[
617]
In January of this year, the Congress of the United States had adopted the amendment to the
Constitution abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime.
On the 1st of February, the
Governor telegraphed to
President Lincoln,—
Will you telegraph so that I may know as nearly as possible the moment you will sign the resolution for amending the Constitution?
I desire to echo it immediately by a national salute on Boston Common, with a chorus of all the church-bells of Massachusetts.
On the 3d of February, the
Governor telegraphed to
President Lincoln,—
Massachusetts has to-day ratified the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, by a unanimous yea and nay vote of both branches of the Legislature; the Democrats voting affirmatively.
About the middle of February, a proposition was made, in the Senate of the United States, to repeal the law allowing the loyal States to enlist colored men for their quotas in the rebel States.
Among the
Senators who advocated the proposition was
Mr. Saulsbury, of
Delaware.
In the course of his speech, he arraigned the government of
Massachusetts as ‘selfishly endeavoring to get colored troops to its own credit against the public interest; that it was trying to recruit men in
Savannah ahead of the
United States;’ and this was made the ground for repealing the section allowing recruiting in rebel States.
On the 18th of February, the
Governor wrote to
John B. Alley, Representative in Congress from the
Essex district, calling his attention to
Mr. Saulsbury's speech, and said,—
As the matter will be sure to come up in the House, I want our delegation to know that I in fact tried hard to push on and forward the United-States War Department itself.
I did not try to get my officers in ahead of Mr. Stanton's. What I always aim at and want is, first, the recruitment of the army; second, the employment of colored troops; third, the procuring of men to the credit of Massachusetts. I pray you to read these papers, and protect the right as occasion may offer.
The protection of
Boston Harbor, as the readers of this volume may know, was one of the darling objects of the
Governor from the beginning of the war. Through the agency of John
