The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman from Pennsylvania withdraw his resolution? Mr. STEVENS. Ihave not heard what the gentleman from New York desires. Mr. BROOKS. I want to speak five or six minutes. Mr. STEVENS. Then I will allow it to remain before the House. Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Speaker, the position of the gentleman from Pennsylvania,[Mr. STEVENS,] not only before this House but before the country, gives the highest importance to everything he does in reference to financial questions, more especially to the delicate relation of gold to paper money; and hence as the agitation he has created this morning is calculated to have effect upon an over-sensitive money market, he makes it necessary for us to correct any errors into which he may have fallen. Mr. STEVENS. I have stated distinctly already, at the beginning and close of my remarks, that I designed to have no action on the subject. Mr. BROOKS. I am glad of that. It affords some source of satisfaction. But, permit me to say, while I am up, that when the gentleman alludes to the history of England as an example of financial action for us, he must take into consideration the difference which exists between our currency and our continental position and that of England, or else he will be led astray. In the history of British legislation on the subject of gold and paper he certainly finds precedents for the bad bill he here introduced, while he will find in France, throughout her revolutionary history, precedents which if followed here would be utterly destructive of currency, property, labor, and capital. The worst kind of anti-gold or paper laws are on the records of France, and the worst sort of laws as to legal tender, which I am sure the gentleman from Pennsylvania would never ask this House to adopt. Neither British nor French financial precedents can be useful to us, save to warn us from the rocks on which they were often wrecked. And now, as to this history of England, there are three differences between us, which suggest themselves to me at the moment, and to which I ask the attention of the gentleman and of the House. The first is, that the notes of the Bank of England were accepted at the custom-houses and in the payment of duties throughout all Great Britain, making no unnecessary or extraordinary demand for gold, while here in this country a lively demand is constantly created by the action of the Federal Government in making gold and silver alone receivable at the custom-houses. Our bank notes are refused, while the Bank of England notes, I repeat, paid all duties in any of the ports of England, Ireland, or Scotland, and then these became as good as gold or silver. that our imports and exports were two to one against us, reckoning in gold and silver. Our dry goods imports alone, freight and duty unadded, were about two hundred million dollars in gold, and our exports only $100,000,000 in gold; so that any effort by law to forcibly regulate or control the market for gold, in view of the difference of exchange and the balance of trade, would only exasperate an already over-sensitive mercantile community, and raise the price of gold rather than assuage the demand. Another great difference between us and Great Britain, and this is the third, is, that throughout nearly the whole of those twenty odd years of the suspension of specie payments the circulation of the Bank of England was limited almost, and in some fair proportion, to the specie or bullion in its vaults. The managers of the Bank of England, not always wise, very often unwise, were wise nevertheless in a curtailment of the circulation of the Bank of England notes as much as possible throughout that long period of suspension, while our policy from the beginning to the end has been an increase of the currency, an expansion of the currency, and the creation and manufacture of paper money of all kinds and characters, in quantities unknown to the world since the days of John Law and of the French assignats. The result of this excessive expansion of the currency is that this is the dearest market in the world to which things can be sent from abroad for sale, and hence, as luxuries are tempted here by paper, gold must be sent abroad to pay for them. These are facts to which I wish to call the attention of the country, and the attention of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. STEVENS,] to show what will be the effect of a gold bill like his in this country, based upon any logic of facts derived from the Old World. Mr. STEVENS. The gentleman is arguing the main question, which I carefully avoided. Mr. BROOKS. I understand that, but I want to show to the gentleman and to the country that the gold legislation of England would not be wise legislation here, and could not be wise legislation for a country so differently situated as ours is, nor do I think it possible to ordain by statute law the price of gold in this country. I do not believe that any penal laws whatsoever of ours can reach the dealers in gold. As I have before said in the House and in another debate, gold next to God is omnipotent in the land, above all law, above all sovereigns, and far beyond the reach of this or any other Congress whatsoever. Indeed, all those attempts which were made in Great Britain to regulate the price of gold were made in vain, as has been said by the gentleman from Maine, [Mr. BLAINE,] they had no practical effect whatsoever over the people of England, or over the commerce of England, except to increase the value of gold and increase illegal traffic to such an extent that at one period the light guineas of England actually passed in public for more than the heavy guineas of England, in consequence of such legislation. is no consumer of any article whatsoever who does not pay the penalty of this high price of gold. But in my judgment no violent legislation, no threats of penal laws, will do aught but aggravate the price of gold, and increase the speculation. And if imprisonment, or even death, as was sometimes the case in France, are suspended over the speculators in gold, these transactions of commerce would then be turned into the hands of some new species of man, like our bounty-jumpers, and needy, profligate, reckless men, without responsibility, who would demand and receive high premiums for the risks which they were encountering in evading the law. Our true way to reduce the price of gold is to stop the inflation of the currency. There is no other way, in my judgment, certainly none so effectual as that. Let me say to the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. STEVENS] that this high price of gold is a necessity of our position. I regret Another great difference between us and Eng-it; we all regret it; we all suffer from it. There land, and in consequence of which gold rises high here, while gold in England was low throughout the twenty odd years of the suspension of specie payment, was this great fact, that during all that time, or almost all of it, what is called the balance of trade was very decidedly in favor of England. England was the great export country. She had the carrying trade, more or less, throughout the whole world. The commerce of the earth was hers, while France, and other continental nations under French dominion, were altogether excluded therefrom. The manufactures of England were exported not only to Russia, and Austria, and Prussia, but throughout Spain and all the East. The consequence was, that during the greater part of the period of the suspension of specie payment the whole world was more or less indebted to Great Britain, and gold was rushing into England to pay for her surplus manufactures and exports. But that is not our history. I have not the figures before me this moment, but as near as I can recollect the financial history of New York for the past year (1864) made up to the 1st of January, I am substantially accurate when I state However, I rose