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July, 1861.   DOUGLASS' MONTHLY     483
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marching an army up a hill, and of marching it down again.  But ridiculous and calamatous as would be any attempt at a new compromise, it would not be wise for the friends of freedom to ignore the possibility, or to forget to warn the people against its possible occurrence.

There is nothing in the history of American politics which absolutely forbids the fear of a new compromise in the present juncture.--We are, notoriously, scoffers at fidelity to principle.  The great principles of freedom, which we set forth to the world eighty-five years ago, have been practically trampled in the dust ever since.  We have never made good that declaration declaring all men 'free and equal,' but have, while shouting and shooting on the 4th of July of each year, continued to hold in galling bondage millions of men.  We have shown ourselves a nation of compromisers, ever ready to barter our professed principles for the sake of peace, not of conscience, but of commerce.  The annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, the Compromise of 1850, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, are all illustrations of the National contempt for sound political principals and the readiness of our rulers to make any sacrifices in the way of principle in order to secure peace, although such peace has ever proved, as it must ever prove 'a delusion and a snare' to the free States.

Just now the temptation to compromise is not very strong.  It is a mere child now; but it may be a giant in the heats of July, and the meeting of Congress on the 4th may greatly increase its strength.  The 'horrors of war,' 'fraternal blood,' 'great Anglo-American race,' 'gone far enough,' 'a ruined country,' 'can it not be arrested?' 'a common ancestry,' 'heavy national debt,' 'prestige abroad,' 'all loss, no gain,' 'the South only wants security, and the North only wants loyalty,' 'why can't they say the word and be done with this fighting?'  To many we fear this view will stand to reason, and we may witness another and a stronger lease of life given to slavery.  Nevertheless, we shall still hope in the omnipotent power of events and that the result will prove better than our fears.  A day or an hour may change the entire complexion of affairs either way, and it is hardly worth while to predict anything as to the immediate future.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
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DONATIONS IN AID OF DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.

Liverpool A. S. Society...................£5  0 0
Berwick     "      "   ................... 4  9 0
Wakefield   "      "   ................... 4  0 0
Birmingham  "      "   ................... 4  0 0
Aberdeen    "      "   ................... 2 10 0
Clougher    "      "   ...................10  0 0
Miss Ame Droz............................. 1 10 0
Miss Doncaster............................ 1  0 0

IN AID OF FUGITIVE SLAVES.

Falkirk A. S. Society..................... 9  0 0

Mr. Loguen wishes to acknowledge the following donations recently received by him : 

Doncaster A. S. Society.................. £5 10 0
Derby       "      "   ..................  5  0 0
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A NEGRO PREACHER HUNG.--A negro preacher, belonging to Mrs. Harden, at Pine Bluff, (so says a Memphis paper,) indulged in violent language to his mistress last Sunday afternoon, remarking, among other things, that he would be free in three weeks, and could raise a thousand men himself for the purpose.  His case was reported to the authorities the same evening, and he was taken out and hung on Monday afternoon.
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THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
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We have been favored by the receipt of two numbers of the [[italics]] Star of Liberia, [[/italics]] edited and published by T. MORRIS CHESTER.  This paper, it seems, is published monthly, and the numbers before us are of February and March 1861.  We gather from the [[italics]] Star [[/italics]] something of the life and the spirit of Liberia, and have been somewhat amused as well as instructed by its perusal.  Liberia, it seems, not less than greater Republics, has its wars and rumors of war, its ambitious men, its parties, party names, its party quarrels, collisions, misrepresentations, aspersions, incivilities and scurrilities, all of which are made quite manifest in the pages now before us.  We cannot say that in these two numbers of the [[italics]] Star [[/italics]] we have learned anything very definite of the war recently waged by Liberia against the Poes, except that the former became an ally of the Padees, another tribe, who wished to possess themselves of certain lands owned and occupied by the Poes.  The war, however, does not appear to be a very serious one, and the Liberians, according to the [[italics]] Star, [[/italics]] have obtained an easy victory, though not one which reflects much credit upon President BENSON.

