masters-saying nothing of rebel masters. All this falls little short of a proclamation of emancipation-not unlike that of old Caius Marius, when, landing on the coast of Etruria, according to Plutarch, he proclaimed liberty to the slaves. As such, I do not err, when I call it, thus far, the most important event of the war-more important because understood to have the deliberate sanction of the President as well as of the Secretary, and therefore marking the policy of the Administration. That this policy should be first applied to South Carolina is just. As the great rebellion began in this state, so should the great remedy.

Slavery is the inveterate culprit, the transcendent criminal, the persevering traitor, the wicked parricide, the arch rebel, the open outlaw. As the less is contained in the greater, so the rebellion is all contained in slavery. The tenderness which you show to slavery is, therefore, indulgence to the rebellion itself. The pious caution with which you avoid harming slavery exceeds that ancient superstition which made the wolf sacred among the Romans and the crocodile sacred among the Egyptians; nor shall I hesitate to declare that every surrender of a slave back to bondage is an offering of human sacrifice, whose shame is too great for any army to bear. That men should hesitate to strike at slavery is only another illustration of human weakness. The English republicans, in bloody contest with the Crown, hesitated for a long time to fire upon the King; but under the valiant lead of Cromwell, surrounded by his well-trained Ironsides, they banished all such scruple, and you know the result. The King was not shot, but his head was brought to the block.

The duty which I announce, if not urgent now, as a military necessity, in just self-defence, will present itself constantly, as our armies advance in the slave states or land on their coasts. If it does not stare us in the face at this moment, it is because unhappily we are still everywhere on the defensive. As we begin to be successful, it must rise before us for practical decision, and we cannot avoid it. There will be slaves in our camps, or within our extended lines, whose condion we must determine. There will be slaves also claimed by rebels, whose continued chattelhood we should scorn to recognize. The decision of these two cases will settle the whole great question. Nor can the rebels complain. They challenge our armies to enter upon their territory in the free exercise of all the powers of war-according to which, as you well know, all private interests are subordinated to the public safety, which, for the time, becomes the supreme law above all other laws and above the Constitution itself. If everywhere under the flag of the Union, in its triumphant march, freedom is substituted for slavery, this outrageous rebellion will not be the first instance in history where God has turned the wickedness of man into a blessing; nor will the example of Samson stand alone, when he gathered honey from the carcass of the dead and rotten lion.

Pardon me, if I speak in hints only, and do not stop to argue or explain. Not now, at the close of an evening devoted to the rebellion in its origin and mainspring, can I enter upon this great question of military duty in its details. There is another place where this discussion will be open for me.

It is enough now, if I indicate the simple principle which is the natural guide of all really in earnest, of all whose desire to save their country is stronger than the desire to save slavery. You will strike where the blow is most felt; nor will you miss the precious opportunity. The enemy is before you, nay, he comes out in ostentatious challenge, and his name is slavery. You can vindicate the Union only by his prostration. Slavery is the very Goliath of the rebellion, armed with coat of mail, with helmet of brass upon the head, greaves of brass upon the legs, target of brass between the shoulders, and with the staff of his spear like a weaver's beam. But a stone from a simple sling will make the giant fall upon his face to the earth.

Thank God, our government is strong; but thus far all signs denote that it is not strong enough to save the Union, and at the same time save slavery. One or the other must suffer; and just in proportion as you reach forth to protect slavery do you protect this accursed rebcllion, nay, you give to it that very aid and comfort which are the constitutional synonym for treason itself. Perversely and pitifully do you postpone that sure period of reconciliation, not only between the two sections, not only between the men of the North and the men of the South, but, more necessary still, between slave and master, without which the true tranquillity we all seek cannot be permanently assured. Believe it, only through such reconciliation, under sanction of freedom, can you remove all occasion of conflict hereafter; only in this way can you cut off the head of this great Hydra, and at the same time extirpate that principle of evil, which, if allowed to remain, must shoot forth in perpetual discord, if not in other rebellions; only in this way can you command that safe victory, without which this contest is vain, which will have among its conquests indemnity for the past and security for the future-the noblest indemnity and the strongest security ever won, because founded in the redemption of the race.

Full well I know the doubts, cavils, and misrepresentations to which this argument for the integrity of the nation is exposed; but I turn with confidence to the people. The heart of the people is right, and all great thoughts come from the heart. All hating slavery and true to freedom will join in effort, paying with person, time, talent, purse. They are our minute-men, always ready—and yet more ready just in proportion as the war is truly inspired. They, at least, are sure. It remains that others not sharing this animosity, merchants who study their ledgers, bankers who study their discounts, and politicians who study success, should see that only by prompt and united effort against slavery can the war be brought to a speedy and triumphant close,

without which, merchant, banker, and politicians all suffer alike. Ledger, discount, and political aspiration will have small value, if the war continues its lava flood, shrivelling and stifling everything but itself. Therefore, under the spur of self-interest, if not under the necessities of self-defence, we must act together. Humanity, too, joins in this appeal. Blood enough has been shed, victims enough have bled at the altar, even if you are willing to lavish upon slavery the tribute now paying of more than a million dollars a day.

