"In a stretch of three hundred miles up and down the Mississippi, but one creole planter was found (there may, of course, have been others with whom I did not come lu contact) who heartily and unreservedly adopted the idea of free labor, and honestly carried it out upon his plantation. And although he declared that, in itself, it was successful much beyond his expectation, yet, he said, my life and that of my family are rendered very unhappy by the opposition and contumely of my neighbors.'

The simple truth is, that the virus of slavery, the lust of ownership, in the hearts of these old masters, is as virulent and active to-day as it ever was. Many of them admit that the old form of slavery is for the present broken up. They do not hesitate even to express the opinion that the experiment of secession is a failure; but they scoff at the idea of freedom for the negro, and repeat the old argument of his incapacity to take care of himself, or to entertain any higher motive for exertion than that of the whip. They await with impatience the withdrawal of the military authorities, and the reestablishment of the civil power of the State, to be controlled and used as hitherto for the maintenance of what to them doubtless appears the paramount object of all civil authority, of the State itself, some form of the slave system.

With slight modification, the language used recently by Judge Humphrey in a speech delivered at a Union meeting at Huntsville, Alabama, seems most aptly to express the hopes and purposes of a large proportion of the old masters in the valley of the Mississippi who have consented to qualify their loyalty to the Union by taking the oath prescribed by the President's proclamation of amnesty. After advising that Alabama should at once return to the Union by simply rescinding the ordinance of secession, and after expressing the opinion that the old institution of slavery was gone, Judge Humphrey says, 'I believe, in case of a return to the Union, we would receive political cooperation, so as to secure the management of that labor by those who were slaves. There is really no difference, in my opinion, whether we hold them as absolute slaves or obtain their labor by some other method. Of course we prefer the old method. But that question is not now before us.'"

To the same effect was the testimony of the late Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth, whose official tour through the valley of the Mississippi gave him ample means of arriving at an intelligent judgment:

"There is one thing that must be taken into account, and that is, that there will exist a very strong disposition among the masters to control these people and keep them as a subordinate and subjected class. Undoubtedly they intend to do that. I think the tendency to establish a system of serfdom is the great danger to be guarded against. I talked with a planter in the La Fourelie district, near Tibadouville; he said he was not in favor of secession; he avowed his hope and expectation that slavery would be restored there in some form. I said, 'If we went away and left these people now do you suppose you could reduce them again to slavery? He laughed to scorn the idea that they could not. What' said I, these men who have had arms in their hands?" Yes,' he said; we should take the arms away from them, of course.'19

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1865.

ful country into a military Power, and our democracy into an aristocracy. "We cannot escape history.'

This is not mere idle fancy. Let us for a moment suppose, not what is alone within the range of possibility, but what is within the scope of probability; nay, what is almost certain to happen-that the two hundred and ninety-one thousand pardoned rebels of South Carolina should demand from their Legislature an act reducing to apprenticeship, serfdom, or other form of slavery, the four hundred and twelve thousand colored people of the State, or that they deny them all political rights, tax them without their consent, legislate, not for their welfare, but for their degradation and oppression. Composing this unrepresented mass would be those who have passed through General Saxton's schools and learned to read, those who by toil have earned the means to purchase at sales for taxes, or under the confiscation laws, a home and land; and others scarred and warworn in the military or naval service of the country, who would hurry to and fro, rallying their friends to resist the outrage, and maintain their right to life, liberty, and property. Here would be the beginning of civil war; war in which we who believe in the doctrine of man's rights, that Governments are instituted to protect those rights, that they rest on the consent of the governed, and should be overthrown when they infringe those rights, would bid the insurgents God-speed. Ah! this we might do as men, as individuals; but as citizens of the United States what would be our duty and how must our power be exercised? The minority, though vested with political power, fearing the superior force of the majority, would, in the name of the State, appeal to us; and, repugnant as the duty might be, we would owe it to the sacred compromises of the Constitution to yield our pride, our conscience, our fidelity to God and man, and become again the protectors of slavery or the pliant instruments for reducing the majority of the people of the State into subjection to the arrogant aristocracy of South Carolina. In God's name let us, while we can, avert such a possibility. Let us conquer our prejudices. Let us prove that we are worthy of the heritage bequeathed us by our revolutionary sires. Let us show the world that, inheriting the spirit of our forefathers, we regard liberty as a right so universal and a blessing so grand that, while we are ready to surrender our all rather than yield it, we will guaranty it at whatever cost to the poorest child that breathes the air of our country.

But we owe a provision of this kind to another class of citizens than that of which I have been speaking. There are other loyal men than these

NEW SERIES.....No. 19.

of the insurrectionary districts need the sympathy and political support of all the loyal people among whom they dwell, and unless we give it to them we place them as abjectly at the feet of those who are now in arms against us as we do the negro whom their oppressors so despise. I cannot conceive how the American Congress could write a page of history that would so disgrace it in the eyes of all posterity as by consenting to close this war by surrendering to the unbridled lust and power of the conquered traitors of the South, those who, through blood, terror, and anguish, have been our friends, true to our principles and our welfare. To purchase peace by such heartless meanness and so gigantic a barter of principle would be unparalleled in baseness in the history of mankind.

This is felt in the South. The black man already rejoices in the fact that, if we are guilty of so great a crime as this, he will not be alone in his suffering; it will not be his prayers or his curses only that will penetrate the ear of an avenging God against those who had thus been false to all His teachings and every principle they professed. I find in the New Orleans Tribune of December 15, 1864, which paper, I may remark, is the organ of the proscribed race in Louisiana, and is owned and edited and printed daily in the French and English language by persons of that race, an admirable article in response to the question, "Is there any justice for the black?" which was drawn forth by the acquittal of one Michael Gleason, who had been tried for murder.