Whatever may be the merits of the war, it is evident that the people of the little Republic of Liberia are divided into two parties, like larger Republics, in respect to those merits.  The Liberians are not only excited and tempest-tossed by the war with the Poes, but have recently had a fire-brand flung into their midst by one Prince LEO LLOYD, a character somewhat notorious a few years ago in the neighborhood of Boston, Mass.  Until seeing the [[italics]] Star, [[/italics]] we had not known of the rising of LEO in Africa, or that Liberia had become the theatre of his nimble tongue and mischievous propensities.  For the first time in the history of Liberia, through this LLOYD we have the intimation of a desire on the part of a faction in that country to accomplish the destruction of the Republic, and to establish a Monarchy.  The announcement of this fact by LEO has created no little excitement among the Liberians.  The [[italics]] Star [[/italics]] does not hesitate to denounce it--and no doubt justly--as a deliberate falsehood, uttered with a design of casting suspicion upon Ex-President ROBERTS, and thereby advancing the political interests of President BENSON, into whose family, we infer, this LLOYD has now married.

Our friends in Liberia, we are very glad to observe, have formed a very correct idea of the character and ability of Mr. LLOYD, the very pretensions of whom--to say nothing of his history--stamp him as nothing better than an impostor.  For the well-being of Liberia, an eye should be kept upon Mr. LLOYD.

The [[italics]] Star [[/italics]] has very little to say of the general condition of the country, and if, as doctors say that the stomach is most healthy when a man is unconscious of having any, we must decide from reading the [[italics]] Star [[/italics]] that business in Liberia is in a prosperous condition.--Party warfare in Liberia is shown to be not any more scrupulous in the choice of weapons, or in the selection of epithets, than in the U.S.  Vast improvement might be made in this respect.  A difference of opinion on mere questions of policy should scarcely draw upon any the vulgar epithets which we find applied not only to parties, but to men, in the columns of the [[italics]] Star of Liberia. [[/italics]] 
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THE LATE STEPHAN A. DOUGLAS.
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A tree is known by its fruits, and a nation by its great men.  'No people were ever better than their laws,' is an ancient proverb.  Equally true is it that no people are better than their law-makers, especially when they have the making of their law-makers.  The late STEPHAN A. DOUGLAS was, in a high sense, a representative man.  If at any time he seemed to exaggerate in his conduct the barbarous elements of American society, it was only because of his prominence as a politician, and the energy and ability which he possessed.  Springing from the people in point of social position as well as political influence, he represented especially the democratic imperfections and vices of the people.  Success in America seems evermore the criterion of greatness; hence success becomes the leading and all-controlling law to the aspiring.  Once possessed of this idea, the American politician becomes crafty, cringing, unscrupulous and often, apparently, lost to all sense of honor and consistency.  He turns with the first touch of the popular breeze, imbibes as freely the prejudices of the rabble as the enlightenment of the intelligent, and reflects both just so far as they may assure success.

Mr. DOUGLAS, at whose death the country has sent up a wail of lament, was in our judgment the representative of the very worst type of American politics and American ambition.  In reference to slavery, he claimed to be alike destitute of principle and feeling.  In his exhibition of contempt for the negro, he was malignant, unscrupulous, coarse, vulgar and brutal, to a degree which made him the favorite exponent of this peculiar American malignity.  He omitted no opportunity to assail our race, and quicken into active aversion the general public sentiment of dislike to us.  On all occasions he was ready to indorse the Dred Scott decision, to deny the black man's citizenship, and to offer to the South any terms of accommodation involving any sacrifice of justice and humanity.  Of course, for the death of such a man we have no tears to shed.  The position assumed by Mr. DOUGLAS towards the maintenance of the Government in the Union, a few months before his death, and which has chiefly caused his death to be lamented, would, had he lived to the end of the war, made him the most dangerous and mischievous man in the counsels of the nation.  The strength gained at the North by the apparent heartiness of the espousal of its cause, would have been made the means of a deeper demoralization of Northern sentiment than ever--for though opposed and defeated by the South in his Presidential aspirations, and speaking under the inspiration of chagrin at the ingratitude and baseness which had discarded him, he was ever too crafty and self-possessed to allow one word to escape him which could possibly block the way to his return to his old slaveholding service.  While we rejoice in the death of no man, we cannot but welcome the removal from the sphere of active exertion of any tyrant persecutor of our race.
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SLAVE INSURRECTIONS.--The telegraph occasionally announces an outbreak among the slaves in some of the slave States.  As the U. S. mail has been stopped in the South, nothing reliable can be ascertained.
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Transcription Notes:
Reviewed - fixed a couple of typos