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McClellan to go on his staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel; but at the pressing solicitation of Mr. Cameron, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase, who were most anxious to give a new impulse to volunteering, then somewhat checked by the defeat at Bull Run, he accepted authority to raise a regiment of infantry, a company of sharpshooters, and a battery of artillery. Returning to Massachusetts, he issued a stirring appeal to the young men of the State, called and addressed several public meetings, and, in forty days, filled to overflowing the Twenty-second Regi ment, one company of sharpshooters, two batteries, and nine com panies of the Twenty-third Regiment, in all numbering nearly two thousand three hundred men. He was commissioned colonel of the Twenty-second Regiment, with the distinct understanding that he would remain with the regiment but a brief period, and would arrange with the War Department to have an accomplished army officer for its commander. With the Twenty-second Regiment, a company of sharpshooters, and the Third Battery of Artillery, he went to Washington, and was assigned to Gen. Mar tindale's brigade, in Fitz-John Porter's division, stationed at Hall's Hill, in Virginia. The passage of the regiment from their camp at Lynnfield to Washington was an ovation. On Boston Common, a splendid flag was presented to the regiment by Robert C. Winthrop; in New York, a flag was presented by James T. Brady, and a banquet given by the citizens, which was attended by eminent men of all parties.

After a brief period, Gen. Wilson, at the solicitation of the Secretary of War, resigned his commission, put the accomplished Col. Gove of the regular army in command of his regiment, and took the position of volunteer aide, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of Gen. McClellan. The Secretary of War, in pressing Gen. Wilson to resign his commission and take this position, expressed the opinion that it would enable him, by practical observation of the condition and actual experience of the organization of the army, the better to prepare the proper legislation to give the highest development and efficiency to the military forces. He served on Gen. McClellan's staff until the 9th of January, 1862, when pressing duties in Congress forced him to tender his resignation. In accepting it, Adjutant-Gen. Williams said,

"The major-general commanding desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, in which you tender your resignation of the appointment of aide-de-camp upon his staff. The reasons assigned in your letter are such, that the general is

not permitted any other course than that of directing the acceptance of your resignation. He wishes me to add, that it is with regret that he sees the termination of the pleasant official rela tions which have existed between you and himself; and that he yields with reluctance to the necessity created by the pressure upon you of other and more important public duties."

During the second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Wilson originated, introduced, and carried through, several measures of vital importance to the army and the interests of the country. Among these measures were the bills "relating to courtsmartial;"" to provide for allotment-certificates ;""for the better organization of the signal-department of the army;" "for the appointment of sutlers in the volunteer service, and defining their duties;""authorizing the President to assign the command of troops in the same field or department to officers of the same grade, without regard to seniority;" "to increase the efficiency of the medical department of the army; ""to facilitate the discharge of enlisted men for physical disability;" "to provide additional medical officers of the volunteer service; "" to encourage enlistments in the regular army and volunteer forces; ""for the presentation of medals of honor to enlisted men of the army and volunteer forces who have distinguished or who may distinguish themselves in battle during the present Rebellion;""to define the pay and emoluments of certain officers of the army, and for other purposes,” — a bill of twenty-two sections of important provisions; and "to amend the act calling forth the militia to execute the laws, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion." This last bill authorized for the first time the enrolment in the militia, and the drafting, of negroes; and empowered the President to accept, organize, and arm colored men for military purposes. Military measures introduced by other senators, or originating in the House, and amendments made to Senate bills in the House, were referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, imposing upon Mr. Wilson much care and labor.

During the session, Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, resigned; and, on leaving the department, he said in a letter to Senator Wilson, "No man, in my opinion, in the whole counry, has done more to aid the War Department in preparing the mighty army now under arms than yourself; and, before leaving this city, I think it my duty to offer to you my sincere thanks as its late head. As Chairman of the Military Committee of the Senate, your services were invaluable. At the first call

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for troops, you came here; and up to the meeting of Congress, a period of more than six months, your labors were incessant. Sometimes in encouraging the Administration by assurances of support from Congress, by encouraging volunteering in your own State, by raising a regiment yourself when other men began to fear that compulsory drafts might be necessary, and in the Senate by preparing the bills and assisting to get the necessary appropriations for organizing, clothing, arming, and supplying the army, you have been constantly and profitably employed in the great cause of putting down the unnatural rebellion."

Mr. Cameron was succeeded by Mr. Stanton, who brought to the office tireless industry, indomitable energy, and an abrupt manner that often subjected him to harsh criticisms. The Secretary and the Chairman of the Military Committee of the Senate ever maintained the most friendly and confidential relations. Mr. Wilson was always ready to consider the wishes of the Secretary, and ever prompt in his defence. Mr. Stanton has often expressed his grateful sense of the public and personal support so readily given.

