He thus expresses his emphatic concurrence with Jefferson, in regard to the injustice of slavery: *

"I concurred, and concur still, in the judgment of the great apostle of American liberty, the author of that Declaration which is to live through all time as the Magna Charta of human rights, that in a contest between the slave to throw off his thraldom, and the master who holds him to it, the God of justice could take no part in favor of the latter. And as I have said to the Senate already, and alluded to it on a former occasion, my opinion upon the institution is not now for the first time announced."

He charges that the election of Mr. Lincoln, so far from being the cause of the rebellion, was hailed with joy by the conspirators, as furnishing an occasion for the execution of their long concocted conspiracy:†

"The present incumbent of the Presidential Chair was elected by a sectional vote, and the moment the news reached Charleston, where some of the leading conspirators were, and here in this Chamber where others were to be found, it was hailed not with regret but with delight. Why? Because, as they thought, it would enable them to drive the South to madness, by appealing to the danger in which such an event involved this institution, which the people were made to believe was so essential to their power and to their happiness, and that will be repeated over and over again, just as long as the institution is suffered to remain. Terminate it, 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 rivers in which we all have an interest. The very difference of climate render each important to the other and alike important. 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 in the past, one, an example of human freedom for the light and example of the world, and 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.""

* Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1420. † Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1424.

The young and prosperous free-soil State of Iowa, through her distinguished Senator, Harlan, was next heard in favor of the amendment. Mr. Harlan had been a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and he discussed with great ability the violation of morals and Christianity growing out of slavery. He showed that the prohibition of the marital relation was a necessary incident of slavery as it existed in most of the slave States. The abrogation of the conjugal relation among four millions of human beings ought never to be permitted by a Christian people. Slavery abrogated practically the parental relation; it rendered the slave incapable of acquiring or holding property; its tendency was to reduce him mentally and morally to the condition of the beast.

Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware, advocated slavery as a divine institution. Then came a characteristic speech from the old anti-slavery leader, John P. Hale. He said, "the day he and many others had long wished for, hoped for, striven for, had come. The Nation was now to commence a new life." He called attention to the contrast between the grandeur and sublimity of the truths embraced in the Declaration of Independence, and the degradation and infamy involved in the practical disregard by the Nation of these truths.

Senator McDougal of California, upon whom did not fall the mantle of the martyred Broderick, but who in his better days was a fine scholar and dialectician, misrepresented the Pacific coast by opposing the amendment.

Senator Henderson of Missouri, announced in clear language, the issue to be, "the Union without slavery, or the acknowledgment of the Southern Confederacy." He announced at the same time that he was a slaveholder; "but," said he, "we cannot save the institution if we would, and we ought not if we could." He closed by expressing the hope that the abolition of slavery would be the means of bringing about a lasting peace, upon which National freedom could be built upon National strength, and that from this era we might date a more perfect National unity.

The Senators from Kentucky opposed vehemently the amendment.

Charles Sumner, on behalf of Massachusetts, and of the friends of the amendment, closed the great debate. He showed clearly that slavery found no warrant for its existence in the Constitution, and that it existed in defiance of its principles. Yet he would prohibit it by express enactment. He brought to the discussion his rich stores of historical knowledge the writings of the poets, historians, and ɛtatesmen of the past. He declared that the amendment would be the cap-stone upon the sublime structure of American liberty.

On the 8th of April, the amendment was adopted in the Senate by ayes 38, noes 6. Those voting in the negative were Davis and Powell of Kentucky, McDougal of California, Hendricks of Indiana, and Saulsbury and Riddle of Delaware. Let us now pass to the consideration of the amendment in the popular branch of Congress.

We have seen that in the House of Representatives, early in the session, propositions for amending the Constitution, abolishing and prohibiting slavery were introduced. On the 15th of February, 1864, on motion of Mr. Arnold of Illinois, the House adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Constitution should 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.” *

This, it is believed, was the first resolution ever adopted in Congress in favor of the entire abolition of slavery. Although it passed by a decided majority, it was doubtful whether the amendment offered, could obtain the two-thirds vote required by the Constitution for its passage.

