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LSECOND EDITIONJ 
 
 ^f' 
 
 A.1V ADOItE j?i;s 
 
 Col. 13. Grratz Brow^n. 
 
 SLAVERY 
 
 In its National Aspects as related to Peace and War. 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL EMANCIPATION SOCIETY OP THE 
 
 STATE OF MISSOURI, '^T ST. LOUIS, 
 
 Oia AVednesday Kvening, SepteiTil:>er 17, 186a. 
 
 Gentlemen : I shall address you this evening 
 upon the subject of "Slavery in its National 
 Aspects, as related to Peace and War." Had 
 circumstances made it appropriate, it would 
 have given me pleasure to adopt a line of remark 
 more immediately directed to the local objects 
 of your organization. But each hour has its 
 supreme duty, and I conceive the duty of this 
 hour to be the strengthening the hands and up- 
 holding the heart of the National Government, 
 that it may be induced both to feel wherein lies 
 the peril that most besets us, and to strike at it 
 with the death stroke. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION — ITS ANNIVESRAEY. 
 
 This day, as you know, is the anniversar^y of 
 the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States. That instrument was in itself a descent 
 and a compromise from the elevated ground of 
 the Declaration of Independence of 1770, not less 
 than of the subsequent Ordinance of 1787, and 
 unfortunately compromises have been the order 
 of the day ever since. Nevertheless it was the 
 work of earnest men striving to do honestly their 
 appointed task. Let us honor them for their 
 intent. To say that the Constitution was de- 
 signed to develop into harmonious unity, and 
 bind in perpetual league the States and peoples 
 that were parties thereto would be only to reit- 
 erate the language employed by its framers in 
 urging its ratification. But constitutions do 
 not make nations, and growths are sometimes 
 fostered, and moral influences sometimes re- 
 pressed that produce strange contortions in the 
 body politic. And so it has transpired in this 
 instance. After three quarters of a century of 
 operation there is witnessed division instead of 
 union, discord instead of harmony, hate instead 
 of love, between the jarring sections of the coun- 
 try. No fulsome panegyric upon by-gone times 
 — no unreasoning laudation of the Constitution 
 in itself— will either explain or remedy this 
 unlooked for ending to so many hopes clustered 
 around an almost deified parchment. And 1 do 
 not propose to go into any such declamation; but 
 shall leave it to those who believe nothing good 
 but what is past, nothing possible but what is 
 accomplished, and who stand idle singing syren 
 Bongs to obsolete social forms whilst the very 
 
 ground beneath their feet cracks with the tremor 
 of the earthquake. These days are full enough 
 of events to have their own elucidation,- the Con 
 stitution in its narrow fitting is straining upon 
 the athletic body of an aroused nation, claimiuii 
 adjustment, not flatteries; the high noon of the 
 civilization of the continent is come in storm 
 and darkness, and the out-looks must be watch- 
 ful, the penetration clear and deep, the sacrific. .- 
 rapid, unhesitating, suited to the necessities, i; 
 we are to ride out the whorls and breakers th::i 
 surround. 
 
 WE ARE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 They who would forecast the results of the 
 great crisis which is now upon this nation, must 
 do so by other lights than those relied on in past 
 partisan controversies regarding our Govern- 
 ment and its functions. This is an age of tr^Jr- 
 sition, precipitated on us, it is true, bj armer. 
 resistance to the national sovereignty, but non-^' 
 the less a transition age for all thai. It is a pas- 
 sage from the Old to the New; abruptly,, witii 
 disjointed effort, impeded by formalisms, reac- 
 tions, civil war ; yet, nevertheless, a veracious 
 passage, and we are the revolution. 
 
 The seceded States began this conflict of arm^. 
 and in so far are responsible for its many calam- 
 ities; but they only cast down the barriers to.tb ■ 
 pent up thought of the nation, and iu the preseii' 
 still more than in the past, that thought is march 
 ing on with the vast development that ever chai 
 acterizes revolutionary 'cycles. A full concef 
 tion of this truth is essential to any understand- 
 ing, either of the changes that have so tar passed 
 upon rulers as well as people, or of those other 
 and sterner attitudes that are yet to be taken by 
 both. It 
 
 The roots of this matter reached further back 
 than it is the purpose here to probe. Freedom, 
 in its relations to property, persons, principles, 
 has been the grand central figure of the century, 
 and its outgrowths are essential features of the 
 pending conflict. Indeed it requires only ordi- 
 nary scrutiny to trace, during the latter years of 
 our political life, the lineaments of a great his- 
 toric revolution. The advance, fro 5 the day 
 John Hampden tested the ship money writ, to the 
 day Strafford's impeachment ended Star Chamber 
 
0. 
 
 procedures, and further, to the day Charles 
 Stuart's head roiling in a basket finished the 
 mockery of divine right — the advance, I say, was 
 not more signal than that which has taken place 
 here touching liberties; first from resistance 
 against territorial extensions ot slavery, next to 
 abolishing the institution in the nation's capital, 
 and now to initiating policies of confiscation and 
 emancipation in the States themselves. A simple 
 contrast of public opinion concerning all the 
 questions involved in this war a year ago, and 
 the public acceptation in which tbe same points 
 are now held, will aflbrd suflicient evidence of 
 the progress that has taken place. That that 
 progress has come from the people, and been 
 towards radical views of freedom, scarcely needs 
 to be illustrated. The conviction that any in- 
 fringement of individual liberty if permitted to 
 organize and perpetuate itself in society, imper- 
 • iled its existence by inciting a substitution of 
 caste or class rule for the simple equity of repub- 
 lican government, from being a hesitant disputed 
 dogma, has become an accepted national faith girt 
 with armies and navies for its upholding. This is 
 Transition, this is Progress, this is Eevolution. 
 
 The national administration of the present is 
 the representative of this new order, so far as 
 that is developed. The rebellion is a resistance 
 against the national thought as thus reflected, 
 and a determlHation to break up the govern- 
 pient rather than submit. With the former, 
 freedom is the controlling spirit; with the latter, 
 slavery dominates all things. In other words, 
 it is but a repetition here of that struggle, that 
 contortion, that inward wrestling which time 
 out of mind has convulsed every nation that has 
 achieved enlarged liberties. 
 
 Applying, therefore, the formula of revolution 
 to the solution ot this crisis, it will lead us to 
 some conclusions that are well worth consider- 
 ing, and to a generalization of the future not as 
 yet sufficiently meditated by our people. Before 
 doing so, however, it will be well to examine 
 some of the antecedents of this conflict in which 
 we find ourselves engaged. 
 
