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^[[R. K Ross]]

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." 
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VOLUME IV. NUMBER VII.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1861.
PRICE— ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM.
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CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER.
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The Situation........................... 561
The Approaching Congress................ 561
The Would-Be Mobocrats at Syracuse...... 562
Fremont and his Proclamation............ 563
Dealing with Slavery and the Contrabands 464
Free Speech Maintained in Syracuse...... 567
Removal of Gen. Fremont................. 568
Speech of Gen. Jim Lane................. 569
President's Annual Message.............. 570
Death of Francis Jackson................ 573
Slave Policy of the Government.......... 573
The Fugitive in Canada.................. 574
Gen. Sherman's Proclamation............. 574
A National Emancipation Policy.......... 574
Census of Colored Americans............. 574
Anti-Slavery Bazaar in Bristiol......... 575
Acknowledgments, Terms. etc............. 575
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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 exist 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 space]], State of [[blank space]], 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 interests of the country upon the enduring basis of universal freedom.
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CONGRESS.——The first session of the 37th Congress met on Monday last.  Several important resolutions touching the slavery question——the real cause of the war——have been presented in both Houses.
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CROWDED OUT.——Several articles prepared for this number are necessarily crowded out to make room for the President's Message which we print elsewhere in our columns.——We shall make room for them in our next.
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THE SITUATION.
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Since the issue of the November number of our monthly paper, events have transpired of greater importance to the Union cause than any since the Rebellion began.  The great naval expedition, which had just set sail when we went to press, duly arrived at its destination in comparatively good order, with the loss of only two vessels, which drifted ashore in a severe storm, and fell into the hands of the rebels.  As has been expected, Port Royal, S. C., turned out to be its rendezvous, and after a sharp engagement with the rebels, our troops took possession of their forts, and the rebels were compelled to retreat.  The great cotton port of Beaufort was found to be entirely deserted by the chivalry, who had run away at the approach of our forces, leaving their slaves behind to welcome the Federal soldiers on their landing.  Elsewhere we publish some scenes and incidents concerning these slaves, furnished by correspondents accompanying the fleet.  Another fresh expedition is in preparation at that point, and we hope to hear soon of other important Southern ports falling into our possession.

Gen. FREMONT has been at last superceded, the order having reached him in the midst of preparations for battle.  He had already taken possession of Lexington and Springfield, and was driving the rebels out of the State.  His successor, Gen. HALLECK, seems to have repudiated all the acts of FREMONT, and adopted an entire different policy, forbidding fugitive slaves from entering the lines of his army, on the absurd ground that they return and give information to the enemy.  Besides, our entire army in Missouri seems to have made a retrograde movement, falling back towards St. Louis, and leaving the Union men of the Southwest at the mercy of PRICE, the rebel General, who appears to have taken advantage of this strange movement, and is again occupying the positions in which FREMONT has successfully driven him from.  Although various charges have brought against FREMONT, the prime cause of his removal lay in his noble proclamation freeing the slaves.

Next to the taking of Beaufort, the great event of the month has been the capture of the Rebel Commissioners, MASON and SLIDELL, with their private secretaries.  They were taken from the British steamer Trent, off the coast of Bermuda, by Com. WILKES of the San Jacinto, who was returning from the African coast, and are now safely lodged in Fort Warren, Boston harbor.

Our army on the Potomac remains "quiet, and no battle is expected just yet.  The troops there are evidently preparing themselves for winter quarters.  The Government seems first to obtain a footing in the Southern ports before hazarding a battle on the Potomac, although we are told that our army was never in a better condition for fighting, and the rebels are poorly fed and clothed, and returning home to guard the ports of their different States.
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We have reports through rebel channels of an engagement at Pensacola, in which the guns of Fort Pickens are reported to have done considerable damage to the enemy.——It is reported that the rebel navy-yard at that point has been destroyed.

A stone fleet, commanded by our old friend RODNEY FRENCH, of New Bedford, has sailed within a week to close some Southern port, and the Navy and War Departments are preparing still another expedition for some unknown locality.  In St. Louis, a mail-clad flotilla is being fitted out for the western waters.  Upon the whole, the Union cause is brightening every day, and we have great hopes that the present Congress will pass a resolution calling upon the President to put an end to the rebellion by a proclamation freeing the slaves.  The national flag now floats over every seceded state, except Alabama and Arkansas.
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THE APPROACHING CONGRESS.
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No Congress, since that by which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, has ever assembled under circumstances so momentous as that which meets in Washington on Monday, the 2d of December, 1861.  Its opportunities, its difficulties and its duties are all alike great.  How it will improve the first, overcome the second, and discharge the third, cannot be foretold.  That it may be wise to improve, brave and courageous to overcome, and in duty firm and faithful, is the the fervent prayer of all earnest and enlightened men.  It may be destined to greater achievements in counsel than the nation in arms on the battle field, or it may be fated to vacillation, doubt and indecision, more disheartening to the loyal spirit of the country than all the blunders and defeats which have thus far distinguished the movements of the national army.

Congress, more than any other branch of the Government, is the representative of the wisdom and the wants of the whole people.  Courts, cabinets and military councils stand further from the people.  They act by established rule, are governed by precedents, and are chained down by parchments.  To congress is committed a larger freedom——a more comprehensive discretion.  Its powers extend to the whole circle and province of human government.  It can make and unmake, set up and cast down, enact and repeal, and lead all other departments of the Government.——Thus clad with ample powers, and fresh from the firesides of the people, where they have learned the deepest convictions of the people as to the wants of the times, its members may not be expected to follow the cold, metallic prescriptions of President, court or cabinet, but to act in the broad light of the lessons of the hour.

To Congress, then, we look for what neither cabinet nor councils of war have been able yet to give us, and that is a straight forward, ample, uniform and definite policy to be pursued
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