The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act

Thirty-Seventh Congress of the United States of America

At the Second Session

Begun and held at the city of Washington, on Monday, the second day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.

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AN ACT

For the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia

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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all persons loyal to the United States, holding claims to service or labor against persons discharged therefrom by this act, may, within ninety days from the passage thereof, but not thereafter, present to the commissioners hereinafter mentioned their respective statements or petitions in writing, verified by oath or affirmation, setting forth the names, ages, and personal description of such persons, the manner in which said petitioners acquired such claim, and any facts touching the value thereof, and declaring his allegiance to the Government of the United States, and that he has not borne arms against the United States during the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid or comfort thereto: Provided, That the oath of the party to the petition shall not be evidence of the facts therein stated.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint three commissioners, residents of the District of Columbia, any two of whom shall have power to act, who shall receive the petitions above mentioned, and who shall investigate and determine the validity and value of the claims therein presented, as aforesaid, and appraise and apportion, under the proviso hereto annexed, the value in money of the several claims by them found to be valid: Provided, however, That the entire sum so appraised and apportioned shall not exceed in the aggregate an amount equal to three hundred dollars for each person shown to have been so held by lawful claim: And provided, further, That no claim shall be allowed for any slave or slaves brought into said District after the passage of this act, nor for any slave claimed by any person who has borne arms against the Government of the United States in the present rebellion, or in any way given aid or comfort thereto, or which originates in or by virtue of any transfer heretofore made, or which shall hereafter be made by any person who has in any manner aided or sustained the rebellion against the Government of the United States.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That said commissioners shall, within nine months from the passage of this act, make a full and final report of their proceedings, findings, and appraisement, and shall deliver the same to the Secretary of the Treasury, which report shall be deemed and taken to be conclusive in all respects, except as hereinafter provided; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall, with like exception, cause the amounts so apportioned to said claims to be paid from the Treasury of the United States to the parties found by said report to be entitled thereto as aforesaid, and the same shall be received in full and complete compensation: Provided, That in cases where petitions may be filed presenting conflicting claims, or setting up liens, said commissioners shall so specify in said report, and payment shall not be made according to the award of said commissioners until a period of sixty days shall have elapsed, during which time any petitioner claiming an interest in the particular amount may file a bill in equity in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, making all other claimants defendants thereto, setting forth the proceedings in such case before said commissioners and their actions therein, and praying that the party to whom payment has been awarded may be enjoined form receiving the same; and if said court shall grant such provisional order, a copy thereof may, on motion of said complainant, be served upon the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall thereupon cause the said amount of money to be paid into said court, subject to its orders and final decree, which payment shall be in full and complete compensation, as in other cases.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That said commissioners shall hold their sessions in the city of Washington, at such place and times as the President of the United States may direct, of which they shall give due and public notice. They shall have power to subpoena and compel the attendance of witnesses, and to receive testimony and enforce its production, as in civil cases before courts of justice, without the exclusion of any witness on account of color; and they may summon before them the persons making claim to service or labor, and examine them under oath; and they may also, for purposes of identification and appraisement, call before them the persons so claimed. Said commissioners shall appoint a clerk, who shall keep files and [a] complete record of all proceedings before them, who shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations in said proceedings, and who shall issue all lawful process by them ordered. The Marshal of the District of Columbia shall personally, or by deputy, attend upon the sessions of said commissioners, and shall execute the process issued by said clerk.

Sec.6. And be it further enacted, That said commissioners shall receive in compensation for their services the sum of two thousand dollars each, to be paid upon the filing of their report; that said clerk shall receive for his services the sum of two hundred dollars per month; that said marshal shall receive such fees as are allowed by law for similar services performed by him in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia; that the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause all other reasonable expenses of said commission to be audited and allowed, and that said compensation, fees, and expenses shall be paid from the Treasury of the United States.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of carrying this act into effect there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum not exceeding one million of dollars.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That any person or persons who shall kidnap, or in any manner transport or procure to be taken out of said District, any person or persons discharged and freed by the provisions of this act, or any free person or persons with intent to re-enslave or sell such person or person into slavery, or shall re-enslave any of said freed persons, the person of persons so offending shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction in said District, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than five nor more that twenty years.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That within twenty days, or within such further time as the commissioners herein provided for shall limit, after the passage of this act, a statement in writing or schedule shall be filed with the clerk of the Circuit court for the District of Columbia, by the several owners or claimants to the services of the persons made free or manumitted by this act, setting forth the names, ages, sex, and particular description of such persons, severally; and the said clerk shall receive and record, in a book by him to be provided and kept for that purpose, the said statements or schedules on receiving fifty cents each therefor, and no claim shall be allowed to any claimant or owner who shall neglect this requirement.

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the said clerk and his successors in office shall, from time to time, on demand, and on receiving twenty-five cents therefor, prepare, sign, and deliver to each person made free or manumitted by this act, a certificate under the seal of said court, setting out the name, age, and description of such person, and stating that such person was duly manumitted and set free by this act.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, is hereby appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the President of the United States, to aid in the colonization and settlement of such free persons of African descent now residing in said District, including those to be liberated by this act, as may desire to emigrate to the Republics of Hayti or Liberia, or such other country beyond the limits of the United States as the President may determine: Provided, The expenditure for this purpose shall not exceed one hundred dollars for each emigrant.

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That all acts of Congress and all laws of the State of Maryland in force in said District, and all ordinances of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

Galusha A. Grow

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Solomon Foot

President of the Senate pro tempore.

Approved, April 16, 1862.

Abraham Lincoln

SOURCE:  National Archives And Records Administration

Signs Of The Times

You Cannot, if you Would, be Blind to the Signs of the Times.

– {President Lincoln.

COMMENTS OF THE CONSERVATIVE PRESS ON PRESIDEN’T LINCOLN’S LAST PROCLAMATION.

From the New York Herald, May 21^st.

