CHAPTER XIII.

EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS.

PROMINENT MEMBERS OF 37TH CONGRESS.- PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.— VACANT CHAIRS OF PROMINENT REBELS.- BAKER'S REPLY TO BRECKENRIDGE.-ANDREW JOHNSON.-OWEN LOVEJOY.-Law To FREE THE SLAVES OF REBELS.-BULL RUN.- FREMONT'S ORDER FREEING SLAVES MODIFIED BY THE PRESIDENT.- CAPTURE AND RELEASE OF MASON AND SLIDELL.

THE Thirty-seventh Congress convened in an extra and called session, on the 4th of July, 1861. The Thirty-sixth Congress had expired on the 4th of March, without making any provision to meet the impending dangers. It devolved upon this, the Thirty-seventh, to sanction what the President had been compelled to do, and to clothe him with extraordinary war powers, and under his lead to call into the field, and to provide for, those vast armies whose campaigns were to extend over half the continent. It was for this Congress to create and maintain that system of finance, which without the aid of foreign loans, carried the republic triumphantly through the most stupendous war of modern times, and which, in the "green-back" currency, still survives.

Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President, presided in the Senate; Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was elected Speaker, and Emerson Etheridge, of Tennessee, Clerk of the House. In the Senate, only twenty-three, and in the House twenty two states were represented. No representatives in either appeared from North or South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or Arkansas. No senators, and only two members of

the House, appeared from Virginia. Andrew Johnson, from his mountain home in Tennessee, "faithful among the faithless," alone represented Tennessee in the Senate, and at the second session, Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements appeared, and took their seats in the House.

Among the more prominent senators of New England, and men who had already secured a national reputation, were Fessenden and Morrill, of Maine; Hale, of New Hampshire; Sumner and Wilson, of Massachusetts; Collamer and Foot, of Vermont, and Anthony, of Rhode Island. New York was represented by Preston King and Ira Harris.

Mr. Hale, from New Hampshire, had been the leader of the old "liberty party." "Solitary and alone" in the United States Senate, by his wit and humor, his readiness and ability, he had maintained his position against the whole senatorial delegation of the slave states, and their numerous allies from the free states. From Vermont came the dignified, urbane, and somewhat formal Solomon Foot; his colleague, Jacob Collamer, was a gentleman of the old school, who had been a member of cabinets, and was one of the wisest jurists and statesmen of our country. Preston King had been the friend and confidant of Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, and Thomas H. Benton, and a leader at the Buffalo convention; genial, true, and devoted to the principles of democracy. From Pennsylvania there was David Wilmot, who while a member of the House, had introduced the "Wilmot proviso," which connects his name forever with the anti-slavery

contest.

The senators from Ohio were John Sherman, a brother of General Sherman, and late a distinguished Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Benjamin Wade, staunch, rude, earnest, and true. From Illinois, came Lyman Trumbull and Orville H. Browning, both distinguished lawyers and competitors at the bar with Douglas and Lincoln. From Iowa, Senators Grimes and Harlan; from Wisconsin, Doolittle and Howe; from Michigan, Bingham and Chandler; from Indiana,

Jesse D. Bright and Henry S. Lane, the latter of whom had presided over the Philadelphia convention of 1856.

The House of Representatives of this memorable Congress was composed in the main of men of good sense, respectable abilities, and earnest patriotism. It well represented the intelligence, integrity, and devotion to their country of the American people. The leader of the House, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, was Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania; although a man of nearly three score years and ten, he combined with large experience, the vigor and the energy of thirty-five. He was the most sarcastic and witty, as well as the most eccentric member of the House. Respected, and somewhat feared, alike by friend and foe, few desired a second encounter with him in the forensic war of debate. If he did not demolish with an argument or crush with his logic, he could silence with an epigram or a sarcasm. Ready, adroit, and sagacious, as well as bold and frank, he exerted a large influence upon legislation. He was a bitter and uncompromising party chief, and better adapted to lead an opposition, than to conduct and control a majority.

