Speech of Hon. E.C. Ingersoll, on the joint resolution to amend the Constitution abolishing slavery : delivered in the House of Representatives, June 15, 1864

SPEECH

ON

THE JOINT RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE
CONSTITUTION ABOLISHING SLAVERY.

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 15, 1S64.

The House Laving under consideration the following joint resolution, submitting
to the legislatures of the several States, a proposition to amend the Constitution of
the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America, in Congress assembled, (two thirds of both houses concurring,) That the
following article be proposed to the several States as nn amendment to the Consti-
tion of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legisla-
tures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution,
namely :

ARTICLE XIII.

Sec. 1. Slavery being incompatible with a free government, is forever prohib-
ited in the United States, and involuntary servitude shall be permitted only as a
punishment for crime.

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce the foregoing section of this article
by appropriate legislation.

Mr. INGERSGLL, of Illinois, said:

Mr. Speaker: Having very recently taken a seat in this body, it was
my intention to have contented myself with voting for all such measuies as
I believed to be just and expedient, and against such a$ I believed to be
unjust or inexpedient without taking part in the discussion of such meas-
ures. But injustice to the libeity-loving and Union-loving men who sent
le here, and in justice to myself I ask the indulgence of. the House for
the few minutes which have been generously given me by my friend, the
the honorable gentleman from California, [Mr. Shannon,] out of his hour,
in which to discuss the joint resolution now under consideration. I have
the proud honor to represent a district in which a very great majority of
the people are thoroughly and unalterably anti-slavery. They are in favor
of justice and against oppression and wrong everywhere and in every form.
There are two grand objeets for the accomplishment of which they have
already freely given of their best blood and treasure, and stand ready to-
day to give much more of both, if necessary, for the absolute and uncon-
ditional crushing out of this most wicked and devastating rebellion, and
for the complete and utter extinction of human slavery, the sole and fear-

ful cause of the rebellion. I know full well if the lamented Lovejoy, my
honored and noble predecessor, could come to-day from the unseen world
and take his place among us, his manly and eloquent voice would be heard
in this Hall, as in days past, with all the earnestness of his great soul, pro-
nouncing in favor of the adoption of this resolution, in favor of universal
liberty and the rights of mankind. The cause of liberty and equal and
exact justice lost a noble and heroic friend when he died, and the Union
cause and the country lost one of their best and boldest champions. A
grateful people hold him in affectionate remembrance, and it is to be hoped
they may emulate his many virtues. He died in the midst of his great
and good work; but God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness, did not suf-
fer him to depart until the abolition of slavery in this country was ap-
proaching with rapid step the grand and glorious day of its consummation.
And I say with all my heart, may Heaven speed the day. Universal lib-
erty was the child of his heart, and he lived long enough to see that di-
vine child adopted as its own by the nation.

Sir, I hope this resolution may pass by the necessary majority to give it
validity. All truly honest and philanthropic men throughout the world will
have reason to rejoice and will rejoice if it so passes. It would be heralded
over the world as another grand step upward and onward in the irresistible
march of a christainized civilization. The old starry banner of our country,
as it "floats over the sea and over the land," will be grander and more glori-
ous than even before. Its stars will be brighter; it will be holier; it will mean
more than a mere nationality ; it will mean universal liberty ; it will mean
that the rights of mankind, without regard to color or race, are respected and
protected. The oppressed and the down-trodden of all the world will take
new courage; hope will spring afresh in their struggling and weary hearts;
and when they look upon that banner in distant lands they will yearn to
be here, where they can enjoy the inestimable blessings which are denied
them forever on their native shores.

Mr. Speaker, it would seem that this resolution should be adopted by a
unanimous vote. Yet I fear we shall lose it. The slave power has not yet
lost all its influence in this Congress. The pock-marks of slavery are plain-
ly visible on the faces of many of the members of the Opposition. They
were inoculated and corrupted by it in the days of its wanton power. Its
woeful and baneful influence is upon them still. Slavery has been their
idol. They have worshiped at its shrine in the days of its power, and even
now, when it is going to an ignominious grave, they rally around and pro-
tect and defend it in all its hideous ghastliness as though it were really di-
vine. We may admire their pluck, but we must condemn their action, their
want of patriotism, their inappreciation of liberty, and their entire lack of
generous sentiment common to humanity. They are blinded by prejudice.
They are politically corrupt, under an undue desire to regain that power
which they so ingloriously lost during the last Democratic administration,
or, I should say, maladministration. Being the slaves of the slave power,
we cannon expect much of them until we have made them free and hewn
down their prejudices.

