NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
January-February 1865
From The Missouri Democrat, Friday, February 3, 1865.
ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
In referring to the adoption of the Constitutional amendment, prohibiting slavery in the United States, we think we can safely speak of it as the greatest victory of the war. In that event perished the cause of the rebellion. For every drop of blood shed in battle is slavery responsible. But for its malignant influence, we would to-day have had an unbroken peace and prosperity. But for its instigation, the sword would never have been drawn, and the conflict begun between brothers and countrymen. In striking the death blow at slavery, the nation reaches the root of the rebellion, and places itself right on the record in the prosecution of the war.
In the adoption of the measure, we have a proof of the rapidity with which public opinion has been educated up to the true point. At the commencement of the war, a proposition for such a radical change in the Constitution would have created alarm with even a majority of loyal men. Now, men elected to Congress as Democrats and Conservatives give it their votes. Out of Missouri’s delegation in Congress, numbering nine in all, and containing a bare majority of Radicals, seven votes are given for the amendment. This proves the force with which public opinion has moved in the direction of freedom.
It has been a popular saying that slavery is dead; killed by the war. This may in one sense have been true, but the moral value of the action which Congress has taken is none the less on that account. By that action the Government and loyal people of the United States are set right before the whole world. There can be no question henceforward as to what we are fighting for. All can see that the battle for the Union is equally a battle for humanity and the right. By its vote to annul every provision in our Constitution recognizing the existence of slavery, Congress has erased the last stain from our national flag, and triumphantly vindicated our cause in the eyes of all mankind.