When the name of English, a democrat from Connecticut was called and he answered aye, there was great applause in the House and galleries; so it was when Ganson, Herrick, Nelson, Odell, Radford, and Steele, democrats from New York, were called and they voted aye.

When the Speaker made the formal annunciation, "The Constitutional majority of two-thirds having voted in the affirmative, the joint resolution is passed," it was received with an uncontrollable outburst of enthusiasm. The Republican members, regardless of the rules, instantly sprang to their feet, and applauded with cheers; the example was followed by the spectators in the galleries, who waved their hats, and the ladies their handkerchiefs, and cheers and congratulations continued for many minutes. Finally Mr. Ingersall of Illinois, representing the district of Owen Lovejoy, in honor as he said of the sublime event, moved that the House adjourn. The motion was carried, but before the members left their seats the roar of artillery announced to the people of Washington, that the amendment had passed Congress. The personal friends of Mr. Lincoln, hastening to the White House, exchanged congratulations with him on the auspicious result. The passage of the resolution was not unexpected to him, and it filled his heart with joy. He saw in it the complete consummation of his own great work, the Emancipation Proclamation. As the leader in the overthrow of slavery, he had seen his proclamation sanctioned by an emphatic majority of the people at the Presidential election, and now the Constitutional majority of twothirds in both Houses of Congress had voted to submit to the people the Constitutional amendment, which would finish. the "job."

In the evening, a vast crowd of enthusiastic and rejoicing friends, marched with music to the White House, publicly to congratulate the President on the passage of the resolution. Mr. Lincoln addressing the crowd said: "The occasion is one for congratulation to the country and the whole world." He informed them that Illinois had already ratified the amendment, and that it had already been ratified by one

branch of the Maryland Legislature; but he was proud that Illinois had been the State first to act.

The joint resolution was inadvertently presented to the President, and signed by him. But he suggested that the action of Congress was perfect of itself, and did not need the the signature of the Executive to render it valid. Judge Trumbull presented a resolution, reciting that the amendment proposed by Congress respecting the extinction of slavery, having been inadvertently presented to the President for his approval, it was declared that such approval was unnecessary to give effect to the action of Congress; was inconsistent with the former practice in reference to all amendments to the Constitution heretofore adopted, and being inadvertently done should not constitute a precedent for the future.*

Senator Trumbull in his speech on the subject reviewed all the precedents, and showed that no amendment of the Constitution ever adopted by the people, had ever been presented to the President for his approval; and that the point having been made before the Supreme Court, that without such approval the amendment was invalid, the Supreme Court had held such approval unnecessary; the Chief Justice declaring the opinion of the court, saying: "The negative of the President applies only to the ordinary cases of legislation. He has nothing to do with the proposition or adoption of amendments to the Constitution." The Senate adopted the resolution of Senator Trumbull without a division. The question may therefore be considered as settled by the precedents and the concurrence of all Departments of the Government.

The friends of universal liberty throughout the Republic, regarded the passage of the joint resolution through Congress, as equivalent to the adoption of the amendment. The people having sanctioned it at the Presidential election, and two-thirds of both branches of Congress having voted for it, it was not doubted three-fourths of the States, through their Legislatures, would ratify it. The passage of the

* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 629. + Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 631.

resolution through Congress was therefore celebrated as the triumph of freedom, and the final "overthrow of slavery" throughout the Republic. The question was discussed whether the adoption of the amendment by three-fourths of the States represented in Congress, and who, while the other States were public enemies, constituted the United States, would be a compliance with the Constitution. It was decided by the House of Representatives, that a Constitutional quoram of the House, was a majority of the members duly elected to the House. It was contended that a majority of three-fourths of the United States, meant three-fourths of the States recognized as States of the Union; those whose Representatives and Senators constituted Congress and the lawmaking power. That States whose people were public enemies and who were in open war seeking to overthrow the Constitution, could not, while occupying such an attitude, be entitled to vote on an amendment to the Constitution, which they were seeking to destroy. As more than three-fourths of all the States ratified the amendment, the question never became a practical one.