 WHAT HAS MADE SDCH A KEBELLION POSSIBLE ? 
 
 The question is often asked, what has made 
 such a rebellion possible? All writers of news- 
 papers have hitherto habitually boasted that our 
 government, by its very nature, pliant to popu- 
 lar will, precluded thecalamity of civil war. 'Ihe 
 ballot box was worshipped as peacemaker, and 
 BO ordinarily it fell oat; but here now, at the 
 very acme of votings and hustings and electings, 
 it has failed — has in fact turned up exactly 
 
 L otherwise. Let us strive to comprehend this 
 
 m, phenomenon. 
 
 ^ In the absence of any alleged tyranny, the a7)i- 
 
 wMs of a movement which has hurried half the 
 States into rebellion must be sought in those con- 
 ditions and conjunctions which give unity to tbe 
 sentiment of revolt. 
 
 First, then, we see that the line which separ- 
 ates freedom and slavery is everywhere the 
 boundary line of rebellion ; for even those bor- 
 der States that have not formally seceded are 
 only held quiet by martial law. Nowhere, how- 
 ever, has free i^oil shown any affinity toward the 
 revolt. Its treason cases have,been altogether 
 eporadic. 
 
 Second— "We find within those limits of rebel- 
 lion the slave system is everywhere appealed to 
 as the sufficient bond of affiliation. The common 
 cause is treated as a thing existing, recognized, 
 undeniable. Even those who hold tor loyalty to 
 the Government in doubtful sections, hasten to 
 profess fidelity to tbe^Qstitutioo to assure their 
 
 own safety if the revolt succeeds. Sympathizers 
 in our midst, too, all predicate their feelings on 
 the same ground. 
 
 Third — We perceive the result of the slave sys- 
 tem in the outworking of half a century has been 
 to create a social life reposing exclusively upon 
 caste for its honors as well as its industries ; to 
 trarsform political methods so that only minori- 
 ties can rule, supplanting republicanism by oli- 
 garchy, and to divide or sectionalize the evan- 
 gelical churches, compelling each to interpolate 
 its creed with the slave code as the price of tol- 
 erance. Thus in the relations of man to God, to 
 govei'nment, to his fellow beings, it has consoli- 
 dated those communities where it obtains — in 
 other words, the whole area of the rebellion — 
 into conditions of direct antagonism to the great 
 body_ of the people of the nation. 
 
 It is because of these things that such a rebel- 
 lion has been possible ; things that ballot-voting 
 BO far has had no tendency to dissipate ; requir- 
 ing rather, it would seem, the fierce surgery of 
 revolution and radical reform to cure. And the 
 same cause which places those communities in a 
 relation of conjunction as to each other, also im- 
 pels them to regard citizens of the loyal States as 
 to all intents A mfj'^w-.s. Hence the vindictive- -^ 
 ness that has been displayed, as also the plausi- i 
 bility of that view whereby their leaders have 
 taught them to regard this war as invasion. 
 
 The conditions that characterize the communi- 
 ties now resisting the National Government, and 
 resisting it because hostile to the national 
 thought, whilst they result directly from the 
 slave system — indirectly are abuses sprung from 
 the constitutional and political system which by 
 fostering and encouraging slavery has permitted 
 it to generate such a diseased state. Eevolution 
 in its march must attack these if true to itself, 
 for until it does the solution will be no nearer 
 than at the outset. 
 
 If this be a correct analysis of events hereto- 
 fore, as well as of characteristics now existing, 
 it will follow that so long as the slave system ob- 
 tains, engendering its sectionalism, so long hos- 
 tilities will remain embittered, and tranquillity 
 be impossible, even in the event of a conquest by 
 overwhelming armies. It cannot but be appa- 
 rent to whosoever shall consider the edvcatvng 
 forces which slavery must continue exerting, as it 
 has heretofore done, to make its communities di- 
 verse in all social aspects, abnormal in political 
 relation, and isolated in their industrial attitude, 
 from the residue of the United States, that a mere 
 conquest without an assimilation of institutions 
 will neither restore the Union among the people 
 of those sections, nor cause the authority of the 
 Federal Government to be accepted in good part. 
 This truth is so clear, that the only wonder is how 
 any administration could pass through a year of 
 fruitless conciliations without perceiving the re- 
 pugnances unremoved and the very cause of them 
 all untouched. Injustice, therefore, to the re- 
 volted States which our arms propose to reduce 
 into submission, we must also make those elimi- 
 nations — necessary in order that they may de- 
 velop into unity and community with ourselves. 
 To conquer and then leave them with a social 
 life, apolitical system, religious fanaticisms con- 
 tinuously engendering and always impelling 
 them to collision and resistance, would be neither 
 prudent nor humane. To make war against the 
 logical results of slavery, and leave slavery to 
 breed other logical results as cause of future con- 
 flict, would be neither wise nor well. We must 
 not only put down the men in arms, but we must 
 also destroy the influences actively generating 
 
the spirit of disunion. We must eradicate as we 
 marcn that element which alone makes rebellion 
 possible in the present, and which will make it 
 chronic in the future, if suffered to remain. Con- 
 ditions which develop loyal, cohering, harmon- 
 izing States, and those which breed diverging, 
 inimical, antagonistic States, are before us in 
 their results — the former come of freedom, the 
 true base of constitutionalism, the latter of 
 slavery, its exceptional abuse — and we have but 
 to insist upon the former and abolish the latter 
 t© effect national assimilation. The French Kev- 
 olution of 1789 accomplished itself by laying the 
 axe to the root of the feudal system, which had 
 grown the iuequalitie,=< and social evils that set 
 Frenchmen at war with each other, and threat- 
 ened the dismemberment of a great nation ; and 
 so we, in republicanizing the institutions of this 
 people, and confirming our free government to 
 future generations, must obliterate that slave 
 system which has dismembered the States and 
 marked out the lines of rebellion, and without 
 abolishing which any transition in tbe slave sec- 
 tions from the old to the new is a moral and 
 physical impossibility. 
 
 WHAT JUSTIFIES THIS WAR ? 
 
 If 1 differ from those who assign purely techni- 
 cal breaches of constitutional law as the justifi- 
 cation to the General Government for a subjuga- 
 tion of the seceding States, it is not that I value 
 constitutionallawless, but that I prize the moral 
 attitude and responsibility of my country more. 
 
