arrett Davis of Kentucky,
who had succeeded Mr. Breckinridge in the Senate, made a long speech
against the bill, contending that Congress had no power to free
any slaves. He wanted a bill of great severity against the rebel
leaders: "to those that would repent" he would give "immunity,
peace, and protection; to the impenitent and incorrigible he would
give the gallows, or exile and the forfeiture of their whole estate."
Such a law as that, he said, his "own State of Kentucky desired.
As Hamilcar brought his infant son Hannibal to the family altar,
and made him swear eternal enmity to the Roman power, so I have
sworn and will ever maintain eternal enmity to the principle of
secession and all its adherents." It was seen throughout the debate
that the bill under consideration was in large part provoked by
the confiscation measures of the Confederate Congress, and Mr.
Davis declared that "the debts due to the North, estimated at
$200,000,000, seized, confiscated, and appropriated by the rebel
government, shall be remunerated fully."

Mr. John B. Henderson of Missouri who, as a Union man of prominence
and ability, had succeeded Trusten Polk in the Senate, opposed the
bill because it would "cement the Southern mind against us and
drive new armies of excited and deluded men from the Border States
to espouse the cause of rebellion." He urged that "the Union
sentiment of the South should be cultivated, and radical measures
tending to destroy that sentiment should be dropped." Mr. Fessenden
was conservative on this as on other questions, and insisted upon
the reference of Mr. Trumbull's bill to a committee; which was the
occasion of some little passage between himself and Mr. Trumbull,
not without temper. Mr. Trumbull suggested that "the senator from
Maine would not be likely to get any light from the deliberations
of five men unless he were himself one of them." Retorting in the
same spirit, but, as he said, good-naturedly, Mr. Fessenden said
he should not "hope that _any_ deliberation of anybody would
enlighten the senator from Illinois."

Sustaining the extreme power of confiscation, Mr. Sumner desired
"the Act to be especially leveled at the institution of Slavery."
He recalled the saying of Charles XII. of Sweden, that the cannoneers
were perfectly right in directing their shots at him, for the war
would be at an instant end if they could kill him; whereas they
would reap little from killing his principal officers.