign of 1864, marched to defeat.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>He endeavored to impute the blame for the War, to the northern +Abolitionists, for, said he: "Had there been no Abolitionists, North, +there never would have been a Fire-eater, South,"—apparently ignoring +the palpable fact that had there been no Slavery in the South, there +could have been no "Abolitionists, North."</p> + +<p>He heatedly denounced the "fanatical gentlemen" who desired the passage +of this measure; declared they intended by its passage "to destroy the +Institution of Slavery or to destroy the Union," and exclaimed: "Pass +this Amendment and you make an impassable chasm, as if you were to put a +lake of burning fire, between the adhering States and those who are out. +You will then have to make it a War of conquest and extermination before +you can ever bring them back under the flag of the Government. There is +no doubt about that proposition."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sumner, at this point, withdrew his proposed amendment, at the +suggestion of Mr. Howard, who expressed a preference "to dismiss all +reference to French Constitutions and French Codes, and go back to the +good old Anglo-Saxon language employed by our Fathers, in the Ordinance +of 1787, (in) an expression adjudicated upon repeatedly, which is +perfectly well understood both by the public and by Judicial +Tribunals—a phrase, which is peculiarly near and dear to the people of the +Northwestern Territory, from whose soil Slavery was excluded by it."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The following is the language of "the Ordinance of 1787" thus + referred to:</p> + +<p> "ART. 6.—There shall be neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude + in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, + whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: * * *."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Mr. Davis thereupon made another opposition speech and, at its +conclusion, Mr. Saulsbury offered, as a substitute, an Article, +comprising no less than twenty sections—that, he said, "embodied in +them some things" which "did not meet his personal approbation," but he +had consented to offer them to the Senate as "a Compromise"—as "a Peace +offering."</p> + +<p>The Saulsbury substitute being voted down, the debate closed with a +speech by Mr. McDougall—an eloquent protest from his standpoint, in +which, after endorsing the wild statement of Mr. Hendricks that 250,000 +of the people of African descent had been prematurely destroyed on the +Mississippi, he continued.</p> + +<p>"This policy will ingulf them. It is as simple a truth as has ever been +taught by any history. The Slaves of ancient time were not the Slaves +of a different Race. The Romans compelled the Gaul and the Celt, +brought them to their own Country, and some of them became great poets, +and some eloquent orators, and some accomplished wits, and they became +citizens of the Republic of Greece, and of the Republic of Rome, and of +the Empire.</p> + +<p>"This is not the condition of these persons with whom we are now +associated, and about whose affairs we undertake to establish +administration. They can never commingle with us. It may not be within +the reading of some learned Senators, and yet it belongs to demonstrated +Science, that the African race and the European are different; and I +here now say it as a fact established by science, that the eighth +generation of the Mixed race formed by the union of the African and +European, cannot continue their species. Quadroons have few children; +with Octoroons reproduction is impossible.</p> + +<p>"It establishes as a law of nature that the African has no proper +relation to the European, Caucasian, blood. I would have them kindly +treated. * * * Against all such policy and all such conduct I shall +protest as a man, in the name of humanity, and of law, and of truth, and +of religion."</p> + +<p>The amendment made, as in Committee of the Whole, having been concurred +in, etc., the Joint Resolution, as originally reported by the Judiciary +Committee, was at last passed, (April 8th)—by a vote of 38 yeas to 6 +nays—Messrs. Hendricks and McDougall having the unenviable distinction +of being the only two Senators, (mis-)representing Free States, who +voted against this definitive Charter of American Liberty.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The full Senate vote, on passing the Thirteenth Amendment, was:</p> + +<p> YEAS—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Conness, + Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, + Harding, Harlan, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Johnson, Lane of + Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Ramsey, + Sherman, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, + Wilkinson, Willey, and Wilson—38.</p> + +<p> NAYs—Messrs. Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Riddle, and + Saulsbury.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="wade"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p552-wade.jpg (82K)" src="images/p552-wade.jpg" height="872" width="581"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch24"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIV.<br><br> + + TREASON IN THE NORTHERN CAMPS. + +</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>The immortal Charter of Freedom had, as we have seen, with comparative +ease, after a ten days' debate, by the power of numbers, run the +gauntlet of the Senate; but now it was to be subjected to the much more +trying and doubtful ordeal of the House. What would be its fate there? +This was a question which gave to Mr. Lincoln, and the other friends of +Liberty and Union, great concern.</p> + +<p>It is true that various votes had recently been taken in that body, upon +propositions which had an indirect bearing upon the subject of +Emancipation, as, for instance, that of the 1st of February, 1864, when, +by a vote of 80 yeas to 46 nays, it had adopted a Resolution declaring +"That a more vigorous policy to enlist, at an early day, and in larger +numbers, in our Army, persons of African descent, would meet the +approbation of the House;" and that vote, although indirect, being so +very nearly a two-thirds vote, was most encouraging. But, on the other +hand, a subsequent Resolution, squarely testing the sense of the House +upon the subject, had been carried by much less than a two-thirds vote.</p> + +<p>This latter Resolution, offered by Mr. Arnold, after conference with Mr. +Lincoln, with the very purpose of making a test, was in these direct +terms:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That the Constitution shall be so amended as to Abolish +Slavery in the United States wherever it now exists, and to prohibit its +existence in every part thereof forever."</p> + +<p>The vote, adopting it, was but 78 yeas to 62 nays. * This vote, +therefore, upon the Arnold Resolution, being nowhere near the two-thirds +affirmative vote necessary to secure the passage through the House of +the Senate Joint Resolution on this subject amendatory of the +Constitution, was most discouraging.</p> + +<p>It was definite enough, however, to show the necessity of a change from +the negative to the affirmative side of at least fifteen votes. While +therefore the outlook was discouraging it was far from hopeless. The +debate in the Senate had already had its effect upon the public mind. +That, and the utterances of Mr. Lincoln—and further discussion in the +House, it was thought, might produce such a pressure from the loyal +constituencies both in the Free and Border Slave-States as to compel +success.</p> + +<p>But from the very beginning of the year 1864, as if instinctively aware +that their Rebel friends were approaching the crisis of their fate, and +needed now all the help that their allies of the North could give them, +the Anti-War Democrats, in Congress, and out, had been stirring +themselves with unusual activity.</p> + +<p>In both Houses of Congress, upon all possible occasions, they had been +striving, as they still strove, with the venom of their +widely-circulated speeches, to poison the loyal Northern and Border-State mind, +in the hope that the renomination of Mr. Lincoln might be defeated, the +chance for Democratic success at the coming Presidential election be +thereby increased, and, if nothing else came of it, the Union Cause be +weakened and the Rebel Cause correspondingly strengthened.</p> + +<p>At the same time, evidently under secret instructions from their +friends, the Conspirators in arms, they endeavored to create +heart-burnings and jealousies and ill-feeling between the Eastern (especially +the New England) States and the Western States, and unceasingly attacked +the Protective-Tariff, Internal Revenue, the Greenback, the Draft, and +every other measure or thing upon which the life of the Union depended.</p> + +<p>Most of these Northern-Democratic agitators, "Stealing the livery of +Heaven to serve the Devil in," endeavored to conceal their treacherous +designs under a veneer of gushing lip-loyalty, but that disguise was +"too thin" to deceive either their contemporaries or those who come +after them. Some of their language too, as well as their blustering +manner, strangely brought back to recollection the old days of Slavery +when the plantation-whip was cracked in the House, and the air was blue +with execration of New England.</p> + +<p>Said Voorhees, of Indiana, (January 11, 1864) when the House was +considering a Bill "to increase the Internal Revenue and for other +purposes:"</p> + +<p>"I want to know whether the West has any friends upon the floor of this +House? We pay every dollar that is to be levied by this Tax Bill. * * +* The Manufacturing Interest pays not a dollar into the public Treasury +that stays there. And yet airs of patriotism are put on here by men +representing that interest. I visited New England last Summer, * * * +when I heard the swelling hum of her Manufactories, and saw those who +only a short time ago worked but a few hands, now working their +thousands, and rolling up their countless wealth, I felt that it was an +unhealthy prosperity. To my mind it presented a wealth wrung from the +labor, the sinews, the bone and muscle of the men who till the soil, +taxed to an illegitimate extent to foster and support that great System +of local wealth. * * * I do not intend to stand idly by and see one +portion of the Country robbed and oppressed for the benefit of another."</p> + +<p>And the same day, replying to Mr. Morrill of Vermont, he exclaimed: "Let +him show me that the plethoric, bloated Manufacturers of New England are +paying anything to support the Government, and I will recognize it."</p> + +<p>Washburne, of Illinois got back at this part of Mr. Voorhees's speech +rather neatly, by defending the North-west as being "not only willing to +stand taxation" which had been "already imposed, but * * * any +additional taxation which," said he, "may be necessary to crush out this +Rebellion, and to hang the Rebels in the South, and the Rebel +sympathizers in the North." And, he pointedly added: "Complaint has +been made against New England. I know that kind of talk. I have heard +too often that kind of slang about New England. I heard it here for ten +years, when your Barksdales, and your Keitts's, and your other Traitors, +now in arms against the Government, filled these Halls with their +pestilential assaults not only upon New England, but on the Free North +generally."