The Liberator from Boston, Massachusetts • Page 2

courage enlistments, and to aid emancipation, the S8tb Congress decreed that every slave mustered into the military service shall be free forever thus en abling every slave fit lor military service to secure personal freedom. By the provisions of the fugitive slave acts, slave masters could hunt their absconding bondmen, require the people to aid in their recapture, and have them returned at the expense ot the nation, ino 3Sth Congress erased all fugitive slave acts from tho statutes 01 the Republic. Tho law of 1807 legalized the coastwise slave trade: the 38th Congress repealed that act, and made the trade illegal. THa points nf the United States receive Mich tes timony as is permitted in the States where the courts are bolden. Several of the States exclude the tes timony of colored persons.

The 33t! Congress ma.ic it legal for colored persons to testify in all the courts of the United States. DifTV-renr views are entertained by public men relative to the reconstruction of the governments of i i i the seceded States, ana tne vawmy ot me inw dentV proclamation of emancipation. The 38th Congress passed a bill providing for the reconstruction of the governments of the rebel States, and for the emancipation of the slaves in those States; but it did not receive the approval of the President. By the provisions of law. olored men arc not permitted to carrv the mails there is pending in the Snuu, "introduced by Mr.

Sumner, and re ported bv Mr. Collamer, to repeal the law, and make it legal to allow colored men to carry the mails of the The wives and children of colored soldiers may be held as slaves, and sold, while they are absent fighting the battles of the country; there is pending in the Senate a joint resolution, introduced by Mr. Wilson, and reported by him from the Committee on Military Affairs, to make free the wives and children of colored soldiers. There is pending, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Eliot's bill to establish a Freedmen's Bureau whicn passed the House, and was amended in the Senate by the adoption of Mr.

Sumner's substi- Thcre is also pending, in the House, Mr. Ashley's motion to reconsider the vote rejecting tho Senate joint resolution, submitting to the people an amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery in the United States. Such are the mkascres considered by the. Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses during the past three crowded years. Butfwhile Congress has been engaged in this anti-slavery legislation, other agencies have boen working to the consummation of the same end.

The new-State of West Virginia has adopted a system of gradual emancipation. Missouri has followed in the adoption of a gradual system, which will doubtless be speedily changed to "a plan of immediate emancipation. A Constitutional Convention in Maryland has just framed a free Constitution, which will doubtless be accepted by her people. Delaware is preparing to adopt emancipation and an emancipation party is rapidly rising in Kentucky. The rebel States of Arkansas and Louisiana have, by the action of their loyal men, framed and adopted free State constitutions.

The loyal men of Tennessee are taking steps to call a Constitutional Convention, with a view of placing that State in th list of free commonwealths. Attorney General Bates officially pronounces the negro a citizen of the United States. The colored man now travels the world over, bearing the passport of Secretary Seward that he is a citizen of the United States. The President of the United States has, by proclamation, declared henceforward and forever free more than three millions of slaves in the rebel States. Christian men and women are following the loyal armies with the agencies of mental and moral instruction, to fit and prepare the enfranchised freedinen for the duties of the higher condition of life opening before them.

GOLDWIN SMITH'S OBSERVATIONS. A dinner was given in New York, last week, in honor of Professor Goldwin Smith, at which Mr. John Jay. Mr. Bancroft, Mr.

Evart, General Butler, and of the French Jtevue ties Deux Months, were among the speakers. Professor Smith himself made a short speech, f-om which we take the following interesting comments on his observations since be has been in this country I came here partly in pursuance of my vocation as a ftudent of history, to verify the theory which I had formed. I came to see whether the progress of humanity which I had learnt to trace through all the ages, and tielieved to be perpetual, hail been arrestee! here. I shall return convinced that it has not been arrested. was told that my visit to America would modify my liberal opinions.

In a certain sense, I own they have been modified. Till I came here, I was not a revolutionist, for no man more heartily abhors violent revolutions but some what impatient of political evils, and anxious for vehement effort and for immediate change. I shall return with my impatience allayed by a calm assur ance of the future, lou will succeed in your great experiment, and we shall in the end feel, in the solution of our political problems, the beneficent efforts of your success. I came also to see a great political risis. Would that all those who love and all those who mistrust free institutions could have seen it also! Would that they eould have witnessed as I have the majestic calmness with which, under circumstances the most perilous and exciting, the national decision has been pronounced.

