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Show 130 THE GOLDEN HOUR. acle, until he explained to us up the fi h depended upon hi and location of the fish's egg . that hif3 power to take kno,vledgc of the color The fi h will protect its spawn ; and ·when Thoreau placed his hand underneath that, the fi ·h, in order to protect it, would swi1n irnmcdiately o,·cr it, and the fingers had only to close for it to be caught. Slavery is the spawn out of which the armed forces of treason and rebellion in the South haYc been hatched ; and by an inviolalJlc instinct they will ru ·h, at any cost, to protect Slavery. Yon have only, Sir, to take Slavery in your gra. p, then close your fingers around the rebellion. This I haYc tried to prove; al ·o, that the only way of grasr ing the rebellion-spawn is to declare that this nation no longer recogn izc the in ti tu tion of Slavery a in existence. This \YO lnunbly irnplorc you to do, by the martial po·wer which Slavery has con1pcllcd you to usc in place of the norn1al powers of the Constitution. For, ~ir, fron1 the day in ·which Slavery Lcca1ne to thi · government an outla·w, Liberty became, like ancjent Thebes, hundred-gated. It is a high circumstance, Sir, whether its fnll bearing was seen by our fathers or not, that the colnmander- iu-chicf of our ar1ny and navy i at the san1c time the chief guardian of our national honor and political lilJertic ; and whilst a 1ncre 1nilitary general may have no higher draft to 1nake upon 1nartial power than that which will cnalJlc him to make this TO TilE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 131 or that expedition successful, we have a right to claim that our Prt~siuent shall rai~e a higher staudaru of Necessity, -one ineluuing not only tho pro ·ervation of our national existence, but of that ·ecurity without military de ·poti ·1n, that honor without ·tain, which alone can make existence worthy of preserYation. The air is full of noisy ol0cctious against tho request of your petitioners for au eJict of mnancipatiou. So1ne of tho e retnind. 1110 of tho Sheik's objection to lending his rope. "\Vhon ALul Alladin a. ·kou of hi1n the loan of a rope, the Sheik saiu, " I need it to tic up a 1nea ·ure of sand." "Need a rope to tic U) d ,, l. l san . exc ann eel .Abul in astonislunent. " 0 uej o·h-o bor," replied the Sheik, ''any rca ·on will do when one docs not 'vi ·h to lend a thing." There is 110 u ·c in dealiug with oLjection. · which ari ·e frorn tho desire and determination to retain Slavery in this country, at any tin1e ; certainly none in addressing one who has declared his dctor1nination to recognize and deal with it ouly as wrong. The people have \vitnessed with indignation how those who lately denounced you as a sectional candidate, because they saw that, if you roachecl the "\Vhite House, you would be the President, and not Slavery, arc now at Washington, standing in tho shoes yet wann fro1n the feet of traitors, and, in the interest of Rlavcry, thro·wing it perpetually in your face that you entered the arena upon the platfonn of non-interference ·with Slavery in the States. You, ir, cannot |