 The principle of self-government is as applica- 
 ble to the South as to the North, to one State as 
 another, and 1 should be loth to utter one word 
 which might disparage that fundamental doc- 
 trine of political freedom. But the principal of 
 self government as conceded to others, is limited 
 by the principles of self-preservation as related 
 to ourselves. While it might be matter of grave 
 doubt, therefore, whether the expenditure of so 
 much blood and treasure could be justified before 
 God and man for the mere enforcement of con- 
 formity to this or that governmental form, there 
 can be no question of the rightfulness of sup- 
 pressing by force and at every cost an armed 
 principle of antagonism that seeks to erect itself 
 within our limits — fatal to our government, our 
 freedom and our future. Believers in the right 
 of revolution cannot advocate the absolute rule 
 of the strongest solely because the majority ex- 
 ists. We know there is no ditine right in consti- 
 tutions any more than in kingships, and that in 
 solving the grave problem of enforcement there 
 must be higher and more vital reasons for resort 
 to war — that last arbitrament of nations — than 
 the preservation of the simple unities of the 
 past. If it were otherwise, if the limits of a 
 State were all sufficient reason for its mainte- 
 nance intact at every cost, then in all the great 
 crises of the world's history Bight would rest 
 with establishment in opposition to reform, with 
 geography as against revolution. But it is not 
 so ; the general verdict of mankind has decided 
 quite to the contrary, and the page that kindles 
 the eye of youth, and quickens the blood of age, 
 is ever found reciting the story of progress, of 
 change, of the rise of republics, of the remodel- 
 ing of institutions. Self-preservation, however, 
 intervenes as imperiously with nations as with 
 individual's, and without question it is now such 
 preservation against ages of strife resulting 
 from slavery as a social principle, consolidated 
 militarily on the frontiers of freedom, that we 
 eateh and all feel and know to be the true justifi- 
 cation of our people, for purposing a forcible re- 
 ,dtt<;tion of the seceded States. 
 
 The mind can 'scarce conceive the frightful 
 succession of calamities that would result from 
 such a proximity of hostile elements, if permit- 
 ted to take the shape of separate nationalities, 
 and strengthen for a conflict involving the em- 
 pire of this continent. War would be an erup- 
 tive volcanic destruction, multiplying desola- 
 tions beyond the recuperative powers of peace, 
 and peace would be but the giant struggle to 
 ouirearh in the number, magnitude and costli- 
 ness of the preparations of war. And war would 
 be the rule, peace the exception — hatred intense, 
 enveloping both as with a garment of fire. It is 
 to take bond of the future against such a fate; 
 to confirm our liberties tranquilly to our chil- 
 dren ; and to restore moral forces to their proper 
 ascendency in the councils ot tbe nation not less 
 than in the minds of the people, that a million of 
 men are now enrolled in the armies of the Kepub- 
 lic. This is the argument and the only argu- 
 ment that will at last be plead before the bar of 
 history in vindication of our refusal to recog- 
 nize the right of the rebellion to self-government. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF THAT JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 But this argument does not stop here. In 
 justifying a coercion it also imposes a duty._ If 
 it carries with it the destiny of a whole section, 
 and legitimates the sacrifice of rebellion on the 
 altar of self-prtservation, it likewise sternly en- 
 joins that the means used shall confront the 
 inherent cause of the revolt, and that the end at- 
 tained shall correspond with the basis on which 
 alone the war can be justified. It necessitates, 
 by its very logic, that hostilities shall adjust 
 themselves' to the higher reason that underlies 
 the resort to force. Hence it follows that if we 
 be honest in the prosecution of this war— if we 
 intend it as a guarantee for the future, and not 
 a mere spoliation of the present— if we seek an 
 assimilation and coBfirmation of the Eepublic, 
 and not a mere subjugation of adjacent prov- 
 inces for Proconsular rule- if we are truly pene- 
 trated with a resolve to subdue that antagonism 
 of a social and political state resting on Blavery, 
 and threatening all free institutions, which con- 
 stitutes the life of the rebellion— then does our 
 very sincerity demand that we address ourselves 
 at once to the work necessary to insure a future 
 of peace, honor and safety, by proclaiming eman- 
 cipation as the precursor of our armies- This is 
 fundamentally a limitation upon the justice of 
 this war; for if we shall fail to strike at that 
 which we set forth as the substance of the peril 
 that demands such terrible repression, then will 
 this nation stand convicted before the world 
 either as an imposter, or else an imbecile. Logi- 
 cally, we may not halt between the extremes of a 
 concession to tbe projected Southern slave Con- 
 federacy of the right to choose its forms of gov- 
 ernment and association, subject of course to the 
 equities of separation, or'' else compelling those 
 States into unity and submission upon grave 
 policies of self-defence, we are bound in honor 
 and truth to eradicate that element which creates 
 our danger, and makes such concession excep- 
 tional and inadmissible. I am aware that thei:e 
 are geographical reasons urged, such as the di- 
 vision of mountain and plain, the command of 
 navigable streams, and control of inter-oceanic 
 transit lines, in vindication of the war policy, 
 and I fully admit their force and pertinency, 
 simply remarking, however, ihat such reasons 
 only go to the propriety of exacting securities to 
 commerce and intercourse — might be solved by 
 a Zoll- Verdn perhaps— and do not touch, as does 
 the slave question, the vital principle of the very 
 existence of our Government. Let us then accept 
 
the limitation equally with the justification, and 
 take that step forward demanded by the trium- 
 virate of reason, justice, safety. 
 
 THE BARBARISM OF FORCE. 
 
