had preserved Sumner to aid Lincoln in the great work of the emancipation of a race.

The speeches of Sumner, up to this time, had one defect, they were overloaded with learning. The great thought was too often concealed under many quotations. In the earnestness and gravity of the discussions during the war, this fault disappeared. His speeches, during the four years of Mr. Lincoln's administration, illustrate our history, while influential in moulding and guiding public opinion.

Among the more conservative of the New England Senators, was Jacob Collamer, of Vermont. He had held the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of that State, and had been Postmaster General under President Taylor. Distinguished for solid common sense, minutely familiar with his country's history and its laws, conscientious and selfpoised, he exerted a commanding influence, and was alway listened to with profound respect.

Senator Fessenden, Chairman of the Committee on Fi nance, and the successor of Mr. Chase, as Secretary of the Treasury, was another very able and learned New England Senator. Ever ready, ever well informed, keen, witty and sarcastic; as a general debater he had no superior. He was one of the most practical and careful statesmen in the Senate. The House of Representatives of this memorable Congress, was composed generally, of men of good sense, respectable abilities, and of earnest patriotism, rather than of shining parts and high distinction. It represented and reflected the intelligence, integrity and patriotism of the American people. This Congress early realized, that it had two great duties towards which all its energies should be directed. These were to maintain the integrity of the Union, by subduing the rebellion, and extirpating its cause-African slavery.

The leader of the House, Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, united the wisdom of three score years and ten, with the vigor and energy of twenty-five. He was the most sarcastic, and witty, as well as the most eccentric member of the House. He was respected alike by friend and foe, and none desired a second encounter with him on the floor of the House. If he could

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not demolish with an argument, he could annihilate with an epigram or a sarcasm. Ready, adroit, and sagacious, as wel. as bold and frank, he exerted a large influence upon the House and the country. He was bitter and uncompromising, rather adapted to the position of leader of the opposition, than to conduct and control the majority.

The most rising man in the House, was Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, then in his fourth term, destined to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives during the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses. Nature had given him an untiring capacity for work, quicksighted tact, much common sense, great frankness, and greater kindliness. Often differing from his political opponents, he never roused their anger by too strong statements, or too harsh an utterance; while those who knew him most, loved him best. Starting in life at the lowest point of a printing office, then an editor and publisher, he gave up business, after twenty years trial for politics, and became the representative man of his State. He has constantly improved since he entered Congress. Never. an extreme radical in his views, yet he never wavers from his ideas of truth. Politics is now his profession, and no man better understands its secrets than Schuyler Colfax. As a parliamentarian, he had no superior in the House, and is one of the most rising statesmen of the West.

Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, the author of the Morrill tariff, was one of the most laborious men in Congress. Not brilliant, but so well informed, with such a fund of practical knowledge on the subjects of taxation, tariffs, and finance, that he was a most useful member, and his influence upon all these subjects was very great.

He

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, occupied the important position of Chairman of the Committee on Elections. was a man so perfectly just and fair; so candid and impartial, that he always commanded the respect of all parties. He had all the information and accurate knowledge of the New England gent eman. His State and section ever found in him a most able and eloquent defender. His colleague, B. F. Thomas, represented the Quincy district. He was a fine scholar, and a very able man, but too much of a lawyer for a

statesman. He was cramped by technicalities, and became too conservative for Massachusetts, and retired.

In the delegation from New York, were Roscoe Conklin, an able debater, and Abraham B. Olin, a leading member of the Committee on Military Affairs; Charles B. Sedgwick, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs; E. G. Spaulding, a leading member of the Committee of Ways and Means; and Reuben E. Fenton, subsequently Governor of that State, and Erastus Corning, the President of the New York Central Railroad.

In the delegation from Pennsylvania, were Judge W. D. Kelly, an able debater, and an extreme radical; John Hickman, James H. Campbell, Hendricks B. Wright, Edward McPherson, John Covode, James K. Morehead, and the Speaker, Mr. Grow.

From Ohio, were Pendleton, Vallandigham, and Cox, leaders of the opposition, and James M. Ashley, and John A. Bingham, the latter one of the most ready, eloquent, and effective debaters in the House.

From the State of Illinois, as supporters of the President, were Washburne, Lovejoy, Kellogg, and Arnold. Among those who had supported Douglas, were Richardson, McClernand, and Logan. The two latter retiring after the special session and going into the army, became distinguished in the field.

