Norton, Odell, Charles O'Neill, Orth, Patterson, Perham, Pike, Pomeroy, Price, Radford, William H. Randall, Alexander H. Rice, Edward H. Rollins, James S. Rollins, Schenck, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, Smith, Smithers, Spalding, Starr, John B. Steele, Stevens, Thayer, Thomas, Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh, Elihu B. Washburne, William B. Washburne, Webster, Whaley, Wheeler, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windom, Woodbridge, Worthington and Yeaman-119.

NAYS-Messrs. James C. Allen, William J. Allen, Ancona, Bliss, Brooks, James S. Brown, Chanler, Clay, Cox, Cravens, Dawson, Denison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, Finck, Grider, Hall, Harding, Harrington, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris, Holman, Philip Johnson, William Johnson, Kalbfleisch, Kernan, Knapp, Law, Long, Mallory, William H. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, Noble, John O'Neill, Pendleton, Perry, Pruyn, Samuel J. Randall, Robinson, Ross, Scott, Wm. G. Steele, Stiles, Strous, Stuart, Sweat, Townsend, Wadsworth, Ward, Chilton A. White, Winfield, Benjamin Wood and Fernando Wood-56.

NOT VOTING-Messrs. Lazear, LeBlond, Marcy, McDowell, McKinney, Middleton, Rogers and Voorhees-8.

The result, up to the last moment, had been doubtful, and the affirmative decision of this momentous question was no sooner announced, than the members on the floor, and the spectators who thronged the galleries, spontaneously joined in enthusiastic and long-continued demonstrations of joy. Never was such a scene before witnessed in any legislative hall. The sensation produced, wherever the news was spread by telegraph, was one of universal satisfaction and gladness that the great work was accomplished. The Republic had at last proclaimed itself truly FREE-needing only the State ratification provided for by the Constitution, and sure to be obtained, to settle the question forever. President Lincoln promptly approved the measure, and State after State has echoed and re-echoed the popular ratification.

The inhuman conduct of the Rebel leaders toward our prisoners in their hands, will fill the darkest pages of the history of the great insurrection. Starvation, freezing, delirium, prolonged agony yielding to the slow-coming relief of death, were the lot of tens of thousands of true and valorous men, whom the fortunes of war had thrown into Rebel hands. The names of

Libby, and Belle Isle, of Salisbury, Millen and Andersonville, will be words of infamy forever-their black shadow resting as a pall over all the fancied military glories of Lee, and covering with shame all the imperial pride of the traitor Davis. Cruelty so brutal was inconsistent with no crime. Barbarism so astounding was not an unnatural fruit of the tyrannous system which the rebellion was designed to perpetuate. The facts stand fully proved, as in the clearest sunlight. The crime was deliberate and without palliation. The agony and torture endured by our imprisoned soldiers could hardly be paralleled by any outrage of the Inquisition, or by any torments inflicted by the savage. The first reports of these inhumanities seemed incredible, but the half was not told.

There were those who urged what they believed the only remedy, retaliation. This policy was discussed at great length in the Senate, and found earnest advocates, whose arguments, enforced by the citation in detail of some portion of these horrible atrocities, may have seemed to some minds almost irresistible. While the discussion continued, relief was happily found in a manner less revolting to humanity. No retaliation was ever practiced. Under no circumstances would public senti. ment have tolerated it. No Rebel prisoner ever had occasion to complain. But on the heads of the real authors of these crimes, retribution could not but be fervently invoked.

It was after these facts were known, that certain aiders, abettors and sympathizers in England, enriched by blockade-running, or by the fitting out of Rebel cruisers, or allied in character to these wretched despots, raised a fund for the alleged purpose of relieving the wants-not of these Union prisoners, subjected to slow torture, and murdered by thousands, through the aid of hunger, thirst and cold-but of the Rebel prisoners in our hands, who had never lacked any thing consistent with their condition, and who were undisputedly and notoriously well fed, sheltered and cared for. The following correspondence shows the origin, purpose and result, of this insolent attempt to shield the Rebels from the infamy of their prison murders, and of their prison tortures, worse than murder :

MR. ADAMS TO MR. SEWARD.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
LONDON, November 18, 1864.

Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.: SIR: I have received from Lord Wharncliffe, the Chairman of the British Association, organized to give aid and comfort to the Rebel cause, a note, a copy of which is transmitted herewith.

I append a copy of my reply.

I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

LORD WHARNCLIFFE TO MR. ADAMS.

WORTLEY HALL, SHEFFIELD,
November 12, 1864.