</p> + +<p>Kelley of Pennsylvania, however, more fitly characterized the speech of +Voorhees, when he termed it "a pretty, indeed a somewhat striking, +paraphrase of the argument of Mr. Lamar, the Rebel Agent,—[in 1886, +Secretary of the Interior]—to his confreres in Treason, as we find it +in the recently published correspondence: 'Drive gold coin out of the +Country, and induce undue Importation of Foreign products so as to +strike down the Financial System. You can have no further hope for +Foreign recognition. It is evident the weight of arms is against us; +and it is clear that we can only succeed by striking down the Financial +System of the Country.' It was an admirable paraphrase of the +Instructions of Mr. Lamar to the Rebel Agents in the North."</p> + +<p>The impression was at this time abroad, and there were not wanting +elements of proof, that certain members of Congress were trusted +Lieutenants of the Arch-copperhead and Outlaw, Vallandigham. Certain it +is, that many of these leaders, six months before, attended and +addressed the great gathering from various parts of the Country, of +nearly one hundred thousand Vallandigham-Anti-War Peace-Democrats, at +Springfield, Illinois—the very home of Abraham Lincoln—which adopted, +during a lull, when they were not yelling themselves hoarse for +Vallandigham, a resolution declaring against "the further offensive +prosecution of the War" as being subversive of the Constitution and +Government, and proposing a National Peace Convention, and, as a +consequence, Peace, "the Union as it was," and, substantially such +Constitutional guarantees as the Rebels might choose to demand! And +this too, at a time (June 13, 1863), when Grant, after many recent +glorious victories, had been laying siege to Vicksburg, and its Rebel +Army of 37,000 men, for nearly a month, with every reason to hope for +its speedy fall.</p> + +<p>No wonder that under such circumstances, the news of such a gathering of +the Northern Democratic sympathizers with Treason, and of their adoption +of such treasonable Resolutions, should encourage the Rebels in the same +degree that Union men were disheartened! No wonder that Lee, elated by +this and other evidences of Northern sympathy with Rebellion, at once +determined to commence a second grand invasion of the North, and on the +very next day (June 14th,) moved Northward with all his Rebel hosts to +be welcomed, he fondly hoped, by his Northern friends of Maryland and +elsewhere! As we have seen, it took the bloody Battle of Gettysburg to +undeceive him as to the character of that welcome.</p> + +<p>Further than this, Mr. Cox had stumped Ohio, in the succeeding election, +in a desperate effort to make the banished Traitor, Vallandigham—the +Chief Northern commander of the "Knights of the Golden Circle" +(otherwise known as the "Order of the Sons of Liberty," and "O. A. K." +or "Order of American Knights")—Governor of that great State.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The Rebel General Sterling Price being the chief Southern + commander of this many-named treasonable organization, which in the + North alone numbered over 500,000 men.</p> + +<p> August, 1864.—See Report of Judge Advocate Holt on certain "Secret + Associations," in Appendix,]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>And it only lacked a few months of the time when quantities of copies of +the treasonable Ritual of the "Order of American Knights"—as well as +correspondence touching the purchase of thousands of Garibaldi rifles +for transportation to the West—were found in the offices of leading +Democrats then in Congress.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, it is said, and repeated, that there were not wanting +elements of proof, outside of Congressional utterances and actions, that +leading Democrats in Congress were trusted Lieutenants of the Supreme +Commander of over half a million of Northern Rebel-sympathizers bound +together, and to secrecy, by oaths, which were declared to be paramount +to all other oaths, the violation of which subjected the offender to a +shameful death somewhat like that, of being "hung, drawn, and +quartered," which was inflicted in the middle ages for the crime of +Treason to the Crown—it will be seen that the statement is supported by +circumstantial, if not by positive and direct, evidence.</p> + +<p>Whether the Coxes, the Garret Davises, the Saulsburys, the Fernando +Woods, the Alexander Longs, the Allens, the Holmans, and many other +prominent Congressmen of that sort,—were merely in close communion with +these banded "Knights," or were actual members of their secret +organizations, may be an open question. But it is very certain that if +they all were not oath-bound members, they generally pursued the precise +methods of those who were; and that, as a rule, while they often loudly +proclaimed loyalty and love for the Union, they were always ready to act +as if their loyalty and love were for the so-called Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it was one of these other "loyal" Democrats, who even preceded +Voorhees, in raising the Sectional cry of: The West, against New +England. It was on this same Internal Revenue Bill, that Holman of +Indiana had, the day before Voorhees's attack, said:</p> + +<p>"If the Manufacture of the Northwest is to be taxed so heavily, a +corresponding rate of increase must be imposed on the Manufactures of +New England and Pennsylvania, or, will gentlemen tax us without limit +for the benefit of their own Section? * * * I protest against what I +believe is intended to be a discrimination against one Section of the +Country, by increasing the tax three-fold, without a corresponding +increase upon the burdens of other Sections."</p> + +<p>But these dreadfully "loyal" Democrats—who did the bidding of +traitorous masters in their Treason to the Union, and thus, while +posturing as "Patriots," "fired upon the rear" of our hard-pressed +Armies—were super-sensitive on this point. And, when they could get +hold of a quiet sort of a man, inclined to peaceful methods of +discussion, how they would, terrier-like, pounce upon him, and extract +from him, if they could, some sort of negative satisfaction!</p> + +<p>Thus, for instance, on the 22nd of January, when one of these quiet men +—Morris of New York—was in the midst of an inoffensive speech, Mr. Cox +"bristled up," and blusteringly asked whether he meant to say that he +(Cox) had "ever been the apologist or the defender of a Traitor?"</p> + +<p>And Morris not having said so, mildly replied that he did "not so +charge"—all of which little bit of by-play hugely pleased the touchy +Mr. Cox, and his clansmen.</p> + +<p>But on the day following, their smiles vanished under the words of +Spalding or Ohio, who, after referring to the crocodile-tears shed by +Democratic Congressmen over the Confiscation Resolution—on the pretense +that it would hunt down "innocent women and children" of the Rebels, +when they had never a word of sympathy for the widows and children of +the two hundred thousand dead soldiers of the Union—continued:</p> + +<p>"They can see our poor soldiers return, minus an arm, minus a leg, as +they pass through these lobbies, but their only care is to protect the +property of Rebels. And we are asked by one of my colleagues, (Mr. Cox) +does the gentleman from New York intend to call us Traitors? My friend, +Mr. Morris, modestly answered no! If he had asked that question of me, +he knows what my answer would have been! I have seen Rebel officers at +Johnson's Island, and I have taken them by the hand because they have +fought us fairly in the field and did not seek to break down the +Government while living under its protection. Yes, Sir, that gentleman +knows that I would have said to him that I have more respect for an open +and avowed Traitor in the field, than for a sympathizer in this Hall. +Four months have scarcely gone by since that gentleman and his political +friends were advocating the election of a man for the Gubernatorial +office in my State, who was an open and avowed advocate of Secession—AN +OUTLAW AT THAT!"</p> + +<p>And old Thaddeus Stevens—the clear-sighted and courageous "Old +Commoner"—followed up Spalding, and struck very close to the root and +animus of the Democratic opposition, when he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"All this struggle by calm and dignified and moderate 'Patriots;' all +this clamor against 'Radicals;' all this cry of 'the Union as it Was, +and the Constitution as it Is;' is but a persistent effort to +reestablish Slavery, and to rivet anew and forever the chains of Bondage +on the limbs of Immortal beings. May the God of Justice thwart their +designs and paralyze their wicked efforts!"</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="mcclellan"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p594-mcclellan.jpg (63K)" src="images/p594-mcclellan.jpg" height="764" width="581"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch25"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXV.<br><br> + + "THE FIRE IN THE REAR." + +</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>The treacherous purposes of professedly-loyal Copperheads being seen +through, and promptly and emphatically denounced to the Country by Union +statesmen, the Copperheads aforesaid concluded that the profuse +circulation of their own Treason-breeding speeches—through the medium +of the treasonable organizations before referred to, permeating the +Northern States,—would more than counteract all that Union men could +say or do. Besides, the fiat had gone forth, from their Rebel masters +at Richmond, to Agitate the North.</p> + +<p>Hence, day after day, Democrat after Democrat, in the one House or the +other, continued to air his disloyal opinions, and to utter more or less +virulent denunciations of the Government which guarded and protected +him.</p> + +<p>Thus, Brooks, of New York, on the 25th of January (1864), sneeringly +exclaimed: "Why, what absurdity it is to talk at this Capitol of +prosecuting the War by the liberation of Slaves, when from the dome of +this building there can be heard at this hour the booming of cannon in +the distance!"</p> + +<p>Thus, also, on the day following, Fernando Wood—the same man who, while +Mayor of New York at the outbreak of the Rebellion, had, under +Rebel-guidance, proposed the Secession from the Union, and the Independence, +of that great Metropolis,—declared to the House that: "No Government +has pursued a foe with such unrelenting, vindictive malignity as we are +now pursuing those who came into the Union with us, whose blood has been +freely shed on every battle-field of the Country until now, with our +own; who fought by our side in the American Revolution, and in the War +of 1812 with Great Britain; who bore our banners bravest and highest in +our victorious march from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, and who but +yesterday sat in these Halls contributing toward the maintenance of our +glorious institutions."</p> + +<p>Then he went on, in the spirit of prophecy, to declare that: "No purely +agricultural people, fighting for the protection of their own Domestic +Institutions upon their own soil, have ever yet been conquered. I say +further, that no revolted people have ever been subdued after they have +been able to maintain an Independent government for three years." And +then, warming up to an imperative mood, he made this explicit +announcement: "We are at War. * * * Whether it be a Civil War, +Rebellion, Revolution, or Foreign War, it matters little. IT MUST +CEASE; and I want this Administration to tell the American People WHEN +it will cease!" Again, only two days afterward, he took occasion to +characterize a Bill, amendatory of the enrollment Act, as "this +infamous, Unconstitutional conscription Act!"