But having disposed of General Hunter, President Lincoln proceeds to give his views on the emancipation question, in an earnest appeal and a solemn warning to the Slave States, and especially to those known as the border Slave States.  He urges them to adopt the system of compensated emancipation offered by Congress, he tells them that they ‘cannot be blind to the signs of the times’ and that he devoutly hopes that “the vast future will not have to lament” their neglect of ‘this golden opportunity.’  These are words of solemn import and the deeply interested people of the border Slave States cannot take them too soon or too seriously into practical consideration.

President Lincoln, at Washington, is in the best possible position to see how this war is operating upon slavery in the border Slave States.  To see it, he has only to look out upon Pennsylvania avenue from a window of the White House at any hour of the day, and the gangs of contrabands passing up and down from Maryland and from the rear of our advancing armies in Virginia will tell the story.  Thus the institution of slavery may be said to be already substantially removed from all those counties in which be in the rear of our Virginia armies. – But if the suppression of this rebellion shall require the continued march of our armies until they penetrate the heart of the cotton States, is it not altogether probable that this continually increasing stampede of Southern slaves will become absolutely overwhelming against this institution, and especially in the border slave states.

There can be not the shadow of a doubt that the president at all events is most solemnly impressed with the duty and the responsibilities now devolving upon the border Slave States in reference to their disturbed and demoralized institution of slavery and we submit therefore, to the immediate attention to the saving alternative of President Lincoln’s policy of voluntary, gradual and compensated emancipation.

From the N. Y. World.

It is somewhat surprising that the Border States should not have manifested more interest in the counsels of the President.  It is now two months and a half since his first paper on the subject.  It cannot be said that the prospects of slavery have improved during that time.  On the contrary, it has notoriously been losing ground. – The abolition of the system forever in the District of Columbia, the almost unanimous vote of Western Virginia in favor of emancipation, the growing restlessness of the slave population throughout the Border States, the growing likelihood that a comprehensive system of confiscation will be applied which must necessarily carry with it a very extensive liberation of slaves and an increasing chance that the Gulf States by their contumacy, even when overcome by arms may drive the Government in spite of itself to the absolute, summary destruction of the great primal cause of all the trouble, are patent facts which ought to convince the border States that delay is dangerous.  It is very easy for them to flatter themselves that somehow, events may shape themselves so that they can yet hold on to their cherished institution.  We all know how the strong wish affects the judgment.  But self deception in this matter may prove a pretty costly mistake.  If the Border States wait until their slaves become worthless, they cannot expect that the General Government will pay anything for their liberation.  They would be already liberated in fact.  When slaves have no market value the institution is at an end.  And it is very certain that if general emancipation in the cotton States were once actually fixed upon and proclaimed by the Government, the preservation of the institution in the border States would speedily become an impossibility.  The whole system would become thoroughly unsettled.  The border State slaves would be possessed with new visions of the liberty their Southern brethren were enjoying, thousands would run for the more favored parts of Dixie and those who did not would be utterly unfitted for steady work.  The masters, amid the troubles of the present and before the uncertainties of the future, would soon lose all heart, and slave property would become a profitless burden.  The slave in Baltimore or in Nashville or in Richmond, instead of rating at three hundred dollars, the present Government allowance, would not be worth fifty.  But if matters come to that pass it will be too late to expect any help whatever from the Government.  That which has merely a nominal value will never be paid for in Federal money.  If the border States choose to delay in hope that all may go well with their cherished institution, they must be content to take the chances and not complain if they finally lose it, without a dollar from the Federal treasury to lighten the sacrifice.  If they are wise, they will see themselves against all such liabilities by heeding the President’s counsels in time.

From the New York Times.

These are weighty, solemn, momentous words. – The heart out of which they flow feels all the magnitude of the issues they involve, and is equal to the grandeur of the responsibilities they imply.  It is, as Mr. Lincoln justly says, impossible for the people of the southern States to be “blind to the signs of the times.”  Consciously or unconsciously they have been brought into a contest with the National Government which involves inevitably the fate of slavery – the very existence of their social and civil institutions.  If they persist in this mad contest with a fixed and stable government having a recognized place among the civilized nations of earth representing twenty millions of people among the proudest most intelligent and most high spirited resources and only stimulated by disaster to new efforts and new conquests, they simply rush upon their own destruction.  There is no instance in history where any form of society however sanctified by time, or the affections of mankind, has survived a contest with the advancing spirit of a progressive age.  The South call us of the North fanatics but in that very fanaticism, if they were wise, they would discern the utter helplessness of the warfare they wage upon us.  It was fanaticism in England which beheaded the King and extinguished the throne, and rooted out of the English heart from the sentiments of civil affections which had grown there longest and taken deepest hold on the public mind.  It was the fanaticism of democracy which crushed all the institutions of the middle ages on the soil of France and drenched its fields in the blood of all who opposed its resistless sweep. – Suppose the people of the South once array against slavery the full fanaticism of the United States backed by the sympathy and the sentiment of the Christian world.  Can they see for themselves any other result than utter and remediless ruin?

Up to the present time the contest of the government with the rebellion which assailed its existence has been conducted with the most scrupulous regard to the rights of the South under the Constitution they are seeking to destroy. – This has not been done thoughtlessly or without a purpose.  It has been in pursuance of a plan deliberately formed by the government, and carried forward with a steady single minded disregard of all opposition  from friends and foes which may challenge universal admiration.  The President has from the beginning regarded this rebellion as a conspiracy, the work of leading selfish and wicked men who have obtained temporary control of the resources, the prejudices, the passions of the Southern people and are using them for the destruction of the Union.  He believes that, if this assumption is correct the Union can be restored whenever the military power which these leaders have marshaled on their side can be broken – and whenever the great mass of the Southern people shall come to see the falsity of the pretexts by which they have been misled.  He has based his policy therefore, on strict constitutional right – on magnanimity toward the great body of those who have been drawn into rebellion.  He has refused to countenance or tolerate any violation of their rights, any wanton trespass upon their property, any disturbance of the evils which their own acts have brought upon them.  Not a spy has yet been hung – not a deserter has yet been shot – not a traitor has yet been even tried by the national Government.  The history of the world will be sought in vain for a parallel to this magnanimous forbearance.

