CHAPTER III.

1861-WAR OF THE REBELLION

"THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS"-EXTRA SESSION-A FEW NAMES IN THE "REAR-GUARD"-POLITICAL GENERALS-THE NEGRO, HIS RELIGION—“ CONTRABAND OF WAR"-THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE ARMY DEALING WITH SLAVERY-GENERAL BUTLER.

ONGRESS at once pledged itself to engage in no legislation not designed for the called session as indicated in the President's message, and the House showed the spirit by which it was actuated in passing the following resolution offered by John A. McClernand, a Democrat, from Illinois :

"This House hereby pledges itself to vote for any amount of money and any number of men which may be necessary to insure a speedy and effectual suppression of the Rebellion, and the permanent restoration of the Federal authority everywhere within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States."

Against this resolution there were five votes, two from Kentucky, two from Missouri, and one from New York. The Senate subsequently passed a similar resolution, J. C. Breckinridge opposing. The 'first few days in the House were spent in considering the question of disputed seats, and in deciding upon the case of Virginia as represented by men

chosen west of the Alleghany under the view that the State Convention had not consulted the will of the people in taking the State "out of the Union." The Virginians were admitted; and on the 13th two Senators appeared from that State, and after some opposition from the two Senators from Delaware, one from Missouri, one from Kentucky, and one from Indiana, they were sworn in, and took the seats from which Mason and Hunter had been declared expelled. In his message the President had entirely ignored the question of slavery, and although Congress attempted to do the same thing in this session, it was by no means successful. Most of the border State men and the Democrats were exceedingly tender on this point. They were the main effective part of the Northern "rear-guard," and appeared to consider the sacred "institution" especially intrusted to their keeping. However distant the point of legislation it was almost sure to fall into slavery, the subject which for the last quarter of a century had been the politician's main reliance. And not until after the battle of Bull Run did the Republicans approach the subject with an air of freedom about them. On the 9th Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, offered in the House this proposition:

"Resolved, That in the judgment of this House, it is no part of the duty of the soldier of the United States to capture and return fugitive slaves."

This was passed only by a vote of ninety-two to fifty-five. To the Army Appropriation Bill, C. L. Val

landigham proposed this startling and ridiculous addition:

'Provided, however, that no part of the money hereby appropriated shall be employed in subjugating, or holding as a conquered province, any sovereign State now or lately one of the United States; nor in abolishing or interfering with African slavery in any of the States."

William Allen, in campaign parlance known as "Rise up William Allen," of Ohio, offered this resolution :

"Resolved, That it is no part of the object of the present war against the rebellious States to interfere with the institution of slavery therein."

This piece of drivel was simply ruled as out of order. To the bill for the reorganization of the army, L. Powell, of Kentucky, proposed the following wonderful addition :

"And be it further enacted, that no part of the army or navy of the United States shall be employed or used in subjugating or holding as a conquered province any sovereign State now or lately one of the United States."

John Sherman, of Ohio, offered this amendment to Powell's proposition :

"And be it further enacted, that the purposes of the military establishment provided for in this act are to preserve the Union, to defend the property, and to maintain the Constitutional authority of the Government."

This was passed with four dissenting votes, the Senators from Kentucky and Missouri. Whereupon

John C. Breckinridge immediately presented this addition :

"But the army and navy shall not be employed for the purpose of subjugating any State, or reducing it to the condition of a Territory or province, or to abolish slavery therein.

But this was rejected by a vote of thirty to nine. During the debates on this bill the slavery question was quite extensively discussed, and especially as a cause, or the cause, of the war; as was also the new insincere and foolish distinction between the coercion of a State and the coercion of a State's rebellious citizens. On this momentous subject Mr. O. A. Browning, of Illinois, said :

"I will not stop to deal with technicalities; I care not whether you call it the subjugation of the people or the subjugation of the State, where all the authorities of a State, where all the officers, who are the embodiment of the power of the State, who speak for the State, who represent the government of the State, where they are all disloyal and banded in treasonable confederation against this Government, I, for one, am for subjugating them; and you may call it the subjugation of the State, or of the people, just as you please."

There never was the shadow of a ground for an argument or distinction on this point, and the men who talked it were simply insincere or foolish. Where there were no people there was no State, and the administration in a State, by no mere political metonymy, the world over, stands for the State.

Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, in speaking of the purpose

of the war, and denying that the Administration meditated the abolition of slavery through it, said:

"It is not waged for any such purpose, or with any such view. They have all disclaimed it. Why then does the Senator (Powell) insist upon it? I will now say, and the Senator may make the most of it, that, rather than see one single foot of this country of ours torn from the national domain by traitors, I will myself see the slaves set free; but at the same time I utterly disclaim any purpose of that kind. If the men who are now waging war against the Government, fitting out pirates against our commerce, going back to the old mode of warfare of the middle ages, should prosecute this Rebellion to such an extent that there is no way of conquering South Carolina, for instance, except by emancipating her slaves, I say emancipate her slaves and conquer her rebellious citizens; and if they have not people there enough to elect members of Congress, we will send people there."

Further on, in discussing the bill for confiscating property used in the Rebellion, Thaddeus Stevens said:

"I warn Southern gentlemen that, if this war is to continue, there will be a time when my friend from New York (A. S. Diven) will see it declared by this free Nation that every bondman in the South, belonging to a rebelrecollect, I confine it to them-shall be called upon to aid us in war against their masters, and to restore this Union."

Mr. Vallandigham proposed to make the following astounding addition to the bill for calling out an army of half a million men:

“Provided, further, that before the President shall have the right to call out any more volunteers than are now in