Events, too, under Providence, are our masters. For the rebels there can be no success. For them every road leads to disaster. For them defeat is bad, but victory worse; for then will the North be inspired to sublimer energy. The proposal of emancipation which shook ancient Athens followed close upon the disaster at Charonea; and the statesman who moved it vindicated himself by saying that it proceeded not from him, but from Charonea. The triumph of Hannibal at Cannæ drove the Roman republic to the enlistment and enfranchisement of eight thousand slaves. Such is history, which we are now repeating. The recent act of Congress, giving freedom to slaves employed against us, familiarly known as the confiscation act, passed the Senate on the morning after the disaster at Manassas. In the providence of God there are no accidents; and this seeming reverse helped to the greatest victory which can be won. Do not forget, I pray you, that classical story of the mighty hunter whose life in the book of fate was made to depend upon the existence of a brand burning at his birth. The brand, so full of destiny, was snatched from the flames and carefully preserved by his prudent mother. Meanwhile the hunter became powerful and invulnerable to mortal weapon. But at length the mother, indignant at his cruelty to her own family, flung the brand upon the flames and the hunter died. The life of Meleager, so powerful and invulnerable to mortal weapon, is now revived in this rebellion, and slavery is the fatal brand. Let the national government, whose maternal care is still continued to slavery, simply throw the thing upon the flames madly kindled by itself, and the rebellion will die at once.

us!

Amidst all surrounding perils there is one only which I dread. It is the peril from some new surrender to slavery, some fresh recognition of its power, some present dalliance with its intolerable pretensions. Worse than any defeat, or even the flight of an army, would be this abandonment of principle. From all such peril, good Lord, deliver And there is one way of safety, clear as sunlight, pleasant as the paths of peace. Over its broad and open gate is written justice. In that little word is victory. Do justice and you will be twice victors; for so will you subdue the rebel master, while you elevate the slave. Do justice frankly, generously, nobly, and you will find strength instead of weakness, while all seeming responsibility disappears in obedience to God's eternal law. Do justice, though the heavens fall.

But they will not fall. Every act of justice becomes a new pillar of the Universe, or it may be a new link of that

"Golden everlasting chain

Whose strong embrace holds heaven and earth and main."

THE WAR FOR THE UNION.

WENDELL PHILLIPS.

Boston, December, 1861.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-It would be impossible for me fitly to thank you for this welcome; you will allow me, therefore, not to attempt it, but to avail myself of your patience to speak to you, as I have been invited to do, upon the war.

I know, ladies and gentlemen, that actions-deeds, not words-are the fitting duty of the hour. Yet, still, cannon think in this day of ours, and it is only by putting thought behind arms that we render them worthy, in any degree, of the civilization of the nineteenth century. Besides, the government has two-thirds of a million of soldiers, and it has ships sufficient for its purpose. The only question seems to be, what the government is to do with these forces-in what path, and how far it shall tread. You and I come here to-night, not to criticise, not to find fault with the Cabinet. We come here to recognize the fact, that in moments like these the statesmanship of the Cabinet is but a pine shingle upon the rapids of Niagara, borne which way the great popular heart and the national purpose direct. It is in vain now, with these scenes about us, in this crisis, to endeavor to create public opinion; too late now to educate twenty millions of people. Our object now is to concentrate and to manifest, to make evident and to make intense, the matured purpose of the nation. We are to show the world, if it be indeed so, that democratic institutions are strong enough for such an hour as this. Very terrible as is the conspiracy, momentous as is the peril, democracy welcomes the struggle, confident that she stands like no delicately-poised throne in the Old World, but, like the pyramid, on its broadest base, able to be patient with national evils-generously patient with the long forbearance of three generations—and strong enough when, after that they reveal themselves in their own inevitable and hideous proportions, to pronounce and execute the unanimous verdict-death!

Now, gentlemen, it is in such a spirit, with such a purpose, that I came before you to-night to sustain this war. Whence came this war? You and I need not curiously investigate. While Mr. Everett on one side, and Mr. Sumner on the other, agree, you and I may take for granted the opinion of two such opposite statesmen-the result of the

common sense of this side of the water and the other-that slavery is the root of this war. I know some men have loved to trace it to disappointed ambition, to the success of the republican party, convincing three hundred thousand nobles at the South, who have hitherto furnished us the most of the presidents, generals, judges, and ambassadors we needed, that they would have leave to stay at home, and that twenty millions of northeners would take their share in public affairs. I do not think that cause equal to the result. Other men before Jefferson Davis and Governor Wise have been disappointed of the presidency. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Stephen A. Douglas were more than once disappointed, and yet who believes that either of these great men could have armed the North to avenge his wrongs? Why, then, should these pigmies of the South be able to do what the giants I have named could never achieve? Simply because there is a radical difference between the two sections, and that difference is slavery. A party victory may have been the occasion of this outbreak. So a teachest was the occasion of the revolution, and it went to the bottom of Boston harbor on the night of the 16th of December, 1773; but that tea-chest was not the cause of the revolution, neither is Jefferson Davis the cause of the rebellion. If you will look upon the map, and notice that every slave state has joined or tried to join the rebellion, and no free state has done so, I think you will not doubt substantially the origin of this convulsion.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, you know me-those of you who know me at all-simply as an abolitionist. I am proud and glad that you should have known me as such. In the twenty-five years that are goneI say it with no wish to offend any man before me—but in the quarter of a century that has passed, I could find no place where an American could stand with decent self-respect, except in constant, uncontrollable, and loud protest against the sin of his native land. But, ladies and gentlemen, do not imagine that I come here to-night to speak simply and exclusively as an abolitionist. My interest in this war, simply and exclusively as an abolitionist, is about as much gone as yours in a novel where the hero has won the lady, and the marriage has been comfortably celebrated in the last chapter. I know the danger of a political prophecy-a kaleidoscope of which not even a Yankee can guess the next combination-but for all that, I venture to offer my opinion, that on this continent the system of domestic slavery has received its death-blow. Let me tell you why I think so. Leaving out of view the war with England, which I do not expect, there are but three paths out of this war. One is, the North conquers; the other is, the South conquers; the third is, a compromise. Now, if the North conquers, or there be a compromise, one or the other of two things must come-either the old Constitution or a new one. I believe that, so far as the slavery clauses of the Constitution of '89 are concerned, it is dead. It seems to me impossible that the thrifty and pains