Here is no anarchy, no military dictatorship. In the midst of civil war a civilian is re-elected as President by a constitutional process as tranquil as an English Sabbath day. And no king is more secure in the allegiance of Lis subjects than is the President in the allegiance of all even those who voted against him his elective rule. I would, too, that the English people could witness, as I witness, the spirit of humanity which retains its power over all the passions of civil war, notwithstanding the greatest provocations and the absence, which has most forcibly struck nie during my residence here, of any blood-thirsty sentiment or any feeling of malignant hatred toward those who are now your antagonists in a civil war, but whom, when they shall have submitted to the law, you will again eagerly welcome as fellow-citizens, and receive back into the full communion of free States. Many a prejudice, many an error would be dispelled, many a harsh judgment would be cancelled, manv a bitter word recalled, if only my countrymen could behold with their own eyes what I have beheld and now behold." CHEEES FOE THE OLD BAY STATE.

Was there ever a nobler national triumph than that which the loyal jeople of our country won the inemorablu Eighth? On the evening of that day, 1 went with a friend to the Cooper Institute to bear the returns announced as they came in from the different wards of tho metropolis, and from towns and cities more remote. The was nacked ith Union men, and a more jubilant and uproarious crowd never assembled in that capacious buildiog. Charley Spencer had the honor of presiding over the meeting, and reading the news to the eager multitude. He enlivened the proceedings of the venin also with witty and sopliomoi ical speeches of his own, which greatly amused Lis bearers. Immense Democratic majorities were, of course, expected in New York city.

The results of some of the more disloyal districts were received with infinite pool nature, now with eharp trhews, and again with roars of laughter, everybody seeming to be well aware that better announcements would come in an hour or two. Now," said I want you to prepare to give the most tremendous jell that ever was heard. (Intense sensation.) Baltimore Bal'imore for Abraham Lincoln by 15,000 majority Heavens! what a demonstration was that which succeeded to these words of the speaker to be surpasscd'only by that whi followed the reading of the telegram, that glorious old Massae-hunc-lts had given the Pies dent a majority of I never witnessed uch enthusiasm before, and never shall again, seemed as though thev cheered the Old Bay State fifteen minutes! The scene was as ludicrous as it was For a lone, lone time, the air was filled with all sorts of things that men could lay hands to. and toss wildly above them hats, canes, uinorciias, coats and handkerchiefs. Nice beavers were thrown about hither and thither, their owners seeming not to care what became of them or they were raided above the heads of the crowd on umbrellas or canes, and whirled about in the most excited manner, while hundreds opened their umbrellas, and stripped off tbeir coats, and threw them up again and again, and yet again, in attestation of their abounding joy.

Men wept for joy, and all were proud of Massachusetts, which, it was very evident, was leading the van in tho great march of States. Do you not think that I was proud of my native State just then and there She i plucky, God bless her AT. V. corr. of Roxbury Journal.

No Union with Slaveholders I BOSTON, FKIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1SG4. THE CROWNING ACT. We have already remarked, tljiat the grand, inspiring, triumphant result of the bite Presidential election has sealed the doom cf slavery, and accorded to the Government whatever authority and menus my be necessary to insure its total extinction. If, long after Fort Sumter wns forced to surrender to the bnse-minded traitors who assailed it, the people of the North were blind to the fact that the rebellion was nothing but SLAVERY IN ARMS against a republican form of government and free institutions universally, and for the degradation and enslavement of labor, without regard to the complexion of the working classes they have since had their vision purged and their understanding enlightened so that they no longer need statistics and arguments to convince them of this fact. They were correctly represented in their views and feelings by the following pregnant resolution adopted as a part of the National Union Platform at Baltimore, on the 7th of June last Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of Republican Government, justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation front the soil of the Republic and that we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defence, lias aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil.

We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States." Upon this issue was the election contested, avowedly, explicitly, and victoriously. Neither the President, nor bis Cabinet, nor Congress, can need any stronger assurance, therefore, that the popular sentiment is irresistibly with them in sanctioning whatever they have decreed for the emancipation of those in bondage. Nay, it is not satisfied with what has been done for it authoritatively declares that it is "in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution as shall TERMINATE AND FOREVER PROHIBIT THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE JURISDICTION OF THE UNITED STATES." This is the greater that includes the less the crowning act of grace and glory that waits to be consummated. To it all thoughts should be turned, efforts directed, with reference to the approaching session of Congress. This is the theme that, for the next three months, should most absorb the attention of the press and the pulpit, the public orator and the political essayist.

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. Let it declare slavery forever abolished in the republic, and that no man can hold property in his fellow-man beneath the-American flag, and all that disturbs and rends the country will be effectually removed out of the way. Under no cunning plea of State rights can any part of the horrid system be allowed to remain or to reappear. Such an amendment will be bailed with congratulatory shouts by the friends of freedom in the old world, and will help mightily to pull down the hoary despotisms abroad, by giving to their oppressed millions th? glorious light of a consistent democratic example. It will be recollected that, at the last session of Congress, the Senate, with great unanimity, passed a proposition for amending the Constitution in the manner already indicated, which barely failed to secure the requisite two-thirds vote in the House the entire democratic body opposing its passage.