The crime was established beyond all peradventure. It was abundantly proven that the victim, Mittie Stephens, a colored boy, had been quietly sitting on the guards of the boat, watching the rod with which he was fishing, that other boys sat near him, when the defendant came behind him, leaned over, and deliberately pushed him into the water, and folding his arms on his breast stood and saw the boy rise thrice to the surface and then sink forever; that a colored woman exclaimed, "That is not right," and the defendant answered, "I would do the same to you;" and thus neither rescuing the child nor permitting others to do it, coolly and deliberately committed murder. There was no dispute as to any of the facts of the case. The New Orleans Era, noticing the case, says that it establishes the theory that "a man may, whenever he has no other way of amusing himself, throw a negro boy overboard from a steamboat, prevent any of his friends from rescuing the drowning struggler, stand quietly looking on while he goes to the bottom to rise no more, and be considered not guilty' of murder or any other crime;" and adds, having evidently

been used to in the days of slavery, "This is almost as enlightened a verdict as we were accustomed to in the palmy days of thuggery."

The colored editor of the Tribune avails himself of the case to point a moral, and well says:

in South Carolina there have been men whose loyalty to the Union has never yielded. How shall these protect themselves in the reconstructed State? What millennial influence will induce the envenomed spirit of the majority of the people by whom they will be surrounded to treat them with loving-kindness or human justice? Who will go with them to the polls in their respective districts? Where will they find an unprejudiced judge and an impartial jury to vindicate their innocence when falsely accused or maintain their right to character and property? We must remember that it is the power and not the spirit of the rebellion we are conquering. Time alone shall conquer this. The grave, long years hence, will close over those who to the last day of their life would, were it in their power, overthrow the Government or revenge their supposed wrongs upon those who aided in sustaining it. The truly loyal white men

"The trial by jury is considered as the safe-guard of innocence. It has been found that a man indicted for a criminal offense cannot be impartially tried and convicted, unless by his own peers. But an ex parte jury is the worst of all judicial institutions.

"The security afforded by the composition of a jury has to be of a twofold character. The jurymen have to reprosent the community at large in all its classes and varieties of composition. The duty of a jury is as well to vindicate innocence and punish crine as to protect the man unduly arraigned before the Court. Justice has to strike the culprit and avenge the blood of the innocent, as well as to defend the accused party against undue prejudices. Why have we no representatives in the jury? Are our lives, honor, and liberties to be left in the hands of men who are laboring under the most stubborn and narrow prejudice? Is there any protection or justice for us at their hands? It is in vain that, in the present instance, the press have so strongly supported the right. The wrong has been committed, and we are notified that there is no redress for us. "But for every Union man in the city the last verdict is a warning. In the event-as impossible as it may appear-that rebel rule should temporarily be established here, we can foresee the fate of the friends of the Union. Then, there will be no more justice, no more protection for them than for the hated negro. It will be lawful to purs te them in the streets, drown them, kill them; and no jury will be found to convict the murderers. Let the Union men understand the case, and look to a complete reform in our laws relating to the formation of the jury."

The fate predicted to the real friends of the Union will be meted to them by the pardoned rebels, who will if we permit it rule them in the future as assuredly as it would if their military power should again possess the city.

Still comes the question, are these more than two fifths of the people of the insurrectionary diswict fit for citizenship? Let me reply by a question or two. Is the question of fitness put to the foreigner by the judge who administers the oath, the taking of which invests him with all the power of a native-born citizen and all its promises save one, that of the Presidency? Is the white native of our soil who, at the close of a reckless youth, the victim, perhaps, of early poverty and the degradation of parents, is unable to read his native tongue, when first he comes to the polls to deposit his ballot interrogated as to his fitness? Is it only to the wise, the learned, the powerful that we accord the right of suffrage? Are there not within the knowledge of each one of us scores of the children of this proscribed race who, in the conduct of their daily affairs, in the acquisition of property, in the tenderness and good judgment with which they rear their families, in the generosity with which they contribute to their church and the fidelity with which they obey her high behests, prove themselves infinitely better fitted for citizenship than the denizens of the swamp, Mackerelville, and other such reeking localities, who swelled the majority in the city of New York at the last election to thirty-seven thousand? And shall no culture, no patriotism, no wisdom, no taxpaying power, secure to the native-born American that which at the end of five years we, with so much advantage to our country, fling as a boon to every foreigner who may escape from the poverty and oppression and wrong of the Old World, to find a happier home and a more promising future in this? The question is not whether each man is fitted for the most judicious performance of the functions of citizenship, but whether the State is not safer when she binds all her children to her by protecting the rights of all and confiding her affairs to the arbitrament of their common judgment.

But colored people have shown themselves abundantly capable of self-government. Under oppressions exceeding in infinite degree those suffered by the oppressed people of Ireland-ay, by the subjects of the Czar of Russia-they have shown themselves capable of caring for themselves and others. Buying the poor privilege of providing for themselves by paying to their owners hundreds of dollars per annum, thousands of them have maintained homes and kept their families together, and reared their children to such an age that the lordly master, wanting cash for current purposes, has plucked the graceful daughter from her home to sell her to a life of debauchery, or the son, whose developing muscles promised support in age to his parents, to sell him to a life of unrequited toil. Snatched from these horrors a few thousands, some ten or twelve, have been sent during the last forty years to the western coast of Africa. There, under the auspices of American benevolence, they founded a republic, and with almost American greed for land have extended the jurisdiction of the little colony till the republic of Liberia, as I learn from the National Almanac, now embraces twenty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine square miles. And the people have assimilated from among the heathens among whom they were settled men, women, and children, until their flag protects and their jurisdiction regulates four hundred and twentytwo thousand, most of whom, taught in the schools of the colony, find their enduring hopes in the old King James Bible, which they are able to read. But for our jealous contempt of the race, the flag of that African republic, so extensive has her commerce already become, would be familiar in all our leading ports. Our arrogance has hitherto excluded it; and by reason of our arrogance we pay tribute to our haughty commercial rival and treacherous friend Great Britain, by purchasing at second-hand from her the tropical products which the republicans of Liberia would gladly exchange directly with us for those of our more temperate region.

