\ 
 
^ 
 ^ 
 
 
^A^DIDE-E SS 
 
 Hon. J. M. ASHLEY 
 
 -BEFORE THE- 
 
 '•OHIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK/" 
 
 At its Fifth Annual Banquet. Wednesday evening, February 19, 1890. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 Evening Post Job Print. 
 
New Yokk, February 20, 1890. 
 My Dear Goveknor Ashley: 
 
 At the banquet of the Ohio Society of New York last evening, 
 the President of the Society Avas, by unanimous vote, directed to 
 ask you to furnish to the Society for publication a copy of your 
 admirable paper on the passage through the House of Eepre- 
 sentatives of the United States of the Thirteenth Amendment to 
 the Constitution. In performance of this duty, I beg leave. to 
 present to you their request. 
 
 Let me add, personally, that this formal expression was sup- 
 
 l^lemented individually by every one of those present with 
 
 whom it was my fortune to converse. I am sure that I speak 
 
 for all present in expressing my individual appreciation of the 
 
 greatness and historic value of that action of which you were so 
 
 largely the inspiration, and in which you were the foremost 
 
 actor. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 WAGEK SWAYNE. 
 Hon. J. M. ASHLEY. 
 
 New York, February 21, 1890. 
 Genl. Wager Swayne, 
 
 President Ohio Society of New York, 
 195 Broadway. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Herewith jilease tind copy of my address as delivered before 
 your Society at the lifth annual banquet on the 19th i)ist. 
 
 It gives me pleasure to comply with a request in which is 
 conveyed so comj^limentary an approval by the Society and your- 
 self of the address. 
 
 I only regret that I did not have time to speak more in detail 
 of the personality of the immortal twenty-four who voted with 
 us, and thus made possible the passage of the Thirteenth 
 Amendment. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 J. M. ASHLEY. 
 
3Ir. President and Gentlemen of the Ohio Society of 
 Neiv York : 
 
 The official acts of the great actors in the conflict 
 of civilization with the barbarism of slavery are 
 faithfully recorded in the nation's archives and open 
 to the inspection and compilation of the coming his- 
 torian. 
 
 You will not expect me to-night to do more than 
 briefly notice some few of these men with whom it 
 was my good fortune to be associated during the 
 time Congress had under consideration the propo- 
 sitions to abolish slavery at the National Capitol and 
 the Thirteenth Amendment. 
 
 ■ When the story of our great anti-slavery conflict 
 shall have been written it will make one of the most 
 ideal chapters in our matchless history. 
 
 That chapter will tell the coming generatiojis of 
 men the story of the immortal victory achieved by 
 the A^merican people for democratic government and 
 an undivided Union; a victory whose far-reaching 
 consequences no man can even now foresee. 
 
 In the fullness of time to every nation and people 
 great leaders are born, and some one or more of these 
 earnest leaders, by the utterance of a simple moral 
 truth in a brief couplet or in a single epigrammatic 
 sentence, have often in the world's history changed 
 the opinions of thousands. 
 
 Especially true was this of the written appeals 
 and public addresses of the great anti-slavery lead- 
 ers in this country for more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury before the rebellion. He was indeed a dull and 
 insensible man who during our anti-slavery crusade 
 did not grow eloquent and become aggressive when 
 writing and speaking of slavery as the great crime 
 
of his age and country. To me, as a boy, the men 
 who made up this vanguard of anti-slavery leaders 
 always appeared to be exceptionally great men, men 
 who walked the earth with unfaltering faith and a 
 firm tread, with heads erect, so that their prophetic 
 eyes caught the dawn of Freedom's coming morn. 
 They were brave, strong, self-reliant men, whose 
 words and acts all testified that their great hearts 
 "burned to break the fetters of the world." These 
 men had no thought of witnessing during their 
 lifetime the triumph of the cause which they had 
 so unselfishly espoused; they were tireless and in- 
 vincible workers. The alluring promise of success 
 nowhere held out to them hope of political reward. 
 To an unpopular cause they gave all they had of 
 time, money and brains, not doubting that those 
 who should come after them would be able to com- 
 mand and so to direct the moral forces of the nation 
 as ultimately to enact justice into law by "proclaim- 
 ing liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabit- 
 ants thereof." Under this banner they went forth, 
 conquering and to conquer, and in all their impas- 
 sioned appeals they " sounded forth the bugle that 
 never called retreat." 
 
 To have voluntarily enlisted and fought with this 
 liberating army until our starry banner was planted 
 in triumph on the last citadel of American slavery, 
 is an honor of w^hich the humblest citizen and his 
 children may justly be proud, an honor which will 
 grow brighter in all the coming years of the Republic. 
 
 I was so young when I enlisted in this liberating 
 army that I cannot fix the date. 
 
 At the home of a neighbor, a Virginian by birth, 
 and until the close of his manly life a resident of 
 Kentucky, I heard, with wondering emotions, the 
 first song in which a slave was represented as appeal- 
 ing to his captors for his freedom. I was but nine 
 years old, but that song with its story touched my 
 heart, and, though I never saw it in pj-int, T never 
 
forgot it. The verse of this song that arrested my 
 attention and remained fixed in my memory is as 
 clear to me to-night as it was more than half a cen- 
 tury ago. 
 
 It was the plaintive appeal of an escaped slave, in 
 simple rhyme, such as slaves often sang to tunes 
 with which all are familiar who have heard the old- 
 fashioned plantation melodies. 
 
 In that appeal to his captors 
 
 " He showed the stripes his master gave, 
 The branded scars — the sightless eye, 
 The common badges of a slave. 
 And said he would be free or die." 
 