There is still pending in the House Mr. Ashley's motion to recnsid-r this decision and we take it for granted that he will lose no time in calling it up for action at the coming session. Now that the Democratic party has nothing to gain, but much to lose, from any further superfluous efforts in the service of a traitorous slave oligarchy, there is little doubt that the House will strongly concur with the Senate in the proposed amendment an amendment which we know, from personal assurance, President Lincoln is desirous of having carried at an earlv day, and the prompt adoption of which he will doubtless urge upon Congress and the country in his annual message. THE EMANCIPATION PEOCLAMATION. We are happy to learn that Carpenter's great national painting, entitled The Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet," will be exhibited in this city, at the gallery of Williams Everett, on or about the 1st of December.

It was exhibition in New York for a period of over six weeks, during which time it was visited by thousands. The art critics of that city were enthusiastic in its praise. The New York Tribune, in an elaborate notice of it, says It is, by all odds, next to Trumbull's picture of the Declaration of a picture worth all the rest in the Rotunda of the Capitol put together; the best work of this class that has been painted in America." An engraving from this fine painting is to be executed by Ritchie of New York, and will be published in the course of the next year. During the exhibition of the painting in that city, the subscriptions to the engraving reached an aggregate of five thousand dollars. SF Let no one forget the course of 6ix lectures to be given at the Melodeon, on successive Sunday evenings, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The first of these, on "Public and Private Education," will be given next Sunday evening, Nov. '27lh. The best thinkers, of all classes, value most highly the thought of Mr. Emerson. Mercantile Lidkart Lectures.

The second lecture of the series before this Association will be delivered by Rev. W. H. Milburn, the eloquent blind preacher, at the Music Hall, on Wednesday evening, Nov. 30th, who lias chosen for his subject, "What a Blind Man Saw in England." Previous to the lecture, Gilmore'e Full Military Band of 25 pieces will perform some of their finest selections.

2- We print on our last page a letter to a new-ly elected California Senator, in which the writer argues in favor of colonizing the colored population of the South in Mexico, for the reasons given by him. But why should they be removed any where They are all wanted where they are. Let Mexico manage her own affairs. Our views are too well known to need any special protest from us on the subject of negro colonization. Acknowledgment.

I am greatly obiiged to Mr. Janus Rodgers, Superintendent of the United Presbyterian Board of Publication, for his correction (in last week's LiUralur) of an error of mine in regard to the branch of the Presbyterian Church which he represents. Well aware of the freedom of the body of Presbyterians known as Covenanters from that practically pro slavery tuition which the Old School" and the New School in that denomination have always maintained, I had not known that the Covenanters were The United Presbyterian Church." They certainly deserve remembrance and honorable mention as faithful to truth and righteousness aiiiiJt the shameful defections of a great majority of tbeir ecclesiastical brethren. c. K.

w. THE LIBERA GEN. BUTLEE'S AMNESTY PE0P0SITI0N. About a week ago Gen. Butler recoired, at a public meeting in New York city, the thanks and congratulations of a large and brilliant assembly, for the successful accomplishment of his mission to that city.

To have secured at once the freedom and quietness of an election so warmly contested, in a place where violence and disorder have been common on such occasions, and where the existing authorities were supposed to favor such violence and disorder, was no small task. The thorough and perfect accomplishment of such a task, first in New Orleans and then in New York, under circumstances so highly unfavorable as existed in both cases, is the best proof of General Butler's high administrative capacity. It has excited much surprise that, in the speech of Gen. Butler at the complimentary' meeting above mentioned, he should have proposed a second offer.of amnesty from the Government to the whole mass of rebels, leaders and followers. Tit A first proposal to this effect, seriously offered by Presnltrnt Lincoln, has been esteemed one of the worst and most objectionable features ir.

his whole administration. Had that been accepted, slavery would have been reinstated in nearly the amount of strength which it had before the rebellion, and a new term of the disorder and confusion which the last twenty years have witnessed would have opened upon us. If such an offer should now be made and accepted, the danger would be far less, and of a different sort. It would not be possible now to effect a reestablish ment of slavery. That system is inevitably doomed, and must soon disappear.

But other and kindred dangers would thereby be produced, so fatal to a satisfactory and permanent reconstruction of our national edifice as to demand the strongest protest and the most active effort against such a measure. Speaking of an offer of universal amnesty at a time when the leaders of the rebellion are as strenuous as ever in their exhortations and efforts for its continuance Gen. Butler asks "Are we not able to afford it now Do we not stand strong enough 1 Do we not stand with union enough to be able to afford that to the leaders and to all For many reasons, in my judgment, we are not to afford this. I will mention three of them. I.