Fit by culture and experience they may not be; but let us regard the characteristics of our civilization and see whether the future should, by rea. son of this fact, be made liable to such moment

ous consequences as would be involved in error on this point. The abundant proof is before us of their eagerness and ability to acquire information. We are equally able to provide them with the means of culture; and happily, the good people of the North, carrying the frame of the schoolhouse and the church in the rear of each of our advancing armies, have shown themselves prompt to provide them with the means of instructionto give to each and every one of them the keys to all knowledge in the mastery of the English language, the art of writing, and the elementary rules of arithmetic.

Though the gentleman from New York [Mr. BROOKS] insists that history is but repeating itself, I tell him that ours is a new age, and ask him to be kind enough to let me know who invented Hoe's "last fast printing-press" in the age in which it first existed, and by whose steam-engine it was propelled, and whether he edited the Express that fell in myriad thousands from its revolving forms? The limits of what former America did the magnetic telegraph traverse, making man, even the humblest, well-nigh omnipresent within its limits? In what antique age and country, broad as ours, was distance reduced as it is by the locomotive engine in this? From among the hidden treasures of what buried city, or from the printed pages of what lost nation, did John Ericsson steal the subtle thoughts with which he has blessed the world and which we credit to him as inventions? In what era, will the gentleman tell me, did a nation convert by the stroke of a pen and the act of occupancy its landless and destitute people into independent farmers and pillars of the State by a homestead law such as that by which we offer estates to the emigrant and the freedman? If history be but repeating herself, will the gentleman point me to the original of the American Missionary Society, and show me from experience what influence its labors are to have upon those whom we have hitherto doomed to the darkness of ignorance? Whence did the founders of the American and other Tract Societies borrow the idea of their great enterprise? From what age or what clime comes our common school system? And what chapter of human history did they reenact who founded the American Sunday School Union? Will the gentleman draw from his historic stores a sketch of the influence that institution alone is to have in developing and training the intellect and regulating the life of the freedmen and the "poor white trash," now that rebellion has opened the way to the teacher, the daily journal, and the printed volume to their fire

sides?

In what ample depository did its ancient prototype conceal the stereotype plates for more than a thousand books that it so cheaply published, imparting many of them in the simplest sentences, and others in those of Bunyan, Milton, Heber, Cowper-the poets, preachers, philosophers, historians of all Christian countries-the thought and knowledge time has garnered?

No, Mr. Speaker, history is not repeating itself. We are unfolding a new page in national life. The past has gone forever. There is no abiding present; it flies while we name it; and, as it flies, it is our duty to provide for the thickcoming future; and with such agencies as I have thus rapidly alluded to, we need not fear that even the existing generation of freedmen will not prove themselves abundantly able to take care of themselves and maintain the power and dignity of the States of which we shall make them citizens.

We are to shape the future. We cannot escape the duty. And conciliation, compromise, and concession" are not the methods we are to use. These, alas! have been abundantly tried, and their result has been agitation, strife, war, and desolation. No man has the right to compromise justice; it is immutable; and He whose law it is never fails to avenge its compromise or violation. Ours is not the work of construction, it is that of reconstruction; not that of creation, but of regeneration; and, as I have shown, the principle of the life we are to shape glares on us, lighting our pathway,

from every page of history written by our revolutionary fathers. Would we see the issue of "compromise, concession, and conciliation?" Sir, we behold it in the blazing home, the charred roof-tree, the desolate hearthside, the surging tide of fratricidal war, and the green mounds beneath which sleep half a million of the bravest and best loved of our men.

South Carolina, representing slavery, demanded the insertion of the word "white" in the fundamental articles of our Governnient. Our fathers resisted the demand; and, as I have suggested, had their sons continued to do so, slavery had long since been hemmed in as by a wall of fire; its true character would have been known among men, for then would the freedom of discussion not have been assailed, and men been legally punished by fine and imprisonment, and lawlessly by Scourging and death, for speaking of its horrors. And by resisting this demand, as I have shown, man was accorded his right in the Territories till 1812. Then our fathers yielded, and without tracing the rapid retrograde career which ensued, we find the results of conceding and compromising principle in the attempt to abandon justice as established by the fathers, and settle a Territory under the conflicting theories of Cass and Douglas, and of Calhoun and Jefferson Davis-the two former striving to establish slavery under phrases full of professed devotion to freedom; the latter proclaiming boldly, through the lips of Robert Toombs, that "Congress has no power to limit, restrain, or in any manner to impair slavery; but, on the contrary, it is bound to protect and maintain it in the States where it exists and wherever its flag floats and its jurisdiction is para mount." (Boston Address, January, 1856.)

