tis? 771T3 i % LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 028 296 7 Hollinger pH8.5 Mill Run F3-1955 THE WAx A SLAVE UNION OR A Fkv SPEECH OF Hon. MARTIN F. CONWAY, Delivered in the House of Representatives, AND REVISED BY THE AUTHOR, PUBLISHED IN THE PULPIT AND ROSTRUM, No. 28. This is one of the ablest, the most original, and the most comprehensive speeches yet made in Congress on the present crisis of our National affairs. The reader cannot fail of being deeply interested in its perusal. We append two or three brief notices, taken from hundreds. " It is the only speech made in Congress this session that fully, properly grapples with the great question of the day, or comprehends the issues at stake, Or deals with the Rebellion iu a statesmanlike manner." — Chicago Tribune. ''It is one of the most plain-spoken utterances of the time, full of original views and bold suggestions." — New York Iribune. "I have read it with profound interest, and almost with surprise ; it is the speech of a living and thinking man, of a statesman and a philosopher. It is far above the range of ordinary politicians, and has seldom, for depth of thought, largeness and justness of view, been equaled by any speech I have seen from any member of either House of Congress." — Dr. O. J . Browmon. — The Pulpit and Rostrum Nos. 26, 27 and 28, are as follows : No. 2R.--THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. A Lecture by William Lloyd Garrison, delivered at the Cooper Insti- tute, New York, January 14th, 18G2. No. 27 .—THE WAR NOT FOR EMANCIPATION OR CONFISCATION, a Speech by Hon. Gakrett Davis of Kentucky, delivered in the tT. S. Senate. January 23d, 1862. Also. AFRICAN SLAVERY, THE CORNER-STONE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, a Speech by Hon. Alexander H. Stevens, Vice-President of theConfederacy. No. 28.— THE WAR : A SLAVE UNION OR A FREE ? Speech of Hon. Martin F. Conway, delivered in the House of Representatives, December 12th. 1861. The Pulpit and Rostrum gives full Phonographic Reports (revised by the Authors) of the Speeches and Discourses of our most eminent public speakers. It thus constitutes a series most valuable for perusal or reference. Price 10 cents a number, or $1 a year (for 12 numbers). E. D. BARKER, Publisher, 135 GRAND ST., NEW YCP V ery Library— The only Journal devoted „o the History of America. THE xiSTORICAL MAGAZINE, NOTES AND QUERIES OONOERNING THE ANTIQUITIES, HISTORY, AND BIOGRAPHY OF AMERICA. This Magazine was commenced in January, 1857, for the purpose of furnishing a medium of intercommunication between Historical Societies, Authors, and Students of History, and supplying an interesting and valuable journal — a mis- cellany of American History. With the first of January, 1862, it enters upon its sixth annual volume, with the support and aid of a large body of intelligent readers, and the assistance of the foremost historical writers in the country. The work is under the editorial care of a gentleman well known for his hearty devotion to the objects of this publication, and a distinguished member of the New York Historical Society. Among the contributors to the past numbers are— Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Geo. Bancroft, Jared Sparks, LL.D., Hon. Peter Force, Hon. James Savage, W. H. Prescott, Esq., Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Wm. Gilmore Simms, Esq., Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq., Benson J. Lossiug, Esq., Hon. Henry G. Murphy, Samuel G. Drake, Esq., John G. Shea, Esq., Sebastian F. Streeter, Esq., Alfred B. Street, Esq., E. B. O'Callaghan, LL.D., Prof. W. W. Turner, Buckingham Smith, Esq., Evert A. Duyckinck, Esq., Bran tz Mayer, Esq., Hon. John R. Bartlett, Samuel F. Haven, Esq., Dr. R. W. Gibbs, John W. Francis, M. D. 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Accurate Reports of tho Proceedings of the numerous American Historical, Antiquarian, Geographical, Numismatic and other kindred Societies. V. Notes and Queries of curious and import- ant topics, new and old, with Replies, by a large body of contributors. VI. Reprints of Rare aud interesting Tracts, Old I'oems out of print, &., &c. VII. Miscellany aud Anecdotes. Y1II. Brief Notes on new Historical Books. IX. Historical aud Literary Intelligence, New Announcements, &c. The Historical Magazine is printed on extra quality of paper, small quarto form, and published in monthly numbers, at Two Dollars a Year. Specimen Numbers sent, upon receipt of Fifteen Cents in Postage Stamps. Copies of Vols. I. to V. furnished bound, or in Numbers. Address all com- munications to CHARLES B. RICHARDSON & CO., Publishers, 14 BIBLE. HOUSE, ww YORK 3XV E 458 S3 -2 .4« Address by William Lloyd Garrison, delivered Tuesday Evening, January 14, 1862, at the Cooper Institute, New York. Revised bythe Author. KErORTED BY ANDREW J. GRAHAM. Among those who occupied the platform were J. A. Kennedy, Superintendent of Police, Rev. Dr. Tyng, Eev. Mr. Sloan, and many other eminent citizens. A beau- tiful bouquet of flowers and an ivy wreath were placed beside the speaker's desk by Mrs. Paton, which incident was followed by a burst of applause. The speaker having entered, was introduced by Mr. Theodore Tilton, who said : " Ladies and Gentlemen — I put myself for a moment between you and him [pointing to, Mr. Garrison], because I have been asked, and honored in the asking, to give to a genuine Yankee a genuine Yankee welcome ; and I know not how to do it better than just to make the old-fashioned sign of the right hand, which is the Yankee token of good fellowship, and in your name to offer it to William Lloyd Garrison." [Applause.] Mr. Tilton thereupon extended his hand to Mr. Garrison, who forthwith advanced, and was cordially welcomed. Mr. Garrison spoke as follows: Ladies and Gentlemen : No public speaker, on rising to address an assembly, lias any rigbt to presume that, because at the outset he receives a courteous and even warm approval, therefore they are prepared to indorse all his views and utterances. Doubtless, there are some points, at least, about which we very widely differ; and yet, I must frankly confess, I know of no other reason for your kind approval this evening, than that I am an original, un- compromising, irrepressible, out-and-out, unmistakable, Garrisonian Abolitionist. [Enthusiastic applause.] By that designation I do not mean one whose brain is crazed, whose spirit is fanatical, whose purpose is wild and dangerous, but one whose patriotic creed is the Declaration of American Independence [loud cheers], whose moral line of measurement is the Golden Rule, whose gospel of humanity is the Sermon on the Mount, and whose language is that of Ireland's Liberator, O'Connell — " I care not what caste, creed, or color slavery may assume. Whether it be personal or political, mental or corporeal, intellectual or spiritual, I am for its instant, its total abolition. I am for justice, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God." [Cheers.] Hence, what I wrote many years ago, I feel proud once more to affirm : T53 THE ABOLITIONISTS, copy i AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 32 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND "I am an Abolitionist, I glory in the name, Though now by Slavery's minions hissed, And covered o'er with shame. It is a spell of light and power — The watchword of the free — "Who spurns it in the trial-hour, A craven soul is he." I know that to be an Abolitionist is not to be with the multitude — on the side of the majority — in a popular and respectable posi- tion ; and yet I think I have a right to ask of yon, and of all who are living on the soil of the Empire State, and of the people of the North at large, why it is that you and they shrink from the name of Abolitionist? Why is it that, while you profess to be opposed to slavery, you nevertheless desire the whole world to understand that you are not radical Abolitionists? "What is the meaning of this? Why are you not all Abolitionists? Your principles are mine. What you have taught me, I adopt. What you have taken a solemn oath to support, as essential to a free Government, I recognize as right and just. The people of this State profess to believe in the Declaration of Independence. That is my Aboli- tionism. Every man, therefore, who disclaims Abolitionism, repudiates the Declaration of Independence. Does he not? "All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty." Gentlemen, that is my fanaticism — that is all my fanaticism. [Cheers.] All I ask is, that this decla- ration may be carried out everywhere in our country and through- out the world. It belongs to mankind. Your Constitution is an Abolition Constitution. Your laws are Abolition laws. Your institutions are Abolition institutions. Your free schools are Abo- lition schools. I believe in them all; and all that I ask is, that institutions so good, so free, so noble, may be everywhere propa- gated; everywhere accepted. And thus it is that I desire, not to curse the South, or any portion of her people, but to bless her abundantly, by abolishing her infamous and demoralizing slave institution, and erecting the temple of liberty on the ruins thereof. I believe in Democracy ; but it is the Democracy which recog- nizes man as man, the world over. [Cheers.] It is that Democ- racy which spurns the fetter and the yoke for itself, and for all wearing the human form. And therefore I say, that any man who pretends to be a Democrat, and yet defends the act of making man the property of his fellow-man, is a dissembler and a hypo- crite, and I unmask him before the universe. [Loud cheers.] We profess to be Christians. Christianity — its object is to THEIR RELATIONS TO THE "WAR. 33 redeem, not to enslave men ! Christ- is our Eedeemer. I believe in Him. He leads the anti-slavery cause, and always has led it. The Gospel is the Gospel of freedom ; and any man claiming to be a Christian, and to have within him the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, and yet dares to hold his fellow-man in bondage, as a mere piece of perishable property, is recreant to all the principles and obligations of Christianity. [Applause.] "Why is it, men of the Empire State, that there are no slaves here? Four millions of people, and not a single slave among them all ! On what ground was slavery abolished in the State of New York? On the mere ground of policy or expediency, or because it was an immorality, a crime, an outrage, and therefore not to be tolerated by a civilized and Christian people? Hence I affirm that the people of this State are committed to radical, " ultra" Aboli- tionism. And so I have a right to expect everywhere a friendly hearing and a warm co-operation on the part of the people when I denounce slavery, and endeavor to bring it to the dust, and to take the chains from those who are laboring under the lash of the slave-driver. You have abolished slavery, because it can have no rightful existence here. You allow no man to decide whether he can humanely hold a slave. So of Massachusetts, so of New England, and so of the nineteen free States. Slavery is pronounced a curse by them all. Every man before the law is equal to every other man ; and no man may lay his hand too heavily upon the shoulder of his brother man, except at his peril. In the very generous notice of this lecture last Sunday, by Henry Ward Beecher, he said that he fully accorded with me in my principles, which strike at the foundation of slavery. All slavery is wrong, unjust, immoral, and unchristian, and ought to terminate, but he expressed some difference of opinion in regard to my methods for its abolition. I am confident that, upon further reflection and investigation, he will find my methods of Abolition are as unexceptionable as my principles. My method is simply this : when I see a slaveholder, I tell him he is bound by every consideration of justice and humanity to let the oppressed go free. That is God's method, and I think there can be no improvement upon it. And when I find an accomplice of the slaveholder sus- taining him in his iniquity, I bid him repent, aud demand that b« bring forth fruits meet for his repentance. That is my method. Now I say that if we are right in establishing our institutions upon the foundations of equal liberty, we have a right to endeavor 34 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND to propagate those institutions all over the country and throughout the world. We have a right to say to those in the slave States, " Your system of slavery is inherently wrong and dangerous. Re- gard your slaves as men, treat thera as such, establish free institu- tions, substitute for the lash a fair compensation, and you will be blest, wonderfully blest." Have I not a right to say this ? Is it not a natural, God-given, constitutional right? On the other hand, they have a perfect right at the South to endeavor to proselyte us in regard to their institutions; and I think they have done their best — that is, their worst — in that direction. I never have heard any complaint in regard to the unlimited freedom of speech on the part of Southern slaveholders and slave- traffickers. We are told by pro-slavery men here, that wo have no right to discuss this matter ! They point us to our national com- pact. They gravely tell us to remember that, at the organization of the Government, the slave States were in existence, and came into the Union on terms of equality, and, under the compact, we have no right to criticise or condemn them because of their holding slaves. Now, my reply to them is, in the first place, that no com- pact of men's device can biud me to silence when I see my fellow- man unjustly oppressed. [Applause.] I care not when or where the compact was made, or by whom it was approved. My right to de- nounce tyrants and tyranny is not derived from man, nor from con- stitutions or compacts. I find it in my own soul, written there by the finger of God, and man can never erase it. I am sure that, if it were your case ; if you were the victims of a compact that denied the right of any one to plead for your deliverance, though you were most grievously oppressed — though your children and wives were for sale in the market, along with cattle and swine — you would ex- claim, "Accursed be such a compact ! Let none be dumb in re- gard to our condition !" My reply again is, that the compact, bad as it is in its pro-slavery features, provides for the liberty of speech and of the press, and therefore I am justified in saying what I honestly think in regard to slavery and those who uphold it. The Southern slaveholders, I vepeat, have always exercised the largest liberty of speech. They have denounced free institutions to an unlimited extent. Is the right ail on one side ? May I not reciprocate, and say what I think of their slave institutions? Yes, I have the right, and, by the help of God, I mean to exercise it, come what may. [Great applause.] The times are changing. Yes, it is spoken of with exultation — THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 35 and well it may be as a cheering sign of progress — that even Dr. Brownson has been able to speak against slavery in the city of Washington, -without being in peril of his life ; that even Horace Greeley and George B. Cheever have been permitted to stand up in tho capital of their country, and utter brave words for freedom ; and nobody mobbed them ! [Applause.] And I am told it is ex- pected that my eloquent friend, and the friend of all mankind, Wen- dell Phillips [cheers], will also soon make his appearance at Wash- ington, to be heard on the same subject, without running any great personal risk. This is something to boast of! And yet I must confess, that I feel humiliated when I remember that all this is rendered possible, under our boasted Constitution, only because there is a Northern army of 150,000 soldiers in and around the capital ! [Applause.] Take that army away — restore the old state of things — and it would not be possible for such speeches to be made there ; but while we have General McClellan and 150,000 Northern bayonets in that seotion, a Northern man may say aloud at Washington, " Let the Declaration of Independence be applied to all the oppressed in the land," aud his life is not specially endan- gered in so doing! [Cries of " Hear, hear!"] If that is all we have to boast of now, what has been our condition hitherto ? Now, I maintain that no institution has a right to claim exemp- tion from the closest scrutiny. All our Northern institutions are open for inspection. Every man may say of them what he pleases. If he does not like them, he can denounce them. If he thinks he can suggest better ones, he is entitled to do so. Nobody thinks of mobbing him, nobody thinks of throwing rotten eggs and brickbats at his head. Liberty ! why, she is always fearless, honest, open- hearted. She says, as one did of old, " Search me and try me, and see if there be anything evil in