</p> + +<p>C. A. White, of Ohio, was another of the malcontents who undertook, with +others of the same Copperhead faith, to "maintain, that," as he +expressed it, "the War in which we are at present engaged is wrong in +itself; that the policy adopted by the Party in power for its +prosecution is wrong; that the Union cannot be restored, or, if +restored, maintained, by the exercise of the coercive power of the +Government, by War; that the War is opposed to the restoration of the +Union, destructive of the rights of the States and the liberties of the +People. It ought, therefore, to be brought to a speedy and immediate +close."</p> + +<p>It was about this time also that, emboldened by immunity from punishment +for these utterances in the interest of armed Rebels, Edgerton of +Indiana, was put forward to offer resolutions "for Peace, upon the basis +of a restoration of the Federal Union under the Constitution as it is," +etc.</p> + +<p>Thereafter, in both Senate and House, such speeches by +Rebel-sympathizers, the aiders and abettors of Treason, grew more frequent and +more virulent than ever. As was well said to the House, by one of the +Union members from Ohio (Mr. Eckley):</p> + +<p>"A stranger, if he listened to the debates here, would think himself in +the Confederate Congress. I do not believe that if these Halls were +occupied to-day by Davis, Toombs, Wigfall, Rhett, and Pryor, they could +add anything to the violence of assault, the falsity of accusation, or +the malignity of attack, with which the Government has been assailed, +and the able, patriotic, and devoted men who are charged with its +Administration have been maligned, in both ends of the Capitol. The +closing scenes of the Thirty-Sixth Congress, the treasonable +declarations there made, contain nothing that we cannot hear, in the +freedom of debate, without going to Richmond or to the camps of Treason, +where most of the actors in those scenes are now in arms against us."</p> + +<p>With such a condition of things in Congress, it is not surprising that +the Richmond Enquirer announced that the North was "distracted, +exhausted, and impoverished," and would, "through the agency of a strong +conservative element in the Free States," soon treat with the Rebels "on +acceptable terms."</p> + +<p>Things indeed had reached such a pass, in the House of Representatives +especially, that it was felt they could not much longer go on in this +manner; that an example must be made of some one or other of these +Copperheads. But the very knowledge of the existence of such a feeling +of just and patriotic irritation against the continued free utterance of +such sentiments in the Halls of Congress, seemed only to make some of +them still more defiant. And, when the 8th of April dawned, it was +known among all the Democrats in Congress, that Alexander Long proposed +that day to make a speech which would "go a bow-shot beyond them all" in +uttered Treason. He would speak right out, what the other Conspirators +thought and meant, but dared not utter, before the World.</p> + +<p>A crowded floor, and packed galleries, were on hand to listen to the +written, deliberate Treason, as it fell from his lips in the House. His +speech began with an arraignment of the Government for treachery, +incompetence, failure, tyranny, and all sorts of barbarous actions and +harsh intentions, toward the Rebels—which led him to the indignant +exclamation:</p> + +<p>"Will they throw down their arms and submit to the terms? Who shall +believe that the free, proud American blood, which courses with as quick +pulsation through their veins as our own, will not be spilled to the +last drop in resistance?"</p> + +<p>Warming up, he proceeded to say: "Can the Union be restored by War? I +answer most unhesitatingly and deliberately, No, never; 'War is final, +eternal separation.'"</p> + +<p>He claimed that the War was "wrong;" that it was waged "in violation of +the Constitution," and would "if continued, result speedily in the +destruction of the Government and the loss of Civil Liberty, and ought +therefore, to immediately cease."</p> + +<p>He held also "that the Confederate States are out of the Union, +occupying the position of an Independent Power de facto; have been +acknowledged as a belligerent both by Foreign Nations and our own +Government; maintained their Declaration of Independence, for three +years, by force of arms; and the War has cut asunder all the obligations +that bound them under the Constitution."</p> + +<p>"Much better," said he, "would it have been for us in the beginning, +much better would it be for us now, to consent to a division of our +magnificent Empire, and cultivate amicable relations with our estranged +brethren, than to seek to hold them to us by the power of the sword. * +* * I am reluctantly and despondingly forced to the conclusion that the +Union is lost, never to be restored. * * * I see neither North nor +South, any sentiment on which it is possible to build a Union. * * * in +attempting to preserve our Jurisdiction over the Southern States we have +lost our Constitutional Form of Government over the Northern. * * * The +very idea upon which this War is founded, coercion of States, leads to +despotism. * * * I now believe that there are but two alternatives, and +they are either an acknowledgment of the Independence of the South as an +independent Nation, or their complete subjugation and extermination as a +People; and of these alternatives I prefer the former."</p> + +<p>As Long took his seat, amid the congratulations of his Democratic +friends, Garfield arose, and, to compliments upon the former's peculiar +candor and honesty, added denunciation for his Treason. After drawing +an effective parallel between Lord Fairfax and Robert E. Lee, both of +whom had cast their lots unwillingly with the enemies of this Land, when +the Wars of the Revolution and of the Rebellion respectively opened, +Garfield proceeded:</p> + +<p>"But now, when hundreds of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God +under the shadow of the Flag, and when thousands more, maimed and +shattered in the Contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death; +now, when three years of terrific warfare have raged over us, when our +Armies have pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers and +crowded it back into narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now, +when the uplifted hand of a majestic People is about to let fall the +lightning of its conquering power upon the Rebellion; now, in the quiet +of this Hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a similar dark Treason, +there rises a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender us all up, body +and spirit, the Nation and the Flag, its genius and its honor, now and +forever, to the accursed Traitors to our Country. And that proposition +comes—God forgive and pity my beloved State!—it comes from a citizen +of the honored and loyal Commonwealth of Ohio! I implore you, brethren +in this House, not to believe that many such births ever gave pangs to +my mother-State such as she suffered when that Traitor was born!"</p> + +<p>As he uttered these sturdy words, the House and galleries were agitated +with that peculiar rustling movement and low murmuring sound known as a +"sensation," while the Republican side with difficulty restrained the +applause they felt like giving, until he sadly proceeded:</p> + +<p>"I beg you not to believe that on the soil of that State another such +growth has ever deformed the face of Nature and darkened the light of +God's day."</p> + +<p>The hush that followed was broken by the suggestive whisper: +"Vallandigham!"</p> + +<p>"But, ah," continued the Speaker—as his voice grew sadder still—"I am +reminded that there are other such. My zeal and love for Ohio have +carried me too far. I retract. I remember that only a few days since, +a political Convention met at the Capital of my State, and almost +decided, to select from just such material, a representative for the +Democratic Party in the coming contest; and today, what claims to be a +majority of the Democracy of that State say that they have been cheated +or they would have made that choice!"</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [This refers to Horatio Seymour, the Democratic Governor of New + York.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>After referring to the "insidious work" of the "Knights of the Golden +Circle" in seeking "to corrupt the Army and destroy its efficiency;" the +"riots and murders which," said he, "their agents are committing +throughout the Loyal North, under the lead and guidance of the Party +whose Representatives sit yonder across the aisle;" he continued: "and +now, just as the time is coming on when we are to select a President for +the next four years, one rises among them and fires the Beacon, throws +up the blue-light—which will be seen, and rejoiced over, at the Rebel +Capital in Richmond—as the signal that the Traitors in our camp are +organized and ready for their hellish work! I believe the utterance of +to-day is the uplifted banner of revolt. I ask you to mark the signal +that blazes here, and see if there will not soon appear the answering +signals of Traitors all over the Land. * * * If these men do mean to +light the torch of War in all our homes; if they have resolved to begin +the fearful work which will redden our streets, and this Capitol, with +blood, the American People should know it at once, and prepare to meet +it."</p> + +<p>At the close of Mr. Garfield's patriotic and eloquent remarks, Mr. Long +again got the floor, declared that what he had said, he believed to be +right, and he would "stand by it," though he had to "stand solitary and +alone," and "even if it were necessary to brave bayonets, and prisons, +and all the tyranny which may be imposed by the whole power and force of +the Administration."</p> + +<p>Said he: "I have deliberately uttered my sentiments in that speech, and +I will not retract one syllable of it." And, to "rub it in" a little +stronger, he exclaimed, as he took his seat, just before adjournment: +"Give me Liberty, even if confined to an Island of Greece, or a Canton +of Switzerland, rather than an Empire and a Despotism as we have here +to-day!"</p> + +<p>This treasonable speech naturally created much excitement throughout the +Country.</p> + +<p>On the following day (Saturday, April 9, 1864), immediately after +prayer, the reading of the Journal being dispensed with, the Speaker of +the House (Colfax) came down from the Speaker's Chair, and, from the +floor, offered a Preamble and Resolution, which ended thus:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That Alexander Long, a Representative from the second +district of Ohio, having, on the 8th day of April, 1864, declared +himself in favor of recognizing the Independence and Nationality of the +so-called Confederacy now in arms against the Union, and thereby 'given +aid, Countenance and encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility +to the United States,' is hereby expelled."</p> + +<p>The debate which ensued consumed nearly a week, and every member of +prominence, on both the Republican and Democratic sides, took part in +it—the Democrats almost invariably being careful to protest their own +loyalty, and yet attempting to justify the braver and more candid +utterances of the accused member.