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THE REBELLION. - SENATORIAL
LABORS. - SPEECH IN PHILADELPHIA, 1863. - DEATH OF SLAVERY THE LIFE OF
THE NATION. - HIS PERSISTENT EFFORTS TO CARRY ON THE WAR.
AT the commencement of
the year 1862 the Union was coming slowly and steadily up to bear the
tremendous strain of the Rebellion; and the moral grandeur of the scene
has never been surpassed in any crisis of a distracted nation. On the
one hand were dissolution and anarchy; on the other hand, the
Constitution and the liberation of the slave. The destinies of unborn
millions were in the conflict. Will the government meet the exigency?
Yes; for, while our loyal soldiers were bravely gathering to roll back
the tide of war upon the field, our loyal Congress-men were as bravely
toiling to sustain them, and to break the chains of servitude in the
halls of legislation. Here, indeed, the battles are really fought. The
army is but an exponent of power: the power itself is in the principles
that move the army; and these are settled by the action of the people's
representatives. As one of those noble men whose doings will render the
Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses ever memorable, Mr. Wilson
exhibited clear-sightedness which no intricacies could baffle, hope
which no disasters could repress, courage which no danger could appall,
and patriotism which no bribe could bend.
In the full confidence of the government, he
gave his whole energies of heart and hand to its support, and still
brought forward measure after measure for the prosecution of the war,
and for the overthrow of a system, which, recognizing the right of
property in man, had caused the war. But little more than a bare
enumeration of the measures which he introduced can here be given.
On the 2d of January, 1862, he presented the
bill appointing sutlers and defining their duties in the volunteer
service; which, after several amendments, became a law on the 19th of
the following March. On the 9th of January he introduced a bill for the
better organization of the signal department of the army, which was
approved on the 22d day of February; and on the 28th of January a bill
to define the pay and emoluments of certain officers of the army, and
for other purposes, which, after a long discussion, became a law on the
17th of July, 1862. On the 7th of February he brought forward a bill to
increase the efficiency of the medical department of the army, which,
after several amendments, became a law on the sixteenth day of April,
1862. A joint resolution for the payment of the moneys of any State to
its volunters was introduced by him on the 11th of March, and became a
law oil nineteenth day of April following; and also another, on the 14th
of March, assigning command in the same field for department to officers
of the same grade without regard to seniority, which was enacted on the
4th of April, 1862. On the 7th of May his bill for the appointment of
medical storekeepers was brought forward, and approved by the president
oil 20th of the same month. Ever anxious for the improvement of the
colored people in the District of Columbia, Mr. Wilson, on the 8th of
May, moved, as an amendment to Mr. Grimes's educational bill, that all
persons of color in that District shall be amenable to the same laws,
and tried in the same manner, as the free white people, which received
the approval of the president on the eleventh day of July, 1862; and
thus the "black code" was abolished forever in the national capital.
Ever mindful of the services of the soldier, he reported, on the
thirteenth day of May, a joint resolution for the preparation of two
thousand medals of honor, "with suitable devices, to be presented to
such non-commissioned officers and privates as should distinguish
themselves by gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities;" and
this became a law on the twelfth day of July, 1862. For the further
encouragement of enlistments, he introduced a joint resolution on the
4th of June (enacted on the 21st of the same month), that the soldier
who enlisted might receive one month's wages in advance; and on the 12th
of June he brought forward an additional bill for the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia, which, after being amended,
received the signature of Mr. Lincoln on the twelfth day of July, 1862.