We can trace the influence of compromise and concession again in its effects upon the constitution of States. Behold the colored and white voters mingling peaceably at the polls in North Carolina, Maryland, Teunessee, and other slave States, and run the downward career until, at the dictation of South Carolina and slavery, you find States which have become free by constitutional amendment and others which never tolerated slavery yielding to their demand to insert the word "white" in their constitutions, and so creating a proscribed class in their midst; others even denying a dwelling place upon His footstool within their limits to the children of God whose skins were not colored like their own; and finally Arkansas writing a chapter of history which redeems Draco's name from the bad preeminence it had so long borne. Triumphant wrong is ever aggressive, has ever been, will ever be. Look back also upon our churches, practically ignoring for half a century the existence of nearly four million people who were held in contempt of every one of the beatitudes, and compelled to live in violation of every clause of the decalogue, and whose existence made the utterance of the Lord's prayer seem, to foreigners who comprehended the wrongs of slavery, like a hideous mockery as it dropped from American lips.

And these results, be it remembered, did but express the influence which aristocratic and dictatorial South Carolina, whose spirit now possessed the entire South, had, through compromise, concession, and conciliation, produced upon the mind and heart and conscience of the American people. Let me illustrate this by one striking example. While yet Missouri was a Territory -seven years, however, after the South had been made imperious by her triumph in inserting the word "white" in the territorial law for Missouri, and while she was busy fashioning that great State north of the Ohio line into the future home for slavery-the abolition of the institution was being agitated in Maryland as well as in Tennessee. Notwithstanding the recent triumphs of slavery it was still possible for a man to oppose the spread of the institution, point out its atrocities, and favor its abolition, and yet look for preferment and honor at the hands of his fellow-citizens; and when Jacob Gruber, a Methodist clergyman, was indicted by the Frederick county court, of Maryland, on the charge of "attempting to excite insubordination and insurrection among slaves," Roger B. Taney stepped forth to defend him, and in the course of his argument used the following language:

"Mr. Gruber did quote the language of our great act of national independence, and insisted on the principles contained in that venerated instrument. He did rebuke those masters who, in the exercise of power, are deaf to the calls of humanity; and he warned them of the evils they might bring themselves. He did speak with abhorrence of those reptiles who live by trading in human flesh, and enrich themselves by tearing the husband from the wife, the infant from the bosom of the mother; and this I am instructed was the head and front of his offending. Shall I content myself with saying he had a right to say this? that there is no law to punish lim? So far is he from being the

object of punishment in any form of proceedings, that we are prepared to maintain the same principles, and to use, if necessary, the same language here in the temple of justice, and in the presence of those who are the ministers of the law. A hard necessity, indeed, compels us to endure the evils of slavery for a time. It was imposed upon us by another nation while we were yet in a state of colonial vassulage. It cannot be easily or suddenly removed. Yet while it continues, it is a blot on our national character, and every real lover of freedom confidently hopes that it will be effectually, though it must be gradually, wiped away, and earnestly looks for the means by which this necessary object may be attained. And until it shall be accomplished, until the time shall come when we can point without a blush to the language held in the Declaration of Independence, every friend of humanity will seek to lighten the galling chain of slavery, and better to the utmost of his power the wretched condition of the slave. Such was Mr. Gruber's object in that part of his sermon of which I am now speaking. Those who have complained of him and reproached him will not find it easy to answer him, unless complaints, reproaches, and persecution shall be considered an answer."

But under the influence of the doctrine of " conciliation, concession, and compromise," the author of this language soon learned that for an ambitious man these brave and good words were folly and madness. Pure in his personal life, beautiful in the relations that characterized his family and his social circle, his history will never be forgotten; his name will ever head the list of "ermined knaves." Thirty-eight years after the Gruber case, in the chief temple of justice of our country, in the presence of her ministers, of whom he was himself the chief, when speaking of the free colored men of New England and those of their race throughout the country, he declared, in violation of all truth, that

"The legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.

"It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which pre. vailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken.

"They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to asso ciate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Mr. Speaker, shall we in providing for the reconstruction of the Union, accept and proclaim as our faith the hideous dogma that four millions of our people have "no rights which the white man is bound to respect," or, in the very hour in which our arms are breaking the power of the rebellion, make any concession to the spirit that evoked it? South Carolina may shake her gory locks and bloody hands at us in impotent rage; but let us not quail before her now as we have done for the last half century. Through the lips of northern "Sons of Liberty" and members of the order of "American Knights," she demands that, as a graceful concession, we shall comply to-day with the proposition our forefathers rejected on the 25th of June, 1778, and insert the word "white" in the fundamental law of the land; on the other hand, the shades of our patriot fathers, humanity, the spirit of the age, the welfare of the nation, the hopes of the countless millions who will throng our country through the long ages, implore us to listen to the voice of justice and obey the injunctions of the Master, who has assured us that “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Let not, I pray you, the South achieve her grandest triumph in the hour of her humiliation. Let not the spirit of a prostrate foe practice on our pride and prejudice, and exult through all time over a lasting victory. Peace is the offspring and handmaid of Justice, and let us in reconstructing the Union erect a temple in which she may abide for ever.

It

Mr. STILES. Mr. Speaker, I did not desire to interrupt my colleague [Mr. KELLEY] in the delivery of his carefully prepared speech would have marred its beauty and power. But if I understand him correctly he stated that prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1838, negroes enjoyed the right of suffrage in the State of Pennsylvania. My question is, whether the constitution or laws of that State gave them such a right; and further, whether they ever did exercise such a right; whether he does not know that by

the decision of the highest courts of that State they were not allowed to vote there.

Mr. KELLEY. They were allowed by the constitution to vote, and they did vote; and it required a constitutional amendment-the insertion of the word "white" in the clause regulating suffrage to deprive them of that right.

Mr. STILES. I desire to ask my colleague further, when and in what portion of the State of Pennsylvania they ever exercised that right.

