270 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



dition of slavery ; they had been tainted and 

 marked with that degradation, and that was 

 enough ; even Catiline would not be their 

 leader, and preferred to face the perils of the 

 battle alone. And what a spectacle is here 

 presented 1 The representatives of a nation 

 which has ever boasted of its readiness to shed 

 the last drop of its blood in defence of the 

 liberties of its people, are calling upon slaves 

 to defend it and to defend them ! Sir, it is a 

 mockery a mockery of the American people. 

 It is a policy unlike that of any other nation. 

 It is an insult to your army. It is a crime 

 against the civilization of the age. It is a 

 crime against the Constitution. It is an act of 

 hostility against the Union. These are the 

 sentiments with which I am compelled to re- 

 gard this measure. 



" But, sir, I do not care so much about the 

 employment of these men in respect to their 

 inefficiency as soldiers, as I do in respect to 

 the character their employment will give to 

 the war itself. In what will it result ? In a 

 servile war. You put one white man to com- 

 mand a thousand negroes at the South, and 

 will he restrain them ? Will it not result in 

 servile war ? It will be a servile war led by 

 white men. You may get a white man who 

 will endeavor to restrain them, who will en- 

 deavor to enforce discipline among them, but 

 could he do it? You promise to all these 

 negroes set free by the President's emancipa- 

 tion proclamation the enjoyment of actual 

 freedom, and you will find that, though you 

 may attempt to restrain them, whenever you 

 attempt to put the experiment into operation, 

 you give license to turn this civil war into a 

 servile war. That will be the result, and that 

 is what you are going to do ? 



" Mr. Speaker, I am utterly in opposition to 

 the language used on the other side of the 

 House, that there can be no reconciliation ; 

 that we must subjugate or exterminate the 

 rebels ; that we must employ all of the ener- 

 gies of the Government to drive them from 

 the country. We are told that the rebel 

 States are to be colonized and a new and loyal 

 race is to be raised up. Robbers are to go in 

 in a time of national adversity and take ad- 

 vantage of an abolition policy. They are to 

 occupy the land and drive the people there 

 out of the country. Is that a fair beginning 

 for an honest and loyal race ? What can be 

 hoped for the virtue of a people like that? 

 I know that one object gentlemen have in 

 view is to abolish slavery. You want to abol- 

 ish slavery, whether you call it the means of 

 the end or the end of the means. They have 

 verified it in this matter. It seems likely to 

 be the end of the means. They are not will- 

 ing to have it done by any other means. It is 

 undertaking on the part of the North to domi- 

 neer over the South. What right has the 

 North to do it? The South has equal rights 

 with the North. It is a domination more in- 

 tolerable than any you have complained of." 



Mr. Hutchins, of Ohio, insisted upon the 

 right of the Government to take slaves for the 

 army, saying : " Now, the master is entitled to 

 the service of his apprentice by virtue of statute 

 law ; the parent is entitled to the service of his 

 child by statute law ; the master is entitled to 

 the service of his slave by statute law. What 

 is the gentleman's answer to that ? Simply 

 that the apprentice and the son can be taken, 

 because they are not property, but are free 

 citizens, and'not slaves. That is no answer to 

 the argument. The Attorney-General of the 

 United States, in an able and elaborate opinion 

 recently published, maintains that native-born 

 colored persons are citizens. In this he is cor- 

 rect. If we can take as soldiers minor appren- 

 tices and minor sons, we have the same right 

 to take slaves, for they are either persons or 

 property. If they are persons, we are entitled 

 to their services to save the Government ; and 

 the fact that they are or are not citizens does 

 not change the right of the Government to 

 their services as subjects, unless they owe alle- 

 giance to a foreign Government. If colored 

 persons are property, we may use that proper- 

 ty to put down this rebellion. The bill under 

 consideration does not limit the use of colored 

 persons to slaves ; and a large proportion of 

 them will not be slaves." 



Mr. Sedgwick, of New York, thus explained 

 the policy of the Government : " The policy of 

 the Government has been rather dictated by 

 necessity than by choice, for there is abundant 

 evidence of the willingness of the Government 

 to save the institution of slavery. The Pres- 

 ident, at an early day, foreseeing the course 

 which this controversy must take, intimated to 

 the semi-loyal border States the willingness of 

 the Government to aid them pecuniarily in any 

 reasonable scheme of gradual and compensated 

 emancipation, advising action while the Fed- 

 eral Government was liberal in spirit and 

 strong in its resources, and at the same time 

 intimating that the probable exigencies of the 

 war might render emancipation on some terms 

 necessary throughout all the States of the re- 

 public. Acting on this suggestion, the State 

 of Delaware, by its executive, the State of 

 Maryland, by its executive, and the State of 

 Missouri, by its legislative and executive au- 

 thority, have brought before their people pro- 

 jects of emancipation on the terms and tinder 

 the conditions which Congress has been, and I 

 presume still is, willing to offer. 



" The next step was the proclamation of the 

 President of the 22d of September, announcing 

 the purpose of the executive department of the 

 Government to proclaim the emancipation of 

 the slaves in all of those States remaining un- 

 represented in Congress after one hundred 

 days, on the 1st of January of this year. The 

 emancipation proclamation of the President, as 

 commander-in-chief of the army and navy, 

 followed. And I here desire to bear testimony 

 to the firmness of the executive on this point, 

 against strong remonstrances, against violent 