In the New York delegation was Roscoe Conkling, already distinguished for his eloquence and ability, Charles B. Sedgwick, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and E. G. Spaulding and Erastus Corning, leading members of the Committee of Ways and Means. From Ohio were Pendleton, Vallandigham, and Cox, leaders of the remnant of the democratic party, and among the republicans was John A. Bingham, one of the most ready and effective debaters on the floor. Schuyler Colfax, from Indiana, a rising member, was then serving his fourth term. He was industrious and genial, with great tact and good sense. Differing from his political opponents, he did not rouse their anger by strong statements, or harsh language, and he was popular on both sides of the House. Illinois was rep

resented by Washburne, Lovejoy, Kellogg, and Arnold, republicans; while among the friends of Douglas were

Richardson, McClernand, Fouke, and Logan, and these generally supported the war measures of the administration. They had followed the lead of Douglas; and McClernand, Fouke, and Logan entered the Union army, and, especially Logan, did good service as soldiers during the war.

But many vacant chairs in the House and the Senate, indicated the extent of the defection, the gravity of the situation, and the magnitude of the impending struggle. The old pro-slavery leaders were absent, some in the rebel government set up at Richmond, and others in the field, marshalling their troops in arms against their country. The chair of the late senator, now the rebel President, Jefferson Davis, those of the blustering and fiery Bob Toombs, of the accomplished Hunter, of the polished and learned Jew from Louisiana, Judah P. Benjamin, of the haughty and pretentious Mason, of the crafty and unscrupulous Slidell, and of their compeers, who had been accustomed to domineer over the Senate, were all vacant.

The seat of Douglas, the ambitious and able senator from Illinois, had been vacated, not by treason, but by death. Life-long opponents, recalling his last patriotic words spoken at Springfield, and in Chicago, gazed sadly on that unoccupied seat, now draped in black. Well had it been for John C. Breckenridge, lately the competitor of Douglas, if his chair also had been made vacant by his early death. But still conspicuous among the senators was the late Vice-President, now the senator from Kentucky. His fellow traitors from the slave states had all gone. He alone lingered, shunned, and distrusted by all loyal men, and treated with the most freezing and formal courtesy, by his associates. Dark and lowering, he could be daily seen in his carriage-always alone-driving to the Senate chamber, where his voice and his votes were always given to thwart the war measures of the government. It was obvious that his heart was with his old associates at Richmond. As soon as the session closed, he threw off all disguise, and joined the army of the insurgents. While at Washington, gloomy, and it may be sor

rowful, he said: "We can only look with sadness on the melancholy drama that is being enacted."

Hostile armies were gathering and confronting each other, and from the dome of the Capitol, on the distant hills beyond Arlington, and on towards Fairfax Court House, could be seen the rebel flag. President Lincoln, in his message to this Congress, calmly reviewed the situation. He called attention to the fact that at his inauguration the functions of the Federal Government had been suspended in the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. All the national property in these states had been appropriated by the insurgents. They had seized all the forts, arsenals, etc., excepting those on the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and these were then in a state of siege by the rebel forces. The national arms had been seized, and were in the hands of the hostile armies. A large number of the officers of the United States army and navy, had resigned and taken up arms against their government. He reviewed the facts in relation to Fort Sumter, and showed that by the attack upon it, the insurgents began the conflict of arms, thus forcing upon the country immediate dissolution, or war. No choice remained but to call into action the war powers of the government, and to resist the force employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation. The call for troops was made, and the response was most gratifying. Yet no slave state, except Delaware, had given a regiment through state organization. He then reviewed the action of Virginia, including the seizure of the national armory at Harper's Ferry, and the navyyard at Gosport, near Norfolk. The people of Virginia had permitted the insurrection to make its nest within her borders, and left the government no choice but to deal with it where it found it. He then reviewed the action of the government, the calls for troops, the blockade of the ports in the rebellious states, and the suspension of the habeas corpus. He asked Congress to confer upon him the power to make the conflict short and decisive. He asked to have