In my opinion many of the Opposition members would vote for this res-
olution if they could be convinced that slavery could no longer be made
available to them as a political power. But they know it as certain as fate
that if slavery goes down the present Democratic organization goes down
with it. Hence their herculean efforts to save slavery ; but they cannot
succeed in their unholy and detestable work. The liberty-loving and loyal

people of this country liave sworn in their hearts that the rebeliion and
slavery shall both &6 down, arid forever. And they will keep that oath.
When we have succeeded in burying the rebellion and slavery, if we could
only petrify the pro-slavery Democracy, what a becoming and fitting tomb-
stone it would make to mark the place of their burial;

There can be no objection on legal grounds to amend the Constitution,
in the precise manner pointed out by (hat instrument ir self. Article five
of the Constitution provides for its own amendment as follows :

"Art. 5. The Congress, whenever two think of both Houses shall deem it necessary f
shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legis-
latures of two thirds of the several Slates, shall call a convention for proposing
amendments, which, in either case shall b*i valid to all intents1 and purposes, as
part of this Constitution, when ratified by t lie Legislatures of three fourths of the
several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; provided, that no amendment
which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the first and
fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no State, without its
consent shall be deprived of its eqiml suffrage in the Senate."

It is plain to be seen, then, that this resolution contemplates no viola-
tion of the Constitution. Then why this objection to adopting it and sub-
mitting the proposed amendment to the Legislatures of the several States
not in rebellion ? Are you of the Opposition afraid to trust the representa-
tives of the people ? In reality I believe you are. You fear, and have
good cause to fear, that the necessary majority of States will ratify the
proposed amendment, and make it thereby a part of the Constitution.
Then slavery will no longer need defenders and protectors in our national
Congress. " Othello's occupation " will be gone indeed. You wiil go hun-
gry for place and office, and slavery can no longer gratify your unholy
ambition. But the people will rejoice, the friends of freedom every where
will rejoice, and our country will be infinitely more prosperous, more glo-
rious, and grander than ever before.

But the Opposition object to the adoption of this resolution at the pres-
ent time, because they say Mississippi, South Carolina, and other States in
rebellion can have no voice upon the question of its ratification. Is this a
good objection ? I answer not. Why is it that Mississippi and South Caro-
lina can have no voice upon this question? It is because they voluntarily
entered into this rebellion. Had they not done so they would have had
equal right and enjoyed equal privilege with Illinois upon this question.

Are we, because a portion of the States inaugurated and still carry on
this rebellion, to suspend all legislative action which might affect things or
institutions in such States ? I say not. Let those who inaugurate and
carry ou the rebellion take the conseqences. We are responsible to the
Constitution and the loyal people, not to the disloyal and rebels. It is truly
said that at almost any time it is well to do right. It is well to eradicate
an evil. That slavery, is an evil no sane, honest man will deny. It has
been the great curse of this country from its infancy to the present hour.
And now that the States in rebellion have given the loyal States the op-
portunity to take off that curse, to wipe away the foul stain; I say let it be
done. We owe it to ourselves ; we owe it to posterity ; we owe it to the
slaves themselves to exterminate slavery in this country forever by the
adoption of the proposed amendment to the Constitution. If we fail to
do it, now that we have the power, not only will our constituents but pos-
terity aud humanity hold us responsible, and remember us only to con-
demn.

I hold that slavery and rebellion are so closely allied that any act, legis-
lative or military, which cripples the one tern's to destroy the other. ]f
slavery could be abolished to-day the rebellion would end to-morrow. It*
the rebellion could be put, down to-day slavery would go.down to-morrow.
So that in my opinion any act that we can do, which is lawful in itself!, to
weaken slavery, if we should tail to do it, we would be c; iniinall v culpa-
ble.

I believe slavery is the mother of this rebellion, that this rebellion can
be attributed to n > other- cau?e hut slavery; from that it derived its life and
gathers its strength to-day. Destroy the mother; and the child will die.
Destroy the cause, and the affect will disappear. Slavery has ever been
the enemy of liberal princip'es. Is has ever been the friend of ignorance,
prejudice and all the unlawful, savage, and detestable passions which
proceed therefrom. It has ever been domineering, arrogant, exacting,
and overbearing. It has claimed to be a polished aristocrat, when in
reality it has only been a coaise, swaggering, and brutal boor. It has ever
claimed to be a gentleman, when in ieality it has ever been a villian. I
think it is high time to clip its overgrown pretensions, strip it (if its mask,
and expose it in ail hideous deformity to the detc&iation of all honest and.
patriotic men.