The activity of the rebels in Tennessee, the
retreat of Gen. Banks upon the Potomac, and the indecisive battles of
Gen. McClellan in front of Richmond, all conspired to dishearten loyal
men, and to fill the government with gloomy apprehensions. Mr. Wilson
urged upon the Senate prompt and decided action. Of the confederates he
said, "They have appealed to their people, - to their passions, to their
prejudices, to their hate; they have organized their people; they have
issued their conscriptions, using every man who could do any thing, - no
matter how halt or maimed he might be, if he could strike a blow; they
have carried on their military operations with great administration and
military ability. We are in one of the darkest periods of the contest;
and we had better look our position in the face, meet the
responsibilities of the hour, rise to the demands of the occasion, pour
out our money, summon our men to the field, go ourselves if we can do
any good, and overthrow this confederate power, that feels to-day, over
the recent magnificent triumphs, that it has already achieved its
independence. Bold and decisive action alone in the cabinet and in the
field can retrieve our adverse fortunes, and carry our country
triumphantly through the perils that threaten to dismember the
republic." Actuated
by such sentiments, he introduced on the twelfth day of July his
effective bill into the Senate, authorizing the president to call forth
the militia of the country; enrolling all able-bodied men between the
ages of eighteen and forty-five years; to accept a hundred thousand
volunteers as infantry for nine months, and volunteers for twelve
months, with fifty dollars bounty; to fill up the old regiments: also to
establish army corps, and to receive into the army persons of African
descent to perform any service for which they may be competent; and
providing that persons performing such service shall be forever free,
and also the mothers, wives, and children of such persons as may be
owing service to any men engaged in the Rebellion. This important
measure, after strenuous opposition by Messrs. Davis of Kentucky,
Saulsbury, Powell, and others, was enacted July 17, 1862, and was
another heavy blow to that institution which had brought the country
into such a bloody contest.
But why stop with the emancipation of the
colored soldiers in the army? Are not three millions longing to be free?
Will not the strength of the confederates be lessened by their
manumission? Will not such an act serve to harmonize the feelings of the
North? Has not the South, by its revolt, invited it? The president saw
the situation, and the readiness of Congress and the army to sustain
him, and on the first clay of January, 1863, sent forth his glorious
proclamation, which declared " forever free " the slaves in the
Confederate States. Of the representatives at 'Washington, none hailed
that grand announcement with more joy than Henry Wilson: none had
labored for it more persistently; none saw with clearer vision the
encouraging effect it would produce upon the spirit of the people, and
the aid which it would render in the prosecution of the war.
At the commencement of the year (1863) the
hopes of the Union men were brightened by the victory of Gen. Rosecrans
over the rebel forces under Gen. Bragg at Murfreesborough, Tenn.; and on
the 8th of January Mr. Wilson introduced a resolution tendering thanks
to the general and his army for their distinguished gallantry in that
action, and it received the signature of the president on the third day
of the following March. On the twelfth day of January he presented in
the Senate a memorial of the Emancipation League of his State for a
bureau of emancipation, and entered into the discusions upon this
philanthropic measure, which was to aid, protect, and elevate "the
children of the government."
To bring up the power of the republic to
meet the exigencies of the war, Mr. Wilson, on the ninth day of
February, introduced his great bill for enrolling and calling out the
national forces, and for other purposes. It consisted of thirty-six
sections, the first of which declared that "all able-bodied male
citizens in the United States (with certain exceptions) between the ages
of eighteen and forty-five shall constitute the national forces, and be
liable to military duty at the call of the president." By the eighteenth
section, a bounty of fifty dollars was given to present volunteers who
re-enlist for one year. This important measure was framed with great
administrative ability; and, in defence of it, Mr. Wilson said, "I am
confident the enactment of this bill, embodying so many provisions
required by the exigencies of the public service, will weapon the hands
of the nation, fire the drooping hearts of the people, thrill the
wasting ranks of our legions in the field, carry dismay into the
councils of treason, and give assurance to the nations that the American
people have the sublime virtue of heroic constancy and endurance that
will assure the unity and indivisibility of the republic of the United
States. We have endeavored to frame this bill so as to bear as lightly
as possible upon the toiling masses, and to put the burdens, so far as
we could do so, equally upon the more favored sons of men."