In the last session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and in the Thirty-eighth Congress, Mr. Wilson labored with the same vigor and persistency to organize and develop the military resources of the nation, to do justice to the officers, and to care for the soldiers. During these sessions of Congress, he introduced many measures, and moved amendments to bills originated by other senators and in the House of Representatives. Among the important measures originated and carried to enactment by him were the bills" to facilitate the discharge of disabled soldiers, and the inspection of convalescent camps and hospitals;"" to improve the organization of the cavalry forces;"" to authorize an increase in the number of major and brigadier generals;" "for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," -a bill of thirty-eight sections, containing provisions of the highest importance; "to amend an act entitled An Act for enrolling and calling out the National Forces," "a bill of twenty-seven sections, in which it was provided that "colored persons should, on being mustered into the service, become free;" a bill "to establish a uniform system of ambulances in the armies; "" to increase the pay of soldiers in the United-States army, and for other purposes," a measure that increased the pay to sixteen dollars per month; "to provide for the examination of certain officers of the army;" a bill "to provide for the better organization of the Quar

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termaster's department; " a "bill in addition to the several acts for enrolling and calling out the national forces;"" to incorporate a national military and naval asylum for the relief of totally disabled officers and men of the volunteer forces;"" to incorporate the National Freedmen's Savings Bank;"" to incorporate the National Academy of Sciences;" "to encourage enlistments, and promote the efficiency of the military and naval forces, by making free the wives and children of colored soldiers; " and a joint resolution "to encourage the employment of disabled and discharged soldiers." The important legislation securing to colored soldiers equality of pay from the 1st of January, 1864, and to officers in the field an increase in the commutation-price of the ration, and three months' extra pay to those who should continue in service to the close of the war, was moved by Mr. Wilson upon appropriation-bills.

Mr. Wilson, while laboring with ever-watchful care for the interests of the army and the support of the Government in its gigantic efforts to suppress the Rebellion, did not lose sight, for a moment, of slavery, to the ultimate extinction of which he had consecrated his life more than a quarter of a century before slavery revolted against the authority of the nation. In that remarkable series of antislavery measures which culminated in the antislavery amendment of the Constitution, he bore no undistinguished part. He introduced the bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, which became a law on the 16th of April, 1862, and by which more than three thousand slaves were made forever free, and slavery made forever impossible in the nation's capital. He introduced a provision, which became a law on the 21st of May, 1862, providing that persons of color in the District of Columbia should be subject to the same laws to which white persons were subject; that they should be tried for offences against the laws in the same manner as white persons were tried, and, if convicted, be liable to the same penalty, and no other, as would be inflicted upon white persons for the same crime. On the 12th of July, 1862, he introduced from the Military Committee the bill, which became the law on the 17th, to amend the act of 1795, calling for the militia to execute the laws. This bill made negroes a part of the militia, authorized the President to receive into the military or naval service persons of African descent, and made free such persons, their mothers, wives, and children, if they owed service to any persons who gave aid to the Rebellion. When the amendment, on the 24th of February, 1864, to the Enrolment Act,

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pay,

was pending in the House, it was so amended as to make colored men, whether free or slave, part of the national forces; and the masters of slaves were to receive the bounty when they should free their drafted slaves. On the Committee of Conference, Mr. Wilson moved that the slaves should be made free, not by the act of their masters, but by the authority of the Government, the mo ment they entered the service of the United States. It was agreed to, and became the law of the land; and Gen. Palmer reported, that, in Kentucky alone, more than twenty thousand slaves had been made free by it. On his motion, the Army Appropriation Bill of June 15, 1864, was so amended as to provide that all persons of color who had been, or who might be, mustered into the military service, should receive the same uniform, clothing, arms, equipments, camp-equipage, rations, medical attendance, and as other soldiers, from the first day of January, 1864. He made, too, earnest and persistent efforts to secure justice to the Fiftyfourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts colored regiments, and regiments raised early in the war, and with partial success. troduced, and, in face of a persistent opposition, carried through, the joint resolution making the wives and children of all colored soldiers forever free. Major-Gen. Palmer, commanding the forces of the United States in Kentucky, estimated in an official report, six months after its passage, that nearly seventy-five thousand women and children were made free by it in that State alone. He was made chairman, on the part of the Senate, of the Committee of Conference to whom was referred the bills relating to the Freedmen's Bureau; and reported from the committee a new bill to establish in the War Department a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees, which became the law of the land. He introduced many other measures relating to slavery and the rights of persons of color, participated in the debates and the action on kindred propositions introduced by others, and made elaborate speeches in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and for the constitutional amendment.

He in

In addition to his vast labors in Congress during the Rebellion, Mr. Wilson travelled in several States thousands of miles, delivered more than a hundred speeches in support of the war and in vindication of the antislavery policy of the Government, and published "The History of Antislavery Measures in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses," in which the successive steps of national legislation pertaining to slavery are skilfully traced. This work has been most highly commended for its fairness, and clearness of statement.