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cox led off, April 9th, in the defense, by counterattack. He quoted +remarks made to the House (March 18, 1864) by Mr. Julian, of Indiana, to +the effect that "Our Country, united and Free, must be saved, at +whatever hazard or cost; and nothing, not even the Constitution, must be +allowed to hold back the uplifted arm of the Government in blasting the +power of the Rebels forever;"—and upon this, adopting the language of +another—[Judge Thomas, of Massachusetts.]—Mr. Cox declared that "to +make this a War, with the sword in one hand to defend the Constitution, +and a hammer in the other to break it to pieces, is no less treasonable +than Secession itself; and that, outside the pale of the Constitution, +the whole struggle is revolutionary."</p> + +<p>He thought, for such words as he had just quoted, Julian ought to have +been expelled, if those of Long justified expulsion!</p> + +<p>Finally, being pressed by Julian to define his own position, as between +the Life of the Nation, and the Infraction of the United States +Constitution, Mr. Cox said: "I will say this, that UNDER NO +CIRCUMSTANCES CONCEIVABLE BY THE HUMAN MIND WOULD I EVER VIOLATE THAT +CONSTITUTION FOR ANY PURPOSE!"</p> + +<p>This sentiment was loudly applauded, and received with cries of "THAT IS +IT!" "THAT'S IT!" by the Democratic side of the House, apparently in +utter contempt for the express and emphatic declaration of Jefferson +that: "A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the +highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws +of Necessity, of Self-preservation, of SAVING OUR COUNTRY WHEN IN +DANGER, are of higher obligation. To LOSE OUR COUNTRY by a scrupulous +adherence to written law WOULD BE TO LOSE THE LAW ITSELF, with Life, +Liberty, Property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus +absolutely SACRIFICING THE END TO THE MEANS."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [In a letter to J. B. Colvin, Sept. 20, 1810, quoted at the time + for their information, and which may be found at page 542 of vol. + v., of Jefferson's Works.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Indeed these extreme sticklers for the letter of the Constitution, who +would have sacrificed Country, kindred, friends, honesty, truth, and all +ambitions on Earth and hopes for Heaven, rather than violate it—for +that is what Mr. Cox's announcement and the Democratic endorsement of it +meant, if they meant anything—were of the same stripe as those +querulous Ancients, for the benefit of whom the Apostle wrote: "For THE +LETTER KILLETH, but the Spirit giveth life."</p> + +<p>And now, inspired apparently by the reckless utterances +of Long, if not by the more cautious diatribe of Cox, Harris of +Maryland, determining if possible to outdo them all, not only declared +that he was willing to go with his friend Long wherever the House chose +to send him, but added: "I am a peace man, a radical peace man; and I am +for Peace by the recognition of the South, for the recognition of the +Southern Confederacy; and I am for acquiescence in the doctrine of +Secession." And, said he, in the midst of the laughter which followed +the sensation his treasonable words occasioned, "Laugh as you may, you +have got to come to it!" And then, with that singular obfuscation of +ideas engendered, in the heads of their followers, by the astute +Rebel-sympathizing leaders, he went on:</p> + +<p>"I am for Peace, and I am for Union too. I am as good a Union man as +any of you. [Laughter.] I am a better Union man than any of you! +[Great Laughter.] * * * I look upon War as Disunion."</p> + +<p>After declaring that, if the principle of the expulsion Resolution was +to be carried out, his "friend," Mr. Long, "would be a martyr in a +glorious cause"—he proceeded to announce his own candidacy for +expulsion, in the following terms:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Speaker, in the early part of this Secession movement, there was a +Resolution offered, pledging men and money to carry on the War. My +principles were then, and are now, against the War. I stood, solitary +and alone, in voting against that Resolution, and whenever a similar +proposition is brought here it will meet with my opposition. Not one +dollar, nor one man, I swear, by the Eternal, will I vote for this +infernal, this stupendous folly, more stupendous than ever disgraced any +civilized People on the face of God's Earth. If that be Treason, make +the most of it!</p> + +<p>"The South asked you to let them go in peace. But no, you said you +would bring them into subjugation. That is not done yet, and God +Almighty grant that it never may be. I hope that you will never +subjugate the South. If she is to be ever again in the Union, I hope it +will be with her own consent; and I hope that that consent will be +obtained by some other mode than by the sword. 'If this be Treason, +make the most of it!'"</p> + +<p>An extraordinary scene at once occurred—Mr. Tracy desiring "to know +whether, in these Halls, the gentleman from Maryland invoked Almighty +God that the American Arms should not prevail?" "Whether such language +is not Treason?" and "whether it is in order to talk Treason in this +Hall?"—his patriotic queries being almost drowned in the incessant +cries of "Order!" "Order!" and great disorder, and confusion, on the +Democratic side of the House.</p> + +<p>Finally the treasonable language was taken down by the Clerk, and, while +a Resolution for the expulsion of Mr. Harris was being written out, Mr. +Fernando Wood—coming, as he said, from a bed of "severe sickness," +quoted the language used by Mr. Long, to wit:</p> + +<p>"I now believe there are but two alternatives, and they are either the +acknowledgment of the Independence of the South as an independent +Nation, or their complete subjugation and extermination as a People; and +of these alternatives I prefer the former"—and declared that "if he is +to be expelled for the utterance of that sentiment, you may include me +in it, because I concur fully in that sentiment."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [He afterwards (April 11,) said he did not agree with Mr. Long's + opinions.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Every effort was unavailingly made by the Democrats, under the lead of +Messrs. Cox—[In 1886 American Minister at Constantinople.]—and +Pendleton,—[In 1886 American Minister at Berlin.]—to prevent action +upon the new Resolution of expulsion, which was in these words:</p> + +<p>"Whereas, Hon. Benjamin G. Harris, a member of the House of +Representatives of the United States from the State of Maryland, has on +this day used the following language, to wit: 'The South asked you to +let them go in peace. But no; you said you would bring them into +subjection. That is not done yet, and God Almighty grant that it never +may be. I hope that you will never subjugate the South.' And whereas, +such language is treasonable, and is a gross disrespect of this House: +Therefore, Be it Resolved, That the said Benjamin G. Harris be expelled +from this House."</p> + +<p>Upon reaching a vote, however, the Resolution was lost, there being only +81 yeas, to 58 (Democratic) nays—two-thirds not having voted +affirmatively. Subsequently, despite Democratic efforts to obstruct, a +Resolution, declaring Harris to be "an unworthy Member" of the House, +and "severely" censuring him, was adopted.</p> + +<p>The debate upon the Long-expulsion Resolution now proceeded, and its +mover, in view of the hopelessness of securing a two-thirds affirmative +vote, having accepted an amendment comprising other two Resolutions and +a Preamble, the question upon adopting these was submitted on the 14th +of April. They were in the words following:</p> + +<p>"Whereas, ALEXANDER LONG, a Representative from the second district of +Ohio, by his open declarations in the National Capitol, and publications +in the City of New York, has shown himself to be in favor of a +recognition of the so-called Confederacy now trying to establish itself +upon the ruins of our Country, thereby giving aid and comfort to the +Enemy in that destructive purpose—aid to avowed Traitors, in creating +an illegal Government within our borders, comfort to them by assurances +of their success and affirmations of the justice of their Cause; and +whereas, such conduct is at the same time evidence of disloyalty, and +inconsistent with his oath of office, and his duty as a Member of this +Body: Therefore,</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That the said Alexander Long, a Representative from the +second district of Ohio, be, and he is hereby declared to be an unworthy +Member of the House of Representatives.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That the Speaker shall read these Resolutions to the said +Alexander Long during the session of the House."</p> + +<p>The first of these Resolutions was adopted, by 80 yeas to 69 nays; the +second was tabled, by 71 yeas to 69 nays; and the Preamble was agreed +to, by 78 yeas to 63 nays.</p> + +<p>And, among the 63 Democrats, who were not only unwilling to declare +Alexander Long "an unworthy Member," or to have the Speaker read such a +declaration to him in a session of the House, but also refused by their +votes even to intimate that his conduct evidenced disloyalty, or gave +aid and comfort to the Enemy, were the names of such democrats as Cox, +Eldridge, Holman, Kernan, Morrisson, Pendleton, Samuel J. Randall, +Voorhees, and Fernando Wood.</p> + +<p>Hence Mr. Long not only escaped expulsion for his treasonable +utterances, but did not even receive the "severe censure" which, in +addition to being declared (like himself) "an unworthy Member," had been +voted to Mr. Harris for recklessly rushing into the breach to help him!</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The Northern Democracy comprised two well-recognized classes: The + Anti-War (or Peace) Democrats, commonly called "Copperheads," who + sympathized with the Rebellion, and opposed the War for the Union; + and the War (or Union) Democrats, who favored a vigorous + prosecution of the War for the preservation of the Union.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="ch26"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVI.<br><br> + + "THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT" DEFEATED IN THE HOUSE. + +</h2> +</center> +<br> + +<p>The debate in the House of Representatives, upon the Thirteenth +Amendment to the Constitution—interrupted by the treasonable episode +referred to in the last Chapter—was subsequently resumed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, however, Fort Pillow had been stormed, and its garrison of +Whites and Blacks, massacred.</p> + +<p>And now commenced the beginning of the end—so far as the Military aspect +of the Rebellion was concerned. Early in May, Sherman's Atlanta +Campaign commenced, and, simultaneously, General Grant began his +movement toward Richmond. In quick succession came the news of the +bloody battles of the Wilderness, and those around Spottsylvania, Va.; +at Buzzard Roost Gap, Snake Creek Gap, and Dalton, Ga.; Drury's Bluff, +Va.; Resaca, Ga.; the battles of the North Anna, Va.; those around +Dallas, and New Hope church, Ga; the crossing of Grant's forces to the +South side of the James and the assault on Petersburg. While the Union +Armies were thus valiantly attacking and beating those of the Rebels, on +many a sanguinary field the loyal men of the North, both in and out of +Congress, pressed for favorable action upon the Thirteenth Amendment. +"Friends of the wounded in Fredericksburg from the Battle of the +Wilderness"—exclaimed Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune, of May +31st,—"friends and relatives of the soldiers of Grant's Army beyond the +Wilderness, let us all join hands and swear upon our Country's altar +that we will never cease this War until African Slavery in the United +States is dead forever, and forever buried!"