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![handle is hein.slavery/jrsubemc0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
THE JOINT RESOLUTION ON THE SUBJECT OF EMANCI-
PATION, RECOMMENDED IN THE PRESIDENT'S
MESSAGE OF MARCH 6,1862.
SPEECH
or
HON. JOHN HICKMAN,
Of Peniisylvania.
DELIVERED IN THE H]OUSE Qif REPRESENTATIVES,)IMARtH 11, 1862.
The joint resolution in relation to the abolition of slAvery being under considera-
tion, Mr. HICKMAN addressed the iHpuse as follows.
Mr. SPEAKER : Although .I do not consider the passage of this resolution
as of any great practical importance, yet.I shall cast my vote -for it. It
does not possess any marked intrinsio merit, for the reason that its adop-
tion would not nonstitute' legislation. It would be well distinguished as a
plank in the plattbrm of a political party. If carried through this House
it will not even bind the present House to pass a law, much less a Htouse,
that shall be ,onvened in'the future. It is, in my judgment, simply a de-
claration of opinion as to a policy, and- nothing more. As I lookat it, it
is but a compensation to the North. for disappointed hopes, and a warn-
ing to the people of the border slave#States, who are most interested at the
present moment in the subject to' which: it makes special reference. The
President of the United States cannot be ignorant of the fact that he has,
thus far, failed to meet the just expectation of the partywhich elected him
to the offine he ,holds, aud consequently his friends are to be comforted, .not
so much by the resolution itselfas by the body of the message; ,while the
'people of the border. slave States will not fail to observe that, with the com-
fort to us is mingled an awful warning to them.
The paper is somewhat of an, assurance- slight I admit-,hat the Presi-
dent still has convictions upon the great question of freedom and slavpry,
and in a certain event the interests of slavery, which he,eems anxious to
-to protect, may be prostrated ; and that, therefore, it is beter:for' the bor-
der States to iput themselves in a position to meet a great crisis. It is,
-therefore, rather a palliative and caution then ,an open and ayowed policy;
it is rather an- excuse for non action than an avowed determination to act.
I speak frankly upon this point, because I do not re~t upon the arms of
power; and I am as free to denounce anything which I may regard objec-
'tionable in this Administration as in any which has preceded it, or which
may follow, it,, Neither the message nor the, resolution is manly or open.
They are both covert and insidious. They do not become the dignity of
the President of the United States. The message is not such a document
as a full-grown, independent, and resolute man should publish to the nation
at such a time as the present, when positions should be freely and fully de-
fined. Thq President of the United States is not permitted 4o be ignorant of](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/jrsubemc0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)