Justice forbids it. We owe it to the cause of free government, to the maintenance of popular rights, to the vindication of democratic institutions, not to pass lightly by the aw-ful crime which the leaders of this rebellion have committed. Not satisfied with annihilating liberty, neutralizing the republic, and maintaining an oligarchic despotism in their portion of the Union, and with making constant efforts, by fraud and force, to extend that vicious system into the North and West, they have been for thirty years in a deliberate and malicious plot to overthrow whatever of democratic character belonged to our general Government, and to destroy what the civilized world regards as the chief hope of popular freedom. In the effort to accomplish these things, they have systematically used not only every imaginable violation of good faith and common honesty, but perjury, theft, robbery and murder. They have proved themselves as hostile to the realization of human rights, nay, to the very theory of the existence of such rights, as Metternich, Talleyrand or Louis Napoleon have ever been.

Their sin is one of such kind, of such extent, and of such aggravation, that the interests of the civilized world, and the hopes of humanity in the future, cry out for retribution for it. In this case surely, if ever, the acquittal and release of the guilty would be a crime against the innocent. The interests of good order, of popular government, of free institutions, of the rights of the people over the whole world, cry out with trumpet tone against such amnesty to the unrepentant instigators and perpetrators of such crimes. II. Public safety forbids it.

We feel no vindictiveness we seek no revenge. But the safety of the nation, alike in the present crisis and in the immediate future, forbids the permission that men whose influence with the Southern popufi-tion is so powerful and so evil, and whose disposition to misuse that influence remains unchanged, shall be left free to continue their control over the public affairs of the South. Our only hope for the recovery of a people so hideously demoralized by slavery as the mass of the Southern jeople is the removal from the very possibility of continued power and place among them, of the men who have led them into rebellion. The introduction, at the same moment, of new leaders and free institutions may save them. The task will be full of difficulty, under the best circumstances which a Republican government ean supply to them.

But to allow the civil and military leaders of the re bellion to take their old places among a people who have always conceded their absurd claim of a natural right to predominate, to govern, and to enslave, is to take away the only chance cf that people to enter upon an improved phase of civilization to begin an experience of the advantages of a truly Democratic government. A return of those leaders without ret ribution, without even political disqualification, to the places of their former residence, would be the worst obstacle possible to the establishment of true liberty, free principles and right action, in Southern political life. No However strong the party of freedom, we cannot afford to commit this error, this blunder, this crime. Public opinion, throughout the civilizedworld, as well as the law and custom of civilized nations, has allotted death as the punishment of treason. To me it does not seem that either justice or prudence is beet served by this measure.

I detest the death penalty, as a relic of barbarous ages. But nothing less than perpetual incarceration or ierpetual banishment of these worst of malefactors, the civil and military leaders of the rebellion, can give us due security against a repetition of their offences. If they can be captured, they should be confined in some penitentiary at hard labor for life. If they escape, perpetual banishment should be declared against them. In either ease, their property should be confiscated by the Government, and their lands should be applied to the use and benefit of those colored people over whom the worst of their tyranny has been exercised.

Amnesty towards the defeated and repentant followers of the rebellion is well. Amnesty towards its instigators, its leaders, the heads of its civil government, the officers in its armies, the commissioners who have sought to pervert foreign powers and foreign capitalists to its support, is forbidden by every consideration of prudence as well as justice. III. Lastly, the welfare of the Southern people, white and black, forbids it. As to the blacks, a momentous experiment, full of difficulty in the best aspect of the case, is now commencing in regard to them.

Now that slavery seems near its close, the question comes up, shall the freed-tnan be a free man 1 Shall he stand equal with the rest of us before the law, or be placed in some posi tion intermediate betwee slavery and freedom? A few Southern men (of whom Andrew Johnson of Tennessee is a distinguished and noble stRcimcn) seem thoroughly converted to the idea of the right of universal Ireedom. The majority of Southern men, it is to be feared, are disposed, in their compulsory loss of slavery, to retain, as far as may be, the old distinction of classes, and to keep up the idea that colored people are to be, permanently, the laboring class, and that the white is to hold himself above labor. It will be hard, under any circumstances, to overcome this tendency. But if the old aristocracy of the Southern States still lead the ideas and dictate the policy of their people, this course will be systematically taken, the distinctions of race and class will still be insisted on, the coloredteople will be held as near to slavery as the new condition of things will allow, and the Courts, the Legislature, and the Congressional dele gations of the Southern Slates will bend all their influence to the perpe tuation and confirmation of this policy. Our only chance of turning the Southern people, black and white, into the proper direction, is to pre vent the old leaders from resuming the stations which they have so grossly abused, and to infuse Northern ideas, customs and principles, with an admixture of Northern population, black and white, through all the Southern States.

