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JUNE, 1861        DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.           469
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unexplained cause, she failed to appear, to the great disappointment of a large and respectable audience. Our meetings have thus far been held in Zion Church; but the audience has so largely increased, that the house will not hold the crowds who flock to hear, and if the meetings are continued, as it is intended they shall be, the City Hall, or some other large building, will be secured for the purpose.  The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and work and wait should be the motto of every friend of the bondman, while slavery lifts its grim and savage front in the land.  Our cry should ever be:

'Down let the shrine of Moloch sink, 
And leave no traces where it stood, 
Nor longer let its idol drink 
His daily cup of human blood; 
But rear another altar there, 
To Truth and Love and Mercy given.'
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ANTI-SLAVERY IN GREAT BRITAIN.
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The letter from our ever faithful and zealous friend, Mrs. Dr. CROFTS, which we print in our present number, giving an account of the powerful anti-slavery efforts of Rev. Dr. CHEEVER, in Halifax, and of the general condition of anti-slavery feeling in England, is very gratefully received by us, and will be interesting to our readers.  What our friend says of the general rush of Americans, in the shape of agents soliciting aid from the British public for anti-slavery purposes in America, may well be remembered by our friends here.  It is the misfortune of almost every good cause which succeeds in awakening a large measure of sympathy in any particular quarter of the world, that men will take advantage of it, often to the serious prejudice of the cause itself.  Great Britain's anti-slavery reputation and wealth, have naturally induced a large class of persons, more or less deserving, to fly to her from this and other countries, for aid of their special objects, immediately or remotely connected with the anti-slavery movement, till the thing is much overdone.  It well becomes our trans-Atlantic friends and coadjutors to discriminate in lending aid to the different objects thus presented to them, and by no means to respond favorably to every application made to them from this side of the sea in behalf of the enslaved.  There are well known and well established channels through which the friends of the slave in Great Britain can assist the anti-slavery cause in America; and until our friends there have found these to be no longer efficient and entitled to confidence, they should continue to employ them.

The individual referred to in the letter of Mrs. CROFTS, is the Rev. Mr. BALME of Chicago.  He is traveling and soliciting money among anti-slavery friends in England to indemnify himself for alleged pecuniary losses incurred at Chicago in consequence of his fidelity to the anti-slavery cause.  From what we know of Mr. BALME, his losses at Chicago were more the result of his temper and spirit, than of his fidelity to the slave.  The shoulders of anti-slavery are broad, but they are hardly able to bear up under the weight of all the idiosyncrasies of some of the men who espouse the cause would fain lay upon them.  Rev. Mr. BALME is at the pains, we are told, of making us a special object of attack, as a means of recommending himself to those from whom he solicits assistance.–-His principal charge seems to be that we,
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several years ago, at an anti-slavery meeting, denounced or ridiculed the doctrine of the atonement.  The charge is of course false, and wholly inconsistent with our invariable mode of advocating the cause of the slave, the constant aim of which is to unite men of all religious opinions and persuasions on one common platform of justice and humanity, in the work for the overthrow of slavery.  But we have no words to waste upon our defamer, and simply meet his allegations with our unqualified and emphatic denial.
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CAPTAIN TATE.-–We have been favored, within the last few days, with a brief interview with this distinguished stranger, and gladly make public note of the fact, both as a tribute to the obvious qualities of that gentleman, and to the interesting country from which he comes.  Hayti is a country which must ever remain, from the struggles and achievements of its people, dear to every colored man in America.  We feel that she belongs not only to Haytians, but to us, and that our fortunes are in some measure connected with hers.  The brave deeds of her illustrious men give strength and character to the colored race wherever found, whether in freedom or in chains; and by the light of her examples, the prophets of our race are able to scan the dim outlines of a desirable future.  Our interview with Captain TATE, though brief, has left a very agreeable impression, both of the man, and of the present Government of Hayti, with which he is understood to be connected.  He has the dignity and polish of a real gentleman, and the crystallized common sense of a keen observer of men and things.  The Government of Hayti seems much better off than our own in one respect, taking Captain TATE as an illustration.  We send men on missions who can neither speak nor write the language of the people to whom they are directed.  Captain TATE converses easily and fluently in English, as well as in French and Spanish.  No one can converse with him without feeling respect for the Government he represents.  We hope to see and hear more from Captain TATE before he shall finish his tour of observation through the United States and Canada.
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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for June is before us, filled with choice and interesting articles, ranking as follows:—-Agnes of Sorrento, Greek Lines, The Rose Enthroned, A Bag of Meal, Napoleon the Third, Concerning Things Slowly Learnt, American Navigation, Denmark Vesey, New York Seventh Regiment, Army-Hymn, The Pickens-and-Stealins' Rebellion, Recent American Publications.-—The next number of this monthly will commence a new volume, which will be a good opportunity for new subscribers to send in their names.

