with death and an agreement with hell,' I had no idea that I should live to see death and hell secede.1 Hence it is that I am now with the Government, to enable it to constitutionally stop the further ravages of death, and to extinguish the flames of hell forever." The other passage, forecasting the blessing which emancipation would bring to the South, and rejoicing in the certain future prosperity of that section, anticipated the verdict which the "New South," amazed by her marvellous growth and development under freedom, has already pronounced.2 "Slavery is a thunderbolt in the hands of the traitors to smite Lib. 32:15. the Government to the dust. That thunderbolt might be seized and turned against the rebellion with fatal effect, and at the same time without injury to the South. My heart glows when I think of the good thus to be done to the oppressors as well as to the oppressed; for I could not stand here, I could not stand anywhere, and advocate vindictive and destructive measures to bring the rebels to terms. I do not believe in killing or doing injury even to enemies-God forbid! That is not my Christian philosophy. But I do say, that never before in the history of the world has God vouchsafed to a Government the power to do such a work of philanthropy and justice, in the 1 The humor of this retort was keenly relished by the audience, and by the wider public to whom the newspapers all over the North quoted it. 2 The New South' rejoices in the Union and its wide domain, and, most of all, it is proud that the blot of slavery has been removed from its escutcheon. It says, in all heartiness and sincerity, God be praised for this crowning glory of a wonderful century'" (James Phelan of Tennessee, in a speech prior to his election as member of Congress from the Memphis district, November, 1886). "Bitter to my taste as were the results of the civil war, day after day has reconciled me to them, and convinced me of the wisdom of cheerful submission to the will of Him who brought them about. The union of these States has been preserved and declared indissoluble. A great and disturbing constitutional question has been finally and forever settled, and slavery has been forever abolished; it no longer tarnishes the fair fame of a great and free republic. Because it was involved in the question of constitutional right, I fought four years in its defence. I tell you now, upon the honor of my manhood, that I would fight eight years, though my hairs are white, against any attempt to reinstate it in any portion of this continent" (Z. B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina during the war, and U. S. Senator from that State since 1879, in a lecture delivered in Boston, Dec. 8, 1886; in Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 9). 1862. CHAP. II. extremity of its danger and for self-preservation, as He now grants to this Government. Emancipation is to destroy nothing but evil; it is to establish good; it is to transform human beings from things into men; it is to make freedom, and education, and invention, and enterprise, and prosperity, and peace, and a true Union possible and sure. Redeemed from the curse of slavery, the South shall in due time be as the garden of God. Though driven to the wall and reduced to great extremity by this rebellion, still we hold off, hold off, hold off, and reluctantly say, at last, if it must be so, but only to save ourselves from destruction, we will do this rebellious South the most beneficent act that any people ever yet did one that will secure historic renown for the Administration, make this struggle memorable in all ages, and bring down upon the land the benediction of God! But we will not do this if we can possibly avoid it! Now, for myself, both as an act of justice to the oppressed and to serve the cause of freedom universally, I want the Government to be in haste to blow the trump of jubilee. I desire to bless and not curse the South— to make her prosperous and happy by substituting free institutions for her leprous system of slavery. I am as much interested in the safety and welfare of the slaveholders, as brother men, as I am in the liberation of their poor slaves; for we are all the children of God, and should strive to promote the happiness of all. I desire that the mission of Jesus, 'Peace on earth, good will to men,' may be fulfilled in this and in every land." This lecture attracted much attention, and brought Mr. Garrison urgent invitations to speak in other places. Especially was it the wish of some of the most trusted and sagacious of the anti-slavery leaders that he and Mr. Phillips should declare the sentiments and demands of the abolitionists in relation to the war, both in public addresses and in personal intercourse with the President and members of his Cabinet, and the Republican leaders in Congress. They felt that if this were done, and the Liberator and Standard kept afloat, other agencies and methods useful in the past might safely be discontinued, and a greater concentration of effort secured.1 1 Holding these views, Mrs. Chapman had already withdrawn from the management of the annual Subscription Festival, and J. M. McKim now resigned his position as corresponding secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti 1862. The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Society first CHAP. II. claimed attention, however, and to Mr. Garrison fell, as usual, the preparation of the resolutions, which were cer- Lib. 32 : 19. tainly full and exhaustive. His speech, at the close of the first day's meeting, was in his happiest vein, and purposely rose-colored, as he frankly confessed, in order to offset the rather depressing effect of some of the previous speeches, Mr. Phillips's among them, which had dwelt on the shortcomings of the President and Administration touching slavery. "What have we to rejoice over?" he repeated to doubting inquirers – - Cf. ante, 3:45I. "Why, I say, the war! 'What! this fratricidal war? What! Lib. 32:21. this civil war? What! this treasonable dismemberment of the Union?' Yes, thank God for it all!