RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 13 knell of slavery—just how and when, we have not been able to see. Had the rebellion been less persistent and formidable, had it been conquered with but little fighting, had the armies of the Union been far more successful, had slavery proved, as many supposed, an element of weakness, and not as the facts show, an element of very great strength—:had this been the order of Pro- vidental events, to all human seeming this war would have ended without reaching the slavery-question in any very essential and radical form. Such however has not been the order of Providence. We have had serious disasters and delays. We have had time to collect our thoughts, and reflect upon what is right. We have had a severe discipline. Providence has thrown several thousands of slaves upon our hands. We have found it necessary to use them, and to make some provision for them. While we have vacillated in our policy, sometimes looking in one direction, and sometimes in another, sometimes seeming to have no policy, the government scarcely knowing what to do, Providence, by the stern force of events, has been slowly but steadily crowding the slavery-question upon public attention. The effort to ignore it has been constantly bringing it to the surface. We have not been able to get rid of it. In whatever way the President looked, this question met him. It has floated on every breeze, and drifted in every current. In the outset of the struggle, I confess myself to have been rather cautious in my thoughts : I scarcely knew what I did think: I had no desire that the President should be hasty or hurried in his final policy on this subject: I thought I saw that he needed time to think, and also that the public mind needed discipline and training by the course of events—: yet now, in the existing circumstances, looking at the past, taking into view the character of the struggle, and above all, studying the principles which govern the righteous providence of God, permit me to say very frankly, that I have reached my conclusion. I am in favor of employing the whole military strength of this nation, to carry into practical execution the purposes expressed by the President in his recent Proclamation. The measure, 1 know, is radical; yet there are times, and we have fallen upon them, when radical measures are the wisest.
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