sonal Liberty and National Freedom and strength, the Democratic
members of the House had sat, many of them moving uneasily in their
seats, with chagrin painted in deep lines upon their faces, while others
were bolt upright, as if riveted to their chairs, looking straight
before them at the Speaker, in a vain attempt, belied by the pallid
anger of their set countenances, to appear unconscious of the storm of
popular feeling breaking around them, which they now doggedly perceived
might be but a forecast of the joyful enthusiasm which on that day, and
on the morrow, would spread from one end of the Land to the other.
Harris, of Maryland, made a sort of "Last Ditch" protest against
adjournment, by demanding the "yeas and nays" on the motion to adjourn.
The motion was, however, carried, by 121 yeas to 24 nays; and, as the
members left their places in the Hall--many of them to hurry with their
hearty congratulations to President Lincoln at the White House--the
triumph, in the Halls of our National Congress, of Freedom and Justice
and Civilization, over Slavery and Tyranny and Barbarism, was already
being saluted by the booming of one hundred guns on Capitol Hill.
How large a share was Mr. Lincoln's, in that triumph, these pages have
already sufficiently indicated. Sweet indeed must have been the joy
that thrilled his whole being, when, sitting in the White House, he
heard the bellowing artillery attest the success of his labors in behalf
of Emancipation. Proud indeed must he have felt when, the following
night, in response to the loud and jubilant cries of "Lincoln!"
"Lincoln!" "Abe Lincoln!" "Uncle Abe!" and other affectionate calls,
from a great concourse of people who, with music, had assembled outside
the White House to give him a grand serenade and popular ovation, he
appeared at an open window, bowed to the tumult of their acclamations,
and declared that "The great Job is ended!"--adding, among other things,
that the occasion was one fit for congratulation, and, said he, "I
cannot but congratulate all present--myself, the Country, and the whole
World--upon this great moral victory. * * * This ends the Job!"
Substantially the job was ended. There was little doubt, after such a
send off, by the President and by Congress, in view of the character of
the State Legislatures, as well as the temper of the People, that the
requisite number of States would be secured to ratify the Thirteenth
Amendment. Already, on the 1s
|