On a motion of Mr. Cowan of Pennsylvania to
exempt members of Congress from the law, he said, "Its adoption would
weaken the moral force of the law. He wanted every one to feel that this
measure was a necessity forced upon us by the needs of the country; that
to be drafted to carry this country through the impending struggle was
the most honorable thing that can fall upon an American citizen:" and
the motion was not carried. After several amendments, this great measure
was approved by the president on the third day of March; and the army
was thus brought into order for the reception of the confederate forces
on the field of Gettysburg in July following.
On the 17th of February he brought forward
the bill to incorporate "the institution for the education of the
colored youth" in the District of Columbia, which was approved by the
president on the 3d of March; and on the 10th of February a bill to
increase the number of major and brigadier generals in the army, which
became a law on the second day of March. His resolution "to facilitate
the payment of sick and wounded soldiers," and also his bill to promote
the efficiency of the corps of engineers and of the ordnance department,
and for other purposes, were approved by the president on the third day
of March,
1863.. At this
period, Mr. Wilson, following up the proclamation of the president,
entered warmly into the senatorial debates on the question of rendering
aid to Missouri and other semi-loyal States for the liberation of their
slaves. In response to Mr. Henderson of Missouri, he said, "Let us stamp
upon her now war-desolated fields the words, "Immediate emancipation;"
and these blighted fields will bloom again, and law and order and peace
again will bless the dwellings of her people."
The following letter from a prominent
citizen of that State will indicate how his services were there
regarded:—
UNITED-STATES GENERAL IIOS1'ITAL,
JEFFERSON BARRACKS, Mo., Feb. 24, 1863.
Hon. H. WILSON, U. S.
Senate. Sir, -
Excuse the liberty I take in expressing my gratification at the manner
in which you treat the traitors in the Senate.
I have also to thank you from the bottom of
my heart for the interest and zeal you have manifested in securing
compensated emancipation for Missouri.
With this this measure successful, this
State, in a year or two, might almost thank the rebels for their efforts
to ruin us; but without it we must sink almost as low as Virginia in
financial woe and general desolation.
All good men in Missouri pray daily that
Congress may see the wisdom of perfecting this aid to loyal slave-owners
of the State. It is not material, perhaps, what sum Congress
appropriates, if the maximum be three hundred dollars for the best
slaves, and graduated in proportion for females, children, and aged
persons. I feel the
utmost confidence that it will not take ten million dollars to pay all
loyal owners, if three hundred dollars is the highest price to be paid,
and a proportionate price for the young, aged, and all other classes. I
know of no slave in Missouri now that would command at private sale
three hundred dollars, unless the purchaser were misled by an impression
that he might obtain more by virtue of the proposed act of Congress.
Emancipation in Missouri would soon make it
one of the greatest States in the Union, and the disinthralment of her
antislavery population would enable us to show the traitors in the old
free States whether New England is ever to be severed from the States of
the West. Congress is on the right war-path this winter; and God be
praised for the bright prospect of soon crushing out the life of the
Rebellion. I am,
dear sir, very truly,
Your obedient servant,
SILAS REED, M.D.
During the recess of Congress, Mr. Wilson
labored with ceaseless activity to sustain the administration in the
prosecution of the war. Moving from point to point, he was now assisting
the Sanitary Commission, now writing letters to the soldiers, now
examining the claims of rival officers to promotion, now suggesting more
vigorous measures to the cabinet, now urging moneyed men to aid the
government, and now addressing vast audiences in support of the Union
cause. In the great rejoicings at Washington, July 7, on the surrender
of Vicksburg, he participated, and addressed a vast multitude in front
of the presidential mansion. On the same day, with Senators Fessenden
and Morrill, he had a conference with the cabinet, which resulted in the
ordering of five vessels to protect the seaboard from Nantucket to the
British Provinces.
Mr. Wilson also shared with the administration in the profound anxiety
for the issue of the bloody conflict at Gettysburg (July 1, 2, and 3),
and put forth his best efforts to assuage the sufferings of wounded
soldiers. The delay
of Gen. Meade in following up his victory led the government soon to
turn attention to the victorious GRANT as the man to lead the army on to
Richmond; and Mr. Wilson urged his nomination as commander.
