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614   DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.  MARCH, 1862

They were good enough to fight under Andrew Jackson.  They are not good enough to fight under Gen. Halleck.  They were good enough to help win American independence but they are not good enough to help preserve that independence against treason and rebellion.  They were good enough to defend New Orleans but not good enough to defend our poor beleagured Capital.  I am not arguing against, not condemning those in power, but simply stating facts in vindication of my people;  and as these facts stand, I do say that I am proud to be recognized here as an humble representative of that rejected race.  Whether in peace or in war, whether in safety or in peril, whether in evil report or good report, at home or abroad, my mission is to stand up for the down-trodden, to open my mouth for the dumb, to remember those in bonds as bound with them.

Happily, however, in standing up in their cause I do, and you do, but stand in defense of the cause of the whole country.  The circumstances of this eventful hour make the cause of the slaves and the cause of the country identical.  They must fall or flourish together.  A blow struck for the freedom of the slave, is equally a blow struck for the safety and welfare of the country.  As Liberty and Union have become identical, so slavery and treason have become one and inseparable.  I shall not argue this point.  It has already been most ably argued.  All eyes see it, all hearts begin to feel it;  and all that is needed is the wisdom and the manhood to perform the solemn duty pointed out by the stern logic of our situation.  It is now or never with us.

The field is ripe for the harvest.  God forbid that when the smoke and thunder of this slaveholding war shall have rolled from the troubled face of our country it shall be said that the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved.

There are two classes of men who are endeavoring to put down this strange and most unnatural rebellion.  About patriotism and loyalty, they talk alike;  but the difference between them is heaven wide – and if we fail to suppress the rebels and restore the country to a condition of permanent safety it will be chargeable less to the skill and power of the rebels themselves, than to this division and conflict among ourselves.  Never could it be said more truly and sadly than now, that our enemies are those of our own household.– The traitors of the South are open, bold, decided.  We know just where to find them.– They are on the battle field, with arms in their hands and bullets in their pockets.  It is easy to deal with them, but it not so easy to deal with the so-called Union men in Maryland, Western Virginia, and Kentucky, and those who sympathize with them in the Northern States.

One class are for putting down the rebellion if that can be done by force, and force alone, and without abolishing slavery;  and the other is for putting down the rebellion by putting down slavery upon every rood of earth which shall be made sacred by the footprints of a single loyal soldier.  One class would strike down the effect, the other would strike at the cause.  Can any man doubt for a moment that the latter is the wisest and best course?  Is it not as plain as the sun in the heavens, that slavery is the life, the soul, the inspiration, and power of the rebellion?  Is it not equally plain that any peace which may be secured which shall leave slavery still existing at the South, will prove a hollow and worthless peace a mere suspension of hostilities, to be renewed again at the first favorable opportunity?– Does any man think that the slaveholders would relinquish all hope of Southern independence in the future because defeated in the present contest?  Would they not come out of the war with a deadlier hate and a firmer purpose to renew the struggle hereafter, with larger knowledge and better means of success?  He who thinks or flatters himself that they would not, has read history and studied human nature to little purpose.

But why, O why should we not abolish slavery now?  All admit that it must be abolished at some time.  What better time than now can be assigned for that great work?– Why should it longer live?  What good thing has it done that it should be given further lease of life?  What evil thing has it left undone?  Behold is dreadful history!  Saying nothing of the rivers of tears and streams of blood poured out by its 4,000,000 victims – saying nothing of the leprous poison it has diffused through the life blood of our morals and our religion – saying nothing of the many humiliating concessions already made to it – saying nothing of the deep and scandalous reproach it has brought upon our national good name – saying nothing of all this, and more the simple fact that this monster Slavery has eaten up and devoured the patriotism of the whole South, kindled the lurid flames of a bloody rebellion in our midst invited the armies of hostile nations to desolate our soil, and break down our Government, is good and all-sufficient cause for smiting it as with a bolt from heaven.  If it is possible for any system of barbarism to sign its own death warrant, Slavery by its own natural working, is that system.  All the arguments of conscience, sound expediency, national honor and safety unit in the flat – let it die the death of its own election.

One feature of the passing hour is notable in showing how narrow and limited may be the channel through which a great reformatory movement can run for long and weary years, without once overflowing its banks and enriching the surrounding country through which it passes.

