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AUGUST, 1861.     DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.     503
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President will at once end the war, and save the nation from impoverishment and tens of thousands of families from bereavement and broken hearts.  Will Congress prefer poverty and blood?  Fearful will be its responsibility for the guilty preference.  It is apprehended that liberating the slaves would lead to insurrections?  That alone can prevent them.--The war prolonged, and the South will herself call on our Government to protect her from her slaves.

Hitherto the North has excused itself to itself and to Europe for not abolishing slavery.  Its plea has been that it had not the right to do so.  But what can be its plea now?--now when the South has given it the right, and when by all the rules of war it is at full liberty to exercise the right?  In making war upon us the South has authorized us to cripple her in all the ways we can.

It may be that we can (though I do not, believe that God will let us) put down the Rebellion and yet save slavery.  But what if we can?  Is slavery so precious to the North, that she can afford to save it at the cost of half her wealth and tens of thousands of her men?  One would think, that she had rather put down slavery along with the Rebellion, and so blot out forever the sole cause of the Rebellion.

This shrinking of Congress from repealing the Fugitive Slave Act will, I doubt not, go far to prepare Europe to expect the success of the Rebellion and to prepare her to recognize the new Nation.  She will measure our earnestness against the Rebellion by our earnestness against slavery.  She sees, if we do not, that the war of the South is simply a war for slavery.  A strange spectacle our nation must be in the eyes of Europe!  What is there that such a Nation as France or England would [[italics]] not [[/italics]] do to save itself in an appalling Rebellion?  But such is the amazing conduct of our Nation, as to occasion the inquiry--what is there that it [[italics]] will [[/italics]] do?  What must Europe think of this American Chivalry, which regards it as [[italics]] dishonorable [[/italics]] to avail itself of an element of weakness in a merciless and dangerous foe?  What must Europe think of this greater tenderness for the persons and property--ay, even the [[italics]] conventional [[/italics]] property, of foes than for the persons and property of friends?  I once heard an office-seeker, who was intent on making himself acceptable to all parties, speak of 'our friends and our [[italics]] opposing [[/italics]] friends.'  The gentle bearing of our Government reminds me of the mincing style of the office-seeker.  Our Government seems to recognize our foes as but 'opposing friends.'

Can it be that Congress is still trammeled by the absurd regard for the loyal salve States?  No State is loyal that would have the negroes work [[italics]] for [[/italics]] instead of [[italics]] against [[/italics]] the Rebellion.--No man is loyal who would have it.  No man is a true American, who, when America is warred on, will not welcome to her side the services of every American.

I am glad that Congress has resolved to meddle with nothing at this Session beyond the war question.  But utterly absurd is the inference of many that it must not therefore meddle with the slave question.  The slave question is the war question.  The war began in slavery, and it will end but with slavery.

Unceasingly, both penwise and lipwise, I am asked what the Abolitionists should do.
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I answer that the one present work of both Abolitionists and Anti-Abolitionists is put down the Rebellion: and that, as the most reasonable, hopeful and demanded means to this end, both Abolitionists and Anti-Abolitionists should petition the President to proclaim the liberty of the slaves.

Your friend, GERRIT SMITH.
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[[bold]] EXCITING SCENE AT FLUSHING. [[/bold]]
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The celebration of the Fourth of July at Flushing--a beautiful suburb of New York--gave rise to an unusual and exciting scene.--An immense concourse of people assembled in a grove to listen to an oration by THEODORE TILTON, of the N. Y. [[italics]] Independent [[/italics]].  The chairman was JOHN. H. LAWRENCE, well known as a prominent Democrat and Bank President in this city.  On taking the chair, he made a brief address, preliminary to introducing the orator of the day, in which he went out of his way to utter an invective against man professing anti-slavery opinions;--mentioning, with manifest bitterness, a class of persons whom he stigmatized as 'misguided Abolitionists, fanatics, and agitators.'