only from a misapprehension of the purpose of the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. STEVENS.] I probably should not have risen if I had known that he intended to press for no legislation. I rose only to express my objection to any violent attempt to legislate against this omnipotence of gold, by which we would but aggravate the very evil of which we all complain. Mr. STEVENS. I said when I was up before that I would not enter into the merits of this question, although the country will doubtless be obliged to the gentleman from New York [Mr. BROOKS] for having done so in his argument. I do not believe, however, that the high price of gold is a necessity of our position. It arises, I think, from our vicious legislation. But excuse me from rambling from the point before the House. As I told you before, I will not detain the House, but will withdraw my resolution after my colleague [Mr. BROOMALL] has made what remarks he desires to submit Mr. BROOMALL. I opposed the introduction of this resolution upon the same principle that I opposed all such legislation at the last session, because I believe that while the action of Congress would not have the effect expected by my learned colleague, [Mr. STEVENS,) yet it would have a mischievous effect by raising the price of the commodity which he proposes to lower by it. I do not propose at this time to enter into any argument upon this subject, but simply to say that I have devoted some attention to this question since the introduction of the gentleman's first bill, and I intend to take the earliest opportunity of demonstrating to the House, as far as my feeble powers will allow, that the price of gold is just as much beyond the reach of Congress, so far as any lowering of it is concerned, with the laws of trade operating in their present manner, as would be the regulating of the courses of the planets in their orbits. I intend to take that opportunity, when it shall arise, to give my views upon the subject. Mr. STEVENS. I withdraw my resolution. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. A message in writing was received from the President of the United States, through Mr. HAY, his Private Secretary; also a message announcing that he had approved and signed bills of the following titles: An act (H. R. No. 478) for the relief of Charles M. Pott; An act (H. R. No. 603) to extend the time allowed for the withdrawal of certain goods therein named from public stores; An act (H. R. No. 618) to amend the act entitled "An act to provide internal revenue to support the Government, to pay interest on the public debt, and for other purposes," approved June 30, 1864. The SPEAKER laid before the House the following message from the President of the United States: To the House of Representatives of the United States: I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a "joint resolution to correct certain clerica errors in the internal revenue act" without my approval My reason for doing so is, that I am informed that this joint resolution was proposed during the last moments of the last session of Congress, for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference in the internal revenue act, which were discovered on an examination of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours only before the adjournment. It passed the House and went to the Senate, where a vote was taken upon it; but, by some accident, it was not presented to the President of the Senate for his signature. Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors of a kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to correct have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most expedient to include all the necessary corrections in one act or resolution. The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am informed, been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this purpose. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 5, 1865. The SPEAKER announced that the first question was upon reconsidering the vote by which the House passed the joint resolution referred to in the message of the President. The joint resolution was then read. On motion of Mr. STEVENS, the message of the President of the United States, together with the joint resolution, was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. A message was received from the Senate, by Mr. FORNEY, their Secretary, announcing that they had passed the House bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions of the United States for the year ending the 30th of June, 1866," with an amendment, in which they requested the concurrence of the House. PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN TERRITORIES. The SPEAKER. The morning hour having expired, the next business in order is the consideration of House bill No. 342, making appropriations for public buildings in the Territories of Colorado, Nevada, Dakota, Idaho, Arizona, and Montana, that bill having been postponed till the 19th of December, after the morning hour. Mr. RICE, of Maine. I move the further postponement of that bill until the first Tuesday in February. The motion was agreed to. WRITS OF ERROR AND APPEALS. Mr. BOUTWELL, by unanimous consent, introduced a bill to facilitate judicial proceedings on writs of error and appeals; which was read a first and second time, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. Mr. STEVENS. I move that the rules be suspended, and that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, in order that we may resume the consideration of the President's message. There are one or two gentlemen who desire to be heard on that subject, and I do not know that there will be any better opportunity. so long as it was peaceful, were compelled to take up arms for their country when slavery became belligerent; but even then they were unwilling that the monster, who had incited to "foul revolt," should be unvailed. From every section of the land where loyalty still held sway, the cry at first went up, "Down with treason and rebellion, but spare the institutions of the South;" and when they said "institutions" they meant slavery. They had been so long accustomed to hear the "peculiar institution" lauded as altogether harmless and immaculate, that they would not believe that it could ever appear in any other garb than that of peaceful industry. In their eyes the slave, sitting in the ashes of his servitude, was the "lares et penates" of every slave-owner's household, and it was necessary to protect the "right of property" in order to preserve the sanc-. tity of the homes of "our southern brethren." While thus fondly dreaming of conducting war upon strictly fraternal principles, the first Bull Run was fought and lost, and "our southern brethren" celebrated their triumph by making finger-rings and drinking-cups out of the bones of the Yankee barbarians whom they had slain in battle; and the chivalrous Beauregard, swaggering like any blatant bully beneath the doubtful hondrs of his accidental victory, could find in his soldier's vocabulary no words but those of insult and brutality wherewith to respond to the simple request of a heart-broken sister who had asked to be permitted to recover an honored brother's dead Mr. DAVIS, of New York. I ask the gentle-body for the purpose of Christian burial. Can man from Pennsylvania [Mr. STEVENS] to yield for a few moments. I desire to move to take up House bill No. 622, returned from the Senate with amendments. Mr. STEVENS. I cannot give way for that purpose. The motion of Mr. STEVENS was agreed to. So the rules were suspended; and the House accordingly resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. DONNELLY in the chair,) and resumed the consideration of the President's annual message. Mr. CRESWELL. Mr. Chairman, the result of the recent election expresses the deliberate purpose of the American people that slavery shall be abolished. Slowly and painfully, but yet surely, has the nation