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Show 15G THE GOLDEN HOUR. the South. What if this Republic should be gasping for a sitnplc breath ofjn ticc,- the very atino. phcrc of Liberty ! .At lea t hall we not \Va h our hand of their guilt concerning the cru hod black and the equally crushed white of the South? 0, is there no power in Love greater than any that IIate can wielu ? Is there no strength in Etcrn al J u tice ? Is there in this noon of the nineteenth con tnry so litLlc po\ver of heart and brain that \:ve n1ust yet adhere to the 1ncthods of the savage and the assa sin ? We s1nilc to-day at tho heathen of antiquity who hesitated whether he would make his log into a god or a three-legged stool; but our children may "\veep in the rctro poet of this day, when a great nation, "'ith its govcnuncnt before it to be uoce arily refa hioncd, hesitated \vhethcr to make of it a centralization who. 0 three legs mn t be Southern barbari n1, Northern domoralization, and perpetual strife, or a godlike Union impregnable as Justice it elf. Courage, brothers ! 1nuch as the Devil has to do with it, this world still belongs to God. Be not entangled in tho illusions which twine about and bind your rulers. Slavery socius to the1n a strong thing; so mariners have 1ni taken a foo--bank 0 for the rock of Gibraltar. There is not a mushroo1n that grows which is not stronger than Slavery, against which every whL poring wind, every sunbcan1, every leaf, and every lnunan blood-drop is conspiring. I know that our govern1nent sees it as a strong steed SURSUM CORDA. 157 "\vithout w·hich it cannot ride to victory in the South; Lnt it is a stick horse which it chiluishly carries, maintaining that it i 1 carri <1 by it : j u t let the govcrnlnent stop carrying ,lavery, and it will fall tho dead stick that it is. I challenge the President to pennit me- one of the vvoakost and obscurest friends of Freedom- to liberate tho slaves of the South, pronLising only tltat I slta!l not be interfered witlt by United States la1v. I ·will not call for any protection by its arn1s fro1n tho outhorners ; the law of gravitation will bear the s1nall tone cut from tho n1ountain-top dovvn its sides, even to tho gulf. The ·whining anu cursing of tho pro-slavery 1ncn in Congress arc a confc ion that Slavery, with its swa ·h~ ing and. 1nartial outsiuo, i 1 conscious of this essential weakno -s. Those Border State men know \vcll that the winds and rains and heats of this thawiug season have 1nade its crut;t ·o thin that it will not bear the pressure of ouo firn1 foot. ..And, alas ! tho indecent eagerness with which tho President hastened. to rofa 'ten tho gyves upon a n1illion lnnnan being \vho1n the uoblo Iluntor had set free,- AND vvno .ARE FHEE,engender the saddest n1isgi ving of the hour ; na1ncly, that tho President knows the weakness of Slavery, knows that he could free the land forever fro1n that cnmo and its retribution now heavy upon us, but heeds o1no ba cr end to be subsorvcd by retaining this institution. .A. million blood-stains cri1nson your hands, b1r. Presi- |