me." But, on the other hand, we are not permitted to examine Southern institutions. Oh, no ! And what is the reason ? Simply because they will not bear examina- tion ! Of course, if the slaveholder felt assured that they could, he would say, " Examine them freely as you will, I will assist you in every way in my power." Ah ! " 'tis conscience that makes cowards of them all!" They dread the light, and with the tyrant of old they cry, " Put out the light — aud then put out the light!" That is their testimony in regard to the rectitude of their slave institutions. The slaveholders desire to be let alone. Jefferson Davis and his crew cry out, " Let us alone!" The Slave Oligarchy have always 3() THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND cried out, " Let us alone I" It is an old cry — 1,800 years old at least — it was the cry of those demons who had takeu possession of their victims, and who said to Jesus, " Let us alone ! Why hast thou come to torment us hefore the time?" [Laughter and ap- plause.] Now, Jesus did not at all mistake the time ; he was precisely in time, and therefore he bore his testimony like the prince of eman- cipators, and the foul demons were cast out, but not without rend- ing the body. The slaves of our country, outraged, lacerated, and chained, cry out agonizingly to those who are thus treating them, " Let us alone !" — but the slaveholders give no heed to that cry at all ! Now, I will agree to let the slaveholders alone when they let their slaves alone, and not till then. [Applause.] " Let this matter rest with the South ; leave slavery in the care and keeping of slaveholders, to put an end to it at the right time, as they best understand the whole matter." You will hear men, claiming to be intelligent, talking in this manner continually. They do not know what idiots they are; for is it anything better than idiocy for men to say : " Leave idolatry to idolaters, to be abolish- ed when they think best ; leave intemperance to drunkards ; they best understand all about it ; they will undoubtedly, if let alone, in God's own time, put an end to it [laughter] ; leave piracy to be abolished by pirates ; leave impurity to the licentious to be done away ; leave the sheep to the considerate humanity of wolves, when they will cease to prey upon them !" No, this is not common sense ; it is hot sound reason ; it is nothing but sheer folly. Sal- vation, if it comes at all, must come from without. Those who are not drunkards must save the drunken ; those who are not impure must save the impure; those who are not idolaters must combine to put down idolatry ; or the world can never make any progress. So we who are not slaveholders are under obligation to combine, and by every legitimate method endeavor to abolish slavery ; for the slaveholders will never do it if they can possibly help it. Why do you send your missionaries abroad ? Why do you go to the isles of the sea, to Hindostan and Burmah and other parts of the heathen world with your meddlesome, impertinent, disorganizing religion? Because you affirm that your object is good and noble ; because you believe that the Christian religion is the true religion, and that idolatry debases and deludes its votaries ; and to abolish it, or to endeavor to do so, is right. And yet you have no complicity with heathenism abroad. Nevertheless, your missionaries are there, en- deavoring to effect a thorough overturn of all their institutions and THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 37 all their established ideas, so that old things shall pass away, and all things become new. But how is it in regard to slavery ? You have something to do — aye, a great deal to do with it. You ought to know precisely where yon stand, and what are your obligations in relation to it. Only think of it! Under your boasted Constitu- tion, two generations of slaves have been driven to unrequited toil, and gone down into bloody graves; and a third generation i3 going through the same terrible career, with the Star Spangled Banner floating over their heads ! This is by your complicity, men of the North ! Oh, how consentingly the North has given her sympathy to the South in this iniquity of slaveholding ! How everywhere the anti-slavery movement has been spit upon, and denounced, and caricatured, and hunted down, as if it were a wild beast, that could not be tolerated safely for an hour in the community ! What weapon has been left unused against the Abolitionists of the North ? How thoroughly have the people been tested everywhere, both in Church and State, in relation to the slave system of the South ! But " Wisdom is justified of her children." The Abolitionists se- renely bide their time. The verdict of posterity is sure ; and it will be an honorable acquittal of ihem from all the foul charges that have been brought against them by a pro-slavery people. I do not think it is greatly to the shame of Abolitionists that the New York Herald can not tolerate them. [Laughter and ap- plause.] I do not think it at all to their discredit that the Journal of Commerce thoroughly abominates them. [Laughter.] I do not think they have any cause to hang their heads for shame because the New York Express deems them fit only to be spit upon. [Ap- plause.] I do not think they have any reason to distrust the soundness of their religion because the New York Observer brands them as infidels. [Applause.] Captain Eynders is not an Aboli- tionist. [Great laughter.] The Bowery Boys do not like Aboli- tionism. [Laughter.] And as it was eighteen hundred years ago, so we have had, in this trial of the nation, the chief priests and Scribes and Pharisees on the one hand, and the rabble on the other, endeavoring by lawless means and murderous instrumentalities to put down the anti-slavery movement, which is of God, and can not be put down. [Applause.] The slaveholders who have risen in rebellion to overthrow the Government, and crush out free institutions, are in the mood of mind, and ever have been, to hang every Abolitionist they can catch. I hold that to be a good cer- tificate of character [applause], and when I add that the millions 38 THE ABOLITIONISTS. AND of slaves in bondage, perishing in their chains, and crying unto Heaven for deliverance, are ever ready to give their blessings to the Abolitionists for what they have done, and when tbey run away from their masters come to us, who are represented to be their deadliest enemies, it seems to me we have made out our case. Such Abolitionism every honest, humane, upright, and noble soul ought to indorse as right. And besides, I say it is a shame that we should any longer stand apart — I mean we of the North. What are all your paltry distinc- tions worth ? You are not Abolitionists. Ob, no. You are only anti-slavery ! Dare you trust yourself in Carolina, except, perhaps, at Port Royal? [Laughter.] You are not an ultra anti-slavery man ; there is nothing ultra about you. You are only a Repub- lican ! Dare you go to New Orleans ? Why, the President of the United States, chosen by the will of the people, and duly inaugu- rated by solemn oath, is an outlaw in nearly every slave State in this Union ! He can not show himself there, except at the peril of his life. And so of his Cabinet. I think it is time, under these circumstances, that we should all hang together, or, as one said of old, "We shall be pretty sure, if caught, to hang separately." [Laughter.] The South cares nothing for these nice distinctions among us. It is precisely on this matter of slavery as it is in regard to the position of Rome respecting Protestantism. Our Protestant sects assume to be each one the true sect, as against every other, and we are free in our denunciation of this or that sect as heretical, because not accepting our particular theological creed. What does Rome care for any such distinction ? Whether we are High Church Episcopalian or Methodist, Quaker or Univer- salist, Presbyterian or Unitarian, we are all included in unbelief, we are all heretics together ; and she makes no compromise. Just so with slavery. If we avow that we are at all opposed to slav- ery, it is enough, in the judgment of the South, to condemn us to a coat of tar and feathers, and to general outlawry. I come now to consider what are the relations of the Abolition- ists to the war. Fourteen months ago, after a heated Presidential struggle, with three candidates in the field, Abraham Lincoln was duly and constitutionally chosen President of the United States. Now where are we? At that time, who doubted the stability of the American Union ? What power in the universe had we to fear? Was it not pronounced impossible for any real harm to come to us? How strong was our mountain, and how confident THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 39 our expectations in regard to the future ! And now our country is dismembered, the Union sundered, and we are in the midst of the greatest civil war that the world has ever known. For a score of years, prophetic voices were heard admonishing the nation, " Be- cause ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. There- fore, thus saith the Lord God. Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place ; and your covenant with deatli shall be annulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand." And now it is verified to the letter with us. In vain are all efforts to have it otherwise, "hie that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." "Though hand join in hand, yet shall not the wicked go unpunished." Yes, America! "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Who are responsible for this war? If I should go out into the streets for a popular reply, it would be, " The Abolitionists" — or, to use the profane vernacular of the vile, " It is all owing to the "*d — d Abolitionists. [Laughter.] If they had not meddled with the subject of slavery, everything would have gone on well ; we should have lived in peace all the days of our lives. But they in- sisted upon meddling with what doesn't concern them ; they indulged in censorious and harsh language against the slaveholders, and the result is, our nation is upturned, and we have immense hostile armies looking each other fiercely in the face, and our glo- rious Union is violently broken asunder." Let me read an extract from the New York Express for your express edification : " Our convictions are, that anti-slavery stimulated, and is the animating cause of this rebellion. If anti-slavery were now removed from the field of action, pro- slavery would perish of itself, at home, in its own contortions." [Laughter.] Well, I do not think I can make a better reply to such nonsense than was made by your chairman, jn a brief letter which he sent tu the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society at West Chester, a few weeks ago, and by his permission I will read it : • "My opinion is this: There is war because there was a Republican party. There was a Republican party because there was an Abolition party. There was an Abolition party because there was slavery. Now, to charge the war upon Repub- licanism is merely to blame the lamb that stood in the brook. To charge it upon Abolitionism is merely to blame the sheep for being the lamb's mother. [Laugh- ter.] But to charge it upon slavery is to lay the crime flat at the door of ilie wolf, 4Q THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND where it belongs. [Laughb r.] To the end of trouble, kill the wolf. [Renewed laughter.] I belong to the party of wolf-killers." [Applause and merriment.] And let all the people say Amen ! [Cheers.] But consider the absurdity of this charge. Who are the avowed Abolitionists of our country? I have told you they occupy a very unpopular position in society — and certainly very few men have yet had the moral courage to glory in the name of Abolitionist. They are comparatively a mere handful. And yet they have over- turned the Government! They have been stronger than all the parties and all the religious bodies of the country — stronger than the Church, and stronger than the State. Indeed ! Then it must be because with them is the power of God, and it is the Truth which has worked out this marvelous result. [Cheers.] How many Abolition presses do you suppose exist in this coun- try ? We have, I believe, three or four thousand journals printed in the United States ; and how many Abolition journals do you suppose there are ? [Laughter.] You can count them all by the fin- gers upon your hand ; yet, it seems, they are more than a match for all the rest put together. This is very extraordinary ; but, our enemies being judges, it is certainly true. And now, what has been our crime ? I affirm, before God, that our crime has been only this : we have endeavored, at least, to remember those in bonds as bound with them. I, for one, am guilty only to this extent: I have called aloud for more than thirty years to my beloved but guilty country, saying: " There is within thy gates a pest, Gobi, and a Babylonish vest ; Not hid in sin-concealing shade, But broad against the sun displayed ! Repent thee, then, and quickly bring Forth from the camp th' accursed thing ; Consign it to remorseless fire, Watch till the latest spark expire; Then strew its ashes on ihe wind, Nor leave one atom wreck behind. So shall thy wealth and power increase; So shall thy people dwell in peace ; On thee th' Almighty's glory rest, And all the earth in thee be blest !" And what if the Abolitionists had been heeded thirty years ago ? Would there now be any civil war to talk about ? [Cries of '' No."] Ten years ago? five years ago ? one year ago? And all that time God was patient and forbearing, giving us an opportunity of escape. But the nation would not hearken, and went on hardening its heart. Oh ! how guilty are the conspirators of the South in what they have done ! How utterly unjustifiable and causeless is their rebel- lion ! How foul and false their accusations against the Government, THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 4^ against the Republican party, against the people of the North ! Utterly, inexcusably, and horribly wicked ! But let us remember, to our shame and condemnation as a people, that the guilt is not all theirs. I assert that they have been encouraged in every con- ceivable way to do ali this for more than thirty years— encouraged by the press of the North, by the churches of the North, by the pulpits of the North (comprehensively speaking). Abolitionists have been hunted as outlaws, or denounced as wild fanatics; while the slaveholders have been encouraged to go ou, making one de- mand after another, until they felt assured that when they struck tins blow, they would have a powerful party at the North with them, to accomplish their treasonable designs ; and it is only by God's providence we have escaped utter ruin. [Loud applause.] Therefore it is that the vials of Divine retribution are poured out so impartially. We are suffering ; our blood is flowing, our prop- erly is melting away — and who can see the end of it? Well, if the whole nation should be emptied, I should say : " Oh ! give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good, for his mercy endureth for- ever !" Our crime against these four millions of slaves, and against a similar number who have been buried, can not be adequately de- scribed by human language. Our hands are full of blood, and we have run to do evil ; and now a heavy but righteous judgment is upon us ! Let us reverently acknowledge the hand of God in this ; let us acknowledge our sins, and put them away ; and let each man put the trump of jubilee to his lips, and demand that the chains of the oppressed shall be broken forever ! [Cheers.] " The Abolitionists have used very irritating language !" I know it. I think, however, it must be admitted that that charge has been fully offset by the Southern slaveholders and their Northern accomplices ; for, if my memory serves me, they have used a great deal of irritating language about the Abolitionists. Indeed, I do not know of any abusive, false, profane, malicious, abominable epithets which they have not applied without stint to the Aboli- tionists — besides any amount of tarring and feathering, and other brutal outrages, in which we have never indulged towards them! [Laughter and cheers.] Irritating language, forsooth? Why, gentlemen, all that we have said is, "Do not steal," "Do not mur- der," " Do not commit adultery," — and it has irritated them ! [Ap- plause and laughter.] Of course, it must irritate them. The galled jade will wince. John Hancock and Sam Adams greatly irritated George the Third and Lord North. There was a great deal of 42 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND British irritation at Lexington and Bunker Ball, and it culminated at last at Yorktown. [Loud cheers.] Well, it is certain that a very remarkable change lias taken place within a short time. They who have complained of our hard language, as applied to the slavehold- ers, are now for throwing cannon-balls and bomb-shells at them! They have no objection to blowing out their brains, but you must not use hard language ! Now, I would much rather a man would hurl a hard epithet at my head than the softest cannon-ball or shell that can be found in the army of the North. As a people, however, we are coming to the conclusion that, after all, the great body of the slaveholders are not exactly the honest, honorable, and Christian men that we mistook them to be. [Applause.] It is as- tonishing, when any wrong is done to us, how easily we can see its true nature. What an eye-salve it is ! If any one picks our pocket, of course he is a thief; if any one breaks into our house, he is a burglar ; if any one undertakes to outrage us, he is a scoun- drel. And now that these slaveholders are in rebellion against the Government, committing piracy upon our commerce, confiscating Northern property to the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars, and plunging the country into all the horrors of civil war, why, of course, they are pirates — they are swindlers — they are traitors of the deepest dye ! [Cheers and laughter.] Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you 'one thing, and that is, they are just as good as they ■ ever were. They are just as honest, just as honorable, and just as Christian as they ever were. [Laughter.] Circumstances alter cases, you know. While they were robbing four millions of God's despised children of a different complexion from our own, stripping them of all their rights, selling them in lots to suit purchasers, and trafficking in their blood, they were upright, patriotic, Christian gentlemen ! Now that they have interfered with us and our rights, have confiscated our property, and are treasonably seeking to es- tablish a rival confederacy, they are downright villains and traitors, who ought to be hanged by the neck until they are dead. [Cheers.] " Abolitionists should not have intermeddled with their affairs," it is said. " We of the North are not responsible for slavery, and it is a very good rule for men to mind their own business." Who say this? Hypocrites, dissemblers, men who are condemned out of their own mouths. They are those who are always justifying or apologizing for slavery, who are in religious fellowship with these traffickers in human souls, who claim political affinity with them, and who give constitutional guarantees that fugitive slaves THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 43 may be hunted and captured in every part of the North, and that slave insurrections shall be suppressed by the strong arm of the na- tional Government, if need be ; and yet they have nothing to do with slavery ! Hypocrites and dissemblers, I spurn you all ! When I see a man drowning, if I can throw him a rope, I will do it; and if I would not, would I not be a murderer ? When I see a man falling among thieves, and w r ounded and forsaken, if I can get to him with oil and wine to bind up his wounds, I am bound to do it; and if I refuse, I become as base as the robber who struck him down. And when I see tyranny trampling upon my fellow-man, I know of no law, human or divine, which binds me to silence. I am bound to protest against it. [Cheers.] I will not be dumb. It is my business to meddle with oppression wherever I see it. [Applause.] It is said, again, '• There was no trouble in the land until the Abolitionists appeared." Well, the more is the pity ! Order reigns in Warsaw until Kosciusko makes his appearance. It reigns in Hungary until Kossuth comes forward — in Italy, until Garibaldi takes the field. [Loud cheers.] No trouble until the Abolitionists came forward ! The charge is false — historically untrue. Witness the struggle that took place at the formation of your Constitution, in regard to the slavery guarantees of that instrument. What is the testimony of John Quincy Adams on that point? lie says : " In the articles of Confederation, there was no guaranty for the property of the slaveholder— no double representation of him in the Federal councils — no power of taxation — no stipulation for the recovery of fugitive slaves. But when the pow- ers of Government came to be delegated to the Union, the South— that is, South Carolina and Georgia — refused their subscription to the parchment till it should be saturated with the infection of slavery, which no fumigation could purify, no quar- antine could extinguish. The freemen of the North gave way, and the deadly veuom of slavery was infused into the Constitution of Freedom." And so at the time of the Missouri struggle in 1820. There were no Abolitionists then in the field; yet the struggle between freedom and slavery was at that time so fierce and terrible as to threaten to end in a dissolution of the Union. [Cheers.] Oh ! no stain of blood rests on the garments of the Abolitionists. They have endeavored to prevent the awful calamity which has come upon the nation, and they may wash their hands in innocency, and thank God that in the evil day they were able to stand. [Applause.] No, my friends, this fearful state of things is not of men ; it is of Heaven. As we have sowed, we are reaping. The whole cause of it is declared in the memorable verse of the prophet: u Ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I pro- claim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pesti- 44 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND lence, and to the famine." That is the whole story. This is the settlement day of God Almighty for the unparalleled guilt of our nation ; and if we desire to be saved, we must see to it that we put away our sins, "break every yoke, and let the oppressed go tree," and thus save our land from ruin. [Applause.] Be not deceived ; this rebellion is not only to eternize the en- slavement of the African race, but it is also to overturn the free institutions of the North. The slaveholders of the South are not only opposed to Northern Abolitionists, but to Northern ideas and Northern institutions. Shall I refresh your memories by one or two quotations in point ? Listen to the language of the Richmond Examiner : " The South now maintains that slavery is right, natural, and necpssary, and does not depend upon complexion. The laws of the slave States justify the holding of while i/ien in bondage." The Charleston Mercury says : " Slavery is the natural and normal condition of the laboring man, -whether white or black. The greal evil of Northern free (mark you, not Abolition) society is that it is burdened with a servile class, mechanics and laborers, unfit for self-govern- ment, and yet clothed with the attributes and powers of citizens. Master and slave is a relation in society as necessary as that of parent and child ; and the Northern States will yet have to introduce it. Their theory of free government is a delusion.' Yet you are for free government, but not for Abolitionism ! What do you gain by the disclaimer? The South is as much opposed to the one as she is to the other — she hates and repudiates them both ! The Richmond Enquirer says : "Two opposite and conflicting forms of society can not, among civilized men, co-exist and endure. The one must give way and cease to exist. The other be- comes universal. If free society be unnatural, immoral, unchristian, it mu*t fall, and give way to slave society — a social system old as the world, universal as man." An Alabama paper says : "All the Northern, and especially the New England States, are devoid of society fi.ted for well-bred gentlemen. The prevailing' class one meets with is that of mechanics struggling to he genteel, and small farmers who do their own drudgery, and yet who are hardly fit for associating with a Southern gentleman's body-servant." You see, men of the North, it is a war against freedom — your freedom as well as that of the slave — against the freedom of man- kind. It is to-establish an oligarchic, slaveholding despotism, to the extinction of all free institutions. The Southern rebellion is in full blast; and if they can work their will against us, there will be for us no liberty of speech or of the press — no right to assemble as we assemble here to-night, and our manhood will be trampled in the dust. [Applause.] I say, therefore, under these circum- stances, treason consists in giving aid or countenance to the slave system of the South — not merely to Jeff Davis, as president of the Southern Confederacy, or to this rebel movement in special. Every man who gives any countenance or support to slavery is a traitor to liberty. [Enthusiastic applause.] 