Twenty Years of Congress Volume I Part 31

The well-known decision of the court, delivered by Judge Samuel Chase, p.r.o.nounced the tax to be const.i.tutional. Justice James Wilson who concurred in the decision had taken a very prominent part as a delegate from Pennsylvania in the convention which framed the Const.i.tution, and ranked at that time as one of the ablest lawyers in the Union. The opinion of the judges seemed to be, though no formal decision was rendered to that effect, that a tax on land, and a capitation or poll tax, are the only levies which within the terms of the Const.i.tution are to be considered _direct_ taxes. The decision was one of extraordinary interest to the Government, as, had it been the other way, one great resource for the raising of money, indeed the greatest resource, would have been taken from the Federal Government. The appearance of Mr. Hamilton was an indication of the dignity and importance which were attached to the case by Was.h.i.+ngton's Administration.

A singular feature of the proceedings was the allegation by Mr.

Hylton that he "owned, possessed, and kept one hundred and twenty- five chariots for the conveyance of persons--exclusively for his own separate use and not to let out to hire, or for the conveyance of persons for hire." What particular necessity a Virginia gentleman of the last century had for that number of chariots "for his own separate use" is nowhere explained. It may have been the mere filling of the blanks in a legal declaration in which the declarant was permitted a free use of figures, but as it stands in the reports of Supreme Court decisions, it seems to be one of the odd incidents that make up the humor of the Law.

The system of internal duties and excises continued in various forms for thirty years, practically disappearing at last in 1821.

But for the financial demands precipitated by the war of 1812 and the period of depression which ensued, the system would have been abolished at an earlier date. During the period of their existence, from 1790 to 1820, the internal taxes had yielded to the Government the gross sum of $22,000,000, an average of a little more than $700,000 per annum. It thus proved a very valuable resource to the Republic in the period of its early financial troubles.

COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM OF TAXES.

Congress now determined under the recommendation of Secretary Chase to use this great source of revenue to the fullest practicable extent. Immediately after the pa.s.sage of the Legal-tender Act the subject of internal revenue was taken up, elaborately investigated by committees, exhaustively discussed in both Senate and House.

The final result was the enactment of a bill "to provide internal revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the public debt," which received the President's approval on the first day of July (1862). It was one of the most searching, thorough, comprehensive systems of taxation ever devised by any Government. Spiritous and malt liquors and tobacco were relied upon for a very large share of revenue; a considerable sum was expected from stamps; and three per cent. was exacted from all annual incomes over six hundred dollars and less than ten thousand, and five per cent.--afterwards increased to ten per cent.--on all incomes exceeding ten thousand dollars. Manufactures of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, iron, steel, wood, stone, earth, and every other material were taxed three per cent. Banks, insurance and railroad companies, telegraph companies, and all other corporations were made to pay tribute. The butcher paid thirty cents for every beef slaughtered, ten cents for every hog, five cents for every sheep. Carriages, billiard-tables, yachts, gold and silver place, and all other articles of luxury were levied on heavily. Every profession and every calling, except the ministry of religion, was included within the far-reaching provisions of the law and subjected to tax for license. Bankers and p.a.w.nbrokers, lawyers and horse-dealers, physicians and confectioners, commercial brokers and peddlers, proprietors of theatres and jugglers on the street, were indiscriminately summoned to aid the National Treasury. The law was so extended and so minute that it required thirty printed pages of royal octavo and more than twenty thousand words to express its provisions.

Sydney Smith's striking summary of English taxation was originally included in a warning to the United States after the war of 1812 against indulging a marital spirit or being inflamed with a desire for naval renown. "Taxes," said the witty essayist in the _Edinburgh Review_, "are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory." He bade us beware of Ess.e.x, Porter, and Stephen Decatur.

Even in the second year of the civil war in which we were struggling for life rather than for glory, we had come to realize every exaction ascribed to the British system. We were levying "taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot; taxes on every thing which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion; taxes on every thing on earth and the waters under the earth; taxes on every thing that comes from abroad or is grown at home; on the sauce which pampers man's appet.i.te and on the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice; on the bra.s.s nails of the coffin and the ribbons of the bride."

