I 

 320 



CONGKESS, U. S. 



support the view which I here present. It is 

 no new question. Fortunately for us, however 

 much disregarded the teachings of the fathers 

 may be at the present hour, they live and shine 

 upon the pages of history and in the public 

 records of the country. In 1822, a bill was 

 passed by the Congress of the United States 

 making an appropriation of money to complete 

 the Cumberland road. Mr. Monroe was then 

 President of the United States, and he sent to 

 Congress a special message stating his objec- 

 tions at length to the bill, in which he con- 

 sidered fully the nature and character of the 

 system of government under which we live, 

 and the powers of the Federal Congress to 

 appropriate money out of the public treasury 

 for special and particular objects. He vetoed 

 that bill, and in his veto message of the 4th of 

 May, 1822, in reference to this power of a State 

 to surrender its sovereignty, he held this laiN 

 guage: 



I am of opinion that Congress does not possess this 

 power that the States, individually, cannot grant it ; 

 for although they may assent to the appropriation of 

 money within their limits for such purposes, they can 

 grant no power o_f jurisdiction or sovereignty by 

 special compacts with the United States. This power 

 can be granted only by an amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion, and in the mode prescribed by it." 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, moved to 

 amend by making the amount for each slave 

 $200 instead of $300, which was adopted, and 

 also another amendment that the emancipation 

 should be immediate, which was rejected. He 

 then urged the passage of the bill. " I have 

 already voted to give $20,000,000 to Missouri, 

 in order to secure freedom at once to her slaves 

 and to make her at once a free State. I am 

 ready to vote more, if more be needed for this 

 purpose ; but I will not vote money to be sunk 

 and lost in an uncertain scheme of prospective 

 emancipation, where freedom is a jack-o'-lan- 

 tern, and the only certainty is to be found in 

 the congressional appropriation. For money 

 paid down, freedom, too, must be paid down 

 at once. . 



" With all differences of opinion on this im- 

 portant question, there is much occasion for 

 congratulation in the progress that has been 

 made. 



" There is one point on which the Senate is 

 substantially united. A large majority will 

 vote for emancipation. This is much, both as 

 a sign of the present and a prophecy of the 

 future. A large majority, in the name of Con- 

 gress, will offer pecuniary aid to this object. 

 This is a further sign and prophecy. Such a 

 vote and such an appropriation will constitute 

 an epoch. Only a few short years ago the very 

 mention of slavery in Congress was forbidden, 

 and all discussion of it was stifled. Now, 

 emancipation is an accepted watchword, while 

 slavery is openly denounced as a guilty thing 

 worthy of death. 



" It is admitted that now, under the exigen- 

 cy of war, the United States ought to cooper- 

 ate with any State in the abolition of slavery, 



giving to it pecuniary aid ; and it is proposed 

 to apply this principle practically in Missouri. 

 It was fit that emancipation, destined to end 

 the rebellion, should first begin in South Car- 

 olina, where the rebellion first began. It is 

 also fit that the action of Congress in behalf 

 of emancipation should first begin in Missouri, 

 which, through the faint-hearted remissness of 

 Congress, as late as 1820, was opened to slave- 

 ry. Had Congress at that time firmly insisted 

 that Missouri, on entering the Union, should be 

 a free State, the vast appropriation now pro- 

 posed would have been saved ; and, better still, 

 this vaster civil war would have been pre- 

 vented. The whole country is now paying 

 with treasure and blood for that fatal sur- 

 render. Alas! that men should forget that 

 God is bound by no compromise, and that, 

 sooner or later, He will insist that justice shall 

 be done. There is not a dollar spent, and not 

 a life sacrificed in this calamitous war, which 

 does not plead against any repetition of that 

 wicked folly. Blasted be the tongue which 

 speaks of compromise with slavery ! 



" But, though happily compromise is no lon- 

 ger openly proposed, yet it insinuates itself 

 in this debate. In former times it took the 

 form of barefaced concession to slavery, as in 

 the admission of Missouri as a Slave State ; 

 the annexation of Texas as a Slave State ; the 

 waiver of the prohibition of slavery in the 

 Territories ; the atrocious bill for the reen- 

 slavement of fugitives ; and the opening of 

 Kansas to slavery, first by the Kansas bill, and 

 then by the Lecompton constitution. In each 

 of these cases there was a concession to slavery 

 which history now records with shame ; but 

 it was by this that your wicked slavehokling 

 conspiracy waxed confident and strong, till at 

 last it was ripe for war. 



" And now it is proposed, as an agency in 

 the suppression of the rebellion, to put an end 

 to slavery. By proclamation of the President, 

 all the slaves in certain States, and designated 

 parts of States, are declared to be free. Of 

 course this proclamation is a war measure, ren- 

 dered just and necessary by the exigencies of 

 war. As such it is summary and instant in its 

 operation ; not prospective or procrastinating. 

 A proclamation of prospective emancipation 

 would have been an absurdity ; like a procla- 

 mation of prospective battle, where not a blow 

 was to be struck or a cannon pointed before 

 1876, unless, meanwhile, the enemy desired it 

 What is done in war must be done promptly, 

 except, perhaps, under the policy of defenco. 

 Gradualism is delay ; and delay is the betray- 

 al of victory. If you would be triumphant"/, 

 strike quickly. Let your blows be felt it 

 once, without notice or premonition ; and es- 

 pecially without time for resistance or debato. 

 Time always deserts those who do not appro- 

 ciate its value. Strike promptly, and time bd- 

 comes your invaluable ally. Strike slowly, 

 gradually, prospectively, and time goes over to 

 the enemy. 



