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FEBRUARY 1863 DOUGLASS MONTHLY. 793 [[line across page]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] came out instantly in battle array against the rebellion, eleven of the slave States embarked in it, and three, if not indeed all four, of the others gave only too abundant signs that they also would embark in it but for their fear of Federal troops? Slavery not the cause of the rebellion! Then why is it that the rebels say it is?——and why is it that they insult the civilization of the age by making slavery the boasted corner-stone of their new nation?——and by making the first of all the objects of their diabolical movement the protecting. spreading, and eternizing of slavery? I do not murmur at the providence, which has brought you again into high political power. On the contrary, I submissively accept it as a part of the penalty of the American people for their oppressions of the poor. Your election, instead of the election of the brave and noble man who rejoices in the deliverence of the slave, and who, with his three sons, is in the army of his country instead of being in the counsels of its foes, is, notwithstanding it is so frightfully calamitous, to be endured as one of our merited inflictions. Every nation prepares its own cup. We have made ours very bitter. Nevertheless we must drink it. As a part of the punishment for our unsurpassed crimes against hamanity, we may have to witness the failure of all endeavors to save our beloved country, and may have to pass through the humiliation of recognizing the Southern Confederacy. But God be praised that over against all this deep and unutterable sorrow will be the deep and unutterable joy that the slave is free! In spite of the influence of your party to the contrary, and of your individual and amazing determination to the contrary, the slave will go free. Yes, though the guilty nation, with whose continued existence stands connected the highest object of your ambition, may be left to perish, the innocent slave nevertheless shall surely go free. Do you wonder at the positiveness with which I express myself at this point? I answer that this being, high above all human purposes and issues in it, a war of God against slavery, pro slavery men are but fools in it, and only abolitionists competent to advise in it, and foresee its grand results. Faithful were the abolitionists, all through a quarter of a century, to warn their countrymen of this day of blood. But pro-slavery politicians requited them with scorn. And so frenzied are such politicians now, as to purpose to save the country by crushing the abolitionists. This, however, is but as every impenitently wicked people have dealt with their faithful prophets. The counsels of the abolitionists——of the men who have made slavery their life-long-study——can alone, under God, save our appallingly imperilled nation. Every step taken by her in accordance with these counsels is a step in the way of her salvation; and her every step to the contrary is in the way to her destruction. Your former and your present friend, GERRIT SMITH. [[line]] FRED. DOUGLASS IN CHICAGO. [[short line]] HIS LECTURE LAST EVENING. [[short line]] TRUTH AND ERROR. [[short line]] Notwithstanding the severe rain storm last evening, the announcement that Fred. Douglass, the distinguished colored orator of America, was to lecture at Metropolitan Hall, drew out an immense audience. The hall was densley packed, in all departments, with ladies and gentlemen of the highest degree of intelligence and respectability. Mr. D. was presented to the audience by Rev. J. H. Tuttle, who prefaced his introduction of the speaker with a few appropriate words. As Mr. Douglass arose, he was greeted with loud and prolonged applause. The theme selected by the speaker as a basis for his address on this occassion was "Truth and Error." He remarked that our government had discovered a new truth, and was organizing it into [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] law. He could only talk of old truths.——Properly speaking, there was no such thing as new truth. Error might be old or new; but truth was as old as the universe, based upon a sure foundation, and could not be overthrown. Truth was an unit; error was multitudinous. While man had but one chance of hitting the right path, he had many chances of falling into error. The world held out very many false lights, to lure mankind from the true path.——The wonder was not that men erred, but that so much advancement had been made in important truth. Truth was powerful; a single individual, armed with truth, was a majority against the world. Thirty years ago, Wm. Lloyd Garrison advocated a bold truth. He was a majority then, as truly as he is now. He said that slaveholders were a bad set of fellows. The people hardly believed him then; but they believed him now, for besides his testimony they had that of the slaveholders themselves. Truth was always safe; error was always dangerous. Why was it, the speaker inquired, that our once peaceful country was now filled with contention and reddened with blood? It was because we had tolerated and nourished a stupendous wrong——the wrong of human slavery. It was no strange event that had happened to our country. It was but the logical sequence of the exciting cause alluded to. A certain great man had said that it was useless to re-enact the laws of God. But a still greater man had declared that it was useless to re-enact any other than the laws of God. We had attempted to contravene the laws of God by transforming men into beasts of burden. Some people did not like progress. The old Hunkers did not like it. There were some towns which, it was said, were entirely finished, and would not be in the least injured by being fenced in. The same was true of certain individuals; they were done for. They were started out of their sense at the promulgation of what was to them a new truth; or the new application of an old truth. They were in favor of the world as it used to