 I did not know until then that the slave-master 
 had the right to whip, brand and maim his slave. 
 It was at the home of this venerable anti-slavery 
 man (who made the world better for his having lived 
 in it) that I first learned this fact, and it was at his 
 house that I first heard repeated many of the fiery 
 utterances of Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky. After 
 showing an appreciation of these anti-slavery senti- 
 ments I was frequently lifted on a chair or table by 
 our old anti-slavery neighbor and taught to declaim 
 from the speeches of Cassius M. Clay and others, 
 I was so fascinated by a paragraph from a speech 
 made by Governor McDowell, of Virginia, that it 
 always gave me pleasure to speak it, as I often did, 
 with such earnestness as to secure me as honest ap- 
 plause in that quiet anti-slavery household as any 
 I ever commanded on the platform in after years. 
 
 I never forgot that appeal of Governor McDowell, 
 and often used it after I grew to manhood, and 
 quoted it in one of my early speeches in Congress, as 
 I again quote it here: 
 
 "You may place the slave where you please, you 
 may dry up to your uttermost the fountain of his 
 feelings, the springs of his thought, you may close 
 upon his mind every avenue to knowledge, and 
 cloud it over with artificial night, you may yoke 
 
6 
 
 him to labor as an ox— which Hveth only to work, 
 and worketh only to live; you may put him under 
 any process which without destroying his value as 
 a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational 
 being— you may do all this; and yet, the idea that 
 he was born free will survive it all. It is allied to 
 his hope of immortality— it is the eternal part of his 
 nature which oppression cannot reach. It is a torch 
 lit up in his soul by the hand of Deity, and never 
 meant to be extinguished by the hand of man." 
 
 I speak of these seemingly unimportant incidents 
 of my boyhood to confirm what I said in opening 
 touching the influence which one brave, truthful 
 man can exercise over thousands, and to illustrate 
 the tremendous power a single thought may often 
 have over the acts and lives of reader and hearer. 
 From my ninth to my thirteenth year my father was 
 preaching on a circuit in the border counties of 
 Kentucky and West Virginia, and afterwards in 
 Southeastern Ohio. 
 
 During our residence in Kentucky and West Vir- 
 ginia I did not know a single abolitionist except the 
 family which I have described, and not until I was 
 in my seventeenth year did I meet and become ac- 
 quainted with Cassius M. Clay and John CI. Fee. 
 8ometimc afterwards I met James G. Burney, who 
 became the abolition candidate for President in lSi4. 
 
 The leaders of the church to which my father 
 belonged, and, indeed, the leaders in all Southern 
 churches in those days, publicly affirmed "that 
 slavery per se could exist without sin," a doc- 
 trine which I regarded then, as I do now, as a per- 
 version of the teachings of Christ. It has always 
 been a source of satisfaction to me that my mother, 
 who was a conservative woman, never gave in her 
 adhesion to this rascally defense of "the sum of 
 all villainies." 
 
 At that time, in all the border counties of Ken- 
 tucky, slavery existed in a milder form than in any 
 other part of the Southwewt, and the slave owners 
 
whom I knew were much better men than one would 
 in this day believe possible under any slave system. 
 
 And yet the system in its practical working was so 
 monstrous that before I had grown to manhood I 
 had publicly pronounced against it, and, as many 
 before me know, I fought it with an energy which 
 never tired, and a faith which never faltered. 
 
 While entertaining the anti-slavery opinions of 
 Jefferson and the men of 1776, and everywhere pro- 
 claiming them without concealment, I was elected 
 to Congress in 1858, when in my thirty-fourth year, 
 and for the first time took my seat in a deliberative 
 body in the Thirty-sixth Congress during the ad- 
 ministration of Mr. Buchanan. 
 
 At that time the pro-slavery conspirators were 
 preparing for armed rebellion, and for the desperate 
 attempt, which they soon made, to establish a slave 
 empire on the ruins of the Republic. 
 
 There I met many anti-slavery leaders of age and 
 experience, to whose ranks I was eagerly welcomed. 
 
 I entered upon the straight and narrow path that 
 led to victory. I faltered but once. That was on the 
 vote on the Crittenden Resolution in July, 186 1 . The 
 vote was 117 yeas; noes, 2. Mr. Potter of Wisconsin 
 and Mr. Riddle of Ohio voting No. 
 
 I had been appealed to by almost every public man 
 of my acquaintance in Washington and by my per- 
 sonal and political friends to vote for the resolution, 
 and not assume the responsibility of separating my- 
 self at such a time and on so important a matter 
 from my party. When my name was called I 
 shook my head, as was then the custom; my name 
 was called the second time, and I again shook my 
 head, the blush of shame tingling my face, as it has 
 every time I have thought of that act or looked at 
 the record since and read, " Not voting, J. M. Ash- 
 ley." I never felt the sense of shame so keenly be- 
 fore nor since; and turning to Mr. Corwin, my ven- 
 erable colleague, as the vote was announced, I said, 
 
8 
 
 with emotion, "Governor, that is the most cowardly 
 act of my life, and no power on earth shall again 
 make me repeat it." " Why, General," he exclaimed, 
 with evident warmth, '' I voted for it.''^ I saw that 
 I had, in the excitement of the moment, offended 
 him, and I made haste to assure him that I intended 
 nothing of the sort, as all would have done who had 
 offended so lovable, companionable and just a man 
 as Governor Cor win. I promptly extended my 
 hand and said, " Yes, Governor, but you do not see 
 things as I do." I need hardly add that after this I 
 did not again refuse to vote on any question, nor did 
 I, during my entire service, give a single vote that 
 to-night I would change. 
 
