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In the mean while, during the past year, the Republican
administration, with all the unwonted care of organizing an army and
navy, and conducting military operations on an immense scale, have
proceeded to demonstrate the feasibility of overthrowing slavery by
purely constitutional measures. To this end they have instituted a
series of movements which have made this year more fruitful in anti-
slavery triumphs than any other since the emancipation of the British
West Indies. The District of Columbia, as belonging strictly to the
national government and to no separate State, has furnished a fruitful
subject of remonstrance from British Christians with America. We have
abolished slavery there, and thus wiped out the only blot of
territorial responsibility on our escutcheon.
By another act, equally grand in principle, and far more important in
its results, slavery is forever excluded from the Territories of the
United States.
By another act, America has consummated the long-delayed treaty with
Great Britain for the suppression of the slave-trade. In ports whence
slave vessels formerly sailed with the connivance of the port
officers, the administration has placed men who stand up to their
duty, and for the first time in our history the slave-trader is
convicted and hung as a pirate. This abominable secret traffic has
been wholly demolished by the energy of the Federal Government.
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