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Show 84 THE GOLDEN HOUR. Nothing is more ad than when the human mind puts darkness for light, and light for darkness ; and I know of no case where it is done n1orc dangerously than in calling that measure inlnunan and cruel which is the only one not utterly pitiless to the South. The present attitude of the North is oppressive toward the South. The North seems disposed sitnply to cripple and litnit Slavery, and yet about as anxious as the South to prevent emancipation. In other words, the North is opposed to freeing the slaves, but wishc so to limit the institution that it hall be a burden and a loss to those who hold it. For if the princi plcs upon which the present President was elected should prevail, and the slaves not freed, the in. tituLion would utterly impoveri h the South ; and the N orLh would be enriched by it. It is our duty either to liberate the slaves, or else to allow lavery uch protection and admi sion into all territories as will keep it frotn being a danger and a drag upon the South. I fear the North is anxious to preserve Slavery for the cotton and sugar it brings ; but anxious also to have all the land and political power, without which Slavery makes every white man as well as black man in the South a slave. You have no right to leaYc this tree on their lot girdled, so as to bear the1n no fruit, and be in their way, and an increa ing danger also, rotting year by year for the blast under which it shall fall . suddenly and inevitably. My fellow-men, there is every sign that our arn1s MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 85 are steadily winning their way into the South. J~et us consider gravely U'ltat it is we arc carrying South as we march on. One thing we must carry,_ devastation. W c arc far yet frotn the heart of the outh, and they know little of the onth who do not know that, as we approach nearer, the tragedy will deepen: our army will mark its track in blood, and find ashes where fair ci tics stood before. N O\V I do not say that all this ought not to take place if it is necessary; thoro arc things 'vorse than such devastation; but I do say that in this age of the world such devastation of human hon1cs and hearts cannot be justified unless along with it we bear blessings greater than the devastation is evil. In my opinion, there is not a feature of Chri tianity which would not frown upon the idea that the sorrows which our victorious advance must bring upon the South can be justified by carrying a piece of bunting down there, or the mere governtnontal authority it represents. If this should prove to be, what Earl Russell declared it, "a struggle for power" only, the verdict of the civilized world will be,- Shame! Take any one who peri hed at Fort DoneL on, loyal or rebel, and place that human being, with God's crown of intcllio-ence 0 upon his brow, beside that rna s of stone and brush-wood which was surrendered, and any thinking person will know which is of more importance, the mass of brute matter which human hands could rear in a month, or that immortal beincr of heart and brai11 0 ' which, once pro tratcd, nat the combined skill of the world. can rcl.ruild. |