Such is a plain statement of facts, which I make in no spirit of personal criticism, but simply that you may see the occasion for the proposed rule.

Had the Chair at the beginning proceeded to administer the additional oath, as the earlier oath, there would have been no occasion for a rule. Or had the Chair afterwards, when attention was called to the omission, administered the additional oath according to the requirement of the statute, there would have been no occasion for a rule.

The Chair did no such thing, but left the taking of the oath to the conscience or will of each Senator. And though the statute solemnly declares that "every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the United States . . . . shall, before entering upon the duties of such office, and before being entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments thereof, take and subscribe" the oath in question, yet the Senator from Delaware [Mr. BAYARD] has not only "entered upon the duties" of his office as Senator, but he has continued to discharge these duties, and to draw his salary, although he has never taken and subscribed the oath.

Evidently something must be done to correct this incongruity, and to rehabilitate, if I may so say, the Act. of Congress. I know no better way than by the proposed rule. But I have no partiality for this mode. I am ready for any other proposition which will lift the statute from the desuetude and neglect into which it was. allowed to fall, and will secure its enforcement. In the events at hand this statute will be a safeguard of the Republic, and its enforcement here will secure its enforcement everywhere. To the traitor seeking office

it will be a touchstone, while, with guardian force, it thrusts away from these Chambers all those brutal enemies, who, for the sake of Slavery, have helped to fill our land with mourning.

On the Yeas and Nays, the vote stood, Yeas 28, Nays 11. So the resolution was adopted.

January 26th Mr. Bayard took the prescribed oath, and on the 29th resigned his seat in the Senate.

January 25th, Mr. Sumner asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in a bill supplementary to an Act entitled "An Act to prescribe an oath of office and for other purposes," approved July 2, 1862, which was read the first and second times by unanimous consent, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. It provided that no person should be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, or of any Circuit or District Court of the United States, or of the Court of Claims, as an attorney or counsellor of such court, or should be allowed to appear and be heard in any such court, by virtue of any previous admission or any special power of attorney, unless he should have first taken the oath prescribed by the Act of July 2, 1862. June 28th, Mr. Trumbull, from the Judiciary Committee, reported adversely on this bill.

December 22d, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the Senate proceeded to consider this bill, and it was passed, - Yeas 27, Nays 4. January 23, 1865, it passed the House of Representatives, and January 24th was approved by the President.

THE LATE HON. JOHN W. NOELL, REPRE

SENTATIVE OF MISSOURI.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON HIS DEATH, FEBRUARY 1, 1864.

MR

R. PRESIDENT,- The personal acquaintance which I had with Mr. Noell was very slight; but I honored him much, as a public servant who at a critical moment discerned clearly the path of duty and had the courage to tread it.

Born among slaves and living always under the shadow of Slavery, his character was not corrupted, nor was his judgment obscured. All of us, although born among freemen, and living far away from that influence so unhappily disturbing our country, might take counsel from his intelligent alacrity. While others hesitated, he was prompt. While others surrendered to procrastination, he grappled at once with the giant evil. Such a man was exceptional, and now that he is dead he deserves. exceptional honors.

There are men in history who by a single effort fix public attention. A member of Parliament in the last. century was known as " Single-Speech Hamilton." Others have become famous from the support of a single measure. Perhaps Mr. Noell may find place in this class. But no "Single-Speech Hamilton" could claim the homage which belongs to him.

There have been many in Congress from the Slave

VOL. VIII.

States, but he was the first in our history inspired to bring in a bill for the abolition of Slavery in a State. Rejecting the palpable sophistries by which it was sought to postpone an act of unquestionable justice, and discarding the idea that wrong was to be dealt with tardily, gradually, or prospectively, he proposed Immediate Emancipation. Let it be spoken in his praise. Let it be carved on his tombstone. His bill passed the House. It was lost in the Senate.1 But it was not lost to his fame. He died without beholding the fulfilment of his desires, but the cause with which his name is associated cannot die.

Among the human benefactors of Missouri, so rich in natural resources, he must always be numbered; and his memory will be appreciated there just in proportion as men discern what contributes most to the wealth, the character, and the true nobility of a State. Hereafter, when the present conflict is ended and peace once more blesses our wide-spread land, he will be mentioned gratefully with those who saw truly how this blessing was to be secured, and bravely strove for it. Better in that day to have been a doorkeeper in the house of Freedom than a dweller in the tents of the ungodly: and what ungodliness can compare with the ungodliness of Slavery, whether in the lash of the taskmaster or in the speech of its apologist?

1 Ante, Vol. VII. p. 266.

RECONSTRUCTION AGAIN: GUARANTIES AND SAFEGUARDS AGAINST SLAVERY AND FOR PROTECTION OF FREEDMEN.

RESOLUTIONS IN THE SENATE, FEBRUARY 8, 1864.

IN the Senate, February 8, 1864, the following resolutions, submitted by Mr. Sumner, were read and ordered to be printed.

RESOLUTIONS defining the character of the national contest, and protesting against any premature restoration of Rebel States, without proper guaranties and safeguards against Slavery and for the protection of Freedmen.

ESOLVED, That, in determining the duties of the National Government, it is of first importance that we should see and understand the real character of the contest forced upon the United States, for failure to appreciate this contest must end in failure of those proper efforts essential to the reëstablishment of unity and concord; that, recognizing the contest in its real character, as it must be recorded by history, it is apparent that it is not an ordinary rebellion or an ordinary war, but that it is absolutely without precedent, differing from every other rebellion and every other war, inasmuch as it is an audacious attempt, for the first time in history, to found a wicked power on the corner-stone of Slavery; and that such an attempt, having this single object, whether regarded as rebellion or war, — is so completely penetrated and absorbed, so entirely