</p> + +<p>Peace Democrats, however, were deaf to all such entreaties. On the very +same day, Mr. Holman, in the House, objected even to the second reading +of the Joint Resolution Amendatory of the Constitution, and there were +so many "Peace Democrats" to back him, that the vote was: 55 yeas to 76 +nays, on the question "shall the Joint Resolution be rejected!"</p> + +<p>The old cry, that had been repeated by Hendricks and others, in the +Senate and House, time and again, was still used—threadbare though it +was—"this is not the right time for it!" On this very day, for +instance, Mr. Herrick said: "I ask if this is the proper time for our +People to consider so grave a measure as the Amendment of the +Constitution in so vital a point? * * * this is no fitting time for +such work."</p> + +<p>Very different was the attitude of Kellogg, of New York, and well did he +show up the depths to which the Democracy—the Peace Democracy—had now +fallen. "We are told," said he, "of a War Democracy, and such there +are—their name is legion—good men and true; they are found in the +Union ranks bearing arms in support of the Government and the +Administration that wields it. At the ballot-box, whether at home or in +the camp, they are Union men, and vote as they fight, and hold little in +common with the political leaders of the Democratic Party in or out of +this Hall—the Seymours, the Woods, the Vallandighams, the Woodwards, +and their indorsers, who hold and control the Democratic Party here, and +taint it with Treason, till it is a stench in the nostrils of all +patriotic men."</p> + +<p>After referring to the fact that the leaders of the Rebellion had from +the start relied confidently upon assistance from the Northern +Democracy, he proceeded:</p> + +<p>"The Peace Democracy, and mere Party-hacks in the North, are fulfilling +their masters' expectations industriously, unceasingly, and as far as in +them lies. Not even the shouts for victory, in these Halls, can divert +their Southern allies here. A sullen gloom at the defeat and +discomfiture of their Southern brethren settles down on their disastrous +countenances, from which no ray of joy can be reflected. * * * They +even vote solid against a law to punish guerrillas.</p> + +<p>"Sir," continued he, "in my judgment, many of those who withhold from +their Country the support they would otherwise give, find allegiance to +Party too strong for their patriotism. * * * Rejecting the example and +counsels of Stanton and Dickinson and Butler and Douglas and Dix and +Holt and Andrew Johnson and Logan and Rosecrans and Grant and a host of +others, all Democrats of the straightest sect, to forget all other ties, +and cleave only to their Country for their Country's sake, and rejecting +the overtures and example of the Republican Party to drop and forget +their Party name, that all might unite and band together for their +Country's salvation as Union men, they turn a deaf ear and cold +shoulder, and sullenly pass by on the other side, thanking God they are +not as other men are, and lend, if at all, a calculating, qualified, and +conditional and halting support, under protest, to their Country's +cause; thus justifying the only hope of the Rebellion to-day, that Party +spirit at the North will distract its counsels, divide and discourage +and palsy its efforts, and ultimately make way for the Traitor and the +parricide to do their worst."</p> + +<p>Besides the set speeches made against the proposed +Constitutional amendment in the House, Peace-Democrats of the Senate +continued to keep up a running fire at it in that Chamber, on every +possible occasion. Garrett Davis was especially garrulous on the +subject, and also launched the thunders of his wrath at the President +quite frequently and even vindictively. For instance, speaking in the +Senate—[May 31,1864,]—of the right of Property in Slaves; said he:</p> + +<p>"This new-born heresy 'Military Necessity,' as President Lincoln claims, +and exercises it, is the sum of all political and Military villianies * * +* and it is no less absurd than it is villianous. * * * The man has +never spoken or lived who can prove by any provision of the +Constitution, or by any principle, or by any argument to be deduced +logically and fairly from it, that he has any such power as this vast, +gigantic, all-conquering and all-crushing power of Military Necessity +which he has the audacity to claim.</p> + +<p>"This modern Emperor, this Tiberius, a sort of a Tiberius, and his +Sejanus, a sort of a Sejanus, the head of the War Department, are +organizing daily their Military Courts to try civilians. * * *</p> + +<p>"Sir, I want one labor of love before I die. I want the President of +the United States, I want his Secretary of War, I want some of his high +officers in Military command to bring a civilian to a Military +execution, and me to have the proud privilege of prosecuting them for +murder. * * * I want the law and its just retribution to be visited +upon these great delinquents.</p> + +<p>"I would sooner, if I had the power, bring about such an atonement as +that, than I would even put down the Rebellion. It would be a greater +victory in favor of Freedom and Constitutional Liberty, a thousand-fold, +of all the People of America besides, than the subjugation of the Rebel +States could possibly be."</p> + +<p>But there seemed to be no end to the' attacks upon the Administration, +made, in both Houses, by these peculiar Peace-Democrats. Union blood +might flow in torrents on the fields of the rebellious South, atrocities +innumerable might be committed by the Rebels, cold-blooded massacres of +Blacks and Whites, as at Fort Pillow, might occur without rebuke from +them; but let the Administration even dare to sneeze, and—woe to the +Administration.</p> + +<p>It was not the Thirteenth Amendment only, that they assailed, but +everything else which the Administration thought might help it in its +effort to put down the Rebellion. Nor was it so much their malignant +activity in opposition to any one measure intended to strengthen the +hands of the Union, but to all such measures; and superadded to this was +the incessant bringing forward, in both Houses of Congress, by these +restless Rebel-sympathizers, of Peace-Resolutions, the mere presentation +of which would be, and were, construed by the Rebel authorities at +Richmond, as evidences of a weakening.</p> + +<p>Even some of the best of the Peace-Democrats, like S. S. Cox, for +instance, not only assailed the Tariff—under which the Union Republican +Party sought to protect and build up American Industry, as well as to +raise as much revenue as possible to help meet the enormous current +expenditures of the Government—but also denounced our great paper-money +system, which alone enabled us to secure means to meet all deficiencies +in the revenues otherwise obtained, and thus to ultimately conquer the +hosts of Rebellion.</p> + +<p>He declared (June 2, 1864) that "The People are the victims of the +joint-robbery of a system of bounties under the guise of duties, and of +an inconvertible and depreciated paper currency under the guise of +money," and added: "No man is now so wise and gifted that he can save +this Nation from bankruptcy. * * * No borrowing system can save us. +The scheme of making greenbacks a legal tender, which enabled the debtor +to cheat his creditor, thereby playing the old game of kingcraft, to +debase the currency in order to aid the designs of despotism, may float +us for a while amidst the fluctuations and bubbles of the day; but as no +one possesses the power to repeal the Law of the Almighty, which decrees +(and as our Constitution has established) that gold and silver shall be +the standard of value in the World, so they will ever thus remain, +notwithstanding the legislation of Congress."</p> + +<p>Not satisfied with this sort of "fire in the rear," it was attempted by +means of Democratic Free-Trade and antipaper-currency sophistries, to +arouse jealousies, heart-burnings and resentful feelings in the breasts +of those living in different parts of the Union—to implant bitter +Sectional antagonisms and implacable resentments between the Eastern +States, on the one hand, and the Western States, on the other—and thus, +by dividing, to weaken the Loyal Union States.</p> + +<p>That this was the cold-blooded purpose of all who pursued this course, +would no doubt be warmly denied by some of them; but the fact remains no +less clear, that the effect of that course, whether so intended or not, +was to give aid and comfort to the Enemy at that critical time when the +Nation most needed all the men, money, and moral as well as material +support, it was possible to get, to put an end to the bloody Rebellion, +now—under the continuous poundings of Grant's Army upon that of Lee in +Virginia, and the advance of Sherman's Army upon that of Johnston in +Georgia—tottering to its overthrow. Thus this same speaker (S. S. Cox), +in his untimely speech, undertook to divide the Union-loving States +"into two great classes: the Protected States and the Unprotected +States;" and—having declared that "The Manufacturing States, mainly the +New England States and Pennsylvania, are the Protected States," and "The +Agricultural States," mainly the eleven Western States, which he named, +"are the Unprotected States"—proceeded to intemperately and violently +arraign New England, and especially Massachusetts, in the same way that +had years before been adopted by the old Conspirators of the South when +they sought—alas, too successfully!—to inflame the minds of Southern +citizens to a condition of unreasoning frenzy which made attempted +Nullification and subsequent armed Rebellion and Secession possible.</p> + +<p>Well might the thoroughly loyal Grinnell, of Iowa—after exposing what +he termed the "sophistry of figures" by which Mr. Cox had seen fit "to +misrepresent and traduce" the Western States—exclaim: "Sir, I have no +words which I can use to execrate sufficiently such language, in +arraying the Sections in opposition during a time of War; as if we were +not one People, descended from one stock, having one interest, and bound +up in one destiny!"</p> + +<p>The damage that might have been done to the Union Cause by such +malignant Democratic attacks upon the National unity and strength, may +be imagined when we reflect that at this very time the annual expenses +of our Government were over $600,000,000, and growing still larger; and +that $1.90 in legal tender notes of the United States was worth but +$1.00 in gold, with a downward tendency. Said stern old Thaddeus +Stevens, alluding on this occasion, to Statesmanship of the peculiar +stamp of the Coxes and Fernando Woods: "He who in this time will pursue +such a course of argument for the mere sake of party, can never hope to +be ranked among Statesmen; nay, Sir, he will not even rise to the +dignity of a respectable Demagogue!"</p> + +<p>Within a week after this, (June 9, 1864), we find in the Senate also, +similarly insidious attacks upon the strength of the Government, made by +certain Northern Democrats, who never tired of undermining Loyalty, and +creating and spreading discontent among the People. The Bill then up, +for consideration, was one "to prohibit the discharge of persons from +liability to Military duty, by reason of the payment of money."