In the debate several speeches were made against the measure, while Mr. Sumner defended it. To the antislavery party the act was constitutionally[378] and morally wrong, so against public sentiment that it could seldom be enforced, and the question of its repeal was as plain as a "diagram," "the multiplication table," or "the ten commandments."[379] They desired to strike slavery wherever they could hit it, and to "purify the statute-book, so that there should be nothing in it out of which this wrong can derive any support." It should be repealed for the sake of our cause in foreign lands.[380] "Since the outbreak of the Rebellion this statute has been constantly adduced by our enemies abroad as showing that we are little better than Jefferson Davis and his slave-monger crew; for slavery never shows itself worse than in the slave-hunter. It is a burden for our cause which it ought not to be obliged to bear." To retain the law of 1793, framed by the founders of the Republic, and repeal the act of 1850 with its manifest injustice, was suggested as a desirable compromise. Mr. Sherman, therefore, offered an amendment to this effect, and it was accepted.[381] The friends of the measure then felt that the bill as it stood was of little value to the antislavery cause. Mr. Brown maintained that it was really a proposition to reinstate slavery in its fastness in the Constitution. "The civilized world, when it beholds the spectacle of the American Senate going back for three quarters of a century to resurrect a statute of slave-catching, and pass it anew with their indorsement, will credit very little all your talk about freedom. The act will give the lie to all argument."[382] Before further action was taken on Mr. Sherman's bill, the repeal bill from the House came before the Senate, and was reported from the committee, June 15, 1864. It was discussed for several days, but no new arguments were offered, and, June 23, 1864, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 27 to 12.[383] On the 25th of June it received President Lincoln's signature, and the Fugitive Slave Laws were swept from the statute-book of the United States.[384] [Sidenote: Repeal of the Acts.] =§ 104. The repeal act and the thirteenth amendment.=--The act was a simple one; it runs as follows:-- "Chap. CLXVI. An Act to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen hundred and fifty, and all Acts and parts of Acts for the rendition of Fugitive Slaves.