Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/57

 lo s. VIL JAX. 19, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

41

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1!), 1907.

CONTENTS. No. 160.

NOTES : Slavery in the United States, 41 Brasses at the Bodleian, 42 Chertsey Monumental Inscriptions, 43 'Ham House,' by Mrs. Roundell, 44 "The Mahalla" Coleridge's ' Dejection ' Anglo - Indian ' Little Jack Homer' 'The Merchant's Magazine,' 45 "The Right' and "The Wrong" Howson's Case, 46 "The Old High lander" Carlisle: Carlyol, 47.

QUERIES : Public Office = Police-Office Frederic the Great's MSS. 'The Sign of the Cleft,' 47 Philip Wright, c. 1759 Gentleman's Evening Dress French Revolution Andrew Jukes Duke of Kent's Chil- dren Papyrus and Parchment "A penny saved i two pence got" Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs, 48 Sir Richard Fanshawe's Portrait Authors of Quotations Wanted Brass Rubbings French Proverbs, 49 Brink- low Family Tristan and Isolde Cruikshank's Remarque Mrs. Mary Goodyer's Murder Aldworth of Berk shire, 50.

REPLIES : "Thune" : " (Eil-de-boeuf," French Slang- Words, 50 "Firgunanum" ^Edric, Duke of Mercia Spelling Changes, 51 Folk-lore Origins Dorothy Vernon Legend "Set up my rest," 53 Three-Candle Folk-lore- Sir T. Davis, Lord Mayor A Knighthood of 1603, 54 Fairy-haunted Kensington Bell Inscriptions at Siresa Macaulay's Letters to Randall Admiral Benbow's Death, 55 Blake's Songs : Early Reprint Gamelshiel Castle, Haddingtonshire Bacchanals or Bag-o'-Nails Don- caster: Image of the Blessed Virgin, 56 Eleanor of Castile Cardinal Mezzofanti Monumental Inscriptions : St. Faith S.P.Q.R., 57 " Romeland" MacNamara Welsh A, 58.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' New English Dictionary ' Platt's 'Last Ramble in the Classics.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES :

ITS CESSATION. IN correcting one blunder (10 S. vi. 470) MB. ALBERT MATTHEWS falls into another much worse. So far from slavery legally ceasing on 1 Jan., 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation did not render it illegal on an inch of territory ; and had the war ended then, the very districts affected could have bought a new set of slaves from the others. It did not free even the existent slaves in the loyal States or those forcibly prevented from secession, nor (a significant fact) in the seceded portions actually conquered, but only in those io be conquered. It left nearly a million slaves without even the inferable promise of freedom. Why does MR. MATTHEWS suppose the Thirteenth Amend- ment to the Constitution, making slavery thenceforth illegal, was passed in 1865 if .there were no slaves to free ? Was this elaborate, tune - and - labour - wasting, and difficult machinery set at work to abolish what did not exist ? The fact is that there were then some quarter of a million un- -questioned slaves, and several hundred thousand more whose emancipation was irregular and doubtful ; and that while the Dred Scott decision stood unreversed in the Supreme Court, slavery was still the

law of the land. The amendment passed to countervail that decision and make any revival of the institution impos- sible, as well as to free the still remaining slaves. The fugitive-slave laws were not abolished till 28 June, 1864 : a useless per- formance if there were no slaves to hunt down. A very brief summary of the main landmarks in the abolition of slavery may be permitted :

6 Aug., 1861, all slaves employed against the National Government freed ; 13 March, 1862, return of fugitive slaves by the army prohibited ; 26 March, gradual emancipa- tion after 4 July, 1863, voted by West Virginia (a war creation) ; 16 April, slavery in the District of Columbia (the Govern- ment's property) abolished ; 19 June, the same in the Territories (provisional States under Government control) ; 17 July, captured or fugitive slaves of all persons in rebellion freed ; 22 Sept., Lincoln's pre- liminary proclamation, threatening eman- cipation if the seceding States did not yield ; 1 Jan, 1863, his great Emancipation Pro- clamation, freeing all slaves in rebellious territory thereafter conquered ; 24 June, gradual emancipation after 4 July, 1870, voted by Missouri ; 13 Feb., 1864, immediate emancipation voted by a convention of the part of Virginia held by the Federal Govern- ment ; 24 Feb., all negro soldiers emanci- pated; 28 June, fugitive-slave laws abolished ; 13 Oct., abolition of slavery by Maryland's new constitution, secured by allowing soldiers in the field to vote ; 11 Jan., 1865, immediate emancipation voted by Missouri in a new State convention ; 3 March, wives and children of all negro soldiers emancipated. Local conventions in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana had also passed emancipation ordinances for their States, of dubious validity. This left the slaves in Kentucky and Delaware unaffected, and those in several other States of questionable status. The Thirteenth Amendment had already been passed by the Senate in 1864, but failed of a two-thirds vote in the House ; the latter body reversed its vote early in 1865, and the amendment was ratified by thirty- one States out of thirty-six, and went into force 18 Dec. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

MR. MATTHEWS at 10 S. vi. 470 makes a blunder, both legal and historical, which should 'not be let pass in the pages of ' N. & Q.' He states that "slavery, which had previously been abolished in many of the States, ceased legally to exist throughout the United States on 1 Jan., 1863 or nearly 44 years ago."