On his way to resume his seat in Congress in
December, on the 9th of July, he took part in the celebration of the
thirtieth anniversary of the American Antislavery Society and made an
address remarkable for its earnestness and vigor. Contrasting the
antislavery cause at the institution of the society with what it was in
the closing month of 1863, he eloquently said, -
"Then a few unknown and nameless men were
its apostles: now the most accomplished intellects in America are its
champions. Then a few proscribed and hunted followers rallied around its
banners: now it has laid its grasp upon the conscience of the nation,
and millions rally around the folds of its flag. Then not a statesman in
America accepted its doctrines, or advocated its measures: now it
controls more than twenty States, has a majority in both Houses of
Congress, and the chief magistrate of the republic decrees the
emancipation of three millions of men. (Applause.) Then every free State
was against it: now West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri
pronounce for the emancipation of their bondmen. Then the public press
covered it with ridicule and contempt now the most powerful journals in
America are its organs, scattering its truths broadcast over all the
land. Then the religions, benevolent, and literary institutions of the
land rebuked its doctrines, and proscribed its advocates: now it shapes,
moulds, and fashions them at its pleasure. Then political organizations
trampled disdainfully upon it: now it looks down in the pride of
conscious power upon the wrecked political fragments that float at its
feet. Then it was impotent and powerless: now it holds public men and
political organizations in the hollow of its hand. (Applause.) Then the
public voice sneered at and defied it: now it is master of America, and
has only to be true to itself to bury slavery so deep that the hand of
no returning despotism can reach it. (Great applause.)
"The way to triumph," he continued, "is to
assume that the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, emancipating three
million three hundred thousand slaves in the ten rebel States, is the
irrepealable law of this land; that this Christian nation is pledged to
every slave, to the country, to the world, and to Almighty God, to see
that every one of these bondmen is free forever and forevermore. (Great
applause.) Let the loyal men of America assume, as the eternal law of
the land, that slavery does not now exist in the disloyal States; that
every black man there is free; that the President of the United States
has pledged the physical power of all America to enforce the
proclamation of freedom; that seven hundred thousand loyal bayonets bear
that proclamation upon their glittering points." (Applause.)
He thus referred to Gen. Grant: -
"Sir, I saw the other day a letter from Gen.
Grant, who has fought so many battles for the republic, and won them all
(enthusiastic applause), - the hero who hurled his legions up the
mountains before Chattanooga, and fought a battle for the Union above
the clouds. (Applause.) The hero of Vicksburg says, 'I have never been
an antislavery man; but I try to judge justly of what I see. I made up
my mind when this war commenced that the North and South could only live
together in peace as one nation, and they could only be one nation by
being a free nation. (Applause.) Slavery, the corner-stone of the
so-called confederacy, is knocked out; and it will take more men to keep
black men slaves than to put down the Rebellion. Much as I desire peace,
I am opposed to any peace until this question of slavery is forever
settled.' That is the position of the leading general of our armies.
"The crimes of two centuries have brought
this terrible war upon us; but if this generation, upon whom God has
laid his chastisements, will yet be true to liberty and humanity, peace
will return again to bless this land now rent and torn by civil strife.
Then we shall heal the wounds of war, enlighten the dark intellect of
the emancipated bondman, and make our country the model republic, to
which the Christian world shall turn with respect and admiration."
"The speaker retired," says "The Chronicle,"
"amid the deafening plaudits of the audience."
In the Senate, on the 14th of December, Mr.
Wilson introduced resolutions expressing the thanks of Congress to Gens.
Hooker, Meade, Howard, and Banks, their officers and men, for gallantry
at Gettysburg and Port Hudson; which received the signature of the
president. He also introduced at the same time a bill "to increase the
bounty to volunteers, and the pay of the army;" and also, on the 23d of
the same month, the bill "to establish a uniform system of ambulances in
the United States," which was indorsed by eminent generals, commanders
in the army, and became a law on the 11th of March, 1864.
