Year: 1865




we cannot but believe with the most perfect
conviction that it would have been, and
would hereafter be much better to leave
the subject in the hands of those to whom
| it lawfully belongs, than to expend upon
| its arbitrament the blood and the resources
of the nation. II conciliation and just poll
cy, and, will add, generous policy, can re-
store Union, peace and prosperity, as We
have the best of reasons to believe, why
shall they not be adopted? If the attempt
to compel a universal 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 citi-


zens believe, what benefit can result to bal


ance the expense? What evil or danger


can you remove at such great expense?


None, asa all can see who reason well. Your


assumptions and predicates upon them are


about as reasonable as it would be to say
that the fruit of Eden was the cause Of the
| fall of man, and therefore all fruit trees
| should be eXterminated; that slavery was
the cause of the raid and assassinations by
John Brown at IIarper's Ferry, and there
fore slavery must be eXterminated to pre-
vent murder. 1t would be better to come
openly to the point, and say that a free
Government like ours, with cO-equality OF



mount sovereignty of local matters in the
assaults Of P9 eJHreannd JRHEe and feeble to survive shs
bigotry, and, therefore, "let the SUShhSa' UhHS..'
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 instru-
ment. In using it to stab others you have
wounded yourselves. 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 tour
millions of helpless and homeless negroes
when if,as intended, they shall all be sudden
ly emaneipated? Are they TO be invited or
compelled to the free States? Are our peo-
pie to give themselves up to the ridiculous
folly of an attempt to enfranchise them
with political equality? Will they attempt
to carry out the abolition theory of eleva-
ting or miscegenating the negro race to a
social equality with white men and women?
If there is any reasonable or practicable
solution within 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
now employed in our vast armies will re-
turn to their places of residence and to
their peaceful vocations of labor. The
masses of the people of the free States are
habituatcd to laborious industry, and i'll
the hoped-for event of peace, will constitute
a force sufficient for all the agricultural
and mechanical labor of the tree States.
If it should be taken out of their hands by
emancipated negroes, they would enjoy
but a poor return for tolls wounds and
perils, in the services of their country. AS
one opposed 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 question, to be disposed OF lin-
der such peculiar circumstances. L fear


that in the next generation if not in this,
the Southern way Of providing for them
would be adopyed as a measure OF policy
and humanity. There is no room for the
negroes of the South among us. There is
no room, no support, 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 pro-
pose. ....- no.. f.


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 your resolution,
used to define it the familiar words of the
celebrated prohibitory ordinance of 1887.
Within the scope Of that definition, any
one is included whose personal liberty is
wrested from him by tyrannous and unau-
thorized force. Itdenies the right of ar
bitrary imprisonment and all interference
with human liberty, "eXcept as a punish- D
ment for crime, of which the party shall
have been duly convicted" This lawful
immunity from personal restraint, except
in subsection 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 Constitu-
ton. Undoubtedly, to assume control over
the person and liberty ofa citizen without
charge of crime or process of law, and sub
ject him to imprisonment or other restraint
of liberty, is to create case within the linn
its of your definition of slavery. And yet
how many misguided men, in the midst of
their professions of inteneo love and regard q
for the liberty of the negro, have approved i,
and rejoiced in such deprivation of the lib
erty of their white fellow-citiZens, for no
other offense than an honest political opin-
ion in conflict with the policy of tempor-
arily predominating party, Negro slavery


is local in the States, and regulated by law;
but the abridgement of the liberty Of white


citizens is limited to no place. When all


these.matters shall have been dispassionate-
ly and Justly considered, 1t will be seem,
who has the highest regard for human
liberty. '-''- '"' 'i" l' hVi'Ai


In closing these remarks, theargumenta-
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 accord 1
ing to the requisition of the Constitution, 4
because, In order to its passage, two-thirds q
of all the members who make up that body


are required to vote in the affirmative.
The language Of the Constitution is clear ?
upon this point: Congress, whenever t,oo-
thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary,
shall propose amendments to this Consti-
| tution," &c. Not two-thirds Of mere
| quorum of the House, competent to trans
act ordinary legislation. but less than two-


thirds of the House, can adopt this special
provision and make 1t law. And should


the contrary be assumed, and the passage
OF a resolution upon less vote declared, In
| the absence of members on either side Of the a
question, the country will know that the ac7ts
| tion is null and void. ~, pb,,rf ~, y,
d,ionl iIis' ~ mi GEO BLISS. ~


WASHINGTON, Jan. %, l865.gllaaxa uE niohi
NoTE.--Snce the above remarks were written,the =
proposition has been put TO vote in the House, aud


owing to the absence, from sickness aud other causes


ofseYeral members who present. would have voted