absent when their names were called. Thus both
the great parties united to establish the freedom
of all men in the United States. As the roll-call
drew to the end, those who had been anxiously keeping
tally saw that the measure had been carried.
The speaker, Mr. Colfax, announced the result; ayes
119, noes 56, and declared that “the joint resolution
is passed.” At once there arose from the
distinguished crowd an irrepressible outburst of triumphant
applause; there was no use in rapping to order, or
trying to turn to other business, and a motion to
adjourn, “in honor of this immortal and sublime
event,” was promptly made and carried. At
the same moment, on Capitol Hill, artillery roared
loud salutation to the edict of freedom.
The crowds poured to the White House, and Mr. Lincoln,
in a few words, of which the simplicity fitted well
with the grandness of the occasion, congratulated
them, in homely phrase, that “the great job is
ended.” Yet, though this was substantially
true, he did not live to see the strictly legal completion.
Ratification by the States was still necessary, and
though this began at once, and proceeded in due course
as their legislatures came into session, yet the full
three quarters of the whole number had not passed
the requisite resolutions at the time of his death.
This, however, was mere matter of form. The question
was really settled when Mr. Colfax announced the vote
of the representatives.[78]
[77] A constitutional amendment requires for its passage
a two thirds vote in the Senate and the House of Representatives,
and ratification by three fourths of the States.
[78] Thirteenth Amendment. First: Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction. Second:
Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
THE FALL OF RICHMOND, AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
From the Capitol, where he had spoken his inaugural
on March 4, 1865, Mr. Lincoln came back to the White
House with less than five weeks of life before him;
yet for those scant weeks most men would have gladly
exchanged their full lifetimes. To the nation
they came fraught with all the intoxicating triumph
of victory; but upon the President they laid the vast
responsibility of rightly shaping and using success;
and it was far less easy to end the war wisely than
it had been to conduct it vigorously. Two populations,
with numbers and resources amply enough for two powerful
nations, after four years of sanguinary, relentless
conflict, in which each side had been inspired and
upheld by a faith like that of the first crusaders,
were now to be reunited as fellow citizens, and to
