Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/579

Attjtii.de of Stevens toward Conduct of Civil War 569 But the war made all the difference in the world. The events of but a few short months of war wrought a decided change in the purpose and temper of Congress and the country. It was seen that slavery was a source of strength to the Rebellion. Conservative Union men were being rapidly and radically convinced that if the national government did not interfere with slavery, slavery would seriously interfere with the national government and the success of its arms. This change in policy and purpose is indicated by the fact that when the Thirty-seventh Congress came together again in its regular session in December, 1861, and an attempt was made to reaffirm the Crittenden resolution which had received such universal approval but a few months before, it was decisively rejected. It was rejected by a party vote upon the motion of Stevens, who had thus considerable satisfaction in seeing that at least his own party had now come to his position in asserting its freedom from a doctrinaire impediment to the conduct of the war, and that the nation was now to feel free to strike at slavery or to do whatever else would seem best calculated to promote the success of the national cause. The events of the war had, however, made no change in the pur- poses and opinions of Stevens. His principles were settled, his mind was fixed from the beginning. When the Crittenden resolu- tion had been offered in July, he objected to it and withheld his vote. He was one of four in the House who were not ready to subscribe to its doctrine. He was one of the more pronounced and radical — may we not say more far-seeing? — antislavery men who believed that the Rebellion must result in the destruction of slavery. He would not embarrass the government nor prevent its dealing a blow in opposition to slavery when occasion should arise. He wanted the government to have a free hand, an unrestricted liberty, in the con- duct of the war, and he did not wish Congress to commit itself to a doctrine from which it would subsequently have to recede. He believed in the beginning what Lincoln came to believe in the midst of the war, that, in this national crisis, Congress and the President, representing the sovereign nation, had the right to take " any step which might best subdue the enemy." ^ He wanted the rulers of the nation to indulge no scruples nor lay down any generalities that would interfere with the most vigorous prosecution of the war. Time clearly vindicated Stevens's leadership in this respect. A fortnight had not gone by after the passage of the Crittenden resolu- tion defining the objects of the war and giving an implied promise that slavery would not be interfered with, before slavery had become a subject of sore discussion in Congress. It came up in connection ^Life and Writings of B. R. Curtis. I. 348.