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OCTOBER, 1861.  DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.  533

THE DUTY OF ABOLITIONISTS IN THE PRESENT STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

By Abolitionists we mean not those who denounce and reprobate those slaveholding rebels who are now, with blackened hearts and bloody hands, waging a ferocious war for the destruction of the American Government : for to denounce these a man needs not a single humane or abolition sentiment in his bosom.  Many who have been foremost in upholding slavery, and in traducing Abolitionists, are now loudest in denouncing the rebels and traitors and urging a vigorous prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Government.  The loss of Government, the loss of trade, the loss of money, the loss of standing among the nations of the earth, and the like, furnish strong motives strong enough for all such denunciation, without any hostility to slavery itself.  We mean by Abolitionists those noble men and women in the country who believe in the Brotherhood of Man, the right of every man to his own body, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and who believe that slavery is a great and horrible abomination which ought at once and forever and everywhere to be abolished—those who see in the meanest of all the imbruted and whip-scarred a man and a brother—the question is, What ought such men and women to do in the present awful crisis ?

Some say, turn to, with might and main, and help put down this rebellion.  That the national house is on fire, and instead now of proposing improvements and reforms in the national family, we should set about saving the house itself.  So some men talk, and so, too they act.  The proposition is thus far true, that our first business is to save our Government from destruction.  This we firmly hold.  No man with an equal share of interest in the American Government can hold it more firmly.  And it so happens that precisely that very thing which others are now asserting it to be our duty to do, we Abolitionists have been endeavoring these many years, through good and through evil report, to do during a quarter of a century.  The dangerous and demoniacal character of slavery, which has brought the present distress upon us, we have been endeavoring to expose, and to teach the nation they must hate and abolish, or be hated and abolished by it.  This has been our talk ; and had the nation hearkened to our warnings and entreaties ; had even the religious teachers of the country assisted us in enforcing anti-slavery convictions upon the public mind, our land would not now have been plunged into all the troubles of civil war, and the nation rolling in fraternal blood.

But what's done is done.  We now have the war upon us, and the question is, What does duty require of us now ?  We freely confess, that while we should give our money, our sympathy and our arms to the support of our Government, it seems to us, that at the same time we can in no way be of more service to the Government, in no way do more to save our guilty country from destruction, than by doing all we can to make the Government and people an abolition Government and an abolition people, for until both shall become such, it is quite plain that this land is doomed to see no peace.  Let us hold our meetings, public our doctrines, petition the Government, and do all we may to bring this land to repentence, the nation to treat the negro as a man and a brother, having rights which all men are bound to respect.  Then the land may see peace—not else.

Sad indeed will be the fate of the slave if his friends shall now turn away from his cause.  If we shall forsake him in this crisis, who shall have the heart to plead for him hereafter?  The voice of every Abolitionist should be now, as heretofore, In peace or in war, in season and out of season, the first great duty of the American people is to put down and utterly abolish slavery.  This is the best and only secure foundation of permanent peace, union and prosperity.
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LETTERS FROM THE OLD WORLD---NO.LXXVI.

22 BUCCLEUCH PLACE, EDINBURTH,}
August 5th, 1861.}

MY DEAR FRIEND :— You will be surprised to receive a letter from me, dated from "Edina, Scotia's darling seat.'  Even to me it seems a dream to be once more under the ever hospitable roof of my much loved friend, that 'mother in Israel,' (as you term her,) dear Mrs. RENTON, and to be looking out upon Arthur's Seat, and Salisbury Craigs.  I have been favored in weather ; blue skies and bright sunshine have shown off the splendid buildings of this fine city to the best advantage.  The beautiful gardens, both of Princes Street and the Castle, are decked in their gayest colors, and contrast finely with the sombre heights of the Castle, and the grandeur of the newly erected Free Assembly Hall, and other fine new buildings, to say nothing of SCOTT'S Monument, and the splendid range of Princes St., (now more grand than ever,) the towering heights of Carlton Hill, crowned with monuments, and magnificent church edifices, whose towers and spires of beauty meet the eye in all directions.