 Great occasions produce great men. The State of 
 Ohio furnished her full quota for the crisis of 1S61: 
 
 Joshua R. Giddings, the leader of the "old guard, 
 one blast upon whose bugle horn was worth a 
 thousand men." 
 
 Salmon P. Chase, Senator, Governor, Cabinet 
 Minister and Chief Justice, who ranked next to Lin- 
 coln in leadership. 
 
 Thomas Ewing, profound statesman, great lawyer, 
 and Cabinet Minister under General Hairison in 
 ISil. 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, the great War Secretary, 
 earnest, fearless, tireless. 
 
 Judge McLean, the ideal Judge, representing on 
 tlie bench the coming civilization, tlie writer of the 
 dissenting opinion in the Dread Scott case. 
 
 Judge Swayne, judicial, conscientious, a great 
 worker and the early friend and confidant of Lin- 
 coln. 
 
 Benjamin V. Wade, bluff, positive, ready to meet 
 the enemy in the field or forum. 
 
 John Sherman, keen, politic, far-sighted and suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 In the House — Tbomas Corwin, Bingham, Law- 
 rence, Hutchins, Spaulding, Schellabeigcr, Schenck, 
 Hayes and Garfield. 
 
9 
 
 Our War Governors, Dennisoii, Todd and Brough, 
 unequaled as organizers and in administrative power. 
 
 On the Democratic side there were Senator Thur- 
 man and Representatives Vallandigham, Pendleton, 
 Cox and Morgan, with many ahle men in private 
 hfe, who were active in demanding our "authority 
 and precedents " for all we proposed, and much that 
 we did for which we had no "precedent." 
 
 In the army Ohio eclipsed the world. That won- 
 derful triumvirate of commanders. Grant, Sherman 
 and Sheridan, were without models and without 
 equals. And then we had McPherson, Garfield, 
 Steadman, Swayne, Cox and Buckland, and hun- 
 dreds hesides, who, on the field and in the forum, 
 made the name of Ohio everywhere synonymous 
 with great deeds and heroic acts. ' 
 
 In such a cause, with such leaders, success was 
 foreordained. 
 
 When the official records of Congress during the 
 administration of Mr. Buchanan are examined by 
 the historian of the future, and the so-called com- 
 promise proposition of the Union-saving Committee 
 of thirty-three (of which Charles Francis Adams of 
 Massachusetts was Chairman) is compared with the 
 Thirteenth Amendment, which three years later be- 
 came part of our National Constitution, it will be dif- 
 ficult for him to find reasons for the extraordinary 
 revolution in public opinion which these two pro- 
 posed amendments to our National Constitution pre- 
 sent. And here I wish I could walk backward with 
 averted gaze, and with the broad mantle of charity 
 cover the political nakedness of our own beloved 
 State, which, by the vote of its Legislature, com- 
 mitted the indefensible folly of ratifying the pro- 
 slavery amendment proposed by the Committee of 
 thirty-three, and thus officially consented to its be- 
 coming a part of our National Constitution. 
 
 To me the propositions of the so-called "Peace 
 Congress," over which ex-President John Tyler, of 
 
10 
 
 Virginia, presided, were preposterous and offensive, 
 and the " pledge " of the " Crittenden Resolution " a 
 delusion and a snare, cunningly designed to paralyze 
 and nianade us. 
 
 Every sane man vvho to-day reads the numerous 
 proposed constitutional amendments with vvjiich 
 Congress at that time was deluged will recognize the 
 fact that they were all studiously and deliberately 
 prepared for the avowed purpose of protecting 
 slavery by new and more exacting guarantees. 
 
 This celebrated Compromise Committee of thirty- 
 three reported and recommended an amendment 
 w^hich pi-actically made slavery perpetual. 
 
 It was in these words: 
 
 "_. Article I2th. No amendments shall be made 
 " to the Constitution which shall authorize or give 
 " Congress the |)ower to abolish or interfere within 
 " any State with the doinestitt institutions thereof, 
 " in( hiding that of ])ersons held to labor or service 
 " by the laws of such State." 
 
 Imagine, if you can, what the other piopositions 
 were, if this was the most favorable which the Com- 
 promise Connnittee of thirty-three could obtain for 
 us. 
 
 Two days before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration this 
 abasement was made to the slave barons by a. two- 
 thirds vote of both Houses of the Congress of the 
 United States, and the act was approved by Presi- 
 dent Buchanan. 
 
 I do not believe a more shameless exhibition on 
 the part of a civilized people can be found in history. 
 
 Piior to this proposed surrender to the slave 
 barons, a number of the Southern States had passed 
 ordinances of secession, and defiantly organized a 
 government, witli Jefferson Davis as President. 
 
 That such humiliating concessions were as defense- 
 less then as they would be now, and as offensive to 
 the civilization of the nineteenth century, will not be 
 questioned. 
 
11 
 
 The nation had not then learned that the strength 
 of a statesman hes in his fidelity to justice — not in 
 his concessions to injustice. 
 
 Our official records, for nearly half a century be- 
 fore the Rebellion, presented one unbroken series of 
 fruitless conijDroniises vvitli the slave barons, until 
 in their pride and arrogance they believed themselves 
 able to direct successfully any revolution and ride 
 with safety any storm. 
 
 At last we came to know^ that all our concessions 
 w^ere regarded by them as irrevocable; that nothing 
 but new' concessions would be accepted by them, 
 and that they would only consent to remain in the 
 Union on the express condition that we should bind 
 ourselves for all time to record their pro-slavery 
 decrees in every department of the National and 
 State governments. 
 