- for it indicates the waning power of slavery and the irresistible growth of freedom, and that the day of Northern submission is past. It is better that we should be so virtuous that the vicious cannot live with us, than to be so vile that they can endure and relish our company. No matter what may be said of the Government - how it timidly holds back-how it lacks courage, energy, and faith -how it refuses to strike the blow which alone will settle the rebellion. No matter what may be said of President Lincoln or General McClellan, by way of criticism—and a great deal can be justly said to their condemnation one cheering fact overrides all these considerations, making them as dust in the Slavery Society. "I retire," the latter wrote, "because I believe that my peculiar work, in the position I have occupied, is done. The ultimate object of the Society, it is true, has not yet been attained, neither is its particular mission entirely accomplished. Slavery still exists; and public sentiment respecting it is not yet wholly rectified. But the signs of the times in regard to the former warrant the belief that its overthrow is near, and the progress of change in the character of the latter justifies the conviction that its regeneration will soon be sufficiently complete for all our intended purposes. The Society is now at liberty to discontinue the use of some of the instrumentalities heretofore deemed indispensable. The travelling lecturer is no longer a necessity, and the agent in the office need not feel bound to his place by a sense of obligation. This latter fact, applied to my own case, I accept as an indication of duty" (Lib. 32: 75). Mr. McKim gave practical effect to his belief by speedily identifying him self with the movement to relieve and educate the freedmen; and early in the summer of 1862 he made a visit of inspection to the freed people in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, accompanied by his daughter Lucy, whose musical notation of some of the weird and pathetic slave songs was the first ever published (Lib. 32: 120, 128, 191). 1862. CHAP. II. balance, and that is, that our free North is utterly unendurable to the slaveholding South; that we have at last so far advanced in our love of liberty and sympathy for the oppressed, as a people, that it is not possible any longer for the traffickers in slaves and souls of men' to walk in union with us. I call that a very cheering fact. Yes, the Union is divided; but better division than that we should be under the lash of Southern overseers! Better civil war, if it must come, than for us to crouch in the dust, and allow ourselves to be driven to the wall by a miserable and merciless slave oligarchy! This war has come because of the increasing love of liberty here at the North; and although, as a people, we do not yet come up to the high standard of duty in striking directly at the slave system for its extirpation as the root and source of all our woe - nevertheless, the sentiment of the North is deepening daily in the right direction. "I hold that it is not wise for us to be too microscopic in endeavoring to find disagreeable and annoying things, still less to assume that everything is waxing worse and worse, and that there is little or no hope. No! broaden your views; take a more philosophical grasp of the great question; and see that, criticise and condemn as you may and should in certain directions, the fountains of the great deep are broken up—see that this is fundamentally a struggle between all the elements of freedom on the one hand, and all the elements of despotism on the other, with whatever of alloy in the mixture. 6 "I repeat, the war furnishes ground for high encouragement. 'Why,' some may exclaim, we thought you were a peace man!' Yes, verily, I am, and none the less so because of these declarations. Would the cause of peace be the gainer by the substitution of the power of the rebel traitors over the nation for the supremacy of the democratic idea? Would the cause of peace be promoted by the North basely yielding up all her rights and allowing her free institutions to be overthrown? Certainly not. Then, as a peace man, I rejoice that the issue is at last made up, and that the struggle is going on, because I see in it the sign of ultimate redemption. 6 "I do not know that some margin of allowance may not be made even for the Administration. I would rather be overmagnanimous than wanting in justice. Supposing Mr. Lincoln could answer to-night, and we should say to him: Sir, with the power in your hands, slavery being the cause of the rebellion beyond all controversy, why don't you put the trump of jubilee to your lips, and proclaim universal freedom? '— pos sibly he might answer: 'Gentlemen, I understand this matter quite as well as you do. I do not know that I differ in opinion from you; but will you insure me the support of a united North if I do as you bid me? Are all parties and all sects at the North so convinced and so united on this point that they will stand by the Government? If so, give me the evidence of it, and I will strike the blow. But, gentlemen, looking over the entire North, and seeing in all your towns and cities papers representing a considerable, if not a formidable portion of the people, menacing and bullying the Government in case it dare to liberate the slaves, even as a matter of self-preservation, I do not feel that the hour has yet come that will render it safe for the Government to take that step.'1 I am willing to believe that something of this feeling weighs in the mind of the President and the Cabinet, and that there is some ground for hesitancy, as a mere matter of political expediency. My reply, however, to the President would be: 'Sir, the power is in your hands as President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy. Do your duty; give to the slaves their liberty by proclamation, as far as that can give it; and if the North shall betray you, and prefer the success of the rebellion to the preservation of the Union, let the dread responsibility be hers, but stand with God and Freedom on your side, come what may!' But men high in office are not apt to be led by such lofty moral considerations; and, therefore, we should not judge the present incumbents too harshly. Doubtless, they want to be assured of the Northern heart, feeling, coöperation, approval. Can these be safely relied upon when the decisive blow shall be struck? That is the question, and it is a very serious question. "Nevertheless, I think the Administration is unnecessarily timid and not undeserving of rebuke. I think that this bellowing, bullying, treasonable party at the North has, after all, but very little left, either in point of numbers or power; the fangs of the viper are drawn, though the venomous feeling remains. Still, it has its effect, and produces a damaging, if not paralyzing, impression at Washington." In February Mr. Garrison lectured in Greenfield, Mass., after attending the New York State Anti-Slavery Convention at Albany, and brought home a desperate cold which 1 In June of this year, the popular vote of Illinois, Mr. Lincoln's own State, adopted three amendments to the State Constitution, cruelly discriminating against colored citizens (Lib. 32 : 107). CHAP. II. 1862. Feb. 10. Feb. 7, 8. |