The legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts, which a.s.sembled in January, 1855, had to choose a United States senator in place of Mr. Everett, who had resigned and whose term expired on the 3d of March, 1859. General Wilson had publicly and privately declared that the slavery question was with him the paramount question, and in the spring and summer of 1854, while a member of the American organization, he had at all times openly labored to unite men of all parties for freedom. He had taken this position, and his declared opinions and acts were well known in and out of his State, and the men who were ready to sacrifice the anti-slavery cause, to adhere to the compromising policy of the past, were bitterly hostile to his elevation to the Senate. But the anti-slavery men in and out of the State were enthusiastic in his support. He was nominated in the caucus of the members of the legislature, by more than one hundred majority on the first ballot.

While the election was pending, several gentlemen representing that portion of the party who wished to nationalize the organization, called upon him, and urged him to write something to modify his recorded opinions, and thus give the men who claimed to be national men, an opportunity to a.s.sent to his elevation. In answer to this request, he said he had not travelled a single mile, expended a single dollar, nor conversed with a single member to secure votes for his election;--that his opinions upon the slavery questions were the matured convictions of his life, and that he would not qualify them to win the loftiest position on earth. If elected, he should carry these opinions with him into the Senate, and if the party with which he acted proved recreant to freedom, he would, if he had the power, shiver it to atoms. His position was distinctly avowed and fully comprehended, and he was opposed to the end by members who dissented from his principles, and supported and chosen by men who concurred with him in opinion and policy. He received 234 to 130 votes in the House of Representatives, and 21 to 19 votes in the Senate, and took his seat in the Senate of the United States on the 8th of February, 1855.

When he arrived in Washington, leading politicians were a.s.sembled there from the South, endeavoring to organize a National American party, which should ignore the slavery issues, and contest the supremacy of the Democracy in the South. In his speech at Springfield, before the State Council, he thus described the efforts made to seduce him to a.s.sent to this policy:

"On my arrival at Washington, I saw at a glance that the politicians of the South--men who had deserted their northern a.s.sociates upon the Nebraska issue, were resolved to impose upon the American party by the aid of doughfaces from New York and Pennsylvania, as the test of nationality, fidelity to the slave power. Flattering words from veteran statesmen were poured into my ears--flattering appeals were made to me to aid in the work of nationalizing the party whose victories in the South were to be as brilliant as they had been in the North. But I resolved that upon my soul the sin and shame of silence or submission should never rest. I returned home, determined to baffle if I could the meditated treason to freedom and to the North."

Two weeks after taking his seat, he addressed the senate upon Mr.

Toucey's "bill to protect persons executing the fugitive slave act, from prosecution by State courts." Extracts from this speech show that his sentiments had undergone no change in Washington, under the pressing influences of political leaders:

"Now, sir, I a.s.sure senators from the South, that we of the free States mean to change our policy--I tell you, frankly, just how we feel and just what we propose to do. We mean to withdraw from these halls that cla.s.s of public men who have betrayed us and deceived you; men who have misrepresented us, and not dealt frankly with you. And we intend to send men into these halls who will truly represent us and deal justly with you. We mean, sir, to place in the councils of the nation men who, in the words of Jefferson, 'have sworn on the altar of G.o.d eternal hostility to every kind of oppression of the mind and body of man.' Yes, sir, we mean to place in the national councils men who cannot be seduced by the blandishments, or deterred by the threats of power; men who will fearlessly maintain our principles. I a.s.sure senators from the South that the people of the North entertain for them and their people no feelings of hostility; but they will no longer consent to be misrepresented by their own representatives, nor proscribed for their fidelity to freedom. This determination of the people of the North has manifested itself during the past few months in acts not to be misread by the country. The stern rebuke administered to faithless northern representatives, and the annihilation of old and powerful political organizations, should teach senators that the days of waning power are upon them. This action of the people teaches the lesson, which I hope will be heeded, that political combinations can no longer be successfully made to suppress the sentiments of the people. We believe we have the power to abolish slavery in all the territories of the Union; that, if slavery exists there, it exists by the permission and sanction of the Federal Government, and we are responsible for it.

We are in favor of its abolition wherever we are morally or legally responsible for its existence.

