VICTORY AND PEACE THROUGH EMANCIPATION.

LETTER TO COLORED CITIZENS IN NEW YORK, CELEBRATING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION, DECEMBER 18, 1863.

WASHINGTON, December 18, 1863. ENTLEMEN,It is not in my power to be pres

of Emancipation. But, wherever I may be, I shall celebrate it in my heart.

That Proclamation was the key to open the gates of victory and peace. Without it victory would have been doubtful, and peace impossible. And now both are. certain.

Accept my best wishes, and believe me, Gentlemen,

Faithfully yours,

THE COMMITTEE, &c.

CHARLES SUMNER.

THE MAYFLOWER AND THE SLAVE SHIP.

LETTER TO THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY AT NEW YORK, DECEMBER

Ar the anniversary of the Society speeches were made by Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, Mayor Opdyke, General Dix, General Burnside, General Sickles, Senator Hale, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and James T. Brady, Esq. Among the letters read was one from Mr. Sumner.

SENATE CHAMBER, December 21, 1863.

Y DEAR SIR,I had counted on partaking of your patriotic, invigorating, and gratifying festival, where New-Englanders away from home annually meet for fellowship; but the Senate is in session, and you know it is not a habit with me to leave my post. I must put off to another occasion the pleasure I had promised myself.

Never before, since the Mayflower landed its precious cargo, have New-Englanders had more reason for pride and gratulation than now. We are told that a little leaven shall leaven the whole lump, and that saying is verified. The principles and ideas which constitute the strength and glory of New England have spread against opposition and contumely, till at last their influence is visible in a regenerated country, tried, it may be, by murderous conspiracy and rebellion, but aroused and stimulated to the manly support of Human Rights.

Amid all the sorrows of a conflict without precedent,

let us hold fast to the consolation that it is in simple obedience to the spirit in which New England was founded that we are now resisting the bloody efforts to raise a wicked power on the corner-stone of Human Slavery, and that as New-Englanders we could not do otherwise.

If such a wicked power can be raised on this continent, the Mayflower traversed its wintry sea in vain.

We remember, too, that another ship crossed at the same time, buffeting the same sea. It was a Dutch ship, with twenty slaves, who were landed at Jamestown, in Virginia, and became the fatal seed of that Slavery which has threatened to overshadow the land. Thus the same ocean, in the same year, bore to the Western Continent the Pilgrim Fathers, consecrated to Human Liberty, and also a cargo of slaves. In the holds of those two ships were the germs of the present direful war, and the simple question now is between the Mayflower and the slave ship. Who that has not forgotten God can doubt the result? The Mayflower must prevail.

Believe me, with much regard, my dear Sir,

Very faithfully yours,

ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq.

CHARLES SUMNER.

COMMUTATION FOR THE DRAFT: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RICH AND POOR.

REMARKS IN THE Senate, on an Amendment moved to the EnrolMENT BILL, JANUARY 8, 12, AND JUNE 20, 1864, AND FEBRUARY 7, 1865.

JANUARY 8, 1864, the Senate having under consideration a bill to amend an act entitled "An Act for enrolling and calling out the national forces and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1863, Mr. Sumner moved an amendment, afterwards modified as follows.

"That, in addition to the substitute furnished by a drafted person, or, where no substitute is furnished, then in addition to the sum fixed by the Secretary of War for the procuration of a substitute, every such drafted person shall, before his discharge from the draft, be held to contribute a certain proportion, in the nature of a tithe, of his annual gains, profits, or income, whether derived from any kind of property, dividends, salary, or from any profession, trade, or employment whatever, according to the following rates, to wit: on all income over one thousand dollars and not over two thousand dollars, five per centum; over two thousand dollars and not over five thousand dollars, ten per centum; and on all income over five thousand dollars, twenty per And it shall be the duty of every such person, seeking to be discharged, to make return, either by himself or his guardian, to the provostmarshal of his district, of the amount of his income, according to the requirements of the Act to provide internal revenue, of July 1, 1862. And it is further provided, That the contribution thus made shall be employed by the Secretary of War, in his discretion, to promote enlistments, or for the benefit of enlisted men."

centum.

January 8th, Mr. Sumner explained his amendment, remarking as follows.

MR.

R. PRESIDENT,-I presume that I do not exaggerate, if I say, that, of all the questions connected with this bill, that relating to commutation for

service is the most difficult and the most sensitive. It is the question which has most occupied the attention of the country. It has been most discussed in the newspapers, and also in conversation. I presume it is the ground of objection most often made against the draft. Now I think all Senators will unite in any proposition that promises in any way to smooth these difficulties,—in short, to popularize a part of the bill which has been open to so much objection among the people.

January 12th, in the course of debate, Mr. Sumner replied to Mr. Sherman, of Ohio.

THE Senator from Ohio, not contenting himself with opposing the amendment, introduced other and extraneous matter, which has been under discussion since, diverting our minds from the original proposition. But if I can have his attention for a few minutes, it seems

to me I do not know I may even satisfy him that his argument was not well founded.

If I understand the Senator, he objects to my proposition on the ground, in the first place, that it is an unusual tax. Sir, what is the draft but a tax? The draft compels all persons drafted to contribute strength, muscle, life, to the defence of the Republic. That, if I am not mistaken, is the highest tax the country can impose. But, still further, what is the commutation which the statute positively requires but a tax? If, then, there be anything in the argument of the Senator, both the draft itself and the commutation of three hundred dollars are a tax, and both are therefore objectionable. But neither the one nor the other is a tax in a received sense, because neither the one nor the other is an imposition