 The rebels witnessed our efforts at an adjustment 
 with shouts of derision and defiance, and said, " Now 
 we have the Yankees on a dow^i grade, and on the 
 run." 
 
 They learned afterwards to their sori'ovv that, 
 however true this might have been under the lead- 
 ership of Buchanan, it was no longer ti-ue under 
 the leadership of Lincoln. Yet, alas! it is true, that 
 immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln and 
 before his inauguration, many men who had been 
 active anti-slavery men quailed before the approach- 
 ing storm, which their own brave appeals for liberty 
 had aided in producing. 
 
 They comprehended what civil war, with all its 
 attendant horrors, meant to a civilized people, and 
 shrank from its terrible consequences, and as the 
 acts of their representatives proved, they were will- 
 ing to do everything in tlieir power to avoid it. 
 These timid anti-slavery men were representatives 
 of the wealth, the manufacturing industry, the com- 
 merce, the peaceful farm-life of the North and 
 West, and the best civilization of the age. They 
 were for peace; they believed in an api)eal to the 
 
12 
 
 conscience and heart of the nation, at the ballot box, 
 and in loyally submitting to the verdict when ren- 
 dered. They never would have a-])i)ealed fiom the 
 ballot box to the cartridge box. The great heart of 
 the North was still and for a time held its breath 
 while re-echoing with hope the sentiment of their 
 beloved Quaker Poet, when, just before the Kebehion, 
 he uttered this sublime prayer: 
 
 " Perisli with him tiie tiiought, 
 That seeks, lli rough evil, good ; 
 Long live the generous purpose 
 Unstained by human blood." 
 
 While I did not adopt, without qualification, the 
 memorable utterances of Daniel O'Connell, the gi-eat 
 Irish leader, when he declared "that no revolution 
 was worth the shedding of one drop of human blood," 
 I everywhere proclaimed " that in this country, so 
 long as the press was free and speech was free, and 
 the ballot was free, no revolution was worth the 
 shedding of one drop of human blood." 
 
 The speeches, appeals and acts of the leaders of 
 the two sections were entirely characteristic. 
 
 The Southern leaders, instead of quailing before 
 the storm which their passionate appeals had raised, 
 defiantly mounted and rode the storm, fit types of 
 the barbarism which they championed. 
 
 When the North, with the loyal men of the border 
 States, fully comprehended the fact that there could 
 be no peace nor union unless the Rebellion was 
 suppressed by force, and slavery, which made the 
 Rebellion possible, was abolished, they buckled on 
 their armor and went forth to conquer. 
 
 During the first session of Congress, after Mr. 
 Lincoln became President, I introduced a hill for the 
 abolition of slavery in th(^ District of Columbia. It 
 contained but one short section, and simply enacted 
 " that slavery, or involuntary servitude, should cease 
 in the District of Columbia from and after the pas- 
 sage of this act." I sent it to the Committee on the 
 
13 
 
 District of Columbia, of wliich I was a member, and 
 Roscoe Conkling, of New York, was cbairman. 
 Wbeii the bill was read in the District Committee, 
 it was by common consent referred to me, as a sub- 
 committee of one. The excitement and indignation 
 which that bill caused in the District Committee, 
 and the undisguised disgust entertained for me per- 
 sonally by the pro slavery members of the Commit- 
 tee, would be amusing now, but it was a matter of 
 serious moment then. 
 
 I felt certain that a majority of that Committee 
 did not intend to let me report that bill or any other 
 of like character to the House for a vote. As soon 
 as it was known that I had the matter in charge, by 
 direction of tlie District Committee Mr. Chase sent 
 for me, and discussed the proposition which I had 
 introduced, and suggested instead, a bill vvhich should 
 compensate the "loyal slave owners" by paying 
 them a "ransom," which should not exceed three hun- 
 dred dollars a head for each slave, and enforced his 
 argument by adding that Mr. Lincoln was seriously 
 considering the practicability of compensating the 
 border States if they would take the initiative 
 and emancipate their slaves, and he added, "I want 
 you to see the President, and if possible prepare a 
 bill which will command the necessary votes of both 
 Houses of Congress and the active support of the 
 Administration." 
 
 I saw the President next day and went over the 
 ground with him, substantiahy as I had with Mr. 
 Chase, and finally agreed that I would ask for the 
 appointn^ent of a Senator on the part of the Senate 
 District Committee to unite with me to frame a bill, 
 which the Senate and House Committees would re- 
 port favorably, and which should have the Presi- 
 dent's approval, and the support of as many of the 
 Representatives from the border States as we could 
 induce to vote to "initiate emancipation," as Mr. 
 Lincoln expressed it. 
 
14 
 
 Fortunately for the success of the compensation 
 policy, the Senate District Committee designated as 
 that sub-committee-man, Lot M. Morrell, of Maine, 
 to confer with me and prepare such a hill as Mr. 
 Lincoln and Chase had outlined. 
 
 After several meetings a hill was finally agreed 
 upon which appropriated one million dollars to pay 
 loyal owners for their slaves at a price not to exceed 
 $300 each. 
 
 This bill had the approval of Mi-. Lincoln and 
 Chase and other anti-slavery leaders, before it was 
 submitted to the District Committees for their action 
 and recommendation to each House of Congress. 
 
 Personally, I did not agree with Mr. Lincoln in 
 his border State policy, but was unwilling to set up 
 my judgment against his, especially when he was 
 supported by such men as Chase, Fessenden, Trum- 
 bull, and a large majority of Union men in both 
 Houses of Congress. I therefore yielded my privates 
 opinions on a matter of policy, for reasons which I 
 then gave and will presently quote, and because I 
 was determined that that Congr(>ss should not ad- 
 journ until slavery had been abolished at the 
 National Capital. 
 
