When Slavery became an
obstruction to the progress of the national arms, opposition to it was
the dictate of prudence as well as of conscience, and its defenders at
once placed themselves in the position of being more interested in the
preservation of slavery than in the preservation of the nation. The
Republicans, charged heretofore with sacrificing the expedient to the
right, could now retort that their opponents were sacrificing the
expedient to the wrong.

Senator Wilson's volume gives the history of twenty-three anti-slavery
measures, in the order of their inception and discussion. Among these
are the emancipation of slaves used for insurrectionary purposes,--the
forbidding of persons in the army to return fugitive slaves,--the
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,--the President's
proposition to aid States in the abolition of slavery,--the prohibition
of slavery in the Territories,--the confiscation and emancipation bill
of Senator Clark,--the appointment of diplomatic representatives to
Hayti and Liberia,--the bill for the suppression of the African
slave-trade,--the enrolment and pay of colored soldiers,--the
anti-slavery Amendment to the Constitution,--the bill to aid the States
to emancipate their slaves,--and the reconstruction of Rebel States. The
account of the introduction of these and other measures, and the debates
on them, are given by Mr. Wilson with brevity, fairness, and skill. A
great deal of the animation of the discussion, and of the clash and
conflict of individual opinions and passions, is preserved in the
epitome, so that the book has the interest which clings to all accounts
of verbal battles on whose issue great principles are staked. As the
words as well as the arguments of the debates are given, and as the
sentences chosen are those in which the characters of the speakers find
expression, the effect is often dramatic. It cannot fail to be observed,
in reading these reports, that there is a prevailing vulgarity of tone
in the declarations of the champions of Slavery. They boldly avow the
lowest and most selfish views in the coarsest languages and scout and
deride all elevation of feeling and thought in matters affecting the
rights of the poor and oppressed. Their opinions outrage civility as
well as Christianity; and while they make a boast of being gentlemen,
they hardly rise above the prejudices of boors. Principles which have
become truisms, and which it is a disgrace for an