Let the soldiers, of both colors, have their bounty lands there. Let immigration from the North and from Europe be warmly encouraged. Let black men. Northern and Southern, be helped to an extensive proprietorship of land; and let the full citizenship of the colored people be conceded, hedged with only such limitations and safeguards as are thought best (or may be found best) for all. These measures may save us.

But it is indispensable to begin them by weeding out from Southern society those pernicious leaders who have cherished slavery up to the point of rebellion. c. k. w. LETTEES PROM.

NEW YOEK. NO. XXI. New York, Nor. 17, 18S4.

To the Editor of the Liberator Rosseau somewhere remarks that I told you so" is one of the most senseless of phrases. As a taunt post factum, in cases where the chances were even, it certainly is. But in the matter of the recent ele-ction, the arrogance was not in predicting the result which has ensued, but in dreaming of any other. Many who ought to have manifested more intelligence sincerely believed that the occupation of the White House on the Potomac was to be the sequence (partly logical and partly historical) of that of the White House on the Pamunkey. Is it blameworthy if one's impatience finds vent, after the magnificent support which Mr.

Lincoln has developed, in word or look You might have known The exceptions to the unanimity of the States give no occasion for lamentation. Delaware is altogether insignificant, and has probably conceded for the last time a triumph to slavery. New Jersey was faithful to her adopted son, while Kentucky was ungrateful enough to forget the child of her loins, and his more than dutiful filial caresses. The travelling public will be glad to learn, that spite of the constrained neutrality of Camden and Amboy during the late canvass, the perverse decision of the State in favor of McClellan almost ensures the overthrow of that monopoly by the approaching Congress. As for Kentucky, if she has not opened the eyes of Mr.

Lincoln to the worthlessness of his partiality to her in times past, she has at least disgusted all loyal people by her idolatrous devotion to slavery, and prepared them to witness with indifference whatever retribution awaits her obstinacy. The only uneasiness experienced in this city, as the returns came in on the night of the 8th, was for the attitude of our Empire State. Butler had exorcised the spirit of border-ruffianism so thoroughly that a more peaceful ballot was never cast at our polls. But the frauds which were checked at Baltimore had already been spread beyond reach of detection, and no man knew nor shall we ever know their extent. We feared that the immense Democratic majority of the metropolis would outweigh the virtue of the country districts and then we should have hail not only the disgrace of failing to sustain the Government, but also the intolerable burden of Seymour for two more unlucky years.

Several tlays were required to settle our doubts, but in the end we seem to have carried the State with a good selvage for the Union and for Fenton. The last stronghold of the rebellion in the North has been successfully besieged, and in a very few weeks must be ubandoned forever. The night is closing in upon the horizon of slavery. We have had our last retreat we have seen our last defeat," was McClellan's jingle in the days that followed Bull Run anil preceded the Peninsula when as yet we were ignorant of the character which provided for retreat before it planned an advance, and was always beaten in battle because it always distrusted its own successes. But all things have an end, and McClellan has come to his.

The day which terminated his brief career as a politician, witnessed his retirement from the service a tardy act of decency, in perfect keeping wiih his proverbial slowness. And now, which way shall the forsaken turn The Illinois Central will not take him back. Don't the Ames Company want him at Chicopee to superintend their spades He can come well-recommended. Anything to save him from being made Senator from New Jersey we should not be cruel to a fallen adversary. Perhaps the Journal of Commerce could secure him as a special contributor, for I presume that since his letter of acceptance, lie has concluded to do his own writing in the future.

You know, of course, that that pious Wall street newspaper has announced its retirement from politics upon the heels of the election. In imagination I see your Refuge of Oppression grow lean as one of Pharaoh's kine; for of all the presses which have contributed to make a mire of politics, the Journal of Commerce has been facile princeps, unless we give the Observer the benefit of an exception. Its particular branch of villany has been of the sleek, broadcloth, highly respectable and religious order, as heartless as Mammon, as unscrupulous as a Jesuit. It means slavery when it speaks of having advocated" certain great we have regarded as underlying and supporting our national strength and our commercial prosperity." And with this unblushing confession upon its lips, it has a right to the opinion," which prevails universally in this community, that we J. shall best serve the cause of the country, and do it and our readers the greatest good, by withdrawing from the political field." Mary la nil confirmed its title to be reckoned among the Free States by its Union majority for the author of the Proclamation.

While there has been no fear of a reaction in favor of slavery, there have been reasonable apprehensions that the despoiled slaveholders would obstruct the peaceful workings of emancipation wherever possible. To anticipate such designs, Gen. Wallace bridges over the interval before the meeting of the Legislature with a Freedman's Bureau on a military basis, after declaring, in accordance with the new Constitution, the absolute freedom of all those hitherto slaves. If the voluntary contributions of the humane prove insufficient to maintain this establishment, a levy upon the enrolled rebel sympathizers in Baltimore is directed to be made. The nature of this interference is akin to Butler's in this city.