The system of internal revenue of which the foregoing is no exaggeration proved in all respects effective. Congress rendered the taxes more palatable and less oppressive to the producers by largely increasing the duties on imports by the Tariff Act of July 14, 1862, thus shutting out still more conclusively all compet.i.tion from foreign fabrics. The increased cost was charged to the consumer, and taxes of fabulous amount were paid promptly and with apparent cheerfulness by the people. The internal revenue was bounteous from the first, and in a short period increased to a million of dollars per day for every secular day of the year. The amount paid on incomes for a single year reached seventy-three millions of dollars, the leading merchant of New York paying in one check a tax of four hundred thousand dollars on an income of four millions. Mr. Webster said that "Hamilton smote the rock of the National resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth." But Hamilton's Funding Bill was not more powerful in establis.h.i.+ng the credit of the young Republic after the Revolution than was the Internal-revenue Act in imparting strength to the finances of the matured Nation in the throes and agonies of civil war. It was the crowning glory of Secretary Chase's policy, and its scope and boldness ent.i.tle him to rank with the great financiers of the world.

CHAPTER XX.

Elections of 1862.--Mr. Lincoln advances to Aggressive Position on Slavery.--Second Session of Thirty-seventh Congress adjourns.-- Democratic Hostility to Administration.--Democratic State Conventions.

--Platforms in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.--Nomination of Horatio Seymour for Governor of New York.--The President prepares for a Serious Political Contest.--The Issue shall be the Union or Slavery.--Conversation with Mr. Boutwell.--Proclamation of Emanc.i.p.ation.--Meeting of Governors at Altoona.--Compensated Emanc.i.p.ation proposed for Border States.--Declined by their Senators and Representatives.--Anti-slavery Policy apparently Disastrous for a Time.--October Elections Discouraging.--General James S.

Wadsworth nominated against Mr. Seymour.--Illinois votes against the President.--Five Leading States against the President.-- Administration saved in Part by Border States.--Last Session of Thirty-seventh Congress.--President urges Compensated Emanc.i.p.ation again.--Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, January 1, 1863.--Long Controversy over Question of Compensation for Slaves.--Test Case of Missouri.

--Fourteen Million Dollars offered her.--General Pope's Campaign.

--Army of the Potomac.--Battle of Antietam.--McClellan removed.-- Burnside succeeds him.--Defeat at Fredericksburg.--Hooker succeeds Burnside.--General Situation.--Arming of Slaves.--Habeas Corpus.-- Conscription Law.--Depressed and Depressing Period.

Popular interest in the summer of 1862 was divided between events in the field and the election of Representatives to the Thirty- eighth Congress. A year before, the line of partisan division had been practically obliterated in the Loyal States--the whole people uniting in support of the war. The progress of events had to a large extent changed this auspicious unanimity, and the Administration was now subjected to a fight for its life while it was fighting for the life of the Nation.

The conservatism which Mr. Lincoln had maintained on the Slavery question had undoubtedly been the means of bringing to the support of the war policy of his Administration many whom a more radical course at the outset would have driven into hostility. As he advanced however towards a more aggressive position, political divisions became at each step more p.r.o.nounced. The vote on the question of abolis.h.i.+ng slavery in the District of Columbia had been strictly on the line of party, and the same is true of the proposition for compensated emanc.i.p.ation in the Border States, and of the Act confiscating the property of Rebels. Not a single Democrat in the Senate or House sustained one of these measures. They were all pa.s.sed by Republican votes alone, the Democratic minority protesting each time with increasing earnestness and warmth.

The second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress adjourned on the 17th of July, 1862, but long before that date the excitement prevailing in Congress had extended to the people, and political divisions were every day growing more earnest, partisan leaders every day more active, their followers every day more excited.

The Slavery question was the source of the agitation, and by a common instinct throughout the free States, the Democrats joined in the cry against an Abolition war. They were as ready, they declared, as on the day after the firing on Sumter, to uphold all measures necessary for the defense of the Government and the maintenance of the Union, and they demanded that the Republicans should restrict the war to its legitimate ends--as defined by the supporters of the Administration in July, 1861, by the unanimous adoption of the Crittenden Resolution. They would not listen to any change of action based on change of circ.u.mstances, and they prepared to enforce at the ballot-box their opinions touching the new departure of Congress and the President.

The Democratic State Conventions in Pennsylvania and Ohio, both held on the 4th of July, reflected the feeling which so largely pervaded the ranks of the party throughout the North. In Pennsylvania the Convention unanimously declared that "the party of fanaticism or crime, whichever it may be called, that seeks to turn loose the slaves of the Southern States to overrun the North and to enter into compet.i.tion with the white laboring ma.s.ses, thus degrading their manhood by placing them on an equality with negroes, is insulting to our race and merits our most emphatic and unqualified condemnation." They further declared that "this is a government of white men and was established exclusively for the white race"; that "the negroes are not ent.i.tled to and ought not to be admitted to political and social equality with the white race."

