ITS POLICY AND NECESSITY AS A WAR MEASURE FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE
REBELLION.
SPEECH AT FANEUIL HALL, OCTOBER 6, 1862. WITH APPENDIX, ON THE
NOMINATION AND REËLECTION OF MR. SUMNER AS SENATOR.
A patriot’s blood,
Well spent in such a strife, may earn, indeed,
And for a time insure to his loved land,
The sweets of Liberty and Equal Laws.
COWPER, _The Task_, Book V. 714-717.
* * * * *
I assure you,
He that has once the Flower of the Sun,
The perfect ruby which we call Elixir,
Not only can do that, but by its virtue
Can confer Honor, Love, Respect, Long Life,
Give Safety, Valor,--yea, and Victory,--
To whom he will.
BEN JONSON, _The Alchemist_, Act II. Sc. 1.
* * * * *
Rendez-les libres,--et plus près que vous de la nature, ils
vaudront beaucoup mieux que vous.--CONDORCET, _Note 109 aux
Pensées de Pascal_.
* * * * *
When a leak is to be stopped, or a fire extinguished, do not
all hands coöperate without distinction of sect or party? Or if
I am fallen into a ditch, shall I not suffer a man to help me
out, until I have first examined his creed?--BISHOP BERKELEY,
_A Word to the Wise, or an Exhortation to the Roman Catholic
Clergy of Ireland_: Works (London, 1837), p. 360.
* * * * *
May Congress not say that every black man must fight? Did we
not see a little of this last war?… Have they not power to
provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not
think that these call for the abolition of Slavery? May they
not pronounce all slaves free? And will they not be warranted
by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical
deduction. The paper speaks to the point.--PATRICK HENRY.
_Debates in the Virginia Convention on the Adoption of the
Federal Constitution_: Elliot’s Debates, Vol. III. p. 590.
* * * * *
The natural strength of the country, in point of numbers,
appears to me to consist much more in the blacks than in
the whites. Could they be incorporated and employed for its
defence, it would afford you double security. That they would
make good soldiers I have not the least doubt.--MAJOR-GENERAL
NATHANAEL GREENE, _Letter to Governor Rutledge_: Johnson’s Life
of Greene, Vol. II. p. 274.
* * * * *
The anxiety which prevailed so extensively was restored by
the Proclamation of Emancipation, at last put forth by the
President, September 22, 1862. Besides enjoining obedience
to the Acts of Congress already passed against Slavery, it
declared:--
“That, on the first day of January in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons
held as slaves within any State or designated part of
a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free; and the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such
persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
their actual freedom.”[108]
The work was completed by the final proclamation of January 1,
1863.[109]
There was an echo to these proclamations throughout the
country, and also from the Rebel States. The _Richmond Whig_
said of the first: “It is a dash of the pen to destroy four
millions of our property, and is as much as a bid for the
slaves to rise in insurrection, with the assurance of aid from
the whole military and naval power of the United States.” In
another article, it spoke of “the fiends of the new programme.”
These feelings, after debate in the Rebel Congress, found vent
in the following terms.
“That, in the judgment of Congress, the proclamations of
the President of the United States, dated respectively
September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two,
and January first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three,
and the other measures of the Government of the United
States, and of its authorities, commanders, and forces,
designed or tending to emancipate slaves in the Confederate
States, or to abduct such slaves, or to incite them to
insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the
Confederate States, or to overthrow the institution of
African Slavery and bring on a servile war in these States,
would, if successful, produce atrocious consequences, and
they are inconsistent with the spirit of those usages
which in modern warfare prevail among civilized nations;
they may, therefore, be properly and lawfully repressed by
retaliation.”[110]
The earlier proclamation caused a thrill in Massachusetts.
Earnest people, who had longed for it, were rejoiced and
comforted. At the invitation of his fellow-citizens, Mr. Sumner
consented to address them at Faneuil Hall, in response to the
proclamation.