1 say he is a danger- ous and unsafe man. [Renewed cheers.] He carries within him the seeds of despotism, and no one can tell how soon a harvest of blood and treason may spring up. Liberty goes with Union and THEIB EELATIONS TO THE WAR. 45 for Union, based on judgment and equality. Slavery is utter dis- union and disorganization in God's universe. [Cheers.] But, we are told, "hang the Secessionists on the one hand, and the Abolitionists on the other, and then we shall have peace." [Laughter.] How very discriminating! Now, I say, if any hang- ing is to be done (though I do not believe in capital punishment — ■ that is one of my heresies) — if any hanging is to be done, I am for hanging these sneaking, two-faced, pseudo-loyal go-betweens im- mediately. [Loud and enthusiastic applause. A voice, "That's the talk!"] Why, as to this matter of loyalty, I maintain that the most loyal people to a free government who walk on the American soil, are the uncompromising Abolitionists. [Cheers.] It is not freedom that rises in rebellion against free government. It is not the love of liberty that endangers it. It is not those who will not make any compromise with tyranny who threaten it. It is those who strike hands with the oppressors. Yes, I maintain the Abolitionists are more loyal to free government and free insti- tutions than President Lincoln himself; because, while I want to say everything good of him that I can, 1 must say I think he is lacking somewhat in backbone, and is disposed, at least, to make some compromise with slavery, in order to bring back the old state of things; and, therefore, he is nearer Jeff Davis than I am. Still, we are both so bad, that I suppose if we should go amicably to- gether down South, we never should come back again. "Hang the Abolitionists, and then hang the Secessionists!" Why, in the name of common sense, wherein are these parties agreed? Their principles and purposes are totally dissimilar. We believe in the inalienable rights of man — in "liberty, equality, fraternity." They disbelieve in all these. We believe in making the law of God paramount to all human codes, compacts, and enactments. They believe in trampling it under their feet, to gratify their lust of dominion, and in "exalting themselves above all that is called God." We believe in the duty of liberating all who are pining in bondage. They are for extending and perpetu- ating slavery to the latest posterity. We believe in free govern- ment and free institutions. They believe in the overthrow of all these, and have made chattel bondage the corner-stone of their new confederacy. Where is there any agreement or similarity between these parties? But it may be said you are for the dissolution of the Union. I was. L)id I have any sympathy with the spirit of Southern seces- sion when I took that position ? No. My issue was a moral one — a Christian one. It was because of the pro-slavery nature of the compact itself that I said I could not, as a Christian man, as a friend of liberty, swear to uphold such a Union or Constitution. Listen to the declaration of John Quincy Adams, a most compe- tent witness, I think, in regard to this matter : " It can not be denieil— the slaveholder; lords of the South prescribed as a con- dition 0!' their assent to the Constitution, three specific provisions to secure the per- petuity of their dominion over their slaves. The first was the immunity for twenty 40 TIIE ABOLITIONISTS, AND years of preserving the slave-trade ; the second was the stipulation to surrender fugitive slaves — an engagement positively prohibited by tho laws of God, delivered from Sinai ; and thirdly, the exaction, fatal to the principles of popular representa- tion, of a representation of slaves, for articles of merchandise, under the name of persons. "The bargain between freedom and slavery, contained in the Constitution of the United States, iBmorally and politically vicious — inconsistent with the principles on which alone our Revolution can be jusiified — cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the master, and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured and returned to their owners, and persons not to be represented themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a double share of representation. The consequence has been that this slave representation has governed the Union. Benjamin's portion above his brethren has ravined as a wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and in the evening has divided the spoil." Hence I adopted the language of the prophet Isaiah, and pro- nounced the Constitution, in these particulars, to be " a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." Was I not justified as a Christian man in so doing ? Oh, but the New York Journal of Commerce says there seems to have taken place a great and sudden change in my views — I no longer place this motto at the head of my paper. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you remember what Bene- dick in the play says : " When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I would live to get married." [Laughter.] And when I said I would, not sustain the Constitution, because it was " a cove- nant with death, and an agreement with hell," I had no idea that I would live to see death and hell secede. [Prolonged applause and laughter.] Hence it is that I am now with the Government to en- able it to constitutionally stop the further ravages of death, and to extinguish the ilames of hell forever. [Renewed applause.] We are coolly told that slavery has nothing to do with this war! Believe me, of all traitors in this country who are most to be feared and detested, they are those who raise this cry. We have little to fear, I think, from the Southern rebels, comparatively : it is those Northern traitors, who, under the mask of loyalty, are doing the work of the devil, and effectively aiding the Secessionists by trying to intimidate the national government from striking a direct blow at the source of the rebellion, who make our position a dangerous one. [Applause.] What? slavery nothing to do with this war! How does ir happen, then, that the war is all along the border be- tween the free and the slave States ? What is the meaning of this ? For there is not a truly loyal slave State in the Union — not one. [Voices — " That's so."] I maintain that Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri are, by thejr feigned loyalty, greater obstacles in the way of victory than Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Nothing but the presence on their soil of the great army of the North keeps them loyal, even in form, and even under such a pressure they are full of overt treason. They have to be enticed to remain in the Union, as a man said he once enticed a burglar out of his house — he enticed him with a pitchfork ! [Laughter.] Withdraw your troops, and instantly they will fall into the Southern Confederacy by the law of gravita- tion. That is the whole of it. But this is not to be loyal — this is not a willing support of the Constitution and the Union. No ! On THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 47 the other hand, every free State is true to the Government. It is the inevitable struggle between the children of the bond-woman and the children of the free. [Applause.] Treason — where is it most rampant? Just where there are the most slaves! It disappears where there are no slaves, except in those cases to which I have referred, of skulking, double-faced hyp- ocrites, wearing the mask of loyalty, and yet having the heart of traitors. [Applause.] What State led off in this atrocious rebellion ? Why, South Carolina, of course, for in that State the slave popula- tion outnumbers the white. And so of Louisiana, out of which every avowed Unionist has been driven by violence: more than half of her population are slaves. Charleston and New Orleans are the head-quarters of treason, because the head-quarters of slavery. Besides, do not the rebels proclaim to the world that the issue they make is the perpetuation of their slave system and the overthrow of free government? Commend them for their openness: they avow just what they mean, and what they desire to accomplish. Now, then, for any party at the North to say, "Don't point at slavery as the source of the rebellion — it has nothing whatever to do with it — the Abolitionists are alone to be