New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-04-17
AN ADDR ESS.
Delivered "a: the Eleventh Ami.
versary OF Emancipation I'm the
District Of Columbia. April 10Th.
1873.
BY RICHARD THEODORE GREExER.

of the martyr President, Abraham Lincoln
after he assumed the position Of Chief Macis
trate of the nation, was the incorporation
into his first annual message Of a recommen
dalton, afterward adopted by both Houses
THAT the United States ought 10 co
/ operate with any State which may adopt
! gradual adjustment of slavery, giving tc
such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such
State, in its discretion, 10 compensate fol-
/ the inconvenience, public and private, rro.
! duced by such a change of system"
Some of you, doubtless, may remember
how assuring, if not completely satisfactory
this announcement xaste the great party O.
freedom. 1t had Won its first victory
and as yet knew neither its power nor the
mighty changes, under Gods providence, il
was destined to effect. The majority of the
States had declared in favor OF 'no more ex-
tension of slave territory and only their
/ constitutional obligation, intensely magni-
fed, kept them from being even more pro-
noUnced and radical. Northern mcn-Re-
publicans and Democrats-had become thor
oughly disgGsted with the domination and
eXactions of their Southern masters. Not
only was fealty to their merest caprice de-
handed but they were forced by fugitive
slave laws and kindred legislation to be the
slave-hounds, the political scavengers, the
active emissaries and forced apologists for n
system foreign to the genius of the Govern
ment, rcrugnant to the laws of God, and q
continued outrage upon the negroes Of the
country. But a little while before abOli-
tionists and negroes had been mObbed, and
John Brown, the Arnold Winklereid Of our
liberties, Grasping the tyrannical spears of
slavery into his own gallant BOSOM had died
for that cause which his life could not hasten
Emancipation Of any kind seemed a CEN
tury of, and, therefore. these first words of
Abraham Lincoln, notwithstanding they were
tainted with colonization" and ''compen-
sation," words hateful alike to the negro and
abOlitionist because Of their continued recur-
renee in the mouths of the apOlogists for
slavery, filed the hearts of every lover of
his country with unfeigned joy.
On this occasion, fcllow-ctizens, | shall
not detain yOu long with a review of the
events which followed the message. Some
Of those whose good fortune it has been to
address YOU on previous anniversaries, have
dwelt upon them in an able and exhaustive
manner. The events themselves are historic,
and to many of you familiar. l shall speak
only particularly and briefly of the immediate
event which we celebrate to-day.
Mr.. Lincoln, it is well known, was an
anti-slavery man from convictions of utility
rather than from instinct; politically and pc
cuniarily, rather than officially and morally
While his great heart felt, in degree,
the degradation of the negro, and compre-
hended the abiect condition of the country
before the civilized world; while his political
sagacity forcsaw the coming catastrophe, he
never, it is safe to assert, would have
walked with such intrepidity up to the great
responsibility OF the act which we are celc-
brating. and the greater one which followed
tit, had it not been for the untiring vigilance,
the continued perseverance, and the indomi-
table determination OF Sumner and Wilson
and Chase and Cameron, who surrounded
him, and Greeley and Phillips, Andrew and
Curtin, who, at their respective posts, as
sisted in the glorious works of regeneration.
To him, who is now the hOnOred Vice
President Of the nation, Henry Wilson, of
Massachusetts, n man sprung from the hum
blcst ranks OF the people, is due the credit
Of introducing and working through Congress
the bill which provided for emancipation in
the District of Columbia. Even in this bill
was embodied the principle of compensation,
paying, however, only loyal owners. For
nearly three months it was debated, bufieted
between the two Houses, amended by colo
niZation schemes, and finally passed on the
18th Of April, 1862, by strict party vote of
o. to A, thus establishing a precedent for
general emancipation.
If you have followed the rise of cons ttu-
tional liberty in England, traced so accurately
and described So calmly by the mastery pen
of Iia' N, You will notice, without the aid
of BIZ, l,stone, the value of a precedent.
The illegal proclamatiOns, against which
lid Coke protested, or Clarendon lament
i : the precedent of Lord Bacon's trial,
or the Five Knights pleading for the
privilege of the writ Of hdJeas corpus, or
Hampden refusing to pay the ship-money,
or Charles 1. tried for his life and losing his
head, or the cOnsummatiCn of the "GlO-
rious Revolution" all alike show how inn
portant to the Anglo-SaXOn mind is the value
ola precedent. This bill was, then, the preces
dent which the leaders of the Republican
party sought to establish. Few of us NAV
know the terrible suspense which hung over
the country and weighed down the hearts of
the leaders, when day after day rolled by
after the passage of the bill without a re-
spouse from the President. Should he veto
it, a majority Of Congress, not daring to
break so soon, and at such Il critical iunc-
ture with him, would have retreated and
sustained his veto. Should he sustain il,
the policy OF the Administration was deter
mined at once to be in favor of freedom. 1t
was after nine O'Clock on the evening of the
18th April, 1862, when Senator Sumner, be-
ing no longer able to restrain his pent-up
anxiety, called on Mr.. Lincoln. lie was re-
ceived with that cordiality ana respect which
Mr.. Lincoln always manifested toward him.
''Do you know who at this moment is the
largest slave-holdeT in this country" he
asked Of the astonished President. SIT is
Abraham Lincoln, for he holds all the three
thousand slaves of the District, which is
more than any other person in the country
holds"
lie then pleaded with the President for
his sigrature to the bill showed him the
value oi it as precedent to the country,
and, a. a stimulus to the anti-slayery cle-
IEcnt ui the Republican party, as an act of
,-tice to the suffering and the holy, remind
III him of his own humble origin and the
curse which slavery had thrown about his ear
~ day. Then warming with that enthusiasm
for which our great Senator is so noted. he
said, Why, Mr.. President, l cannot see
how Won dare trust yourself to sleep. tonight.
commanding yourself to your Maker. and
remembering that you have it in your power
to free three thousand human beings, sup
pose you should die tonight, do you think
your spirit could look back upon this great
act of justice unperfomed and feel that
Abraham Lincoln had done his duty ?'' The
next morning, fellow-citizens, as if in re-
spouse to this grand appeal the flashing
wires sent forth the message of the President
anprnVipu The hill