constitutional guarantees for the protection of slavery, they will say it is a "distinction without a difference," and will unite with the privileged classes in demanding an early recognition of the rebel government. And whenever their people are thus united, the independence of the rebel States will be acknowledged by their governments. Thus far in this controversy we have done much to alienate all foreign sympathy, and unless we change our policy we shall, in my judgment, lose the support of all the liberty-loving people of Europe. If this be lost, we surely can expect no support from the aristocratic element. As a nation we are in a critical condition, and it depends alone upon OUR OWN action whether we are to draw to us the support of the moral and Christian powers of the world, or permit them to become indifferent or openly hostile.

EFFECT OF A FOREIGN RECOGNITION OF THE REBELS UPON

THE NORTH.

As soon as the governments of England and France shall have recognized the rebel confederacy, a powerful anti-war and anti-tax party will spring up in the North in favor of peace and the recognition of the independence of the traitors. Thus, we shall be divided at home and at war with the great military powers abroad, unless we yield. We have those among us NOw who contend that we cannot put down this rebellion. How many shall we THEN have who will openly demand the separation of the States? They will say, "If you could not put down this rebellion single-handed, how can you expect to do it with England and France in the balance against you?" They tell us now that if we withdraw our armies from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, the secessionists will at once carry those States over to the rebel government, and I am not sure but they would. How certainly would it be the case if we were compelled to withdraw our armies to fight a foreign enemy. Let us look the truth squarely in the face. We may have a united nation of thirty millions of free men and the whole moral power of the world to sustain us, if we but WILL it, or we may alienate this power and be broken into fragments, never again to be united.

UNION OF SENTIMENT AND EFFORT NECESSARY.

With these facts before us, what is our duty? You know what I think. Let us then, forgetting all past differences, unite earnestly in adopting the only practical solution of this question that of striking the enemy in his most vulnerable point. [Applause.] In this grand battle let us cling with unfaltering faith and hope to the flag of our fathers, and fight on and fight ever, without concealment of our purposes, and without again compromising with wrong, until we lift the whole Union, "one and indivisible," above the ruin which to-night environs it - and the nation, thus purified, invigorated, and strengthened by the stern ordeal of battle, shall again shine out as the beacon light of liberty to the oppressed of the world, with no spot to darken her fair escutcheon, but shining out as beautiful as the morning, giving light and hope and joy to the struggling millions of the earth. [Applause.] To fight for such a government and such principles I have asked men all over my district to volunteer in the liberating army of the Republic. Who would not feel proud to belong to such an army? Who does not feel thankful that Providence has cast his lot where he may be an actor in such a contest? For

“We are living, we are dwelling,

In a grand and awful time.

In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.

Will ye play, then, will ye dally,

With your music and your wine?

Up! It is Jehovah's rally!

God's own arm hath need of thine !"

Fellow-citizens, I have spoken to you to-night freely and frankly. Much that I have said might have been omitted, and my own convictions and opinions, had I chosen, could have been entirely concealed. I have felt it be my duty, however, as I did last spring, when I apprised you in my letters of the formidable proportions of this rebellion, and the danger that beset the life of the nation, to call your

attention to the facts upon which I then based my opinions. I leave these facts with you for your judgment. When you have fully and impartially examined them, as I have, I will have no fear of your verdict. In a day or two more I go to Washington, and I confess to you that I never went to the discharge of a duty with more distrust in my own abilities nor with a more sincere desire for the aid and counsel of friends and the guidance of Him "who doeth all things well." Earnestly desiring above all things the restoration of peace, the Union and the Constitution, I shall continue to urge a vigorous prosecution of the war, to resist all attempts at compromise or surrender to the enemy by patching up a peace, knowing full well, as I do, that no peace can be honorable or enduring which is made over the prostrate form of Justice. [Applause.] Confident that the nation or people who do not rule in righteousness shall perish from the earth, I believe every citizen has a sacred duty to perform, in this trying hour of our country's peril, which is to aid by every means in his power in restoring the government to the principles and policy of its founders. I believe that the first and highest duty of government is to secure every loyal inhabitant in his person, his liberty, and his property, "protecting all and granting special favors to none." This is the sum and substance of my political faith. It is an exceedingly simple one, but is all the platform I ask, and I intend, with God's blessing, to be faithful to it in the midst of this rebellion, the dissolution of parties and the desertion of men, so that for my own honor and that of my children it shall never be truthfully said or written of me that I was an apostate to that faith, or that I abandoned the sacred cause of Liberty for the sake of place and power. [Long continued applause.]

SPEECH

OF HON. J. M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 11, 1862.

ON THE BILL FOR THE RELEASE OF CERTAIN PERSONS HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

"INITIATE EMANCIPATION."

Mr. Ashley said:

Mr. Chairman: I intend to vote for this bill as a national duty, and not as the representative of a locality. I shall vote for it without apology, and without disclaimer. I have no excuses to offer here, or elsewhere, for doing an act which even-handed justice demands. From the first I have been earnest and persistent in pressing this question of emancipation. It became my pleasing duty, in obedience to the request of the District Committee, to meet and confer with the senator who had charge of this subject in the other branch of the national legislature, and I may say, I trust,

Letter from Prof. J. P. Shorter, A. M., LL. D., Wilberforce, O.

On page 329 will be found a copy of the bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, as originally introduced by Mr. Ashley, with a brief history of its amendment and final passage, so as to compesnate loyal slave-owners. This speech and his masterly effort on page 333 in favor of the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, prohibiting slavery in the United States forever, will be read with unflagging interest. As we look back, we are amazed when reading Mr. Ashley's unanswerable arguments, his denunciations J. P. SHORTER. and prophecies. All can see that he had that clear vision, which is only given to him whose heart is in the right place, and who is born to be "a leader of hopes forlorn that must be led." And this is not strange nor miraculous, for, as the poet has beautifully expressed it, "When the heart goes before like a lamp and illumines the pathway, many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in darkness." J. P. SHORTer.

without impropriety, that the Senate could not well have confided it to a truer and more earnest friend of the measure.

After several meetings and consultations with leading members of both Houses, and citizens of the District, we agreed upon a bill, which was approved by each committee, and ordered to be reported in both Houses. This was the bill which I reported to the House on the 12th day of March last. I deem it due to myself, in this connection, to say that the bill then reported by me was not in all respects what I could desire; and I need hardly add that some of the Senate amendments are of a character to make it still more objectionable. But 1 am a practical man, and shall support this bill as the best we can get at this time. I have been shown a number of amendments which some of my friends on this side of the House desire to offer, and which I would prefer to the provisions which are proposed to be amended; but if offered I shall vote against them, as their adoption would greatly delay, if not endanger the passage of the bill at this session, because their adoption would necessarily return the bill to the Senate for their concurrence. I trust, therefore, that all friends of emancipation will decide to accept the Senate bill as it is, and vote against all amendments, so that the practical end aimed at by the earnest men of this House, the immediate liberation of all slaves in this District, shall at once be accomplished. The object to be attained, and not its particular mode of attainment, is what we ought all to have most at heart.

If I must tax the loyal people of the nation $1,000,000 before the slaves at the national capital can be ransomed, I will do it. I would make a bridge of gold over which they might pass to freedom, on the anniversary of the fall of Sumter, if it could not be more justly accomplished. The people of the United States must be relieved from all responsibility for the existence or longer continuance of human slavery at the capital of the Republic. The only question which I conceive I am called upon as a representative to decide is, has Congress the power and is it our duty to pass such a bill as the one before us?

Part of the sixteenth clause of the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution reads thus: