“Mr. Davis. Did you not give your sympathy to those who resisted the law?
“Mr. Sumner. My sympathy is always with every slave.
“Mr. Davis. That is a frank acknowledgment. His sympathy is with every slave against the Constitution and the execution of the laws of his country! If that is not a sentiment of treason, I ask what is.”[3]
Meanwhile the House of Representatives were considering the same subject, and on the 26th May passed a bill “to confiscate the property of Rebels for the payment of the expenses of the present Rebellion, and for other purposes,” which, on motion of Mr. Clark, was taken up in the Senate June 23d, when he moved to substitute the pending Senate bill. The debate on the general question was resumed. June 27th, Mr. Sumner made another speech, which will be found in its place, according to date,[4] especially in reply to Mr. Browning, who had claimed the War Powers for the President rather than for Congress.
June 28th, the substitute moved by Mr. Clark was agreed to, Yeas 19, Nays 17, and the bill as amended was then passed, Yeas 28, Nays 13.
July 3d, the House non-concurred in the Senate amendment. A Conference Committee reported in substance the Senate amendment, which was accepted in the Senate, Yeas 28, Nays 13, and in the House, Yeas 82, Nays 42. July 17th, the bill was signed by the President.
The sections of this bill, as it passed, relating to liberation, were these.
“Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by Rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.
“Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present Rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.”[5]
This speech in the Washington pamphlet was entitled “Indemnity for the Past and Security for the Future,” which points directly at its object. An edition was printed in New York by the Young Men’s Republican Union, with the title, “Rights of Sovereignty and Rights of War, Two Sources of Power against the Rebellion,” which describes the way in which this object might be accomplished.