16 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. to fight, and to keep fighting ; and fight they undoubtedly will until they are conquered, as perhaps no other people were ever conquered in the history of human warfare. It is high time to relinquish the false idea of coaxing this rebellion into good nature. We have already lost much by playing war ; and now if we mean to win in this struggle, we must make the rebels fed the war in its utmost severity. This is the shortest, surest, and most merciful way to the end. As to the question of expediency, the President having taken this ground, and after long delay and much consideration, issued his Proclamation, the measure becomes expedient, even if it were not so before. As I read events, the Proclamation is not ahead of Providence; nor is it in advance of a rapidly increasing drift of public sentiment; and the way now to solve the problem of expediency, is to put on the armor, and make the destruction of slavery as the means, and the preservation of the Union as the-end, the grand watchwords of the struggle. Let us carry freedom and victory in the same hand. The power that can gain the latter, can also gain the former. If we can conquer this rebellion, we can also kill slavery while doing it. We now have the opportunity, as we should not have in times of peace. We can now rid the land of that which has so long been its curse and its shame. The hour for doing this work, and the only hour possible since the Revolutionary age, has come; and my prayer to God is, that we may see our opportunity. He does not mean, if I read his providence correctly, to let us off with any half-way work on this subject. We must now lay the axe at the root of the tree, and put an end to slavery. I have no denunciations for those who dissent from these opinions. They are my opinions; and I utter them in the fear of God. In respect to the equity and mgr al justice of the result accruing from this measure, I have no doubt. I hold, as I ever have held, that the system of human slavery is wrong—a sin against God and the dearest rights of our nature. For this wrong we are now suffering as a people. God is angry with us, and punishing us for this sin, and punishing those most severely who have sinned most grievously. The best way to please God and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=