 I did not want to appropriate a million of dollars 
 from the National Treasury to pay the slave owners 
 of the District of Columbia for their slaves, because 
 1 was opposed to officially recognizing proi)erty in 
 man, and for the additional reason that I was con 
 fidont that befoi'(? the close of the war slavery would 
 be abolished without compensation. And I believed 
 then, and believe now, that at least two thirds of all 
 the so-called " loyal slave owners " in the District of 
 Columbia who applied for and accepted compensation 
 for their slaves, would at that time have welcomed 
 Jefferson Davis and his government in Washington 
 with every demonstration of joy. 
 
 On the 12th of Marcli, 18(52, by direction of the 
 Committee for the District of Columbia, I i-eported 
 
15 
 
 the bill to the House as it had been agreed upon by 
 Mr. Morrell and myself, with the approval of Mr. 
 Lincoln, Mr. Chase and others. 
 
 On the nth of April, 1802, the bill, as amended by 
 the Senate, passed the House by a vote of 92 for to 
 38 against, and at once received the signature of the 
 President. 
 
 In the speech which I delivered that day I said : 
 "I do not believe that Congress has any more power 
 to make a slave than to make a king," and added, 
 "If then there is, as I claim, no power in Congress 
 to reduce any man or race to slavery, it certainly will 
 not be claimed that Congress has power to legalize 
 such regulations as exist t(3 day touching persons 
 held as slaves in this District by re-enacting the 
 slave laws of Maryland, and thus do by indirection 
 what no sane man claims authority to do directly." 
 * * * '' If I must tax the loyal people of the 
 nation a million of dollars before the slaves at the 
 National Capital can be ransomed I will do it. I will 
 make a bridge of gold over which they may pass to 
 freedom on the anniversary of the fall of Sumter, if 
 it cannot be more justly accomplished." 
 
 As the nation had been guilty of riveting the 
 chains of all the slaves in the District, and Mr. Lin- 
 coln and Mr. Chase, and so large a majority of the 
 friends of the Union desired the passage of this act, 
 believing that it would aid them in holding the border 
 slave States, I yielded my own opinions, and voted 
 to pay the loyal owners of the District for their 
 slaves, and thus aided Mr. Lincoln in initiating 
 emancipation by compensation. But events were 
 stronger than men or measures, and this was the 
 first and last of compensation. 
 
 On the Uth of December, 18(53, I introduced a 
 proposition to amend the Constitution, abolishing 
 slavery in all the States and Territories of the nation, 
 whi('h, on my motion, was refei-red to the Connnittee 
 on the Judiciary. In a speech during that session 
 
16 
 
 of Congress urging the submission of such an amend- 
 ment, I said: "I advocated from the first the 
 emancipation of all slaves, because I believed ideas 
 more formidable than armies, justice more powerful 
 than prejudice, and truth a weapon mightiei- than 
 the sword." 
 
 The fall of A^icksburg and the great victory of 
 Gettysbui'g had solidified the Union men North and 
 South, and assured them of ultimate success. 
 
 The crushing defeat of Hood at Nashville by 
 Thomas, the investment of Richmond by Grant, 
 and Sherman's triumphant march from the moun- 
 tains to the sea, was an announcement to the world 
 that all armed opposition to the Government was 
 appi-oaching its end. 
 
 It now only remained, that the statesmen who 
 had provided for and organized our great armies 
 should crown their matchless victories with un- 
 fading glory, by engrafting into our National Con- 
 stitution a provision which should make peace and 
 union inseparable by removing forever the cause 
 of tlie war, and making slavery everywhere impos- 
 sible beneath the flag of the Republic. 
 
 On the 15th of June, ISiU, the House voted on the 
 proposed constitutional amendment, and it was de- 
 feated by a vote of 1)4 for it and 64 against it. I 
 thereupon changed niy vote before the announce- 
 ment was made, as I had the right to do under the 
 rules, and my vote was recorded with the opposition 
 in order that I might enter a motion foi- reconsidera- 
 tion. 
 
 In the ('lobe, as the vote stands recorded, it is 03 
 for to 65 against. This vote disappointed, but it did 
 not discourage me. Had every member been present 
 and voted, it would have required l'J2 votes to pass 
 the amendment, whereas we could mustci- Imt i>4, 
 or 28 less than recpiiriMl. 
 
 As 1 now look l)ack, and review with calmer 
 emotions than 1 did then tiie great battle we were 
 
IT 
 
 fio-hting, I comprehend more fully the power of 
 that simple and sublime faith which inspired all 
 the living heroes in that historic hour. 
 
 In his ''Twenty Years of Congress" Mr. Blaine 
 has given me credit, in full measure, for introducing 
 and pressing the first proposition made in the House 
 of Representatives for the abolition of slavery in the 
 United States by an amendment to the National 
 Constitution, and for effective parliamentary work 
 in securing its passage. Personally, I never regarded 
 the work which I then did as entitling me to special 
 recognition. It was to me a duty, and because I so 
 felt, I have never publicly written or spoken about 
 my connection with it, and should not have done so 
 before you to-night but tor tlie pressing invitation 
 of our President, who acts as if he regarded it as 
 part of his duty, while charged with the care of 
 this Society, to bring every modest Ohio man to the 
 front. 
 
