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December, 1862,    DOUGLAS MONTHLY    755
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Journals, Britain has withheld her sympathy from the North, and so far as we are able to see, she has leaned in favor of the rebels as against the Loyal Government. The truth though slow will come out in the end, and will do so in Britain on this same American rebellion. 

Before us, is a fully reported lecture, delivered in Dublin, by Dr. Cairnes before a large audience of the best people in that city, and presided over by the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and a more accurate, thorough, and masterly statement of the nature and design, of the slaveholding rebellion has not appeared on either side of the Atlantic. With surpassing clearness and candor Dr. Carines, has laid bare to the British public, the thoughts and intents of the heart of this wicked rebellion. No Englishman or Irishman reading that address, (unless he shall be of the John Mitchell order, and longs for the luxury of an Alabama plantation well-stocked with human cattle) can fail to see that the rebels have not only shown themselves to be the greediest, and wickedest, but the most unreasonable of men. As a literary production the address ranks high. The trained and careful thinker is manifest in every line of it. His conclusions are strongly stated at the beginning, and every sentence there-after, with one exception is a solid necessary link in the indissoluble chain of fact and philosophy by which those conclusions are supported. America has much cause to thank Dr. Cairnes. He has shown himself in the presence of error and prejudice, an eminent servant of truth. He is one of the few who in Britain that does not speak with the fear of the London Times before his eyes. He alludes to the Times, and disposes of the unprincipled arguments of that Journal, very filicitously:

"But this, we are told, is to inaugurate a servile war. Negroes will rise and perpetuate wholesale and indiscriminate massacre, and a series of Cawnpores will be the result. So says the Times. For my part, I have no faith in such predictions. I distrust the source from which they proceed. (Applause.) I cannot forget that the same authority which now tells us that the negroes are ready to rise in rapine and murder on their masters but the other day assured us that they were comfortable, and contented, and happy, and loyal. I can not forget that the same censor who now denounces the Northern Government for proclaiming negro emancipation only a year ago denounced it with scarcely less emphasis for not at once proclaiming that measure. I cannot forget that the same seer who now indulges his imagination in picturing the evils which freedom would produce, has, from the commencement of this war down to the present, been uttering prophecy after prophecy falsified by the event. I cannot forget that these denunciations proceed from the same generous critic who levelled insults at a free America in the darkest hour of her fortunes. I say, therefore, that I distrust the source from which these vaticinations proceed." (Cheers.)

What would be said of the Emancipation proclamation by the London Times, was easily anticipated here. Power and oppression have no abler advocate, and the negro, no deadlier assailant than the London Times. Its philanthropy is of the cart-whip persuasion wherever the negro is concerned. Knowing how well the slaveholders have earned death at the hands of the negro, it looks for the deserved infliction, the moment the negroe's hands are unchained. But the judgement of the Times is not always the judgment of England, any more than it is the judgement of Experience.
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We turn away from it, admitting its power, but detesting its character.

There is one point in our otherwise admirable address of Dr. Cairnes, from which we entirely dissent. Like most other white men, he entirely underrates the intelligence and capacity of the negro slaves. 

"For my part, I neither believe that the negroes are the contented and loyal beings which they are described to be in one column of the Times, nor yet the ruthless savages which they are depicted in the next. I believe it would be nearer the truth to say they resemble the harmless cattle in our fields, with and intelligence somewhat more developed, and an instinct of self-interest somewhat surer; and unless driven to desperation by measures of atrocity, such as described in to-day's telegram, in which it was stated that seventeen negroes were hanged, for no other offence but having in their possession a copy Mr. Lincoln's proclamation—unless driven to desperation by which measures as this, the probability is that they would act much as cattle which act could they but understand the import of the message that is sent to them When the opportunity offers, they will probably fly to the Federal lines. This is what instinct would naturally teach them."