Mr. KELLEY. Why, I have seen them exercise it frequently at the polls in Philadelphia, and that, too, whether the election officers belonged to one party or the other.

Mr. STILES. That must have been confined to my colleague's own precinct. It was never known in the history of that State.

Mr. KELLEY. I beg leave to say that it was done throughout the State, and was in some instances made the subject of litigation.

Mr. STILES. It was never done except in one county-the county of Bucks-so far as I know and then only in one instance.

I desire further to ask my colleague in this connection, because his speech has tended toward ing negroes universally the right of suffrago now. universal equality, whether he is in favor of givMr. KELLEY. I am in favor of giving that right, in the words of Jefferson, to "every man who fights or pays." I stand by the doctrine of Thomas Jefferson, the father of the Democratic party, in which I was trained.

Mr. STILES. In the event of the passage of the amendment to the Constitution proposed, is my colleague in favor of equality between the races? And will he regard negroes as equal to

the white man?

Mr. KELLEY. I could not possibly regulate the equality of men. I cannot make my colleague so moral or intelligent as a man of darker complexion who is more moral and more intelligent; nor could I degrade my colleague to the level, in morals and intelligence, of the colored man who is less moral or less intelligent than he. My colleague does not, according to his theory, vote by reason of his intelligence, but simply by reason of his color. I might be willing to exclude from the privilege of voting an immoral or a voluntarily ignorant man; but I want no senseless rule that allows a fool or a scoundrel to vote if he be white, and excludes a wise and an honest man if he be black.

Mr. STILES. Mr. Speaker, the remarkable speech just delivered appeals to passion and not to judgment, and is in favor of a principle that in years hence will be regarded as the height of the fanaticism of these days. The right of negroes to become voters, jurors, and in all respects equal with the white man, is the favorite theory of the times and of the party in power. The day will come when the men who avow such principles will be condemned by the popular voice everywhere.

Mr. ELIOT obtained the floor, but yielded for the transaction of the following business:

AMENDMENTS OF CONSCRIPTION LAW.

Mr. SCHENCK. I move that the amendments proposed by the Committee on Military Affairs to the act for the enrollment of the national forces, be printed for the information of the House. The motion was agreed to.

ENROLLED BILLS.

Mr. COBB, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, reported that they had examined and found truly enrolled bills of the following titles, when the Speaker signed the same:

Joint resolution (H. R. No. 56) providing for the termination of the reciprocity treaty of 5th of June, 1854, between the United States and Great Britain; and

An act (H. R. No. 163) for the relief of Charles Anderson, assignee of John James, of Texas.

ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.

Mr. HOLMAN, by unanimous consent, introduced the following resolution; which was read, considered, and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to communicate to this House whether or not he has made any payments to the Illinois Central railroad since the passage of the House resolution of the last session of Congress; and if so, how much, and by what authority.

E. WOODWARD AND G. CHORPENNY. Mr. WINDOM. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee of the Whole on the Private Calendar be discharged from the further considerrelief of Elizabeth Woodward and George Choration of joint resolution H. R. No. 112, for the penny, and that the joint resolution be recommitted to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

Mr. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. I object. And then, on motion of Mr. COX, the House (at ten minutes past five o'clock) adjourned.

IN SENATE. TUESDAY, January 17, 1865. Prayer by Rev. B. H. NADAL, D. D. The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.

CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER. The VICE PRESIDENT. A dispatch has been received by the Secretary of the Navy, which will be read to the Senate.

The Secretary read, as follows:

FORT MONROE, January 17, 1865. Hon. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy:

The Atlantic is just in from Wilmington. Fort Fisher and works on Federal Point are in our possession. The assault was made by the army and sailors on Sunday afternoon, and by eleven p. m. the works were ours. Losses heavy. Lieutenants S. W. Preston and B. II. Porter of the Navy are killed. Our captures are seventy-two guns and about twenty five hundred prisoners. Generals Whiting and Lamb (rebels) are prisoners and wounded. The Vanderbilt is on her way North with dispatches. Two fifteeninch guns were burst on the monitors.

E. T. NICHOLS, Commander. PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. Mr. FOOT presented the petition of Henry Stanley, praying for an extension of letters patent for an improvement in coal stoves or burners; which was referred to the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office..

Mr. HOWE presented a petition of citizens of Wisconsin, praying for an amendment to the enrollment law, so that all able-bodied men under the age of fifty years may be placed on the rolls subject to draft for one year; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

He also presented a petition of the chiefs and warriors of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians, praying that a new treaty may be authorized; which was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

Mr. COWAN presented the memorial of the Board of Trade of Philadelphia, praying that pro→ vision be made for the levying of such duties upon all vessels engaged in foreign commerce from our ports as shall justly distribute the burden of maintaining our light-houses, buoys, and beacons among the parties enjoying their benefits, and shall relieve the public Treasury from their expense; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce.

Mr. HARRIS presented the petition of the local board of steamboat inspectors of Oswego, New York, praying for an increase of compensation; which was referred to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. LANE, of Indiana, presented the petition of the Western Associated Press praying for a removal of the duty on foreign printing paper; which was referred to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. FARWELL presented a letter of Captain John A. Webster, jr., commanding the United States steam-cutter Mahoning, in relation to the substitution of whistles for fog bells; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce.

He also presented the petition of officers of the twentieth Maine volunteers, praying for an increase of the compensation of military officers; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

Mr. DAVIS presented the petition of William Hutchinson, praying for compensation for service rendered as a spy in the war of 1812; which was referred to the Committee on Claims.