 The lover of his country is not apt to be dis- 
 couraged as to the eventual triumph of its arms. 
 The lost battle, the miasmatic campaign, aban- 
 doned lines and blown up magazines, are regard- 
 ed as incidents of war. They are deplored, but 
 not held as conclusive, or even significant of the 
 ending. There are " signs of the times," how- 
 ever, in our horizon, that have a gloomier look 
 than lost battles. And darkest and strangest of 
 all the discouragements that have of late befal- 
 len, must be considered the spectacle presented 
 by the Government in its dealings with this ter- 
 ri ble crisis — reposing itself altogether upon the mere 
 harharism ofjorce. One would think, when read- 
 ing the call for six hundred thousand men to 
 recruit our armies, and seeing there no appeal 
 to or recognition ot the ideas that rule this cen- 
 tury, not less than this hour, that, as a Govern- 
 raent, ours was intent on suicide— as a nation we 
 had abandoned our progression. Can it be that 
 those who have been advanced for their wisdom 
 and worth to such high places of rulership do 
 not understand that since this world began the 
 victories of mere brute force have been as in- 
 consequent as the ravages of pestilence, and as 
 evanescent as the generations of men. Or can 
 it be that, understanding, they care only for 
 tiding over the present contest to bequeath 
 revolt and interneciae war as the inheritance of 
 those who are to come after them ? That would 
 be virtual disintegration— national death. If 
 the Government undertakes to abandon the re- 
 volution in its very birth-pains— if it intends 
 to have no reference to the ideas of which it is 
 the representative — if it contemplates a disre- 
 gard ot the progressing thought that not only 
 installed it. but has carried it so far forward 
 since installation— if it is determined to found 
 its dominion over subjugated States not in the 
 name of a principle that shall assimilate its 
 conquests and assure their liberties, but of 
 simple power— then will it place itself, bv its 
 own action, in the attitude of other and equally 
 gigantic powers that have attempted the same 
 work and have failed. It may have its day of 
 seeming success, but even that will entail an 
 age of complications. Does not Poland, as fully 
 alive to-day, after ninety years of forcible sup- 
 pression, as on the morning of the first parti- 
 tion, convince us that this thing of the dominion 
 of power without the assimilation of nations 
 can only continue upon condition of an ever- 
 recurring application of those forces that achiev- 
 ed the first reduction? Does not the uprising 
 and the cry for a united Italy, after five hun- 
 dred years of fitful effort, continuous conflict, 
 and successive disintegration under the tramp 
 of a multitudinous soldiery, tell how fixed are 
 social laws, how faithful to freedom are peo- 
 ples, and how certain the retribution following 
 upon those policies of government that sacrifice 
 the future to the present, the moral to the mere 
 material, the consolidating the foundations of a 
 great commonwealth to the hollow conquest, 
 the mock settlement, the outward uniformity. 
 History is full of such illustrations, because his- 
 tory repeats itself. But 1 need not go with you 
 further in citing its judgments in condemnation 
 of that reliance upon physical force which deems 
 itself able to dispense with any appeal to prin- 
 cinle. We cannot if we would cast behind us 
 the experience of eighteen centuries of Christian 
 amelioration, in which mankind have been learn- 
 
 ing to rely upon moral and intellectual forces 
 rather than simple violence in their dealings 
 with each other as nations. Not that civiliza- 
 tion has surrendered its rights of war, but that 
 it insists that ideas shall march at the head of 
 armies. Napoleon III. when he announced that 
 the French nation alone in Europe made war for 
 an idea, intended to represent it as leading, not 
 relapsing from the civilization of the age. And 
 therein he both uttered a philosophic truth, and 
 penetrated the secret of success. Strip the 
 choicest legions of the inspiration they derive 
 from a centrolling, elevating cause — especially 
 that cause whose magic watchword cheers to 
 victory in every land — and in vain will you ex- 
 pect the heroic in action or the miracle in con- 
 quest. It is a coward thought that God is on the 
 side of the strongest battalions. The battles that 
 live in memory — that have seemed to turn the 
 world's equanimity upside down, have been won 
 by the few fighting for a principle as against the 
 multitude enrolled in the name of power. When, 
 therefore, it is conceded that the mere announce- 
 ment of a policy of freedom as the policy of this 
 war would paralyze the hostility of all the sov- 
 ereigns of Europe and wed to us the encourage- 
 ment of their peoples, why is it that so little 
 faith obtains among our rulers that it would 
 equally strengthen our Government here amid 
 the millions of our own land? Have the popu- 
 lations of our States fallen so low — become so 
 irresponsive to the watchwords of liberty that 
 it is not fit to make such an appeal to them? 
 Is there no significance in the fact that amid 
 the five thousand stanzas that have vainly at- 
 tempted to exalt the unities of the past into a 
 nation's anthem— a song of war, kindling the 
 uncontrollable ardors of the soul — one alone, 
 proscribed liketheMarseillaise, has been adopted 
 at the camp fire — 
 
 "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, 
 His soul is marching on." 
 
 Six hundred thousand soldiers summoned to 
 the field, andjvr what ? The nation asks of the 
 President, /ww^i f It is that the Government 
 may wring a submission from pwssible ex- 
 haustion on the part of the seceding States, that 
 shall be a postponement, not a settlement, of this 
 great crisis, and that shall be unrelated to the 
 causes that have produced it or the progression 
 on our part that has put on the armor of revolu- 
 tion ? If so, the Government will find, when, 
 perhaps, it is too late, that in addition to the re- 
 bellion, it will have to confront a public opinion 
 that has no sympathies with reaction, and that 
 will withdraw, as unitedly as it has heretofore 
 given all its trust, from those in power. Or, is 
 it that grounding this great struggle upon its 
 true basis, upholding the national honor whilst 
 battling for the national thought, our armies are 
 to be marshaled under the flag of freedom, and 
 the peace achieved is to be one that shall assure 
 personal and political liberty to every dweller 
 in the land ? If that be so, let the faet be pro- 
 claimed, not hidden from the people, and there 
 will need no call from the Preeident, no conscrip- 
 tion from Congress to recruit the ranks of the 
 soldiers of the republic. 
 
 EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE. 
 
 The two great revolutions of modern time which 
 mark the most signal advance in political free- 
 dom, that of England during the Commonwealth 
 and that of France in 1789 have this among many 
 other striking features of similarity— that in 
 each case a large part of the empire resisting the 
 advent of free principles, took up arms against 
 the government to contest the issue. In Vendee, 
 
as in Ireland, it became necessary to establish 
 by force the supremacy of the new order. It was 
 antagonism by the population of whole sections, 
 and in both instances, courses of conciliation 
 having proved worthless, a stern and vigorous 
 policy of subjugation was required. That even 
 the success which crowned such measures was 
 only partial and transient, demanding a supple- 
 mental work of assimilation, is also well worthy 
 of attention. But in subduing the resistance 
 now presented, this nation has that to contend 
 with, not less than that to assist it, which was 
 not present in either of the parallels cited. I al- 
 lude to slavery, the strength and weakness of the 
 South. 
 
 Look steadily at the prospect. Nine millions 
 of people in all— five millions and a half of whites 
 addressing themselves exclusively to warfare, 
 sustained by three millions and a half of blacks 
 drilled as slaves to the work of agriculture. 
 Such are the official statistics of the seceding 
 States. 
 