Clearly enough, this policy is experimental.  It is so regarded by the government.  If the people of the South are open to arguments and influences of this kind, then this is the policy by which the Union may be best restored.  It leaves behind it less of resentment, less of hatred, less of heart-burning, less of all the social passions which are least compatible with a peaceful and prosperous Union.  The government does well to give it full and effective trial.

If the experiment succeeds, Republican civilization will have achieved the noblest of all the conceivable triumphs.  The President has evinced the highest possible elevation of character, the largest and most statesmanlike sagacity, in carrying forward this experiment to its final and decisive test.  The end is close at hand.  Two more battles will end the first campaign. – If the Federal troops gain Richmond and Corinth, the military power of the Confederacy will be broken.  Its inability to maintain a de facto government against the United States will have been demonstrated, and it will then remain to be seen whether the great mass of the Southern people will accept this result as decisive, and respond to the invitation of the Federal Government to resume their position under the constitution as members of the Union or not.

Indications are not wanting that they will persist in the contest – that they will give themselves up wholly to the dominion of passion, and frenzied lust of power, and rush upon the ruin they have so much invoked.  If they do, they will find nothing standing between them and the “fanaticism” they affect to despise.  They must prepare to meet the fullness of its fury, and to perish under is burning breath.  The authority of the Government of the United States will be maintained over every foot of every Southern State, at whatever cost to those who may resist it, and if slavery stands in the way, it will be extinguished even if it be in the blood of those who make it their shield.

The people of the south have just the alternative offered them by the proclamation of President Lincoln.  If they choose to take upon themselves the task initiating their deliverance from slavery, they can have the aid of the General Government in protecting them from the evils and inconveniences which such an effort may cost. – If they refuse and persist in rebellion, they will find themselves utterly crushed under the power which they defy.

From the Boston Journal.

His appeal to the people of the border States is timely and solemn, and well will it be for them, and for all of us, if it is heeded in season.  Shall we remain “blind to the signs of the times?”  How comes it that every officer, as he engages in the active work of suppressing this rebellion on its own ground, drifts manifestly in the direction of Gen. Hunter’s conclusions, and never the other way?  Few, indeed, let us say, thankfully, reach such a radical and reckless extreme, but all (though many are themselves insensible of it) are tending, along the same route and the people are abreast of the army.  We may deplore, we may dread this sign of the times, but it is fearfully distinct in the political sky, and as wise men we should have regard to it.  The President from his high ground of observation is oppressed with the weight of the future, and is earnestly imploring the counsels of his countrymen.  His eye is single and his heart is pure, and we sincerely trust that his entreaties may not be made light of.  At this suggestion, a just and generous proposal has been made to the people of the border States, thro’ the acceptance of which, as he says, a grand and salutary change will come as gently as the dews of heaven.  If neglected the responsibility of what may happen will not rest upon him nor upon his loyal countrymen.

Washington Correspondence Forney’s Press.

It is to be hoped, however, that Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation, disavowing Gen. Hunter’s order, will at last awaken the border States to a sense of their true condition.  He disavows that order, but in doing so he brings them back to his emancipation policy and tells them that they cannot, if they would, ‘be blind to the signs of the times.’  And what are these signs of the times?  They are the indications of a wide spread change of public opinion on the subject of slavery, a change which extends to hundreds of thousands of men in the free States who have heretofore supported the South, and that has reached the hears of nearly all the Democrats in the army of the Union.  The rebels themselves contribute to swell public opinion against slavery by their inhuman barbarities, and the slaves, as if conscious that their hour is come are declaring themselves free in most of the slave states.  The border States, when they see Mr. Lincoln restraining and rebuking an officer for an order which has given the greatest encouragement to his own political friends should at least manifest such an appreciation of his course as will show that they are no longer insensible to the signs of the times.

In my letter of yesterday I anticipated the step that the President has now taken.  He owed it, probably, to consistency, and to his understanding of his own obligations, to issue this proclamation and you will perceive that, while denying the right of any officer of the army to issue such an order he reserves to himself of the exercise of all these powers.  The great question involved in the decree of Gen Hunter becomes momentous when considered apart from its mere political aspect.  Regarded as a sanitary measure it may force itself upon the Government at any moment.  Thousands of our best citizens are now enrolled in the army in the cotton States subjected to the dangers and disease of a climate to which they are unaccustomed.  In South Carolina they are surrounded by a population nearly universally disloyal.  In New Orleans they may soon become the victims of a fatal epidemic and should General Halleck defeat the rebels before Corinth, his columns will press forward into the lowlands of Mississippi and Alabama.  It is a painful fact that treason continues to flourish in the seceded States in spite of the victories of our arms.  What if in order to punish this treason and to protect the white men of the free States now in the far South the alternative of using the energies of the manumitted blacks should be presented to our civil authorities?  This remedy may be imperatively pressed upon us at any moment and I believe that when the hour comes the President will not hesitate to do his duty and in doing it his proclamation of yesterday is the best proof that he will act from the purest and most patriotic motives and that the civilized would will sustain him in taking this step.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 4

All through this war the President has . . .

. . . shown a masterly intellect, clear and far reaching, and that has secured him the confidence of honest and intelligent men of all parties in the North and numerous admirers in the South.  Calm and self-poised amid dangers from foes and [illegible] from friends, he is never moved from his integrity of purpose on the leading questions of the time.  Whatever blunders and follies generals commit, he remains the same impurturbable embodiment of good sense, and acts never in a confused hurry but at the right time, as events have shown and are showing.  As evidence, we need only to refer to his most noted acts of recent date such as his choice of Stanton, his recommendation of compensatory emancipation, his general order for the armies to take the aggressive on the 22d of February, and his personally superintending the movements for the capture of Norfolk.  This last act of his makes one think of the days of good Queen Bess and bluff Old [Hal] when the head of a Nation headed the armies with his presence. –{Anamosa Eureka.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington

XXXVIIth Congress -- First Session

WASHINGTON, April 10.

SENATE. – The confiscation bill was taken up.

Mr. Willey offered an amendment, making an appropriation of five millions for the colonization of free negroes, made free by this bill, or otherwise.  He did not think it fair to throw upon the Border States a class of population which the Senators would not receive in their own States, thus making the former suffer, in addition to the evils of war, a new evil.