It is in the interest of law not in contravention of it; it strengthens the Government at the expense of domestic traitors. Already it is reported that the planters in the lower counties of Maryland have come to terms with their late bondmen, and are offering them more or less adequate compensation tor their services. The same common sense universally exhibited would remove all friction from the change of labor-systems. The crowded District of Columbia can now overflow into Maryland, as the demand for laborers increases. From the Potomac to the- St.

Lawrence, society is homogeneous, and the black is free to abide on the spot where he was born, or to seek his fortune in any quarter of the land. There is no slavery to expel, nor any fugitive law to retain or retake him. It will be found that liberty attaches to the soil more strongly than serfdom. It is worth while to remark, as suggestive of the black man's future among us, that Gov. Johnson accepts the commission of Moses for those that are in bondage in Tennessee, as the President is popularly supposed to have done for the slaves at large.

If, therefore, Mr. Lincoln dies in office, the crier may declare, as in monarchies of the King Moses is dead live Moses!" Apart from this contingency, it cannot le doubted that the new Vice President will fraternize much more closely with Mr. Lincoln than his predecessor. Springing, both of from that class of the Southern population which we perhaps underrate when we estimate the material with which the South is to be reconstructed, and owing their elevation least of all to their origin, they look back upon similar careers of patient endeavor, such as in any country but our own, against wealth and learning and official repression, would probably have been ineffectual. Gov.

Johnson understands more thoroughly than Mr. Lincoln the relation of slavery to the poor whites, and will encourage in him tho boldness requisite to give the system its finishing stroke. He has also expressed his approval of the confiscation policy, for the subdivision of the vast plantations among both blacks and whites; and be will thus naturally second the earnest desires of Secretary Stanton on this important point. Strange that two Southern-born men should have been raised up to achieve the destruction of slavery 1 Glorious that the Republic is so rich in saviours that she could select two from the humblest ranks of her citizens in the most momentous crisis of her existence Unlike Miss Hcsmer's rendering of Zenobia, she docs not walk in the triumphal train of despotism, in regal robes but manacled with gold. She has snapt the glittering fetters of trade, she has risen from her abjectness, she has discomfited her oppressor, and is once more a queen among the nations.

The slaveholders have ever been the prime agitators of the question of slavery. If any one has deemed otherwise, let him ponder the recent debates in the rebel Congress on a certain topic in the President's Message, which had already been discussed in the newspapers. What is the use of a Confederacy which cannot exclude the everlasting negro" from its councils He appears in the bosom of its legislature to distract and embitter the proceedings. It is a downright shame. What does it concern him whether he is armed or not Who told him to intermeddle with affairs of State Nobody can answer.

Everybody sees, however, that he is on hand that abolitionism has got within the pale and that the schoolmaster i3 abroad. Let them settle it as they will the slave goes free. The clay which shall witness his employment as a soldier of the Confederacy will furnish an illustrious example of the engineer hoist with his own petard." M. du Pays. JOHN BROWN'S FAMILY SATE.

We are permitted to print the following extract from a letter received from Annie Brown- by her relatives at Put-in Bay, Ohio. Our readers will be glad at this assurance that the family of John Brown escaped the dangers of the Plains," and is safe in California "Red Blcff, Tehama California, 1 Oct. 9, 1661. Vert Dear Sister We arrived here alive, safe and well, nearly a week ago. We came to the Sacramento river a week ago Saturday.

Mother and Ellen will probably live in town. Sarah and I are going to teach school out in the country. We shall begin in about a fortnight. Salmon, Abbie, Cora and Minnie, Mr. Smith and George have gone out into the country.

The boys have taken a job of chopping out there. We are living in a small white house in town for the present. I do not know how I shall like California yet will tell you after the rainy season begins. The weather is now as warm as you ever saw it in July or August at home, and the sky cloudless. We have found a great many very warm friends here among them are Rev.

J. McLaughlin and wife-. They keep the Academy here they are both excellent people she is one of tha most beautiful ladies I ever saw. The motto of California is grizzly bears and fat babies. She has the fattest baby I ever saw.

Dauphy was no comparison. Little chub How I wish I could see the children Yesterday, Sarah and I were down to Mr. McL's, at a school teachers' examination, (we were not examined will be soon,) and some ladies we-re playing on the piano and singing. It made me think of you so much, I had to go out of the parlor where they were, and cry. Wa'n't I silly I could not help it.

It is six months since I have heard from a friend in the States. Do write as soon as you get this, for you cannot imagine how I want to hear from you. I wrote you last while at Soda Springs. I did not tell you the clanger we' were in, for I thought you would worry for nothing. There was a train of Tennessee rebels of the worst kind got us into their company, and were going to kill Salmon, and doubtless the rest of us.

