payment of an indemnity. From these deliberations resulted the new law, announced by the manifesto of the nineteenth of February, or 3rd of March, 1861, according to the New Style.

The fundamental principles of the new legislation may be summed up thus: The peasants hitherto attached to the soil were to be invested with all the rights of free cultivators. The peasants, in consideration of certain quit-rents fixed by law, should obtain the full enjoyment of their enclosure or dvor, and also a certain quantity of arable land, sufficient to make certain the accomplishment of their obligations towards the state. It was provided that this "permanent enjoyment," or usufruct, might be exchanged for an "absolute ownership" of the enclosure and the lands, on the payment of purchase-money. The lords were to grant the peasants or the rural communes the land actually occupied by the latter; in each district, however, a maximum and a minimum were to be fixed. On the whole, there was an average of three desiatins and a half, or more than nine English acres, for each male peasant; but it varied from one desiatin to twelve; that is to say, the peasants in general received less in the Black Land, and more in the less productive zones. The government was to organize a system of loans, which would permit the peasants immediately to liberate themselves from their lords, though they would remain debtors to the state. The dvorovuie, who were neither attached to the soil, nor members of the commune, were to receive only their personal liberty, after they had served their masters for two years. To bring the great work of partition into seigniorial and peasant lands to a happy conclusion, to regulate the amount of the dues, the conditions of re-purchase, and all the questions which might arise from the execution of the law, the temporary magistracy of the mirovuie posredniki, or mediators of peace, was instituted, who showed themselves for the most part honest, patient, impartial, equitable, and who deserved a great part of the honor of this pacific settlement.

The peasants, freed from the authority of their former masters, were organized into communes; or, rather, the commune, the mir, which is the primordial and antique element of Slavo-Russian society acquired a new force. It inherited the right of police and of surveillance, held by the lord over his subjects; it administered and judged with more liberty the suits of the peasants. In accordance with the ancient Slav law, the land bought from the lord remained the common property of all the members of the mir: each peasant held as his private property only his enclosure and the land thereto pertaining. Arable lands are subject, at more or less frequent intervals, to partition among the heads of families, and are possessed by them only by way of usufruct. The law, which does not permit a final partition of the common

land, except when two thirds of those interested consent, will long maintain against the destructive action of new manners and new wants this old European institution, which in Western countries has disappeared for centuries, in France especially, and has left no trace, other than in so-called communal properties. The communes, freed from the control of the lords, were grouped, as in the case of the imperial domains, into volosti, or districts having from three hundred to two thousand male members; a volost tribunal received the appeal from the communal justices, and a volost municipality was charged to watch over the common interests of all the villages under its jurisdiction. The mayor of the commune was called starosta; the head of the volost was called starshina, and was made responsible for the peace and order of the community. The Russian peasants were thus given a complete system of local self-government, of an absolutely rural character, for the former lord was strenuously kept apart from it. Since his ancient domain had been divided into seigniorial and peasant lands he ceased legally to be an inhabitant of the village. His interests being perfectly distinct from those of the peasants, he was forbidden to meddle either with them, their elections, their administration, or their justice.

The great emancipation measure was, in fact, a dissolution of partnership between masters and peasants. It imposed sacrifices on both the interested parties.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state, or the peo

ple thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.

Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-inchief of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the army service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke

the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtythree, and of the independence of the United States of America. the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President;

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.

Mr. F. F. Browne, whom I knew intimately for many years in Chicago, says in his carefully compiled book "Everyday Life of Lincoln":

To a large concourse of people who, two days after the proclamation was issued, assembled before the White House, with music, the President said: "What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake." That he realized to the full the gravity of the step before taking it is shown again in an incident related by Hon. John Covode, who calling on the President a few days before the issue of the final proclamation, found him walking his room in considerable agitation. Reference being made to the forthcoming proclamation, Lincoln said with great earnestness: "I have studied that matter well; my mind is made up—it must be done. I am driven to it. There is no other way out of our troubles. But although my duty is plain, it is in some respects painful, and I trust the people will understand that I act not in anger but in expectation of a greater good."

Had Mr. Lincoln lived, the re-construction of the southern states would have been accomplished on a more equitable basis and much of the injustice and hardships needlessly inflicted on the exhausted people avoided. Among other things some provision would have been made for the freedmen besides giving them freedom. The lands on which they had worked for others should in part have been distributed among them to cultivate on their own account as was done in Russia. They should have been given long time to pay for these lands and the government should have assisted them in getting started on the road to independence, if they were willing to support themselves on their own farms.

NEGRO FELLOWSHIP LEAGUE CELEBRATE WITH SONG.

Chicago's celebration of the anniversary of the emancipation proclamation at Orchestra Hall was made notable by the singing of a chorus of 100 voices organized by Mrs. Ida B. WellsBarnett, president of the Negro Fellowship league, and instructed by James A. Mundy. The chorus sang compositions by Wagner and Handel as well as an anthem, "Ethiopia Shall Soon Stretch Out Her Hands Unto God," composed by Mr. Mundy.

The preliminary announcement made by the celebration committee bears a quotation from Justice Harlan, "The constitution is color blind." The emancipation proclamation was read by Dr. Charles E. Bently.

CONSPIRACY TO BURN CHICAGO.

Benjamin Jeffrey Sweet who distinguished himself while Commandant at Camp Douglas, Chicago, during the years 1864 and 1865, was a young lawyer who was commissioned as Major of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers at the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion.

Born in Clinton county, New York in 1832, young Sweet came with his family to Wisconsin at an early age, his father being a pioneer missionary to the Indians and settlers of Calumet county. Already a successful young attorney and state senator at Madison in 1861, Mr. Sweet received his commission and entered the army as a major of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers. Later he returned to Wisconsin and raised two regiments, going to the front as Colonel of the 21st Infantry.

At the famous battle of Perryville, Ky., Colonel Sweet received two dangerous wounds and in consequence went into the Veteran Reserve Corps and in due time was placed in command of Camp Douglas, near Chicago, being then Colonel of the 8th Regiment U. S. Reserve Corps.

At Camp Douglas there was a great prison camp where thousands of Confederate prisoners were confined. In the fall of 1864 there was a conspiracy formed by direct influences in Richmond, the Confederate Capital, to release the prisoners at Camp Douglas, arm them, sack and burn Chicago, and carry the war into the Northwest. Colonel Sweet through his constant vigilance and care, ferreted out this conspiracy and at the last moment, just as the blow was about to be struck, arrested the leaders, seized the arms stored in Chicago and put an end to the enterprise. Two confederate Colonels and a number of Northern