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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 XI. }

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, APRIL, 1862.

{PRICE——
{ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM
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CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER.
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Dying throes of the Monster - 627
A. S. Lectures in Rochester - 627
The President's Message - 631
Ladies' Negro Friend Society - 631
The Way to save the Country - 632
Anti-Restoration Meeting - 634
Mobbing of Wendell Phillips - 626
Fall of Lexington - 636
Emancipation in the Free States - 636

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DOUGLASS' MONTHLY
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THE WAR AND HOW TO END IT.
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An Extract from a lecture delivered in Corinthian Hall, Tuesday Evening March 25, by Frederick Douglass.

I stand here to night to advocate in my humble way, the unrestricted and complete Emancipation of every slave in the United States, whether claimed by loyal or disloyal masters.  This is the lesson of the hour.

Through the certain operation of the changeless laws of the universe, Emancipation, which has long been a great and solemn national duty, pressing heavily on the national conscience has at last become a great and all commanding national necessity.

I choose not to insist upon these comprehensive propositions as a colored man tonight nor as one having special reasons for hating slavery, although, upon these grounds I might well base a claim to be heard, but my ground is taken as an American citizen, feeling with all others a deep and living interest in the welfare of the whole country.

In the tremendous conflict through which we are passing, all events steadily conspire, to make the cause of the slave and the cause of the country identical.  He who to-day fights for Emancipation, fights for his country and free Institutions, and he who fights for slavery, fights against his country and in favor of a slaveholding oligarchy.

This was always so, though only abolitionists perceived the fact.  The difference between them and others is this:  They got an earlier glimpse at the black heart of slavery——than others did.  They saw in times of seem ng peace, for the peace we have had, was only seeming——what we can only see in times of open war.  They saw that a nation like ours, containing two such opposite forces as liberty and slavery, could not enjoy permanent peace, and they said so and got mobbed for saying so.  But let that pass.

Before I proceed, to discuss the subject announced for my lecture this evening, allow me to make a few remarks on the mighty events which have marked and are marking the progress of the war.  It requires a large share of wisdom and coolness, to properly weigh and measure the great facts which have already passed into history; but it requires a much larger share of these qualities, to enable men to discriminate between, and to determine the proper relations and bearings of the great living facts, transpiring before our eyes.

The obvious reason is this,important events
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often succeed each other so rapidly, and take the place of each other so quickly, that it becomes almost impossible to give to any one of them, that measure of reflection, which is necessary to form an intelligent judgement.

We are an intelligent people, apt scholars, but I think that few of us fully appreciate the solemn events that are now passing before our eyes.
 
It is known that we are at war, at war among ourselves, civil war the worst of all wars, but the real scope and significance of this war is but imperfectly understood by millions of the American people.

The very air is filled with conflicting statements in respect to the cause of this war, and naturally enough, it is also filled with contradictory theories as to the manner of restoring the country to peace.

I shall not stay here to discuss the long train of events, and the certain action of social forces which have finally culminated in this rebellion.  The limits of the occasion will not permit any such lengthy discussion.  The most that I can do, is to point out a few of the leading features of the contest, and enforce the lesson which I think they plainly teach and the path of duty they mark out for our feet.

The first enquiry which concerned the loyal north upon the sudden outburst of this stupendous rebellion, naturally related to the strength of the rebels, and the amount of force and skill required for their speedy suppression.  Even at this vital point we blundered.  We misconceived the real state of the case, and misread the facts then passing before us.  We were quite incredulous of the tremendous strength and vigor of the foe against whom we were called upon to battle.

We are a charitable people, and in excess of charity were disposed to put put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.  We admitted that South Carolina might secede:  It was like her to do so.  She had talked extravagantly about going out of the union, and she must do something extravagant and startling to save a show of consistency.  Georgia too, we thought might possibly go out, but we were quite sure that these twin rebel States, would stand alone in their infamy, and that they would soon tire of their isolation, repent of their folly, and come back to the union.  Traitors fled the Cabinet, the House and the Senate, and hastened away to fan the flames of treason at home.  Still we doubted that any thing very serious would come of it.  We treated it as a bubble on the wave, a nine day's wonder.  Calm and thoughtful men ourselves, we relied on the sober second thought of others.  Even a shot at one of our ships an insult offered to our flag, caused only a momentary feeling of indignation and resentment, such as a mother might feel toward a naughty child who had thrown away his bread and stamped defiance at her authority.  It was not until Beauregard opened
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his slave built batteries upon the starving garrison in Charleston harbor, that the confiding North, like a sleeping lion, was roused from his lair, and shook his thundering main in wrath.  We were slow to wake, but we did awake.  Still we were scarcely conscious of the skill, power and resources of the enemy.  We still hoped that wiser and better counsels would ultimately prevail.  We could not believe but that a powerful union sentiment still existed at the South, and that a strong reaction would yet take place there in favor of the union.  To the very last we continued to believe in the border States.  We could not believe that those States would plunge madly into the bloody vortex of rebellion.  It required the assaults of a blood thirsty mob spilling the blood of loyal soldiers to convince us of Baltimore treason.

I need not tell you, how in all this study of passing events, we have been grossly mistaken.  Every hope based upon the sanity, loyalty, and good disposition of the South has been wofully disappointed.  While armies were forming, and the most formidable preparations were making, we continued to dream of peace, and even after the war was fairly begun, we thought to put down the rebellion by a show of force rather than by an exercise of force.  We showed our teeth but did not wish to use them.  We preferred to fight with dollars rather than daggers.  The fewer battles the better was the motto, popular at Washington, and peace in sixty days trembled along the wires.  We now see what we could not at first comprehend.  We are astonished at the strength and vigor of the foe.  Treason had shot it poisonous roots deeper, and has spread them farther than our calculations had allowed for.  Now I have a reason for calling attention to this unwillingness on our part to know the worst.  It has already caused much trouble, and I have reason to apprehend that it will cause us much more.  We need warnings a thousand times repeated.  A hint to the wise is enough for the wise, and although we are wise and can take a hint, the trouble is we don't heed it unless it comes in the shape of a rifled cannon ball battering against the walls of our forts, or an iron clad ram, sinking our navy and threatening our whole Atlantic Coast.  Let me under score this point of weakness and as I think blindness on our part for it still lingers with us.

Even now, you need not go far to find newspapers clinging still to the delusion that there is a strong union sentiment at the South.  While the rebels are waging a barbarous war, of unparalleled ferocity, marshalling the savage Indian to the slaughter of your sons, and poisoning the wells in their retreats, we are still speaking of them as our erring brothers, to be won back to the union by fondling, rather than fighting.  This has been our great error.  We failed to comprehend the vital force of the rebellion.  First, because we were dazzled and bewildered by the wild rapidity of the strange events, which burst upon us, and secondly because of our habitual leniency to the South and to slaveholders grimly con-
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