Notwithstanding all our books pamphlets, newspapers, at great conventions, addresses, and resolutions, tens of thousands of the American people are now taking their first lessons as to the character and influence of slavery and slaveholders.  Tongues that used to bless Slavery now curse it, and men who formally found paragons of the race only on the slave mongers and their abetters, are but now having the scales torn from their eyes by slaveholding treason and rebellion.  They are just coming to believe what we have all along been trying to tell them, that is: that he who breaks faith with God may not be expected to keep faith with man.  I gladly welcome this great change in the public sentiment of the country.  And yet I do not rely very confidently upon it.  I am not deceived either in regard to its origin or its quality.– I know that national self-preservation, national safety, rather than any regard to the bondman as a man and a brother, is at the bottom of much that now meets us in the shape of opposition to slavery.  The little finger of him who denounced slavery from a high moral conviction of its enormity is more than the loins of him that merely denounces it for the peril into which it has brought the country.  Nevertheless, I rejoice in this change, the result will be nearly the same to the slave, if from motives of necessity or any other motives the nation shall be led to the extinction of slavery.  Every consideration of expediency and justice may be consistently brought to bear against that sum of all villanies.

A WORD AS TO THE COURSE OF THE ABOLITIONISTS.

Upon the first outbursts of the now raging rebellion awaking the nation as from a sleep of death, the Abolitionists of the country very generally dropped their distinctive character, and were fused with the mass of their fellow-citizens.  Patriotism for the moment took the place of philanthropy, and those who had for long years given their best energies to save the slave, were not behind any other class of citizens in their efforts to save the country.  They suspended their agencies, postponed their meetings, and poured out their best eloquence with pen and tongue to fire the Northern heart to the great contest to which it was summoned in the name of an imperiled country.  In this, however, we may have been more patriotic than wise.  Every day bears witness that Slavery is not only the cause of the rebellion, but that it is and has been from the beginning, the only real obstacle to crushing out the rebellion;  and that all efforts to save the country are utterly vain, unless guided by the principles which the Abolitionists know best how to teach.

Every day bears witness that slavery is not only the cause of the rebellion but that it is, and has been from the beginning the only real obstacle to crushing out the rebellion:  and that all efforts to save the country are thereby vain unless quieted by the principles which the abolitionist best know how to teach.

I rejoice therefore in the formation of the Emancipation league.  May its work be quick, certain and complete.  I perceive that it has not entered upon its career unobserved.  The guardians of slavery in Boston for there are such guardians, have honored it by very lengthened and very bitter denunciations.– No better reception could have been expected, even if deserved than that given it by the Boston Courier.  A like denunciation came from the Tory press of England when the anti-corn law League was formed, Nevertheless that grand League, put down the Corn monopoly in seven years, gave bread to the starving millions, broke down the tory party beyond the hope of regaining power, changed the policy of the British nation, transferred the power of the landed aristocracy to the people and gave us the Brights, the Cobdens, the Wilsons, and the Thompsons, and the William Edward Forsters, the men who represent the middle classes of England and who are now in our days of trouble as in our days of peace and prosperity, America's best and truest friends.  Humanity is proud of the triumphs of that League.  It will not be otherwise of this League.

But I come now to the more immediate subject of my lecture, namely:  What shall be done with the four millions of slaves if they are emancipated?  This singular question comes from the same two very different and very opposite classes of the American people, who are endeavoring to put down the rebels.  The first have no moral, religious, or political objection to Slavery, and, so far as they are concerned, Slavery might live and flourish to the end of time.  They are the men who have an abiding affection for rebels, and at the beginning marched to the tune of "No Coercion – No subjugation."  They have now dropped these unpopular "Noes," and have taken up another set, equally treacherous.  Their tune now is, No Emancipation, No Confiscation of slave property, No Arming of the Negroes.  They were driven from the first set of "Noes" by the gleaming of a half a million bayonets, and I predict that they will be driven from the last set, though I cannot promise that they will not find another set.

The second class of persons are those who may be called young converts, newly awakened persons, who are convinced of the great evil and danger of Slavery, and would be glad to see some wise and unobjectionable plan of emancipation devised and adopted by the Government.  They hate Slavery and love Freedom, but they are yet too much trammeled by the popular habit of thought respecting the negro to trust the operation of their own principles.  Like the man in the Scriptures, they see men only as trees walking.  They differ from the first class only in motive and purpose, and not in premise and argument, and hence the answer to Pro-Slavery objections will answer those raised by our new anti-Slavery men.  When some of the most potent, grave and reverend defenders of Slavery in England urged Wilberforce for a statement of his plan of Emancipation, his simple response was quit stealing.

My answer to the question, What shall be done whith the four million slaves if emancipated? shall be alike short and simple:  Do nothing with them but leave them just as

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