advanced to that determination. you recall an instance where a drop of water or a morsel of food was given to one of our unfortunate brothers who fell into the hands of the enemy on that field because he was a conservative and would save slavery? Did a single hero of all who were stricken down in the bloody battles before Richmond, or in the campaign of the second Bull Run, or at South Mountain, or Antietam, receive from a rebel foe one generous act of kindness because of his moderation on the subject of slavery? I venture to say, no. With the rebels nothing has been known but determined, inveterate, revengeful, malignant, savage war. Their conduct, persisted in with every aggravation of cruelty, at last forced the most unwilling minds to the conclusion that it was folly to continue the effort to put down armed rebellion by moral suasion. Satisfied that they were engaged in a struggle of life or death the people could no longer deny that if they would not be destroyed they must inflict every injury upon their enemy consistent with the laws of war. The stern necessity of self-defense first secured a reluctant support to the President's proclamation of emancipation. Momentous considerations of political economy, morality, and religion, though for a long time held at bay, since then have been gradually forcing themselves upon the public mind, and steadily widening and strengthening the grounds of opposition to slavery. After two years' trial, such as nations are rarely subjected to, the people have risen to a clearer sense of their duty, and now desire to dispel all legal doubts, and to make that It was the settled conviction, often expressed, of a large majority of the framers of our Constitution that slavery was an unmitigated evil, to be tolerated for a time only, that it might be the better abrogated. But in later times certain of the political priesthood, seduced by the Circean lures of a new deity, quarreled with an opinion which, however sound in morals and politics, must, they said, be denounced as false in principle, because it set at naught the craft of those who made silver shrines, and prevented the spread of the worship of that great goddess whose snowy robes the zephyrs had wafted down from Jupiter. These new guides soon informed the country that an irresistible sense of duty compelled them to undertake the reform of an error so palpable and mischievous. Selecting Whitney's laborious invention as the emblem of the most advanced civil-proclamation good for all time, and universal in its ization, they inscribed thereon an epitome of their improved creed in these words: "Slavery is right and ordained of God. Whoever will not accept this faith is an infidel. Let him be accursed;" and when they had done so, much people cried with one voice for the space of many years, "Great is Cotton of South Carolina!" Vanquished by their fears; trembling lest harm might come to the Republic; willing to accept any system, however monstrous, if only the Union might be preserved, men everywhere gave way to the exactions of slavery, until it ruled with imperious sway Congress, court, and President alike, and held at its beck and call all the power of a mighty Government. But not content with its absolute authority; not content that it had conquered in almost every struggle with freedom, and by sanction of law could stretch its iron scepter over half the States and all the Territories; in an hour big with the fate of the western world slavery summoned its hosts to arms, hurled defiance full in the face of the startled nation, and insolently boasted that by the power of the sword it would soon plant its throne upon the ruins of the Republic. Thousands who would fain have spared slavery, application, by amendment of the Constitution. Whatever may have been heretofore our obligations, express or implied, to tolerate slavery, and not to expose its true character, we are now absolved from all such obligations by its own wickedness. Slavery's oath of fealty to the Union has been falsified by its treason. We are no longer bound to protect it from harm or shield it from scrutiny. It is our foe, and in order that we may ascertain whether it can ever become our friend it is now our duty to lay bare its whole life and record. What, then, is slavery? The picture would be too crowded, were I to attempt to portray it as it has existed in all the States of this Union. I shall speak only for Maryland, a slave State for more than two and a quarter centuries. I am a native of Maryland. I have lived all my days within her limits, and I hope when my appointed time shall come to be buried beside my forefathers, who, for generations back, sleep upon her bosom. I love my State as ardently as any man can love the spot of his nativity. I love her for much of her past history, to me a glorious record of manly deeds and noble heroism. But more than all do,I love her, because, though in these latter days, tempted, deceived, almost betrayed by some of her own most trusted sons, who, after making her drunk with passion, strove to lead her off into rebellion, and to array her children, brother against brother, in deadly strife, yet I now have the glorious assurance that she has risen above these pernicious influences; that she has expelled her mischief, and purged "off the baser fire victorious;" that, " clothed and in her right mind," though still pale and suffering from her wounds, self-inflicted in her terrible folly, she has come in good time to renew her faith once before plighted to the sacred covenant of our Constitution, and has told the story of her victory, thus: "O Freedom! I have abjured all association with the foul superstition of slavery. My sacrifice I now lay upon thy altar. Here are the chains which once held in bondage eighty-seven thousand human beings. I have stricken them off with my own hands, and throughout my fair domain there is not a being in the image of God who is not free." Thus slavery in Maryland is of the past. Let our statutes and law reports, still uncleansed, tell what it was. The Legislature by the act of 1715, chapter fortyfour, section twenty-three, declared it to be the law "that all negroes and other slaves already imported, or hereafter to be imported into this province, and all children now born or hereafter to be born of such negroes ånd slaves, shall be slaves during their natural lives;" and the Maryland Code, volume one, article sixty-six, section one, reaffirms that declaration. The full import of this simple provision is not seen until you are told that every negro was presumed to be a slave; that no negro or mulatto was admitted as evidence in any matter depending in any court, or before any justice of the peace, where any white person was concerned; and that the fact of a negro's going at large and acting as free, or not being claimed by an owner, was not admissible as evidence of freedom. Nothing could relieve a negro from any claim set up by a white person, unless he could establish his freedom, or the freedom of his ancestor, by the grant or devise of his former owner. (Code, volume one, article thirty-seven, section one, and article sixty-six, section fortytwo.) A slave could have no rights adverse to his master. He could neither sue personally nor by prochein ami, nor be sued, nor acquire any rights under a deed which either a court of law or equity could enforce. Nor could he enter into any binding contract with his master, (4 H. & J. 507, 9 G. & J. 19.) The only standing which a negro, claimed as a slave, could have in any court of civil jurisdiction was as a petitioner for freedom; but even in that case he was such a legal nonentity that he could not make an affidavit in support of his prayer, while the most exclusive and arbitrary rules of evidence were brought to bear against him, so as to confine him to strict record proof. The master was absolute lord; the slave and the slave's posterity were abject bondmen. The master had not only a right to the