“SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That, if any person within any State or Territory of the United States shall, after the passage of this Act, wilfully engage in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, or shall wilfully aid or abet such rebellion, or adhere to those engaged in such rebellion, giving them aid or comfort, every such person shall thereby forfeit all claim to the service or labor of any persons commonly known as slaves; and all such slaves are hereby declared free, and forever discharged from such servitude, anything in the laws of the United States, or of any State, to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter any person claiming the labor or service of any such slave shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a sufficient defence thereto that the claimant was engaged in the said rebellion, or aided or abetted the same, contrary to the provisions of this Act. “SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That, whenever any person claiming to be entitled to the service or labor of any other person shall seek to enforce such claim, he shall, in the first instance, and before any order shall be made for the surrender of the person whose service or labor is claimed, establish not only his claim to such service or labor, but also that such claimant has not in any way aided, assisted, or countenanced the existing Rebellion against the Government of the United States. And no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or deliver up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.” May 19th, Mr. Sumner made the following speech, vindicating the powers of Congress. A debate ensued, turning on the inadequacy of the pending bill, in which Mr. Sumner likened it to a glass of water with a bit of orange-peel, which, according to a character in one of Dickens’s novels, by making believe very hard, would be a strong drink, and said: “At a moment when the life of the Republic is struck at, Senators would proceed by indictment in a criminal court.” Mr. Wade said: “I do not know that we shall get anything; but if we only get this bill, we shall get next to nothing.”