27 lion hearts into one great national heart, that the Republic shall be perpetual—so strong and so pure that man cannot, and God will not destroy it. Then will the nation hold jubilee again, and bless the Almighty for the war itself. In this bright forecast of the future why should not the African have his place of hope and joy ? Shall not he too be lifted up by the exalting influence of freedom to the prerogatives of a true manhood ? True, we hear it said, “ You cannot elevate him; his nature wants capacity — wants the true electricity of mental life.” But has the trial been fairly made ? We crust him over with our contempt and prejudice; we wrap him up thickly in all the disadvantages of ignorance and disappointment, and then when we touch him with a nonconductor of pride, or tyranny, or selfishness, if we do not see the instant flash, or feel an answering shock, we boldly pronounce him to be a non electric. But unwrap those folds of ignorance and fear, crack off that crust of contempt in which slavery has insulated him, let his naked nature come into contact with the life-restoring agencies of freedom, and then see if he, for whom Christ died, does not exhibit enough of the light and spiritual life of manhood to entitle him to a place in the future of our Republic as a citizen, a man and a brother. If the war shall be thus regenerative — creating four millions of men out of four millions of beasts •
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