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS IN 1862.

The Democratic Convention of Ohio made an equally open appeal to race prejudice. They avowed their belief that the Emanc.i.p.ation policy of the Republican party if successful "would throw upon the Border free States an immense number of negroes to compete with and under-work the white laborers and to const.i.tute in various ways an unbearable nuisance"; and that "it would be unjust to our gallant soldiers to compel them to free the negroes of the South, and thereby fill Ohio with a degraded population to compete with these same soldiers upon their return to the peaceful avocations of life."

It was not by mere chance that the Democratic party of these two great States held their conventions on the National Anniversary.

It had been carefully pre-arranged with the view of creating a serious impression against the Administration.

The Democrats of Indiana went beyond their brethren of Ohio and Pennsylvania in the vigor with which they denounced the anti-slavery policy of the President. Their convention was held a month later, and unanimously demanded that "the public authorities of Indiana should see that the const.i.tution and laws of the State are enforced against the entrance of free negroes and mulattoes," declaring that "when the people of Indiana adopted the negro exclusion clause in their const.i.tution by a majority of ninety-four thousand votes they meant that the honest laboring white man should have no compet.i.tor in the black race; that the soil of Indiana should belong to the white man, and that he alone was suited to the form of her inst.i.tutions." In Illinois the Democratic party adopted substantially the same platform as that proclaimed in Indiana. They made the distinct and unmistakable issue that a war for the abolition of slavery could not have their support; that the Government of the United States was made for white men, and that negroes could not be admitted to terms of equality in civil rights.

The most important election of the year was that to be held in New York, not merely because of the prestige and power of the State, but on account of the peculiar elements that entered into the contest. The Democratic party proceeded in the selection of candidates and in the definition of issues with great circ.u.mspection.

They avoided the rancorous expressions used in Pennsylvania and Ohio, declared that they would continue to render the government their sincere and united support in the use of all legitimate means to suppress the rebellion, and cited the Crittenden Resolution, unanimously pa.s.sed by Congress in July, 1861, as embodying the principles upon which they appealed for popular support. They expressed their "willingness to withhold their views upon all questions not rendered imperative by the imperiled condition of the country." The had not one word to say on the subject of slavery, and they avowed their readiness to act in the coming election with any cla.s.s of loyal citizens who agreed with them in the principles embodied in their platform. This last clause related to a third party, the remnant of those who had supported Mr. Bell in 1860 and who had just held a convention at Troy. They had comprised their entire platform in "the Const.i.tution, the Union and the enforcement of the laws," and had nominated Horatio Seymour for governor.

It was not difficult to see that politically the case was well managed, and that the most partisan of partisans in the person of Mr. Seymour, was enabled to appear before the voters of New York in the att.i.tude of one who could graciously correct the errors of the Administration, and direct the course of the war in channels of patriotism that would harmonize the entire people. The nomination of Mr. Seymour was made with great enthusiasm by the Democracy, and the policy of the National Administration was thus challenged in the leading State of the Union. Mr. Lincoln looked upon the situation as one of exceeding gravity. The loss to the Administration, of the House of Representatives in the Thirty-eighth Congress, would place the control of the war in the hands of its opponents, and, as the President believed, would imperil the fate of the National struggle. The power of the purse controls the power of the sword. The armies in the field required a vast and constant expenditure, and to secure the money a rigorous system of taxation must be enforced. A House of Representatives controlling the power to tax and the power to appropriate could, if hostile to the war, neutralize and destroy all the efforts of the Executive.

The President measured the extent of the danger and prepared to meet it. He clearly read the signs of the times. He saw that the anti-slavery policy of Congress had gone far enough to arouse the bitter hostility of all Democrats who were not thoroughly committed to the war, and yet not far enough to deal an effective blow against the inst.i.tution. He saw that as the Administration was committed to the partial policy which involved all the danger of a re-action and a retreat, it would be wise to commit it to the bold, far- reaching, radical and aggressive policy from which it would be impossible to turn without deliberately resolving to sacrifice our nationality. He determined therefore to lay before the people a choice between the Union and Slavery. He would persuade them that both could not be saved and that they must choose the one which they regarded as the more worthy of preservation. Slavery was not only the inciting cause of the rebellion but was its chief strength and support in the South and at the same time a weakening element to the Union cause in the Loyal States. No man had looked at the question in all its bearings so closely as Mr. Lincoln. He had studied the consequences of every step and had proceeded with the utmost caution.

