with a voice of eloquence, such only as liberty can inspire, and with a pen which scattered "thoughts that breathe" and "words that burn," he traversed the State, pleading for universal emancipation. In the beginning his followers were few, but they constantly and rapidly increased until they revolutionized the State.

Maryland had turned a deaf ear to the earnest entreaties of Lincoln in favor of gradual and compensated emancipation. This new movement had the President's earnest sympathy, and his active coöperation. It would accomplish more summarily than he had proposed the great end of abolition. At the election of 1863, the emancipation party had elected a majority of the Legislature. In January, 1864, a resolution was adopted, declaring that the true interests of Maryland demand that the policy of emancipation should be immediately inaugurated, and that the Legislature would submit to the people a call for a convention. A bill calling a convention was accordingly passed. The people by a majority of more than 12,000 voted in favor of the convention. Delegates were elected of which sixty-one were in favor of, and thirty-five opposed to emancipation.

The Constitution framed by this convention contained two most important changes.

ARTICLE 4 provided "That the Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, being the supreme law of the land, every citizen of this State owes a paramount allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States, and is not bound by any law or ordinance of this State in contravention or subversion thereof."

ARTICLE 23 provided "That hereafter, in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free." *

Thus the organic law of the State was made expressly to declare that the citizen owed paramount allegiance to the Republic, and not to a local division of it. This destroyed the germ of secession-the other article extirpated slavery.

*Appleton's Encyclopedia, 1864.

This constitution was submitted to the vote of the people on the 12th and 13th of October, 1864.

During the canvass, Mr. Lincoln addressed a letter to the people of Maryland, earnestly urging the adoption of this Constitution, and reiterating his often expressed desire that all men should be free.

The Constitution was adopted by a majority of the people, and Maryland, an old patriotic and noble State, of Revolutionary fame, took her position among the free States. This result was most gratifying to the loyal people of the United States, and to none more so than to the President. He regarded it as more important than a battle gained; indeed he thought it decisive of the war.

At the close of the struggle, on the bright autumnal evening of the 19th of October, 1864, a crowd of joyous Marylanders came with music, banners, and exulting cheers, to the White House to exchange congratulations with the President on the result. He said to them, among other things," most heartily do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the Nation, upon this event! I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, which I am sure would have saved to the Nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the measure. But it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may, by its effects, be agreeably and profitably disappointed."

The seeds of emancipation in Missouri had been sown by Benton, the Blairs, B. Gratz Brown, and others.

At the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the city of St. Louis was a free-soil city, and elected as its Representative to Congress F. P. Blair, Jr., who was then the bold and unflinching leader of the anti-slavery party of Missouri. The energy with which he had carried on the conflict against the slaveholders, had made him an object of peculiar interest throughout the free States, and no young man in the Republic was regarded as having brighter political prospects. On the opening of the Thirty-seventh Congress he was largely supported for Speaker. He was a great favorite with Mr. Lincoln, who had watched with deep inter

est and gratification the gallant and successful fight he had made against slaveholders in Missouri. His services to the anti-slavery cause, and his most efficient services to the country in thwarting the schemes of the conspirators in taking Missouri"out of the Union," as they termed secession, endeared him to Mr. Lincoln, who stood by him and the Blair family, long after they became unpopular, with a tenacity and firmness which would not give them up, until the Union party, speaking through its National Convention, constrained the retirement of Montgomery Blair from his Cabinet.

St. Louis, and some other portions of Missouri, were largely settled by intelligent and liberty loving Germans, who came from Europe with intense hostility to slavery in every form. They rendered powerful aid to the emancipation movement. The brief administration of Fremont in Missouri contributed to the same result.

A convention was held in this State in 1863, which decided in favor of gradual, instead of immediate emancipation. This was not satisfactory to the people. The car of progress, in favor of universal liberty, was now under full headway, and the radicals who constituted a majority of the loyal people demanded immediate and unconditional emancipation. They demanded a new convention, and an election to determine whether one should be held, was had on the 8th of November, 1864. The people decided by the overwhelming majority of 37,793, in a vote of 89,215, in favor of a convention, and three-fourths of the members elected were of the radical anti-slavery party.

The convention met on the 6th of January, 1865, at St. Louis, and on the 11th the following ordinance was reported:

"Be it ordained by the people of the State of Missouri in convention assembled, That hereafter in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, and all persons held to service or labor as slaves, are hereby declared free."

After debate, the ordinance was adopted by a vote of 59 ayes to noes 4, and then the following proceedings took place.

The convention paused in its business; the Rev. Dr. Elliott, a distinguished follower of Dr. Channing, was called forward, and, amidst a stillness and awe which ever accompanies the highest example of the moral sublime, the whole convention and the crowded audience rising, with grateful and reverent hearts, he offered, in accents broken by emotion, the following prayer to Almighty God:

"Most merciful God, before whom we are all equal, we look up to Thee who hast declared Thyself our Father, and our helper, and our strong defense, to thank Thee that Thou art no respecter of persons; to thank Thee that Thou didst send Jesus Christ into the world to redeem the world from sin, and that He was the friend to the poor; that He came to break the manacles of the slaves, that the oppressed might go free. We thank Thee that this day the people of this State have had grace given them to do as they would be done by. We pray that Thy blessings may rest upon the proceedings of this convention; that no evil may come to this State from the wrong position of those who do not agree with the action of to-day; but that we, all of us, may be united to sustain this which is the law of the land. We pray, O God, but our hearts are too full to express our thanksgiving. God for this day; that light has now come out from darkness; that all things are now promising a future of peace and quietness to our distracted State. Grant that this voice may go over the whole land until the Ordinance of Emancipation is made perfect throughout the States. We ask it through the name of our dear Lord and Redeemer. Amen."

Thanks be to

The intelligence of the passage of this ordinance created the wildest enthusiasm throughout the State. When the news reached the Capital at Jefferson City, the Legislature being in session, such was the joy that all business was immediately suspended; the State House and city were illuminated-speeches were made, patriotic songs were sung-not omitting "John Brown." Thus, amidst prayer, thanksgivging, praise, bonfires, illuminations and music, slavery died, and liberty reigned through the great central State of the Mississippi valley.

Maryland and Missouri, by their own act, through the voice and votes of their own citizens, became regenerated and disenthralled, and ready to enter the lists in generous

emulation with the brotherhood of free States. All felt that the action of these States was decisive of the fate of slavery, and of the rebellion.

When to them were added the States of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, each by its own citizens abolishing slavery, and preparing to become members of that higher, nobler National unity, based on liberty to all, the President saw the dawn of that brighter day, when peace and harmony, unity and liberty should prevail throughout the Republic. Kentucky yet withstood the advancing tide of Christian civilization. Like a dark rock in the ocean, with freedom to the North of her, freedom to the South of her, and freedom to the West of her, she yet clung to slavery.