labor and service, but he had an absolute property in the flesh and blood and bones of his slave, and, if a female, of her issue. (Sutton vs. Crain, 10 G. and J. 458.) Thus a bequest for life of the use of a female slave vested in the legatee a property in the issue, born during the existence of the life estate, for the life of such issue; and the issue of a female slave for a term of years, or for one year only, was a slave for life. The slave could sustain none of those relations which give life all its charms. He could not say my home, my father, my mother, my wife, my child, my body. It is for God to judge. whether he could say my soul. The law pronounced him a chattel, and these are not the rights or attributes of chattels. To seek his freedom by flight made the slave a felon; and, as if to reward barbarity and place a premium on human blood, the slave-owners, when they made law in Maryland, wrote it down: "If any runaway slave shall resist the person who attempts to arrest him, and such slave happens to be slain for refusing to surrender himself, such killing shall be deemed justifiable; and any slave so killed shall be paid for by the State, his value to be ascertained by two impartial and reputable men, not of kin to the owner, who shall be appointed by a justice of the peace, and sworn to value such slave at his fair value, and who shail certify their valuation to such justice, who shall certify such valuation, oath, and appointment, to the comptroller, who shall thereupon issue is warrant to the treasurer to pay the same."- Code, vol. 1, art. 66, sec. 11. That provision stands upon the statute-book of Maryland to-day. The last Legislature refused to repeal it, because, they said, it was necessary to preserve the system. "Thou shalt not kill," thundered God from Sinai. Cursed, then, be the system that cannot endure save by wanton homicide. It reads, "and any slave so killed shall be paid for." Paid for by whom? By the slaveowners? No. By all the people of Maryland, of whom 503,000 were non-slaveholders and less than 14,000 were slaveholders. But patience! the last few months have changed all that. This famous section eleven of article sixty-six of the Code of Public General Laws, which justified murder and extorted tribute from the despised mechanic and the toiling laborer to pay the wealthy slave-owner for the negro whom he, or his myrmidon, had happened to slay, has been deprived of its death-dealing virus. It is no longer the law; it is but the shameful record of an overthrown tyranny. But from this galling servitude was there no deliverance? Could not the faithful and devoted slave, who had been obedient unto his master in singleness of heart as unto Christ; who had aided in supporting the burdens of the family; had felt all its sorrows, and shared in his humble way in all its joys; who had nursed the master's children one by one, and had borne them "on his back a thousand times;" who had fondly watched each stalwart son as he grew up to man's estate, and gave him his blessing as he went out from the old homestead into the battle of life; who had toiled on, adding to the master's wealth from year to year until the gray hairs, gathering upon the temples of master and slave alike (for time, like God, has no respect of persons) had admonished them that their days of active life were almost numbered-could not such a slave (and there are such, for I have seen them,) be granted his liberty? Could not he be made a freeman, and be allowed to sit in his own cabin during the evening of his days, and gather his wife and children about him and call it home? Such a question would have been deemed an insult in the days of our fathers. They were humane. They made a law and confirmed it over and over again, that the slave could be manumitted. From the beginning of our State history, they were accustomed to grant freedom as the best of all gifts to the meritorious bondman. So liberal were they, that besides the freedmen, whom they prevailed upon to return to Africa and settle in the colony of Liberia, there were 83,942 free colored people still among us in 1860— a number almost equal to that of the slaves. These free colored people, laborious and inoffensive, peaceful and unobtrusive, with no political rights, yet yielding implicit obedience to the laws, which in turn secured them in their persons and property-these people were marked for destruction by these modern partisans of slavery. They had determined that Maryland, in despite of all the honored traditions and Christian sentiments of her people, should be devoted to perpetual slavery, and that every interest, no matter how great or vital, that stood in the way of their designs, should be sacrificed. They dominated everywhere, and at their bidding the Legislature passed an act of Assembly (1860, chapter two hundred and thirty-two,) presenting to the free colored population of the State the unrelenting alternative of banishment or slavery. So shocking to humanity, so horrible in its consequences, was this atrocious iniquity, that even they dared not attempt to enforce it without first securing the approval of a popular vote. To this end they submitted their scheme to the trial by ballot in eleven counties, and endeavored to cajole the honest masses into its support; but the people turned with loathing from a measure so utterly unjust, and recorded their condemnation of it by overwhelming majorities. And so this infamous project for the enslavement of all the free of a helpless race failed, and failed signally. But the slave-owners did not abandon their purpose. Ten years before they had made a constitution for Maryland, into which they had incorporated these provisions, side by side: "The Legislature shall not pass any law abolishing the relation of master and slave as it now exists in this State." "No person shall be imprisoned for debt." With one hand they riveted still more strongly the shackles of the slave; with the other they opened the prison doors of the debtor. With one breath they declared that the white man never should be a slave, and with the next that the black man never should be a freeman. They abolished one relic of barbarism and perpetuated another; and in this they were working for themselves, for while they owned the negroes they owed the debts. Having, as they believed, secured slavery from the assaults of the people, who were becoming more and more in favor of emancipation, they did not waste a thought upon the inconsistency which they had thus recorded. But when, in 1860, they found that during the last decade the free negroes had increased from 74,723 to 83,942, and that the slaves had decreased from 90,368 to 87,189, they saw that, if they would perpetuate their sway, they must either cease selling the increase of their slaves to the South, or stop all manumissions. Once more in the history of slavery, humanity was trampled under foot by avarice, and they chose, of course, the latter alternative. Forth with they again invoked the aid of the Legislature, and that assembly, ever obedient to their summons, was not slow to respond. This band of most skillful political prestidigitators, after manipulating the whole body of our statutes for months under the direction of their master, suddenly threw down to the people the present code, which they declared by solemn legislative act contained the entire revised statute law of the State; and to make good that declaration, they repealed all laws and parts of laws not contained therein. When the people came to examine this grand treasure-house of legal lore, they found, under the heading Manumission, printed in large letters, but very little of the old law left. Two sections only remained, of which the first said, "No slave shall henceforth be manumitted," and the second, "Any free negro before the age of eighteen may become a slave for life." This was manumission with a vengeance. This was a piece of legislative pleasantry that for eighty-seven thousand