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the United States." This principle the Govern- ́ ment can maintain constitutionally, by declining to admit new Territories (and the territory referred to is nearly as large as Europe) as States into the Union with slavery in their Constitution; but it has no. power to interfere legislatively with slavery in existing slave States. This accounts for the fact, so loudly declaimed against in England, that the President and his Government did not pass a law abolishing slavery once and for ever; to say nothing of the fact that they could not have carried such a proposition through the legislature, they had no right to do it; they were without constitutional authority to do so; they would have given some justification to this rebellion. But what the Government could do legislatively, and as a military necessity, it has done.

It has abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, the only district in which the Government has local authority. Compensation has been offered to the border States, for the emancipation of their slaves. .Slavery has been for ever excluded from the Territories; it can therefore have no possible extension, and non-extension is death to it. The Government has made a treaty with this country for the more effectual suppression of the African slave trade. It has carried out, for the first time, the law of the United States, which declares the importation of slaves to be piracy. It has formally recognised the Negro Republics of Hayti and Liberia. And the President, as holding the supreme military authority

of the Union, has issued a proclamation, declaring that on the first day of January 1863, all slaves in States then in rebellion against the Government, shall be absolutely free henceforth and for ever. And in his recent message to Congress, he recommends that the Constitution be so far amended by the requisite authorities, as to make compensation a legal tender to every State which shall at any time abolish slavery before January, A. D. 1900. These are unquestionable facts, and, under such adverse circumstances, facts that reflect the highest honour on the President and his administration.

I know it is objected that the war was not undertaken on the part of the North for the abolition of slavery, but for the maintenance of the Union, that big idol of the nation. Supposing this to be all the truth, I would say, "most noble object!" If they cared not for its integrity, they would cease to be worthy of it.

Again, it is objected, all this abolitionism is a necessity, not a choice. Shall we condemn them for "learning wisdom by the things which they suf fered"? Are they prohibited from "learning righteousness when the judgments of God are abroad in their land"? Could anything but war have revolutionized the opinion of that people on the subject of slavery? Shall we find fault that God has done in about eighteen months, by the sword, that which a lifetime of teaching and agitation could not have effected—that which, in fact, seemed closed against all teaching and all agitation? Shall we blame them

that they have opened their eyes when God was pouring a flood of light upon them-national sin? Instead of reproaching them for tardiness, would it not be nobler to animate them in their most difficult undertakings by our prayers?

Remember, too, that they are not treading in the path of justice by words merely; deeds and successes follow their words. Is it nothing that, probably, more than a quarter of a million out of the four millions of slaves have been already freed by Federal arms and chances of war? Is it nothing that, probably, a thousand slaves per day are now regaining their freedom? Is it not a glorious thing, that, whereas a year ago 800,000 square miles were included in rebeldom, nearly three-fourths have now been redeemed by Federal arms? Of the fifteen slave States, eleven cast in their lot with the South, and passed secession ordinances, two voted it down, while the remaining two did not even entertain it. And in the eleven, the ordinance of secession was never put to the vote of the people, with the exception of Virginia; and there the ballot box was in charge of southern bayonets, and loyal citizens were prevented from voting. Notwithstanding that, Western Virginia has separated from the rest of that State, and has been admitted into the Union; and of the eleven seceded States, not one is now wholly under Confederate rule. The rebellion embraced seven millions of white people at the beginning; now, not more than two and a half millions acknowledge its sway: and yet men in this country daily ask, "What have

they done?" It is a fact worth pondering, that, amid all the chances of war, every battle has, as yet,

been fought on slave soil. received the blood of the

The ground that has combatants is the same

ground which has, for years past, with the blood of the slave, cried to heaven for retribution; while in the free States, beyond the passage of armed men hastening to the scene of conflict, you would not know there was war at all. These are facts that tell the results that have followed a people treading in the path of truth and justice. Do they not excite your deepest interest? Shall not a people threading their way through a labyrinth of difficulties to establish good government on firmer foundations than ever, and to give freedom to four millions of our fellow men, have our prayers and sympathy?

Fifthly. I bespeak your prayerful sympathy for a God-fearing President, called to the most arduous duties of any man in the world at the present moment.

It is said that he is not a man of genius, as though that disqualified him for our sympathy. If it were so, one would think him all the more an object of prayerful sympathy; but supposing he is not,—the world's greatest benefactors have not always possessed that coveted talent. It is not questioned that he is honest; a less scrupulous man might have achieved more, but he is too honest to gain success by unworthy means. Honesty will tell when "smartness" will be outwitted; beside this, honesty of purpose is a weapon that not one of his

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opponents can employ to cope with him. It is not questioned that he is a man of God, a man who in this hour of fiery trial looks up to God, lives in the fear of God, and hangs upon God. It is not questioned that his position is the most arduous any man holds in the world just now. He is at the head of all affairs, civil and military, home and foreign. It is no easy thing so to rule as to keep at peace with so many nations, all interested in the conflict, and many desiring the severance of the Union he is sworn to maintain. The man is not to be envied who commands a people in their first baptism of blood, who is called to power in a national crisis, the like of which has not befallen any nation.

He seems alive to the complicated difficulties and solemn responsibilities of his position. In his recent message there are these thoughtful words: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is so new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthral ourselves, and then we shall save our country. Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history; we of this Congress will be remembered in spite of ourselves; no personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down to honor or dishonor to the latest generation." Brethren, shall this man of God have none of our sympathy, none of our prayers? God forbid.

When King Radama the Second ascended the

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