His Excellency, Hon. C. F. Adams:

}

Your EXCELLENCY: A bazaar has been held in St. George's Hall, to provide a fund for the relief of Southern prisoners of war. It has produced a clear sum of £17,000. In preference to any attempts to reach the intended object by circuitous means, a committee of English gentlemen has been formed to address you on this subject.

As chairman of this committee, I venture to ask your Excellency to request permission of your Goverment that an accredited agent may be sent out to visit the military prisons within the Northern States, and minister to the comfort of those for whom this fund is intended, under such supervision as your Government may direct.

Permit me to state that no political end is aimed at by this movement. It has received support from many who were opposed to the political action of the South. Nor is it intended to impute that the Confederate prisoners are denied such attentions as the ordinary rules enjoin. But these rules are narrow and stern. Winter is at hand, and the clothing which may satisfy the rules of war will not protect the natives of a warm climate from the severe cold of the North.

Sir, the issue of this great contest will not be determined by individual suffering, be it greater or less; and you, whose family name is interwoven with American history, can not view with indifference the sufferings of American citizens, whatever their State or opinions.

On more than one occasion, aid has been proffered by the people of one country to special classes, under great affliction, in another. May it not be permitted to us to follow these

examples, especially when those we desire to solace are beyond the reach of their immediate kinsmen? I trust these precedents and the voice of humanity may plead with your Excellency, and induce you to prefer to the Government of the United States the request which I have the honor to submit. I am Sir, your obedient, humble servant,

WHARNCLIFFE.

MR. ADAMS TO LORD WHARNCLIFFE.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
LONDON, November 18, 1864.

LORD WHARNCLIFFE: My Lord-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th inst., asking me to submit to the consideration of my Government a request of certain English gentlemen, made through your lordship, to send out an accredited agent to visit the military prisoners held by the United States, and afford them such aid, additional to that extended by the ordinary rules of war, as may be provided by the fund which has been raised here for the purpose.

I am sure that it has never been the desire of my Government to treat with unnecessary or vindictive severity any of the misguided individuals, parties in this deplorable rebellion, who have fallen into their hands in the regular course of war. I should greatly rejoice were the effects of your sympathy extended to the ministering to the mental ailment, not less than the bodily sufferings of these unfortunate persons, thus contributing to put an end to a struggle which otherwise is likely to be only procrastinated by your labors.

Be that as it may, I shall be happy to promote any human endeavor to alleviate the horrors of this strife, and in that sense shall very cheerfully comply with your lordship's desire, so far as to transmit, by the earliest opportunity, to my Government, a copy of the application which has been addressed

to me.

I beg your lordship to receive the assurance of my distinguished consideration.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS.

Department of State, WASHINGTON, December 5, 1864.

SIR: I have received your dispatch of the 18th of November, No. 807, together with the papers therein mentioned, namely, a copy of a letter which was addressed to you on the

12th of November last, by Lord Wharncliffe, and a copy of your answer to that letter.

Your proceeding in that matter is approved. You will now inform Lord Wharncliffe that permission for an agent of the committee described by him to visit the insurgents detained in military prisons of the United States, and to distribute among them seventeen thousand pounds of British gold, is disallowed. Here it is expected that your correspondence with Lord Wharncliffe will end.

That correspondence will necessarily become public. On reading it, the American people will be well aware that while the United States have ample means for the support of prisoners, as well as for every other exigency of the war in which they are engaged, the insurgents, who have blindly rushed into that condition, are suffering no privations that appeal for relief to charity either at home or abroad.

The American people will be likely to reflect that the sum thus insidiously tendered in the name of humanity constitutes no large portion of the profits which its contributors may be justly supposed to have derived from the insurgents, by exchanging with them arms and munitions of war for the coveted productions of immoral and enervating slave labor. Nor will any portion of the American people be disposed to regard the sum thus ostentatiously offered for the relief of captured insurgents as a too generous equivalent for the devastation and dissolution which a civil war, promoted and protracted by British subjects, has spread throughout States which before were eminently prosperous and happy.

Finally, in view of this last officious intervention in our domestic affairs, the American people can hardly fail to recall the warning of the Father of our Country, directed against two great and intimately connected public dangers, namely: sectional faction and foreign intrigue. I do not think the insurgents have become debased, although they have sadly wandered from the ways of loyalty and patrtiotism. I think that, in common with all our countrymen, they will rejoice in being saved by their considerate and loyal Government from the grave insults which Lord Wharncliffe and his associates, in their zeal for the overthrow of the United States, have prepared for the victims of their unnatural and hopeless rebellion. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

An attempt of Lord Warncliffe, through the London Times, to give a color of propriety to the action thus summarily