Mr. MORGAN presented the petition of Nott & Co., praying to be indemnified for the loss of four boxes of specie shipped by them at Hong Kong in the schooner Eteva, and seized and plundered by pirates on the 18th of October, 1857, out of the unappropriated balance of the fund obtained from the Chinese Government under the treaty negotiated at Shanghai, November 8, 1858; which was referred to the Committee on Claims.

Mr. WILSON presented the petition of officers of the fortieth Massachusetts regiment, praying for an increase of the compensation of military officers; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

Mr. WADE presented a petition of captains, commanders, and lieutenant commanders on the active list of the Navy, praying for a restoration of the pay allowed to their respective grades and ranks prior to the breaking out of the present rebellion; which was referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs.

Mr. SUMNER presented a petition of citizens of New York, praying for the passage of a law to secure a republican form of government and to abolish and forever prohibit slavery in the United States; which was referred to the select committee on slavery and freedmen.

Mr. SUMNER. I also offer the memorial of the Board of Trade of the city of Boston, in which they set forth that it is believed that debts amounting from one hundred and fifty to two hundred million dollars are due to parties in the North from individuals in the rebel States, that during the past four years there has been no opportunity to press these claims for settlement in local courts; and that if the bankrupt bill now before Congress shall become a law before these creditors can come in contact with their debtors, and take personal measures to collect their dues, the rights of such creditors will be seriously prejudiced, and that many estates will be closed up in bankruptcy at a loss to all concerned. They accordingly pray Congress to postpone the passage of the bankruptcy bill until such time shall have elapsed after the restoration of the revolted States as shall give to northern creditors an opportunity to negotiate with their debtors in those States for the adjustment of their claims. In offering this memorial, si■, I desire to say that while concurring with the memorialists in the desire to protect the interests of northern creditors, I am not sure that it is necessary that we should follow precisely their suggestions. I am not sure that those interests may not be adequately protected without any postponement of the pending bankruptcy bill. I move that the memorial be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The motion was agreed to.

Mr. HOWARD. I beg to present the memorial of William A. Hammond, late Surgeon General of the United States Army, stating that he has been deprived of his coramission as Surgeon General and prohibited from holding office under the Government of the United States by the sentence of a general court-martial under circumstances which he prays Congress to inquire into before confirming the appointment which has been made of his successor. The memorial sets forth, with brevity to be sure, certain proceedings in his case before a court-martial of which he complains, and he alleges justly complains. I move that the memorial be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

The motion was agreed to.

a manifestation on the part of some of the members of your honorable body to ignore the existence of the loyal government of Virginia; to do this will be to reduce the loyal citizens of this Commonwealth to the condition of vassals of a military satrap, and subject men who have freely devoted their lives and fortunes to the cause of their country in the first and darkest hour of the nation's peril, to the mortification of being confounded with the traitors who have disturbed the peace, retarded the prosperity, and aimed a parricidal blow at the very existence of the Union. "In view of these facts your memorialists respectfully and earnestly pray that Congress will take no action tending to destroy or weaken the restored government of Virginia."

I do not remember, sir, to what committee the memorials to which this remonstrance relates were referred.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair understands that they were referred to the Committee on Territories.

Mr. WILLEY. lask that these may take the same direction; and I also present another memorial of the same character and to the same effect numerously signed bycitizens of Loudoun county, Virginia.

The memorials were referred to the Committee on Territories.

PAPERS WITHDRAWN. On motion of Mr. BUCKALEW, it was Ordered, That Mary F. B. Zevely have leave to withdraw her petition and papers.

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.

Mr. MORRILL, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. No. 514) to amend an act to extend the charter of the Alexandria and Washington railroad, passed March 3, 1863, reported it with amendments.

Mr. DIXON, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill (S. No. 393) to authorize the corporation of Georgetown to levy certain taxes, reported it without amendment.

Mr. SUMNER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. R. No. 91) in relation to the treaty of 1817, reported it with an amendment.

He also, from the same committee, to wh m was referred a message of the President of the United States, communicating, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 15th of December, 1864, a report from the Secretary of State relative to an arrangement between the United States and Great Britain relating to the naval force to be maintained upon the American lakes, asked to be discharged from its further consideration; which was agreed to.

Mr. SHERMAN, from the Committee on Finance, to whom was referred a petition of real estate agents in Albany, New York, praying that there be refunded to them a proportionate part of the tax paid by them as commercial brokers under the internal revenue act of 1862, asked to be discharged from its further consideration; which was agreed to.

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the petition of Jane G. Swisshelm, praying that provision may be made for the employment of women as corresponding, recording, and copying clerks in the Departments, asked to be discharged from its further consideration, there being no law to prevent their employment; which was agreed to.

He also, from the same committee, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. R. No. 121) granting additional compensation to the employés of the two Houses of Congress, reported a recom

By all who are thoroughly informed in regard to the secret sentiments of the masses of the people of Virginia, the plan of bringing back the whole of Virginia to the Union by the election of Senators and Delegates to the Legislature of the restored government as fast as the constituent bodies are assured of efficient protection by the Federal Governanent is regarded as wise and eminently practicable." "Your memorialists are deeply grieved and mortified by

*

the report was concurred in.

Mr. WILLEY, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the memorial of Catharine S. B. Spear, praying for an appropriation to establish a house for dependant and friendless children, to be designated a House of Refuge for the District of Columbia, asked to be discharged from its further consider- || ation; which was agreed to.

