Year: 1865

and the resources of the nation. In con
ciliation and just policy, and. ] will add,
generous policy, can restore Union, peace
and prosperity, as we have the best Of
reasons to believe, why shall they not be
adopted? II the attempt TO compel uni
versal emancipation can only succeed by the
continual employment OF immense armies at
the expense Of much of the blood and all the
resources of our people, as many good and
intelligent citizens believe, what benefit can
result to balance the expense? What evil
or danger can you remove at such great ex-
pense? None, as all can see who reason
well. Your assumptions aud predcates
upon them are about as reasonable as il
would be to say that the fruit ofEden was the
cause of the fall of man, and therefore all
fruit trees should be exter,pinated that
slavery was the cause Of the raid and assas-
sinations by John Brown at Harper Ferry,
and therefore slavery must be exterminatcd
to prevent murder. 1t would be better to
come openly TO the point, and say that free
Government like ours, with cO-equality of
citizens rights and privileges, and paramount
sovereignty of local matters in the States is
too pure and feeble to survive the assaults
of combined fanaticism and selfish bigotry,
and, therefore, "et the Union slide. ~ The
knife is useful and innocent instrument
but in the hands of an assassin it may be
employed to perpetrate much evil. We do
not propose on that account, however, to
rid the world of that instrument. In using
it to stab others you have wounded your
selves. Slavery in the States would never
have injured you had you obeyed the laws
and let it alone. What do the thinking men
of the North, East and West propose to do
with from three to four millions OF helpless
and homeless negroes when, as intended,
they shall all be suddenly cmancipated p.
Are they to be invited or compelled to the
free States? Are our people to give them
selves up to the ridiculous folly of an at
tempt to enfranchise them with political
equality. Will they attempt to carry out
the abolition theory of eevating or miscege-
mating the negro race to social equality
with white men and women? If there is
any reasonable or practicable solution with
in any ones imagination of this problem,
it should be given to the country. We are
told by those who say that slavery is the
cause of the war, that when slavery shall be
abolished the war shall be ended. In that
event, of course the hosts of our gallant
soldiers who are not employed in our vast
armies will return to their places of residence
and to their peaceful vocations of labor
The masses of the people of the free States
are habituated to laborious industry, and in
the hoped-for event of peace. will constitute
force sufficient for all the agricultural and
mechanical labor of the free States If it
should be taken out Of cheir hands by eman-
cipated negroes, they would enjoy but a
poor return for tolls, wounds and pcrils, in
the services of their country. As one OPP
posed to instituting slavery over negroes, or
any other human beings who are free,
should somewhat fear to trust the virtue of
our anti-slavery people with so delicate a
question, to be disposed of under such pc
culiar circumstances | fear that in the
next generation, if not in this, the Southern
way of providing for them would be adopted
as a measure of policy and humanity. There
is no room for the negroes of the South
no happiness for them any where within our
borders except in the places which they now
occupy Thus we see, in our own probable
condition and in the condition reserved for
these houseless and homeless and starving
hosts which, in the grand emancipation
hegira, will be thrown upon our borders, one
of the bitter consequences Of the policy
which you propose.


| deprecate human slavery. and the high
er the order and character of the man upon
whom its shackles are imposed, the more
l abhor it, You have, in yaur resolution


used to define it the familiar words of the
celebrated prohbitory ordinance of 1881


Within the scope of that definition, any
one is included whose personal liberty is
wreSed from him by tyrannous and unau-
thorized force. 1t denies the right of ar
bitrary imprisonment and all Interference
with human liberty Except as punish
ment for crime, of which the party shall
have been duly convicted" This lawful
immunity from personal restraint, except
in subjection to the process of an offended
law, is peculiarly the privilege of a citizen
of the United States, and is guaranteed to
him by the clear provisions of the Consti-
tuition. Undoubtedly, to assume control
over the person and liberty of citizen
without charge of crime or process Of law
and subject him to imprisonment or other
restraint OF liberty, is to create a case with
in the limits of your definition of slavery.
And yet how many misguided men, in the
midst of their professions of intense love
and regard for the liberty of the negro,
have approved and rejoiced in such depri-
vation of the liberty of their white fellow
citizens, for no other offense than an honest
political opinion in conflict with the policy
ofa temporarily predominating party. Ne
gro slavery is local in the States and regu-
lated by law but the abridgement of the
liberty of white citizens is limited to no


place. When all these matters shall have
been dispationately and justly considered,


it will be seen who has the highest regard
for human liberty.


In closing these remarks, the arguments


tive substance of which | have already ex-


pressed in the House, / venture to predict
, that the proposition pending in the House
of Representatives cannot be passed ac-


cording to the requisiton of the Constitu-


ton, because, in order to its passage, two
thirds of all the members who make up
that body are required to vote in the af-
frmative. The language of the Constitu-
ton is clear upon this point. Congress,
whenever tUo-thirtis of both Houses shall
deem it necessary shall propose amend


ments to this Constitution, &c. Not
? two thirds of mere quorum of the House,
competent to transact ordinary legislation,
but less than two thirds of the House, can


adopt this special provision and make il


law. And should the contrary be assumed
and the passage of resolution upon less
, vote declared, in the absence of member,
{ on either side of the question, the country
will know the action is null and void.


Very respectfully,


WASHINGTON, Jan. 2S, 1865.


!. NoTE.-Since the above remarks We're writ
ten, the proposition has been put to vote il
the House, and owing to the absence, from sick


ness and other causes, of several members who
l..xF