men, women, and children, converted all the future into eternal night. But they did not stop there. They fortified their joke by penalties, and passed other laws making it criminal for any owner of a slave to permit such slave to go at large, or hire himself, or for any person to make any contract with a slave for his services. These provisions finished the business, and condemned the slave and all his posterity to interminable bondage, or starvation, under the penalty of death, if seen attempting to escape; and made every master, in spite of the dictates of his judgment or the stings of his conscience, a slaveholder, living or dying. All this was done when slavery was omnipotent in Maryland, when it brooded over our legislative assemblies and courts of justice like death, and with its "mace petrific" remorselessly smote down into political obscurity every man who would not strangle the better instincts of his nature and applaud their merciless code as the perfection of wisdom and loving-kindness. Little did these conspirators against the human race think that they were but God's instruments for the downfall of their own cherished system. So soon has the retribution come, that had they listened even in the hour of their imagined triumph they might have heard the quickening footsteps of outraged justice, at last tortured into action and forced to assume the part of the avenger, hurrying onward to interpose her sword between the pitiless and exacting master and his wretched and hopeless slave. The deliverer came, and at the sound of her voice every shackle fell and the slave was transformed into a freeman and a soldier. Ten thousand of Maryland's black men have joined our armies. How worthily they have worn their uniform of blue and borne the standard of the Republic onward to the gates of death, let the stricken field of Olustee, and the war-blasted hills around Petersburg, and the blood-baptized parapets of Fort Gillmore answer. The only eulogium they need is what history, scorning to falsify, shall write down with her iron pen. If we inquire how could a Christian people be reconciled to a series of laws so cruel and despotic, the first answer that will suggest itself will be, slavery is profitable. Let us examine into that. Maryland has an area of 11,000 square miles, with unsurpassed advantages for commerce and manufactures, with an agreeable climate and fertile soil, with valuable mineral deposits and immense supplies of timber, with ready access to the ocean, and with navigable streams traversing in almost every direction her entire eastern and southern sections. She has the great bay of the Chesapeake, stretching its full length from north to south. The Potomac river forms her southern boundary. She lies almost between the three great emporiums of the country, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; the latter city being her own commercial center. Massachusetts, with a severer climate, a more sterile soil, and with commercial and manufacturing interests scarcely equal to those of Maryland, has an area of only 7,250 square miles. In 1790 Maryland had a total population of 319,728, and Massachusetts of 378,717, the difference being less than sixty thousand. But in the race of the next seventy years the old Bay State far outstripped "My Maryland." In 1860 Maryland had a population, the State over, of only 687,049, while Massachusetts could muster 1,231,066, and could fairly boast of more than double the wealth of Maryland. Compare New Jersey, with but three fifths of the area of Maryland, lying almost between the same parallels of latitude, with a territory almost contiguous, and a soil of like character and capacity, with no great central city as a nucleus for her wealth and trade, and not relieved from the blighting influence of slavery until 1820; and it will appear, that though in 1790 New Jersey had a population of only 184,139, but little more than half that of Maryland, yet in 1860 she made returns of 672,035 inhabitants, only 15,000 behind Maryland, and showed her wealth to be $467,918,324, exceeding that of Maryland by more than one fourth. But it is unnecessary to make contrasts between different States. Our own presents the most complete demonstration of the unprofitableness of slavery. Freedom has for many years past been gradually gaining on slavery in Maryland. For the last decade our State has been substantially half free and half slave. From the counties north and west of the Patapsco and Sassafras rivers nearly all the slaves had disappeared, while almost the entire slave population had been gathered to the south and east of those rivers. Down to the boundary line between slavery and freedom marched the conquering spirit of progress, carryingin her train the blessings of prosperity and industry, and there halted as peremptorily as though a fiend in the way had barred all further advance. The free counties contained in 1850, 980,147 cultivated acres, while the slave counties had 1,747,623; but the free lands were valued at $47,851,615, while the slave lands were worth only $41,779,616. The farms in the slave counties average 143 acres, and are each worth $3,433. The free farms, averaging only 101 acres, were yet worth $4,935 each. The free land was worth $48, the slave land $23 per acre. But the increase in population is still more marked. Exclusive of Baltimore city, there was in 1790 in the seven free counties a population of 105,457, which in 1860 had swelled to 232,301an increase of one hundred and twenty per cent. The total population in the fourteen slave counties amounted in 1790 to 200,612, in 1860 to only 242,330-an increase of only twenty per cent. In seventy years the whole slave section had added but 41,718 to its population, while in the same time that of the entire free portion had increased 325,603. It thus appears that the increment of population in the slave counties was much less than might have been expected from natural causes alone; and that if the increase throughout the State had been only in proportion to that of the slave counties, our aggregate population in 1860 would have been only 383,674 instead of 687,049. In 1860, the total foreign population of the State was 77,536, of which about one third, to wit, 24,248, was increase since 1850; but this immigration was confined almost exclusively to the free counties. In Cecil county, the only free county of the Eastern Shore, there were in 1869 1,343 foreigners; in the other seven counties of the same shore, all being slave counties and containing together more than five times the population of Cecil, there were in all only 641 foreigners. Not only did slavery prohibit immigration; it did worse. It condemned our own native-born citizens to banishment. In 1860 there were 137,258 native Marylanders living in the other States of the Union, while, on the other hand, we had rc ceived from the other States but 40,694, of whom by far the larger part had settled in the free counties and Baltimore city, leaving a deficit of 96,564. Why need we look further into the record? Figures always condemn slavery, and statistics are its irreconcilable foe. Travel through our State at your leisure and you will clearly see that slavery has been a most ungrateful mistress for Maryland. It has wasted our resources, paralyzed our industry, checked our growth in wealth, population, and all substantial interests, refused ingress to the intelligent and enterprising of other States and countries, and has even driven our own young men into exile. So far as we have advanced at all we have done so in spite of slavery, and by driving it before us. And so it is everywhere. Says Cochin: "This history of slavery knows no change. It is in all places, it has been at every epoch, an obstacle to the systematic peopling of the earth, an obstacle to the propagation of the gospel, an obstacle to the modest elevation of the inferior races, an obstacle to the progressive civilization of the superior races. The