This was the day we came through the Great South Pass." We went with them cm Tublott's Cut-off'." Another train, one of Union people, followed, and got us out, and went with us on to Soda Springs, where there is a company of soldiers stationed. The rebels followed us there. The men of our train reported them, and they had to take the oath. Abbie, Sarah and I went to Capt. Black, and he sent a company of six soldiers, with Lieut.

Shoemaker, two hundred miles with us. The rebels went to Oregon. Missouri has transplanted herself into Oregon this season the Plains were covered with Missourians. You will ask how I liked crossing the Plains. It will do for one six mouths of one's life, but I should hate to waste another by doing it over again.

We had a remarkably good time, and enjoyed it much did not suffer deprivations or otherwise, as I supposed we should still, I do not think I could advise any one to undertake the journey. Red Bluff is a small business town on the right bank of the Sacramento river at the head of navigation. Salmon lost all his sheep except the two poorest, one ewe anil the oldest ram, by poison. Little Dick and the two best ewes, we have quite good reason to believe, were joisoned by a rebel. The other ewe got some poison weed, (mountain laurel,) in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and died after we gut here.

I don't know what S. will do. He talks of buying a small place on time, and raising a few sheep, grapes, lruit, I saw balsam trees on the mountains five feet through, and pines from ten to fifteen feet." M. D. CONWAY.

I have never been an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Conway neither can I claim, except in the general way, to be his friend, for my personal acquaintance with him is very limited but I love to see justice done between man and man, and I am quite too chary of the good report of my Anti-Slavery friends, editors and all, to witness without pain on their part any want of fairness towards one whom we have reason to believe was governed by honest motives, however much we may differ from him in any particular act. Having been among those who have looked upon Mr. Conway's overtures to Mason with disapproval, I am now desirous of making public my change of opinion in his favor, feeling as I do that Mr. Conway, in his last letter to the Editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard, has given a clear and satisfactory statement of the case.

It also appears to me that it would have been more courteous in the Editor to have accepted Mr. Conway's explanation besides, no good can be gained to the anti-slavery body by a virtual refusal to receive back a brother, particularly one who has been so misunderstood as Mr. Conway seems to have been. He certainly deserves much credit for his Christian forbearance, and unwavering adherence to the slave and his friends, under all his trials, which must have often proved a fiery ordeal of his faith but I trust he will come out of the furnace without even the smell of fire upon his garments. I hope he will soon return to his native land, his fine gifts as a writer and public speaker have in past years done so good service in the cause of hu manity.

I would refer all interested in the case to the letter of Mr. Conway before alluded to, published in the A. S. Standard for Nov. 19, 1S64.

D. R. New Bedford, Nov. 20, 18G4. We wholly dissent from the view of Mr.

Conway's unwarrantable and reprehensible conduct, taken by our correspondent, respecting the overture made to Mr. Mason, and we think he has been treated with great forbearance rather than any injustice. Next week we shall publish Mr. C'a letter from the Standard, with comments. Ed.

Lib. NOVEMBER 25. C0L0EED CELEBRATION LTJ HONOE OP PEEE MARYLAND. Last weak the colored people of Washington as-sembled at the Fifteenth street Presbyterian Church, for the purpose of celebrating the adoption of the new Constitution of Maryland. The church was densely crowded, and several hundred were unable ot gain admission.

Those on the outside of the church had the band of the 3d U. S. infantry performing for them, and they celebrated the occasion by a fine display of fireworks. The outside of the church was finely illuminated by a large number of torches fastened to the iron railing surrounding tho building, while the inside of the edifice was tastefully decorated with a number of large American flags. The choir, under the leader, ship of Prof.

Boston, sang several appropriate pieces during the evening. There was quite a sprinkling of whites in the assemblage. Mr. John Cook called the meeting to order, and said they had met for the purpose of celebrating the day of emancipation in Maryland. On Mr.

Cook's motion, the Rev. Dr. Highland Garnett was called to the chvir. Prof. W.

J. Wilson, Rev. Paul Jennings, Carter A. Stewart, Samuel Datcher, Walker Lewis, Samuel Middleton, John A. Gray, Dr.

Rapier and the Right Reverend Bishop Clinton were chosen vice presidents. John F. Cooke, T. E. Greene, Dr.

Abbott, W. H. Miller and Wm. Landrick were elected secretaries. The choir then sang, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of after which the Rev.

Air. Jennings offered up a prayer to the Throne of Grace, and returned thanks to God for the blessings bestowed upon the colored race, in breaking the bonds and setting the captives free. Mr. John Cook read the proclamation of Got. Bradford, which was received with loud applause.