 There was at that time so many n^ble and unself- 
 ish men in the House of Representatives entitled to 
 recognition for effective work in behalf of the Thir- 
 teenth Amendment, that I have always preferred 
 not to single out any one member a.-* entitled to 
 more credit than another. I certainly did not ex- 
 pect any such complimentary recognition as Mr. 
 Blaine has so generously given me. 
 
 Educated in the political school of Jefferson, I 
 was absolutely amazed at the solid Democratic vote 
 against the amendment on the 1 5th of June. To 
 me it looked as if the golden hour had come, when 
 the Democratic party could, without apology, and 
 without regret, emancipate itself from the fatal 
 dogmas of Calhoun, and reaflirm the doctrines of 
 Jefferson. It had always seemed to me that the 
 great men in the Democratic party had shown a 
 broader spirit in favor of human liberty than their 
 political opponents, and imtil the domination of Mr. 
 Calhoun and his States-rights disciples, this was un- 
 
18 
 
 doubtedly true. On the death of General Harrison in 
 1841, and after John Tyler became the acting Presi- 
 dent, I date the organized conspiracy of the slave 
 barons, which culminated in the Rebellion. 
 
 A man of singleness of purpose and disinterested- 
 ness, possesses a wonderful power which is soon re- 
 cognized by his associates in the Congress of the 
 United States. The leading men in both Senate and 
 House, and in nearly all the executive departments, 
 knew that my only ambition was to accomplish the 
 task with which (as Mr. Blaine expresses it) I was 
 "by common consent, specially charged." The only 
 reward I expected, and the only reward I ever had, or 
 shall ever have, is the satisfaction of knowing that I 
 did my whole duty, nothing more, nothing less. I at 
 once gave special care to the study of the characters 
 and antecedents of thirty-six of the members who 
 did not vote for the amendment on the 15th of June, 
 and made up my mind that if we could force the issue 
 of the Thirteenth Amendment into the pending pres- 
 idential contest, and Mr. Lincoln should be elected 
 in November, that the requisite number of liberal 
 Democrats and border State Union men who had 
 voted against and defeated the amendment in June 
 might be prevailed upon to vote with us after Mr. 
 Lincoln had been re-elected on that issue. In this 
 faith, and with this hope, I at once began a system- 
 atic study of the characters of the men whose co- 
 operation and votes must be secured as a condition 
 to success. 
 
 During this six months' experience I learned 
 something of the tremendous power of a single man 
 when making earnest appeals to his colleagues. ( )ne 
 source of ever-present embarrassment to me was the 
 fact that I had but little experience in legislation, 
 and that nearly every one of my colleagues to wliom 
 I was atldressing myself was my senior in years. 
 In this great work I had tlie earnest support of the 
 Administration, the great majority of the Republican 
 
19 
 
 party, and many earnest men in public and private 
 life. 
 
 On the 28th of June, 18(34-, Mr. Hohnan, of In- 
 diana, rose in the House, and said " that he de- 
 sired to know wliether the gentleman from Ohio 
 (Mr. Ashley) who entered the motion to reconsider 
 the vote by which the House rejected the bill pro- 
 posing an amendment to the Constitution abolish- 
 ing slavery throughout all the States and Territories 
 of the United States, proposed to call that motion 
 up during the present session.'' In reply, I said 
 that I did not propose to call the motion up dur- 
 ing the present session; " but as the record had been 
 made up, we would go to the country on the issue 
 thus presented." And I added: " When the verdict 
 of the people shall have been rendered next Novem- 
 ber, I trust this Congress will return determined to 
 engraft that verdict into the National Constitution." 
 I thereupon gave notice that I would call up the 
 proposition at the earliest possible moment after our 
 meeting in December next (See Globe, June 2Sth, 
 1864). 
 
 Immediately after giving this notice, I went to 
 work to secure its passage, and it may not be unin- 
 teresting if I outline to you the way I conducted that 
 campaign. 
 
 The question thus presented became one of the 
 leading issues of the Presidential Campaign of 1861. 
 
 The Administration — the Kepublican party— and 
 many* men who were not partizans, now gave the 
 measure their warm support. 
 
 Knowing that Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, 
 and Frank P. Blair, of Missouri, would vote for the 
 amendment whenever their votes would secure its 
 passage, I went to them to learn who of the border- 
 State members were men of broad and liberal views, 
 and strong and self-reliant enough to follow their 
 convictions, even to political death, provided they 
 could know that their votes would pass the measure. 
 
20 
 
 The following is the list of the names of the 
 ])ordei'-State men, as made up within two weeks 
 after the defeat of the amendment m June, 1864: 
 James S. Rollins, Henry S. Blow. Benjamin F. Loan, 
 ex-Gov. King, S. H. Boyd, Frank P. Blair and 
 Joseph W. McClurg of Missouri; Green Clay Smith, 
 George H. Yeaman, Brutus J. Clay and Lucius 
 Anderson of Kentucky; John A. J. Cresswell, Gov. 
 Francis Thomas, E. H, Webster and Henry Winter 
 Davis of Maryland; Kellian Y. Whaley, Jacob P. 
 Blair, and William G. Brown of West Vii-ginia, and 
 N. B. Smithers of Delaware. Of the 19 thus selected 
 lo voted for the amendment, and marched to their 
 political death. 
 
 After conferring with Reuben E. Fenton and 
 Augustus Frank of New York, I made up the follow- 
 ing list of liberal Northern Democrats, whose votes 
 I hoped to secure for the amendment: 
 
 Moses F. Odell, Homer A. Nelson, John A. Gris- 
 wold, Anson Herrick, John B. Steele, Charles F. 
 Winfield, William Radford and John Ganson of New 
 York; S. S. Cox, Warren P. Noble, Wells A. Hut- 
 chins, John F. McKenney and Francis C. Le Blond 
 of Ohio; Archibald McAllistei- and Alex. H. Coffrotli 
 of Pennsylvania; James E. English of Connecticut, 
 and Augustus C. Baldwin of Michigan. 
 
