Xiv.
But while this thing was slowly righting itself in the councils of the administration, Mr. Sumner's voice was once more heard in Cooper Institute, where, on the 27th of November—still in the year 1861—he pronounced another famous oration, on ‘The Rebellion: its Origin and Mainspring,’ in which he once more surveyed the whole field. The key-note of this speech will be found in the following passage, which is one of the clearest of his many lucid interpretations of the wonderful events then transpiring:The duty which I announce, if not urgent now, as a Military necessity, in just self-defence, will present itself constantly, as our armies advance in the Slave States, or land on their coasts. If it does not stare us in the face at this moment, it is because, unhappily, we are still everywhere acting on the defensive. As we begin to be successful, it must rise before us for practical decision; and we cannot avoid it. There will be slaves in our camps, or within our extended lines, whose condition we must determine. There will be slaves also claimed by Rebels whose continued chattelhood we should scorn to recognize. The decision of these two cases settles the whole great question. Nor can the Rebels complain. They challenge our army to enter upon their territory in the free exercise of all the powers of war—according to which, as you well know, all private interests are subordinated to [362] the public safety, which, for the time, becomes the supreme law, above all other laws, above even the Constitution itself. If everywhere under the flag of the Union, in its triumphant march, Freedom is substituted for Slavery, this outrageous Rebellion will not be the first instance in history where God has turned the wickedness of man into a blessing; nor will the example of Samson stand alone, when he gathered honey from the carcass of the dead and rotten lion. Events, too, under Providence, are our masters. For the Rebels there can be no success. For them, every road leads to disaster. For them, defeat is bad, but victory worse; for then will the North be inspired to sublimer energy. The proposal of Emancipation which shook ancient Athens followed close upon the disaster at Chaeronea; and the statesman who moved it vindicated himself by saying that it proceeded not from him, but from Chaeronea. The triumph of Hannibal at Cannae drove the Roman Republic to the enlistment and enfranchisement of eight thousand slaves. Such is history, which we are now repeating. The recent Act of Congress, giving freedom to slaves employed against us, familiarly known as the Confiscation Act, passed the Senate on the morning after the disaster at Manassas.