"I believe conscientiously, that if slavery should be abolished by the National Government in the District of Columbia, and in the territories, the fugitive slave act repealed, the Federal Government relieved from all connection with, or responsibility for the existence of slavery, these angry debates banished from the halls of Congress, and slavery left to the people of the States, that the men of the South who are opposed to the existence of that inst.i.tution, would get rid of it in their own States at no distant day. I believe that if slavery is ever peacefully abolished in this country--and I certainly believe it will be--it must be abolished in this way.

"The senator from Indiana [Mr. Pett.i.t] has made a long argument to-night to prove the inferiority of the African race. Well, sir, I have no contest with the senator upon that question. I do not claim for that race intellectual equality; but I say to the senator from Indiana that I know men of that race who are quite equal in mental power to either the senator from Indiana or myself--men who are scarcely inferior, in that respect, to any senators upon this floor. But, sir, suppose the senator from Indiana succeeds in establishing the inferiority of that despised race, is mental inferiority a valid reason for the perpetual oppression of a race? Is the mental, moral, or physical inferiority of a man a just cause of oppression in republican and Christian America? Sir, is this Democracy? Is it Christianity?

Democracy cares for the poor, the lowly, the humble. Democracy demands that the panoply of just and equal laws shall shield and protect the weakest of the sons of men. Sir, these are strange doctrines to hear uttered in the Senate of republican America, whose political inst.i.tutions are based upon the fundamental idea that 'all men are created equal.' If the African race is inferior, this proud race of ours should educate and elevate it, and not deny to those who belong to it the rights of our common humanity.

"The senator from Indiana boasts that his State imposes a fine upon the white man that gives employment to the free black man. I am not surprised at the degradation of the colored people of Indiana, who are compelled to live under such inhuman laws, and oppressed by the public sentiment that enacts and sustains them. I thank G.o.d, sir, Ma.s.sachusetts is not dishonored by such laws! In Ma.s.sachusetts we have about seven thousand colored people. They have the same rights that we have; they go to our free schools, they enter all the business and professional relations of life, they vote in our elections, and in intelligence and character are scarcely inferior to the citizens of this proud and peerless race whose superiority we have heard so vauntingly proclaimed to-night by the senators from Tennessee and Indiana."

Returning home at the close of the session, he warned his personal friends and political a.s.sociates that the American organization, which had acted with the anti-Nebraska men in the North, was to be seduced by the South, and betrayed by men in the North, who a.s.sumed to control its actions. On the 8th of May, he delivered an address before a large a.s.semblage in the Metropolitan Theatre in New York, upon the development of the anti-slavery sentiment in America for twenty years, from 1835 to 1855. On this occasion he declared that:

"He owed it to truth to speak what he knew--that the anti-slavery cause was in extreme peril--that a demand was made upon us of the North to ignore the slavery question, to keep quiet, and go into power in 1856. If there were men in the free States who hoped to triumph in 1856 by ignoring the slavery issues now forced upon the nation by the slave propagandists, he would say to them, that the anti-slavery men cannot be reduced or driven into the organization of a party that ignores the question of slavery in Christian and Republican America. Let such men read and ponder the history of the Republic; let them contrast anti-slavery in 1835 and anti-slavery in 1855. Those periods are the grand epochs in the anti-slavery movement, and the contrast between them cannot fail to give us some faint conception of the mighty changes that twenty years of anti-slavery agitation have wrought in America.

Anti-slavery in 1835 was in the nadir of its weakness; anti-slavery in 1855 is in the zenith of its power. Then, a few unknown, nameless men were its apostles and leaders; now, the most profound and accomplished intellects of America are its chiefs and champions. Then, a few proscribed and humble followers rallied around its banner; now, it has laid its grasp upon the conscience of the people, and hundreds of thousands rally under the folds of its flag. Then, not a single statesman in all America accepted its doctrines or defended its measures; now, it has a decisive majority in the national House of Representatives, and is rapidly changing the complexion of the American Senate. Then, every State in the Union was arrayed against it; now, it controls fifteen sovereign States by more than 300,000 popular majority. Then, the public press covered it with ridicule and contempt; now, the most powerful journals in America are its instruments. Then, the benevolent, religious and literary inst.i.tutions of the land repulsed its advances, rebuked its doctrines and persecuted its advocates; now, it shapes, molds and fashions them at its pleasure, compelling the most powerful benevolent organizations of the western world, upon whose mission stations the sun never sets, to execute its decrees, and the oldest literary inst.i.tution in America to cast from its bosom a professor who had surrendered a man to the slave hunters. Then, the political organizations trampled disdainfully upon it; now, it looks down with the pride of conscious power upon the wrecked political fragments that float at its feet. Then, it was impotent and powerless; now it holds every political organization in the hollow of its right hand.