For eighty years the bogus aristocracy of slavery have left nothing
undone to corrupt and demorilize the people and their Representatives.

For eighty years they have attempted to clothe this monster in the
radiance of divinity, when in reality it should only be draped in the black-
ness of its own enormity. In order to maintain their power they had so
molded public opinion, even in the grand free States of the North, ihat
many honest but deluded men were willing' to concede that slavery, if not
divine, was not so bad an institution after all, that "the devil was not so
black as lie is painted." The North, against its sense of justice and right,
tor the sake of peace and Union, has, time and time again, humiliated itself
in its own and the eyes of the world by conceding to the unhallowed and
ambitious demands of slavery.

At the formation of our Constitution slavery demanded that a section
should be incorporated therein restraining Congress from passing a law
prohibiting the importation of negroes prior to the year 1808. The North,
in violation of its sense of honor, got. down upon its knees and consented
that it should be "written in the bond," thereby conceding the right to this
bogus aristocracy to freight its ships with human beings stolen Irom their
native land and consigned to an ignominious slavery only equaled by its
savage cruelty.

Again, in 1793, they demanded a fugative slave law; that is to say, that
free northern men should be their blood-hounds. The North again assent-
ed, and went into the blood-hound business. In 1850 they again demanded
more and fiercer blood-hounds. The North, true to its instincts of peace
and union, but false to its honor, agreed that the blood-hounds should be
forthcoming. For one — and I am happy to say that I am not alone — I am
tired of this blood-hound business, and voted on Monday last to abolish it.
The Opposition are in favor of its coutinuance; I am for this, amendment
to the Constitution, in order to take from these, adherents of die s'ave,
power the ignominy and degradation consequent upon so base an occupa-
tion.

Again, in 1820, the same relentless monster demanded of the North
more territory for the use of slavery. The North again got upon its knees

5

and admitted Missouri with a slave constitution, and again suffered the
mortification of self-degradation.

Again, in 1854, they demanded the repeal of the Missouri compromise
line. Again, in northern men, whom they had demoralized and corrupted
by the contaminating influence of slavery, united to a corresponding lust
for office, they found the willing tools wherewith to consummate this
treachery. Liberty received a blow in the face, and slavery was taken by
the hand.

Again, in 1857, the slave power brought all its enegies to bear to con-
vert this territory, which had been thrown open to it by the repeal of the
Missouri compromise line, into a slave State. To the infamy of James
Buchanan's Administration be its said, with a few honorable exceptions, it
lent the whole force and power of its authority to the accomplishment of
this foul crime. But, thank God, the people of the North at last had be-
come aroused, and they determined that slavery should no longer be the
master of liberty. They felt it in their hearts, they expressed it with
their lips, that they would no longer be the tools of slavery, or the indif-
ferent spectators of its encroachments. They declared that Kansas should
be free. The slave power swore it should be slave; and then and there
this war commenced which is now deluging this land with blood. After
a long and not a bloodless struggle justice and freedom triumphed, and
Kansas to-day is a beaming star of liberty in the western horizon. The
South saw in this triumph the ultimate overthrow of their most cherished
institution. They became alarmed, and felt and knew that if the people
of the North were unwilling to submit to further degradation thereafter
they must depend on themselves for the protection of slavery, as their
northern friends were powerless to stem the tide which was rising and
swelling toward universal liberty.

So, in 1860, at the Charleston convention ihey demanded that addi-
tional guarantees for slavery be incorporated in the platform of the Demo-
cratic party. The northern Democracy saw at once that to yield to them
on this point was certain defeat. The South repudiated Douglas in that
convention for the reason that, they did not believe him sound on the
slavery question. As an evidence of his unsoundness they pointed to his
Ereeport speech, made in 1858, in joint debate with President Lincoln.
In this speeith he enunciated the doctrine that Territorial Legislatures pos-
sessed the power to exclude slavery from the Territories by "unfriendly
legislation." This was anything but orthodox in their view. Another
•objection to Senator Douglas was that he had been opposed to the Le-
compton-Kansas constitution. Consequently Douglas was thrown over-
board. They demanded that slavery should be recognized as a national
institution, and that Congress should protect it in the Territories by affirm-
ative legislation. The northern Democracy positively refused to accede to
this. The consequence was that the southern Democracy seceded, and
nominated their own candidate, upon their own platform, thereby break-
ing up the Democratic party and depriving it of all hope of success in
the then approaching presidential campaign. Who. can say but that the
northern wing of the Democratic party is responsible for this war; for had
the northern Democracv been willing to concede at that convention to the
dem mds of the South, and accept a platform agreeable to it, the nominee
of 'hat convention would have been elected President, and this " cruel
and bloody war," as the Opposition delight to call it, would have
been avoided, or, at any rate, postponed. Let the responsibility rest