</p> + +<p>In the terribly bloody Campaign that had now been entered upon by Grant +—in the West, under Sherman, and in the East, under his own personal +eye—it was essential to send to the front, every man possible. Hence +the necessity for a Bill of this sort, which moreover provided, in order +as far as possible to popularize conscription, that all calls for drafts +theretofore made under the Enrolling Act of March 3, 1863, should be for +not over one year's service, etc.</p> + +<p>This furnished the occasion for Mr. Hendricks, among other Peace +Democrats, to make opposing speeches. He, it seems, had all along been +opposed to drafting Union soldiers; and because, during the previous +Winter, the Senate had been unwilling to abolish the clause permitting a +drafted man to pay a commutation of $300 (with which money a substitute +could be procured) instead of himself going, at a time when men were not +quite so badly needed as now, therefore Mr. Hendricks pretended to think +it very strange and unjustifiable that now, when everything depended on +getting every possible man in the field, the Senate should think of +"abandoning that which it thought right last Winter!"</p> + +<p>He opposed drafting; but if drafting must be resorted to, then he +thought that what he termed "the Horror of the Draft" should be felt by +as many of the Union people as possible!—or, in his own words: "the +Horror of the Draft ought to be divided among the People." As if this +were not sufficient to conjure dreadful imaginings, he added: "if one +set of men are drafted this year to serve twelve months, and they have +to go because the power of the Government makes them go, whether they +can go well or not, then at the end of the year their neighbors should +be subjected to the same Horror, and let this dreadful demand upon the +service, upon the blood, and upon the life of the People be distributed +upon all."</p> + +<p>And, in order apparently to still further intensify public feeling +against all drafting, and sow the seeds of dissatisfaction in the hearts +of those drafted at this critical time, when the fate of the Union and +of Republican Government palpably depended upon conscription, he added: +"It is not so right to say to twenty men in a neighborhood: 'You shall +go; you shall leave your families whether you can or not; you shall go +without the privilege of commutation whether you leave starving wives +and children behind you or not,' and then say to every other man of the +neighborhood: 'Because we have taken these twenty men for three years, +you shall remain with your wives and children safely and comfortably at +home for these three years.' I like this feature of the amendment, +because it distributes the Horror of the Draft more equally and justly +over the whole People."</p> + +<p>Not satisfied with rolling the "Horror of the Draft" so often and +trippingly over his tongue, he also essayed the role of Prophet in the +interest of the tottering god of Slavery. "The People," said he, +"expect great results from this Campaign; and when another year comes +rolling around, and it is found that this War is not closed, and that +there is no reasonable probability of its early close, my colleague +(Lane) and other Senators who agree with him will find that the People +will say that this effusion of blood must stop; that THERE MUST BE SOME +ADJUSTMENT. I PROPHESY THIS."</p> + +<p>And, as a further declaration likely to give aid and comfort to the +Rebel leaders, he said: "I do not believe many men are going to be +obtained by a draft; I do not believe a very good Army will be got by a +draft; I do not believe an Army will be put in the field, by a draft, +that will whip General Lee."</p> + +<p>But while all such statements were, no doubt, intended to help the foes +of the Union, and dishearten or dismay its friends, the really loyal +People, understanding their fell object, paid little heed to them. The +predictions of these Prophets of evil fell flat upon the ears of lovers +of their Country. Conspirators, however much they might masquerade in +the raiment of Loyalty, could not wholly conceal the ear-marks of +Treason. The hand might be the hand of Esau, but the voice was the +voice of Jacob.</p> + +<p>On the 8th of June—after a month of terrific and bloody fighting +between the immediate forces of Grant and Lee—a dispatch from Sherman, +just received at Washington, was read to the House of Representatives, +which said: "The Enemy is not in our immediate front, but his signals +are seen at Lost Mountain, and Kenesaw." So, at the same time, at the +National Capital, while the friends of the Union there, were not +immediately confronted with an armed Enemy, yet the signals of his +Allies could be seen, and their fire upon our rear could be heard, daily +and almost hourly, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives.</p> + +<p>The fight in the House, upon the Thirteenth Amendment, now seemed +indeed, to be reaching a climax. During the whole of June 14th, until +midnight, speech after speech on the subject, followed each other in +rapid succession. Among the opposition speeches, perhaps those of +Fernando Wood and Holman were most notable for extravagant and +unreasoning denunciation of the Administration and Party in power—whose +every effort was put forth, and strained at this very time to the +utmost, to save the Union.</p> + +<p>Holman, for instance, declared that, "Of all the measures of this +disastrous Administration, each in its turn producing new calamities, +this attempt to tamper with the Constitution threatens the most +permanent injury." He enumerated the chief measures of the +Administration during its three and a half years of power—among them the +Emancipation Proclamation, the arming of the Blacks, and what he +sneeringly termed "their pet system of finance" which was to "sustain +the public credit for infinite years," but which "even now," said he, +"totters to its fall!" And then, having succeeded in convincing himself +of Republican failure, he exultingly exclaimed: "But why enumerate? +What measure of this Administration has failed to be fatal! Every step +in your progress has been a mistake. I use the mildest terms of +censure!"</p> + +<p>Fernando Wood, in his turn also, "mildly" remarked upon Republican +policy as "the bloody and brutal policy of the Administration Party." +He considered this "the crisis of the fate of the Union;" declared that +Slavery was "the best possible condition to insure the happiness of the +Negro race"—a position which, on the following day, he +"reaffirmed"—and characterized those members of the Democratic Party who saw Treason +in the ways and methods and expressions of Peace Democrats of his own +stamp, as a "pack of political jackals known as War Democrats."</p> + +<p>On the 15th of June, Farnsworth made a reply to Ross—who had claimed to +be friendly to the Union soldier—in which the former handled the +Democratic Party without gloves. "What," said he, referring to Mr. +Ross, "has been the course of that gentleman and his Party on this floor +in regard to voting supplies to the Army? What has been their course in +regard to raising money to pay the Army? His vote will be found +recorded in almost every instance against the Appropriation Bills, +against ways and means for raising money to pay the Army. It is only a +week ago last Monday, that a Bill was introduced here to punish +guerrillas * * * and how did my colleague vote? Against the Bill.* * * +On the subject of arming Slaves, of putting Negroes into the Army, how +has my colleague and his Party voted? Universally against it. They +would strip from the backs of these Black soldiers, now in the service +of the Country, their uniforms, and would send them back to Slavery with +chains and manacles. And yet they are the friends of the soldier!"* * * +"On the vote to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, how did that (Democratic) +side of the House vote? Does not the Fugitive Slave Law affect the +Black soldier in the Army who was a Slave? That side of the House are +in favor of continuing the Fugitive Slave Law, and of disbanding Colored +troops. How did that side of the House vote on the question of arming +Slaves and paying them as soldiers? They voted against it. They are in +favor of disbanding the Colored regiments, and, armed with the Fugitive +Slave Law, sending them back to their masters!"</p> + +<p>He took occasion also to meet various Democratic arguments against the +Resolution,—among them, one, hinging on the alleged right of Property +in Slaves. This was a favorite idea with the Border-State men +especially, that Slaves were Property—mere chattels as it were,—and, +only the day before, a Northern man, Coffroth of Pennsylvania, had said:</p> + +<p>"Sir, we should pause before proceeding any further in this +Unconstitutional and censurable legislation. The mere abolition of +Slavery is not my cause of complaint. I care not whether Slavery is +retained or abolished by the people of the States in which it +exists—the only rightful authority. The question to me is, has Congress a +right to take from the people of the South their Property; or, in other +words, having no pecuniary interest therein, are we justified in freeing +the Slave-property of others? Can we Abolish Slavery in the Loyal State +of Kentucky against her will? If this Resolution should pass, and be +ratified by three-fourths of the States—States already Free—and +Kentucky refuses to ratify it, upon what principle of right or law would +we be justified in taking this Slave-property of the people of Kentucky? +Would it be less than stealing?"</p> + +<p>And Farnsworth met this idea—which had also been advanced by Messrs. +Ross, Fernando Wood, and Pruyn—by saying: "What constitutes property? +I know it is said by some gentlemen on the other side, that what the +statute makes property, is property. I deny it. What 'vested right' +has any man or State in Property in Man? We of the North hold property, +not by virtue of statute law, not by virtue of enactments. Our property +consists in lands, in chattels, in things. Our property was made +property by Jehovah when He gave Man dominion over it. But nowhere did +He give dominion of Man over Man. Our title extends back to the +foundation of the World. That constitutes property. There is where we +get our title. There is where we get our 'vested rights' to property."</p> + +<p>Touching the ethics of Slavery, Mr. Arnold's speech on the same occasion +was also able, and in parts eloquent, as where he said: 'Slavery is +to-day an open enemy striking at the heart of the Republic. It is the soul +and body, the spirit and motive of the Rebellion. It is Slavery which +marshals yonder Rebel hosts, which confront the patriot Armies of Grant +and Sherman. It is the savage spirit of this barbarous Institution +which starves the Union prisoners at Richmond, which assassinates them +at Fort Pillow, which murders the wounded on the field of battle, and +which fills up the catalogue of wrong and outrage which mark the conduct +of the Rebels during all this War.</p> + +<p>"In view of all the long catalogue of wrongs which Slavery has inflicted +upon the Country, I demand to-day, of the Congress of the United States, +the death of African Slavery. We can have no permanent Peace, while +Slavery lives. It now reels and staggers toward its last death-struggle. +Let us strike the monster this last decisive blow."