Mr. TILTON, apparently taking no notice of the gratuitous discourtesy, not to say insult, which had thus been cast upon him in the face of several thousand people, (to whom his anti-slavery opinions must have been well known,) proceeded for a full hour's length in a discussion of various aspects of the present condition of public affairs, when, suddenly turning to Mr. Lawrence, he said--'I feel bound in good conscience, before I sit down, to pick up the gauntlet of criticism which you threw at my feet, at the beginning of the hour;' and, immediately quoting Mr. Lawrence's abuse of Abolitionists,added: 'The shadow which you thus launched from your high chairman's seat upon those men dropped midway upon [[italics]] me! [[/italics]]  I stand at this moment covered and darkened with it, not only in your presence, but by your hand.--And yet, sir, I accepted not unkindly the severest word you spoke, for you honored me only too highly by the unexpected compliment of such reproach.  I know of no nobler work for any man, not even, sir, for such a man as you--certainly not for such a man as I--than to give one's hand, and heart, and brain to the cause of the poor, the down-trodden and the oppressed.  Nor, sir, can you point me, even with your own finger, to any nobler fame in history than that of a man like Wilberforce, who "went up to Heaven bearing 800,000 broken fetters in his hands."  So far as your words were a censure only upon [[italics]] me [[/italics]], I have forgotten them already; they vanished away like the breath with which they were uttered; but so far as those words brought obloquy upon many better men than I--men of true hearts, of pure lives, of noble aims--men of genius, of learning, of eloquence--nay, sir, men of whom the world is not worthy--I can only say in reply, Would to God that by taking to myself a share of their reproach, I might win to myself a share of their honor!  Tell me, sir, have you ever heard of the legend of St. Humbert?  After the good saint had been buried a hundred years, his coffin was opened, and a branch of laurel, that had lain in burial with him all the century, was taken from his ashes in perfect green, unfaded as if newly plucked, fresh as if wet with morning due!  Perhaps, sir, when these men, whom you seek to load with dishonor, shall come to their graves to be buried, their laurels will, in like manner, be buried with them; but I believe the hand of impartial History, before the end of a hundred years, will reach down gently into their graves and lift their laurels into resurrection, to bloom green and perennial before all the world!'

At these words, the entire audience rose to their feet, and shouted with spontaneous applause.  The chairman also sprang to his feet, and exclaimed--'Since the gentleman has avowed himself an Abolitionist, I must leave the chair'--and immediately quitted it, retiring at once from the platform. [[/column 2]]

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Mr. TILTON said to the audience, 'I charge you, good people, to remember for my sake that your chairman was exiled from this platform by no word from my lips which ought to have fallen unkindly upon his ear.'  The applause which followed this statement assured the speaker that he had gained what the chairman had lost, the sympathy of the entire multitude.

But, just at this moment, another episode occurred, which kindled the general feeling into still greater and almost indescribable enthusiasm.  Sitting in a carriage near the platform, with his family, was the Hon. LUTHER C. CARTER, ex-member of Congress--a venerable, white-haired man--who, as the audience had thus been deserted by their chairman, stepped gracefully down from his carriage, ascended the steps of the platform, and took his seat in the vacant chair!  The outburst of applause at this bit of gallantry was thrilling.  The orator, turning to the new presiding officer, bowed and remarked--'I need not say,sir, how I thank you for bringing your gray hairs to lend honor to the young man.  I remember how it is written--"A hoary head is a crown of glory!''--Amid a storm of applauding voices, the speaker then turned again toward the audience--the entire multitude of whom were still standing--and seeing that the highest possible climax of the occasion had been reached, drew his oration immediately to a close, adding only a few words prophetic of the reign of universal freedom, and took his seat amid prolonged applause.-- [[italics]] A. S. Standard. [[/italics]]
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THE SOLDIERS AND SLAVE-CATCHING.--A member of the Second Regiment of N. Y. S. M. writes from Ball's Four Cross Roads, Va., as follows:

A slight case of rebellion occurred in one of our camps a few evenings since, when a young man on guard was ordered to arrest any slaves who undertook to pass.  He very promptly answered:--'I can obey no such order; it was not to put down insurrection that I volunteered, but to defend my country's flag!  I am ready to bear the consequences, but never to have a hand in arresting slaves,'

The next night it was deemed politic not to try the temper of the men too hard, therefore the order was given in a more general tone, viz: that those who were not 'all right' should be stopped.  About 'the wee sma' hours ayont the twal,' the pickets heard a sudden brush in the adjoining shrubbery--a crackling of light twigs beneath a flying foot, and a stalwart son of Ethiopia stood panting against the glittering bayonet of a New York militiaman.  An instant only did their eyes flash upon each other.  'All right?' spoke the Northman.  'All right, massa!' whispered the trembling slave.  'Then make tracks before I've time to run you through with this;' and the gruff sentry illustrated the bayonet exercise.

A little later, as morning glimmered over the hills, a horseman dashed [[italics]] almost [[/italics]] past.--'Not so quick, stranger!  What's in the wind?'  The polite Southerner only demanded his property, which he already had scent of, and hoped no one would interfere with his passing quietly over the ground.  In vain, this visitor did not come under the head of 'all right;' and with a politeness equalling his own, he was asked to retire in an opposite direction from the one his chattel was then pursuing.'

While the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment was in the occupancy of Baltimore, a slave belonging to Wm. Dorbacker, absconded to the camp of the regiment, and was taken into the employ of some of the officers.  When the regiment returned to the Relay House, the man went with them, and continued there until a day or two since, when Mr. Dorbacker, discovering his whereabouts, sent for him.--The messenger was somewhat maltreated by the soldiers, as soon as he made his mission public, and had to leave the camp rather hastily.  A day or so after, the master procured the services of an officer, who went to the quarters of Col. Jones, and that officer immediately gave the negro up.
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