The impression which this statement is calculated to make is quite inconsistent, with our own knowledge of the average intelligence of the American slaves. Of course all negroes are not equal to Robert Small who captured and made off with a rebel steamer under the Fort Sumpter; nor are they all equal to Jeff. Dave's Coachman, nor are they all as well informed as is the writer of this article, but they are certainly far above the "harmless cattle in our field." The negro has a head as well as a heart, and the former is not much worse, nor the latter not much better than the same of other men. Our hearts are often praised at the expense of our heads. Our submission is often attributed to our gentleness, when it should be referred to our wisdom. White men do not fight without something like a reasonable probability of whipping somebody at least a chance of escape from being badly whipped themselves, and some such prudence as this, accounts for the fact that no Insurrection has yet broken out among the slaves and that none is likely to break out among the. They have shown their good sense by maintaining a masterly inactivity— They know that naked hands are not match for broad sword, and that grubing hoes would be sure to go down before cannon balls. The South was never better prepared for Insurrection than now—and the slaves know it.—They have no need to prove their ability to fight, by rushing into the whirlwind of uncertain and irregular war. They are now taking their places in the ranks of regular troops and distinguishing themselves for all the qualities valuable in the soldier. They can afford to bide their time. When slavery is abolished the motive for Insurrection will have passed away. The black man will be far less likely to bathe his hands in the blood of his master, than to bathe his masters feet with tears of gratitude for freedom. The maligner of the negro have affected surprise that negroes have committed so few acts of violence since the commencement of the war. They often ask why don't the negroes rise? and because they have not risen, they are denounced as cowardly and indifferent about liberty and contented with their lot as slaves. Could any imputation be more unjust in view of all the circumstances? At the very beginning, and throughout the first year of the war, McClellan,
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Buell, Butler, Halleck, and the Government at Washington, were careful to assure them that in any such attempt they would be met and suppressed, not only by the rebel, but by the loyal army. To use the language of the now defunct commanding General-in-Chief, "they would be put down and put down with an iron hand." Both Governments, both armies however hostile to each other at other points were cordially united in the policy of keeping the slaves securely in their chains. In presence of this notorious fact, how hollow and hypocritical is the pretense of surprise that the negroes, unarmed, without money, means of concert, and with two tremendous armies of well armed men ready to overwhelm them, have not hazarded an insurrection!

We have copied into our present a number an artile from the London Inquirer, the organ of British Unitarians, a denomination in England as here, remarkable for its generals enlightenment, liberality, and philanthropy. Among those who write for its columns on American affairs, there is not one who is better worth respectful attention than Rev. R. L. Carpenter. He not only brings to this subject a large stock of knowledge acquired by extensive travel in this country, but a keen sense of justice and an intense love of simple unvarnished truth. Nevertheless, we think in the article before us he scarcely does justice to President Lincoln and his proclamation.

"If we could believe with Mr. Spears that the men of the Free States were doing 'battle with their brethren of democratic pretensions, that they might emancipate millions of men and women they never saw, but whose injuries and sorrows have pierced their hearts,' we would share his admiration, whereas, we have their own explicit declaration that they are battling for the Union ; they keep in slavery the myriads of negroes in their midst, and offer emancipation to those out of their reach, in order to inflict injury and dismay on their enemies, who have proved too strong for them in the open field !"

In ascertaining the motives of President Lincoln, and in finding the measure of credit due to his September proclamation, reference should be had to his past utterances on the subject of slavery. Nobody here doubts that Mr. Lincoln not only loves the union but hates slavery. Every pro slavery man at the North and every rebel at the South knows the one fact as well as the other. What is true of Mr. Lincoln is mainly true of his real supporters at the North. He declared his belief in the policy of gradual abolition long before he had any thought of the possibility of his ever being a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. It is hardly fair to represent him or his government as keeping in slavery myriads of slaves in their midst, and offering emancipation to those out of their reach, in order to inflict injury and dismay on their enemies who have proved too strong for them in the open field ! In two proclamations before this of September the President has proposed and urged graduate and compensated Emancipation upon the loyal or border slave States. To that policy he is as ever strongly committed. He adheres to it although the representatives of these States stoutly resented this federal interference with what it is fashonable here to call the local rights of the States. Let Mr. Lincoln have all the credit he can justly claim on anti-slavery grounds. It will be none too much if we concede this: that through he ostensibly bases his measures for the abolition of slavery, on the ground of military necessity, and excludes
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