The proceedings at this crowded meeting, which was held at
noon, are copied from the newspapers of the day.
The meeting was called to order by George S. Hale, Esq.,
Chairman of the Ward and City Committee, who submitted the
following list of names for the officers of the meeting.
_President_,--William Claflin, of Newton.
_Vice-Presidents_,--Francis B. Crowninshield, Alexander H.
Bullock, Julius Rockwell, Peleg W. Chandler, Oakes Ames, John
Gardner, Lee Claflin, Robert W. Hooper, James M. Barnard,
Francis B. Fay, Jacob Sleeper, Edward S. Tobey, Stephen H.
Phillips, Waldo Higginson, Samuel May, John Nesmith, William
J. Rotch, Eliphalet Trask, Martin Brimmer, Henry I. Bowditch,
Gerry W. Cochrane, Charles H. Parker, Charles O. Whitmore,
John D. Baldwin, John R. Brewer, John M. S. Williams, James
P. Thorndike, Samuel Hall, Artemas Lee, Robert B. Storer,
Julius A. Palmer, John L. Emmons, William I. Bowditch, Abel G.
Farwell, Alvah Crocker, Otis Norcross, John J. May, Phineas E.
Gay, Nathan Cushing, Robert C. Pitman, Alexander H. Twombly,
Warren Sawyer, James Adams, Moses Kimball, Theodore Otis, Alvah
A. Burrage, David Snow, Edwin Lamson, John Demeritt, John M.
Forbes, William Washburn, Arba Maynard, Joseph T. Bailey,
Osborn Howes, Daniel Farrar, John Chandler, John Q. A. Griffin,
Robert E. Apthorp, William Bellamy, Alexander Wadsworth,
Edward Buffinton, Nehemiah Boynton, Phineas J. Stone, William
B. Spooner, Frederick Nickerson, P. Emory Aldrich, Abijah W.
Farrar, William Pope, Charles C. Barry, Timothy W. Hoxie, Avery
Plumer, Ephraim Allen, J. Warren Merrill, Peter B. Brigham,
George F. Williams, Pliny Nickerson, John A. Nowell, Arthur
W. Tufts, Roland Worthington, John Bertram, Frank B. Fay, J.
Ingersoll Bowditch, William Endicott, Jr., Edward Atkinson,
Nathaniel C. Nash, Franklin Snow, J. Wingate Thornton, Samuel
Johnson, Edward A. Raymond, Albert L. Lincoln, Francis E.
Parker, Charles O. Rogers, William Fox Richardson, John G.
Webster, Leister M. Clark, Chester Guild, Jr., Estes Howe,
William Brigham.
_Secretaries_,--William S. Robinson, Delano A. Goddard, Stephen
N. Stockwell, William W. Clapp, Jr., Hamlin R. Harding, H.
Burr Crandall, Henry M. Burt, Ebenezer Nelson, George H.
Monroe, Stephen N. Gifford.
On taking the chair, Mr. Claflin was received with great
applause. He spoke as follows.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--None of you can be more
disappointed at the present time than myself, that I am
called upon to occupy this position.
“At the last moment we were informed that his Excellency
the Governor[111] was compelled by the duties of his
position, and his desire ever to do for the interests of
those brave men who have gone forth for our defence, to
leave the State, and to leave us to-day in your hands.
[_Applause._]
“Under these circumstances, and at the last moment, by the
desire of the Committee of Arrangements, I consented to
occupy this position; but you will, of course, excuse me
from making any remarks on this occasion. My heart is in
the cause. This is a great era, and this is the time when
every man should come up to the work and fight for this
nation, doing everything which he can, whether by his purse
or his sword, to sustain the Government. [_Cheers._]
“Thanking you for the honor you have conferred upon me, I
now await any motion which may be made.”
Resolutions sustaining Emancipation were then read by Charles
W. Slack, and, amidst cries of “Good!” and great applause, were
adopted.