 With the whites the conscription for military 
 purposes reaches to every man capable of bear- 
 ing arms; with the blacks the conscription for 
 labor recognizes neither weakness, nor age, nor 
 sex. Solitary drivers ply the lash over the whole 
 manual force to transform plantations into grana- 
 ries. This allotment necessarily gives to war 
 the largest possible number of soldiers, and ex- 
 tracts from labor the greatest possible produc- 
 tion of food. Combined,protected,undisturbed,the 
 relation so developed presents a front that may 
 well shake our faith in any speedy subjugation, j 
 
 Of these five and a half millions white popula- : 
 tion, the ratio over the age ©f twenty-one, which, 
 according to statistical averages is iiue iir dx, 
 will give a fraction over 900,000 men, from which ; 
 deduct as exempts or incapables thirty per cent [ 
 leaving 600,000, and add on the score of minor 
 enlistments, one half those between the ages of 
 sixteen and twenty-one, or 50,000, and there ex- 
 isted 650,000, as the total possible Confederate 
 force in the outset. If from this number 100,000 
 be stricken off as the aggregate of the killed, dis- 
 abled, imprisoned and parolled since the out- 
 break of the war, and 70,000 be added as the pro- 
 bable number of recruits from Kentucky, Mis- 
 souri and Maryland, there will result 620,000 as 
 the effective force. From these are to be taken 
 the men needed for the civil service, for Provost 
 and Police duties, and for regulating the trans- 
 mission or exchange of productions — certainly 
 not less than 90,000, and there remains an aggre- 
 gate of 510,000 as the fruit of thorough conscrip- 
 tion. Perhaps, however, it is right to make from 
 such rigid possible military array, a deduction 
 in favor of the population which abandoned the 
 seceding States since the war began, and that 
 which intrinsically loyal has evaded enrollment. 
 In default of any certain information this may 
 be placed at 60,000 men, thus leaving 450,000 sol- 
 diers fit for service and ready to be concentrated 
 and marched as the skill of their commanders 
 may determine. 
 
 Such is the strength of the array that now con- 
 tests and resists the cause of advancing freedom 
 in the nation. That the strength is not overesti- 
 mated; that the conscription has been remorse- 
 less is proven by every critical battle field where 
 our armies have been outnumbered, and is to-day 
 doubly attested by our boleagued Capital, and 
 widely meaaced frontiers. There, then, is the re- 
 bellion stripped to the skin. Look at it squarely. 
 Those 450,000 soldiers stand between us and any 
 future of honor, liberty, or peace. How are they 
 to be disposed of, defeated, suppressed ? 
 
 It is an imposing column of attack, but it has 
 also its elementof weakness and dispersion. Ee- 
 member that in making such an estimate, it has 
 been predicated upon the fact that the whole avail- 
 able white population was devoted to the forma- 
 tion of armies. No part was assigned to the la- 
 bor of the field or workshop, to production or 
 manufacture; but all this vast organization re- 
 poses for sustenance— not to speak of efficiency, 
 on the hard wrung toil of slaves. Reflect, fur- 
 thermore, that this whole foundation is mined, 
 eruptive, ready to shift the burden now re-'ting 
 on it so heavily. The three and a half millions 
 of black population engaged in supplying the 
 very necessaries of life and movement to the Con- 
 federate armies are all loyal in their hearts t« 
 our cause, and require only the electric shock of 
 proclaimed freedom to disrupt the relation that 
 gives such erectness and impulsion to our adver- 
 saries, and such peril to ourselves. Years of 
 bondage have only sharpened their sensibilities 
 towards liberty, and the word spoken that 
 causes such a hope will penetrate every quarter 
 of the South most speedily and most surely. 
 Emancipate the industry that upholds the war 
 power of the South ; destroy the repose of that 
 system which has made possible a levy en masM 
 of every white male able to bear arms ; recall to 
 the tillage of the field ; to the care of the plan- 
 tation ; to the home supports of the community 
 a corresponding number of the five and a half 
 millions whites, and there will be but another 
 face to this war. Compel the rebels to do their 
 own work, hand for hand, planting, harvesting, 
 victualing, transporting — to the full substitution 
 of the three and a half millions blacks, now held 
 for that purpose, and where now they advance 
 with armies they will fall back with detach- 
 ments; where abundance now reigns in their 
 camps hunger will hurry them to other avoca- 
 tion. It needs only that the word be spoken. 
 A national declaration of freedom can no more 
 be hidden from the remotest sections of the slave 
 States than the uprisen sun in a cloudless sky. 
 The falsehoods, the doubts, the repulsions that 
 have heretofore driven them from us, will give 
 place to the kindling, mesmeric realization of 
 protection and deliverance. In the very outset 
 their forces, which now march to the attack, will 
 be compelled to tall back upon the interior to 
 maintain authority, and prevent escapades en- 
 masse. Insurrection will not be so much appre- 
 hended, for where armies are marshaled and sur- 
 veillance withdrawn, the slave is wise enough 
 to know that a plot with a center— an uprising 
 would be sure to meet with annihilation, whilst 
 desertion trom plantations is only checked by 
 the repressive rules of our own lines. The right 
 to do these things needs not to be argued ; it is 
 of the muniments of freedom, of the resorts of 
 self-preservation, of the investure that charges 
 the government with the defense of the national 
 life. And in this hour can be effected that which 
 hereafter may not be practicable. Occupancy of 
 the entire coast with many lodgments made by 
 our navy, a penetration of the Valley of the 
 Lower Mississippi, giving access to all its tribu- 
 tary streams, and the exposed front of Virginia, 
 Tennessee and Arkansas, give ample basis for ex- 
 tending such a proclamation. Eesuming the ad- 
 vance ourselves, with augmented forces, we shall 
 find the 450,000 Confederates compelled to de- 
 tach near half their force for garrisoning the cot- 
 ton States, whilst of the remaining 250.000, large 
 numbers will necessarily fall out to replace the 
 industrial support of their families along the 
 border. State by State, as it is occupied and lib- 
 
 / 
 
erated, will recall for substitution those spared 
 to offensive war in reliance upon slave produc- 
 tion._ The 250,000 will speedily become 150,000, 
 and instead of concentrating back upon their 
 reserves, massed in imposing column, as has 
 heretofore been their policy when temporarily 
 checked, the very condition of the South vjill reqvire 
 (I wide dispersion of their forces. Conquest and 
 Buppression will thus be rendered matters of ab- 
 solute certainty. The double result of immense- 
 ly diminished numbers in the Confederate ar- 
 mies, and of its separation into broken columns 
 for local surveillance over all threatened slave 
 territory, is thus seen to flow from emancipation 
 as a war measure. 
 
 AFRICAN BRIGADES. 
 
