Year: 1865

On Senate Resolution rat1ying Amendment


to The Constitution Of the United Stotespro-


posed by Congress January g., 1865, de-


HUered an the House of Representatives of
| Pennsylvania, Friday evening, February


7, 1865.


| Mr. MARSH Mr. Speaker, I am happy
in the privilege of taking part in the pass
age of resolution ratifying an amendment
to The Constitution of the United States for
ever prohibiting STRENGTHENING long con-
sidered slavery great moral and social
evil, and as a great weight hung about the
neck of our nation, which, if not thrown off,
would in time drag us down to ruin. And
who can say that the slave power has not
put forth her utmost exertions for the past
few years to accomplish that object.


But | am sorry to know that we have yet
a few men left, even gentlemen upon this
floor, who are willing to apologize for the
cruelties of slavery, and who charge all our
present troubles to the election of Abraham
Lincoln-and for no better reason than that
the people, in legal and constitutional
manner, saw fit to elect him President of
the United States.


Do not these gentlemen know that slave
ry commenced bloody war upon freedom
long before Abraham Lincoln was elected
President? Yes, and before the election Of
that old imbccile, James Buchanan. You
can date as far back as the administration
of Frank n Pierce, a model of modern De-
mOcracy and an apologist for the cruelties
and barbaritics Of African slavery. During
his administration organized bands from
the slave States went into Kansas, made
war upon her peaceful citizens, and by the
aid of the bowie knife and revolver carried
the elections against the will of a majority
of the bona tide settlers of the Territory
They robbed and burned their dwellings
and storehouses. And men who were sus-
pected of being in favor of freedom were
often shot down while in the field following
their peaceful and lawful pursuits. At 9th
er times the quiet citizen was met by these
marauders and the rope adjusted to his
neck, and he was suspended to the first
limb until dead, his body thrown out upon
the plains, his flesh to be devoured by wild
beasts and his bones to bleach in open air.
But the cruelties inflicted upon the people
of Kansas have at length found an equal
in the treatment of our Union prisoners in
rebel hands.


Slavery is not only cruel and barbarous,
but faithless to its compromises. Notwith-
standing the advantage gained by the slave
power in the compromises of 1850, in which
she asked that all agitation upon the sub
ject should then cease, she was the first to
break faith by the repeal of the compromis-
es of 1920, by which she made her inroads
into Kansas, and war upon her peaceful
citizens. | say slavery was not satisfied
degrading as were the laws of 1850 to the
free North, by which every free State was
made hunting ground for human flesh,
and every citizen a bloodhound at the nod
of the slave hunter. Not manyyears since,
! the huntsman's horn was blown within the
borders of Pennsylvania, and the crack Of
his pistol heard upon the banks of the Sus-
| quehanna. Even the waters of that beauti-
| full river have been made red with the bond
mans blood, and that blood, like the right
eous blood of Abel is crying to God in
Judgment against us. Slavery in her cru
elites has entered the family circle; has
taken from the father his son has driven
off the grown up daughter in the chain
gang, and has torn the infant from the arms
of an affectiOnate mother 1t has separa-
ted brother and sister; parted husband and
wife and at length, led on by blind infatu-
alton, strengthened by former success, and
encouraged by the Democratic party north,
it raised the arm of strong rebellion to part
this mighty nation. By that act slavery
spread sorrow and suffering throughout our
whole land. From Florida to Canada, and
! from the pine clad hills of Maine to the val
| ley of the Sacramento, tears in sorrow fall.
| They moisten our hill-sides and bedew our
valleys weeds of mourning grow up in
every town, and sighs, deep-felt, break forth
from every hamlet.


Still slavery is determined to add fresh
wounds to the Government and fresh sols
row to the hearts of the people


! And yet we have gentlemen upon this
floor willing to vote to give life to slavery.
| They tell us that to abolish slavery will
prolong the war Mr. Speaker, cannot
| see it. But, whether we have peace or war
! let us have liberty We all love peace.
and would hail with Joy its early return,
but we see no prospect of peace by adding
strength to slavery. Let us add strength
to our army, and words of encouragement
to our brave soldiers in the field and peace
will soon come.


Since slavery has taken the lives of so
many of our brave sons and brothers, will
we consent that it may still live? Would
We be willing that in after years the slave
hunter, in pursuit of his fugitive, should in
suit the widow and orphan of brave and
patriotic men, who We're called to defend
their country against Shareholders rebel
lion? Or sneer at the battle SCARED sold
ier, who has left his own right arm upon
the battle field in the hour Of his country's
danger?


Shall slavery, with its vile tread, pollute
the soil beneath which lie mouldering the
remains of the brave and noble defenders
of freedom?


Shall the ploughshare guided by the hand
of the slave, turn up to whiten in the sun the
bones of patriots who have fallen in free.
doms great struggle?


Shall we, as representatives of the peo-
pie, called upon to vote for the life or death
of slavery, and knowing that it has cast
all its power against freedom, and with her
iron-clad talons been graphing for the
heart strings of the nation-can we vote
that slavery may still live? No let slave
ry die And strengthened by its death,
may freedom and our country live
An OLD LADY's ADVICE TO JoHNNY.-"Now