 Of the 17 Northern Democrats thus selected, 
 eleven voted for the amendment, two were absent, 
 and one who had promised me to vote for it and pre- 
 pared a speech in its favor, finally voted against. 
 Of the 3(j members originally selected as men natur- 
 ally inclined to favoi- the amendment, and strong 
 enough to meet and repel the tierce partisan attack 
 which were certain to be made upon them, 24 voted 
 for it, two were absent, and but feu voted against it. 
 
 Every honorable effort was made by the Admin- 
 istration to secure the passage of this amendment. 
 
 At my request Tuesday, January olst, 1805, was 
 the day fixed for the vote to be taken on the amend- 
 ment. 
 
21 
 
 A faithful record of the final act of the 38th Con- 
 gress on this question will he found on pages 523 to 
 531 of the Congressional Globe. 
 
 The Speaker stated the question, and announced 
 " That the gentleman from Ohio was entitled to the 
 floor," which under the rules gave me one hour in 
 which to close the debate. 
 
 Never before, and certain I am that never again, 
 will 1 be seized with so strong a desire to give utter- 
 ance to the thoughts and emotions which throbbed 
 my heart and brain. 
 
 I knew that the hour was at hand when the world 
 would witness the complete triumph of a cause, 
 which at the beginning of my political life I had not 
 hoped to live long enough to see, and that on that 
 day, l)efore our session closed, an act, as just as it 
 was merciful to oppressor and oppressed, was to be 
 enacted into law, and soon thereafter became a part 
 of our National Constitution forever. 
 
 The hour and the occasion was an immortal one 
 in the Nation's history, and memorable to each 
 actor who voted for the amendment. 
 
 Every available foot of space, both in the galleries 
 and on the floor of the House, was crowded at an 
 eai'ly hour, and many hundred could not get within 
 hearing. Never before, nor afterwards, did I see so 
 brilHant and distinguished a gathering in that hall, 
 nor one where the feeling was more intense. The 
 Judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the 
 Cabinet, the Vice-President and Senators, most of 
 the foreign Ministers and all the distinguished 
 visitors who could secure seats, with their wives, 
 daughters and friends, w6re present to witness the 
 sublimest event in our National life. 
 
 You will readily understand that this was an oc- 
 casion to inspire any man of my temperament with 
 a strong desire to speak, and yet it was beyond ques- 
 tion my duty to yield all my time to gentlemen of 
 the opposition, who had promised to vote for the 
 
22 
 
 amendment, and desired to have recorded in the 
 official organ of the House the reasons for the vote 
 which they were about to give. 
 
 The first gentleman to whom I yielded was the 
 Hon. Archibald McAllister of Pennsylvania, an old- 
 fashioned Democrat of the Jackson school. He was 
 not a speaker, and the brief " statement," as he called 
 it, which he sent to the Clerk's desk to be read for him 
 as he stood on the floor, with every eye in that 
 great hall fixed on his tall form, is so characteristic, 
 and withal expiesses so tersely the reasons which 
 impelled him and thousands of other loyal and con- 
 servative men to demand the immediate abolition of 
 slavery, that I (juote wiiat lie said entire. 
 
 I will read it to you, and repeat what he said, as 
 nearly as I can, with the same intonation of voice 
 and manner as he read it to me in my Committee 
 room that morning, a few minutes before the House 
 convened. 
 
 He said " That it was due to his constituents that 
 they should know why he changed his vote, and that 
 he could not make a speech, that he was so nervous 
 that he dare not even trust himself to read what he 
 had written, and asked me if I would yield him the 
 floor long enough to allow him to send to the Clerk's 
 desk, and have read what he desired to say to his 
 constituents." I never was more anxious to yield the 
 floor to any man than 1 was to him, and answered, 
 "Certainly, I will be glad to yield yon all the time 
 you ask." He then read me this short, and now his- 
 torical, speech, and I said to him then, as I say to 
 you now, that it was, under all the circumstances, 
 the best and most eloquent speech delivered in the 
 House of Representatives in favor of the Thirteenth 
 Amendment. This is the si)eech, and the way he 
 read it to me: 
 
 " When this subject was before this ITouse on a 
 former occasion, I voted against the measure. I 
 
23 
 
 have been in favor of exhausting all means of 
 conciliation lo restore the Union as our fathers 
 made it. I am for the whole Union and utterly 
 opposed to secession, or dissolution in any shape. 
 The result of all the peace missions, and especi- 
 ally that of Ml-. Blair, has satisfied me that 
 nothing short of the recognition of their inde- 
 pendence will satisfy the Southern Confederacy. It 
 must therefore be destroyed, and in voting for the 
 present measuie, I cast my vote against the corner- 
 stone of the Southern Confedei'acy, and declare 
 eternal war against the enemies of my country." 
 
 As soon as he had finished reading it, I grasped his 
 hand with enthusiasm, and heartily congratulated 
 him, and said, " Mr. McAllister, that is a better and 
 more telliug speech by far than any which has been 
 made for the amendment, and I believe that it will 
 be quoted hereafter more than any sj^eech made in 
 Congress in its favor." 
 
 When the Clerk of the House finished reading this 
 brief speech of this plain, blunt man, it called forth 
 general applause on the floor and in the galleries, 
 and when I afterwards read it to Mr. Lincoln, Chase 
 and others, they were then as pronounced in its en- 
 dorsement as I am now. 
 