moralist calls it a crime, the historian and economist a scourge." brains. Come on, then, Mr. Yankee, cheat us Gentlemen of distinguished ability have urged serves. I have done for them. On the contrary, I rejoice that I have been able to contribute to the restoration of the rights of humanity to a down-trodden race. When passing along through life I encounter these poor freedmen, and hear one of them say, "Master, God bless you," I feel none the worse that the prayer of a fellow-mortal, black though he be, upon whom I have aided in con-、 ferring something more of happiness, has been offered up in my behalf. The helplessness of the blacks used to be a favorite topic of conversation among the slaveholders of Maryland, but since emancipation has been in course of development very little has been heard from them on that subject. When Jeff. Davis's statesmanship had begun to bear fruit, and a fearful suspicion had gradually dawned upon the enlightened understanding of his followers, that instead of making slavery supreme, he had simply knocked out its brains and given its carcass to the dogs, fear made them tell the truth, and we then discovered that helplessness was chargeable more to the masters than to the slaves. "Gracious Heaven!" they exclaimed, "if we lose our slaves, how shall we get along? Why, we never worked a day in our lives." And when in the course of events the loyal white people of Maryland for nearly three years had been march We must bear in mind that the negro race does not stand at as low a point in the estimation of the ethnologist as it did five years ago. At that time it was claimed that all experience in this country established the assertion that the negro could not exist without the watchful supervisioning their fathers and sons and brothers to the of his master, and that the black race was a necessary complement of the white race in the southern States, the one furnishing the physical and the other the intellectual power. But waris as subversive of theories as it is of mere physical obstacles, and under its stern mandates life-long convictions may be stormed as easily as military positions which before were deemed impregnable. Who now will assert, in the face of the facts But Maryland has been liberated from her servitude of centuries. Her limbs, so long benumbed beneath the weight of an unendurable burden, are fast assuming the vigor of a new life. In the presence of treason and rebellion traditional prejudices could no longer steep the minds of men in forgetfulness. Startled patriotism invoked the aid of religion and humanity, and, uniting in the discharge of a sacred duty, they totally destroyed every vestige of slavery. Our new constitution on the 1st day of November last decreed freedom, unrestricted, unconditional, uncompensated, absolute, and universal throughout the State. In cordial recognition of that glorious achievement the President has proclaimed to the world that "Maryland presents the example of complete suc-transpiring everywhere, that the negro cannot be cess. Maryland is secure to liberty and Union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit, being driven out it may seek to tear her, but will woo her no more. "" Already she has begun to reap the advantages of emancipation. The worthy, the industrious, and the provident are hastening to settle among us. To illustrate the practical effects of the change, I read the following extract from the Baltimore American of a late date: "ONE OF THE RESULTS.-The abolition of slavery in Maryland is being attended with the good results the friends of emancipation expected. A steady stream of emigrants from our sister States, particularly Pennsylvania, is pouring in upon us, now that free labor' has become a settled fact. In every county of the State large sales of land have taken place during the past two months, and the purchasers are men who intend to settle in our midst, and who do not purchase for the sake of speculation. The worn-out and half-tilled tracts of the large slaveholder, in the hands of farmers who till their grounds by free labor-who encourage free schools, and all the accompaniments of free institutions will soon place Maryland in the position among the free States that she should have occupied long ago. The following, from the Denton Union, published in Caroline county, is an indication of the revolution taking place: "Mr. James G. Redden has sold his farm near the town, containing near three hundred acres, to Mr. Jacob L. Zook, of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, for $9,000. It is a healthy and desirable residence. "Mr. Redden has also sold the "Mansion Farm," formerly the residence of the late William Jones, near Andersontown, to Mr. J. W. Cline, of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, but at what price we have not learned. Mr. Redden also sold his Burrsville farm, near the Delaware line, to Mr. Tobias Miller, of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, containing one hundred acres, for $3,500. "We have always understood that the land in Caroline Is among the poorest in the State, and believe that the prices above specified are remarkably good. The Union, in commenting on the above sales, says: We would advise all persons, whether residents here or elsewhere, who wish to purchase farms in this county, to do so speedily, before the price of lands goes up. They are cheap at present, but how long they will remain so, now that Maryland is a free State, no one can tell.' The Somerset Herald, in an extract which we published yesterday, says that more land is wanted; northerners continue to visit this county, [Somerset,] looking for farms.' Well may the President say that the genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. That day is gone forever." We extend to all who are anxious to better their condition a most cordial invitation to come and cast in their lot with us. We have no fears of the "barbarous hordes" of the North. On the contrary we say ho! all Yankeedom, and every other land under the sun where boys are taught, and men practice, the lesson, that honest labor is not discreditable. Send down your hardy sons, and we will greet them right heartily. We want your enterprise and capital, your strong arms, your courageous hearts, and your ever-active war, many of them to return no more, and when at the board of almost every loyal family the place of some loved one could be filled only by the cherished memory of a gallant soldier who had nobly died for his country, those who had suffered thus, seeing the slave-owners actually profiting by the scarcity of white labor, began to ask, Why are not the burdens of this war made equal? Why are not the slaves put into the Army and allowed to fight? At the mere asking of such grossly unconstitutional questions a wail went up from the slave-owners (except a few, to whom all honor) that rent the heavens. They cried out "Oh! spare us, spare us; our work is to be done, and our slaves must do it. Go on with the draft, and let the white men who are unable to pay commutation go to the war. But notwithstanding these most affecting entreaties, the able-bodied male slaves nearly all volunteered. After they had gone the owners were indiscreet enough to complain, because, as they said, all the strong men having been taken they would be taxed with the support of the women and children, the made a soldier? That nonsense has been exploded I do not deny but that in this great tempest of the social elements there may be in some localities much suffering among the freedmen. So there has been perhaps to an equal amount among the white refugees. The war has imposed many and appalling hardships. They are already upon us. We must provide for them whether we adopt this amendment of the Constitution or not. But let peace be restored, revive the industrial pursuits, say to the negro, hereafter you shall work for hire, and shall receive and appropriate your own wages; and as sure as