Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[453] for the first time in its life, speaking through its representatives, declared its practical recognition of the great truth of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal.” This act was the full complement of the Proclamation of Emancipation.¹ The work thus begun was in this way, and at this time, completed. In the school of a fiery experience the people had been educated in the lessons of goodness, and taught the truth that “righteousness exalteth a nation.” When the nation, acting upon this lesson, declared by the act we are considering, its determination to be just, the seal of God's approval was instantly seen in the manifestations of the National power. From the hour when that righteous Amendment was adopted, the National arms were everywhere victorious. The Rebellion, still so rampant and defiant at the opening of the fourth year of its career, rapidly declined, and within the space of four months it disappeared, and the authority of the National Government was supreme in every part of the Republic. At last, when “there was not a house where there was not one dead,” as it were, and the American Pharoah let the bondmen go, the plagun of war ceased.

The adoption of that Amendment by the House of Representatives, produced the most lively sensation of satisfaction in that body and among the spectators. Senator Henry Wilson, one of the most earnest and able men of the country in labors for this consummation, has put on record a vivid picture of the scene. “Notice had been previously given,” he says, “by Mr. Ashley, that the vote would be taken on that day. The nation, realizing the transcendant magnitude of the issue, awaited the result with the most profound anxiety. The galleries, and the avenues leading to them, were early thronged by a dense mass intensely anxious to witness the scene. Senators, Cabinet officers, Judges of the Supreme Court, and even strangers, crowding on to the floor of the House, watched its proceedings with absorbing interest. During the roll-call, the vote of Speaker Colfax, and the votes of Mr. English, Mr. Ganson and Mr. Baldwin, which assured success, were warmly applauded by the Republican side. And when the Speaker declared that the constitutional majority of two-thirds having voted in the affirmative, the Joint Resolution ”