220 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



it is the doctrine which he maintained when he 

 was minister abroad." 



Mr. Siimner, of Mass., thus replied : " Mr. 

 President, there was a call only a few days ago 

 for three hundred thousand more troops. The 

 country needs them, and it is the duty of Con- 

 gress to help supply them. To this end there 

 must he no difficulty, impediment, or embar- 

 rassment in the way. All these must be re- 

 moved. But this is not all. There must be 

 encouragement of every kind ; and such is the 

 character of the present proposition. 



" There can be no delay. The country can- 

 not wait the slow action of a constitutional 

 amendment, as has been proposed by the Sen- 

 ator from Wisconsin (Mr. Doolittle). The Con- 

 gress must act to the extent of its power, and 

 any abdication of its power on this question 

 will be injurious to the public interests. 



" All must confess the humanity of the prop- 

 osition to enfranchise the families of colored 

 persons who have borne arms for their country. 

 All must confess the hardship of continuing 

 them in slavery. 



" But the question is asked by many, what 

 power has Congress to set the families free ? 



" My answer is that Congress has precisely 

 the same power to enfranchise the families that 

 it has to enfranchise the colored soldier. The 

 two powers .are coincident and from the same 

 source. It has been already assumed that Con- 

 gress may enfranchise the colored soldier. This 

 has been done by solemn statute, without any 

 reference to the conduct of his pretended own- 

 er. If we were asked the reason for such en- 

 franchisement, it must be found, first, in its 

 practical necessity, that we may secure the best 

 services of the slaves ; and secondly, in its in- 

 trinsic justice and humanity. In brief, Gov- 

 ernment cannot be so improvident and so fool- 

 ish as to attempt to obtain the services of the 

 slave at the hazard of life, without securing to 

 him the boon of freedom. Now, if Govern- 

 ment were so bereft of common sense as to 

 forego this temptation to enlistment and effi- 

 cient service, could it be guilty of the unutter- 

 able meanness of using the slave in the national 

 defence and then returning him to bondage? 

 Therefore the slave who fights is enfranchised. 



"But every argument, . every consideration, 

 which pleads for the enfranchisement of the 

 slave, pleads also for the enfranchisement of the 

 family. There is the same practical necessity 

 for doing it, and the same unutterable shabbi- 

 ness in not doing it. 



" There is no principle of law better estab- 

 lished than the rule that any acknowledged 

 right carries with it all incidents essential to 

 its exercise. I do not employ technical lan- 

 guage ; but I give the idea, which is founded in 

 reason, and the nature of things. It would be 

 vain to confer a right, or a power, if the means 

 for its enjoyment were denied. From this 

 simple statement the conclusion is irresistible. 



" In conferring upon Congress the power to 

 create an army, the Constitution conferred 



therewith all the powers essential to the exer- 

 cise of the principal power. If Congress can 

 authorize the enlistment of slaves, as it unques- 

 tionably can, it may at the same time authorize 

 their enfranchisement, and by the same reason 

 it may authorize the enfranchisement of their 

 families ; and all this from the necessity of the 

 case, and to prevent an intolerable meanness." 

 The motion to refer to the Judiciary Com- 

 mittee was lost by the following vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Buckalew, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, 

 Harris, Henderson, Hendricks, Hicks, Nesmith, Pow- 

 ell, Richardson, Saulsbury, Trumbull, Van Winkle, 

 and Willey 15. 



NATS -Messrs. Brown, Clark, Conness, Dixon, 

 Farwell, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harlan, Johnson, 

 Lane of Indiana, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, Kamsey, 

 Sherman, Sumner, Wade, and Wilson 19. 



ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, Carlile, Chandler, Col- 

 lamer, Hale, Harding, Howard, Howe, Lane of 

 Kansas, McDougall, Riddle, Sprague, Ten Eyck, 

 Wilkinson, and Wright 15. 



On January 9th the subject was again con- 

 sidered in the Senate, when Mr. Saulsbury, of 

 Delaware, said: "What right has the Congress 

 of the United States to declare a slave ill my 

 State or & slave in any other slaveholding State 

 free ? It has been said that it derived the power 

 from the absolute necessity of the case in the 

 first instance ; and secondly, from intrinsic jus- 

 tice and humanity ; and we, in the midst of a 

 gigantic civil war, are to determine our power, 

 not from the written Constitution of the laud, 

 but from intrinsic humanity and from absolute 

 necessity, and every individual member of either 

 House of Congress is to vote, not according to 

 the Constitution which he has sworn to support, 

 but according to his vague ideas of intrinsic 

 humanity and absolute necessity. Where are 

 you when you attempt legislation of this kind ? 

 Who defines the limit of legislative authority ? 

 Who can accurately tell me what is 'intrinsic 

 humanity' and what is 'absolute necessity'? 

 Why, sir, a measure of this kind, when viewed 

 in the light of intrinsic humanity, is, and will 

 be, one of the most inhumane measures that 

 could be adopted by the Congress of the United 

 States. 



"Why do I say so? I prefer to look at a 

 question of this kind in the light of ascertained 

 facts. Fortunately I have handed to me by a 

 distinguished gentleman of this city a letter ad- 

 dressed to a warm bosom and political friend 

 of the President of the United States, showing 

 the character of a proposition of this kind, and 

 the results to which it has led where the hu-: 

 manity of persons who have never been in the 

 midst of slavery is invoked in behalf of the 

 slave. Sir, you unmake and destroy by hun- 

 dreds and thousands those whom by your leg- 

 islation you prdfess to serve. Listen to an 

 extract from the letter of a distinguished gen- 

 tleman in New Orleans to a personal and polit- 

 ical friend of the President in reference to this 

 matter : 



A few days ago I was shown an official report to 

 the military heaa of this department, General Banks, 

 exhibiting the ghastly return of eighty thousand 