it is the law of God for the white man that truth is better than error, and freedom better than slavery, so will experience vindicate the same great principles for the black man. This point needs no elaboration. You must either permit the blacks to be free or return them to bondage. Suppose you reënslave them after having enjoyed a taste of liberty, would they not suffer tenfold more than if they remained free? Undoubtedly they would. In my own State the freedmen properly appreciate their position. In fact, the slaves, for the most part, knew beforehand from actual intercourse with those of their race previously manumitted what would be expected of them after their emancipation. I have heard no complaints of their idleness or dissipation. All of them with whom I have conversed seem to understand that they must work for an honest livelihood. They were never better behaved. Obedient, cheerful, and happy, they appear anxious by their good conduct to reward the efforts of those who labored to make them free. I regret nothing that be relieved from so much unrequited expense and care. This alleged grievance coming to the ears of one having the power to remedy it, he at once made it known that he would relieve the owners from the charge of all the negroes whom they were unwilling to retain, and would provide for their transportation by sending a steamer to any accessible point that might be designated. Strange to relate, not one application was made for transportation. There was an instantaneous conversion of all who before complained; and like good Christians they forth with acknowledged the obligation resting upon them to protect and provide for the imbecile creatures over whom Providence had placed them. But the most ludicrous refutation of all such complaints was given the other day. Even before the election for the adoption of the constitution had been held, the slave-owners, profiting by the signs of the times, began to ransack the statutes of the State in search of some legal device that would enable them to secure for a few years more the services of the infant slaves. Scarcely had they fished up an old apprentice law, which the lawyers told them would answer their purpose, when lo! and behold, they gathered up the little darkeys of both sexes and crowded them into all conceivable kinds of vehicles until they looked like over-populous nests of blackbirds, and then conveyed them with all possible haste before the orphans' courts and had them bound out to their former masters. Many of the owners, although the result of the election was then unknown, actually manumitted the children before the 1st of November, and had them bound immediately in order that they might deprive their parents, who were still slaves, of the right of being consulted after their emancipation as to the disposition of their own offspring. You will not wonder at my confidence in the improvement of the negro race when I relate an incident which came under my own observation. Our struggle for emancipation was fierce and || closely contested. For a long time the result was in doubt. The soldiers' vote finally settled it in our favor by a majority of less than four hundred; but the advocates of slavery, unwilling, though fairly beaten, to surrender a field which they had held so long without dispute, did their utmost, after the election, to defeat the voice of the people, by a resort to protests, and injunctions, and writs of mandamus, and every other device which the ingenuity of counsel could invent. The Governor's proclamation, declaring the triumph of the friends of freedom, in spite of rebel votes and the "law's delay," did not reach the southern section of the State until Monday, the 31st October, when a steamer from Baltimore brought the official document. A Union meeting was held that day at Cambridge, in Dorchester county, at which it was made known, to the infinite disgust of every faithful follower of Jeff. Davis, that the next day would see Maryland a free State. I know not how the word passed; I saw no flashing beacon, nor flaming brand, nor speeding courier; but as I traveled in open carriage that night to fill an appointment next day, more than fifty miles away, it seemed as if the very air had borne the glad tidings before me. All Africa was abroad; some on horseback, some in wagons, but nearly all on foot, moving along, singing and joyful. When, later in the night, I was journeying wearily through the sighing pines, my curiosity was excited by the fact that ever and anon a bright light would suddenly burst upon me. Knowing that country people were usually at that hour a-bed, these lights were a mystery to me. Turning to my companion, I asked an explanation. He replied, "The lights you see are at the meeting-houses of the negroes, who have met for the purpose of holding watchmeetings to welcome in the 1st of November." The mystery was explained. The negroes had assembled at midnight, in their rude churches, hastily built by the roadside, in the woods, or down at the marshes, to watch for the advent of their day of jubilee, in order that they might receive their earliest experience of Heaven's priceless gift to man-thrice-blessed liberty-while on their knees before the Father of all. Surely, a people who will thus dedicate the first moments of their freedom to God are worthy to be free. But it has been urged with great earnestness that it is not within the scope of constitutional amendment to interfere with the domestic institutions of a State; and that in no event should slavery be abolished without compensation. That the Convention which framed the Constitution did not sustain either branch of this objection will not remain in controversy if we but refer to the debates of that body. On the 8th September, 1787, Mr. Madison moved to postpone the consideration of the proposition then pending, in order to take up the following: "The Legislature of the United States, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem necessary, or on the application of two thirds of the Legislatures of the several States, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part thereof, when the same shall have been ratified by three fourths, at least, of the Legislatures of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Legislature of the United States.?? This is the same as the text of the main clause of article five, with an amendment afterward introduced, so as to require a convention on application of two thirds of the States, and with a few merely verbal amendments. Mr. Hamilton seconded the motion, so that it was supported in the beginning by two of the clearest minds of the Convention. Mr. Rutledge said he never could agree to give a power by which the articles relating to slaves might be altered by the States not interested in that property and prejudiced against it. In order to obviate this objection, the first proviso was added, in these words: "Provided, That no amendment which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses of the ninth section of the first article." It will be observed that by its own terms this proviso ceased to operate after 1808. When the same article again came up for consideration, on the 15th September, Mr. Sherman said he thought it reasonable that the proviso in favor of the States importing slaves should be extended so as to provide that no State should be affected in its internal police, or deprived of its equality in the Senate; and he forthwith moved to add the following, as a further proviso: "That no State shall, without its consent, he affected in its internal police or deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." Whereupon Mr. Madison said, “Begin with these special provisos, and every State will insist on them for its boundaries, exports, &c." The motion of Mr. Sherman was then negasived by a vote of three States to eight. Mr. Sherman then moved to strike out the article altogether, but this was negatived by a vote of two States