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DECEMBER, 1861.    DOUGLASS' MONTHLY       563
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beings, among the tombs, who once thought themselves tormented before their time.  The purpose was to inflame the mob, to attack and drive us from the city; but never was a base purpose more signally defeated.  The very means adopted defeated their object.  By a provision in nature, even the rattlesnake sounds an alarm before darting his poison into the blood of his victim; and in this instance the Mayor of the city, the police authorities and citizens took the alarm and provided amply for the attack——so that the cowardly creatures were compelled to hide away in the same darkness which covered the origin of their lying placard.  They not only defeated themselves, but handsomely assisted in making our meeting in Syracuse a success; for though they may have caused some to stay away on account of the danger of a riot, many others doubtless came on that very account, and with the purpose to prevent any such disgraceful and barbarous proceeding.  The mouthpiece of the mobites——a miserable sheet called the Courier——confessed its blunder in the morning, and in a bungling editorial of a column's length, endeavored to get rid of the odium of the whole affair.  But the public generally took its denials as admissions of its guilt, and it lost by speech what it might have gained by silence.

The owner of the splendid Hall (Dr. WIETING) in which we lectured, bore himself bravely.  Before we arrived, he had been repeatedly called upon to close the doors of his Hall against us; but he sternly and indignantly refused to do any such thing, even if its walls were to be battered down by cannon as a consequence of his refusal.  Remonstrating with the mobocrats, he said he had opened the Hall for WILLIAM L. YANCEY to advocate slavery, and he was in favor of equal liberty of speech on the other side.——When reminded that FREDERICK DOUGLASS is a negro, he gave the mob to understand that his principles of freedom applied to humanity not to color.  His example of firmness and liberality is worthy of all commendation and imitation by other men owning halls and churches.

It was especially gratifying, too, to find that, passing through the city that day, and seeing the inflammatory placard, Hon. GERRIT SMITH determined to stop and attend the meeting, instead of going on as he had otherwise intended to do.  Any man can stand up for truth and right when unassailed; but this man will be remembered by posterity as being especially the friend and defender of unpopular truth——truth assailed by unmitigated baseness and violence.  His presence at the meeting soon became known, and diffused a gratifying influence among the audience; for however men differ from Mr. SMITH, all are compelled to confess the nobleness of his spirit, and his high moral and intellectual endowments.  Mr. SMITH, at the close of our lecture, was called upon and spoke for a few moments in his usual and impressive manner, not hesitating to say a good word for us in the faces of those who had sought to provoke the fury of a mob upon us.

We have, too, a grateful word for Rev. S. J. MAY, who, on this occasion, acted precisely like himself, and in full accordance with his life long devotion to the cause of equal and impartial liberty.  He is pastor of a church which numbers among its members many of 
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the most influential citizens of Syracuse; but the moment he found that an attempt was to be made to trample upon our liberty of speech, he actively set himself to the work of defeating it.  He went upon the platform with us, to share with us whatever wrath or odium our presence might provoke.  We appreciate the conduct of Mr. MAY all the more, because we have not of late years acted with him in the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he is a distinguished member.  When the mob howls, and slavery with bloody hands is throttling the liberties of the nation, men like Mr. MAY know on which side to give the weight of their influence.  He not only gave his aid and countenance to our meetings, but what was more distressing to the mobocrats, he gave notice of the purpose of having delivered in that city a series of abolition lectures, naming Messrs. GARRISON, PHILLIPS, GERRIT SMITH and PARKER PILLSBURY as among the speakers who would address them——so that instead of silencing our uninfluential negro voice, the mob will have to hear as well several of the ablest men in the land on the side of the enslaved. 

