The South was prosperous, happy, and secure. Now she is bankrupt, miserable, and in peril. She is bound on Procrustes' bed, and the sword of Damocles is flashing over her head.

"The cordon de guerre, which has been steadily spinning for you by the hand of ScoTT from the distaff of Destiny, is now, under the steady nerve and clear gaze of young MCCLELLAN, slowly but surely tightening its coils around you. The ocean is too small even for the furtive flight of your ambassadors; the continent has no desert or cave where you or your traitor conspirators can hide. Your sea-ports will become Antwerps,-your capitals a by-way, so that no man pass through them; your homes will be left desolate; you will be buried among the ruins of your peculiar institution, on which the world already sees written the doom

And

you

'Of nations scatter'd like the chaff

Blown from the threshing-floor of God.'

have caused it all.

'Since him miscall'd the Morning Star,
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen as far.'

"Yours."

The only commentary I shall add to these epistles is taken from a portion of a prominent editorial which appeared in the Richmond "Enquirer," the beginning of March, 1863, fifteen months after the foregoing letters were written :—

"THE THIRD STAGE OF THE WAR.

"We have fairly entered upon the third stage indicated by the President in his message, namely, that of a war for subjugation and extermination. The people of this Confederacy, isolated and shut up from all the world, have now to encounter the most horrible and demoniac effort for the assassination of a whole race that history has yet recorded, or, we believe, will ever have to record till history grows gray. For it is

not every century, it is not every æon, that shows the world a Yankee nation. Yes, the Confederate people has now at last to strip for battle. It is a people that must this time very literally conquer or die.

"No doubt it would be agreeable to believe that this last stage of the war will be soon over, and must end in the speedy destruction of our intending murderers. But look round the map of the Confederacy, and judge if we can soothe ourselves with this belief. In the very heart of the country our gallant sentinel of the Mississippi-heroic little Vicksburg-has sustained indeed and baffled two tremendous sieges; but a third time her citizens see pouring in around them from the North and from the West enormous masses of the beleaguering foe; iron floating batteries again crowd down upon her; and even as you read these words two hundred heavy guns may be thundering upon her defences, a hundred thousand men may be pressing to the storm of her ramparts. Again she will drive them off, perhaps, and remain the famous maiden city of this hemisphere, the bulwark of the West. So be it! But the vision we see on the Mississippi does not look very like exhaustion or despair on the part of the foe just yet.

"And, again, look to the mouth of the mighty river. New Orleans is not a maiden city, alas! The base rag that has so often been rent and trampled before Richmond and before Vicksburg flies from all the towers of that deflowered city. Hordes of hungry Yankees, armed to the teeth, sit in the shade of her orange-groves and station negro guards over the mansions of her noblest citizens. All her best and fairest have to lament every day that their goodly city had not been laid in ashes before it became a haunt of obscene creatures. No sign of relaxation there! And, but a short way off, Mobile, by the shores of her spacious bay, keeps diligent watch and ward, expecting in the light of each morning sun to see the thrice-accursed Stars and Stripes gleaming through

the smoke of a bombarding squadron. All along the Gulf, and round the coast of Florida, this omnipresent enemy who is said to have just been playing his last card is shutting up every river and planting his guns on every strong place. Savannah, shut in from the sea by Fort Pulaski, in the hands of the same inveterate Yankee, listens for the first boom of the artillery that is to level her walls with her sandy soil; and Charleston, grimly calm, but with beating heart, stands waiting the onset of the great armada. Those few acres of old Oyster Point, it seems, already swept and devastated by conflagrations, are to be the object and the prize of the most potent armament by far that American waters have ever seen. This very moment, it may be, the black Monitor batteries are steaming between Sumter and Moultrie. No signs of relaxation, or of discouragement and despair, in the enemy here! Pass further, and you will find the whole coast, from Charleston to Norfolk, and every river to the head of tide-water, and every creek and sound formed by the sea-islands, swarming with their gunboats and transports, ready to pour in masses of troops wherever there is a chance of plunder, bridgeburning, and general havoc.

"From Norfolk all around Chesapeake and Potomac we are guarded by gunboats, and no living thing (save skulking smugglers) suffered to enter or go out. On the Rappahannock two hundred thousand men wait for a drying wind to move on to Richmond' once more, led by a genuine apostle of extermination. . . . And Northwestern Virginia is desolated by Milroy and his men; and Kentucky and the half of Tennessee, the richest and fairest lands of all the West, are entirely in the clutch of the enemy, while the rivers bring them up fleets of transports, and Rosecrans, with another large army, threatens to sweep all opposition from his path, and join the other brigands who are crowding upon Vicksburg.

"Where in all this wide circuit does the invasion seem

to be fainting or giving ground? All round the border and in the very heart of the Confederacy the foot of the enemy is planted and his felon flag flies; and it means subjugation and extermination. It is indeed the third stage of the war, and, we believe, the last; but the struggle will be desperate. If it be the last card,' it is one on which the stake is life or death, honor or shame: either our name and nation will be extinguished in a night of blood and horror, or else a new sovereignty—the newest, fairest, proudest—will take her seat among the Powers of the earth, with the applause of man and the blessings of Heaven."

XXVI.

Kind Words to Africano-Americans.

FELLOW-MEN :

The day you have waited for so long has at last come. You are all free now, —or you soon will be. Your charter has been duly signed by the President of the United States, and that deed is ratified in heaven.

God is always on the right side: he is the everlasting friend of freedom.

Being free, your earthly salvation is put into your own hands. While you had a master, he gave you bread, clothing, and shelter, such as they were. In escaping the lash, you must provide these things for yourselves. You have always claimed you could do it, and your friends believe you can. What is still better, you have through generations proved you could not only support yourselves, but your masters too.

Now, laying all theories aside, and coming down to practical business, think what questions are before you. But first let me tell you what is not before you.

1. You need not give yourselves any trouble about the great question of your freedom. It is a moral fact. It will be an actual material fact sooner by far than you can prepare for it. Remember that when the song of freedom is once sung its notes will vibrate forever. and must die; Liberty is eternal.

Slavery is mortal,

2. Give yourselves no solicitude about the prejudice against your color; for that prejudice does not exist in pure and generous hearts in such a form or to such an extent as materially to interfere with your prosperity and future elevation.