Among the numerous measures introduced by
Mr. Wilson into Congress in 1864, we may cite as of great importance an
amendment in the bill enacted on the 24th of February, declaring that
every colored soldier, on being mustered into the service, should, not
by the act of his master, but by the authority of government, be made
forever free. By this provision, more than twenty thousand slaves in
Kentucky alone received their freedom.
In the exciting debates on the Thirteenth
Amendment of the Constitution, the first article of which is, "Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction," Mr. Wilson
most earnestly engaged. His speech in the Senate on the 28th of March
has in it the ring of a clarion. In some respects, it is a master-piece
of eloquence. Intensely earnest, fervid, fearless, it grasps the
question with Websterian vigor, and strikes the fated institution with
gigantic blows. The speech, as circulated, has for its significant
title, THE DEATH OF SLAVERY IS THE LIFE OF THE NATION;" and this the
nation now believes. It closes with these grandly impressive words -
"But, Sir, the crowning act in this series
of acts for the restriction and extinction of slavery in America is this
proposed amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the existence of
slavery forevermore in the republic of the United States. If this
amendment shall be incorporated by the will of the nation into the
Constitution of the United States, it will obliterate the last lingering
vestiges of the slave system - its chattelizing, degrading, and bloody
codes; its dark, malignant, barbarizing spirit; all it was and is; every
thing connected with it or pertaining to it - from the face of the
nation it has scarred with moral desolation, from the bosom of the
country it has reddened with the blood and strewn with the graves of
patriotism. The incorporation of this amendment into the organic law of
the nation will make impossible forevermore the reappearing of the
discarded slave system, and the returning of the despotism of the
slave-masters' domination.
"Then, Sir, when this amendment to the
Constitution shall be consummated, the shackle will fall from the limbs
of the harmless bondmen, and the lash drop from the weary hand of the
taskmaster. Then the sharp cry of the agonizing hearts of severed
families will cease to vex the weary ear of the nation, and to pierce
the ear of Him whose judgments are now avenging the wrongs of centuries.
Then the slave-mart, pen, and auction-block, with their clanking fetters
for human limbs, will disappear from the land they have brutalized, and
the schoolhouse will raise to enlighten the darkened intellect of a race
imbruted by long years of enforced ignorance. Then the sacred rights of
human nature, the hallowed family relations of husband and wife, parent
and child, will be protected by the guardian spirit of that law which
makes sacred alike the proud homes and lowly cabins of freedom. Then the
scarred earth, blighted by the sweat and tears of bondage, will bloom
again under the quickening culture of rewarded toil. Then the wronged
victim of the slave system, the poor white man, the sand-hiller, the
clay-eater, of the wasted fields of Carolina, impoverished, debased,
dishonored by the system that makes toil a badge of disgrace, and the
instruction of the brain and soul of man a crime, will lift his abashed
forehead to the skies, and begin to run the race of improvement,
progress, and elevation. Then the nation, regenerated and disinthralled
by the genius of universal emancipation,' will run the career of
development, power, and glory, quickened, animated, and guided by the
spirit of the Christian democracy that 'pulls not the highest down, but
lifts the lowest up.'
"Our country is now floating on the stormy
waves of civil war. Darkness lowers, and tempests threaten. The waves
are rising and foaming and breaking around us and over us with ingulfing
fury; but, amid the thick gloom, the star of duty casts its clear
radiance over the (lark and troubled waters, making luminous our
pathway. Our duty is as plain to the clear vision of intelligent
patriotism as though it were written in letters of light on the bending
arches of the skies. That duty is, with every conception of the brain,
every throb of the heart, every aspiration of the soul, by thought, by
word, and by deed, to feel, to think, to speak, to act, so as to
obliterate the last vestiges of slavery in America, subjugate rebel
slave-masters to the authority of the nation, hold up the weary arm of
our struggling government, crowd with heroic manhood the ranks of our
armies that are bearing the destinies of the country on the points of
their glittering bayonets, and thus forever blast the last hope of the
rebel chiefs. Then the waning star of the Rebellion will go down in
eternal night, and the star of peace ascend the heavens, casting its
mild radiance over fields now darkened by the storms of this fratricidal
war. Then, when 'the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle-flags are
furled,' our absent sons, with the laurels of victory on their brows,
will come back to gladden our households and fill the vacant chairs
around our hearthstones. Then the stars of united America, now obscured,
will re-appear, radiant with splendor, on the forehead of the skies, to
illume the pathway and gladden the heart of struggling humanity."