 Inthe grave contest on which we have entered 
 for life and for death no appreciative judgment 
 can be formed of the absolute necessity of writ- 
 ing freedom on the flag that leaves out of view 
 the organization of the labor and the valor, for 
 military purposes, of the population thereby lib- 
 erated. The substitution of freed blacks, when- 
 ever they can relieve for other duties the enlisted 
 soldier, has already so far commended itself, in 
 defiance of slave codes and equality fears, as to 
 have been adopted in some divisions of our arm- 
 ies. The wisdom that should have foreseen in 
 such a policy extended as far as practicable the 
 addition today of 50,000 soldiers to the effective 
 fighting force of the Government, perhaps chang- 
 ing tbe fate of critical campaigns, has been un- 
 fortunately wanting. And yet the army regula- 
 tions as applied to the muster rolls of our forces 
 will show that near twice that number of discip- 
 lined^ troops could have been relieved of ditching, 
 teaming, serving or other occupation, and sent 
 to the front. Moreover, any policy which looks 
 distinctly to the subjugating and occupying, 
 militarily, until the national authority shall be 
 sufiBciently respected to work through civil pro- 
 cesses, the States now in rebellion, must embrace 
 within its scope the employment of acclimated 
 troops for garrison and other duties, during 
 those seasons fatal to the health'of our present 
 levies. The diseases of a warm climate have al- 
 ready been far more destructive' to the lives of 
 our soldiers, as shown by aggregated hospital re- 
 ports at Washington, than all our battle-fields, 
 and hereafter, in the prevalence of those epidem- 
 ics so common in the Gulf States, our battalions, 
 if subjected to Southern service, would melt 
 away disastrously. It is not possible, therefore, 
 to separate the holding of the rebel States from 
 the employ of acclimated troops. And for that 
 purpose but one resource exists— the liberated 
 blacks through whose veins courses the blood of 
 the tropic. Arm them — not indiscriminately, but 
 wisely and carefully — drill them, discipline them, 
 and of one fact we may be sure — they will not 
 surrender. I take it that a race liberated by the 
 operation of hostilities, is entitled, by every 
 usage of warfare, to be armed in defense of those 
 who liberated them, and furthermore, I take it 
 that a people made free in accordance with the 
 humanities of this century, is entitled, by every 
 right, human and divine, to be armed as an as- 
 surance of its own recovered freedom. 
 
 This step will be at once the guarantee against 
 future attempt at re-enslavement, and the bond 
 that no further revolt on the part of the States 
 occupied shall be meditated. Above all else, it 
 will be assurance unmistakable that no dis- 
 graceful peace, no dismembered country, no fore- 
 sworn liberties will end this war. What, shall 
 we stand halting before a sentimentality, blink- 
 ing at shades of color, tracing genealogies up to 
 
 sons of Noah, when our brothers in arms are 
 being weighed in the scales ot life and death ! 
 Go, ye men of little faith ; resign your high char- 
 ges, if it be you cannot face a coward clamor in 
 the throes of a nation's great deliverance. Go 
 and look yonder upon the pale mother in the far 
 Northland, weary with watching by her lonely 
 hearth for tbe bright-faced boy's return. Her 
 hope had nerved itself to trust his life to the 
 chances of the battle field ; but the trundling 
 wheels bear back to her door a stricken form, in 
 coarse pine box, with the dear name chalked 
 straggling across, indorsed "Fever." Listen 
 then to the wail of crushing woe sobbed out by a 
 broken heart, and say to her, if you can, General, 
 Statesman or President, that you refused the aid 
 that would have saved that double life of mother 
 and sou. Verily, the graves of the Northmen 
 have their equities equally with those of the 
 rebellion. 
 
 COLONIZATION SCHEMES. 
 
 There are those, strange to say, who, in addi- 
 tion to the war now waged by us against five and 
 a half million of whites, would add to the task 
 of reduction thus imposed upon our government 
 the further work of taking possession of and de- 
 porting to other lands the three millions, and a 
 half of blacks. Disregarding the assistance that 
 might be derived from the co-operation, and en- 
 franchisement of the slave labor of ]the" seceding 
 States, they would not only strip the .slaves of 
 the present uncertain hope of personal freedom 
 which may be found within our lines, but still 
 viewing them as " chattels," to be dealt with as 
 fancy may dictate, would serve a notice on the 
 world that the best usage they can hope for from 
 risking life to render us aid will be transporta- 
 tion to climes and countries beyond the reach of 
 their knowledge, and that onlyinspire ignorance 
 with terror. According to such, the practical 
 solution of the present crisis consists : 
 
 First. In conquering the rebellion by making 
 its cause a common cause, as agai^ist us, by both 
 master and slave. 
 
 Secmd. In holdini^ the conquered territory and 
 superinducing a state of peace, plenty, and obe- 
 dience, by the depor; ^tion of all who are loyal 
 and of all who labor. 
 
 With such the magnitude, not to say impracti- 
 cability, of migrations that would require— even 
 if all were favoring — transport fleets larger and 
 costlier than those employed for the war, is not 
 less scouted at as an obstacle than the resistance 
 to be foreseen from the unwilling, and the de- 
 population that may be objected by the inter- 
 ested is treated as a fanaticism. Without chal- 
 lenging the sincerity of those who advocate such 
 views, it will be sufficient to. say that I differ 
 from them altogether. I do not believe the Gov- 
 ernment has "chattel rights" in the slaves 
 emancipated by act of war any more than the 
 rebellion had; and I do believe that the doctrine 
 of personal liberty, if it be worth an.vthing— if it 
 be not a sham and a delusion — if it is to have 
 any application in this conflict — must be applied 
 to them. It is not in behalf of tbe noble and tbe 
 refined, the generous and the cultivated, that the 
 evangels of freedom have been heretofore borne 
 by enthused armies in the deliverances history 
 so much loves to delineate and extoll ; but to 
 the down-trodden — to the ignorant from servi- 
 tude — to the enfeebled in spirit from long years 
 of oppression. Why, then, shall those liberated 
 in this country be bereft of the rights of domicil 
 and employ ? Because they are black, forsooth ! 
 That answer will scarcely stand scrutiny by the 
 God who made us all . It would moreover j ustify 
 
