at home. They are not excused, they have not a furlough, and yet we Senators talk of our furlough.

Now it is known that formerly, when Congress was paid by the day, it never thought of adjourning at this time. One of the most important bills on your statute book bears date the 18th day of September, 1850;1 and for some years immediately thereafter Congress did not adjourn until late in August. I think I have sat myself close upon September; but when I mentioned this fact the other day, the Senator from Ohio reminded me that then Congress was paid by the day, whereas now it is paid by the year. Has it come to this, that Congress could sit here content when paid by the day, and now that it is paid by the year it leaves its important business to be neglected entirely, or to be hurried forward without that discussion which it ought to receive?

Sir, I hope the Senate will not consent to fix any day of adjournment. I hope it will sit here, proceeding regularly with the business now on its Calendar, and meeting any contingencies which in the present state of the country may arise. A duty is cast upon Congress which ought not to be slighted. It is to see that the Republic receives no detriment. Solemnly now this duty addresses itself to all of us. Let us not neglect it. For the sake of the public business, and for the sake of those responsibilities which from their very uncertainty at this crisis are so vast, I ask the Senate to continue here.

The resolution, which was originally for adjournment on Monday, July 14th, was amended by substituting Wednesday, July 16th, and then, as amended, adopted, Yeas 29, Nays 10.

1 The Fugitive Slave Act.

July 14th, President Lincoln communicated to Congress the draught of a bill to compensate any State which might abolish Slavery within its limits, the passage of which as presented he earnestly recommended. On motion of Mr. Sumner, the Message with the accompanying draught was referred to the Committee on Finance. Immediately thereafter he offered the following resolution.

"Resolved, That, in order that the two Houses of Congress may have time for the proper consideration of the Message of the President and the accompanying bill for Emancipation in the States, and for the transaction of other public business, the resolution fixing Wednesday, the 16th of July, for adjournment, is hereby rescinded."

The consideration of the resolution was objected to.

PATRIOTIC UNITY AND EMANCIPATION.

LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT NEW YORK, July 14, 1862.

DEA

WASHINGTON, July 14, 1862.

EAR SIR,-I welcome and honor your patriotic efforts to arouse the country to a generous, determined, irresistible unity in support of the National Government; but the Senate is still in session, and my post of duty is here. A Senator cannot leave his post, more than a soldier.

But, absent or present, the cause in which the people are to assemble has my God-speed, earnest, devoted, affectionate, and from the heart. What I can do let me do. There is no work I will not undertake, there is nothing I will not renounce, if so I may serve my country.

There must be unity of hands, and of hearts too, that the Republic may be elevated to the sublime idea of a true commonwealth, which we are told "ought to be but as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body." Oh, Sir, if my feeble voice could reach my fellow-countrymen, in workshops, streets, fields, and wherever they meet together, if for one moment I could take to my lips that silver trumpet with tones to sound and reverberate throughout the land, I would summon all, forgetting prejudice and turning away from error, to

1 Milton, Of Reformation in England, Book II.: Prose Works, ed. Symmons, Vol. I. p. 29.

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help unite, quicken, and invigorate our common country - most beloved now that it is most imperilled — to a compactness and bigness of virtue in just proportion to its extended dominion, so that it should be as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man, instinct with all the concentration of unity. Thus inspired, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us.

To this end the cries of faction must be silenced, and the wickedness of sedition, whether in print or public speech, must be suppressed. These are the Northern allies of the Rebellion. An aroused and indignant people, with iron heel, must tread them out forever, as men tread out the serpent so that it can neither hiss nor sting.

With such concord God will be pleased, and He will fight for us. He will give quickness to our armies, so that the hosts of the Rebellion will be broken and scattered as by the thunderbolt; and He will give to our beneficent government that blessed inspiration, better than newly raised levies, by which the Rebellion. shall be struck in its single vulnerable part, by which that colossal abomination, its original mainspring and present motive power, shall be overthrown, while the cause of the Union is linked with that divine justice whose weapons are of celestial temper.

God bless our country! and God bless all who now serve it with singleness of heart!

I have the honor to be, dear Sir,

Your faithful servant,

CHARLES GOULD, Esq.,

Secretary of the Select Committee.

CHARLES SUMNER.

HARMONY WITH THE PRESIDENT AND EMAN

CIPATION.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON THE JOINT RESOLUTION EXPLANATORY OF THE ACT FOR CONFISCATION AND LIBERATION, JULY 16, 1862.

WHILE the bill providing for Confiscation and Liberation was in the hands of the President, and before its signature, it was understood that he objected to it on certain grounds, one of which was that under it real estate was forfeited beyond life. In point of fact, the President had already drawn up a Message stating his objections to its becoming a law. In anticipation of these objections, a joint resolution was adopted, containing the provision, Nor shall any punishment or proceedings under said Act be so construed as to work a forfeiture of the real estate of the offender beyond his natural life.”2

Mr. Sumner did not sympathize with the objections, but, in his anxiety to secure the approval of the Act as a step to Emancipation, he did not hesitate to support the joint resolution.

July 16th, he said:

Mis much to say, but it must be said, and we must

R. PRESIDENT,- Our country is in peril. This

all govern ourselves accordingly. More than ever before, the time has come for an earnest, absolute, controlling patriotism. This is the lesson of the day. In presence of such peril, and under the weight of such duties, there is no pride of opinion which I would not freely sacrifice, nor can I stand on any order of proceeding. I ask no

1 Senate Journal, July 17, 1862, pp. 872-874. Congressional Globe, 37th Cong. 2d Sess., p. 3406.

2 Statutes at Large, Vol. XII. p. 627.