ved into the vestibule and on
into the room where the President was holding the republican court.
Timid and doubting, though determined, they ventured where their
oppressed and down-trodden race had never appeared before, and with the
keen, anxious, inquiring look on their dark faces, seemed like a herd of
wild creatures from the woods, in a strange and dangerous place. The
reception had been unusually well attended, and the President was nearly
overcome with weariness; but when he saw the dusky faces of his unwonted
visitors, he rallied from his fatigue and gave them a hearty welcome.
They were wild with joy. Thronging about him, they pressed and kissed
his hand, laughing and weeping at once, and exclaiming, "God bless Massa
Linkum!" It was a scene not easy to forget: the thanks and adoration of
a race paid to their deliverer.

Ever since issuing the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln had earnestly
desired that that measure should be perfected by a Constitutional
amendment forever prohibiting slavery in the territory of the United
States. He had discussed the matter fully with his friends in Congress,
and repeatedly urged them to press it to an issue. Just before the
Baltimore Convention, he urged Senator Morgan of New York, chairman of
the National Republican Committee, to have the proposed amendment made
the "key-note of the speeches and the key-note of the platform."
Congressman Rollins of Missouri relates that the President said to him,
"The passage of the amendment will _clinch the whole matter_." The
subject was already definitely before Congress. In December, 1863, joint
resolutions for this great end had been introduced in the House by Hon.
James M. Ashley of Ohio, and in the Senate by Hon. Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts and Hon. J.B. Henderson of Missouri. Senator Trumbull of
the Judiciary Committee, to whom the Senate resolutions were referred,
reported a substitute for the amendment, which, in April, 1864, passed
the Senate by a vote of thirty-eight to six; but reaching the House,
June 15, it failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote and was
defeated. At the next session of Congress the resolutions were again
presented to the House, and after a protracted debate were passed
(January 13, 1865) by a vote of one hundred and nineteen to fifty-six.
Illinois was the first State to ratify the amendment; and others
promptly followed. Lincoln was grateful and delighted. He remarked,
"This ends the job"; adding, "I