Mr. Hale said the senator seemed to think Virginia and Kentucky would some day have to tear from the free negroes the little rights they have, and re-enslave them.  He wanted to tell the Senators and the country that this was a job they could not do.  The idea of colonizing this race is utterly absurd.  The whole navy could not carry of their natural increase.  He understood that the Creator meant for the black man as well as the white to live on earth, but these negroes are to be made free by States themselves, of their own free will, after they had used them as long as they are wanted; and it is for these States to say they shall not have a resting place on earth, and that will be to enslave them.  Such a thing cannot be done.  It will only reach the rain of States which attempt it against the moral sentiment of the age.  He said that Barnwell, of S. C., when he was here as a Senator, admitted he could see no solution of this problem of races.

Mr. Willey said he was not opposed to the bill in any way, but simply wished to improve it.

Mr. Howe, by consent, introduced a bill to incorporate the North Pacific R. R.

Mr. Doolittle moved to go into executive session.

Mr. Trumbull hoped not.  He wanted to get a vote on the amendments to the bill, but if the Senate chose not to act he would do his duty.

Mr. Doolittle protested against the supposition that he wished to antagonize the bill in any way.  He made the motion at the suggestion of the chairman of the military committee.

The question was taken on going into executive session.

Yeas – Anthony, Browning, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Kennedy, King, Lane of Ind., Nesmith, Powell, Stark, Wilson of Mass., Wilson of Mo., and Wright – 22.

Nays – Chandler, Dixon, Hale, Lane of Kansas, Latham, Morrill, Pomeroy, Sherman, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, Wilmot, Willey – 13.

After executive session the Senate adjourned.

HOUSE. – The amendment to the bill for appropriation to the Stevens battery being under discussion, a spirited debated took place.  Mr. Lovejoy opposed the amendment.  Mr. Pike said that $500,000 had already been spent on the battery, and with the amount now proposed the total would be $1,288,000, and that the battery drew so much water as to be of no consequence in any Southern port; the Monitor had only cost $275,000, and four such vessels could be constructed for that the Stevens battery would cost.

Mr. Olin said the Monitor had not been a success so far as the contest with the Merrimac was concerned, for she did not run her down, the only way to destroy her.  This, he believed would be done by the Steven’s battery.  10 guns could be fired from it to 1 of the Monitor.  The amendment was adopted.

Mr. Stevens reported back from the committee of ways and means, the resolution that, the Senate concurring, Congress will adjourn sine die on the third Monday in May.  Agreed to.

The Pacific RR. bill was postponed till to-day week to afford members an opportunity to examine it.

The bill regulating [franking privilege] was up, and discussed, and its further consideration postponed till Tuesday.

The bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia was laid aside.

Mr. Washburne suggested that the House take up the bill for the relief of Gen. Grant, which was assented to, and the bill passed.  It re-imburses him $1,000 which amount, while serving as quartermaster in Mexico, was stolen from his trunk without neglect or default on his part.

Mr. Brown, of R. I., from the committee on elections, reported a resolution that Wm. Vandever has not been entitled to a seat in this house since he was mustered into service of the U. S. as Colonel of an Iowa regiment, since September last.  Ordered to be printed.

Mr. Stevens moved that debate on the bill for the abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia, close in one hour after consideration of the same, to be resumed in committee of the whole.  Disagreed to – 57 against 54.

The bill came up in committee of the whole.

The General debate was closed by a vote of the House.

Mr. Cradlebaugh offered an amendment so as to make the bill apply to the emancipation of the white slaves of the Territories.  It should not be confined to persons of African blood.  Slavery in the District of Columbia was nothing to be compared with that which exists in some of the territories.

Mr. Lovejoy thought the amendment was not appropriate, as it proposed to strangle the bill now before them.  The amendment was rejected.

Mr. Wright offered a proviso requiring the President to issue a proclamation for a special election, a majority of the legal voters being required to affirm and ratify the act.

Mr. Wright’s amendment was rejected.  Mr. Wadsworth unsuccessfully sought to amend the second section, arguing that Congress cannot discriminate between loyal and disloyal men in making compensation for slaves.

Mr. Biddle opposed the bill as inexpedient and inopportune.

Mr. Dunn expressed his astonishment that any member should wish to pass it through without affording an opportunity to offer amendments to a measure of such importance.

Mr. Harding moved to strike out the provision that the entire sum appraised and apportioned shall not exceed in the aggregate an amount equal to $300 for each person shown to have been so held by lawful claim.  He said there was a strange and unusual haste manifested for the passage of this bill.

Mr. Lovejoy expressed his desire to speak.

Mr. Harding replied when the gentleman gets sober on the question I will hear him with pleasure.

Mr. Lovejoy said he asked no courtesy for the gentleman.

Mr. Harding concluded, after which Mr. Lovejoy spoke of robbing slaves of their rights, and said every  one has been robbed.  He expended his five minutes in speaking of what he termed the “sublimity of infamy.”

Mr. Harding’s amendment was rejected.

Mr. Wyckliffe offered an amendment to strike out the clause against excluding witnesses on account of color, saying this was contrary to the law of the District.

Mr. Stevens said that was an outrageous law – a man of credit, whether black or white, ought to be a witness.

Mr. Wyckliffe’s amendment was rejected.

Mr. Dunn said it was the determination of some gentlemen to pass the bill, no matter how imperfect it was.  There was a higher tribunal than this – the American people – to which they were responsible.

WASHINGTON, April 11.

SENATE. – Mr. Sumner presented a petition for the employment in the suppression of the rebellion of all classes of persons without respect to condition or color.

Mr. Wilson, of Mass., introduced a bill amendatory to the fugitive slave act.

Mr. Howe offered a resolution that the military committee be instructed to inquire what troops have been or are being mustered into the service of the United States as home-guards, and who refuse to go beyond the limits of their own State.

Mr. Lane, of Indiana, said that the war department was already mustering out of service this class of troops.

