"There is,"
said the senator, "no shot in this war so effective as one against
Slavery, which is king above all officers; nor is there better
augury of complete success than the willingness at last to fire
upon this wicked king." By this means, Mr. Sumner believed that
we should "take from the rebellion its mainspring of activity and
strength, stop its chief stores of provisions and supplies, remove
a motive and temptation to prolonged resistance, and destroy forever
the disturbing influence which, so long as it exists, will keep
this land a volcano, ever ready to break forth anew." Mr. Sumner,
Mr. Wade, and Mr. Chandler, the senators who were regarded as most
radical, desired more stringent provisions than they could secure.
The really able lawyers of the Senate, Mr. Fessenden and Judge
Collamer, repressed the extreme measures which but for their
interposition would have been enacted. As the bill was finally
perfected, Mr. Chandler and his colleague Mr. Howard voted against
it, as did also Mr. Browning of Illinois and the Border-State
Senators Davis of Kentucky, Henderson of Missouri, and Carlile of
Virginia. To the Michigan senators the bill was too weak; to the
others it was too strong. Mr. Willey of Virginia was the only
senator from a slave-holding State who voted on the radical side.
With the exceptions noted, Republican senators all voted for the
bill.

CONFISCATION OF REBEL PROPERTY.

A series of measures in the House relating to confiscation were
under discussion while the Senate was considering the same subject.
The House passed a more stringent bill than the Senate would accept,
and the subject was finally sent to a committee of conference,
which from the points of disagreement framed the measure that
ultimately became a law. As in the Senate, the Border-State men
opposed the measure, but were overborne by the popular opinion
which nearly consolidated the Republican vote of the North in favor
of it. It was however an undoubted weakness, morally and politically,
that such men as Crittenden and Mallory of Kentucky, James S.
Rollins of Missouri, and Francis Thomas and Edwin H. Webster of
Maryland were recorded against it. The bill was passed in the
House by a vote of 82 to 42. The conference report having somewhat
strengthened the original measure passed by the Senate, Messrs.
Howard and Chandler of Michigan gave it their support, but for the
same reason