would hail the intelligence as a battle fought, and a great victory won." * ** "The people and the states are eager and impatient to ratify it. Will those who claim to represent the ancient democracy refuse to give the people an opportunity to vote upon it? Is this your confidence in the loyal masses? The passage of this resolution will strike the rebellion at the heart. I appeal to border state men, and democrats of the free states; look over your country; see the bloody footsteps of slavery. See the ruin and desolation which it has brought upon our once happy land; and I ask, why stay the hand now ready to strike down to death the cause of all these evils? Why seek to prolong the life, to restore to vigor, the institution of slavery, now needing but this last act to doom it to everlasting death and damnation? Gentlemen may flatter themselves with the hope of a restoration of the slave power in this country. The Union as it was!' It is a dream never again to be realized. The America of the past is gone forever! A new nation is to be born from the agony through which the people are now passing. This new nation is to be wholly free. Liberty, equality before the law, is to be the great corner stone. Much yet remains to be done to secure this. Many a battle on the field has yet to be fought and won against the mighty power which fights for slavery, the barbarous system of the past. Many a battle has yet to be won in the higher sphere of moral conflict. While our gallant soldiers are subduing the rebels in the field, let us second their efforts by sweeping from the statute book every stay, and prop, and shield, of human slavery-the scourge of our country-and let us crown all by incorporating into our organic law, the law of universal liberty."1

Randall, of Pennsylvania, a leading democrat from that state, opposed the resolution. He said: "Let the Constitution alone. It is good enough. Let the old Constitutional tree stand in all its fulness and beauty, and not a bough lopped off, and under its green branches there will yet repose a united, a happy, and a prosperous people.

* *

Pendleton, of Ohio, closed the debate with an able. speech in opposition to the resolution. On the 15th of June, 1864, the vote was taken, amidst the most intense solicitude

1. Congressional Globe, vol. 53. p. 2988-89.

2. Congressional Globe, 1st Session 38th Congress, p. 2991.

as to the result. The vote was: ayes, ninety-three, noes, sixty-five-not a majority of two-thirds. Thereupon Ashley, of Ohio, changed his vote from aye to no, to enable him to move a reconsideration, which he did, and pending this the resolution went over to the next session. Lincoln was chagrined and disappointed, but not discouraged by the vote; as Henry Clay once said to his friends, the pioneer hunters of Kentucky, "We must pick our flints and try again."

CHAPTER XXI.

PASSAGE OF THE AMENDMENT.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. HIS PERSONAL APPEAL TO ROLLINS AND BORDER STATES MEMBERS.-SPEECHES BY VOORHEES, KASSON, WOODBRIDGE, and GARFIELD.-THADDEUS STEVENS CLOSES THE DEBATE.-THE RESOLUTION PASSES.--LINCOLN'S SPEECH ON ITS PASSAGE.- RATIFICATION BY THE STATES.-SEWARD CERTIFIES ITS ADOPTION.

WHEN Congress convened on the 5th of December, 1864, the President, in his annual message, earnestly recommended and urged the passage of the Constitutional amendment. Alluding to the elections which had lately been held, he said: "They show almost certainly that the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the states for their action. And as it is to so go, at all events may we not agree that the sooner the better." He closed by saying: "While I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons; another, and not I must be their instrument to perform it." He thus linked his fortunes with the cause of emancipation: "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,' I give my heart and my hand to this measure."

Just before the meeting of the national convention at Baltimore, in 1864, to nominate candidates for President and

Vice President-which will be more fully described hereafter-Senator Morgan, of New York, chairman of the national republican committee, at the request of the President called at the White House, and Mr. Lincoln said him: "Senator Morgan, I want you to mention in your speech when you call the convention to order, as its key note, and to put into the platform as the key-stone, the amendment of the Constitution abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever." This was done, the amendment was thus made the prominent issue, and was sanctioned by the people.

Mr. Lincoln hoped to induce some of the border state members, and war democrats who had at the last session voted against the proposition, to change their votes. To this end he sought interviews with them, and urged them to vote for the amendment. Among them was Mr. Rollins, a distinguished member of Congress from Missouri, and a warm personal friend. Mr. Rollins says:

"The President had several times in my presence expressed his deep anxiety in favor of the passage of this great measure. He and others had repeatedly counted votes in order to ascertain, as far as they could, the strength of the measure upon a second trial in the House. He was doubtful about its passage, and some ten days or two weeks before it came up for consideration in the House, I received a note from him, written in pencil on a card, while sitting at my desk in the House, stating that he wished to see me, and asking that I call on him at the White House. I responded that I would be there the next morning at nine o'clock. I was prompt in calling upon him and found him alone in his office. He received me in the most cordial manner, and said in his usual familiar way: 'Rollins, I have been wanting to talk to you for sometime about the thirteenth amendment proposed to the Constitution of the United States, which will have to be voted on now, before a great while.' I said: Well, I am here, and ready to talk upon that subject.' He said: 'You and I were old whigs, both of us followers of that great statesman, Henry Clay, and I tell you I never had an opinion upon the subject of slavery in my life that I did not get from him. I am very anxious that the war should be brought to a close at the earliest possible date, and I don't believe this can be accomplished as long as those fellows down South can rely upon the border states to help them; but if the members from the border states would unite, at least enough of them to pass the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, they would soon

see that they could not expect much help from that quarter, and be willing to give up their opposition and quit their war upon the government ; this is my chief hope and main reliance to bring the war to a speedy close, and I have sent for you as an old whig friend to come and see me, that I might make an appeal to you to vote for this amendment. It is going to be very close, a few votes one way or the other will decide it.'

"To this I responded: Mr. President, so far as I am concerned you need not have sent for me to ascertain my views on this subject, for although I represent perhaps the strongest slave district in Missouri, and have the misfortune to be one of the largest slave-owners in the county where I reside, I had already determined to vote for the thirteenth amendment.' He arose from his chair, and grasping me by the hand, gave it a hearty shake, and said: 'I am most delighted to hear that.'

"He asked me how many more of the Missouri delegates in the House would vote for it. I said I could not tell; the republicans of course would; General Loan, Mr. Blow, Mr. Boyd, and Colonel McClurg. He said: Won't General Price vote for it? He is a good Union man.' I said I could not answer. 'Well, what about Governor King!' I told him I did not know. He then asked about Judges Hall and Norton. I said they would both vote against it, I thought.

'Well,' he said, 'are you on good terms with Price and King?' I responded in the affirmative, and that I was on easy terms with the entire delegation. He then asked me if I would not talk with those who might be persuaded to vote for the amendment, and report to him as soon as I could find out what the prospect was. I answered that I would do so with pleasure, and remarked at the same time, that when I was a young man, in 1848, I was the whig competitor of King for Governor of Missouri and as he beat me very badly, I thought now he should pay me back by voting as I desired him on this important question. I promised the President I would talk to this gentleman upon the subject. He said: 'I would like you to talk to all the border state men whom you can approach properly, and tell them of my anxiety to have the measure pass; and let me know the prospect of the border state vote,' which I promised to do. He again said: The passage of this amendment will clinch the whole subject; it will bring the war, I have no doubt, rapidly to a close.""

The debate on the 6th of January, 1865. ana spoke in its favor. saying:

subject in the House began on the Ashley of Ohio and Orth of Indi

Voorhees of Indiana opposed it,

1. Lincoln Memorial Album, pp. 491, 2, 3.