Mr. Howe said he had heard this morning that some troops from Maryland refused to go beyond the mine of their State.

Mr. Grimes said he understood that some of this class of troops were being enlisted.

The resolution was adopted.

On motion of Mr. Sumner, the bill to remove all disabilities of color for carrying the mails was passed.  Yeas 24, nays 11.

The confiscation bill was taken up.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 12, 1862, p. 1

Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia

For many years the anti-slavery men of our country have been trying to prevail upon congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.  Slavery had never been legalized there, it existed only by virtue of a law of Maryland, which in fact had no force over territory that she had ceded away; still as slaves had been held under that law, and as Virginia was a slave State, the institution was countenanced in the Federal Metropolis, to the scandal of the nation.  Southern members of Congress, who brought with them their slaves, of course opposed any measure that might have a tendency to deprive them of that privilege.  Thus has slavery continued to be tolerated in the very heart of the nation, giving to strangers from all parts of the world who visited the Federal seat of Government, false impressions of our institutions.

As the war has called off the Southern members, and their allies being too feeble to successfully oppose such measure, the Republicans have embraced the opportunity to introduce a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.  On Thursday last it was put to a vote in the Senate, and passed by the decisive vote of 29 against 14, or more than two to one.  Every vote in the affirmative was Republican, and all the anti-Republicans present voted nay!  Thus demonstrating exactly where the two parties will be found on every question in which slavery is interested.  We apprehend no difficulty in passing this bill through the House, while it will be one of the proudest acts of Old Abe’s life to approve it with his signature.

By the provisions of this bill, compensation not exceeding $300 per slave, is to be allowed each loyal master.  It also provides for voluntary colonization, and appropriates $100,000 to aid the voluntary emigration of the manumitted slaves to Hayti, Liberia or elsewhere. – Thus following in the wake of the endorsement by Congress of the President’s emancipation resolution, another important measure looking to the abolition of slavery in the United States, has been put upon the tapis by the Republican party, and if it meet with no drawback, the work of emancipation will have begun and be commenced aright by tapping the fountain head, the source whence the evil flows.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 9, 1862, p. 2

The President's Emancipation Message - Response Of The City And County Of St. Louis

We are gratified with the action of the County Convention yesterday on the proposal of President Lincoln on Emancipation.  The resolution was adopted unanimously and enthusiastically; not one dissenting voice.  This expression is of the Union men of the city and county of St. Louis.  That this is the sentiment of the unconditional Union men of Missouri there is little doubt.

When the resolution, which has passed the house of representatives, shall have been concurred in by the Senate, it will be a distinct proffer on the part of the General Government of aid and co-operation with such of the slave states as desire to inaugurate the policy of emancipation for themselves.  Until accepted by one or more of such States, it simply remains a standing offer of co-operation – nothing more.  But there is reason to believe that Delaware and Maryland will ere long take steps for the adoption of such a policy, and they the offer by acceptance will become operative.

Has not the time now come when the people of Missouri, too, will begin to consider the necessary preliminaries for the inauguration of that policy for their own State?  That the interests of Missouri would be in calculably advanced by adopting measures for the gradual, but sure, extinction of slavery, upon just principles, within her limits, is a proposition almost too plain for argument. – St. Louis. Dem.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, April 3, 1862, p. 2

XXXVIIth Congress -- First Session

WASHINGTON, March 11.

SENATE. – Mr. Sumner presented petitions for emancipation.

Mr. Latham gave notice that he should introduce a bill to repeal all acts prohibiting foreign vessels carrying the mails to Panama and Aspinwall.

Mr. Wilson, of Mass., offered a resolution that the committee on naval affairs be instructed to inquire into the late engagement with rebel steamers near Fort Monroe, and the destruction of property there.

Mr. Hale said he did not wish to make any objection, but he had reason to believe that since the commencement of the rebellion, no matter what disaster occurred, on sea or land, that neither the war or navy department, except in a single instance, had made the least inquiry in regard to the matter.

Mr. Wilson said from his absolute knowledge the attention of the department has been called to the rebel ship.  It has been known for months that she has been fitting out, and merchants and underwriters everywhere felt anxious, and the attention of the government was called to it over and over again, and he thought the matter ought to be looked into.

Mr. Grimes said in regard to the disaster at the mouth of the Mississippi, the government had done all it could.  The responsibility of the late disaster rests on the government for not long ago sending a military expedition against Norfolk.  Officers of the navy had been ready at all times to break the Potomac blockade, and the flotilla was under orders for that purpose, but the superior military officer, who had command of all the forces, forbid the expedition; and the responsibility did not rest on the Navy Department.

The House bill providing a new article of war, that no officer or soldier shall be employed in returning fugitive slaves, was passed 29 against 9.

Adjourned.

WASHINGTON, March 11.

HOUSE. – Mr. Baker introduced a bill, which was referred to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union, for the establishment of a national foundry at Chicago, Ill, and Pittsburg, Pa., and Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for the fabrication of cannon and projectiles for the Government.  It proposes the appropriation of a half million dollars for each foundry.  It also provides for the establishment of an Armory and Arsenal at Columbus, Ohio, appropriating half a million dollars therefore.

Mr. Kellogg, of Michigan, introduced a bill for the establishment of a naval department and Navy Yards on the lakes – referred to the select committee on lake defenses.

The House concurred in the report of the committee of conference, on the disagreeing amendments to the legislative executive and judicial appropriation bill.

Mr. Stevens reported back from the committee on ways and means, the bill to establish a branch mint at Denver City – referred to the committee of the whole.

The Speaker announced the next business in order to be the motion to postpone until Thursday the resolution introduced yesterday, providing for co-operation with any Sate for the abolition of slavery with pecuniary compensation.

Mr. Crittenden, of Ky., asked permission to make a statement.

Messrs. Stevens, of Pa., and Lovejoy, of Ill., objected.  Mr. Stevens said if consent was given to Mr. Crittenden, the House would have to give similar consent to others.

The House refused to postpone the resolution till Thursday by one majority.

The House by two majority refused to postpone the resolutions till Monday next, the resolutions now being open to debate.