Article twenty-four of the proclamation which declares the slaves of Maryland free, was received with deafening cheers. The Chairman (Be v. Dr. Garnett) proposed the singing of Blow Ye he Trumpet, Blow. and asked all those present to join in and sing with spirit.

The hymn was sung by the entire congregation standing. Rev. Dr. Garnett here returned his thanks for the honor conferred upon him in calling him to the chair. He thought it was out of respect for the State he was from, as he was a Marylander.

The speaker was under the impression that the grandest spectacle one could behold was the assembling together of a respectable and intelligent people for the purpose of thanking God for the blessings they had received. They should thank God, said the speaker, as Maryland was no longer to be trodden by slaves, for at midnight the fetters of the slaves were buried, and he hoped so eleep that they would never resurrect. The wires, continued Mr. Garnett, were flashing the news over the country that Maryland was free, and that involuntary bondage shall not exist, except for crime. Mr.

Garnett said it was intended to fire twenty guns in honor of the event, but there had been so many victories in the Valley and in Georgia, so much powder burnt, and so many windows broken, that they were not permitted to do so. They were here, however, to celebrate the day in another way. The speaker then alluded to the enemies of slavery, and said that this crime had passed away in Mary land, and it was proper to rejoice and let the world know that the colored jeople were not indifferent to this great event. There were a few things they ought to learn from these blessings, for it became all to learn more and more to respect and reverence God. Let us, remarked the speaker, respect that God who has been the instigator of this good and great work.

Let us learn to be united. If we direct our energies and hearts under God, we can accomplish everything, and push back the waves of oppression. The colored people ought to learn to make the best of the present opportunities, and use the hands made free by endeavoring to get homes for themselves, wives, and children, and show that they can and will do for themselves. The speaker wanted them to stop finding fault with the President, for there was not a man living who could do better than the man in the executive chair. Could they, remarked the speaker, find fault with the man who gave them the privilege of celebrating freedom for where would they be to-night at ten o'clock were it not for President Lincoln 1 The speaker thought some of them would be making tracks for home! (Great applause.) When the speaker attempted to find fault with that illustrious statesman, he hoped his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth.

Mr. Garnett then warned his friends against saying a harmful word against the soldiers, and bade them remember that, when the fate of Maryland was trembling in the balance, the brave soldiery, who had met the fiery bail of lead and iron, who had stormed the breast-works and taken the rifle-pits, who were suffering and bleeding on the battle-field, sent forth their votes, and by them decreed that henceforth "Maryland was free. The speaker further urged hem not to find fault with the Yankees; for when their hearts sank within them at the gloomy prospect after the fall of Sumter, the Yankees, east, west and north, rose as one man, and New York city sent her Yankee 7tl regiment to save the capital of the nation. He then concluded by requesting three rounds of applause for Maryland, and three for President Lincoln, which were given with a hearty good will. The Secretary then read the following resolutions, which had been prepared by different parties to offer singly, but by request they were offered in a body, and adopted as a whole unanimously Whereas, the people of Maryland in adopting their new constitution, and erasing from their statute-books their infamous and disgraceful laws holding persons in involuntary servitude not guilty of crime, thereby vindicating justice and honor, and advancing the standard of freedom, and with it their own material worth therefore, Resolved, That our congratulations are tendered to the people of Maryland on the removal of the foul blot of slavery from her escutcheon, and to the emancipated upon attaining rights of which they have for along period been unjustly deprived; and, further, that we not only congratulate Maryland and our whole country upon the great results wrought by this unholy rebellion, but also the lovers of freedom, of free government and free men everywhere upon the of another anti-slavery State, prophetic of the destiny of our whole country, whose glorious flag, we trust, will soon float only over free men.

Resolved, That we are profoundly grateful to onr honored Chief Magistrate, his constitutional advisers, and our gallant army and navy, for the impetus they have given to the cause of human liberty, while maintaining constitutional government, alike with the bullet and the ballot, against this gigantic effort of the slaveholding aristocracy to subvert popular government, and upon its ruins rear an anti-republican form, with Slavery as its chief corner-stone. Resolved, That following the illustrious example! of our brethren not only in this struggle but in the revolutionary war, and again in the war of 1812, we do freely devote our best efforts, and pledge our honor and our lives to the support of our country and for the maintenance of its just laws, whether assailed by traitors at home or beset by foreign foes. The chairman here requested the singing of "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the ground," which was joined in by all present. Prof. Wilson, George F.

Cooke, Carter A. Stewart, J. Green and John A. Gray addressed the meeting, each speaker taking one of the resolutions a the basis of his remarks. A collection was taken up for the sick and wounded soldiers, during which the choir sang Rally round the Flag, Boy 8," which was received with great applause, and when concluded cries of Sing it again" were heard fjom all parts of the house.

The song was repeated, nearly all present taking part in it..