[The following letter from Mrs. Lydia Maria Child to the President of the United States, sheds a strong light upon the present aspect of the great political struggle through which this nation is now passing. It shows the forces which the President has to resist, in following his present conservative, not to say suicidal, policy. He has to stand up against the "enthusiasm for freedom" which reigns in nearly twenty millions of hearts in the free North, and against the prayers of four millions of oppressed and suffering slaves. If he continues to resist all these, in refusing to take those steps which a sound policy, the principles of humanity, and the salvation of the country, demand, it must be from an infatuation akin to that which of old brought Pharaoh to an untimely end.—u. s.]
It may seem a violation of propriety for a woman to address the Chief Magistrate of a nation at a crisis so momentous as this. But if the Romans, ages ago, accorded to Hortensia the right of addressing the Senate on the subject of a tax unjustly levied on the wealthy ladies of Rome, surely an American woman of the 19th century need not apologize for pleading with the rulers of her country in behalf of the poor, the wronged, the cruelly oppressed. Surely the women of America have a right to inquire, nay, demand, whether their husbands, sons, and brothers, are to be buried by thousands in Southern swamps, without obtaining thereby "indemnity for the past and security for the future."
In your appeal to the Border States, you have declared slavery to be "that without which the war could never have been," and you speak of emancipation as "the step which at once shortens the war." I would respectfully ask how much longer the nation is to wait, for the decision of the border States, paying meanwhile, thirty-two millions a day, and sending thousands of its best and bravest to be stabbed, shot, and hung, by the rebels, whose property they are employed to guard. How much longer will pro-slavery officers be permitted to refuse obedience to the laws of Congress, saying, "We shall continue to send back fugitives to their masters until we receive orders from the President to the contrary." What fatal spell is cast over your honest mind, that you hesitate so long to give such orders? Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Neither nations nor individuals sin against his laws with impunity. Hear the old Hebrew prophet, whose words seem as if spoken to us: "Thou shouldst not have stood in the crossway to cut off those that did escape; neither shouldst thou have delivered up those that did remain in the day of distress. For thy violence against thy brother, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, saying, who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord."
The American people have manifested almost miraculous patience, forbearance, and confidence in their rulers. They have given incontrovertible proof that their intelligence, their love of country, may be trusted to any extent. They are willing to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives, but they very reasonably wish to know what they are sacrificing them for. Men, even the bravest, do not go resolutely and cheerfully to death in the name of diplomacy and strategy. The human soul, under such circumstances, needs to be lifted up and sustained by great ideas of justice and freedom.
President Lincoln, it is an awful responsibility before God to quench the moral enthusiasm of a generous people. It wastes thousands of precious lives, causes an unutterable amount of slow, consuming agony, and tarnishes our record on the pages of history. Again I respectfully ask, How much longer are we to wait for the Border States, at such a tremendous cost and with such a fearful risk? When a criminal is on trial, it is not deemed prudent to try by a jury who are interested in the crime. Slavery is on trial, and the verdict is left to slaveholders in the Border States. The report of their majority shows them to be slaveholders in heart and spirit. The process of reasoning and entreaty has been very properly tried with them, and the people of the Free States have waited long and patiently for some obvious good result. They are getting restive; very restive. Everywhere I hear them saying, "Our President is an honest, able man, but he appears to have no firmness of purpose. He is letting the country drift to ruin for want of earnest action and a consistent policy." This is not the utterance of any one class or party. It may be heard everywhere: by the wayside, in the cars, and at the depots. Nor can I deny that some speak with less moderation. Shall I tell you what I said when cold water was thrown on the spark of enthusiasm kindled by brave, large-hearted Gen. Hunter? I exclaimed, with a groan, "O, what a misfortune it is to have an extinguisher instead of a Drummond Light in our watch-tower, when the Ship of State is reeling under such a violent storm, in the midst of sunken rocks, with swarms of unprincipled wreckers everywhere calculating on the profit they may derive from her destruction." The crew are working at the pumps with manly vigor, and almost superhuman endurance. They look out upon a prospect veiled by dense fog, and their cry is, "O God, let us know whither we are driving. Give us a clear, steady light to guide us through the storm."