slavery as fully as extradition. Deportation, if 
 forcible, is in principle but a change of masters, 
 and in practice will never solve the problem of 
 the negro question as growing out of this war. 
 If voluntary, it needs not to be discussed in ad- 
 vance of emancipation. The lot of the freed 
 race will be to labor — in the future as in the past 
 — but to labor for wages and not for the lash. 
 That there must be colonization as a resultant of 
 the complete triumph of the national arms, and 
 the complete restoration of the national authori- 
 ty, no one can reasonably doubt. But it will be 
 a colonization of loyal men into, and not out of, 
 the rebel States. The great forces of immigra- 
 tion, fostered and directed, will work out the 
 new destiny that awaits the seceded States — the 
 assimilation that must precede a perfect union. 
 What it has done for the Lake shore, for the Pa- 
 cific coast, for the Center and the West, that will 
 it do for the South also, when no blight of slavery 
 lingers there to repel its coming or divert its 
 industrial armies. And if in the development 
 caused by its vast agencies, those natural affini- 
 ties, so much insisted on by many, shall lead 
 the African race toward the tropics, to plant 
 there a new Carthage, it will be one of those dis- 
 pensations ©f Providence that will meet with 
 support and co-operation, not hinderance and 
 antagonism from the friends of freedom on this 
 continent. 
 
 THE UNION AS IT WAS. 
 
 The half-way house where halt the timid, the 
 doubtful, the reactionary in this conflict, hangs 
 out a sign : " The Union as it was." Within its 
 enclosure will be found jostling side by side the 
 good man who is afraid to think, the politician 
 who has a record to preserve, the spy who needs 
 a cloak to conceal him, and behind all these the 
 fluctuating camp-followers of the army of free- 
 dom. Not that there are no wise and brave men 
 who phrase their speech by the attachments of 
 the past ; but that such have another and purer 
 significance in their language than the received 
 meaning of "The Union as it was." All who 
 look at events which have come upon us see that 
 "the Union as it was" coqtained the seeds of 
 death — elements of aggression against liberty 
 and reaction through civil war. Its very life- 
 scenes, as time progressed, were ever and anon 
 startled by the bodeful note of coming catas- 
 trophe, to be lulled acrain into false security by 
 pjean songs to its excellence— like some old Greek 
 tragedy with its inexorable fate and its recur- 
 ring chorus. And tragic enough it would seem 
 has been its outcome to dissipate any illusion. 
 Is it believed that the same causes would not 
 produce the same results to the very ending of 
 time ? Is it wished to repeat the miserable years 
 of truckling and subserviency on the part of tbe 
 natural guardians of free institutions to the ex- 
 action, arroganse and dominion of the slave 
 power through fear of breaking the thin ice of a 
 hollow tranquillity? Is it loneed to undergo 
 new experiences of Sumner assaults, Kansas out- 
 rages, Pierce administrations, Buchanan proflig- 
 aeies, knaveries and treasons, with spirited in- 
 terludes of negro catching at the North, and 
 abolitionist hanging at the South? Is it desired to 
 recall the time when the man of Massachusetts 
 dared not name his residence to the people of 
 Carolina; when free speech was a half forgotten 
 legend in the slave States; when the breeding of 
 human beings to sell into distant bondage was 
 the occupation of many of the elite of the border 
 land ; and when demoralization, that came from 
 sacrificing so much of self-respect to mere dread 
 of any crisis or mere.hope of political advanco- 
 
 ment, had dwarfed our statesmen, corrupted our 
 journalism, and made office-holding disreputable 
 as a vocation ? For one, I take witness here be- 
 fore you all, that I want no such Union, and do 
 not want it, because it contained that which 
 made those things not only possible but prob- 
 able. I trust that I value as much as another 
 the purities of a Union, the excellencies of a 
 Constitution, the veracities and accomplish- 
 ments of a former generation, but who would be 
 the blind worshipper of form rather than sub- 
 stance— of a name, rather than a reality— of a 
 bond that did not bind, and a federation that has 
 resulted only in disjunction? There are those I 
 know who regard "the Union as it was" as a 
 sentiment significant of material prosperity — 
 unrelated to rights or wrongs, and as such they 
 worship it, just as they would a monied cor- 
 poration with large dividends, or any named 
 machine that would enable them to buy cotton, 
 sell goods, or trade negroes. But such should 
 be content to pass their ignoble lives on the ac- 
 cumulation of other days, and not dare to dictate 
 to others a return to such a debasing thraldom. 
 Of one thing they may be sure — that the great 
 democracy of this nation will insist that the 
 Union of the future shall be predicated upon a 
 principle uniting the social, moral, and politi- 
 cal life of a progressive people — and purged of 
 the poison of the past. When asked, therefore, 
 as the charlatans ot the hour often do ask, would 
 you not wish the " Union as it was " restored, 
 even if slavery were to remain intact and pro- 
 tected—say, emphatically. No ! Say No ! for 
 such an admission would be a self-contradiction 
 — a yielding of all the longings of the spirit to 
 an empty husk whose only possible outcome we 
 see to-day in the shape of civil war. 
 
 PRO-SLAVERY GENERALS. 
 
 It is, perhaps, the fate of all revolutions in- 
 volving social changes, to be officered at the out- 
 set by the inherited reputations, great and small, 
 of the foregoing time, and so far as this fate has 
 fallen on our nation it is less to be wondered at 
 than deplored. But soon there comes the time 
 for change, when the Fairfaxes, the Dumouriers, 
 the Arnolds must give place to soldiers of the 
 faith. And hopeful to say, it has ever happened 
 that conjointly with the public assumption of 
 the principle of the revoluiion, mediocrity, rou- 
 tine, halt'-heartedness have passed from com- 
 mand, and victory has replaced disaster. So 
 much is historic. We may take comfort then ; 
 for the uses of adversity are ours. Pro-slavery 
 generals at the head of our armies are the result 
 of pro-slavery influence in our national councils, 
 and the hesitancy of the Government to proclaim 
 officially any distinct policy of freedom has kept 
 them there. By no possibility, however, can 
 such, even if the chance victors of to-day, remain 
 possessed of the future. I do not underrate the 
 prestige of military success- but military pres- 
 tige is as nought before the march of revolution ; 
 and it is only when revolutions are accomplished, 
 that the reputations of great captains become 
 great dangers. Pro-slavery geuerals, therefore, 
 are only dangerous now from the disasters that 
 accompany tbeir administration. Their appre- 
 ciation of the present being at fault, their meth- 
 ods, their reliances, their results will be incon- 
 sequent, and without force. Witness the miser- 
 able months of projected conciliation, of harmless 
 captures, of violated oath taking, of border State 
 imbecilities, of Order No. Threes, of parolline 
 guerrillas, of halting advances and wasted op- 
 portunities. Could these things have been pos- 
 sible to commanders comprehending either tho 
 