The very decided vote in its favor in the Senate, the pressure of a constantly increasing public sentiment demanding its passage, it was hoped would carry it through. The President used all the means in his power to secure its success. He personally urged all on whom he could exert an influence, to vote for it. The discussion upon the proposition began on the 31st of May, and it was not finally brought to a vote until the 15th of June. It was opposed by Messrs. Holman of

* Congressional Globe, Vol. 50, p. 659.

Indiana, Pruyn and Fernando Wood of New York, Ross of Illinois, Mallory of Kentucky, and Cox and Pendleton of Ohio, and by nearly all the democratic members of the House. It was earnestly advocated by Wilson of Iowa, Messrs. Arnold, Farnsworth and Ingersoll of Illinois, Higby of California, Kelly of Pennsylvania, and many others.

In favor of its passage it was said: *

"Slavery to-day is an open enemy, striking at the heart of the Republic. It is the soul, and body, and spirit 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 this war. In view of all the long catalogue of wrongs which slavery has inflicted upon the country, I demand today 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 towards its last death struggle. Let us strike the monster this last decisive blow.

"The Thirty-seventh Congress will live in history as the Congress which prohibited slavery in all the territories of the Union, and abolished it at the National Capitol. The President of the United States will be remembered as the author of the Proclamation of Emancipation, as the liberator of a race, the apostle of freedom, the great emancipator of his country. The Thirty-eighth Congress, if we pass this joint resolution, will live in history as that which consummated the great work of freeing a continent from the curse of human bondage. Never, since the day when John Adams plead for the Declaration of Independence, has so important a question been submitted to an American Congress, as that upon which you are now about to vote. The signing of the immortal. Declaration is a familiar picture in every log cabin and home all over the land. Pass this resolution and the grand spectacle of this vote which knocks off the fetters of a whole race, will make this scene immortal.

"Live a century, nay a thousand years, and no such opportunity to do a great deed for humanity, for liberty, for peace and for your country will ever again present itself. Pass this joint resolution and you win > victory over wrong and injustice, lasting as eternity. The whole world

* Congressional Globe, Vol. 53, p. 2988-89.

will rise up to do you honor. Every lover of liberty in Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, the world, will rise up and call you blessed. The gallant soldiers in the field who are giving their lives for liberty and Union will call down upon you the blessings of heaven. Let the lightnings of God (fit instruments for the glorious message) transmit to the toiling and struggling soldiers of Sherman, and Hunter, and Butler, and Grant, the thrilling words 'slavery abolished forever,' and their joyous shouts will strike terror into the ranks of the rebels and traitors fighting for tyranny and bondage. The thousands of wounded in the hospitals around this Capital, would hail the intelligence as a battle fought, and a great victory won.

"This Constitutional amendment has passed the Senate, long regarded as the citidel of the slave power; how strange if it should fail in the popular branch of Congress! The people and the States are eager and impatient to ratify it. Will those who claim to represent the ancient democracy refuse to give the people an opportunity to vote upon it? Is this your confidence in the loyal masses? The passage of this resolution will strike the rebellion at the heart. I appeal to border State men and democrats of the free States; look over your country; see the bloody footsteps of slavery. See the ruin and desolation which it has brought upon our once happy land; and I ask, why stay the hand now ready to strike down to death, the cause of all these evils? why seek to prolong the life, to restore to vigor, the institution of slavery, now needing but this last act to doom it to everlasting death and damnation? Gentlemen may flatter themselves with the hope of 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 is 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. Much yet remains to be done to secure this. Many a battle on the field has yet to be fought and won against the mighty power which fights for slavery, the barbarous system of the past. Many a battle has yet to be won on the higher sphere of moral conflict. While our gallant soldiers are subduing the rebels in the field, let us second their efforts by sweeping from the statute book every stay, and prop, and shield of human slavery, the scourge of our country, and let us crown all by incorporating into our organic law the law of universal liberty. For myself, I mean to fight this cause of the war, this cursed cause of all the expenditure of blood and treasure, from which my country is now suffering, this institution which has filled our whole land with desolation, sorrow, and anguish. I mean to fight it, until neither on statute book nor the Constitution, shall there be left