held responsible" — why, I have no words to express my contempt for such dissemblers. I brand them as worse than the rebels who are armed and equipped for the se'12 ure of the capital. It is loudly vociferated in certain quarters, " This is not a war for the abolition of slavery, but solely to maintain the Union." Granted, ten thousand times over ! I, as an Abolitionist, have never asserted the contrary. But the true issue is, in order that the Union may be perpetuated, shall not slavery, the cause of its dismembei*- ment, be stricken down to the earth ? The necessity is found in the present imperiled state of the Government, and in the fatal exper- iment of the past. There can not again be a uuion of the States as it existed before the rebellion; for while I will not underrate Northern valor, but believe that Northern soldiei - s are competes t to achieve anything that men can do in the nature of things, I have no faith in the success of the army in its attempt to subdue the South, while leaving slavery alive upon her soil. If any quarter is given to it, it seems to me that our defeat is just as certain in the end as that God reigns. We have got to make up our minds to one of three alternatives ; either to be vanquished by the rebel forces, or to see the Southern Confederacy shortly acknowledged by the European powers : or else, for self-preservation and to maintain its supremacy over the whole country, the Government must transform every slave into a man and a freeman, henceforth to be protected as such under the national ensign. [Applause.] The right of the Government to do this, in the present fearful emergency, is unques- tionable. Has not slavery made itself an outlaw ? And what claim has an outlaw upon the Constitution or the Union ? Guilty of the blackest treason, what claims have the traitors upon the Govern- ment ? Why, the claim to be hanged by the neck until they are " dead, dead, dead" — nothing else. [Applause.] 48 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND What sane man, what true patriot, wants the old Union restored —the Slave Oligarchy once more in power over the free States — Congress under slaveholding mastership — the army, navy, treasury, executive, supreme court, all controlled by the traffickers in human flesh? No! no! Happily, the Government may now constitution- ally do what until the secession it had not the power to do. For thirty years the Abolitionists have sent in their petitions to Con- gress, asking that body to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- bia, to prevent the further extension of slavery, to repeal the Fugi- tive Slave Law, etc., etc., but not to interfere with slavery in the Southern States. We recognize the compact as it was made. But now, by their treasonable course, the slaveholders may no longer demand constitutional protection for their slave property. The old " covenant with death" should never have been made. Our fathers sinned— sinned grievously and inexcusably — when they consented to the hunting of fugitive slaves — to a slave representation in Con- gress — to the prosecution of the foreign slave-trade, under the na- tional flag, for twenty years — to the suppression of slave insurrec- tions by the whole power of the Government. I know the dire extremity in which they were placed — exhausted by a seven years' war, reduced to bankruptcy, bleeding at every pore, fearing that the colonies would be conquered in detail by England if they did not unite — it was a terrihle temptation to compromise; but it does not exonerate them from guilt. The Union should not have been made upon such conditions ; but now that the South has trampled it under foot, it must not be restored as it was, even if it can be done. [Applause.] But it cannot be done. There are two parties who will make such a reunion impossible: the first is, the South — the second, the North. Besides, what reliable guarantee could be given that, after coming back, the South would not secede within twenty-four hours ? The right to secede ad libitum is her cardinal doctrine. Moreover, she declares that she has taken her leave of us forever ; she will not unite with us on any terms. Let me read you an extract from Jefferson Davis's last message to the Confed- erate Congress : " Not only do the causes which induced us to separate still last in full force, but they have been strengthened ; and whatever doubt may have lingered on the minds of any, must have been completely dispelled by subsequent events. If, instead of being a dissolution of a league, it were indeed a rebellion in which we are en- gaged, we might feel ample vindication for the course we have adopted in the scenes which are now being enacted in the United States. Our people now look with contemptuous astonishment on those with whom they have been so recently associated. They shrink with aversion from the bare idea of renewing such a con- nection. Wiih such a people we may be content to live at peace, but our separa- tion is final, and for the independence we have asserted we will accept no alter- native." Now, this is open and above-board, and it ought to be reso- lutely met by the North in the glorious spirit of freedom, saying, " By the traitorous position you have assumed, you have put your slave system under the absolute control of the Government ; and that you may be saved from destruction, as well as the country, we shall emancipate every slave in your possession." [Cheers.] THEIK RELATIONS TO THE "WAR. 49 But— say the sham loyalists of the North, "there is no constitu- tional right or power to abolish slavery— it would be the over- throw of the Constitution if Congress or the President should dare to do it." This is nothing better than cant, and treason in dis- guise. I should like to know what right General McClellan has with an invading army of 150,000 men in Virginia? Is that con- stitutional? Did Virginia bargain for that when she entered the Union ? By what right did we batter down the fort at Cape Ilat- teras? By what right do Northern soldiers "desecrate the sacred soil" of South Carolina by capturing Port Royal and occupying Beaufort? By what right has the Government half a million of troops, invading the South in every quarter, to kill, slay, and de- stroy, to "cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," for the purpose of bringing her into subjection ? Where is the right to do this to be found in the Constitution ? Where is it ? It is in this section : "Congress shall have power to declare war;" and when war comes, then come the rules of war, and, under the war power, Congress has a constitutional right to abolish slavery if it be necessary to save the Government and maintain the Union. [Loud applause.] On this point, what better authority do we want than that of John Quincy Adams? Hear what he says: " I lay this down as the law of nations. I say that military authority takes, for the time, the place ot all municipal institutions, and slavery among the red ; and that under that state of things, so far from its being true that the States where slavery exists have the exclusive management of the subject, not only the Presi- dent of the United States, but the commandi r of the army, has power to order the, universal emancipation of thi slaves. * * * From the instant that the slave- holding States become the' theater of a war, civil, servile, or foreign, from thai in- stant the war powers of Congress extend to interference with the institution of slavery, in evi ry wa.v in which it can be interfered with, from a claim of indemnity for slaves taken or destroyed, to the cession of States, burdened with slavery, to a foreign power. * * * "it is a war power. I say it is a war power; and when your country is actually in war, whether it be a war of invasion or a war of insur- rection, Congress has power to carry on the war, and must carry it on, according to the laws of war; and by the laws of war, an invaded country has all its laws and municipal institutions swept by the board, and martial power takes the place of them. When two hosiile armies are set in martial array, the commanders of both armies have power to emancipate all the dace* in the invaded territory." I hope Gen. McClellan or President Lincoln will soon be inclined to say "ditto" to John Quincy Adams. [Applause.] Commander- in-chief of the army, by the law of nations and under the war power given by the Constitution, in this terrible emergency you have the right and glorious privilege to be the great deliverer