</p> + +<p>And, after appealing to both Border-State men, and Democrats of the Free +States, not to stay the passage of this Resolution which "will strike +the Rebellion at the heart," he continued: "Gentlemen may flatter +themselves with a restoration of the Slave-power in this Country. 'The +Union as it was!' It is a dream, never again to be realized. The +America of the past, has gone forever. A new Nation is to be born from +the agony through which the People are now passing. This new Nation is +to be wholly Free. Liberty, Equality before the Law, is to be the great +Corner-stone."</p> + +<p>So, too, Mr. Ingersoll eloquently said—among many other good +things:—"It is well to eradicate an evil. That Slavery is an evil, no sane, +honest man will deny. It has been the great curse of this Country from +its infancy to the present hour, And now that the States in Rebellion +have given the Loyal States the opportunity to take off that curse, to +wipe away the foul stain, I say let it be done. We owe it to ourselves; +we owe it to posterity; we owe it to the Slaves themselves to +exterminate Slavery forever by the adoption of the proposed Amendment to +the Constitution. * * * I believe Slavery is the mother of this +Rebellion, that this Rebellion can be attributed to no other cause but +Slavery; from that it derived its life, and gathers its strength to-day. +Destroy the mother, and the child dies. Destroy the cause, and the +effect will disappear.</p> + +<p>"Slavery has ever been the enemy of liberal principles. It has ever +been the friend of ignorance, prejudice, and all the unlawful, savage, +and detestable passions which proceed therefrom. It has ever been +domineering, arrogant, exacting, and overbearing. It has claimed to be +a polished aristocrat, when in reality it has only been a coarse, +swaggering, and brutal boor. It has ever claimed to be a gentleman, +when in reality it has ever been a villain. I think it is high time to +clip its overgrown pretensions, strip it of its mask, and expose it, in +all its hideous deformity, to the detestation of all honest and +patriotic men."</p> + +<p>After Mr. Samuel J. Randall had, at a somewhat later hour, pathetically +and poetically invoked the House, in its collective unity, as a +"Woodman," to "spare that tree" of the Constitution, and to "touch not a +single bough," because, among other reasons, "in youth it sheltered" +him; and furthermore, because "the time" was "most inopportune;" and, +after Mr. Rollins, of Missouri, had made a speech, which he afterward +suppressed; Mr. Pendleton closed the debate in an able effort, from his +point of view, in which he objected to the passage of the Joint +Resolution because "the time is not auspicious;" because, said he, "it +is impossible that the Amendment proposed, should be ratified without a +fraudulent use of the power to admit new States, or a fraudulent use of +the Military power of the Federal Government in the Seceded +States,"—and, said he, "if you should attempt to amend the Constitution by such +means, what binding obligation would it have?"</p> + +<p>He objected, also, because "the States cannot, under the pretense of +amending the Constitution, subvert the structure, spirit, and theory of +this Government." "But," said he, "if this Amendment were within the +Constitutional power of amendment; if this were a proper time to +consider it; if three-fourths of the States were willing to ratify it; +and if it did not require the fraudulent use of power, either in this +House or in the Executive Department, to secure its adoption, I would +still resist the passage of this Resolution. It is another step toward +consolidation, and consolidation is Despotism; confederation is +Liberty."</p> + +<p>It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of June 15th, that the House +came to a vote, on the passage of the Joint Resolution. At first the +strain of anxiety on both sides was great, but, as the roll proceeded, +it soon became evident that the Resolution was doomed to defeat. And so +it transpired. The vote stood 93 yeas, to 65 nays—Mr. Ashley having +changed his vote, from the affirmative to the negative, for the purpose +of submitting, at the proper time, a motion to reconsider.</p> + +<p>That same evening, Mr. Ashley made the motion to reconsider the vote by +which the proposed Constitutional Amendment was rejected; and the motion +was duly entered in the Journal, despite the persistent efforts of +Messrs. Cox, Holman, and others, to prevent it.</p> + +<p>On the 28th of June, just prior to the Congressional Recess, Mr. Ashley +announced that he had been disappointed in the hope of securing enough +votes from the Democratic side of the House to carry the Amendment. +"Those," said he, "who ought to have been the champions of this great +proposition are unfortunately its strongest opponents. They have +permitted the golden opportunity to pass. The record is made up, and we +must go to the Country on this issue thus presented." And then he gave +notice that he would call the matter up, at the earliest possible moment +after the opening of the December Session of Congress.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="ch27"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVII.<br><br> + + SLAVERY DOOMED AT THE POLLS. + +</h2> +</center> +<br> + +<p>The record was indeed made up, and the issue thus made, between Slavery +and Freedom, would be the chief one before the People. Already the +Republican National Convention, which met at Baltimore, June 7, 1864, +had not only with "enthusiastic unanimity," renominated Mr. Lincoln for +the Presidency, but amid "tremendous applause," the delegates rising and +waving their hats—had adopted a platform which declared, in behalf of +that great Party: "That, as Slavery was the cause, and now constitutes +the strength, of this Rebellion, and as it must be, always and +everywhere, hostile to the principles of Republican government, Justice +and the National safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from +the soil of the Republic; and that while we uphold and maintain the Acts +and Proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed +a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of +such an Amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the People in +conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit +the existence of Slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the +United States."</p> + +<p>So, too, with vociferous plaudits, had they received and adopted another +Resolution, wherein they declared "That we approve and applaud the +practical wisdom, the unselfish patriotism and the unswerving fidelity +to the Constitution and the principles of American Liberty, with which +Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unparalleled +difficulty, the great duties and responsibilities of the Presidential +Office; that we approve and endorse, as demanded by the emergency, and +essential to the preservation of the Nation, and as within the +provisions of the Constitution; the Measures and Acts which he has +adopted to defend the Nation against its open and secret foes; that we +approve, especially, the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the +employment, as Union soldiers, of men heretofore held in Slavery; and +that we have full confidence in his determination to carry these and all +other Constitutional Measures essential to the salvation of the Country, +into full and complete effect."</p> + +<p>Thus heartily, thoroughly and unreservedly, endorsed in all the great +acts of his Administration—and even more emphatically, if possible, in +his Emancipation policy—by the unanimous vote of his Party, Mr. +Lincoln, although necessarily "chagrined and disappointed" +by the House-vote which had defeated the Thirteenth Amendment, might well feel +undismayed. He always had implicit faith in the People; he felt sure +that they would sustain him; and this done, why could not the votes of a +dozen, out of the seventy Congressional Representatives opposing that +Amendment, be changed? Even failing in this, it must be but a question +of time. He thought he could afford to bide that time.</p> + +<p>On the 29th of August, the Democratic National Convention met at +Chicago. Horatio Seymour was its permanent President; that same +Governor of New York whom the 4th of July, 1863, almost at the moment +when Vicksburg and Gettysburg had brought great encouragement to the +Union cause, and when public necessity demanded the enforcement of the +Draft in order to drive the Rebel invader from Northern soil and bring +the Rebellion speedily to an end—had threateningly said to the +Republicans, in the course of a public speech, during the Draft-riots at +New York City: "Remember this, that the bloody, and treasonable, and +revolutionary doctrine of public necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as +well as by a Government. * * * When men accept despotism, they may have +a choice as to who the despot shall be!"</p> + +<p>In his speech to this Democratic-Copperhead National Convention, +therefore, it is not surprising that he should, at this time, declare +that "this Administration cannot now save this Union, if it would." +That the body which elected such a presiding officer,—after the bloody +series of glorious Union victories about Atlanta, Ga., then fast leading +up to the fall of that great Rebel stronghold, (which event actually +occurred long before most of these Democratic delegates, on their +return, could even reach their homes)—should adopt a Resolution +declaring that the War was a "failure," was not surprising either.</p> + +<p>That Resolution—"the material resolution of the Chicago platform," as +Vallandigham afterward characters it, was written and "carried through +both the Subcommittee and the General Committee" by that Arch-Copperhead +and Conspirator himself.—[See his letter of October 22, 1864, to the +editor of the New York News,]</p> + +<p>It was in these words: "Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly +declare as the sense of the American People, that after four years of +failure to restore the Union by the experiment of War, during which, +under the pretense of a military necessity, or War—power higher than the +Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every +part, and public Liberty and private right alike trodden down and the +material prosperity of the Country essentially impaired—Justice, +Humanity, Liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts +be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate +Convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that at +the earliest practicable moment Peace may be restored on the basis of +the Federal Union of the States."</p> + +<p>With a Copperhead platform, this Democratic Convention thought it +politic to have a Union candidate for the Presidency. Hence, the +nomination of General McClellan; but to propitiate the out-and-out +Vallandigham Peace men, Mr. Pendleton was nominated to the second place +on the ticket.</p> + +<p>This combination was almost as great a blunder as was the platform—than +which nothing could have been worse. Farragut's Naval victory at +Mobile, and Sherman's capture of Atlanta, followed so closely upon the +adjournment of the Convention as to make its platform and candidates the +laughing stock of the Nation; and all the efforts of Democratic orators, +and of McClellan himself, in his letter of acceptance, could not prevent +the rise of that great tidal wave of Unionism which was soon to engulf +the hosts of Copperhead-Democracy.