328 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



ascertain the value of land taken for a road, by 

 a jury summoned under a writ of ad quod dam- 

 num. The amendment of the gentleman from 

 Maryland ignores this right, violates it in a 

 plain, distinct, and palpable manner, and is con- 

 trary to the Constitution of the United States." 

 The amendment proposed by Mr. Davis was 

 now accepted by Mr. Stevens. Mr. Davis now 

 further moved as an amendment, to add as fol- 

 lows: 



The Secretary of War shall appoint a commission 

 in each of the slave States represented in Congress, 

 charged to award a just compensation to each loyal 

 owner of any slave who may volunteer into the ser- 

 vice of the United States, payable out of the commu- 

 tation money. 



He said : "Mr. Chairman, I submit that amend- 

 ment for this reason : not because I think it is 

 due at all to the owner of the slave, but because 

 the President and the Secretary of War in ex- 

 ecuting the law of 1862, allowing the President 

 to use and organize persons of African descent 

 to suppress the rebellion, have seen fit to ap- 

 point a commission, which is now in session in 

 Maryland, for the purpose of estimating the 

 value of and awarding reasonable compensation 

 to the loyal owners of slaves who may volun- 

 teer in the service of the United States under 

 the law of 1862. That brings the volunteering 

 of slaves into some sort of correspondence with 

 the established policy of the Government in 

 paying bounties to volunteers, the difference 

 being that in the case of the slave the bounty 

 is paid to the master instead on his freeing the 

 slave, whereas the bounty in the case of the 

 white volunteer of course goes to himself. 



" But the difference between that proposition 

 and the proposition to pay drafted men is this : 

 ihe volunteer having offered his services to the 

 Government, the Government is of course at 

 liberty to alleviate the burden which may be 

 thrown upon the slaveowner, as far as it sees 

 St. It is a very different thing to impose upon 

 the Government when it is driven to draft men 

 the necessity of paying to every slaveowner a 

 compensation for any slave that may be draft- 

 ed. It is unequal, and I am sure every gentle- 

 man will see that it is in a moment. The poor 

 man whose son works for him on his ten acres 

 receives no compensation for that son when he 

 is drafted into the service, while the wealthy 

 slaveholder, who has three or four hundred 

 .slaves alongside, is to receive a compensation 

 of $300 for every one of his slaves Avho may be 

 Irafted." 



Mr. Webster, of Maryland, said: "Sir, the 

 question before us is not the right to take slaves 

 for military service, but the expediency of so 

 doing. For myself, I am free to confess that in 

 ihe earlier stages of the war, when it seemed 

 probable that the rebellion would be crushed at 

 no distant day, and without serious interference 

 with the domestic institutions of the States, be- 

 lieving as I did arid do in the superiority of the 

 white man as a soldier, I was unwilling to arm 

 the negro. But now, sir, when we approach 



the end of the third year of this war, and it ia 

 still huge in its dimensions ; when call for troops 

 follows call in quick succession; when draft 

 after draft is made, and the drain upon our 

 people for soldiers is grievous to be borne, I am 

 for using all the means known to the law in 

 suppressing the rebellion. I would put arms in 

 the hands of all men capable of bearing them. 

 The experience of the last twelve months has 

 shown that the negro, though not so efficient a 

 soldier as the white man, will fight bravely, and 

 can be made a vAluable auxiliary in the prose- 

 cution of the war and the restoration of the 

 Union. Sir, his aid is not to be rejected, at 

 least I will not assist in its rejection." 



Mr. Harris, of Maryland, opposed the amend- 

 ment, saying : " If you could properly enlist 

 slaves, I am opposed to the degradation 

 which such an act would bring upon a nation 

 situated as this is. What are you fighting? 

 Five million white men. You claim to be 

 twenty million white men, and yet with such 

 odds in your favor, and with means of block- 

 ading southern ports and almost starving them 

 into subjection, you come here and command 

 that the flag of your country shall be intrusted 

 to the poor slaves. I say it is a degradation of 

 the United States flag, and no man who duly 

 honors that flag has heretofore ever undertaken 

 at such odds to deprave the country and tarnish 

 its honor by such any proceeding." 



Mr. Mallory, of Kentucky, also opposed the 

 amendment, urging objections as follows : " I 

 ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the gen- 

 tleman from Iowa, and the gentlemen on that 

 side of the House, what they have got to do 

 with the matter ? If we allow you to put your 

 free negroes into the army and I have no ob- 

 jection to your putting them xipon your enrol- 

 ment list what right have you to insist that 

 our slaves in Kentucky shall be placed upon our 

 enrolment list ? You demand from Kentucky 

 a certain number of men for the army upon 

 this call. We who live in Kentucky say that 

 we have the right to decide who those men 

 shall be. If you are in earnest, if you really 

 desire to raise men to fill our armies, that is 

 the course by which you will accomplish that 

 object. But if you are not in earnest ; if you 

 have another and a different object to accom- 

 plish covertly, by the operation of the bill ; if 

 you wish to demoralize and destroy the institu- 

 tion of slavery in my State, then the amend- 

 ment of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 

 Stevens) is a wise one for the accomplishment 

 of that purpose. Sir, I know the gentleman 

 from Pennsylvania, I know him to be a bold 

 man, I know him to be a frank and candid 

 man, and I know this to be his argument; I 

 know that if his simple, sole object by this bill 

 was to raise an army, he would admit that the 

 course I have marked is the proper one to ac- 

 complish that object." 



The amendment to the amendment was 

 adopted yeas, 84; nays, 71. 



Mr. Harding, of Kentucky, said : " I mov 



