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MEMORIAL OF THE MASSACHUSETTS EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. MR. EL

ON EMANCIPATION. FREEDMEN'S
REMARKS OF MR. ELIOT. MR. CO
MR. COLE.-MR. BROOKS. MR. KELLEY.-MR. DAWSON. MR. P
-MR. KNAPP.- MR. PENDLETON.-PASSAGE OF MR. ELIOT'S BIL
MR. SUMNER'S BILL.MR. ELIOT'S BILL REPORTED BY MR. SUM
WITH AN AMENDMENT.
MR. SUMN
AMENDMENT AMENDED AND ADOPTED IN THE SENATE. THE H
POSTPONE THE BILL TO THE NEXT SESSION.

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N the Senate, on the 12th of January, 1863, 1 Wilson (Rep.) presented the memorial of the Em cipation League of Massachusetts, setting forth needs of the new-made freedmen and the duty of Government, and praying for the immediate establi ment of a Bureau of Emancipation; which was orde to be printed, and referred to the Committee on Milit Affairs. In the House, on the 19th, Mr. Eliot (Re of Massachusetts introduced a bill to establish a Bur of Emancipation; which was referred to the Select Co mittee on Emancipation, of which Mr. White (Re of Indiana was Chairman.

On the 14th of December, 1863, Mr. Eliot int duced a bill to establish a Bureau of Emancipatic which was referred to a select committee of nine, consi ing of Mr. Eliot (Rep.) of Massachusetts, Mr. Kel (Rep.) of Pennsylvania, Mr. Knapp (Dem.) of I

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the thousands of corpses daily hurried out of the contraband hovels and tents along the Mississippi prove it to have been a deadly lie. Neither the judgment of man nor the favor of God can be invoked without mockery upon a fanatical project so fraught with misery to the weak, and wholesale slaughter to its deluded victims.” Mr. Cole (Rep.) of California followed on the 18th in an earnest speech in favor of the bill and the policy of freedom. Mr. Kalbfleisch, on the 19th, spoke in opposition to the measure. Mr. Brooks (Dem.) of New York said, "The bill is vast in its territory, vast in its objects, vast in its purposes, vast in its intentions." He declared, "Whenever a gentleman from Massachusetts in these our latter days introduces any bill or propounds any proposition for the consideration of the House, I always listen to him with attentive ears, with apprehension, with something of awe; nay, with that deep interest that the Roman of old must have listened to the unrolling of the leaves of the Sibyl, or the Greek to the utterings of the oracle in Delphos. setts is now the leading power in this country. Whatever she decrees is in all probability to be law. She exercises the same control over this vast country, which stretches from the Passamaquoddy to the Rio Grande, and from the Rio Grande to the Pacific, that was exercised by imperial Rome, on the little Tiber, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Euphrates and Tigris. Boston, her capital, is well called the hub of our universe, with her spokes now inserted in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the great West, and the great North-west, the rim of whose wheel now runs with frightful, crushing velocity from that Passamaquoddy to that Rio Grande.

Massachu

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paid toil worth to me what the same number of years in a college might have been. . . . You need not fear that this black race will fade away. The glowing South, the land of the tropics, genial to them, invites its own development, and will insure that of this race.'

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The House resumed the consideration of the bill on the 24th; and Mr. Dawson (Dem.) of Pennsylvania made an elaborate and able speech in opposition to the policy of the Administration. Mr. Davis of Maryland followed on the 25th in a speech of eloquence and power. Mr. Knapp (Dem.) of Illinois addressed the House on the 1st of March in opposition to the passage of the bill. Mr. Price (Rep.) of Iowa spoke for the bill, and sharply replied to Mr. Cox. Mr. Eliot moved the previous question, which was sustained by the House. Mr. Eliot yielded a portion of his hour to close the debate to Mr. Pendleton (Dem.) of Ohio, who spoke briefly but forcibly against the right to enact the bill. He thought the freedmen, numbering more than half a million, "long for the repose and quiet of their old homes, and the care of their masters; that freedom has not been to them the promised boon; that even thus soon it has proven itself to be a life of torture, ending only in certain and speedy death." Mr. Wadsworth, by the courtesy of Mr. Eliot, spoke briefly against the passage of the bill. Mr. Eliot, being anxious to take the vote, declined to close the debate. Mr. Brooks's motion to recommit the bill was lost, and the substitute moved by Mr. Eliot was agreed to. Mr. Mallory (Dem.) of Kentucky moved to lay the bill on the table, yeas 62, nays 68. Mr. Mallory demanded the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill; and they were ordered. The

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