upon such a desperate venture as this. The first step in secession placed them beyond all hope, but in the complete establishment of their slave empire. They know this well. They have never asked restoration to the Union on any terms, and they would not accept it now, were it freely and cordially offered, with unrestricted amnesty to all. They hate the Union, because it is not "homogeneous;" that is, not all under the sway of Slavery. They loathe the "pure democracy" of the North, because it is uncongenial to their "social aristocracy," and because they hold that there "the reins of Government come from the heels of society," as they term the free white laborer. Ten thousand times they have declared that they never will unite with the North again, and it is certain that they are in earnest. Away, then, with idle talk about conciliation and adjustment! Let the nation brace itself up to fight this war through to the perfect and absolute restoration of the authority of the Constitution, or give up the contest at once, and resign itself to perpetual disgrace. If to accomplish the former we must strike down slavery, as well as its armies, the world will commend the act; and the voice of our own loyal people will burst forth in the midst of their mourning for sons and brothers dead in battle, with the unhesitating and firm response, "LET IT BE SO! THE MEN OF THE NORTH HAVE HIGHER TRUSTS THAN TO PRESERVE SLAVERY!"

THE PROCLAMATION

OF EMANCIPATION.*

NEVER has it been my duty to address a popular assemblage, under circumstances more solemn and momentous than those in which the American people are now placed. Were I to give way to expressions of mere personal feelings, it would be difficult to define the mingled emotions with which I have accepted the invitation to appear before you on this occasion. But I have endeavored to put aside all feeling, save that which yearns toward my beloved and suffering country, and every purpose but that which binds me, in life or in death, to her welfare and honor. I am no politician; I belong to no party; I have nothing to ask for myself at the hands of the people, but to be recognized as one ready to do anything in that holy cause, and to be anything that is farthest removed from a traitor, whether such as skulk from our soil southward, to help slay their patriot brothers, or such as hang back under the folds of the old Flag, that they may, while enjoying its protection, more surely aid in betraying and dis

* A Speech delivered in Turners' Hall, St. Louis, January 28, 1863.

honoring it. Between such and me, I thank God! there is not, nor ever can be, any more concord than between fire and water; but discord, antagonism, and strife, now and evermore, until the venom of treason shall cease to poison their hearts, and to fire their brain with parricidal madness.

Indulge me, however, in a single remark as to my past position with reference to the subject which rises in this hour above every other the institution of SLAVERY. I desire to preface the words which I deem it my duty to utter here, with the reiterated declaration, that I am not, nor ever have been, a fanatic against Slavery as a domestic institution, nor have I ever been connected for an hour with any party or association, which struck at Slavery in that character. I have always, however, believed Slavery a sore evil and a vast misfortune to our country, and was ready to hail its removal by proper means, as one of the greatest blessings which a kind Providence could vouchsafe us. When, therefore, I speak as I shall to-night, of Slavery, let no man say that I give utterance to any other than the opinions and convictions, which the horrid scenes of the last two years have fairly burned into my mind and heart, against the preconceptions of nearly thirty years. When I strike at Slavery, it is because Slavery strikes at my country; and for that I would STRIKE IT DOWN!

During those two years, we have witnessed the bloody climax of a conspiracy, begun in the preceding generation, to enthrone Slavery as a political power in this land, and to extend its sway over adjacent

countries, in the wild hope that, in the grasp and under the lead of the indomitable Anglo-Saxon race, it might become—what it had failed to become in any other hands-a Power in the earth. It is too late in the day for the arch-traitor, Jefferson Davis, to delude the world with such lying words as those quoted in one of the resolutions reported by your committee, affirming that he and his armies "are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement." Does he comprehend the import of language? Does he know what conquest means? Does he suppose that the world has turned idiot, not to see that the South is aiming to strip by conquest from the United States a large part of its territory, three thousand miles of its sea-coast, and the mouth of that great Mississippi, whose waters roll in ceaseless and stately flow past this city of our habitation? Is there no vision of aggrandizement in that empire of the "Golden Circle," which, sweeping from the capes of Virginia down to Cape Sable, and careering round the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, was to plant its farthest standard in some yet unthought of point in South American wilds? And does he believe humanity in its dotage, that it can not see that this standard is to be borne onward in its blood-stained march of piracy and subjugation, by Slavery and for Slavery? No, my friends, he believes no such miserable stuff. He knew, long years ago, and he knows now, better than any but his co-conspirators could know, that a vast EMPIRE OF SLAVERY was the promise of his and their treachery to the noble REPUBLIC OF FREEDOM, which gave them birth, and

nurtured them into men of mark, only, as time has proved, that they might be more powerful and dangerous than common men in their accursed treason. It suits their purpose to deny now what two years ago they defiantly proclaimed; but men do not forget, nor can the world be mocked. The Ethiopian does not change his skin, nor the leopard his spots; nor have Southern traitors abandoned the infinitely atrocious purpose to destroy this blood-bought Union, for "THE SPREAD OF SLAVERY.”

Your committee have, therefore, rightly judged, that in the very forefront of the declarations of this meeting should be proclaimed anew the great and solemn truth, that it is SOUTHERN SLAVERY, embodied in and acting through its lawless and conscienceless aristocracy, that has drenched this land in blood. Why should not that truth be declared, not only here and now, but everywhere and all the time? Of what avail is it to us, to our country, or to the cause of humanity, to bury it out of sight, and parade before our eyes some specious pretext for this rebellion, which we know to be false? Shall we fear to own the truth, because some muzzled traitor scowls in impotent wrath, or because his vote may some day be denied us, for having been true to truth? Let him who will shirk this mighty issue; I meet it, at all times and in all places, alike. If there was never before an occasion when it should be fairly and fearlessly met, that occasion is here and now. My voice is, and ever will be, that Southern Slavery alone is the cause of the horrible calamities of this civil war, and the human race in all the future will