Then, the public voice sneered at and defied it; now it is the master of America and has only to be true to itself to grasp the helm and guide the ship of State hereafter in her course."

"This brief contrast," he said, "would show the men who hoped to win power by ignoring the transcendent issue of our age in America, how impotent would be the efforts of any cla.s.s of men to withdraw the mighty questions involved in the existence and expansion of slavery on this continent, from the consideration of the people." To the idea of going into power by sacrificing the anti-slavery cause, he replied:

"Now, gentlemen, I say to you frankly, I am the last man to object to going into power [laughter], and especially to going into power over the present dynasty that is fastened upon the country. But I am the last man that will consent to go into power by ignoring or sacrificing the slavery question. [Applause.] If my voice could be heard by the whole country to-night--by the anti-slavery men of the country to-night of all parties, I would say to them, resolve it--write it over your door-posts--engrave it on the lids of your Bibles--proclaim it at the rising of the sun and the going down of the sun, and in the broad light of noon, that any party in America, be that party Whig, Democratic, or American, that lifts its finger to arrest the anti-slavery movement, to repress the anti-slavery sentiment, or proscribe the anti-slavery men, it surely shall begin to die--[loud applause]--it would deserve to die; it will die; and by the blessing of G.o.d I shall do what little I can to make it die."

This address was repeated in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Dorchester, and other places in Ma.s.sachusetts, and General Wilson was branded as an agitator, traitor, and disorganizer, by men who had been for six months secretly and darkly intriguing to betray the liberty-loving men who had given the American organization power in the free States. This feeling of hostility was heightened by the publication of his speech, delivered on the 16th of May, at Brattleborough, Vt., "On the position and duty of the American party." In this speech he said that

"The time has come for the advocates of the American movement distinctly to define their principles and their policy.

"If the American party is to achieve anything for good, it must adopt a wise and humane policy consistent with our Democratic ideas--a policy which will reform existing abuses and guard against future ones--which shall combine in one harmonious organization moderate and patriotic men who love freedom and hate oppression. Upon the grand and overshadowing question of American slavery, the American party must take its position. If it wishes a speedy death and a dishonored grave, let it adopt the policy of neutrality upon that question or the policy of ignoring that question. If that party wishes to live, to impress its policy upon the nation, it must repudiate the sectional policy of slavery and stand boldly upon the broad and national basis of freedom. It must accept the position that 'Freedom is national and slavery is sectional.' It must stand upon the national idea embodied in the Declaration of Independence--that 'all men are created equal, and have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' It must accept these words as embracing the great central national idea of America, fidelity to which is national in New England and in South Carolina. It must recognize the doctrine that the Const.i.tution of the United States was made 'to secure the blessing of liberty,'--that Congress has no right to make a slave or allow slavery to exist outside of the slave States, and that the Federal Government must be relieved from all connection with, and responsibility for slavery.

"In their own good time the Americans of Ma.s.sachusetts have spoken for themselves. They have placed that old Commonwealth face to face to the slave oligarchy and its allies. Upon their banner they have written in letters of living light the words, 'No exclusion from the public schools on account of race or color.'--'No slave commissioners on the judicial bench.'--'No slave States to be carved out of Kansas and Nebraska.'--'The repeal of the unconst.i.tutional fugitive slave act of 1850.'--'An act to protect personal liberty.' The men who have inscribed these glowing words upon their banner will go into the conflicts of the future like the Zouaves at Inkermann, 'with the light of battle on their faces,'--and if defeat comes, they will fall with their 'backs to the field, and their feet to the foe.'"

