Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the fearless opponent of secession at the South, as Vice-President. The platform maintained the restoration of the Union, the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States, the suppression of the rebellion, the repudiation of compromise with the insurgents, the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment, the emancipation proclamation and the employment of negro soldiers, provision for soldiers. and sailors disabled by wounds, redress for the treatment of prisoners of war, both colored and white, the encouragement of immigration, the inviolability of the public debt, and the application of the Monroe doctrine.

The autumn State elections, which preceded the presidential election, were watched with great interest, as indicating the direction and strength of public sentiment with reference to the matters at issue, and when Indiana, naturally a Democratic State, showed a change of 30,000 votes in favor of the Republican ticket, partly due to the admirable conduct of Governor Morton, who, although originally a Democrat, had given magnificent support to Mr. Lincoln. Pennsylvania elected fifteen Republican congressmen to nine Democrats, in place of twelve to twelve as at the last election. Ohio gave a Republican majority of more than 50,000, and Maryland, a slave State, adopted a new constitution, banishing slavery forever from her soil. Mr. Lincoln was re-elected by 212 electorial votes to 21 for General McClellan. The latter carried only three States, and Mr. Lincoln's popular majority was 428,000. The signs of the times were plain to any one who could see.

Then followed the next meeting of Congress, the reassembling of the Thirty-eighth Congress, December 6, 1864. And with all the important work upon their hands, in view of the evident determination of the North to close up this war, and guard against any recurrence of it from the cause

which led to it, they at once set about amending the Constitution so as to prohibit slavery forever. On this point the President, in his last annual message, had laid down his position as follows: "In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that' while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it." Difficult as it had properly been made to change the Constitution, requiring two-thirds of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, to submit such a change to the people, and then the ratification of the same by two-thirds of the States, yet the late elections had shown such a change in Congress, that the amendment was adopted both there and by the States separately. This all-important change in the Constitution of the United States was clearly and briefly expressed, and adopted as a concurrent resolution, as presented by Mr. Trumbull of Illinois, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, and was as follows: "Be it resolved, etc., that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution, namely:—

"ARTICLE XIII.

"SECTION 1.-Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con

victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

"SEC. 2.-Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Thus the way was being fast prepared for the c.osing up of the war, and for the complete elimination out of our Constitution, politics, economics, and social life of what had always rested as a hindrance upon one-half the country in its proper development, and compelled the other half to reluctantly consent to its continuance for the sake of having one government, and one that recognized "the inalienable rights of every man to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness," even though for the time such rights were denied to the slave. For the sake of such a democratic government and such a Union, to take the place of the old confederation of separate States, the free States had adopted the Constitution, and pledged themselves to leave slavery to the slave States, the slave States being equally pledged not to extend slavery into free territory, nor require of the North any legislation to extend and perpetuate the system. The South had violated its agreement again and again, but it was not until the Mexican war had been carried on to secure Texas for additional slave territory, and the Fugitive Slave Law passed to make us slave catchers, and the Kansas outrages perpetrated on free territory to keep out freemen as settlers, and the war of Secession begun because we would not submit to all such unreasonable demands, that public feeling became strong enough and general enough to contend successfully against the aggressive and disruptive policy of the South. It became a duty to make this in fact a self-governed and successful republic based on the equal rights of all before the law. It was more than a duty; it was nothing less than a providential opportunity, which had never come before and might never come again, and which patriots and philanthropists and God-fearing men

could not disregard. Then, too, it was a peculiar Providence which had raised up and put Abraham Lincoln at the head of the government at such a time, and two such commanders as Grant and Sherman at the head of our armies, all men so anxious for peace, and ready to bring it about in the easiest and most magnanimous terms. To this point were we being fast led, by "a Power not ourselves that makes for righteousness," which to most of us means God, the sovereign ruler of men, and which the rest rejoice in as the saving force of the universe.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR.

Review of the Situation-Fight in Mobile Bay-Sherman in GeorgiaGrant's Investment of Petersburg-Evacuation of RichmondDecisive Battle at Sailor's Creek.

The year 1865 opened auspiciously upon the political and military prospects of the Union government. Almost at its beginning Fort Fisher, which guarded the approaches to Wilmington, N. C., and had so long held out against the efforts of the government to either capture the fort or seal up the harbor against blockade running, was taken, and was designated as the place where Sherman's army would meet a fleet with supplies, and what additional land forces he might need after having made his "March to the Sea." formidable flect, under Admiral Porter, and a sufficient land force, under General Terry, both admirably conducted, captured that fortification, most like a "Malakoff" of any thing in our war, and put it with all its supplies and free communication with the North, at the service of Sherman's approaching army.* It had been attempted before, but without success, and now when possession of this port was most needed to carry out with confidence Sherman's daring and complicated project, here it was, open to welcome him with re-enforcements and supplies, and one of his able

General Schofield, who was with Sherman's expedition as far as Atlanta, and was sent back from there to look after Hood on his way to Tennessee, and helped Thomas defeat him at Nashville, and pursued him until his army was thoroughly broken up and scattered, performed an important part in the capture of Wilmington and the surrounding region, and met his old commander there to help him finish up his campaign and be present to witness the surrender of Johnston's army in North Carolina. Indeed, it was one of the feats of the war, removing him and his army corps of 15,000 men, with their artillery and baggage, over a distance of 1,500 miles by rail to Washington, and by sea to Wilmington, both within seventeen days.