THE PRESIDENT'S MONITORY PROCLAMATION.

The President kept his own counsels so closely, and relied so confidently upon his own conclusions, that it is not possible to say when he first seriously entertained the thought of general emanc.i.p.ation as a war measure. Mr. George S. Boutwell of Ma.s.sachusetts who enjoyed Mr. Lincoln's confidence and who at this period of the contest was appointed Commissioner of Internal Revenue, is authority for some interesting statements. About the time that the anti- slavery legislation now under discussion was in progress Mr. Lincoln received a letter written by a loyal citizen of Louisiana, containing a strong argument against emanc.i.p.ation. He depicted in vivid colors the bad results to flow from it and appealed earnestly to the President not to take so dangerous a step. Without combating in detail the arguments of his correspondent who personally enjoyed his confidence, Mr. Lincoln said, "You must not expect me to give up this government without playing my last card."

During an interview with Mr. Lincoln after the adjournment of Congress in July, and when military disasters were falling thick and fast upon us, Mr. Boutwell suggested to the President that we could not hope to succeed until the slaves were emanc.i.p.ated. To which Mr. Lincoln answered, "You would not have it done now, would you? Had we not better wait for something like a victory?" The statement, widely made in the autumn of 1862, that Mr. Lincoln had been frightened or driven into the issuing of the proclamation by the meeting of the governors of the Loyal States at Altoona, had no foundation in fact. When the President's attention was called to it, he said, "The truth is, I never thought of the meeting of the governors at all. When Lee came over the Potomac I made a resolve that if McClellan drove him back I would send the proclamation after him. The battle of Antietam was fought Wednesday, but I could not find out until Sat.u.r.day whether we had won a victory or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue it that day, and on Sunday I fixed it up a little, and on Monday I let them have it."

This colloquial style was characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, and the frankness with which it was spoken disposes utterly of the claims made in behalf of Mr. Chase and Mr. Sumner that they contributed to the text of the Monitory Proclamation of 1862.

Two months before issuing the Proclamation Mr. Lincoln had urgently requested the senators and representatives of the Border States to give their effective co-operation in aid of compensated emanc.i.p.ation.

In his letter of July 12 he said "Before leaving the Capitol, consider and discuss this subject among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you to consider this proposition and at least commend it to the consideration of your States and people. As you would perpetuate popular government, I beseech you that you do in no wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, its happy future a.s.sured and rendered inconceivably grand. To you more than to any others the privilege is given to a.s.sure that happiness, to swell that grandeur, to link your own names therewith forever."

The majority of the senators and representatives from the Border States did not concur with Mr. Lincoln's views and did not respond favorably to his earnest appeal. The Maryland delegation in Congress, the Kentucky delegation with one exception, and the Missouri delegation with one exception, entered into a long argument dissenting from the conclusions of the President. The West Virginia men (with the exception of Mr. Carlile), Mr. Casey of Kentucky, Mr. John W. Noell of Missouri, Mr. George P. Fisher of Delaware, together with Mr. Horace Maynard and Mr. A. J. Clements from Tennessee (not a Border State), expressed their readiness to co- operate with Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Maynard wrote a separate letter distinguished by breadth of view and strength of expression. It is impossible to comprehend the determination of the Border State men at that crisis. Having resisted in vain the aggressive legislation of Congress already accomplished, they could hardly fail to see that the inst.i.tution of slavery was threatened with utter destruction. It seems absolutely incredible that, standing on the edge of the crater, they made no effort to escape from the upheaval of the volcano, already visible to those who stood afar off.

THE PRESIDENT'S ANTI-SLAVERY POLICY.

The Monitory Proclamation of Emanc.i.p.ation was issued on the 22d of September. It gave public notice that on the first day of January, 1863--just one hundred days distant--"all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward and forever free." It was a final tribute to those engaged in rebellion that every agency, every instrumentality would be employed by the government in its struggle for self-preservation.