Early in June, 1855, the American National Council a.s.sembled at Philadelphia. General Wilson was a delegate, and his position in the Senate, and his avowed sentiments, opinions and policy, brought him at once into conflict with the men in and out of the council, who were intriguing to make the American organization an instrument of the slave power. An attempt was made to keep him out of the council, on account of the sentiments he had expressed, and to draw off the Ma.s.sachusetts delegation from him; but they stood by him, and thus baffled the designs of the plotters. On taking his seat in the council, he was at once recognized by friends and foes as the leader of the North--the representative of the anti-slavery men of the free States. The National Council sat for more than one week, and during that time it was the scene of stormy, exciting and angry discussion upon the slavery question. Early in the debate, a delegate from Virginia made a fierce personal attack upon him, quoting from his speeches, and denouncing him as the leader of the anti-slavery men of the North, who had come into the council to rule or to destroy.

General Wilson promptly replied to this a.s.sault, and defiantly told the delegate from Virginia and his compeers, that "his threats had no terrors for free men--that he was then and there ready to meet argument with argument--scorn with scorn--and if need, be, blow with blow, for G.o.d had given him an arm ready and able to protect his head!

It was time the champions of slavery in the South should realize the fact, that the past was theirs--the future ours." The debate went on, and on the 12th of June, General Wilson made an elaborate speech in reply to the a.s.saults made upon the North and upon the anti-slavery men, by both southern and northern delegates. To the a.s.saults made upon Ma.s.sachusetts by some of the delegates from New York, he said: "When Ma.s.sachusetts pleads to any arraignment before the nation, she will demand that her accusers are competent to draw the bill." To the men of the South who had denounced the action of Ma.s.sachusetts, he replied:

"But gentlemen of talents and of character have undertaken here to arraign Ma.s.sachusetts. To those gentlemen I have to say, that Ma.s.sachusetts means to go to the very verge of her const.i.tutional powers, to protect the personal rights of her people! She means to exercise her const.i.tutional rights, for the security of the liberties of her people, against what she deems to be unconst.i.tutional, inhuman and unchristian legislation; and I tell you frankly, if any const.i.tutional powers are in doubt, she will construe them in favor of liberty; not in favor of slavery. In the future, if she errs at all, in the interpretation of her reserved rights, as a sovereign State, I trust she will go a little beyond the limits of State sovereignty, rather than fall short of marching up to those limits. The personal liberties of her people demand that she should do so.

"Ma.s.sachusetts has the right, if she chooses, to remove from her judicial bench, any officers who shall consent to perform the duties imposed upon United States commissioners. She denies your right, gentlemen, to arraign her here or elsewhere for the exercise of her own const.i.tutional powers. By the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ma.s.sachusetts has a right to forbid the use of her prisons--she has a right to forbid her officers from engaging in the extradition of fugitives from labor.

She believes that every human being within her limits, has a right to the benefits of the writ of _habeas corpus_, and to a jury trial. She proposes to test the question by the judicial authorities. Her 'offence hath that extent, no more.'

Ma.s.sachusetts stands upon the State rights doctrines of Virginia and Kentucky, of 1798 and 1799. She raises no standard of nullification or rebellion--she will submit to the decisions of those tribunals authorized to expound the judicial powers of the Government.

"The gentleman from Alabama (Judge Hopkins), has hinted to us that the Southern States may find it necessary to protect themselves against this action of Ma.s.sachusetts, by legislation that shall touch her material interests. Threats of that kind, sir, have no terrors for Ma.s.sachusetts. Her people will laugh to scorn all such idle threats, by whomsoever made. Ma.s.sachusetts, with one million of intelligent people, with free schools, free churches, free labor, is competent to take care of her own material interests.

'Her goods are for sale--not her principles.' If gentlemen from the South expect to intimidate Ma.s.sachusetts by such threats, I tell them here and now, that we scorn, spurn and defy your threats."