magnitude, the characteristics or the consequen- 
 ces of the war that slavery has inaugurated, and 
 that must end in slavery extinction or the aban- 
 donment of our development as a free people ? 
 Or can it be possible that the same series of in- 
 competencies and sham-energies shall be pro- 
 longed indefinitely ? No ! It needs not that 1 
 should insist how surely all such must give way 
 before the force of a public sentiment which, 
 when once on the march, speedily refuses to 
 trust any with responsibility who are not born 
 of the age. It was just such a common thought 
 of theLong Parliament that gave a "new model" 
 to their army and a "self-denying ordinance" to 
 themselves, extirpating insincerity from the 
 former and imposing stoicism and self-sacrifice 
 on each other. It was a similar growth of pub- 
 lic opinion in France that set the guillotine at 
 work to keep account of lost battles with unsym- 
 pathizing generals. The pregnant question then, 
 of this crisis is, how long, my countrymen, 
 shallwewait for the "new model" and the "self- 
 denying ordinance" and the swift punishment in 
 this day of calamitous command and disgraceful 
 surrenders. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT AS DICTATOR. 
 
 No one has ever read of a more touching spec- 
 tacle in the life of nations, than that now pre- 
 sented by this people. Beyond any parallel it 
 has made sacrifice of those things dear to its 
 afiFection— 1 might almost say traditionally sacred 
 from violation. All its rights of person and of 
 property have been placed unmumuringly at the 
 disposal of the government, asking only in return 
 a speedy, vigorous, uncompromising conduct of 
 the war upon a true principle to an honorable 
 ending. The habeas cor/ms has been suspended, 
 not only in the revolted territory, but likewise 
 in many of the loyal States. A passport system, 
 limiting and embarrassing both travel and traffic, 
 has been enforced with rigor. The censorship of 
 the press not only controls the transmission of 
 news, but curtails even the expression of opinion 
 within restrictions heretofore unimaginable. 
 Arbitrary imprisonment by Premi ts of the 
 Cabinet, banishments summarily notified, ex- 
 actions levied at discretion, fines assessed by 
 military commissions, trials postponed indefi- 
 nitely— in short, all the panoply of the most 
 rigid European absolutism has been imported 
 into our midst. It is not to complain that these 
 things are recited; for, so far as necessary, they 
 will be, as they have been, cheerfully borne 
 with; but to show how tragic is the attitude of 
 this nation and yet how brave. The President 
 of_ the United States, to-day, holds a civil and 
 military power more untrammeled than ever 
 did Cromwell; and, in addition thereto, has 
 enrolled by the volunteer agencies of the peo- 
 ple themselves, a million of armed men, obedient 
 to his command. Nay, did I say the President 
 was absolute a=i Cromwell ? In truth I might 
 add that of his officials entrusted with ad- 
 ministering military instead of civil law— every 
 deputy Provost Marshal seems to be feeling 
 his face to see if he too has not the warts of 
 the Great Protector. If this were the occasion 
 for_ stale flatteries of the Constitution and the 
 Union, it might well be asked just here, wherein 
 that much lauded parchment and league is the 
 warrant for these things specifically ? But I carp 
 not at such technicalities. We all recognize that 
 
 it is by virtue of the War Power that the Gov- 
 ernment does many things in self defense that 
 would be exceptionable in time of Peace. And 
 so far as the Executive head of our Nation — the 
 Presidentjhimself— is concerned, I say give him 
 more force if necessary — give him any trust and 
 every appliance, only let it be not without avail. 
 And yet with all this sacrifice, with all this effort, 
 with quick response to every demand for men 
 and money, what do we see? A beleaguered 
 capital, only saved by abandoning a year of con- 
 quest and long- lines of occupation ; the confi- 
 dence of the whole nation Shaken to its very 
 foundations by accumulated disasters and halt- 
 ing policies ; and the grave inquiry, mooted in 
 no whispered voice by men who have never 
 known fear in any peril, can this country survive 
 its rulers? I do not say the doubt is justified; 
 but I do say that it exists in many minds that 
 have been prone heretofore to confidence. Wehave 
 seen one hundredthousand soldiers,the elite of the 
 nation, sacrificed, and six hundred millions of 
 treasure, including the coin wealth of the people, 
 expended. We have reached the stage of as- 
 signats and conscriptions, and are now summon- 
 ing the militia of the loyal States to repel in- 
 vasion. And can any one cognizant of our 
 actual condition, and not misled by false bulle- 
 tins, or varnished glories, stand forth and say, 
 with truth and honor, we are any nearer a solu- 
 tion in this hour of the great crisis in which we 
 are involved than we were a year ago ? I chal- 
 lenge a response. Or will any delude you Ipnger 
 with the belief that a great victory will accom- 
 plish the ending ? I do not believe it. 
 
 In the presence, therefore, of such thick com- 
 ing danger, and having borne itself so continent- 
 ly and so well, has not this nation now the right 
 to demand of President and of Cabinet, an'd of 
 Generals, that there shall be an end of policies, 
 that have only multiplied disasters and disrupt- 
 ed armies, and a substitution of other policies 
 that shall recognize liberty as the corner-stone of 
 our Kepublic, and write Freedom on the flag. 
 
 In conclusion let me say, that the time has 
 passed when such a demand could be denounced 
 even by the most servile follower of administra- 
 tions, as a fanaticism, for the chief of the Eepub- 
 lic has himself recognized his right to do so, if 
 the occasion shall require, in virtue of being 
 charged with the preservation of the Government. 
 He has furthermore become so far impressed with 
 the urgency that manifests itself, that he has 
 ordered immediate execution to be given to the 
 act of the last Congress, prescribing a measure 
 of Confiscation and Emancipation. This day, 
 too, is the beginning of its enforcement, as it is 
 the anniversary of the adoption of the original 
 Constitution of the United States. Let us, then, 
 in parting, take hope from the cheering coinci- 
 dence. The act of Congress, it is true, is but an 
 initial measure, embarrassed by many clauses, 
 and may be much limited by hostile interpreta- 
 tion. Still it can be made an avatar of liberty 
 to thousands who shall invoke its protection, 
 and the instrument of condign punishment to 
 those who have sought the destruction of all free 
 government. And more than all else, its rigid 
 enforcement and true interpretation will give 
 earnest to the nation of that which must speedily 
 eusae — direct and immediate emancipation by 
 the military arm, as a measure of safety, a meas- 
 ure of justice, and a measure of peace. 
 
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