It brought--as Mr. Lincoln intended it should bring--the seriousness of the contest to the hearts and consciences of the people in the Loyal States. He plainly warned them that every thing was at stake and that if they were unwilling to meet the trial with the courage and the sacrifice demanded, they were foredoomed to disaster, to defeat, to dishonor. He knew that the policy would at first encounter the disapproval of many who had supported him for the Presidency, and that it would be violently opposed by the great ma.s.s of the Democratic party. But his faith was strong. He believed that the destruction of slavery was essential to the safety of the Union, and he trusted with composure to the discerning judgment and ultimate decision of the people. If the Administration was to be defeated, he was determined that defeat should come upon an issue which involved the whole controversy. If the purse of the Nation was to be handed over to the control of those who were not ready to use the last dollar in the war for the preservation of the Union, the President was resolved that every voter in the Loyal States should be made to comprehend the deadly significance of such a decision.

The effect of the policy was for a time apparently disastrous to the Administration. The most sagacious among political leaders trembled for the result. Only the radical anti-slavery men of the type of Sumner and Stevens and Lovejoy were strong and unyielding in faith. They could not doubt, they would not doubt the result.

For many weeks the elections in the North promised nothing but adversity. Maine voted a few days before the Proclamation was issued. Ever since the repeal of the Missouri Compromise the majorities against the Democrats in that State had varied from ten to nineteen thousand. Under the pressure of military reverses and the cry of an abolition war, the majority for Abner Coburn, the Republican candidate for governor, was a little over four thousand; and for the first time in ten years one of the districts returned a Democratic representative to Congress in the person of L. D. M.

Sweat. Vermont, contrary to the tide of opinion elsewhere, increased her majority for the Administration--an event due in large part to the loyal position taken by Paul Dillingham who had been the leader of the Democratic party in the State.

The October elections were utterly discouraging. In Ohio the Democrats prevailed in fourteen of the Congressional districts, leaving the Republicans but five,--registering at the same time a popular majority of some seven thousand against the Administration.

The extent of this reverse may be measured by the fact that in the preceding Congressional election Republican representatives had been chosen in thirteen districts. In Indiana the result was overwhelming against the President. The Republicans had held their convention early in the summer and had re-affirmed the Crittenden Resolution as embodying their platform of principles. They were not in position therefore to withstand the furious onslaught made by the Democrats on the Slavery question. Of the eleven Congressional districts the Republicans secured but three, and the Democrats had a large majority on the popular vote.--In Pennsylvania whose election was usually accepted as the index to the average public opinion of the country, the Democrats secured a majority of four thousand, and elected one-half the delegation to Congress. In November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln had received a majority of sixty thousand in Pennsylvania, and this change marked the ebb of popular favor created by the anti-slavery policy of the Administration.

Against the candidacy of Mr. Seymour for the governors.h.i.+p of New York, the Republicans nominated James S. Wadsworth, formerly a partisan of Mr. Van Buren and Silas Wright. He was a gentleman of the highest character, of large landed estate which he had inherited, and of wide personal popularity. He had volunteered for the war and was then in the service, with the rank of Brigadier-General. The convention which nominated him a.s.sembled after Mr. Lincoln's decisive action. They hailed "with the profoundest satisfaction the recent proclamation of the President declaring his intention to emanc.i.p.ate the slaves of all rebels who did not return to their allegiance by the 1st of January, 1863," and they urged upon the National Government "to use all the means that the G.o.d of battles had placed in its power against a revolt so malignant and so pernicious." Lyman Tremaine, a distinguished citizen who had been theretofore connected with the Democratic party, was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor.

The contest was extremely animated, enlisting the interest of the entire country. The result was a victory for Mr. Seymour. His majority over General Wadsworth was nearly ten thousand. His vote almost equaled the total of all the Democratic factions in the Presidential election of 1860, while Mr. Wadsworth fell nearly seventy thousand behind the vote given to Mr. Lincoln. The discrepancy could be well accounted for by the greater number of Republicans who had gone to the war, and for whose voting outside the State no provision had been made. No result could have been more distasteful to the Administration than the triumph of Mr.

Seymour, and the experience of after years did not diminish the regret with which they had seen him elevated to a position of power at a time when the utmost harmony was needed between the National and State Governments.

REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN ILLINOIS.

To the President the most mortifying event of the year was the overwhelming defeat in Illinois. Great efforts were made by the Republican party to save the State. Personal pride entered into the contest almost as much as political principle, but against all that could be done the Democrats secured a popular majority of seventeen thousand, and out of the fourteen representatives in Congress they left but three to the Republicans. They chose a Democratic Legislature, which returned William A. Richardson to the Senate for the unexpired term of Mr. Douglas,--filled since his death by O. H. Browning who had been appointed by the Governor.

