ences and difficulties and embarrassments incident to all changes of government. These will be felt in our postal affairs and changes in the channel of trade. These inconveniences, it is to be hoped, will be but temporary, and must be borne with patience and forbearance.

As to whether we shall have war with our late confederates, or whether all matters of differences between us shall be amicably settled, I can only say that the prospect for a peaceful adjustment is better, so far as I am informed, than it has been.

The prospect of war is at least not so threatening as it has been. The idea of coercion shadowed forth in President Lincoln's inaugural seems not to be followed up thus far so vigorously as was expected. Fort Sumter, it is believed, will soon be evacuated. What course will be pursued toward Fort Pickens and the other forts on the gulf is not so well understood. It is to be greatly desired that all of them should be surrendered. Our object is peace, not only with the North, but with the world. All matters relating to the public property, public liabilities of the Union when we were members of it, we are ready and willing to adjust and settle upon the principles of right, equality, and good faith. War can be of no more benefit to the North than to us. The idea of coercing us or subjugating us is utterly preposterous.

Whether the intention of evacuating Fort Sumter is to be received as an evidence of a desire for a peaceful solution of our difficulties with the United States, or the result of necessity, I will not undertake to say. I would fain hope the former. Rumors are afloat, however, that it is the result of necessity. All I can say to you, therefore, on that point is, keep your armor bright and your powder dry.

The surest way to secure peace is to show your ability to

maintain your rights. The principles and position of the present administration of the United States-the Republican party-present some puzzling questions. While it is a fixed principle with them never to allow the increase of a foot of slave territory, they seem to be equally determined not to part with an inch "of the accursed soil."

Notwithstanding their clamor against the institution, they seem to be equally opposed to getting more or letting go what they have got. They were ready to fight on the accession of Texas, and are equally ready to fight now on her secession. Why is this? How can this strange paradox be accounted for? There seems to be but one rational solution, and that is, notwithstanding their professions of humanity, they are disinclined to give up the benefits they derive from slave labor. Their philanthropy yields to their interest. The idea of enforcing the laws has but one object, and that is a collection of the taxes raised by slave labor to swell the fund necessary to meet their heavy appropriations. The spoils is what they are after, though they come from the labor of the slave.

H

WILSON

ENRY WILSON, an American statesman of note, was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16, 1812. He was the son of a farm laborer, and at the age of ten was apprenticed to a farmer for eleven years, during which period he had very little schooling, but read over a thousand books. Till his majority his name had been Jeremiah Jones Colbath, but he now assumed the name of Henry Wilson. After leaving the farm at twenty-one he learned the shoemaker's trade in Natick, Massachusetts, and presently came into notice as a speaker at political meetings and an outspoken opponent of slavery. In 1840 he entered the State legislature and from 1844 to 1846 was State senator. He was actively opposed to the admission of Texas as a slave State, and, with the poet Whittier, presented a petition to Congress against it, signed by thousands. He was a delegate to the Whig convention at Philadelphia in 1848, but withdrew because of its rejection of anti-slavery resolutions. He was again in the State senate, 1850-53, and, succeeding Everett in the senate of the United States in 1855, remained there as member continuously for eighteen years. He took part in all debates of importance, and although his speeches are not distinguished by especial grace of style they are statesmanlike and effective. Wilson was a man of very positive convictions, but his statements of fact were uttered with the greatest care and were seldom successfully challenged. He was elected vice-president on the ticket with General Grant in November, 1872, and accordingly resigned from the senate on the 3d of March following. Wilson died in office at Washington November 22, 1875. His published writings comprise, besides single speeches: "History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses (1865); Military Measures of the United States Congress (1866); "History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses (1868); "History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America " (1872-77).

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SPEECH ON BILL TO CONFISCATE THE PROPERTY AND FREE THE SLAVES OF REBELS

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DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, MAY 1, 1862

R. PRESIDENT,-The senator from Vermont [Mr. Collamer], in submitting this amendment to the original bill proposes to authorize the President of the United States, if in his judgment it shall be necessary for the more speedy suppression of this insurrection, to appoint a 'day when all persons held to service or labor in any State

whose inhabitants he has declared by proclamation to be in a state of insurrection shall be declared free. That honorable senator, in the course of his speech, said that it seemed to be the chief object of some of the supporters of the original bill to carry that provision of the bill emancipating the slaves of rebels; and yesterday the senator from Virginia [Mr. Carlisle] alluded to and indorsed that declaration.

Now, sir, I am free to confess here that it is with me the chief object of solicitude. I care something for the confiscation of the property of the leading rebels; but I do not wish to touch the property of the masses of the people. I think the distinction is a just one,-that the leaders should be punished, and that the masses of the people should feel that they will be forgiven and protected if they return to their loyalty.

I do not expect that we shall realize any large amount of property by any confiscation bill that we shall pass. After the conflict, when the din of battle has ceased, the humane and kindly and charitable feelings of the country and of the world will require us to deal gently with the masses of the people who are engaged in this rebellion. It will be pleaded that wives and children will suffer for the crimes of husbands and fathers; and such appeals will have more or less effect upon the future policy of the government.

But, sir, take from rebel masters their bondmen, and from the hour you do so until the end of the world, to "the last syllable of recorded time," the judgment of the country and the judgment of the world will sanction the act and it will be stronger every day while the world lasts. Therefore, sir, I am in favor of emancipating the slaves of all the rebels who are engaged in this rebellion.

Sir, with the lights of to-day I do not see how any man

can be for slavery and at the same time be a loyal man. Slavery and treason this day and this hour in this country are one and the same. Slavery and treason are synonymous words. I can conceive how a man of intelligence and character can recognize the existence of slavery, look upon it as it is as an evil, and yet not see how it is to be abolished or when it is to be got rid of. I can appreciate the position of such a man, and I think I do appreciate it.

We

But, sir, how can any man looking over this broad land to-day and seeing flashing from every quarter of the heavens the crimes of human slavery against this country, labor to uphold, strengthen, and support human slavery in America? It is the cause and the whole cause of this rebellion. talk about "Jeff" Davis, Slidell, Mason, and Toombs, and their treasonable confederates; but they are not the cause of this rebellion; they are simply the hands, the tools: the heart, the brain, the soul is slavery; the motive power is slavery. Slavery is the great rebel; Davis and his compeers are but its humble tools and instruments.

Slavery for thirty years has been hostile to and aggressive upon the free institutions of America. There is not a principle embodied in our free institutions, there is not an element of our government that elevates or blesses mankind, there is not anything in our government or our institutions worth preserving, that slavery for a generation has not warred against and upon.

It smote down thirty years ago the great right of petition in these halls. It destroyed in large sections of the country the constitutional freedom of the press. It suppressed freedom of speech. It corrupted presses, churches, and political organizations. It plunged the nation into a war for the acquisition of slave-holding territory. It enacted a fugitive