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DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.

"OPEN THY MOUTH FOR THE DUMB, IN THE CAUSE OF ALL SUCH AS ARE APPOINTED TO DESTRUCTION; OPEN THY MOUTH, JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY, AND PLEAD THE CAUSE OF THE POOR AND NEEDY."--Proverbs xxxi. 8, 9.

VOLUME IV. NUMBER IV.   
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1861.
PRICE -- ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM. 

CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER.

The Progress of the War - 513
Cast off the Mill Stone - 514
Shall Slavery Survive the War? - 515
Fighting Rebels with only one Hand - 516
Rev. Mr Garnet revisits England - 516
Our Army still at Slave-Catching - 517
Our Soldiers and Contrabands - 517
Letter to President Lincoln - 518
No Terms with Traitors - 518
Nat Turner's Insurrection - 520
A Right Kind of Colonel - 522
Wendell Phillips on the War - 523
Why was John Brown Hung? - 523
The Contraband Question - 524
The War, Washington, and Black Warriors - 525
Poetry - 525
The Negroes at Fortress Monroe - 526
An Important Admission - 526
Separation or Emancipation - 527
Black Heroism - 627
Miscellaneous Items - 627

DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.

"I lay this down as the law of nations.  I say that the military authority takes, for the time, the place of municipal institutions, Slavery among the rest.  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 President of the United States, but the Commander of the army has power to order the universal emancipation of the slaves."--JOHN Q. ADAMS.

THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

It is exceedingly difficult to speak or to write on this subject without to some extent giving aid and comfort to the rebels.  The war itself, unhappily, has thus far given very little else than aid and comfort to them.--Their hopes of breaking up the Union, and of establishing a grand slaveholding empire in which slaveholders alone shall be the lawgivers, seems to increase with every step in the progress of the war.  Difficult however as it is to write, we must endeavor to present to our readers and friends on both sides of the Atlantic, as best we may, our monthly view of the war, its character, progress and effects.  Nothing is gained by partial statements, unsupported by facts; and however humiliating and saddening the truth may be, a brave man is sternly prepared to know the worst.  Much has been hoped from the virtue, enlightenment, wealth and humanity of our present Administation; but thus far very little has been accomplished to justify the hopes and expectations of the friends of justice and humanity.  To tell the simple truth, we can only report in this our September number, after waiting for events up to the last hour, for something to relieve the picture of its sombre aspect--what in substance we have reported before, but with every variation of rhetoric we could command, that our National Republican Administration at Washington still seems very earnestly endeavoring to find out how not to put down and destroy this monstrous slaveholding rebellion.  Their efforts in this direction have been crowned by entire success.  Had our President and Cabinet avowed their purpose to prosecute the war with weakness instead of vigor, with awkwardness rather than skill, to shed loyal blood rather than that of the rebels, to spend the most money to the least advantage, they could not have reached that result by any other course sooner than by that which they have thus far pursued.  In nearly every battle of importance we have managed to give the rebels the victory.  We are beaten in every battle, till dissatisfaction and demoralization has become the leading features of the news from our army at Washington.  Never was a vast stock of popular confidence so speedily dissipated.  Nor is this strange.  No people can long confide in the ability and integrity of a Government whose career is only marked with disappointments, blunders and defeats.

Among the bad symptoms of the times is the revival of old political divisions at the North.  These, after having disappeared amid the smoke and flame of the bombardment of Sumter, it was hoped never to return again, have now re-appeared and threaten to rage with all the malignant fury, and with all the hurtful consequences which have marked their history in other times.  Insecurity, vacillation, imbecility are now openly flaunted in the face of the Administration, not only by pro-slavery Democrats, but by men who a few months ago were its warm defenders and supporters.  This is no flippant declamation, no wholesale invective, but the impression derived from a sober observation of the general state of facts.  All over the North men are beginning to feel that unless the Government shall speedily redeem itself, by some direct and powerful proceeding, the last remaining vestige of public confidence in it will be swept away.

Examine its war history.  Did ever a Government present to the world a more disheartening record?  Leaving out the horrible butchery of our troops at Great Bethel and Vienna, through the ignorance and blunders of their officers, the country had scarcely recovered from the shock caused by the still more dreadful battle at Manassas Junction, where our valiant troops were led like lambs to the slaughter, shot down by tens and hundreds by concealed foes, from rifle pits, trenches, and masked batteries, till they fled panic-stricken from the impregnable fortifications of the enemy like very chaff before a furious whirlwind;--we say, scarcely had we thus been humbled by this terrible calamity, when on comes another from the seat of war in Missouri.  Cover up the fact as we may, the Federal army met with a most heart-rending reverse in the South-west, the actual damage of which can hardly be estimated— Our gallant little army of five thousand men, under General LYON, were left by the Government to be defeated and cut to pieces, if not destroyed, by a rebel army of five times their number.  The blood of the brave and faithful LYON now cries from the ground against the Government.  Never was a General, so brave and patriotic, thus mercilessly and ungratefully sacrificed by the country.  He had called loud and earnestly upon the Government for reinforcements; but the Government was practically deaf to the call, and left him and his brave companions either to perform a miracle, or to be completely overwhelmed by superior numbers.  They performed wonders.  They were terrific in all the elements of courage; but alas! they were only five thousand arrayed against twenty-five thousand, and were defeated.  Shame upon the neglect that left them to such a fate!

We are writing on the progress of the War; but is not this really a misnomer?  Has the Government actually made any progress at all?  Are we not now even in a worse condition than at the beginning?  The Capital was in danger in May, and it is in no less danger in August.  Our newspapers flamed then with alarming telegrams of the advance of the Confederate forces upon Washington.  They so flame now.  In fact, we seem to be nearly in the same condition that we were in when Major ANDERSON was compelled to give up the shattered walls of Fort Sumter.  The enemy is now as proud, confident and defiant as at the beginning, and the promised [[?]] sion of rebellion seems as far off as ever.

It is not at all surprising that this state of facts should measurably destroy the vast stock of public confidence reposed in the Government at the beginning of the war, and such is really the case whatever show may be made to the contrary by great money loans to the Government.  The feeling is becoming general that a new element must be infused into the Government forces, and that unless a new turn is given to the conflict, and that without delay, we might as well remove Mr. LINCOLN out of the President's chair, and respectfully invite JEFFERSON DAVIS or some other slaveholding rebel to take his place.--The conduct of the Government has been such as to weaken its friends, and in many respects to strengthen its enemies.  Witness the fact that it has retained in offices of profit and honor, where they could be of the utmost service to the rebels, persons that refused to swear to support the Constitution under which they were protected and honored.  Witness the release of rebel prisoners simply upon their word of honor, which word was already dishonored by the blackest treason.  Witness the toleration of BRECKINRIDGE, BURNETT and VALLANDIGHAM in Congress, whose sole business there during the whole session was to give aid and comfort to the rebels, and to cripple the Government.--Witness the repeated and uncontradicted assertion of the reporters at Washington, that until recently the rebels had troops of spies and informers, men and women in that city.--Witness the oft-repeated and shameless declaration of nearly all our Generals--doubtless with the approbation of the President himself--

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