The aim of the mob was to humble and mortify FREDERICK DOUGLASS.  Just as if a man could feel himself insulted by the kick of a jackass, or the barking of a bull-dog.  It is, to be sure, neither pleasant to be kicked nor to be barked at, but no man need to think less of himself on account of either.
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FREMONT AND HIS PROCLAMATION.
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We have recently seen some interesting samples of young men, dressed in military costume, and bound for the seat of war.  As we looked upon those noble beings, so promptly responding to their country's call, we felt an involuntary sinking within ourselves, and silently inquired, "When shall this fratricidal war have an end?"  The question necessarily induced its legitimate train of thought, legitimate to us, and as follows:

Before this war is terminated, the men who comprehend its nature, and realize in some measure its design, (for it is too momentous an affair to be accidental,) will have something to do in directing those measures which are eventually to bring it to a successful issue.  The measures hitherto adopted strike one as inadequate to accomplish the object for which they have been inaugurated.  The apparent trifling with matters of the last importance to the stability and perpetuity of any Government; the want of firmness in rigidly enforcing fitting penalties against offenders——as the treatment of traitors as belligerents in honorable warfare——all go to undermine the confidence of reflecting men in the strength and true dignity of a Government which they ardently love.  We have for a time expected, with almost every returning sun, that some blow would be struck to give relief to a picture whose sombre hues have, up to the present time, saddened many a hopeful heart.  But disappointment has succeeded disappointment, until we feel compelled to look in another direction, and to other men, to relieve the country from this direful scourge, and place it upon a basis whose quality shall be twin brother to its claims.

We venture the assertion, that a majority among the intelligent and thoughtful of the nation were never more hopeful since the commencement of this war, and never gave
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vent to feelings so jubilant with satisfaction, as when they read the fearless and earnest Proclamation of JOHN C. FREMONT, given in the Department of Missouri.  Honest men of all parties hailed it as auspicious of a speedy salvation from the evils that at present afflict us.  But alas! politicians who have sometimes been mistaken for statesmen, and who affect to see goblins in all shadows which do not directly follow themselves, saw either an extinguishment of their own hopes of preferment, or some other equally important evil to result from this Proclamation; and it and its author were quietly laid aside under pretexts equally frivolous.  If the people were as ready to listen to complaints originated in the chafing of some ambitious and restless spirit, many of our leaders would undoubtedly be found to "live in glass houses."  But JOHN C. FREMONT and his timely Proclamation are not forgotten; nor can any amount of well feigned prosecution, or equally bitter persecution, entomb the instrument and its author.——In three years more the people will call for the man and his principles to end this war! and then they will sanction the death of slavery in the man of their choice.  And, too, this unnatural war will render its death constitutional.

Complaints of mistakes and extravagance might be very common.  Where are the mistakes of Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, and many others of like character, though of seemingly less significance?  And why, in the midst of the councils of the nation, in the face of the grand army, and where money is lavished without stint, have the enemy been allowed to blockade the Potomac, and been permitted to hurl defiance in the teeth of the Government, under the very eaves of the Capitol?  But we will not complain   He whose genius has dealt a well directed blow at the evil which has provoked this war, and whose indomitable energy would have carried out his purpose, must be required by this insatiate monster as a sacrifice; but Nature is remunerative, and, Phœnix-like, he shall arise from the ashes around the altar upon which he has been offered, and with the might of his unwerving purpose, destroy the monster that has, up to the present, performed all its devilish orgies in the very halls of our National Legislature, and made its horrid feasts upon the heart's blood of its best interests.  In this we have not spoken with any reference to our prevailing predilections in regard to the hateful institution of slavery, but to facts as they shadow themselves before us in the horoscope of the future.
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THE ADMINISTRATION AND SLAVERY.——The Evening Post publishes the following statement of a New Yorker writing from Washington, in regard to the policy of the Administration and slavery:

'The policy of the Administration seems to be getting more and more clear and decided, as the war goes on, in respect to slavery.  It is the almost universal opinion that the war will put an end to it; many, indeed, who a short time since showed the old democratic prejudices on the subject, now say the war not only will but ought to put an end to it; and a decided change of sentiment is perceptible among the officers of the army.  Rejoice with me in the feeling that sounder notions are beginning to prevail.'
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Frederick Douglass delivers a lecture tonight (December 3d) in Boston.
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