Ever intent on justice, and earnest for
equal rights, Mr. Wilson succeeded in introducing into the appropriation
bill enacted on the fifteenth day of June, 1864, a provision to the
effect that "all persons of color who had been or might be mustered into
the military service should receive time same uniform, clothing,
rations, medical and hospital attendance, and pay," as other soldiers,
from the beginning of 1864. He fought persistently to obtain justice for
the colored troops of Massachusetts; and finally succeeded, in face of
staunch opposition, in carrying through Congress his important and
humane measure, making the wives and children of those whose husbands
and fathers were fighting for the Union forever free.
In support of this resolution he said, "It
is estimated that from seventy-five to a hundred thousand wives and
children of these soldiers are now held in slavery. It is a burning
shame to this country. . . . Wasting diseases, weary marches, and bloody
battles, are now decimating our armies. The country needs soldiers, must
have soldiers. Let the Senate, then, act now. Let us hasten the
enactment of this beneficent measure, inspired by patriotism and
hallowed by justice and humanity, so that, ere merry Christmas shall
come, the intelligence shall be flashed over the land to cheer the
hearts of the nation's defenders and arouse the manhood of the bondman,
that, on the forehead of the soldier's wife and the soldier's child, no
man can write 'Slave.'" This measure became a law on the third day of
March, 1865; and, six months afterwards, Gen. Palmer estimated that by
its operation nearly seventy-five thousand women and children had, in
Kentucky alone, been made free.
At the celebration of the 4th of July by the
freedmen in the District of Columbia this year, he was present, and made
an encouraging address. "I predict," said he to them, "that, before five
years have rolled around, you will be allowed to vote, and right here in
Washington too." Scarcely half that time passed before his hopeful words
were realized. Mr.
Wilson's policy, from the beginning of the war, was to crush the
Rebellion just as quick as possible. He deprecated the delay of the
generals in command, and ever urged a forward movement. He voted for the
confirmation of Gen. Grant, - March 2, in the Senate, because he felt
assured that he would allow the enemy no time to rally from his
repulses; and yet his motives were continually misinterpreted. To a
statement in "The New-York Herald," that he had been to Washington to
urge an armistice, he made this distinct reply in a letter dated Natick,
Aug. 20, 1804:-
"There is not the slightest foundation for the report, as I never
entertained for a moment any other thought than that of conquering a
peace by the defeat of the rebel armies."
At this time "The New-Bedford Mercury" said
of him, "Henry Wilson has, from the day he entered the Senate to the
present moment, in our judgment, and we believe in the judgment of the
great body of the people of the State, been an able public servant. No
man has been more laborious in the committee-room, more ready in the
Senate-chamber, and we believe more single-hearted and unselfish in
purpose to sustain the government in its trial-hours, than Henry
Wilson." The
following, among hundreds of letters received from all parts of the
country, will also indicate how the soldiers and the people viewed his
senatorial course:
"I cannot close this letter, my dear sir, without thanking you for the
upright and manly course you have pursued all through this terrible war;
for your grand, good words, and the strong blows you have given to the
cause of all our woe, - slavery. At last your efforts and those of your
noble colleagues are telling, and the government seems about to act
justly towards our colored soldiers. God grant this tardy justice may
help to prevent more massacres!
"I am, sir, with profound respect, very
truly yours." His
friends urged Mr. Wilson to accept the nomination for vice-president
this year; but he declined to be a candidate. |