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION. The VICE PRESIDENT laid before the Senate the following communication from the Secretary of State:

To the Senate of the United States:

The Secretary of State, to whom has been communicated a resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant, in the words following: "Resolved, That the Secretary of State, of the

Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, the Postmaster General, and the Attorney General, be each directed to inform the Senate what amount was paid or allowed in his Department for attorneys or counsel fees of every kind and description, exclusive of the regular salaries paid to the Attorney General and the respective district attorneys during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, and, so far as practicable, from that period to the 1st of January, 1835, giving a list of the names of the persons employed, the amount paid each, and out of what fund, and the services for which those fees were paid;" has the honor, by permission and under the orders of the President, to subjoin a full statement in answer thereto. WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. TRUMBULL. As I presume answers will soon be received from the other Departments to that resolution, and it would be desirable to have them all printed together, I move that this communication lie on the table for the present. The motion was agreed to.

REGENT OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. Mr. COLLAMER. The Committee on the Library, to whom was referred the resolution (S. R. No. 91) appointing Richard Delafield to be a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, have instructed me to report it back and recommend its passage; and I ask that it be put on its passage at once, as it is desirable to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of General Totten.

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the joint resolution.

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

BILLS INTRoduced.

Mr. HOWARD asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 399) amendatory of the act of August 1, 1854, in relation to George Morell; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Claims.

Mr. MORGAN asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 400) to regulate the management of captured and abandoned property in the rebel States, and for other purposes; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce.

Mr. WILSON asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a joint resolution (S. R. No. 96) in relation to the treatment of prisoners of war; which was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

Mr. TRUMBULL asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill (S. No. 401) to amend the judicial system of the United States; which was read twice by its title.

Mr. TRUMBULL. In introducing this bill I desire to say that I introduce it with the view of bringing the subject before the Senate and the country, but without being understood as committed to the particular bill. Some legislation is needed in regard to the judicial system of the United States. The amount of business accumulating in the Supreme Court amounts almost to a denial of justice, and some legislation is necessary, and will become more necessary as the business accumulates in that court, to relieve it. This bill is designed to change the judicial system to a very great extent by abolishing the district courts and substituting a circuit court, having the jurisdiction of the present district and circuit courts, and also having an intermediate court of appeal in each judicial circuit of the United States. As I said, I do not consider myself as committed to the bill by its introduction. It has been drawn by another. It is an important subject; and I move that the bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and printed.

The motion was agreed to.

NAVY REGISTER.

Mr. ANTHONY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Printing:

Resolved, That three thousand copies of the Navy Register for 1864 be printed for the use of the Senate.

MARYLAND COLORED REGIMENTS. Mr. JOHNSON submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to send to the Senate the originals or copies of the rolls of such of

the regiments as have been raised in the State of Maryland In the present year, which were composed, in whole or in part, of those who were at the time of their enlistment, or draft, slaves.

DISTRICT JAIL.

Mr. MORRILL submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to:

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be requested to communicate to the Senate the expense of all kinds for maintaining the jail in the District of Columbia for the years 1863 and 1864, with the number of prisoners supported.

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT CORRUPTIONS. Mr. DAVIS. I ask leave to present the following resolution:

Resolved, That the special rule of the Senate No. 34 be amended by adding thereto these words: A committee for the investigation of the corruptions of the Government in all its departments and offices, to consist of five members. I propose to let this resolution lie on the table for the present.

The VICE PRESIDENT. It lies over under the rule, being equivalent to notice on this day.

JACOB WEBER.

The second section proposes to authorize the Postmaster General, in lieu of the temporary clerks now employed in the Post Office Department and paid out of the appropriation for postage stamps and stamped envelopes and the proceeds of sales of waste paper, to appoint two clerks of class three, two clerks of class two, and five clerks of class one.

The third section appropriates the sum of $18,000 to pay the clerks provided for in the two preceding sections.

The fourth section appropriates the sum of $6,000 for the payment of such temporary clerks as the Postmaster General may, from time to time, deem necessary.

The fifth section provides that unclaimed money in dead letters for which no owners can be found, and also all money derived from sales of waste paper or other public property in post offices or the Post Office Department, shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States, under the direction of the Postmaster General, for the service of the Post Office Department; and any postmaster or clerk in a post office, or any other clerk, officer, or agent of the Post Office Department, hav

Mr. CLARK. I move that the Senate post-ing temporary custody of such money, and failing pone all prior orders and proceed to the consideration of House bill No. 203, for the relief of Jacob Weber.

court.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.

to deposit it as herein provided, is to be deemed to be guilty of felony, and be subject to a fine not exceeding double the sum so retained by such The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in clerk or other agents, or imprisonment not exceedCommittee of the Whole, proceeded to considering three years, or both, at the discretion of the the bill. It directs that there be paid to private Jacob Weber, of the fourth regiment of Ohio volunteer infantry, the sum of $913 33, to reimburse him for money advanced by him to pay Scott Allen, A. Hyatt, Henry Olden, A. W. Cook, Lewis Shiridollar, and James Garland, who were employed as teamsters for that regiment between the 1st of August, 1861, and the 1st of July, 1862, and received the price of their employment from him, who advanced it, on the quartermaster's certificates, to those employés, with the assurance of the quartermaster and the commander of the regiment that the amount so advanced would very soon thereafter be repaid and refunded to him by the Government, through the quarter

master.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

TRANSMISSION OF PERIODICALS BY MAIL. Mr. COLLAMER. There are a couple of bills on the Calendar in relation to the Post Office Department, to which, at this stage of the session, I feel it my duty to call the attention of the Senate. I move, if it be necessary, to dispense with all prior orders for the purpose of taking up House bill No. 623.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. No. 623) to amend an act entitled "An act to provide for carrying the mails from the United States to foreign ports, and for other purposes," approved March 25, 1864. It proposes to amend the fourth section of an act entitled "An act to provide for carrying the mails from the United States to foreign poris, and for other purposes," approved March 25, 1864, so as to insert in the proviso in that section, after the word "newspapers," the words "periodicals, magazines, and exchanges;" so that it will read:

