n it, than to have the South brought back
by compromise. To avert such calamity, we must work. And our work
must mainly be to watch and criticise and urge the Administration
to do its whole duty to freedom and humanity. (Applause).

THE PRESIDENT then said: I suppose all the loyal women will agree
with me that we owe to the President and the Government in these
hours of trial, whether they make mistakes or whether they do
not, words of cheer and encouragement; and, as events occur one
after another, our criticisms should not be harshly made. When we
find willful departure from what is just and true, when we find
treason, we should not hesitate to speak the word of strongest
denunciation against both the treason and the traitor. But where
there is evident intention to be and to do right, where there is
loyalty, there all good men and all good women should give a word
of cheer and encouragement.

Women have their share in the responsibilities of this hour; in
the reconstruction of the Government. The battles now being
fought on Southern soil, will be fought again in the Capitol at
Washington, when we shall need far-seeing statesmen to base the
new Union on justice, liberty, and equality. Ours is the work of
educating the people to make this demand.

The entire year was spent in rolling up the mammoth petition. Many
hands were busy sending out letters and petitions, counting and
assorting the names returned. Each State was rolled up separately in
yellow paper, and tied with the regulation red tape, with the number
of men and women who had signed, endorsed on the outside. Nearly four
hundred thousand were thus sent, and may now be found in the archives
at Washington. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment made the
continuance of the work unnecessary. The first installment of 100,000
was presented by Charles Sumner, in an appropriate speech, Feb. 9th,
1864.

THE PRAYER OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND.

_Speech of Hon. Chas. Sumner on the Presentation of the First
Installment of the Emancipation Petition of the Woman's National
League._

In the Senate of the United States, Tuesday, February 9, 1864.

MR. SUMNER.--Mr. President: I offer a petition which is now lying
on the desk before me. It is too bulky for me to take up. I need
not add that it is too bulky for any of the pages of this