of the millions in bondage, and the savior of your country! May you have the spirit to do it ! There are some well-meaning men who unreflectingly say that this is despotic power. But the exercise of a constitutional right is not despotism. What the people have provided to save the Government or the Union is not despotism, but the concentration of extraordinary power for beneficent purposes. It is as much a constitutional act, therefore, for Gen. McClellan, or the President, or Congress, to declare slavery at an end in this country, as it is to march an army down into the South to subdue her — as it is to give shelter and freedom to the thousands of contrabands already set at 50 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND liberty. The way is clear; and tinder these circumstances, how tremendous will be the guilt of the Government if it refuses to im- prove this marvelous opportunity to do a magnificent work of justice to one seventh portion of our whole population — to do no evil to the South, but to bestow upon her a priceless blessing, and thereby perpetuate all that is precious in our free institutions ! I would rather take my chance at the judgment-seat of God with Pharaoh than with Abraham Lincoln if he do not, as President of the United States, in this solemn exigency, let the people go. [Applause.] ' He has the power — he has the right. The capital is virtually in a state of siege — the rebels are strong, confident, de- fiant; scarcely any progress has been made in quelling the rebel- lion. We do not know where we are, or what is before os. Al- ready hundreds of millions of dollars in debt — blood flowing freely, but in vain — the danger of the speedy recognition of the Southern Confederacy by European powers imminent — what valid excuse can the Government give for hesitating under such a pressure? And when you consider that slavery — which in itseif is full of weakness and danger to the South — is, by the forbearance of the Government, made a formidable power in the hands of the rebels for its overthrow, you perceive there is a pressing reason why there should be no delay. Only think of it! Our colored population, bond and free, could furnish an army of a million men from eighteen to forty-five years of age, and yet not one of them is allowed to shoulder a musket ! There are in slavery more than eight hundred thousand men ca- pable of bearing arms — a number larger than the two great hostile armies already in the field. They are at the service of the Gov- ernment whenever it will accept them as free and loyal inhabit- ants. [Applause.] It will not accept them ! But the rebel slave- holders are mustering them in companies and regiments, and they are shooting down Northern men, and in every way giving strength and success to the rebellion. Slavery is a thunderbolt in the hands of the traitors to smite the Government to the dust. That thun- derbolt might be seized and turned against the rebellion with fatal effect, and at the same time without injury to the South. My heart glows when I think of the good thus to be done to the op- pressors as well as to the oppressed ; for I could not stand here, I could not stand anywhere, and advocate vindictive and destruc- tive measures to bring the rebels to terms. I do not believe in killing or doing injury even to enemies — God forbid ! That is not my Christian philosophy. Put I do say, that never before in the history of the world has God vouchsafed to a government the power to do such a work of philanthropy and justice, in the ex- tremity of its danger and for self-preservation, as he now grants to this Government. Emancipation is to destroy nothing but evil; it is to establish good; it is to transform human beings from things into men; it is to make freedom, and education, and invention, and enterprise, and prosperity, and peace, and a true Union pos- sible and sure. Pedeemed from the curse of slavery, the South THEIR RELATIONS TO THE WAR. 51 shall in clue time be as the garden of God, Though driven to the wall and reduced to great extremity by this rebellion, still we hold off, hold off, and reluctantly say, at last, if it must be so, but only to save ourselves from destruction, we will do this rebellious South the most beneficent act that any people ever yet did — one that will secure historic renown for the administration, make this struggle memorable in all ages, and bring down upon the land the benedic- tion of God ! But we will not do this, if we can possibly avoid it ! Now, for myself, both as an act of justice to the oppressed and to serve the cause of freedom universally, I want the Government to be in haste to blow the trump of jubilee. I desire to bless and not curse the South— to make her prosperous and happy by sub- stituting free institutions for her leprous system of slavery. I am as much interested in the safety and welfare of the slaveholders, as brother men, as I am in the liberation of their poor slaves ; for we are all the children of God, and should strive to promote the happi- ness of all. I desire that the mission of Jesus, " Peace on earth, good-will to men," may be fulfilled in this and in every land. Bear in mind that the colored people have always been loyal to the country. You never heard of a traitor among them, when left to freedom of choice. Is it not most humiliating— ought we not to blush for shame — when we remember what we have done to them, and what they have done for us ? In our Eevolutionary struggle they freely participated, and helped to win our national independ- ence. The first patriotic blood that stained the pavements of Bos- ton, in 1770, was that of Crispus Attucks, a black man. It was reter Salem, a black man, who shot the British leader, Major Pit- cairn, as, storming the breastworks at Bunker Hill, he exclaimed, " The day is ours !" Throughout that memorable struggle, the col- ored men were ever ready to pour out their blood and lay down their lives to secure the liberties we now enjoy ; and they were ad- mitted to have been among the bravest of the brave. In the war of 1812, when New Orleans was threatened by a formidable Brit- ish force, do you remember what Gen. Jackson said when he needed their help ? He did not scorn them in the hour of peril ; far from it. This was his proclamation : " Headqttaetehs, Seventh Military Distbict, ) Mobile, Sept. 21, 1814. j To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana : Through a mistaken policy, you have been heretofore deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national rights in which this country in engaged. This no longer shall exist, .. ■ As sons of freedom, you are now called upon to defend our most inestimable bus- ings: As Americans, your country looks with confidence to her adopted children for a valorous support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable Government. As lathers, husbands, and brothers, you are sum- moned to rally round the standard of the eagle, to defend all which is dear m exist- el Your country, although calling for your exertions, does not wish you to engage in her cause without remunerating you for the services rendered. \ our intelligent minds are not to be led away by false representations. Your love of honor would cause you to despise the man who should attempt to deceive you. With the sincer- ity of a soldier and the language ot truth I address you. .... t To every noble-hearted freeman of color volunteering to serve during the present 52 THE ABOLITIONISTS, AND contest with Great Britain, and no longer, there will be paid the same bounty, in money and lands, now received by the while soldiers of the United States, viz. : one hundred and twenty-four dollars in money, and one hundred and sixty acres of land. The non commissioned officers and privates will also be entitled to the same monthly pay. daily rations, and clothes furnished to any American soldier. As a distinct, independent battalion or regiment, pursuing the path of glory, you will, undivided, receive the applause and gratitude of your countrymen." Then again, after the struggle, he addressed them as follows: " Soldiers! When, on the banks of the Mobile, I called upon you to take up arms, inviting you to partake of the perils and glory of your white fellow citizens, I expected much from you ; for I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most form dable to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could overcome hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. / knew well how y