Mr. Blair, of Va., offered the following proviso, that nothing herein shall be construed to imply that Congress will consent to any partition of the territory now held by the United States, but that on the contrary it is again affirmed as the unalterable resolution of this House to prosecute the war until the Constitution is restored to its ancient supremacy over every State rightfully a part of the Union.

Mr. Pendleton suggested an amendment, which was read for information as follows: And that Congress, in order to redeem this pledge at the present session, ought to pass a bill for the levying and collection of a tax within the current year for the payment of the pecuniary aid so tendered to the State.

Mr. Wyckliffe, of Ky., opposed the pending resolution as unwise and unconstitutional.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 12, 1862, p. 1

Special Message Of The President To Congress

WASHINGTON, March 6.

The President transmitted to Congress to-day the Following message:

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:  I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

            Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving such State pecuniary aid to be used by such State at its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not met with the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it.  The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient measures of self-preservation.  The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that the government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all slave States north of such parts will then say, the Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with them.  To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it, as to all the States initiating.  The Point is not that all States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall by such initiation make it certain to the Southern that in no event shall the former join the latter in their proposed confederacy.

I say ‘initiation,’ because, in my judgment gradual, and not sudden, emancipation is better for all.  In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress with the census tables and the Treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of the war would purchase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State.

Such a proposition on the part of the general Government sets up no claim or right by the Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested.  It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them in the annual message last December, I thought fit to say the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed.  I said this not hastily, but deliberately.  War has been, and continues to be, an indispensable means to this end.  A practical re-acknowledgement of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.  If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow.  Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise greater efficiency towards ending the struggle, must and will come.

The proposition now made is an offer only.  I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs?  While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would sooner lead to important results.

In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country I earnestly beg the attention of congress and the people to the subject.

(Signed)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 10, 1862, p. 2

XXXVIIth Congress -- First Session

WASHINGTON, March 6.

SENATE. – Mr. Harris presented a petition in favor of conferring the rank of Major General on Gen. John E. Wool.  He also presented a petition in favor of the emancipation of slaves.

Messrs. Harlan and Collamer also presented petitions in favor of emancipating slaves.

Mr. Fessenden, from the committee of finance, reported back the P. O. appropriation bill without amendment.

Mr. Collamer, from the P. O. committee reported back the postal money order bill.

Mr. Hale, from the naval committee, reported on a joint resolution, tendering the thanks of Congress to Com. Goldsboro, his officers and seamen, for their gallant conduct at Roanoke Island.  Adopted.

On motion of Mr. Sherman the bill in relation to the pay of members of congress was taken up.  The amendment was adopted, making the mileage of member of 20 cents per mile.  The bill, as reported, allowed 10 cents per mile.  After some discussion, at 1 o’clock the Senate went into executive session.

HOUSE. – Mr. Buffinton introduced a bill authorizing the appointment of two Inspector Generals.  Referred to committee on military affairs.

Mr. Aldrich repoted a bill to increase the medical efficiency of the army.

The House concurred in the report of the conference committee on the disagreeing amendments to the joint resolution providing for the payment of the claims growing out of the military operations in the Western department.

The House then took up the Senate bill providing for the organization of the staffs attached to the divisions of the U. S. regular and volunteer service.

Mr. Blair, of Mo., explained that the bill proposed no increase of the army, but allowed certain officers to be detailed for staff duty.  The passage of the measure was deemed essential by military officers.

Mr. McPherson opposing the bill said it would increase the staff of every division, and proportionately the expense.  Under present circumstances the President can increase the staff of any division, when an emergency requires it.

After further debate the bill, as amended, was passed.

The Speaker laid before the House a message from President Lincoln, suggesting the passage of a joint resolution providing for the co-operation with any State for the abolition of slavery with pecuniary compensation.  The president proposes this as an initiative step, predicting important practical results therefrom.

On motion of Mr. Stevens the bill was referred to the committee of the whole.

The house went into committee of the whole on the bill regulating the franking privilege.

Mr. Perry spoke in opposition to extreme anti-slavery measures.  This was a time for the exhibition of patriotism, and defense of the Union.  He was at a loss to see how it was necessary to set the slaves free as an ally in the suppression of the rebellion.  This was not a war for the destruction of the South, but for the restoration of the respect everywhere to the authority of the government.  Behind the dark clouds of the rebellion the sky of the Union was clear and bright, and the stars were sparkling in all beauty.  Soon it would be that the dark cloud would pass away, and one by one the stars would reappear in all their glory, and the people would thank God they were all there.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 7, 1862, p. 1

The Abolition of Slavery in Delaware

The progress of liberal ideas is gradually advancing, the latest illustration of which is the introduction of a bill into the Legislature of Delaware for the abolition of slavery in that State.  The bill provides, that every slave thirty-five years of age and upwards, shall be free within ninety days after its passage; and all slaves under thirty-five shall become free as they reach that age; and that from and after the first day of January, 1872, there shall not be slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime.  Males born of a slave mother [after] the passage of this act shall be held as indentured servants until the age of twenty-one, and females until they are eighteen. – The above provisions are based upon the condition that “Congress, will at its present session, engage to pay to the State of Delaware, in bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum, the sum of $900,000, in ten annual installments, $90,000 to be payable on some day before the first of September, 1862, to establish a fund for securing full and fair compensation to the owners of slaves who shall have been divested of their property by force of the act in question.  The bill further provides for the appointment of an assessor in each county, who shall estimate the value of the slaves, and fix the price which shall be paid for them.  The salary of the State Treasurer shall be raised when the act goes into operation, from $500 to $1,000, on account of his increased responsibilities and duties in making payment to the owners for the slaves.  If Congress will make the appropriation of $900,000 for this purpose, we think every man in the State will esteem the act calculated to promote the interests of the people.