</p> + +<p>The Thanksgiving-services in the churches, and the thundering salutes of +100 guns from every Military and Naval post in the United States, which +—during the week succeeding that Convention's sitting—betokened the +Nation's especial joy and gratitude to the victorious Union Forces of +Sherman and Farragut for their fortuitously-timed demonstration that the +"experiment of War" for the restoration of the Union was anything but a +"Failure" all helped to add to the proportions of that rapidly-swelling +volume of loyal public feeling.</p> + +<p>The withdrawal from the canvass, of General Fremont, nominated for the +Presidency by the "radical men of the Nation," at Cleveland, also +contributed to it. In his letter of withdrawal, September 17th, he +said:</p> + +<p>"The Presidential contest has, in effect, been entered upon in such a +way that the union of the Republican Party has become a paramount +necessity. The policy of the Democratic Party signifies either +separation, or reestablishment with Slavery. The Chicago platform is +simply separation. General McClellan's letter of acceptance is +reestablishment, with Slavery. The Republican candidate is, on the +contrary, pledged to the reestablishment of the Union without Slavery; +and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure of his Party +will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues, I think no +man of the Liberal Party can remain in doubt."</p> + +<p>And now, following the fall of Atlanta before Sherman's Forces, Grant +had stormed "Fort Hell," in front of Petersburg; Sheridan had routed the +Rebels, under Early, at Winchester, and had again defeated Early at +Fisher's Hill; Lee had been repulsed in his attack on Grant's works at +Petersburg; and Allatoona had been made famous, by Corse and his 2,000 +Union men gallantly repulsing the 5,000 men of Hood's Rebel Army, who +had completely surrounded and attacked them in front, flank, and rear.</p> + +<p>All these Military successes for the Union Cause helped the Union +political campaign considerably, and, when supplemented by the +remarkable results of the October elections in Pennsylvania, Indiana, +and Maryland, made the election of Lincoln and Johnson a foregone +conclusion.</p> + +<p>The sudden death of Chief-Justice Taney, too, happening, by a strange +coincidence, simultaneously with the triumph of the Union Party of +Maryland in carrying the new Constitution of that State, which +prohibited Slavery within her borders, seemed to have a significance* +not without its effect upon the public mind, now fast settling down to +the belief that Slavery everywhere upon the soil of the United States +must die.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Greeley well said of it: "His death, at this moment, seemed to + mark the transition from the Era of Slavery to that of Universal + Freedom."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Then came, October 19th, the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va. where the Rebel +General Early, during Sheridan's absence, surprised and defeated the +latter's forces, until Sheridan, riding down from Winchester, turned +defeat into victory for the Union Arms, and chased the armed Rebels out +of the Shenandoah Valley forever; and the fights of October 27th and +28th, to the left of Grant's position, at Petersburg, by which the +railroad communications of Lee's Army at Richmond were broken up.</p> + +<p>At last, November 8, 1864, dawned the eventful day of election. By +midnight of that date it was generally believed, all over the Union, +that Lincoln and Johnson were overwhelmingly elected, and that the Life +as well as Freedom of the Nation had thus been saved by the People.</p> + +<p>Late that very night, President Lincoln was serenaded by a Pennsylvania +political club, and, in responding to the compliment, modestly said:</p> + +<p>"I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work (if it be +as you assure, and as now seems probable) will be to the lasting +advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the Country. I cannot at +this hour say what has been the result of the election. But whatever it +may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion, that all who have +labored to-day in behalf of the Union organization have wrought for the +best interests of their Country and the World, not only for the present +but for all future ages.</p> + +<p>"I am thankful to God," continued he, "for this approval of the People; +but, while deeply gratified for this mark of their confidence in me, if +I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal +triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is +no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the +Almighty for this evidence of the People's resolution to stand by Free +Government and the rights of Humanity."</p> + +<p>On the 10th of November, in response to another serenade given at the +White House, in the presence of an immense and jubilantly enthusiastic +gathering of Union men, by the Republican clubs of the District of +Columbia, Mr. Lincoln said:</p> + +<p>"It has long been a grave question whether any Government, not too +strong for the Liberties of its People, can be strong enough to maintain +its existence in great emergencies. On this point the present +Rebellion has brought our Republic to a severe test, and a +Presidential election, occurring in regular course during the Rebellion, +has added not a little to the strain. * * * But the election, along +with its incidental and undesired strife, has done good, too. It has +demonstrated that a People's Government can sustain a National election +in the midst of a great Civil War, until now it has not been known to +the World that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and +how strong we still are.</p> + +<p>"But," said he, "the Rebellion continues; and now that the election is +over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a common effort to +save our common Country?</p> + +<p>"For my own part," continued he—as the cheering, elicited by this +forcible appeal, ceased—"I have striven, and shall strive, to avoid +placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply +sensible to the high compliment of a reelection, and duly grateful, as I +trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right +conclusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my +satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or pained by the +result."</p> + +<p>And, as the renewed cheering evoked by this kindly, Christian utterance +died away again, he impressively added: "May I ask those who have not +differed with me, to join with me in this same spirit, towards those who +have?"</p> + +<p>So, too, on the 17th of November, in his response to the complimentary +address of a delegation of Union men from Maryland.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [W. H. Purnell, Esq., in behalf of the Committee, delivered an + address, in which he said they rejoiced that the People, by such an + overwhelming and unprecedented majority, had again reelected Mr. + Lincoln to the Presidency and endorsed his course—elevating him to + the proudest and most honorable position on Earth. They felt under + deep obligation to him because he had appreciated their condition + as a Slave-State. It was not too much to say that by the exercise + of rare discretion on his part, Maryland to-day occupies her + position in favor of Freedom. Slavery has been abolished therefrom + by the Sovereign Decree of the People. With deep and lasting + gratitude they desired that his Administration, as it had been + approved in the past, might also be successful in the future, and + result in the Restoration of the Union, with Freedom as its + immutable basis. They trusted that, on retiring from his high and + honorable position, the universal verdict might be that he deserved + well of mankind, and that favoring Heaven might 'Crown his days + with loving kindness and tender mercies.']</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>The same kindly anxiety to soften and dispel the feeling of bitterness +that had been engendered in the malignant bosoms of the +Copperhead-Democracy by their defeat, was apparent when he said with emphasis and +feeling:</p> + +<p>"I have said before, and now repeat, that I indulge in no feeling of +triumph over any man who has thought or acted differently from myself. +I have no such feeling toward any living man;" and again, after +complimenting Maryland for doing "more than double her share" in the +elections, in that she had not only carried the Republican ticket, but +also the Free Constitution, he added: "Those who have differed with us +and opposed us will yet see that the result of the Presidential election +is better for their own good than if they had been successful."</p> + +<p>The victory of the Union-Republican Party at this election was an +amazing one, and in the words of General Grant's dispatch of +congratulation to the President, the fact of its "having passed off +quietly" was, in itself, "a victory worth more to the Country than a +battle won,"—for the Copperheads had left no stone unturned in their +efforts to create the utmost possible rancor, in the minds of their +partisans, against the Administration and its Party.</p> + +<p>Of twenty-five States voting, Lincoln and Johnson had carried the +electoral votes of twenty-two of them, viz.: Maine, New Hampshire, +Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, +Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, +Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, +and Nevada; while McClellan and Pendleton had carried the twenty-one +electoral votes of the remaining three, viz.: New Jersey, Delaware, and +Kentucky—the popular vote reaching the enormous number of 2,216,067 for +Lincoln, to 1,808,725 for McClellan—making Lincoln's popular majority +407,342, and his electoral majority 191!</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="poll"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p598-poll.jpg (170K)" src="images/p598-poll.jpg" height="959" width="637"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br><br> + +<p>But if the figures upon the Presidential candidacy were so gratifying +and surprising to all who held the cause of Union above all others, no +less gratifying and surprising were those of the Congressional +elections, which indicated an entire revulsion of popular feeling on the +subject of the Administration's policy. For, while in the current +Congress (the 38th), there were only 106 Republican-Union to 77 +Democratic Representatives, in that for which the elections had just +been held, (the 39th), there would be 143 Republican-Union to 41 +Democratic Representatives.</p> + +<p>It was at once seen, therefore, that, should the existing House of +Representatives fail to adopt the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Constitution, there would be much more than the requisite two-thirds +majority for such a Measure in both Houses of the succeeding Congress; +and moreover that in the event of its failure at the coming Session, it +was more than probable that President Lincoln would consider himself +justified in calling an Extra Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress for +the especial purpose of taking such action. So far then, as the +prospects of the Thirteenth Amendment were concerned, they looked +decidedly more encouraging.</p> + + + + + +<br> +<br> + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + + <a href="p5.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="7140-h.htm">Main Index</a> +</td><td> + <a href="p7.htm">Next Part</a> + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + + +</body> +</html> + |