February 3, 1865
“It is with devout thanksgiving to God, and emotions of joy which no language can express, that we announce to our readers the passage through the U.S. House of Representative, on Tuesday, last, of the proposed; amendment of the Constitution, in concurrence with the Senate, and the requisite two-thirds vote, abolishing and prohibiting slavery in every part of the republic! It is the greatest and most important event in the history of congressional legislation. It is better than all the military and naval victories of the war.”
January 27, 1865
The editor writes of the time when he and those who agreed with him “stood alone” in the matter of demanding immediate and unconditional emancipation. The November vote at the polls encourages him that now “..abolitionists find their strongest utterances against slavery every where acceptable, and repeated with emphasis and popular applause by the most influential men in Church and State.”….Then he quotes from a letter which had appeared in the Commonwealth, from London. “The anti-slavery men of America are just now supping with the men whose chief political recreation, up to the war, was to break up their meetings, and hurl bricks at the heads of their leaders….As Mr. Garrison is now with the majority, it is to be hoped that the strange phenomenon has been wrought by the majority coming over to him.”
January 20, 1865
Here is an item from L.M.C. (Presumably L. Maria Child), in which she tells of viewing a bust of Col. Shaw, created by Lewis. “I thought the likeness extremely good, and the refined face had a firm yet sad expression, as of one going consciously, though willingly, to martyrdom, for the rescue of his country and the redemption of a race….
January 20, 1865
At a Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Masons meeting, a letter from Gov. Andrew to Hayden, is read. With the letter, the Gov. sends “a gavel made from a piece of the whipping-post at Hampton, Va….I also place in your hands, for the same purpose, a rude boat of straw, made in the woods by a poor refugee from slavery, Jack Flowers, ….I know of no place more fitting for the preservation of these memorials of the barbarous institution that is now tottering to its rapidly approaching fall, than the association of free colored persons of Massachusetts over which you preside….”
January 13, 1865
A celebration of the second anniversary of the Proclamation was held at the Twelfth Baptist Church, Southac Street. The presence of Sen. Wilson is especially noted.
The day included a parade and dinner of the Shaw Guards.
There are also articles about similar Celebrations in New Bedford, and Providence.
January 6, 1865
The editor comments on the beginning of his work, recalling his work with Benjamin Lundy, and indicates that since he started his work at twenty-three years of age, “we are not venerable in years, as some imagine us to be”. …he indicates that Stanton and Lincoln, whom he met at the recent Baltimore Convention, in June, both remarked that they expected him to appear older than he does. “We are not unfrequently asked, whether we ever expected to live to see the marvelous revolution which has taken place in the views and feelings of the people, as to the duty and necessity of the prompt and utter extinction of slavery. Our reply is, that we were never much given to conjecture on the subject.”… He then indicates a belief that the nation is being punished for its sin of slavery, and here he remembers Jefferson’s fear of God’s justice. “The precise manner of our national punishment was hidden from all eyes, but of its certainty and severity none who believed in the indissoluble connection of retribution with sin could doubt…..As that vast system of robbery and cruelty is the essential cause of this awful visitation, so its instant and total abolition will give the land rest, stop the effusion of blood, and procure for us, as a people, an enduring union based on liberty and justice for all, whereby; our peace shall be like a river, and our prosperity as the waves of the sea.”
December 30, 1864
“The abolition of slavery in this country is the release of a population as large as that of all New England from a tyranny which crushed all the rights and claims of human nature at a blow; which left to its victims nothing but the capacity to suffer, and the absolute duty to be submissive to their pretended owners as though they were created to be ‘yoked with the brute and fettered to the soil…emancipation, therefore, meets them just where slavery leaves them - in need of everything that pertains to their physical, intellectual, and moral condition…… we regard the various Freedmen’s Associations now in operation as trustworthy mediums, and deserving of general encouragement in proportion to the catholic spirit in which they are organized……in this connection it is due to the American (Boston) Tract Society to say, that it is largely concentrating its means and efforts for the elevation of the liberated bondmen, and adapting its publications to their understanding and needs with excellent judgment, on a liberal scale…”
December 30, 1864
Here is notice that the subscription price of the paper will be increased, from $3 to $3.50 per year.
December 2, 1864
With attention to the question of an amnesty for rebelling states and reconstruction of the government, this discussion ends with an affirmation of Lincoln’s assertion that “whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive….Let Congress therefore act independently, and up to its full prerogative, and at the same time aim to preserve as much unity of action as possible with the Executive. “
November 11, 1864
“No Presidential Election has ever occurred at all comparable in magnitude, solemnity and far-reaching consequences to the one which came off on Tuesday last. The hosts of freedom and the powers of despotism met in a death grapple, and the latter have been sent howling to the pit from which they emanated, while the former are singing songs of praise and thanksgiving. The doom of Rebellion and Slavery is now irrevocably pronounced. “