The Wilmington Republican, in speaking of this movement, says that many of the slaveholders would gladly exchange their slaves for money, which they could use in payment for their lands and contemplated improvements, and that they are informed that many of the largest slaveholders favor the measure. – National Rep.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 17, 1862, p. 2

Slavery in the District

The bill providing for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, introduced by Senator Wilson, and referred to the district Committee, was intrusted [sic] to Senator Morrill, who has prepared a bill which provides for the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in the District, and for a limited compensation to Loyal owners, not to exceed $200 a slave on the average.  Owners must, within 90 days, file their claims, together with proofs of value, and of loyalty, with Commissioners.  These are to report within nine months.  They are authorized to examine the slave as well as the master, in order to determine the latter’s right to compensation.  It is believed that the bill will recommend itself to a majority of the committee.  It is composed of Messrs. Grimes, Dixon, Morrill, Wade, Anthony, Kennedy and Powell.  The number of slaves now in the district is about 3,000.  Probably more than half belong to masters who will swear that they are loyal.  The total cost to the nation of emancipating cannot be over $1,000,000, and may not be more than $500,000.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, February 15, 1862, p. 2

Emancipation In Missouri - Fire In The Rear

The emotions of the Hard shell [Locofoco] politicians, in the view of the proposed agitation of the Emancipation question in Missouri, may be imagined from the following from the St. Louis Republican:

The formation of Emancipation Societies in Missouri – with the leading society resting in St. Louis – leaves to the people of the state no other alternative than to prepare for the issue thus presented to them. In common with all men who are tired and sick of this disgusting war about the everlasting nigger, we had happed that the demagogues now taking the lead in this movement would at least have waited until the Union had been restored – until the North and the South and the Border States had shaken hands over a ruined country, and agreed upon some friendly and just means to bring us back to a comparative degree of prosperity – before again proposing to disturb the peace of the State by the agitation of this question. It may be safely assumed that nineteen out of twenty of those who are eager to bring on this contest – who are banding themselves together in secret societies, and pledging themselves to support the Constitution of Missouri, although by the prosecution of their object they commit moral perjury – have no interest whatever in the slave property. They own no slaves. They will neither profit nor suffer by the emancipation of them, no matter whether that be done under the Constitution or in defiance of the Constitution. Neither are they working men, who might be supposed to have some interest in getting rid of a species of labor which, by some is erroneously supposed to come in competition with the labor of the white man. They have no pretension of this kind. They are nothing but sham philanthropists in any sensible view of the matter. They are mischief makers and revolutionists. They are political demagogues who have run out of all other capital, and look to this question as the only one which is likely to keep their noses above water. But, from their position in some counties of the State, they have determined to present this question as the issue in the election next August. If it must be so the supporters of the Constitution of this State – those who think that the provision incorporated into that instrument by Benton, declaring “that the Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, or without paying them, before such emancipation, in full, equivalent for such slaves so emancipated,” has yet some binding force and obligation – every man who has any respect for the Constitution or the rights of individuals, is called upon to make like arrangements for an embittered contest. They have a vast interest at stake – the interest which every good man feels in compelling the observance of every clause of the Constitution, for it is only by that we have any guarantee for liberty or property, and the interest which attaches to the ownership of all the slaves in the State. On these grounds, they will, if they are wise, at once get up organizations in every county. No man but a lunatic will say that the State is likely to be in a condition, for some years to come, to pay for the slaves now in the State, and he who proposes to dispossess the owners of them by any other means than are provided by the Constitution is a knave, deserving of the condemnation of every honest citizen. At the election in August next, it will then, be the duty of the friends of the Constitution, and those who are opposed to all schemes of Emancipation at this time, to interrogate candidates, and to ascertain distinctly how they stand on this vital question. Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State, candidates for Congress in the several Districts, and members of the Legislature, who will have to elect two Senators in the next Congress, all should be made to answer. If they are honest men, they will do it; if they fall to toe the mark, let the people withhold their confidence from them. If men will push themselves forward to inflame and exasperate the public mind of Missouri, at a time when repose is the thing most to be desired of all others, it should be met at the start and resisted firmly, at the place were resistance is most effective – the ballot box. We have no fear of the result. The Emancipationists will be squelched out.

It is said that the subject will occupy the attention of the conventions soon to meet at Jefferson City. That is very likely. We shall be surprised if it does not. Time may be profitably spent in the discussion of a question which has so direct a bearing on the constitution itself, the provisions of which it is proposed to set aside and spit upon, and we call upon the members of that body, not only to be prepared to discuss the proposition, but to speak the sentiments of their constituents. They are as competent to do so as any other body likely to be convened in the State, and it is their duty to make themselves heard in the struggle which is coming upon us. We can hardly err in supposing that the Mass Convention of the friends of the Union, called at Boonville for the 17th of this month, will also make their views known on a matter of so much importance. That meeting will in all probability be attended by the leading men of the state. It is certain that the people of a large district of the country will be there, and they should speak out open mouthed, more particularly at a time when we are composing all our internal difficulties, and no one desires to enter into a canvass of so exciting and unprofitable character.

Notwithstanding all this, we charge the people to be ready for the issue which dying demagogues are preparing to force upon them.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 2

The Negro Question Handled by a Kentuckian

Col. Leonidas Metcalf recently made a speech at Carlisle, Nicholson county, Kentucky, of which we make the following extract. Had he made this speech in portions of Iowa he would have been denounced as an Abolitionist at least and perhaps worse:

I had started to pay my respects to the nigger lovers of the South. There has been no election since I can remember but the cry of nigger was raised. A constable, coroner, judge or president could not be nominated but the same old tune was ground. Law after law was passed to tighten the tenure by which we held them. State laws, fugitive laws, territorial legislatures might legislate a white man to the devil if they chose, if they had nary a nigger; but laws were passed to prevent them from legislating on the subject of nigger. A Republican Congress passed laws to prevent themselves from legislating on negroes in the territories, still the cry was more security, more concessions, until they require all to kneel to Gessler’s cap, or else they are not the Simon pure, or at least they are not the Simon Buckner pure. They swear that it is God’s institution, and that in his sublime wisdom he instigated the trader to the pious calling of catching and chaining the wild African in the hold of some gloomy ship to transport him from his native hills where his soul is in danger, to the cotton fields of America, all for the glory of God and the increase of his kingdom; that their pursuits and pleasure in Africa are loathsome to God; but when they are transported to the cotton fields and learned to raise six bales to the hand, great is his reward for he now pleaseth the Lord and shall have a seat in heaven; while traitors who have so long been protected in making black angels, quietly pocket the proceeds of the cotton. To all this you must solemnly promise and swear or you are an Abolitionist. – And some of these traitors are helping to populate heaven with angels only half black. – This is no joke; all this has been preached from the pulpit by the said sooty winged nigger satellites. They do not stop at insulting man, but blaspheme God with their obsequious dallying and pandering to a set of corrupt, fly-blown jackasses, who cannot see any other aim or object on earth through which pleasure or happiness can be secured but nigger; no other argument in politics but nigger; no other road to heaven but on a nigger’s back. They must have the Missouri Compromise, or they will break up the Government, then the Missouri Compromise must be repealed, it ain’t fair, or they will knock all the underpinnings from under Uncle Samuel.

