Congress and Slavery

The following extract from a Washington letter to the New York Evening Post, shadows forth the danger we are in of losing the golden opportunity which this unhallowed rebellion has given the Government and people of destroying the power of slavery, and thus preventing it inflicting future calamities upon the country:

“Those members of Congress who favor such a policy against the rebellion as will make another impossible in this country for at least another half century, are conferring together, so that some sort of organized action may be had, in and out of Congress, in favor of rigorous measures against the cause of the great rebellion.  The Democratic members of Congress, with here and there a notable exception, are striking hands with the border slave States men and the so-called conservative Republicans, to defeat every bill reported to Senate of House affecting the institution of slavery.  This formidable combination threatens to defeat the bill for the emancipation of the slaves within this district, the Territorial bill, as it is called – the bill from the Territorial Committee of both houses, providing for the occupation and government of the disloyal States – and even the confiscation bill of Senator Trumbull, which is now under discussion in the Senate.

If the press and the people do not keep a watchful eye on the proceedings of Congress every one of these important measures will be defeated by this new coalition.  It is composed of some of the best talent in the House, and it feels strong because, on several small occasions in the House, it has always succeeded in carrying its point. Mr. Diven , of New York, is one of the leaders of the coalition, and several of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey members follow his lead.  The importance of passing some of the measures alluded above is so great that not even the financial measures of the Ways and Means Committee, or Mr. Chase, will be permitted wholly to push them aside.  The debate on the tax bills will not consume the entire time of the House, but these other measures will claim some attention.”

The people will watch these members closely, and woe to that man who fails of his duty in this hour of trial.  The people expect the tax-gatherer, and they will submit with patience to a burden which cannot be avoided, provided they receive some equivalent for all their sacrifices.  But if they are cheated by their representatives on a subject for which they have felt so much and suffered so much, they will hold thee recreants to a strict accountability.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 6, 1862, p. 2