0

where it legitimately belongs. It is dishonorable in any man to say that
the Republican party is responsible for this war, when, as I have shown,
it perhaps might have been avoided had the northern Democracy been
willing to have covered themselves with a thicker coating of degradation
than they had ever before worn, and sacrificed their dignity and manhood
to the behests of slavery.

I am we'll aware that the Opposition persistently charge that the aboli-
tionists are responsible for the war and are the authors of the war. This
charge is as false as is the assertion that slavery is divine. Had there
been no slavery in this country there never would have been an aboli-
tionist or an agitator; the inhuman and barbarous system of slavery
created the abolitionist and the agitator. In this instance the evil pro-
dmvd the good — the wrong the right; and the good and the right must
prevail. Slavery has piled up the mountain which will fall upon it and
crush it to dust, Slavery alone is the cause of the war, and he who at-
tributes this war to any other cause than slavery is wide of the mark.
The man who to-day, after three years of war and desolation, would raise
even a straw to shield or protect slavery, deserves, and at no very distant
day will receive, the merited condemnation of a united, happy, prosper-
ous, and liberty-loving people.

It is a humiliating and saddening spectacle to witness how persistent!}7'
and unrelentingly the Opposition pursue our most worthy President, and
with what vehemence they denounce his war policy, if such policy in their
opinion tends in the least to interfere with the institution of slavery. If,
under the war power of the Administration, a rebel sympathizer, who
disgraces the soil of Illinois, is arrested and imprisoned, if a disloyal paper
is suppressed, they at once set up a tremendous howl about personal lib-
erty and the freedom of the press. If an attempt is made to expel or
censure a member of Congress for uttering disloyal sentiments, another
distressing howl goes up in protestation against the Administration. Their
denunciation is all ? gainst Lincoln. They utter none against Davis. Our
soldiers may be starved in Libby prison; they may be butchered in cold
blood, as at Fort Piilow and elsewhere ; Union men all through the South
may be indiscriminately plundered and then dragged to the gallows, and
they have no voice to raise against it or denounce it. The reason of this
is obvious. They care more to regain political power than for the triumph
of liberty and justice.

The eloquent and scholarly Sumner may be knocked down in the
United States Senate by a southern ruffian and blackguard : northern
dough-faces say, " Served him right." A Giddings and an Adams may
t>e censured in the House of Representatives because they have the man-
hood to raise their voices in behalf of liberty and justice : northern dough-
faces cry out again, " Served them right." The incorruptible Parker,
Codding, and Garrison may be mobbed, stoned and imprisoned, for daring
to give utterance to the sublime and eternal principles of truth, and lib-
erty, and justice, and these same northern doughfaces rise up and cry out,
" Served them right." A northern man imbued with the spirit of liberty
may, within the limits of a slave State, have the effrontery to raise his
voice against oppression, and say, "Your system of slavery is wrong, and
you ought to abolish it:" a coat of tar and feathers or the halter may be
administered as a corrective of such heretical expressions, and the north-
ern doughfaces again cry out, " Served him right." A minister of the
gospel may find it to be his duty to say to his people, *' It is right that

you should do unto others as ye would they should do unto you ;" that
you ought to let the bondman go free ; and he is immediately denounced
as an abolition agitator, and the varnished hypocrites of his church call
upon him at once and say they cannot tolerate the expression of such
opinions in the pulpit, as they are calculated to irritate the South, and he
must stop them or they will withdraw their support. Consequently the
poor, good preacher must close his lips to such divine and heaven-born
truths or starve, and this, too, in a free State ; and again the northern
doughfaces say, " Served him right." To crown all this record of infamy,
the martyr, Elijah P. Lovejoy, is mobbed and murdered on the free, broad
prairies of Illinois, simply for the crime of publishing a paper dedicated to
the advocacy of the rights of mankind ; and again these northern dough-
faces cry out, "Away with him," '"Served him right." 0 liberty, where is
thy power? 0 justice, where is thy strength ? But thank God that day
is gone, and gone forever. Let us take courage ; the world is better ; their
sufferings and their trials were not in vain ; libertv is stronger ; justice is
surer ; and the idols of oppression, ignorance, and prejudice, which have
been worshiped so long, are crumbling to dust. And so the good work
goes bravely on. It is as irresistible as the avalanche and as grand as the
Alps.

