and may have possession, they will raise supplies for themselves, and the rebellion will come to an ignominious end, through the inability of the masters, when deprived of the services of their slaves, to procure the means of carrying on the war.

175.

TREASON THE FRUIT OF SLAVERY.

A SPEECH DELIVERED AT A MASS MEETING HELD IN THE CAPITOL GROUNDS, WASHINGTON, JULY, 1862.

GE

ENTLEMEN,-I am a stranger to you, and I do not know any good reason why your committee of arrangements should have undertaken to introduce an acquaintance between us. I am sure you, upon your part, will regret it, however I may regard it. I may as well tell you where I am from, -from Massachusetts. What we propose in that State is to carry on this war, in sunshine and storm, against all odds, on this side of the water or the other. We rally under the national banner, not for this generation alone or for this century, but for all generations and for all centuries. And, for ourselves, we mean to offer the last man, the last dollar, and the last hour's labor of the last citizen of our Commonwealth, ere these rebels, with treason on their lips and treason in their hearts, shall accomplish that which they have undertaken. If to-night there shall come news of disaster, I know, that, in the Commonwealth to which I belong, every heart will be nerved for renewed efforts in the cause of liberty and humanity. My friend, Mr. Chittenden, says he proposes to ferret out traitors. I propose to go one step further, and ask you why there is treason, as, without treason, there could be

no traitors. Speaking for the first time in the free, open air in the city of Washington, which bears the name of the Father of my Country, I will pronounce the words: If it had not been for slavery, there would have been no treason; and, when slavery shall cease to exist, there will be no traitors. That is the beginning and the end of this war,— slavery in the beginning, freedom in the end. There is no other solution of the difficulty; and as an American citizen, with all the responsibilities resting upon me, treasuring as I do the memories and traditions of the past, I proclaim here that there can be no peace, until, from the length and breadth of this republic, the cry shall go up, "Slavery, slavery, has ceased." How and when? These are questions that we submit to the President, in whom we confide, and his Cabinet; but I believe this, that the faster he and they march on towards the conclusion when slavery shall have ceased to exist, just to that extent they will merit the reward and gratitude of their countrymen and all mankind.

My friends, I see here laborers, - men who with their bones and sinews are to carry on this war. I have heard that in the city of Brooklyn, day before yesterday, there was a riot between the free white laborers and the colored men; so also there have been conflicts in Cincinnati and elsewhere through the North. What is the solution of this difficulty between the white and colored races of the North? Freedom to the blacks. Then will they go from the North to the free Territories of the South, to which by nature they belong. You should have

made South Carolina and Florida free; and I would praise God with gratitude, such as has never swelled my heart, if to-night I could hear, by the President's proclamation, that South Carolina and Florida were free, and dedicated to the black population of this country. Then competition with the white laborers of the North would cease. The negroes would go to the cotton-fields and the riceplantations of the South that invite them, leaving to the white people of the North entire freedom from competition in labor. But, on the other hand, there are some who say, reconstruct the old Union, with the eleven seceded States introduced anew, without the abolition of slavery. What, think you, would then happen? Will the slaves remain in the South? No; but they will escape by hundreds and millions to the North, and come into competition with the free laborers there. You cannot doubt this. Will you return them to their masters? Certainly not. Humanity is against it; justice is against it; expediency is against it.

I have been in Cairo, Ill., where I was told that the people were nearly all secessionists six months ago. Negroes ran away, and came there, and the secessionists and authorities and citizens could not carry those people back. You have then to take the choice,-abolish slavery in these seceded States, give the negroes a home there, and carry them out of the North by the mild power of persuasion, or else allow the North to be overrun by escaped fugitives from the South. Give them a home on territory which they and you have fought for, in the coast region of the South, and give us

the North for the free white population of the North. Therefore I say, my friends, that this doctrine of emancipation in the eleven seceded States immediate, unconditional, universal-is the solution of the difficulty of the war, and consequently the conclusion of peace. What I have said has been based upon the wise and just proposition of the President, that, in the loyal States, compensation shall be made to loyal masters. I would go still further. If in these eleven seceded States you can find men, slave-owners, who have done, under the circumstances, all that could be reasonably expected, I would compensate them also. But never, with my consent, shall the treasury of this country be opened to compensate rebels for the loss of their slaves.

I wish to leave with you in the end the words offered in the beginning. They are these: Without slavery, there would have been no treason; and, without treason, there would have been no traitors, no war. Upon slavery the responsibility lies for this enormous waste and outlay of men and money. Over the whole North, there are mourning homes and desolate hearth-stones, aged parents stricken down with sorrow, grief penetrating young hearts. All is chargeable to this foul and infamous institution of human slavery; and, if there be a God in heaven, and if he be just, as we believe, we cannot imagine, with the instincts and perceptions we have, that he should ever look with favor upon a people twenty million strong, struggling, in their first faith, to compel five million of rebel slaveholders and their associates in the South to be true to the flag