enthusiasts for humanity. And the
sympathies of the nations, which had wavered while the Union cause was
declared to be apart from the slavery question, now swung weightily to
the side of the North, since it was avowedly the side of freedom.

By his proclamation, Lincoln had,--to use his language to
Greeley,--"freed some and left others alone." He could not go further on
the ground of military necessity. But the work, or the promise, could
not be left in that imperfect shape. The natural resource was soon
found,--universal freedom by a constitutional amendment. This, the
Thirteenth Amendment, was brought forward in April, 1864, and received
more than the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate--38 to 6; but in
the House (elected in the reaction of 1862) only 95 to 66. The next
winter it was brought up again in the same House, but a House
enlightened now by the Republican victory in Lincoln's re-election; and
strongly urged by him it won the necessary two-thirds vote--119 to 56.
The States had still to pass upon it, after the war, but to resist
emancipation then was fighting against the stars in their courses; and
only Kentucky and Delaware rejected the amendment, while Texas was
silent, and Alabama and Mississippi gave a qualified assent. The
amendment was declared adopted, December 18, 1865, and on that day
slavery in the United States came to an end.

When the issue was finally shaped by the Emancipation Proclamation of
January 1, 1863, both sides set themselves anew for the grim
struggle--two years more of hard fighting. Since fighting it must be,
they bore themselves all, let us say, as brave men and women,--North and
South, white and black. The Confederates came often into dire
extremities. Men whose lives had been luxurious fared on the plainest
and hardest. Delicate women bore privations uncomplainingly, and toiled
and nursed and endured. Food, clothing, medicines were scant. Invasion
was borne, with its humiliation and suffering, its train of ravage and
desolation. The supporting motive was the common defense, the
comradeship of danger and of courage. The Confederacy and its flag had
won the devotion which sacrifice and suffering breed. Little thought was
there of slavery, little calculation of the future, as the siege grew
closer and the shadows darkened--but an indomitable purpose to hold on
and fight on. The chief hero of the Confederacy was Lee. He was the
embodiment and symbol of what the Southern people