Of the proposed national platform he said:

"The adoption of this platform commits the American party unconditionally to the policy of slavery--to the iron dominion of the Black Power. I tell you, sir, I tell this convention, that we cannot stand upon this platform in a single free State of the North. The people of the North will repudiate it, spurn it, spit upon it. For myself, sir, I here and now tell you to your faces, that I will trample with disdain on your platform. I will not support it. I will support no man who stands upon it. Adopt that platform, and you array against you everything that is pure and holy--everything that has the elements of permanency in it--the n.o.blest pulsations of the human heart--the holiest convictions of the human soul--the profoundest ideas of the human intellect and the attributes of Almighty G.o.d! Your party will be withered and consumed by the blasting breath of the people's wrath! There is an old Spanish proverb, which says that 'the feet of the avenging deities are shod with wool.' Softly and silently these avenging deities are advancing upon you. You will find that 'the mills of G.o.d grind slowly, but they grind to powder.'

"When I united with the American organization in March, 1854, in its hour of weakness--I told the men with whom I acted that my anti-slavery opinions were the matured convictions of years, and that I would not modify or qualify my opinions or suppress my sentiments for any consideration on earth. From that hour to this, in public and in private, I have freely uttered my anti-slavery sentiments, and labored to promote the anti-slavery cause, and I tell you now, that I will continue to do so. You shall not proscribe anti-slavery principles, measures or men, without receiving from me the most determined and unrelenting hostility.

It is a painful thing to differ from our a.s.sociates and friends--but when duty, a stern sense of duty, demands it, I shall do so. Reject this majority platform--adopt the proposition to restore freedom to Kansas and Nebraska, and to protect the actual settlers from violence and outrage--simplify your rules--make an open organization--banish all bigotry and intolerance from your ranks--place your movement in harmony with the humane progressive spirit of the age, and you may win and retain power, and elevate and improve the political character of the country. Adopt this majority platform--commit the American movement to the slave perpetualists and the slave propagandists, and you will go down before the burning indignation and withering scorn of American freemen."

But the pro-slavery platform was adopted, and most of the delegates from the North retired from the National Council. A meeting was at once held, over which General Wilson presided. This meeting adopted a protest against the action of the council, and announced their final separation from the national organization. The American organization was shivered to atoms, and no man contributed more to that result than General Wilson; and in doing it he but redeemed the words he had uttered while his election to the Senate was pending. The New York "Tribune," referring to the action of the council, said:

"The antecedents of Mr. Wilson naturally made him the particular object of hostility to the slave-drivers in the convention; and one of the earliest displays after the body was organized, was a grossly personal attack upon him by a delegate from Virginia. But the a.s.sailants had now met an antagonist who was not to be cowed or silenced, and the response they received was of a character to induce them not to repeat their experiment. We have the unanimous testimony of many northern members of the convention to the signal gallantry and effect of Mr. Wilson's bearing, and to the bold, virile and telling eloquence of his speeches. While all have done so well in bringing about results so gratifying, it may be invidious to particularize; but a few names among the northern members, who were devoted from the start to the work of creating a unity and a strength of _northern back-bone_, should justly be exposed to the public appreciation and honor that they deserve.

First stands Henry Wilson of Ma.s.sachusetts, preminent as the leader in the whole movement. He was handsomely sustained by all his a.s.sociates, and the numerous insidious efforts of the enemy to separate them from him, only attached them the more closely to his side. He has the highest honor in this contest, exhibited the greatest political ability, and broke down many strong prejudices against him, both among Ma.s.sachusetts men who were witnesses to his conduct, and among the delegates of the other States, North and South. No man went into that council with more elements of distrust and opposition combined against him; no one goes out of it with such an enviable fame, or such an aggregation to his honor. He is worthy of Ma.s.sachusetts, and worthy to lead the new movement of the people of that State, which the result here so fitly inaugurates."

General Wilson, during the summer and autumn of 1855, visited thirteen States, travelled more than twenty thousand miles, consulted with leading men of all parties, and addressed tens of thousands of people in favor of the fusion of men of all parties for freedom. In the State council of the Americans of Ma.s.sachusetts, at Springfield, on the 7th of August, he made an elaborate speech on the "necessity of the fusion of parties," in which he invoked the members to sustain the resolution announcing the readiness of the Americans "to unite and coperate with" men of other parties, in forming a great party of freedom. On that occasion he said:

"The gathering hosts of northern freemen, of every party and creed, are banding together to resist the aggressive policy of the Black Power. Freedom, patriotism, and humanity demand the union of the freemen of the Republic, for the sake of liberty now perilled.