 To the end that there should be no pretext for 
 " filibustering" (as I knew the amendment might be 
 defeated in that way), I determined from the start 
 to so conduct the debate that every gentleman op- 
 posed to the amendment who cared to be heard 
 should have ample time and opportunity. 
 
 After the previous question had been seconded, 
 and all debate ordered closed, there could be but two 
 roll-calls (if there were no filibustering) before the 
 final vote. 
 
 The first roll-call was on a motion made by the 
 opposition, to lay my motion to reconsider on the 
 table. Such a motion is generally regarded as a test 
 vote. 
 
 Hundreds of tally sheets had been distributed 
 
24 
 
 oil the floor and in the galleries, many being in 
 the hands of ladies. Before the resnlt of the 
 first roll-call was announced, it was known all over 
 the House that the vote was tvo less than the nec- 
 essary hro-ihi'rds, And both Mr. Stevens of Pennsyl- 
 vania and Mr. Washburn of Illinois excitedly ex- 
 claimed: "General, we are defeated."- "No, 
 gentlemen, we are not," was my prompt answer. 
 Tlie second vote was on my motion to reconsider, 
 which would bring the House, at the next roll-call, 
 to a direct vote on the passage of the amendment. 
 
 The excitement was now the most intense I ever 
 witnessed; the oldest members, with the Speaker 
 and the reporters in the galleries, believed that we 
 were defeated. When the result of the second vote 
 was announced, we lacked one vote of two-thirds, 
 whereupon many threw down their tally sheets and 
 admitted defeat. I now arose and stood, while the 
 roll was being called on the final vote and said to 
 those around me, that we would have not less than 
 four (4), and I believed seven (7) majority over the 
 necessary two-thirds. 
 
 As the roll was completed, the Speaker directed 
 that his name be called as a member of the House, 
 and when he voted he announced to an astonished 
 assemblage, "that the yeas were lll», and the nays 
 50, and that the bill had received the two-thirds 
 majority required by the Constitution." It was a 
 moment or two before the House or the galleries 
 recovered from their surprise and recognized the 
 fact that we had triumphed. When they did, a shout 
 went up fiom the floor and galleries, and the vast 
 audience rose to their feet, many members jumping 
 on their desks, with shouts and waving of hats and 
 handkerchiefs, ond gave vent to their feelings by 
 every demonstration of joy. It was a scene such as 
 I had never l)efor(> witnessed, and shall never wit- 
 ness again. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll of Illinois said: "Mr. Speaker, in 
 
honor of this sublime and immortal event, I move 
 that this House do now adjourn," which motion 
 was carried. 
 
 When this vote was taken, the House had but 1S;> 
 members, 1)4 of whom were Eepublicans, 64 Demo- 
 crats, and 25 border-State Union men. 
 
 If the vote is analyzed, it will be seen that of the 
 119 votes recorded for the amendment 13 were by 
 men from the border States, and eleven (II) were 
 by Democrats from the free States. If but 3 out of 
 the 24, who voted with us, had voted against the 
 amendment it would have failed. If but four (4) of 
 the 8 members who were absent had appeared and 
 voted against, it would have been lost. Had all the 
 Northern Democi'ats who supported the amendment 
 voted against, it would have been defeated by 26 
 votes. Had all the border- State men who voted for 
 it, voted against, it would have failed by 32 votes. 
 
 If the border-State men and Northern Democrats 
 who voted for the amendment had voted against, it 
 would have failed by 65 votes. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was especially delighted at the vote 
 which the amendment received from the border 
 slave States, and frequently congratulated me on 
 that result. 
 
 Bancroft, the historian, has drawn with a graphic 
 pen the characters of many of the able and illus- 
 trious men of the Revolution which achieved our 
 independence. In writing of George Mason, of 
 Virginia, he said: ''His sincerity made him wise 
 and bold, modest and unchanging, with a scorn for 
 anything mean and cowardly, as illustrated in his 
 unselfish attachment to human freedom." And 
 these identical qualities of head and heart were 
 pre-eminently conspicuous in all the border states- 
 men who voted for the Thirteenth Amendment. 
 
 It would be difficult in any age or country to find 
 grander or more unselfish and patriotic men than 
 Henrv Winter 1 )avis and Governor Francis Thomas 
 
26 
 
 of Maryland, or James S. Rollins, Frank P. Blair 
 and Governor King of Missouri, or George H. Yea- 
 man of Kentucky, or N. P. Smithers of Delaware, 
 and not less worthy of mention for their unchanging 
 fidelity to principle are all the Northern Democrats 
 who voted tor the amendment, prominent among 
 whom I may name Governor English, of Connecticut; 
 Judge Homer A. Nelson and Moses S. Odell, of New 
 York ; Archibald McAllister, of Pennsylvania ; 
 Wells A. Hutchins, of Ohio, and A. C. Baldwin, of 
 Michigan. 
 
 Of the twenty-four border State and Northern men 
 who made up this majority which enabled us to win 
 this victory, all had defied their party discipline, 
 and had deliberately and with unfaltering faith 
 marched to their political death. These are the 
 men whom our future historians will honor, and to 
 whom this nation owes a debt of eternal gratitude. 
 
 But seven of this twenty-four are now Hving, the 
 others have gone to 
 
 '• Join the choir invisible 
 Of those immortal dead, who live again 
 In minds made better bj- their presence ; live 
 In pulses stirred to generosity, 
 In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
 For miserable aims that end with self." 
 
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