In our next number we intend to publish the article on Denmark Vesey, copied from the present number of the Atlantic.
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A COLORED MILITARY COMPANY.-–A colored military company has been formed in Albany, Ohio, called the 'Attucks' Guards.'  They turned out on the 15th of May, and marched to the residence of Rev. J. Cable, where they were presented with a fine flag made by the ladies of Albany, accompanied with a very eloquent and appropriate address from the reverend gentleman.  T.J. Furguson acknowledged the gift, on behalf of the company, in an able speech, which we would be happy to print had we room for it.
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LETTER FROM REV. J. SELLA MARTIN.
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BOSTON, May 9th, 1861.

MY DEAR FRIEND:–-I arise from the perusal of your last Monthly with feelings that I cannot repress.  I have re-read the three leading articles from your pen, and I have concluded that they are among, if not the ablest articles that you ever wrote; and strange to say, or rather paradoxical as it may seem, it is this very conclusion that gives me pain, and that dictates the outburst of feeling that seeks relief in this letter.  Why can't we have the daily, rather than the monthly utterances of FREDERICK DOUGLASS?  To me it is a desolating thought that there is as little preparation on our part to enjoy, as there is a disposition on the part of the whites to confer our rights.  With the present condition of things among us, we should lose whatever we got, with as much indifference as we now submit to what we have lost.

The war seems to promise something to us; but in the name of manhood, must our hopes depend forever upon the negative influences of Providence?  Must we forever gain whatever good we have from the white man's bad?  We are not even alive to the promises of this war, and it does seem that in peace or war we constantly alternate between the two points of social and political paralysis-–from the apathy of indifference, to the apathy of despair.

Excuse this train of feeling.  I know that your keen sympathies and earnest solicitude finds enough to give pain and discouragement without such ungracious remindings from me.  But I desired you to know there are a great many alive to the services which you have rendered your people, and to let you know of our sorrow that fate had been apparently so begrudging as to refuse the social and pecuniary food to such a noble mouth as we have in Rochester.

I took your paper to the Atlas and Bee office, and I see they have used many of your ideas in an editorial without giving credit.-–So it is; the whites keep from us all they can, and then steal what we get in spite of them.  Are not these Northern people the most arrant cowards, as well as the biggest fools on earth?  Just think of Dimmick and Slemmer sending back the fugitives that sought protection of them.  They refuse to let white men sell the Southerners food, and yet they return slaves to work on the plantation to raise all the food that the Southerners want.  They arrest traitors, and yet make enemies of the colored people, North and South; and if they do force the slave to fight for his master, as the only hope of being benefited by the war, they may thank their own cowardice and prejudice for the revenge of the negro's aim and the retribution of his bullet while fighting against them in the Southern States.  I received a letter from Mobile, in which the writer states that the returning of those slaves by Slemmer has made the slaves determined to fight for the South, in the hope that their masters may set them free after the war, and when remonstrated with, they say that the North will not let them fight for them.  I preached in one of the richest white churches Sabbath before last, upon the war, and made this statement, and it has called forth a number of communications from the merchants and others; and the  Herald,  in a leader yesterday, asked if the North sent her Generals there for that purpose, and said it would pause for a reply.

Yours,  J. SELLA MARTIN.
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