Republican government to make the theory fact. But is to do this worth the heartbreaks, the butchery, by which alone we can march South ? XV THE CONSECRATION OF HEROISM IN the old Hebrew Chronicles it is related that on one occasion David was in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem. "And David longed, and said, O that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate! And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David; nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this; is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it." Thus to all noble minds heroism is forever consecrated, and consecrates all it touches. The commonest things have a new and higher value, when they become associated with deeds of devotion and courage. The cross, to which the Christian world clings, was not a whit more respectable than a gallows, until a Hero's blood consecrated it. Our countrymen, our companions, friends, and relatives have gone forth, in jeopardy of their lives, to recover for this nation certain forts, arsenals, territories, —— for which the nation longed. This nation does not yet see that when these forts and States are recovered for us, stained with the ruddy blood of thousands of its noble youth,—each the monument of fallen heroes, they will seem very differ ent from forts and arsenals; that, if thus recovered, they will be altars consecrated to the humanity which died to rescue them, flaming with the fires of Justice and Liberty. The first American Revolution began as a protest against a tax upon tea and a few other articles. Even after Concord and Lexington, the removal of a few pence from the duty on tea would have stopped the war. At this distance that looks to us as a very insignificant fight; one might almost call it a tempest in a teapot. But so did it not remain. The tea reddened with the blood of noble hearts, as did the water of Bethlehem when it came to the king. Battle after battle came; men went on to death as to their beds; and from the fires of war emerged the grand figure of Independence. Then all the duties might have been taken off, but America would not have drank to the health of a tryant what had now become the blood of her noble sons; nothing less than entire independence was worthy so costly a libation. In the month of August, 1776,1 immediately after the defeat of the Americans on Long Island, and whilst that disaster was not only demoralizing the army under Washington, but spreading dismay and consternation among the most resolute of the advocates of Independence, General Howe, wishing to take advantage of the terror which victory inspires, and persuading himself that the Americans, disheartened by so many checks, would be more modest in their pretensions, despatched General Sullivan to Congress, with a message purporting that, though he 1 This incident was briefly alluded to in The Rejected Stone; the number of inquiries which have been made of me concerning it, and its appropriateness to the argument of this chapter, encourage me to condense the account from Carlo Botta's History, in which alone I have been able to find it, though it is certainly one of the most striking of our Revolutionary records. could not consistently treat with that assembly in the character they had assumed, yet he would gladly confer with some of their members in their private capacity, and would meet them at any place they would appoint. He informed them that he was empowered, with the admiral, his brother, to terminate the contest between Great Britain and America upon conditions equally advantageous to both. He assured them that, if they were inclined to enter into an agreement, much might be granted them which they had not required. He concluded by saying that, should the conference produce the probability of an accommodation, the authority of Congress would be aoknowledged, in order to render the treaty valid and complete in every respect. To this Congress made answer, through General Sullivan, that the Congress of the Free and Independent States of America could not, consistently with the trust reposed in them, send their members to confer with any one whomsoever, otherwise than in their public capacity. But that, as they desired that peace might be concluded upon equitable conditions, they would depute a committee of their body to learn what proposals they had to offer. The deputies appointed by Congress to hear the propositions of the British commissioners (General Howe and Admiral Lord Howe) were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, all three zealous advocates of independence. The interview took place on September 11, on Staten Island, opposite Amboy, where the British general had his headquarters. The result of the interview showed to what a height the war, which began about a paltry tax, had risen under the tuition of Heroism. The British commanders offered every concession, with complete amnesties and indemnities, provided only that they would lay down their arms and submit to the authority of England. But the Americans, staggering though they were under a disastrous defeat,dark, too, as was the prospect of three millions fighting against the strongest power on earth,- utterly and firmly refused to submit to anything less than their entire independence. This was England's last effort to settle the difficulty by negotiation. Immediately thereafter she put forth her whole strength to compel submission; but had England only known it, she was conquered already, when in the midst of darkness and disaster there remained to confront her a spirit too noble to compromise Liberty, too royal to cool even the the fevered lips of war with an ignoble peace, and offer to Despotism the blood of heroes. Our public speakers know very well that in speaking of "the Union cemented by the blood of our fathers," they touch a chord in the popular heart which never fails to respond. That is because it is a true chord. Every river and valley of it has been touched with the chrism of selfsacrifice. But here is more blood poured out: what will that cement? Is it only to cement the broken walls of Sumter? Is it only to recover a section for freemen to be tarred and feathered in-a Congress for honest Senators to be assassinated in? Is that what your son has gone to cement with his blood? Are we giving up the best blood in our land that our flag may again unfurl its heavenborn colours for the protection of the chain and the lash and the block where immortal beings are sold as cattle? There is where we started: the old Union just as it was, with every chain in it, every shamble, every scourge, every barbarism, that is what our own valiant men brake the ranks of the Philistines to get for us. But already things give signs of change. People are saying, This war will be sure to end Slavery, the wish being father to the thought. That is only the first flush on the water. Let us see little more heroic blood shed, and people will say, This war shall end Slavery. A man who announces—and this is said with all deference to the Secretary of State-that a bloody revolution shall sweep over a country, and leave that country, and every human being in it, in the same condition as before, must be in the counsel of that highly conservative angel at the Creation who was seized with a dreadful apprehension lest the very foundations of Chaos should be unsettled. To expect that this revolution, whilst working changes similar to those which revolution has wrought in all history, will leave Slavery as it was before in the land, is to expect a conflagration enveloping a house to burn up the stone and iron, and leave the woodwork standing. XVI A POSSIBLE BABYLON WHO can misread or doubt the prophecies written broadly over all the mountains, prairies, savannahs, lakes, and rivers of this superb continent? What heart can have a misgiving that these grandeurs have been prepared for a race of slaves? Does Niagara thunder of the great era of slave-coffles? Does the Mississippi suggest a race of clayeaters on its shores? Do the great rivets between North and South, the Rocky, the Alleghany, the Blue Ridge mountains, foretell that the rivets of moral and political union on this continent are to be perpetual fear on one side and menace on the other, as they have been for years, -a union crumbling through very rottenness? Every hilltop in America is a Pisgah, from which can |