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Show 48 THE GOLDEN HOUR. . d 1 ~ever, 0 ,1r flao· crocs ; nay, let every slave be carne w 1CI l b b d t1 ·izcd to n1akc the spot on be cnlpowcrcd an au 101 which he "'tands Canada. S 1 1 Ot a miR<rivincr that her slaves arc The out 1 1as n · b b ll ·l to these is ucs. I have beard of a not genera y as cop .. 1 1 ovincr a Northern VJSitor before whom Southerner w 10, lu· ~ . 1 . off Slavery in clean hnen, finally he was s 1owrng . l t 1 . laves ·were ·o happy that not1nng could all erred t 1a ns s . o 1 t accer)t their frcedorn. To n1akc the 1nducc t 1e1n o · t .r")ct he in the 11rc once of the Northern experunen per 1e ' ' . . .cc. • d thorn their frecdon1 1f they de 1rcd to man, oucrc l · E e~~·y one oif them, said he would accept leave nm. v ' d Whereupon the master swore at thCin as free o1n. fools who did not know what was good for thorn, d d t1 to their work and in future exhibitions or ere 10m ' before Yankees never attcrnptcd the n1anurni sian-trick. F t t l .r 0r hirn the Y ankce had ah·cad y taken or una c y 1• ' South-side views of the institution. When John C. Frernont was a candidate for the Presidency there was no portion of the South where the watchword "Frccdorn and Frcrnont" was not heard at midnight. The South was on the verge of panic. Lately, when that same man was in the \V estern Department, that cry fro1n the slaves wa echoed from plantation to plantation all along the Mi sissippi, Tennessee, and Red RiYcrs ; and so frequent was it at last, that the apprehension reached the sc1ni-loyal of the Tennessee and Kentucky border, who acted up through all the shades of disloyalty and loyalty, until the panic of rebels LIBERTY'S LEGITIMATE WEAPON. 49 was felt at th. e Capitol ' and rcmo vc d tl 1c W arr1. or of Lib-erty from Ius command. By that remova.l ,. and by the infamo us proc1 a 1nat1. ons an.d . wanton rcndrt1ons by which our offi ccrs 11 ave hu-mrhatcd us even n1orc than b"{r tl . 1 . J 101r wrote 1ed 111_ cornpctcncy, we have douuLlcss alienated tl lese negroes from. us. . So .t hat our task ' at first easy, I.S no\v d'If fi cult. But It IS certain that we need only let tJ1 e s1 a ves along the border know our good faith ' to have tl 10 t'd' 1 1ngs flash through the onth all alono- tile 1. f b 1ncs o nature's telegraph ; the 'Way to do this is to F,ree t~ I . . ' J J te s aves of the Bot der States tnunediateZIJ· . When I firs t ca1nc North ' I u ·cd to ma1·n !4J au• 1 stonily, With nly conlpanions, that the slaves d'td no t d csu. ·c frccdon1. More thau twcn ty year. ha(. d I r1 v, c,u1 arnong t those dumb creatures ' llC\'Cr drca(. miuOb' tl H1 t any one of them had a thoubo·ht of frcc<lonl · B u t w 11 011 I re-turned South I founu that they not only kncVir ·what few whiLes knew, that I \Vas anti ·lavery , 1u. u t t l1 c'y were eager . to consult me as to how they InjOb 'llt escape. All tlus took me by surprise; I had never hinted frce-doin to one of them, and it was in one of the ob curest parts of VirbO'inia, where N ortliei~llCI'S never came ; then I saw·, for the first tin1c, that the whole social system of the South is undermined. The South docs not as yet fully COlnprchcnd her own ~cakness. But she knows that every warrior has lns vulnerable heel. Our only dano·cr i that b ~ b ' ' e ore our slow N orthmen are ready to act, the 3 D |