was the whole Republican strength, thirty-six votes, CHAP. IV. cast in its favor, but two Democrats,― Reverdy Johnson of Maryland and James W. Nesmith of Oregon, with a political wisdom far in advance of their party, also voted for it, giving more than the two-thirds required by the Constitution. When, however, the Joint Resolution went to the House of Representatives there was such a formidable party strength arrayed against it as to foreshadow its failure. The party classification of the House stood one hundred and two Republicans, seventy-five Democrats, and nine from the border States, leaving but little chance of obtaining the required two-thirds vote in favor of the measure. Nevertheless there was sufficient Republican strength to secure its discussion; and when it came up on the 31st of May the first vote showed seventy-six to fifty-five against, rejecting the Joint 1864, p. 2612. Resolution. We may infer that the conviction of the present hopelessness of the measure greatly shortened the debate upon it. The question occupied the House only on three different days-the 31st of May, when it was taken up, and the 14th and 15th of June. The speeches in opposition all came from Democrats; the speeches in its favor all came from Republicans, except one. From its adoption the former predicted the direst evils to the Constitution and the Republic; the latter the most beneficial results in the restoration of the country to peace and the fulfillment of the high destiny intended for it by its founders. Upon the final question of its passage the vote stood: yeas, ninety-three; nays, sixty-five; absent or not voting, "Globe," May 31, 1864. CHAP. IV. twenty-three. Of those voting in favor of the Resolution eighty-seven were Republicans and four were Democrats. Those voting against it were all Democrats. The resolution, not having secured a two-thirds vote, was thus lost; seeing which Mr. Ashley, Republican, who had the measure in charge, "Globe," changed his vote so that he might, if occasion 1864, p. 2995. arose, move its reconsideration. June 15, The ever-vigilant public opinion of the loyal States, intensified by the burdens and anxieties of the war, took up this far-reaching question of abolishing slavery by constitutional amendment with an interest fully as deep as that manifested by Congress. Before the Joint Resolution had failed in the House of Representatives the issue was already transferred to discussion and prospective decision in a new forum. When on the 7th of June, 1864, the National Republican Convention met in Baltimore, the two most vital thoughts which animated its members were the renomination of Mr. Lincoln and the success of the constitutional amendment. The first was recognized as a popular decision needing only the formality of an announcement by the Convention; and the full emphasis of speech and resolution was therefore centered on the latter, as the dominant and aggressive reform upon which the party would stake its political fortunes in the coming campaign. It is not among the least of the evidences of President Lincoln's political sagacity and political courage 1 The Democrats voting for the sylvania, and Ezra Wheeler of Wisconsin, the latter having made the only speech in its favor from the Democratic side. that it was he himself who supplied the spark that CHAP. IV. fired this train of popular action. The editor of the "New York Independent," who attended the Convention, and who with others visited Mr. Lincoln immediately after the nomination, printed the following in his paper of June 16, 1864: "When one of us mentioned the great enthusiasm at the Convention, after Senator E. D. Morgan's proposition to amend the Constitution, abolishing slavery, Mr. Lincoln instantly said, 'It was I who suggested to Mr. Morgan that he should put that idea into his opening speech.'" 1 The declaration of Morgan, who was chairman of the National Republican Committee, and as such called the Convention to order, immediately found an echo in the speech of the temporary chairman, the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge. The indorsement of the principle by the eminent Kentucky divine, not on the ground of party but on the high philosophy of true universal government and of genuine Christian religion, gave the announcement an interest and significance accorded to few planks in party platforms. The permanent chairman, 1 William Lloyd Garrison, in a speech at a meeting in the Boston Music Hall on February 4, 1865, called to rejoice over the passage of the XIIIth Amendment, bore the following testimony to the President's initiative: "And to whom is the country more immediately indebted for this vital and saving amendment of the Constitution than, perhaps, to any other man? I believe I may confidently answer to the humble railsplitter of Illinois to the Presidential chain breaker for millions of the op- CHAP. IV. William Dennison, reaffirmed the doctrine of Morgan and Breckinridge, and the thunderous applause of the whole Convention greeted the formal proclamation of the new dogma of political faith in the third resolution of the platform: "Tribune 1865. P. 20. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause and now con stitutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of republican government, justice and the National safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic; and that while we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government in its own defense has aimed a death blow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people, in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. We have related elsewhere how upon this and the other declarations of the platform the Republican party went to battle and gained an overwhelming victory-a popular majority of 411,281, Almanac," an electoral majority of 191, and a House of Representatives of 138 Unionists to 35 Democrats. In view of this result the President was able to take up the question with confidence among his official recommendations; and in the annual message which he transmitted to Congress on the 6th of December, 1864, he urged upon the Members whose terms were about to expire the propriety of at once carrying into effect the clearly expressed popular will. Said he: At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, passed the Senate, but failed, for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote, in the House of Representa |