be; the Union as it was, but in favor of nothing as it ought to be. Certain newspapers had recently been animadverting upon Boston, because her citizens had once persecuted women accused of witchcraft. But such papers were only using such things to justify their own pet principles of women-whipping and man stealing. Boston had progressed, but these old Hunkers had now begun where Boston left off. Error was always afraid of truth; hence it went armed with bludgeons and the instruments of brute force. Bully Brooks walked into the Senate chamber and struck down Sumner, but he left the Senator's argument standing. But that was the best Brooks could do; for he was on the side of the cudgel and the brickbat, and had no other arguments that he could use. Yet that argument of Charles Sumner would stand forever, and inspire the hearts of the people for years after slavery had passed away. This war was the legitimate result of slavery. That inquitous institution had been treated with the most profound respect, even by the people of the free North. It had been regarded as a sacred institution, which could not be touched, or even discussed. The Abolitionists were often charged with bringing on the war. But of all classes of persons in the nation, they were the least obnoxious to such a charge. Had the opponents of slavery been allowed the right of free speech——as the Federal Constitution declared every American citizen should have——the enormities of the "patriarchial institution" would have been exposed, and in due time it might have been done away with in a peaceful manner. But no such right had been allowed. The votaries of it had been loud in their advocacy of slavery; its opponents had been repeatedly gagged and driven from Southern soil, whenever they opened their mouths against the property in man. A fatal blow had at last been struck at the root of the gigantic evil. The President's proclamation had given the slaves the legal right to liberty. Now they could obtain their [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] personal freedom without trampling upon civil laws. Instead of rising up as insurrectionists, in opposition to law, they could rise up in obedience to law. It was a proud thought that the first man to put the knife of military power to the throat of this vile monster, was an Illinoisan. At last the edict of freedom had gone forth, and the people were prepared to sustain it and carry it out. The speaker had a great deal of confidence in the virtue of the North, but still more in the villainy of the South.——He thanked Abe Lincoln for what he had done towards destroying slavery, and he also felt grateful to Jeff. Davis. One of the most hopeful indications of the war was a proposition before Congress to raise 150,000 black troops. We had been fighting the rebellion with only one hand——fighting it with our soft, delicate white hand, while the hard, black hand had been tied behind our back. That hand must be unloosed, if we knock down the rebellion. But it had been said that the negroes would not fight. Who believed it? These same Hunkers also declared that the negroes of the South would cut their masters' throats and run away. We were told that they would not work; and then in the next breath the same croakers declared that if set free they would come up North and take away all the employment from our laboring population! The truth was, the slaves would both fight and work, if by doing so they could obtain their freedom and earn an honest livelihood. They were the only real Union men in the South.——Now they were beginning to feel that their long-looked-for day of deliverance had come, or at least was within their reach. The speaker wound up his address with a very interesting recital of the grand jubilee which was held in Boston on the first day of January, in which he was a participant. At the close of his remarks, Mr. Douglass was greeted with rounds of applause, as indeed he had often been during the entire lecture, and was surrounded by an eager circle of ladies and gentlemen who congratulated him upon the eloquence of his lecture, and his able effort in behalf of his suffering brethren.——Chicago Tribune. [[line]] FRED. DOUGLASS THE NEGRO, AT METROPOLITAN HALL——AN AMALGAMATED AUDIENCE——NOISY PROCEEDINGS, &c.——The Abolitionists of Chicago improved the opportunity afforded by the lecture of that Prince of the Shades, Frederick Douglass, at Metropolitan Hall, last evening, to carry into practice some of their disgusting and unnatural theories. Articles, intended for white men, dragged their wives and daughters through a crowd of greasy, barbarous gorillias to the ticket office, and fought their way up the stairs through an army of shades into the Hall. The room after it had been packed to its utmost, presented a scene not often exhibited in Chicago, but which may be a specimen of what the future has in store for us, if, indeed, the Utopian hopes of the extra radicals are to be realized. White and blacks were interspersed in about equal numbers all over the Hall.——Upon the stage was a Superintendent of a railroad and ministers of the gospel, and sitting, between them, or stretched out at full length upon the settees, while their white brethren stood up, were great portly negroes grinning and chattering among themselves or with the white men whose estimate of their own worth had promted them to place themselves upon terms of equality with the Congoes like a troop of grinning monkeys. In the gallery a row of blacks filled the front seats, while those in the rear were packed full of sympathizers and admirers. Here was a man and his wife occupying the centre of a bench, both ends and the benches in front and rear being filled with shades; there is a row of seats filled, with the exception of a negro in the centre, with ladies; everywhere, ll over the hall, in every position, upon every settee, mixed in with whites are negroes of all ages, sexes, and shades. Pomp, Ceasar, Jonsing, Topsy, and Dinah are all there. White teeth, black bosoms, [[/column 3]]