I am never tired of admiring in Edinburgh either from the North Bridge, or from the various heights of both the old and new town, which afford travellers such an ample opportunity of surveying their respective beauties.  Yet I, this time, look on Edinburgh with sadder eyes than usual.  A few years sometimes produce great changes in a circle of friends, and death and sickness has made great inroads here.  My dear hostess, once the most active of the active, the most vigorous of the vigorous, in body as well as mind, is greatly enfeebled and brought low.  The mind is as clear as it was wont to be ; the loving heart is as warm as ever ; but the frail tabernacle is greatly shattered, and the imprisoned spirit seems preparing to wing its flight to that blest abode, where sickness and decay are unknown, and sorrow never enters.  I, who have spent so many happy weeks beneath this privileged roof, holding sweet converse with this wise counselor and much valued friend, cannot but feel sad now, though perhaps this is selfish.

Dear, good Dr. HENRY GREY and his wife have been removed to the better land, since my last visit to Edinburgh, and so have several other excellent friends of mine and of humanity ; and now there are homes plunged in affliction and woe, too deep for mortal hand to heal.  Human sympathy is sweet, yet how powerless is, at the best, human friendship, to heal the wounds laid bare before it.  At such times we can but point to Him who 'healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.'

I much enjoy listening, yesterday, to a discourse preached by 'the most popular man in Edinburgh,' (as people call him,) Dr. GUTHRIE.  I was fortunate, for it was his first Sunday here after two months' absence.  The church was, as usual, crowded to its utmost limits, even though numbers of the Edinburgh families are out of town.  Strangers all throng to Dr. GUTHRIE'S church—to secure a ticket is always a favor—since thus you obtain a seat without any undue crowding—and I was comfortably seated some twenty minutes before Dr. GUTHRIE walked into the pulpit.  He appeared the same both in mind and body as when I last saw him, and no dimunition of power was to me perceptible.  He possesses the art of rivetting the attention of his hearers so entirely, that throughout his interesting discourse yesterday, it seemed to me some eyes were fixed on him without intermission.  This text was taken from the 8th and five following verses of the second chapter of St. James.  Although I have to wish, I have not the time to tell you of his discourse.  I will but say that he enlarged considerably on the closing paragraph of the text—'Mercy rejoiceth against judgement'—and all who know the character of this truly great and noble hearted man will feel that God's tender mercy is a theme on which he ever loves to dwell, and to which he is ever ready to direct the weary and sin-laden soul.  Long, long may the tall form of Dr. GUTHRIE be seen walking up and down the street of Edinburgh, and long may his strong voice and broad Scotch accent be heard in her churches, telling the people not only of her 'sins and sorrows,' but of their privileges and high responsibilities.

Churches have multiplied greatly in this city since my last visit, and I am astonished at the grandeur of some of the new erections.  The Free Assembly Hall is a majestic edifice, towering up on the rise of Castle Hill, and evincing, among other things, that the 'Free Church' of Scotland have fast wealth at its control.  In this fine Hall, I, one evening last week, listen to, for the first time, to the eloquence of Signor GAVAZZI, who delivered an address on the 'Evangelisation of Italy.'  He gave a graphic picture of the present state of things in his beloved country.  His hopes for the future of Italy, both temporally and spiritually, seem bright, and his eulogisms of GARIBALDI and RICASOLI were great ; but I must not enlarge.

LEEDS, August 21st.

It was in the railway carriage, while coming from Edinburgh, that the sounds, 'Defeat of the Federals,' 'Bull Run,' 'Manassas Junction,' first met my ears.  If I tell the truth, I may say, my ears tingled with shame, as I heard the gentlemen who were conversing together express the joy that such arrant cowards had been beaten ! Every mail since then has brought us further intelligence on the subject ; yes I am still in complete doubt as to how many are killed on either side?  You, my dear friend, will do your British readers and kindness by answering this question, so far as you are able, in the next issue of your paper.  Our press copies Southern extracts and Northern extracts from American papers, and we are, thus far, all at sea as to the numbers really killed.

Your August paper is before me ; but while it speaks of the defeat 'great losses,'