Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-05-01
A Bit of History.

diary, kept by Ohio's great anti-slavery |
agitator, the late Joshua Il. Giddings, has
lust been discovered at his old home in |
jefferson, Ohio. 1t covers an entire session
of Congress OslS-49) and is said to be
faithful portrayal of Mr. Giddings thoughts
and actions when the slave power was most
arrogant. To an oldtime abolitonist the
record is intensely interesting, and in some
respects surprising. Under date of Deem
Der 9th, 1919, he mentions the first meeting
of the free.soil members of that Congress.
Only six were present, and Giddings aud
John g. Pafrey, of Massachusetts,, drew up
an address for the Free-soil Association of
the District of Columbia. After the meet
ing Mr.. Giddings found that some of his
messmates " intended to render his situa-
ton unpleasant but he quantity adds 81
think they found me able to make them as
uncomfortable as they could me-" IIespeaks
of the following Wednesday as day rich in
its events. DIR. Palfrey threw both wings
and democrats into CONSERVATION by intro
ducing bill to abolish slavery in the Dis
trict There was general skirmish and
many Taylor men left the House to avoid
making record" The bill was lost by
vote of sixty-nine to eighty-two. But it was
Immediately followed by resolution direct
ing the committee on territories to report
bills to incorporate California and New
Mexico, and excluding slavery therefrom.
This, Mr.. Giddings says, "was like fire.
bell at midnight Seeing disposition to
dodge, he made call of the House, and amid
great CONSERVATION the bill was adopted,
one hundred and seven to eighty-two. This
created much feeling, and Mr.. Giddings
records that " Messrs. Pollock and Lincoln,
of our mess, were very insulting after the
adjournment" How amazed would Gid
dings have been if it had been foretold to
him then that this same insulting Lincoln
this Saul who held the clothes of those who
stoned the martyrs-was to be the instru-
ment under Providence not only to abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia and the
territories, but to sign the proclamation
freeing every slave throughout the land, a
contamination which the pioneers, like Gid
dings and Tappan and Garrison, who felt the
strength of the slave power at its height, did
not have faith to believe would be reached
during this century.
The "mess" must have been very stormy
one at this time. Two days after the intro
duction of the above resolution, Pollock,
afterward governor of Pennsylvania, APP
peared at breakfast in favor of admitting
the Mexican territory as state, and there
was evidently a very lively session, in which
Pollock accused Giddings of bad motives
and Giddings retorted that he did not care
to have his motives questioned by a man
who had not mind enough to make up an
opinion on an important question-Pollock
having lodged the vote on slavery in the
District. The diary then goes on:
"Ths started the ire of my quondam friend,
and he aved. rejoined, and there was an ap-
pearanee of violence in the dning-hall. Pollock
cooled down and left the room. Dickey made re-
marks conciliatory, as did Mclllvaine and Lincoln
had some thoughts of leaving the mess, but was
unwilling to be thus driven away"
On the Goth of December motion was
carried through the House instructing the
committee on the District peremptorily to
report bill to abolish the slave-trade in the
District of Columbia. Every effort was
made to evade direct vote but failed, and
the old hero writes in his diary these notable
words:
"Thus, after ten years labor and effort, hay,
been permitted TO the House compelled to vot,
on a question vital to the cause of humanity
and to the honor of our nation. My emotions
were such that no language can describe them.
retired To my room on adjournment and gave my
self up to reflection"
Other extracts bring wildly before tn,
reader the scenes of that stormy time, wheI
the domineering Southerners were trem
bling with rage as they saw their hold upol
the nation slowly slipping away before al
? enlightened public sentiment. 1t seem
now almost like ancient history, and yet i
T. was only ten years before the election Of
q Lincoln TO the Presidency.