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[[right margin]] ^[[B. K. Ross]] [[/right margin]

DOUGLASS' MONTHLY
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"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.
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VOLUME IV. NUMBER VI.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 1861
PRICE--ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM
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CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER.
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The Situation - 545
Wm. E. Forster and Secretary Seward - 545
Fremont and Freedom, Liberty and Slavery - 546
Signs of the Times - 547
"This is not a War for the Abolition of Slavery" - 548
Important Petition - 548
Tenth Annual Report of the Rochester L. A. S. Society - 549
Letters from the Old World - 549
The United Presbyterian Church and American Slavery - 551
Mr. Brownson on Immediate Emancipation - 552
Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner on the Emancipation of the Slaves - 554
An Eloquent Speech from Gov. Andrew - 556
Letter from Rev. H. H. Garnet - 557
The Manhood of the Negro - 557
Miscellaneous Items - 558
An Appeal for the Contrabands - 559
Henry Ward Beecher on Contrabands - 559
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DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.
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"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
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MEMORIAL OF THE PEOPLE TO CONGRESS
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"PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND, TO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF."
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To the Congress of the United States:

The undersigned citizens of[[blank line]], State of[[blank line]], respectfully submit--

That as the present formidable rebellion against the General Government manifestly finds its root and nourishment in the system of chattel slavery at the South; as the leading conspirators are slaveholders, who constitute an oligarchy avowedly hostile to all free institutions; and as, in the nature of things, no solid peace can be maintained while the cause of this treasonable revolt is permitted to exist; your honorable body is urgently implored to lose no time in enacting, under the war power, the total abolition of slavery throughout the country--liberating unconditionally the slaves of all who are rebels, and, while not recognizing the right of property in man, allowing for the emancipated slaves of such as are loyal to the Government a fair pecuniary award, as a conciliatory measure, and to facilitate an amicable adjustment of difficulties; and thus to bring the war to a speedy and beneficent termination, and indissolubly to unite all sections and all interests of the country upon the enduring basis of universal freedom.
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On Sunday evening, Oct. 13th, Dr. Cheever delivered another powerful anti-slavery discourse upon the Duty of the North to Proclaim Emancipation, and the Guilt and Danger involved in the refusal thus to obey the direct command of God in his Word. Mr. Cheever took the ground that the Constitution, properly interpreted, contains no sanction of slavery.
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THE SITUATION.
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There is, at last, some signs of progress in suppressing our great slaveholding rebellion. The rebels have now evidently abandoned the hope of capturing Washington, and mean to act only on the defensive--a policy which must go far to damp the enthusiasm of their troops. They have fallen back from the upper Potomac; they are demoralized in Western Virginia, and retreating before the advancing columns of FREMONT in Missouri.--Meanwhile, a most formidable fleet, with fifty thousand men, prepared to strike both on land and sea, has just sailed from Fortress Monroe, and while we are writing, may be falling with crushing power upon the rebel coasts. There can be no doubt whatever that the rebel States are suffering immensely for the want of almost everything which they have hitherto obtained either by way of the upper Mississippi or the Atlantic ocean. As they grow weak, the National arm grows strong. The first days of the rebel cause were its best days. They have thus far been covered with the summer foliage. Winter, stern and bleak, is taking off the leaves, and lessening every hour their means of concealment.

An onward movement of the army of the Potomac is confidently announced as to take place speedily. This, together with the expedition from Fortress Monroe, cannot fail to give the rebels great trouble; and though we look for no speedy death of the rebellion, we do confidently hope to see its back broken during the month of November. The loyal army has met, since our last issue, a heavy repulse at Edward's Ferry, on the upper Potomac, involving a loss of six hundred. The blockading fleet at New Orleans was attacked by the rebels in the early part of the month, causing damage to one of our war vessels, but no loss of life. Upon the whole, the prospect of the country appears far more hopeful than at the time of our last publication. Strong men in all parties are calling out for a more earnest prosecution of the war, and a less tender policy towards slavery, the thrice accursed cause of the war.

One of the most unexpected and important utterances which has been given on the war, during the month, emanates from BROWNSON'S Review, a popular Catholic periodical. Mr. BROWNSON, during the last twenty-five years, has gone with those who have gone farthest in opposition to the anti-slavery movement, and in favor of making every possible concession to the slave interest. His influence with a certain part of the Democratic masses has been scarcely second to that of any other man, and his coming, ably and squarely, for making the war an abolition war, cannot fail to act powerfully upon the public mind. The position of his journal on the right side at this time, is a most significant indication of the favorable change going on in the public mind.
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WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER AND SECRETARY SEWARD.
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The loyal people of the free States of America have often needed an able advocate at the bar of British public opinion; but never more than now, in the great domestic troubles through which they are passing, have they needed such an advocate. We are making England a very large sharer in the calamities of our civil war. We have blockaded our ports, and properly so. But by arresting the wheels of commerce, stopping the export of cotton, we have threatened a large department of English industry with ruin, and hundreds of thousands of the British people with the pangs of hunger and the desolations of famine and pestilence. The evils and hardships we are thus inflicting are unavoidable on our part, and equally through no fault on theirs. All this is very plain, and needs no argument. Not less plain is it that, smarting under these evils which they have had no hand in bringing about, the British Government and people should be disposed to murmur and complain. It is a little too much to expect that men can see themselves blasted and ruined without emotions of pain, and even impatience. Considering the relation we sustain to England, and the power which that country has to cripple and distress us, it would seem to be the dictate of wisdom, as well as benevolence, that the American Government and people should endeavor to do everything in their power to mitigate, and refrain from everything calculated to aggravate the wounds we are unavoidably inflicting upon our unoffending neighbors. We should do all in our power to shorten the term of their suffering, and everything in our power to assure them of our best wishes for their speedy relief.--With a powerful domestic foe to contend with, more bitter, revengeful and unprincipled than the worst foreign enemy can ever be, our policy to the outside world should be one of conciliation, kindness and friendship, and not of insult, bluster and defiance. The moral sentiment of the world is no mean ally even in a bad cause, and should never be repelled by a good one. The sentiment of Great Britain is naturally with the loyal people of America, though their interests may lean towards the rebels. They hate slavery, altho' they need cotton; but meanness is no part of the character of the British people, and they have often furnished examples of sacrificing interest to principle, and we believe are quite willing to do so in this instance. But to make their virtue a necessity, to defy and menace them, to dare them to move hand or foot, while suffering the torture of hunger and ruin, is a little inconsistent and unnecessarily harsh, and it may be dangerously impolitic.

Stripped of diplomatic urbanities and circumlocutions, the recent circular of Mr. SEWARD, and his correspondence with Lord LYONS, have been, in our judgement, better calculated to repel
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