Kansas must be allowed to do as she pleases – no intervention. Our sweet scented Beriah, who lives in the Governor’s palace and don’t rule the destinies of Kentucky exactly as he would wish to, made a speech in our county town when he was a candidate, in which he said that Congress [had] no power to legislate on Slavery, and must not intervene in Kansas affairs; that he would draw his sword and fight, before he would ask Congress to pass a pro-slavery or anti-slavery law for Kansas, for that would be setting the example that Congress had the right to intervene, and it might hereafter pass some law that we did not like, and if we complained they would tell us we must put up with it, because we asked them to open the door of intervention, and the point was settled, but behold! When Kansas herself attempts to settle her own business, they shift round and attempt to force her to be a slave State against her will. They are as unreasonable as a baby with a toy; cry if you give it to them, cry if you don’t give it to them; and like the spoiled child, they must now be spanked and put to rest. I have heard it preached ever since I can remember, that all we asked was to let us manage our own State affairs as we pleased, particularly our own peculiar institution; that the North wanted to take them away from us without compensation; that if the North would only acknowledge that there is such a thing as property in man we would be satisfied; now the President offers to us, to let us do just as we please. Buy our negroes, if we wish to sell, and if we do not want to sell, why, “keep them and that is the end of it,” and we will be protected with them thereby acknowledging that they are property, and thereby offering to defeat the abolitionists, in taking them without compensation; and also spoiling the grand argument of the disunionists, that Lincoln and his yankee hordes would take our negroes from us. They are mad at Lincoln for letting us do as we please; some of them denying the rebellion having anything to do with nigger and therefore, Lincoln is an abolitionist for bringing in the sacred name of nigger at this time. And some Union men are very hard to be please with anything the Government does, and such men rarely complain at the inequity being enacted by the rebels. If Jeff. Davis had come out with the same message, they would have pronounced it the most liberal, fair, impartial, statesmanlike document that was ever offered for the consideration of people of common sense. Oh! Consistency, thou are a jewel, made of gum elastic, and can be stretched to suit the conscience.

The cry of Abolitionist is the whip that is continually held up to scare the ignorant into the Democratic, and now the Secession ranks. – If you look at things with common sense, you are an Abolitionist. If you are for your country, and for the majority ruling, you are an abolitionist. It is time we put a stop to these insults. They cannot listen to reason. The only thing you can beat common sense into them with is a green sycamore club that will not bounce, or a bullet. A few wholesome truths may be bitter but never the less true. The accusation is very common that the North favors amalgamation. Now, to tell the truth, and shame old Nick, it is practiced to a fearful extent throughout the South and Kentucky. Go into any of our towns and see the different shades and colors.

Jet black, buff, and brown
Mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound.

But we will not speak loud on this. Somebody might be listening. You can know every traitor in the land as plainly as you can your hogs by the ear marks. They have a password, by which you can know them as well in the night as in the day time – that word is, Abolitionist. That is the sum total of all their argument.

I will relate an anecdote that shows a Virginian’s ideas on the nigger question and it is true. I heard it. Traveling in Virginia, I stopped at night at a house where they were holding a meeting, and any one seemed to have a right to tell what he knew. A spry young man took the pulpit, and let out on the crucifixion as follows “My brethren how meek was our Savior – they crucified him; they put a crown of thorns on his head; they stuck a spear in his side, and they drove nails through his hands, had he never said a word a bit more than if he had been a nigger.”

Fellow citizens, you all know that nigger is the raw head and bloody bones, the scarecrow, that is continually held up to your view, never ceasing agitation. You must stand sentinel all night, you must stand sentinel all day, with your musket, over your darling black angels, while they work in the field, to keep somebody from stealing them. And you must stand watch to keep down insurrection – eternal vigilance is the price of nigger. All of this hue-and-cry is kept up when there is not the slightest danger.

Well, gentlemen, does not all of this suggest to your mind a gleam of common sense? Does not the weary sentinel begin to ask himself, when will the relief come around? But no relief ever comes. Ah, me! When or how shall I ever find time to enjoy myself with my loved ones? Where is that happiness this sacred institution is to produce? When shall I rest? – Now I see this never ending clamor has at last beat it into my head that, I had better take the value of these gems from Afric’s burning sands, and invest in something that will not forever disturb my peace, use the musket on traitors, and take the hoe myself. Nigger and cotton has produced this rebellion, and should be made to foot the bill. There is a big nigger scare still on our Congress. They shrink, afraid to take the bull by the horns; it is not just that loyal men should fight out the battles to save their country from the iniquity of traitors, and then pay the damages they have caused. China had to foot the bill with England. Mexico had to come up to the captain’s office and settle, and the Swiss rebels had to pay for all the dishes they broke; and about twenty-five dollars per head on nigger, and two cents on cotton, will soon pay for educating the Southern mind.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 2

Charles Carroll . . .

. . . a grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and with one exception the largest slaveholder in Maryland, is enthusiastic in his support of the proposition of the President for a compensated emancipation in his State. Charles M. Tarish, also a grandson of the signer, holds the same views.

If Mr. Charles Carroll will come out here and see Dennis Mahoney, Clagget, Clay Dean and other resurrectionists he will find out that he is a fool and an Abolitionist, and don understand the Constitution.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862