The crus.h.i.+ng defeat of Mr. Lincoln in his own State had a depressing effect upon the party elsewhere, and but for the a.s.surance in which the Administration found comfort and cheer, that the Democrats were at home to vote while the Republicans were in the field to fight, the result would have proved seriously discouraging to the country and utterly destructive of the policy of emanc.i.p.ation as proclaimed by the President.

In the five leading free States, the Administration had thus met with a decisive defeat. The Democratic representatives chosen to Congress numbered in the aggregate fifty-nine, while those favorable to the Administration were only forty. In some other States the results were nearly as depressing. New Jersey, which had given half its electoral vote to Mr. Lincoln two years before, now elected a Democratic governor by nearly fifteen thousand majority, and of her five representatives in Congress only one was friendly to the policy of the Administration. Michigan, which had been Republican by twenty thousand in 1860, now gave the Administration but six thousand majority, though Senator Chandler made almost superhuman efforts to bring out the full vote of the party. Wisconsin, which had given Mr. Lincoln a large popular majority, now gave a majority of two thousand for the Democrats, dividing the Congressional delegation equally between the two parties.

If this ratio had been maintained in all the States, the defeat of the war party and of the anti-slavery policy would have been complete. But relief came and the Administration was saved. The New-England States which voted in November stood firmly by their principles, though with diminished majorities. The contest in Ma.s.sachusetts resulted in the decisive victory of Governor Andrew over General Charles Devens, who ran as a Coalition candidate of the Democrats and Independents against the emanc.i.p.ation policy of the Administration. New Hamps.h.i.+re which voted the ensuing spring had the benefit of a Loyal re-action and sustained the Administration.

In the West, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota cheered the Administration with unanimous Republican delegations to Congress, and on the Pacific coast California and Oregon stood firmly by the President.

The result in the Border slave States amply vindicated the sagacity and wisdom of the President in so constantly and carefully nurturing their loyalty and defending them against the inroads of the Confederates. They responded n.o.bly, and in great part repaired the injury inflicted by States which were presumptively more loyal to the Administration, and which had a far larger stake in the struggle for the Union. Delaware's one representative was Republican, Missouri elected a decisive majority of friends to the Administration, and in the ensuing year Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland materially increased the strength of the government. The Administration was finally a.s.sured that it would be able to command a majority of about twenty in the House. But for the aid of the Border slave States the anti-slavery position of Mr. Lincoln might have been overthrown by a hostile House of Representatives. It is true therefore in a very striking sense that the five slave States which Mr. Lincoln's policy had held to their loyalty, were most effectively used by him in overpowering the eleven slave States which had revolted against the Union.

COMPENSATED EMANc.i.p.aTION URGED.

The third and last session of the Thirty-seventh Congress a.s.sembled four weeks after the close of the exciting contest for the control of the next House of Representatives. The message of Mr. Lincoln made no reference whatever to the political contest in the country, and unlike his previous communications to Congress gave no special summary of the achievements by our forces either upon the land or the sea. He contended himself with stating that he transmitted the reports of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, and referred Congress to them for full information. He dwelt a length upon the total inadequacy of Disunion as a remedy for the differences between the people of the two sections, and quoted with evident satisfaction the declarations he had made in his Inaugural address upon that point. In his judgment "there is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a National boundary upon which to divide. Trace it through from east to west upon the line between the free and the slave country, and we shall find a little more than one-third of its length are rivers easy to be crossed; and populated, or soon to be populated, thickly on both sides, while nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyor's lines over which people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their presence.

No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pa.s.s by writing it down on paper or parchment as a National boundary." In the President's view "a nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability. That portion of the earth's surface which is inhabited by the people of the United States is well adapted for the home of one National family, but it is not well adapted for two or more."

Mr. Lincoln was still anxious that the Loyal slave States should secure the advantage of compensated emanc.i.p.ation which he had already urged, and he recommended an amendment to the Const.i.tution whereby a certain amount should be paid by the United States to each State that would abolish slavery before the first day of January, A. D. 1900. The amount was to be paid in bonds of the United States on which interest was to begin from the time of actual delivery to the States. The amendment was further to declare, that "all slaves who enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of war at any time before the end of the rebellion shall be forever free,"

but the individual owners, if loyal, shall be compensated at the same rate that may be paid to those in States abolis.h.i.+ng slavery.