Provided, That this section shall not be held to extend to the transmission by mail of newspapers, periodicals, magazines, and exchanges from a known office of publication to bona fide subscribers, not exceeding one copy to each subscriber from any one office.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT CLERKSHIPS. Mr. COLLAMER. 1 now move to take up Senate bill No. 389.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 389) relating to clerkships in the Post Office Department. The bill proposes to amend the third section of an act of Congress making appropriations for the civil and diplomátic expenses of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1854, approved March 3, 1853, so as to authorize the appointment of a chief clerk in the offices of each of the three Assistant Postmasters General, at a salary of $2,000 per annum each.

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. MCPHERSON, its Clerk, announced that the House of Representatives had concurred in the amendment of the Senate to the joint resolution of the House (H. R. No. 96) providing for the termination of the reciprocity treaty of the 5th of June, 1854, between the United States and Great Britain.

ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED.

The message further announced that the Speaker of the House had signed the following enrolled bill and joint resolution; which thereupon received the signature of the Vice Pres

ident:

A bill (H. R. No. 163) for the relief of Charles Anderson, assignee of John James, of Texas; and A joint resolution (H. R. No 96) providing for the termination of the reciprocity treaty of the 5th of June, 1854, between the United States and Great Britain.

DEFICIENCY BILL.

The message further announced that the House of Representatives had agreed to some and disagreed to other amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. No. 620) to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the fiscal year ending 30th of June, 1865, asked a conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and had appointed Mr. THADDEUS STEVENS, of Pennsyl vania, Mr. GEORGE E. PENDLETON, of Ohio, and Mr. EDWIN H. WEBSTER, of Maryland, managers at the same on its part.

The Senate proceeded to consider its amendments to the bill (H. R. No. 620) to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the fiscal year ending 30th of June, 1865; and On motion of Mr. SHERMAN, it was Resolved, That the Senate insist upon its amendments to the said bill disagreed to by the House of Representatives, and agree to the conference asked by the House of Representatives on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses

thereon.

Ordered, That the conferees on the part of the Senate be appointed by the Vice President.

The VICE PRESIDENT appointed Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. CONNESS, and Mr. BUCKALEW.

ISAAC R. DILLER.

Mr. DAVIS. I ask the Senate to take up House bill No. 94, for the relief of Isaac R. Diller.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill, which directs the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to Isaac R. Diller, late consul at Bremen, the sum of $3,655,55, in full for the expenses incurred by him for extra clerk hire in his office, and for moneys advanced to destitute American

citizens during the interval between the 1st of August, 1857, and the 20th of September, 1861.

The Committee on Claims reported the bill with an amendment to strike out in lines six and seven the words "six hundred and fifty-five dollars and fifty-five cents;" so that it will read:

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay to Isaac R. Diller, late consul at Bremen, the sum of $3,000, &c.

Mr. HALE. Is there a report in that case? If there is I should like to hear it.

Mr. DAVIS. I ask for the reading of the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations upon it.

Mr. GRIMES. The Senate rejected this bill once I think.

Mr. DAVIS. I ask for the reading of the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations on the same claim. It is among the papers.

The VICE PRESIDENT. seem to be any report here.

There does not

Mr. DAVIS. I sent it up with the papers the other day. I will ask that the bill be informally laid aside until the report can be found.

The VICE PRESIDENT. That course will be pursued if there be no objection.

INVENTORY OF ARTICLES IN ARSENALS.

Mr. WILSON. I move to take up Senate joint resolution No. 90.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the joint resolution (S. R. No. 90) to authorize and direct an inventory of articles in the arsenals of the United States, which had been reported from the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia with an amendment to strike out all of the original resolution after the enacting clause, in the following words:

That the Secretary of War be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to cause, as soon as may be after the passage of this resolution, an inventory to be made of all the artcles pertaining to the quartermaster's department now in each and all of the arsenals of the United States.

And insert in lieu thereof:

That the Secretary of War be, and is hereby, directed to cause a strict inspection to be made of the quartermaster's department as soon as practicable after the passage of this resolution, and a comparison to be made between the reports of the officers in charge of the quartermasters' depots at New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Louisville, and the articles actually on hand.

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. HALE. I think it would be well to amend the resolution by making it incumbent on the Secretary of the Navy to cause a like inventory to be taken of all the property in the possession of the several naval storekeepers; and I will mention in this connection that I was informed by a gentleman who had been employed by the Navy Department to investigate some of these transactions that it has not been the custom when a new naval storekeeper was appointed for him to give any receipt to the one who went out or to take any account at all. I move to amend the resolution by adding a section that the Secretary of the Navy be in like manuer directed to take an inventory of all the property in the possession of the several naval storekeepers. The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator will reduce his amendment to writing. Mr. WILSON. I do not know that there is any objection to that amendment, though I would prefer to have it by itself. This is a simple proposition to take an account of stock in the quartermaster's department at the various depots at New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Louisville. It certainly can do no harm, and we cannot be too careful what we are about.

Mr. HALE. I have reduced the amendment to writing, and offer it in this form:

And be it further resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy, in like manner, be directed to take an inventory of all the property of the United States in possession of the several naval storekeepers of the United States.

The amendment was agreed to.

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in.

The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, was read the third time, and passed. Its title was amended so as to read, "A