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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."——Proverbs xxxi. 8, 9.
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Volume IV.  Number VIII.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1862.
Price——One Dollar per annum
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CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER.
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The Slave Power still Omnipotent at Washington - 577
War with England - 578
What Shall be Done with the Slaves if Emancipated? - 579
What of the War? - 580
Jefferson's Slaves - 581
Letters from the Old World - 582
President Lincoln and Secretary Cameron - 583
The Subject of Slavery in Congress - 584
Rebellion and Color - 586
Gen. Lane's Black Brigade - 586
The Emancipation Question - 587
Startling Intelligence - 588
Frederick Douglass in Boston - 589
The Negroes in the Washington Jail - 590
Emancipation in Russia - 590
To John C. Fremont - 590
Anti-Slavery Bazaar in Bristol - 591
How the Rebels talk about "Peace" Proclamations - 591

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DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.
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THE SLAVE POWER STILL OMNIPOTENT AT WASHINGTON.
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Everybody at the North, or with only very few exceptions, with whom you meet and talk, will tell you that we have now reached the beginning of the end of slavery; that the cup of its iniquity is full, and that the reward of its doings is at hand; that when the black and clotted curtain of this rebellion shall rise from the land, we shall behold all the chains of bondage broken, all the bloody statutes of slavery forever blotted out, and the glorious doctrines of American Freedom sacredly established from the Kennebec to the Sabine, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  We, too, with the hopefulness characteristic of our race, have indulged in this vision of the future, and have tried to discover, thro' the entangled meshes of present proceedings, something substantial upon which to base our hopes; but up to this hour, nothing of a straight forward, tangible and substantial indication of the abolition of slavery has come from Congress, Cabinet or Camp.  On the contrary, notwithstanding that every body will admit that slavery will end, and ought to end with the suppression of the rebellion, only a very few of all our loyal Congress have stood up firmly by any measure which contemplates such abolition.  While slavery at this moment costing the nation two millions of dollars per day, deranging the currency, carrying distress and desolation to hundreds and thousands of families all over the North, murdering our brothers, sons, fathers, and dearest friends, and to cap the climax of its own inherent and stupendous wickedness, inviting assistance from abroad to more completely deluge the land in blood and sorrow——this same slavery, wreaking in all its crimes and blood, is at this moment held more sacred by the Government at Washington than any other species of property.

Every anti-slavery measure has thus far been as promptly suppressed, as if TOOMBS frowned in the Senate, and KEITT made mouths in the House.  It is nothing that the slaveholding traitors acted from the beginning
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like a band of burglars, stealing all they could carry away, designing to burn and destroy the rest; it is nothing that they are now raging with malice and thirsting for loyal blood, defying the national power, and menacing the Capital itself; it is nothing that they are intriguing with the crowned heads of all Europe with a view to the destruction of democratic principles and institutions, which they have professed to love; notwithstanding all this is done from no other earthly motive than the preservation and prosperity of the infernal slave system, no man yet durst to strike the death-blow at the obvious cause of all our present domestic calamities.

From present appearances, no man need hope to share the confidence of the present Administration, whether in Congress or in the Camp, who is not resolved as much upon the preservation of slavery as upon the preservation of the Union.

What is the secret of this subserviency to slavery?  The Northern and Western Members of Congress see and understand the cause of this rebellion, and know the true remedy; but the difficulty is, that the President and his Cabinet seem not to have ears for the anti-slavery voices that reach them.——The little finger of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee is greater that the loins of the whole loyal North.  These border slaveholding States are just now playing the same game that distinguished them at the beginning of the rebellion.  They act now as a grand break-water against the anti-slavery tide which would speedily sweep away every vestige of the rebellion.  These States, under the fair seeming garments of loyalty, are to-day, just as they were six months ago, the very best protection to the rebel cause.  They hold back the uplifted arm of justice at the very moment it would strike the most effective blow.  [[the following sentence suffers from a tear in the page]] For [[?]] border States our army is constantly [[?]] d to the level of slave dogs, hunting and catching slaves; for them we are preserving slavery in the District of Columbia; for them we are dismissing anti-slavery men from office and position in our armies, and filling their places with men who hate the negro, and will do all they can to perpetuate his bondage.

We confess that, while we would still hope that slavery is to receive its death wound from the present rebellion, we see nothing in the temper or disposition of our rulers in Washington to justify this hope.  On the contrary, anti-slavery men have been, we think, most basely and scandalously betrayed on the vital and all-commanding question of the age.  Our Government is not what it was elected to be, and LINCOLN this day shows himself to be about as destitute of any anti-slavery principle or feeling as did JAMES BUCHANAN, his predecessor.  And as with the President, so with his Cabinet.  It is idle to deceive ourselves; the friends of freedom are basely betrayed, and we might as well begin to familiarize the public mind with that fact, and begin to look
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for better material out of which to construct a future Cabinet.  There is still no North at the Capital.  Virginia is still the Old Dominion, and she is as intensely slaveholding when represented by CARLISLE as by the traitor MASON.  Let the press and the platform no longer remain silent; let them no longer indulge in the pleasing illusions of hope; but let all cry aloud and spare not against the cruel betrayers of liberty, which are spending the nation's money, and spilling the nation's blood in the vain attempt to put down the rebellion with one hand, while they uphold the cause of it with the other.

There are three classes of those who are endeavoring to suppress this atrocious slaveholding rebellion.  Of the first class, are all those who recognize slavery as the cause, and its abolition the remedy for the rebellion.  Of the second class, are all those who would have the rebellion put down by any means, and if none other will do, even by the abolition of slavery.  Of the third class, are those who would have the rebellion put down, provided it can be done by any means short of the abolition of slavery.  Of these three classes, only the first are reliable.  They are heart and soul for the Union, and fully comprehend the necessities of the present situation.  The second class are dangerous friends, because they act as a check upon all earnest and radical measures, dealing as they do in "ifs," "ands" "buts," conjuring up objections and forever counselling delay.  The third are simply traitors in the disguise of loyalty.——Out of the rebel States, these are the best friends the rebels have.  In the name of the Constitution, which the rebels are endeavoring by every species of treachery, deceit and cruelty to destroy, these men are befogging and entangling the Administration in every radical step taken for the suppression of the rebels.  Up to this time, they have succeeded in most of their designs, and now hold and manage the loyal cause as they list.  In this state of facts we find our hopes of the speedy abolition of slavery by the war power, or by any other visible power, greatly diminished, and the possibility of slavery coming out of the present struggle stronger than when the struggle began.  This is the aspect of the case at the beginning of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.——But a single day, by a single event may change the whole prospect.  Let us, therefore, hope for that day, and continue to labor for that event.  God grant that that day may not be long delayed!
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REV. AMOS GERRY BEEMAN has been sojourning for a few days in Rochester and vicinity, laboring, as he had opportunity, for the cause of the oppressed.  He seriously thinks of going as a missionary among the freed men and women at Fortress Monroe, and we know of no colored minister better fitted than he to instill right ideas into the minds of these people.  We wish him every success in his contemplated labor of love among these new born thousands.
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Transcription Notes:
Not sure how to annotate the conventions used to set off sections of the heading? I've here noted them as "images" but that is surely wrong.