When in June, 1858, at his home in Springfield, Abraham Lincoln startled the people by the announcement, "I believe this Nation cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free," and when in concluding that very remarkable speech, with the prophetic voice, the uplifted eye, the inspired mien of a seer, he exclaimed, "We shall not fail if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come;" he looked to long years of political controversy; he expected a severe struggle and a final triumph through the use of all the agencies by which public opinion is influenced and formed; and he anticipated the final triumph through the ballot-box. By a mind which ever sought for truth, which followed it through all the processes of reasoning, with instinctive sagacity he foresaw the struggle, and the triumph of freedom. But he did not foresee, unless in those mysterious dim shadows, which sometimes startle, by half revealing the future, his own elevation to the Presidency; he

did not foresee that he should be chosen by God and the people, to lead on to that victory which he then felt was sure to come; that he should speak the word which should emancipate a race, and free his country. Nor did he foresee, that a martyr's death should crown a life, which was so consecrated to duty, a life which was to be thenceforth so filled with unselfish, untiring devotion to country and to liberty, that his example will be everlasting, growing brighter with years; forever to inspire the patriot, and give courage to those who labor, and struggle, and die, for the poor, and the oppressed; until in all the world, there shall be left no slave to be freed, no oppressor to be overthrown.

This great revolution, completed by the adoption of the Constitutional amendment has been sketched, in these pages, very imperfectly; how far the poor description has lagged behind the sublime action of the drama, none can better appreciate than the author.

The visible steps in legislation and governmental action, by which the Republic was led up to final and universal emancipation, have been outlined. Some of those steps, and the most important were: First, The army was prohibited from returning to rebel masters, fugitive slaves: Second, The employment of fugitive slaves as laborers in the army was sanctioned: Third, The passage of a law confiscating and conferring freedom upon slaves used for insurrectionary purposes: Fourth, The abolition of slavery at the National Capital: Fifth, The prohibition of slavery in all the territories: Sixth, A law giving freedom to all who should serve as soldiers in the army or in the navy: Seventh, A law emancipating the slaves of rebels: Eighth, And most important of all, the great Proclamation of Emancipation; emancipating the slaves in the rebellious States: Ninth, A law emancipating the families of all those who should serve in the army or navy of the United States: Tenth, The repeal of the fugitive slave code: Eleventh, The Constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting slavery throughout the Republic.

The responsibility, the honor of carrying these measures through, and sustaining them, justly belongs to the Republican party. This is the record on the slavery question to

which that party proudly turns. All of these measures were opposed by the Democratic party as a party. Individuals of that party voted for some of the measures, but such votes were few and scattering. On the passage of the bill to prohibit slavery in the territories, the Democrats in the House of Representatives gave fifty negative votes against eightyfive ayes given by the Republicans. Upon the bill to repeal the fugitive slave laws the vote in the House was ayes ninety, noes sixty-two; all the noes, with two or three exceptions from the border States, given by democrats. The bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, passed the Senate, ayes twenty-nine, noes fourteen; and it passed the House, ayes ninety-two, noes thirty-nine. The negative votes were given by democrats. The Constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting slavery passed the House, ayes (119) one hundred and nineteen, noes fifty-seven, (57,) the negatives all democrats. Such is the record.

In addition to the anti-slavery measures above enumerated, others relatively of minor importance have been adopted. The Statutes of the United States have been purged of all laws made to maintain and secure slavery. The law excluding negroes from the witness stand, and laws creating various disabilities have been annulled. The great civil rights bill, designed especially to secure equality before the law, although vetoed by President Johnson, has been passed over his veto, by the Fortieth Congress. Yet the great work is not entirely finished; some relics of the barbarous institution still linger in the Constitution and upon the statute book. These with the prejudices which have grown up with the institution will rapidly disappear.

The formal adoption of the Constitutional amendment by the States, rapidly followed its passage through Congress. The resolution, as we have seen, passed Congress on the 31st day of January, A. D. 1865.

Illinois, as was fit, being the home of Lincoln, and under his inspiration, took the lead in ratifying the amendment. Not a day elapsed before it was ratified by both branches of the Legislature, and the result telegraphed to Mr. Lincoln. Then came Rhode Island, on the 2d of February, and on