I trust you will not deem me wanting in respect for yourself or your high position, if I say frankly that you seem to trust too much to diplomatic and selfish politicians, and far too little to the heart of the people. You do them wrong, irreparable wrong, by stifling their generous instincts, and putting an extinguisher on every scintillation of moral enthusiasm. Are you not aware that moral enthusiasm is the mightiest of all forces? It is the fire which produces the steam of energy and courage, and the motion of all the long train of crowded cars depends on its expansive power. In the name of our suffering country, for the sake of a world that needs enfranchisement, I beseech you not to check the popular enthusiasm for freedom! Would that you could realize what a mighty power there is in the heart of a free people! No proclamation, no speeches, have stirred it to its depths as did the heroic and kindly Gen. Banks, when he gave the weary little slave-girl a ride upon his cannon. I hail this omen of that suffering little one riding to freedom on the cannon of the United States. It is impossible to estimate the benign, far-reaching influences of such an action. They cannot be arranged in statistics, and will therefore be neglected by political economists. They cannot be brought up for electioneering purposes, and therefore men called statesmen attach no importance to them. But they will run through all the patterns of our future, though history will be unable to trace to their origin in the web those golden threads that here glow in the heart of a flower, and there light up the eye of a bird. Gen. Banks was not aware of the magnetism in that simple act of humanity. It owed its magnetic power to the fact that131
> "What within is good and true,
> He saw it with his heart."
And so it wakened a responsive thrill in other kindly, generous hearts, who all remember the words, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto me." Such potency was there in it, that it proved an Ithuriel's spear to disguised forms of selfishness and treason. When it touched the toads, they started up devils.
In thus entreating you to trust to the impulses of the people, I by no means overlook the extreme difficulties of your position. I know that the pro-slavery spirit of the land is a mighty giant, characterized by unscrupulous selfishness and exceeding obstinacy. But I also know that all the enthusiasm is on the side of freedom. Despotism has its ugly Caliban of obstinate pride always at work for mischief. But enthusiasm is the swift and radiant Ariel, always prompt in the service of freedom. These two agents are in active competition. Choose which of them you will trust.
That you sincerely wish to save the Republic, the people do not doubt for a moment; and your scruples about Constitutional obligations have commanded their respect. But events have educated them rapidly, and they now deny that any Constitutional obligation exists toward rebels who have thrown off the Constitution, spit upon it, and trampled it under their feet. If you entered into partnership with a man who robbed you of your funds, set your house on fire, and seized you by the throat with intent to strangle you, should you consider yourself still legally bound by the articles of partnership? I trow not. But it is urged that some slaveholders are loyal. I apprehend that their name is not legion, nor their loyalty always of a kind that will stand much wear and tear. The course that some of them have pursued recalls to my mind the words of the same old Hebrew prophet, "The men of the confederacy have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee."
Much has been said concerning the inhumanity of arming the blacks. All war is necessarily inhuman. But I cannot perceive why there is any more inhumanity in a black man's fighting for his freedom, than in a white man's fighting for the same cause. Doubtless long years of oppression have brutalized many of the slaves, and darkened their moral sense almost as much as it has that of the slaveholders. If, wearied out with their long waiting in vain for help, and goaded by the increase of their sufferings, they should resort to insurrection, indiscriminate cruelty might be the result. But this danger would be averted by organizing them under the instruction and guidance of officers who would secure their confidence by just treatment. They are by nature docile, and have been trained to habits of obedience. There seems no reason to apprehend that their passage through any district would be accompanied with more devastation than that of other troops. As for bravery, they would be stimulated to it by the most powerful motives that can act on human nature; the prospect of freedom on the one hand, and the fear of falling into their masters' power on the other.