Among the members from Wisconsin, was John F. Potter, a radical abolitionist, and a resolute, true man. During the Thirty-sixth Congress, he accepted a challenge from Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, but Pryor did not choose to fight the member from Wisconsin.

Among the members known as anti-slavery men, the most widely distinguished, perhaps, was Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois. He was the brother of that Lovejoy, who fell a martyr to freedom and the liberty of the Press, at Alton, Illinois, twenty-five years before. After the death of his brother, kneeling upon his grave, he swore eternal hostility to slavery, and solemnly dedicated himself to the anti-slavery cause. He was a man of powerful frame, strong feelings, great personal magnetic power, and one of the most effective stump

speakers in the United States. As early as 1838, he aided in the organization of the Liberty party. He was by profession, a preacher of the Gospel, but he now went forth among the people, and with a tongue of fire, and a vehemence and passionate energy that ever carried the masses with him, spoke and preached against slavery. In the log school houses, the churches, on the open prairies, and in the groves of the West, he preached his crusade against slavery. His party grew and increased with each election. He was sent, first to the Illinois Legislature, and then to Congress, and there, while slavery yet held control, he did not hesitate to beard the lion in his den. He had seen the rise and growth of the antislavery cause, from the time when its friends were mocked, mobbed, outraged, and every way abused, until increasing and growing, it had become a power in the land; had elected a President, and now held control of both Houses of Congress. In February 1859, during his first term in Congress, in reply to the furious denunciations of the slave holders, charg ing, among other things, upon the floor of Congress, that he was a "negro stealer" he indignantly and defiantly exclaimed:

"Yes, I do assist fugitive slaves to escape! Proclaim it upon the house-tops; write it upon every leaf that trembles in the forest; make it blaze from the sun at high noon, and shine forth in the radiance of every star that bedecks the firmament of God. Let it echo through all the arches of heaven, and reverberate and bellow through all the deep gorges of hell, where slave catchers will be very likely to hear it. Owen Lovejoy lives at Princeton, Illinois, and he aids every fugitive that comes to his door and asks it. Thou invisible demon of slavery! dost thon think to cross my humble threshold, and forbid me to give bread to the hungry and shelter to the houseless? I bid you defiance in the name of God."

The first great measure of this Congress, looking to the slave question, was a bill reported by Senator Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to confiscate all prop erty, and free all slaves used for insurrectionary purposes. Mr. Breckinridge vehemently opposed the bill, and stated that it was one of a series of measures which would amount to the "loosening of all bonds."

Senators justified their vote for the bill, on the ground, that in the battle of Bull Run, fought on Sunday, July 21, the rebels had used the negroes and slaves in battle against the Union army. The bill passed the Senate by thirty-three to six. In the House of Representatives Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, a member who joined the rebel army, immediately after the adjournment of Congress, declared that the bill would amount to a wholesale emancipation of the slaves in the rebellious States. Mr. Cox of Ohio, opposed the bill. Thaddeus Stevens, Chairman of the committee of Ways and Means, ably advocated it. He said:

"I warn Southern gentlemen, that if this war continues, there will be a time when it will be declared by this free nation, that every bondman in the South, belonging to a rebel, (recollect, I confine it to them,) shall be called upon to aid us in war against their masters, and to restore the Union."

On the third of August the bill passed. It is a remarkable fact, how reluctantly members touched slavery, and indicates how slowly the public mind came to the conclusion that the surest way to destroy the rebellion, was to destroy slavery. Some of the best and most patriotic men in Congress, voted against this bill; among them Messrs. Bai'ley, Crittenden, Diven, Haight, Hale, Odell, McPherson, Rollins and others.

From the beginning of the contest, the slaves flocked to the Union army, as to a haven of refuge. They believed freedom was to be found within its picket lines, and under the shelter of its flag. They were ready to act as guides, to dig, to work, to fight for liberty. The Yankees, as their masters called the Union troops, were believed by them, to come as their deliverers from long and cruel bondage. And yet, almost incredible as it may now seem, many officers permitted masters and agents to enter their lines and carry away, by force, these fugitive slaves. Many cruelties and outrages were perpetrated by these masters, and in many instances, the colored men, who had rendered valuable service to the Union cause, were permitted to be carried from beneath the flag of the Union back to bondage.