Sir, I am in favor in the fullest sense of personal liberty. I am in favor
of the freedom of speech. The freedom of speech that I am in favor of is
the freedom which guaranties to the citizen of Illinois, in common with
the citizen of Massachusetts, the right to proclaim the eternal principles
of liberty, truth, and justice in Mobile, Savannah, or Charlston with the
same freedom and security as though ke were standing at the foot of
Bunker Hill monument ; and if this proposed amendment to the Consti-
tution is adopted and ratified, the day is not far distant when this glori-
ous privilege will be accorded to every citizen of the Republic. I am in
favor of the adoption of this amendment because it will secure to the op-
pressed slave his natural and God-given rights. I believe that the black
man has certain inalienable rights, which are as sacred in the sight of
Heaven as those 'of any other race. I believe he has a right to live, and
live in a state of freedom. He has a right to breathe the flee air and en-
joy God's free sunshine. He has a right to till the soil, to ea?n his bread
by the sweat of his brow, and enjoy the rewards of his own labor. He
has a right to the endearments and enjoyment of family ties ; and bo white
man has any right to rob him of or infringe upon any of these blessings.

I am in favor of the adoption of this amendment to the Constitution for
the sake of the seven millions of poor white people who live in the slave
States but who have ever been deprived of the blessings of manhood by
reason of this thrice-accursed institution of slavery. Slavery has kept
them in ignorance, in poverty, and in degradation. Abolish slavery, and
school-houses will rise upon the ruins of the slave mart, intelligence will
take the place of ignorance, wealth of poverty, and honor of degradation ;
industry will go hand in hand with virtue, and prosperity with happiness,
and a disinthrall^d and regenerated people will rise up and bless you and
be an honor to the American Repuplic.

Slavery has shed every drop of blood which has been spilled in this
war. It has filled thousands of graves with our heroic dead. It has
filled our hospitals with our shattered heroes. It has swept American
commerce from the ocean. It has carried desolation and mourning to
the hearthstones of our northern homes from Maine to California ; conse-

8

qucutly I am the unyielding arid peisistent enemy of slavery and the
earnest supporter of hitj and all lawful measures for its speedy and effec-
tual extinction. It is this demon of slavery which has called from their
happy homes in Illinois one hundred and seventy-five thousand of her sons
as brave and heroic as ever the sun shone upon. Donelson, Shilob,
Arkansas Post, Vicksburg, and many other well-fought fields attest their
devotion to liberty and Union. Their self-sacraficinp* heroism to maintain
the honor and glory of the Republic has won for them a fame more en-
during than granite and a place in the hearts of their countrymen so long-
as liberty shall be loved and justice respected.

I wish we could emulate the example of the soldiers. The Democrat
and the Republican have gone together, side by side, fighting these great
battles for liberty and Union. They have allowed no former political
differences to divide them, or to weaken their devotion to the cause. They
have fought side by side. If the Democrat falls in battle the Republican
gathers him in his arms, composes his limbs in death, hollows out a little
place in the earth, and therein deposits his'heroic and sacred remains; he
covers him tenderly with the earth ; he marks the spot where he lies, that
you may know a hero sleeps there ; he drops a tear upon the grave, and
rushes again into the thickest of the fight. If the Republican falls, his
Democratic comrade extends to him the same sacred charitv, forgets that
he was a Republican, and only remembers that he was a heroic soldier of the
Union. Why cannot we, far from the roar of the battle, secure in the en-
joyments of peace — seemed only by the heroism and devotion of the
Army — forget that we ever have been partisans, and unite, with heart and
hand, for the suppression of the rebellion and establishment of " Liberty and
Union, one and inseparable V

Mr. Speaker, I have already occupied too much time. There is a great
deal more that I would like to say, but I must forbear. I implore the
House to adopt this resolution. I implore it to stand by the Army and
the country and the war policy of the Administration, and the day is not
far distant when we may rejoice in the glorious consummation of the
eternal principles of liberty, truth, and justice. "There shall be no more
slavery and no more oppression, no more tyranny and no more injustice,
and our voices may go up together in one grand diapason which will as-
cend to heaven over a country reunited, over a people disenthralled, and
God will oless us.

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