to eight, and one divided. It was then that, on motion of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the second proviso, "that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate," was carried without a dissenting voice. This second proviso, mark you, differed from Mr. Sherman's proposition in this only, that it omitted the words be affected in its internal police." Now, here is an express refusal by the Convention to impose upon the power of amendment a restriction that would have exempted the “internal police" of a State from its operation. The restriction was asked for as a concession to slavery, was opposed by Mr. Madison, and was voted down largely. It cannot be said that the South did not then desire some security in the Constitution against emancipation; for Mr. Pinckney, on three occasions, asked for just such a provision; and it was frequently urged by Mr. Rutledge, and others, that North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, would demand even more, and would never agree to the Constitution unless their right to import slaves be untouched. In regard to all which demands and threats the sentiment of the Convention could not be better shown than by citing the ever-memorable remark of Mr. Madison that he thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men. (Elliot's Debates, volume 5, pages 357, 457, 478, 487, 531, and 551.) It is but fair to infer from the admitted opposition of a large majority of the framers of the Constitution to slavery that they intended that the country should ultimately get rid of that evil by a resort to the power of amendment, and more especially is that inference justified when the further fact is considered, that the Convention actually refused to except "the internal police of the States" from the operation of the clause of amendment. them back to loyalty by paying them the money of a people whom in striving to ruin they have ruined themselves? I would rather say with King Henry of Bolingbroke, "Shall our coffers then Be emptied, to redeem a traitor home? Shall we buy treason? and indent with foes, When they have lost and forfeited themselves? No, on the barren mountains let them starve; For I shall never hold that man my friend, Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost To ransom home revolted" [Davis and his crew.] Who is so weak as to believe that the rebels can be appeased by concessions to slavery, or that the war can be ended otherwise than by destroying their military power? Have they ever given us reason to entertain any such expectations? Their president, their congress, the chiefs of their armies, all of their officials, high or low, who have spoken upon the subject, have always insisted that they will tolerate but one plan of adjustment, namely, that which provides for separation and disunion. Where is the evidence that the rebels will stop the war and return to the Union if we will not destroy slavery? I challenge its production. It nowhere exists. The issue is sharply defined between the rebellion and the United States. On the one side is disunion for the sake of slavery; on the other is freedom for the sake of the Union. In the beginning of the war the rebels, to justify their resort to arms, seized the priestess of prophecy, and compelled her to adopt the sentiment that the Union could not continue with the States part slave and part free. They construed the words literally, and then, by their own voluntary acts, verified the prophecy as they interpreted it. They have demonstrated that the conflicting systems of free and slave labor cannot be reconciled under a republican form of government, but rather that they will develop into political antipathies, which will ultimately, like smoldering, but inextinguishable fires, burst into the full blaze of civil war. Others may doubt and fear, but I believe that slavery is doomed. In my judgment, if the people of the southern confederacy, so called, were made dependent to-morrow they could not preserve their favorite institution. If this Congress were to promise to protect it for them, could that promise be redeemed? Could you ever again enforce a fugitive slave law? No human power can again so far stifle the voice of nature as to hush into submission the denunciations of slavery, which rise like exhalations from all parts of the land. Civilization every where speaks for liberty. Russia, by her grand act of emancipation, has banished serfdom from Europe. England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Portugal, have all crossed the ocean to liberate the bondman. Less than seven millions of slaves remain within the bounds of Christendom; and for four millions of these we stand responsible in the sight of God and man. Knowing all this, the enlightened, de If, then, the power of amendment extends to the abolition of slavery, and that it does is too clear to admit of a suspicion of a doubt, with what propriety can any slaveholder ask for compensation? They entered the Union with a full knowledge of the existence of that power, and they held their slaves afterward subject to the rig ht of the people of the United States in accordance with the forms prescribed to prohibit human bondage.termined, and irrepressible sentiment of the nation How then can the slaveholders complain of injustice if the people shall choose to exercise their notorious privilege of amendment? But the case is infinitely worse when we advert to the many efforts at conciliation made in the beginning of the rebellion, and find that before the insolence of the slave power had culminated in actual war the Congress proposed, by the necessary majority, an amendment to the Legislatures of the States, whereby the people were to be deprived of all power of interference with slavery in the States by amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and that this proposition, which, if accepted, would have been a perpetual guarantee, was scornfully rejected. Nothing would satisfy the propagandists of slavery but war, terrible war. And now, after the nation has been compelled in defense of its life to expend its treasure by thousands of millions, and sacrifice hundreds of its best and bravest on almost every hill-top and in almost every valley of the South, who is so craven as to speak of compensation for slaves when their emancipation was made necessary by the rebellion of their masters? I have heard it said of the rebels, "Woo them with gifts. Pay them for their losses." Is it meant that we shall load our already heavily burdened constituents with one more subsidy that defeated traitors may not suffer the penalties of their own acts? Is it meant that we shall charm cries aloud," Away with slavery, away with slavery!" So long as we hesitate and delay this great work we can have no peace. Whether we would or not, we must establish freedom if we would exterminate treason. Events have left us no choice. The people have learned their duty, and have instructed us accordingly. Let us do our part, and, as their heralds, proclaim universal freedom. Having thus declared a policy, plain, but imperishable, our armies, while winning a glorious and enduring peace, will secure by the same crowning victorics the enfranchisement of the human race, and so brighten the future with blessings for the oppressed and enslaved of all the earth, that posterity, amazed at the magnitude of their achievements, will record that as they marched, "High in front advanced, The brandished sword of God before them blazed "The brandished sword of God?" ay, "the brandished sword of God!" He has led this holy crusade for country and for freedom. When men despaired because they could discover no solution of the dreadful enigma which slavery propounded; when even the churches quailed before it and prostituted the Bible to the propitiation of the monster, God came to the rescue, and solved the riddle by destroying the sphinx. If God is nowhere else recognized in the Constitution, nevertheless He |