I have said that my excellent friend forgets that four million human beings have been changed in their condition. Four million slaves have been declared freemen. By whom, and by what power? By the National Government. And let me say, that, as the National Government gave that freedom, the National Government must secure it. The National Government cannot leave the men it has made free to the guardianship or custody or tender mercies of any other government. It is bound to take them into its own keeping, to surround them with its own protecting power, and invest them with all the rights and conditions which, in the exercise of its best judgment, seem necessary to that end. All that the Senator has forgotten. It is not in his mind. If I could bring myself to such obliviousness, if I could bathe so completely in the waters of Lethe as my excellent friend from Connecticut seems to have done daily in these recent times, I might, perhaps, join in the support of his proposition. THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA AND EMANCIPATION. REMARKS ON A JOINT RESOLUTION RELATIVE TO ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE EMPEROR, MAY 8, 1866. A joint resolution “relative to the attempted assassination of the Emperor of Russia,” introduced in the House of Representatives by Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, passed that body, and in the Senate was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. May 8th, it was reported to the Senate slightly amended, so as to read:-- “_Resolved, &c._, That the Congress of the United States of America has learned with deep regret of the attempt made upon the life of the Emperor of Russia by an enemy of Emancipation. The Congress sends greeting to his Imperial Majesty and to the Russian nation, and congratulates the twenty million serfs upon the providential escape from danger of the sovereign to whose head and heart they owe the blessings of their freedom.” Mr. Sumner, on reporting it, said, that, as it was a resolution which would interest the Senate, and as perhaps it ought to be acted upon immediately and unanimously, he would ask that it be proceeded with at once. There being no objection, he explained it briefly. MR. PRESIDENT,--This resolution seems scarcely adequate to the occasion, but the Committee was content with making the few slight amendments already approved by the Senate, without interfering further with the idea or language adopted by the other House, where the resolution originated. From the public prints we learn that an attempt has been made on the life of the Emperor of Russia by an assassin,--maddened against him, so it is said, on account of his divine effort to establish Emancipation. Of these things I know nothing beyond the report open to all; but I am not unacquainted with the generous efforts of the Emperor, and the opposition, if not animosity, aroused by his perseverance in completing the good work.