I need not speak of emancipation as a measure of policy. Enough has been said and written to prove that enlightened self-interest requires it at our hands. But there is one aspect of the question which seems to me very important, though generally overlooked, I mean the importance of securing the confidence of the slaves, of making them feel secure of their freedom, if they serve the United States. One of the "contrabands" at fortress Monroe, said, "We want to work for the United States, but we can't work with heart, because we feel anxious about what the United States means to do with us when the war is over." I often see suggestions about impressing the negroes and compelling them to work for us. Last night's paper states that orders have been given to employ them in some of the camps, and pay wages to those who are free. In the name of justice, what right have we to force slaves to work without wages? What right have we to recognize slaves in persons working for the United States? Have we gone so far in this struggle without learning yet that heart-labor is of infinitely more value than compulsory labor? It is our duty, as well as our best policy, to deal justly and kindly by the poor fugitives who toil for us, and to stimulate their energies by making them feel secure of their freedom. Your word, officially spoken, alone can do this. So long as you delay to utter it, one officer will scourge them and send them to their masters to be again scourged, while another will protect them. The poor creatures whose minds are darkened by ignorance, and perplexed by falsehood about the Yankees, become bewildered, and know not whom to trust. Their simple declaration, "We want to work for the United States, but we can't work without heart," seemed to me very significant and pathetic. Is not the heart-service of these loyal thousands too valuable to be thrown away? If their masters, in desperation, should promise them freedom as the reward for fighting against us, they would doubtless accept the offer as the best bargain they could make; because, alas, they have been unable to find out what the United States means to do with them. What candid person could blame them for such a course? Should we not do the same under similar circumstances?
O, President Lincoln, God has placed you as father over these poor, oppressed millions. Remember their forlorn condition! Think how they have been for generations deprived of the light of knowledge and the hope of freedom! Think of the cruel lashes inflicted on them for trying to learn to read the word of God! Think of their wives polluted, and their children sold, without any means of redress for such foul and cruel wrongs! Imagine them stealing through midnight swamps, infested with snakes and alligators, guided toward freedom by the north star, and then hurled back into bondage by Northern blood-hounds in the employ of the United States! Think how long their groans and prayers for deliverance have gone up before God from the hidden recesses of Southern forests! Listen to the refrain of their plaintive hymn, "Let my people go!" Above all, think of their present awful uncertainty, scourged and driven from one to another, not knowing whom to trust! We are told that uncounted prayers go up from their bruised hearts, in the secrecy of their rude little cabins, that "God would cross massa Lincoln." Is there nothing that touches your heart in the simple trust of these poor, benighted, suffering souls? In view of it, can you still allow the officers of the United States to lash them at their pleasure, and send them back to their masters, on the plea that the President has given no orders on the subject? Shall such officers go unrebuked, while Gen. Hunter is checked in his wise and humane policy, and when the great, honest soul of Gen. Phelps is driven to the alternative of disobeying the convictions of his own conscience, or quitting the service of his country? If you can thus stifle the moral enthusiasm of noble souls; if you can thus disappoint the hopes of the poor, helpless wretches, who trust in you as the appointed agent of their deliverance, may God forgive you! It will require infinite mercy to do it.
I can imagine, in some degree, the embarrassments of your position, and I compassionate you for the heavy weight of responsibility that rests upon your shoulders. I know that you are surrounded by devils that have squeezed themselves into the disguise of toads. I pray you to lose no more time in counting these toads, and calculating how big a devil each may contain. Look upward instead of downward. Place your reliance on principles rather than on men. God has placed you at the head of a great nation at a crisis when its free institutions are in extreme peril from enemies within and without. Lay your right arm on the buckler of the Almighty, and march fearlessly forward to universal freedom in the name of the Lord!
Pardon me, if in my earnestness I have said aught that seems disrespectful. I have been impelled to write this because night and day the plaintive song of the bondman resounds in my ears,
"Go down, Moses, go down to Egypt's land,
And say to Pharaoh, 'Let my people go!'"
That you may be guided by Him who has said, "First righteousness, and then peace," is the earnest prayer of
Yours, respectfully,
L. MARIA CHILD.
[National Republican.