Religion sanctions and blesses it.

"How and where stands Ma.s.sachusetts? Shall she range herself in line, front to the Black Power, with her sister States? or shall she maintain the fatal position of isolation? Here and now, we, the chosen representatives of the American party of this Commonwealth, are to meet that issue, to solve that problem.

"The American party of Ma.s.sachusetts, dashing other organizations into powerless fragments, had grasped the reins of power, placed an unbroken delegation in Congress pledged to the policy of freedom, ranged this ancient Commonwealth front to front with the slave power, and written, with the iron pen of history, upon her statutes, declarations of principles and pledges of acts hostile to the aggressive policy of the slaveholding power. When the Black Power of the imperious South, aided by the servile power of the faltering North, imposed upon the national American organization its principles, measures and policy, the representatives of the American party of this Commonwealth, spurned the unhallowed decrees, turned their backs, forever, upon that prost.i.tuted organization, and their action received the approving sanction of this State council by a vote approaching unanimity. The American party, as a national organization, is broken and shivered to atoms. By its own act the American party of Ma.s.sachusetts has severed itself from all connection with that product of southern domination and northern submission.

"The American party of Ma.s.sachusetts has, during its brief existence, uttered true words and performed n.o.ble deeds for freedom. The past at least is secure. Whatever may have been its errors of omission or commission, the slave and the slave's friends will never reproach it. Holding, as it does, the reins of power, it has now a glorious opportunity to give to the country the magnanimous example of a great and dominant party, in the full possession of consummated power, freely yielding up that power, for the holy cause of freedom, to the equal possession of other parties, who are willing to coperate with it upon a common platform. Here and now, we, its representatives, are to show by our acts whether we can rise above the demands of partisan policy, to the full comprehension of the condition of public affairs--to the full realization of the obligations which fidelity to freedom now imposes upon us.

"If the representatives of the American party reject this proposition for fusion, I shall go home once more with a sad heart--but I shall not go home to sulk in my tent--to rail and fret at the folly of men; I shall go home, sir, with a resolved spirit and iron will, determined to hope on and to struggle on, until I see the lovers of universal and impartial freedom banded together in one organization--moved by one impulse. For seven years I have labored to break up old organizations, and to make new combinations, all tending to the organization of that great party of the future, which is to relieve the government from the iron dominion of the Black Power.

"Sir, gentlemen may defeat this proposed fusion here to-day, but they cannot control the action of the people. A fusion movement will be made under the lead of gentlemen of the Whig, Democratic and Free-soil parties, of talents and character. The movement will be in harmony with the people's movements in the North. Sir, such a movement will put a majority of the men, who voted with you last autumn, in a false position before the country, or drive them from your ranks. I cannot speak for others, but I tell you frankly, that I cannot be placed in a false position--I cannot, even for one moment, consent to stand arrayed against the hosts of freedom now preparing for the contest of 1856. I tell you frankly that whenever I see a formation in position to strike effective blows for freedom, I shall be with it in the conflict--whenever I see an organization in position antagonistic to freedom, my arm shall aid in smiting it down."

The proposition for a union of the people was lost by a small vote, and the twenty-one years' amendment adopted by a small majority.

Against the twenty-one years proposition, General Wilson said:

"Sir, the American movement is not based upon bigotry, intolerance or proscription. If there is anything of bigotry, intolerance or proscription in the American movement--if there is any disposition to oppress or degrade the Briton, the Scot, the Celt, the German or any one of another clime or race, or to deny to them the fullest protection of just and equal laws, it is time such criminal fanaticism was sternly rebuked by the intelligent patriotism of the State and country. I deeply deplore, sir, the adoption of the twenty-one years amendment. It will weaken the American movement at home and in other States, especially in the West, and tend to defeat any modification whatever of the naturalization laws. I warn gentlemen, who desire the correction of the evils growing out of the abuses of the naturalization laws, against the adoption of extreme opinions; I tell you, gentlemen of the council, that this intense nativism kills--yes, sir, it kills and is killing us, and unless it is speedily abandoned, will defeat all the needed reforms the movement was inaugurated to secure, and overwhelm us all in dishonor. Every attempt, by whomsoever made, to interpolate into the American movement, anything inconsistent with the theory of our democratic inst.i.tutions--anything inconsistent with the idea that 'all men are created equal'--anything contrary to the commands of G.o.d's Holy Word that 'the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself,'--is doing that which will baffle the wise policy which tries to reform existing evils and to guard against future abuses."

