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Show 12 TilE GOLDEN HOUR. daO'e and weapon of Slavery; that Slavery is perpetual ,va~; that this war is but the effort to extend Slavery's already existing 1nartial law over the entire govcrn- 1nent. Only by military power has Slavery been retained in this country. In the cities of the North, when its claim to sorne fugitive ·was to be a. sorted, ·we have seen its martial array ; but this was only the cropping out of the con tant state of things in the Routh. Nightly patrols; the puni.'hmcnt of men from the North ·without process of law; the frequent uppression of the usual laws for rca ons of state ; the suppression of all di ens ion concerning Slavery ; - these are possible only where martial law is habitual. The present war is only the extension and exasperation of what has been all along the method in the war of the strong race against the weak in the South. It would cern, then, in the light of itnplc equity, that the natural rncthod of supprc · i.ng Slavery'. reb Ilion would be found in some way of dealing with Slavery itself. N atnre has the pen alLies of violating her laws always in the direction of the tran~grc sion it elf; a fall bruises, putting one's hand in fire i followed by a burn; and every habitual sin, as liccntiou ness or drnnkcnnc s, is follo·wcd by a train of di ea es peculiarly its own, and growing out of it own organic character. There is no confu ion of penalties ; one is not burnt by falling, nor brni cd by fire. This way we have of seizing the sword on every occasion to puni h or n1cct indiscrilninately all attacks, IN CHANCERY. 13 is barbarous. In the laws of this universe, where every sin has it own penalty, the retribution never fails of being effectual. The child w hicb has once put its hand to the fire, never repeats the experiment. Nations and men must translat~ these great laws of Nature, and then their defences will never be of doubtful strength. The rebellion of Slavery should at once have been followed by our only logjcal reply,- the abolition of lavery. Suppo ·e that, in reply to that bomb which fell into Fort urntcr, our President had seized the pen, instead of the sword, and written such a proclarnation as this:- "Slavery, from being a domestic institution in certain States, with which the government had nothing to do, having become the common foe of all the States, with 'vhich the government has everything to do, it is hereby declared that all the slaves in this country are free, and they are hereby justified in whatever measures they may find necessary to maintain their freedom. Loyal masters arc assured that they shall be properly compensated for losses re ulting from this decree." Every rebel owning a slave, or living within n1ilcs of one, would, as by the wand of an enchanter, have rcnlaincd spell-bound at his fireside, where he ought to be. There could have been no war. |