“STATE OF MAINE.
“RESOLUTIONS RELATING TO NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
“Resolved, That we cordially endorse the administration of Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of the war against the wicked and unnatural enemies of the Republic, and that in all its measures calculated to crush this rebellion speedily and finally, the administration is entitled to and will receive the unwavering support of the loyal people of Maine.
“Resolved, That it is the duty of congress, by such means as will not jeopardize the rights and safety of the loyal people of the South, to provide for the confiscation of estates, real and personal, of rebels, and for the forfeiture and liberation of every slave claimed by any person who shall continue in arms against the authority of the United States, or who shall in any manner aid and abet the present wicked and unjustifiable rebellion.
“Resolved, That in this perilous crisis of the country, it is the duty of congress, in the exercise of its constitutional power, to ‘raise and support armies,’ to provide by law for accepting the services of all able-bodied men of whatever status, and to employ these men in such manner as military necessity and the safety of the Republic may demand.
“Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the senators and representatives in congress from this state, and that they be respectfully requested to use all honorable means to secure the passage of acts embodying their spirit and substance.”
The resolutions were sent to the House for concurrence, and were there referred to the committee of the whole. On the 6th and 7th of March, Mr. Gould, of Thomaston, made an elaborate argument against them. At the conclusion of his remarks he was replied to by Mr. Blaine, Speaker of the House. The resolutions were subsequently adopted by the House in concurrence with the Senate, by yeas one hundred and four, nays twenty-six.
Mr. Gould had spoken for seven hours against the resolutions. The House had gone into committee of the whole, with Mr. Frye, the present United States senator, in the chair. The senate was present in a body, on one side, the governor and his council on the other, and as many as could enter, filled the galleries and vacant spaces, when Mr. Blaine, then but thirty-two years of age, took up the gage of battle, and spoke for two hours, and so utterly demolished the premises and conclusions of his powerful antagonist as to carry the resolution through the House with but few dissenting voices.
Mr. Blaine had been re-elected Speaker of the House by a vote of one hundred and thirty-five out of one hundred and forty, at the present session. All eyes were turned to him as the man for the occasion.
His old paper, the Kennebec Journal, with which he had had no official connection for three years, says of the speech:—