General Wilson engaged with his accustomed industry and energy in the practical business, and in the exciting debates of the memorable session of 1855-6. In February, he made a speech on the affairs of Kansas, replete with facts not then familiar to the country. This speech went through three editions, and nearly 200,000 copies were circulated through the free States. In April, General Wilson made a speech in favor of receiving the pet.i.tion of the Topeka Legislature for admission into the Union, and on this occasion in reply to the taunts of Mr. Douglas about "Amalgamationists," he said:

"Mr. President, the senator from Illinois tells us, with an air of proud a.s.surance, that the State he represents does not believe the negro the equal of the white man; that she is opposed to placing that degraded race upon terms of equality; that she had a right to enact her black laws; and that if we of Ma.s.sachusetts do not like those acts, she does not care. Illinois, he tells us, does not wish the blood of the white race to mingle with the blood of the inferior race--Ma.s.sachusetts can do otherwise if she chooses. Let me tell the honorable senator from Illinois, that these taunts, so often flung out about the equality of races, about amalgamation, and the mingling of blood, are the emanations of low and vulgar minds. These taunts usually come from men with the odor of amalgamation upon them. Sir, I am proud to live in a commonwealth where every man, black or white, of every clime and race, is recognized as a man, standing upon terms of perfect and absolute equality before the laws. Yes, sir, I live in a commonwealth that recognizes the sublime creed embodied in the Declaration of Independence--a commonwealth that throws over the poor, the weak, the lowly, upon whom misfortune has laid its iron hand, the protection of just and equal laws. Sir, the people of Ma.s.sachusetts may not believe that the African race,

"Outcast to insolence and scorn,"

is the equal to this Anglo-Saxon race of ours in intellectual power; but they know no reason why a man, made in the image of G.o.d, should be degraded by unjust laws, because his Creator has given him a weak body or a feeble mind. Sir, the philanthropist, the Christian, the true Democratic statesman, will see in the fact that a man is weak, ignorant, and poor, the reason why the State should throw over him the panoply of just and equal laws."

In the latter part of May, 1856, Mr. Sumner was a.s.sailed in his seat in the Senate chamber by Mr. Brooks of South Carolina, and beaten over the head with a cane until he fell unconscious upon the floor, covered with blood. When the a.s.sault was made, General Wilson was in the room of Speaker Banks engaged in conversation with several members of the House. Returning to the Senate Chamber, he found his friend and colleague almost unconscious in the hands of his friends. He aided in the sad task of bearing him to his chamber and placing him on his couch of pain. That night the Republican members met at the house of Mr. Seward, and commissioned General Wilson to call the attention of the Senate to the a.s.sault upon his colleague, which duty he performed next day in a few very appropriate words. On motion of Mr. Seward, a committee was appointed, and on the morning of the 27th, Mr. Slidell, Mr. Toombs, Mr. Douglas and others rose to make some personal explanations concerning the statement made to the committee by Mr.

Sumner. The floor and galleries were crowded, and every word was listened to with the most intense interest. General Wilson rose to defend his absent colleague, who was confined to his room, as he declared, from the effects "of _a brutal, murderous, and cowardly a.s.sault_." He was instantly interrupted by an exclamation from Mr.

Butler, and cries of order increased the intense excitement which prevailed in the crowded chamber. Threats of personal violence were made by Mr. Brooks' friends, and several members of both houses a.s.sured General Wilson that they would stand by him in any emergency.

That evening, after the adjournment of Congress, he was compelled to leave Washington for Trenton, to address the Republican State convention of New Jersey. On his return, on the morning of the 29th, he was called upon by General Lane, of Oregon, and a challenge from Mr. Brooks placed in his hands. General Wilson promptly responded by placing in the hands of General Lane, through his friend, Mr.

Buffinton, the following note:

WASHINGTON, _May 29, 10-1/2 o'clock_.