Arise, MY COUNTRY! gird thee for the fight; • Burial of Lincoln. By L. W. P. CHAPTER IV. THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. Where the feet of my youth "As for me, I dare not, will not, be false to Freedom. were planted, there, by Freedom, my feet shall ever stand. ner; I will glory in her strength. I have seen her friends fly from her, her foes gather around her; I have seen her bound to the stake; 'I have seen them give her ashes to the winds: but, when they turned to exult, I have seen her again meet them face to face, resplendent in complete steel, brandishing in her right hand a flaming sword red with insufferable light. I take courage. The people gather around her. The Genius of America will at last lead her sons to freedom.". SENATOR BAKER. "We know how to save the Union. The world knows we know how to save it. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed: this could not, cannot, fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just, ‚— a way, which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. AMID the carnage of terrific battle, it was almost impossible not to ask, Why must this desolating war continue? why must our brave troops be slaughtered, and no decisive victory follow? Some there were who thought they saw the reason in the crying injustice of slavery. It began to be most earnestly said that Providence demanded justice as the condition of victory. Was it true that the American people had not yet comprehended the meaning of this dreadful chastisement, that God would lead them through their trials to see their great sin, and renounce it? Did God intend to destroy slavery by this war? Many thought so; a few said it in eloquent words, and appealed to Heaven in fervent prayer for this result. Among others, the Protestant ministers of Chicago and vicinity intensely believed it, and sent a deputation to lay their views before the President. They were kindly received; and, while he held his own opinions in abeyance, he drew out their strongest ar guments in favor of emancipation by proclamation, as a war measure, and their answers to objections not his own. He said, "I raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional grounds; for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy." He was simply anxious to know the state of the public mind, the degree of advancement in the track of his own profound judgments. He had checked his own commanders because they were in advance of the people: but he at length came to the conviction that the people would sustain him; and hence, on the twenty-second day of September, 1862, he issued a proclamation containing these words: "On the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves in any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The people were electrified. Good men were filled with delight and gratitude. The rebels were wild with fury. The Northern enemies of the President denounced it as a most tyrannical assumption of power: but, having taken his position, he was immovable; and according to promise, when the hundred days had expired, he issued THE GREAT PROCLAMATION. "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States, and parts of States, wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following; to wit" [the names of the rebel States, with exceptions, are then mentioned]. "And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare, that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. "And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary selfdefence; and I recommend to them all, that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. "And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and gracious favor of Almighty God." Thus spake the wisest, best man of our times; and near four millions of slaves leaped at once into liberty! From that moment, God commanded victory to the armies of Freedom. BLACK WARRIORS. Prejudice against color so thoroughly pervaded the North as well as the South, that the government did not at first entertain the idea of admitting Africans to the army. The most determined purpose was manifested to fight their bat |