Vol. XXXII.
APRIL, 1878.
No. 4.
American Missionary Association.
THE WARDS OF THE ALMIGHTY.
The notable event connected with the formal presentation of Mr. Carpenter’s picture “Signing the Emancipation Proclamation,” to the United States, was the speech of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. It was a graceful and significant act, when the former Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy spoke such words of hearty good-will at the reception of this commemoration of its death-blow. Mr. Stephens claims for the South a share of the honor of emancipating the slaves, since “the freedom of that race was never finally consummated, and could not be, until the Southern States sanctioned the Thirteenth Amendment. They accepted the proposition for emancipation by a voluntary uncontrolled” adoption of it.
Of the institution of slavery, as previously existing, he said: