The overthrow of American slavery, containing descriptions of important events and sketches of some of the prominent actors

Preface

Book making is new to the author of the following lines. If it be an art, he has never practiced it. If a gift, it is as yet undeveloped.

It is not unusual for a new candidate for public attention to seek an ‘introduction” by some one who has attained freedom of the literary domain. We have sought no herald of this kind. For an introduction to our theme we have two hundred years of oppression and four years of convulsive civil war, the memories of which have not passed from this generation. So. here we shall be content with a preface.

It is quite probable that the warders who keep the gates of the highways that lead to literary preferments will not suffer us to pass. They may not even deem us worthy of a courteous refusal, but instead thereof stand with folded arms before the barred gates, and not bestow a pasing glance on the unheralded stranger. But it is possible that among the unliveried and uncrowned millions that stand without the gates there may be some to listen to our humble song.

For speaking we claim no exceptional privilege.

4 Preface.

We waited for a master to express our tliought. We heard no breath on the air. And in the silence the question came, Why not express our own thought ?

The wise and thoughtful preacher of the Divine Word does not herald before his auditors the names of the apostles of unbelief. He thinks with regard to them and the cause they serve : “ Let the devil do his own advertising.” The unnatural son who draws his knife against the mother who gave him birth is only worthy of oblivion. So the apostles of oppression and the chiefs and heroes of civil discord should pass to the ages to come in silence. The reader will not find their names in these pages.

Neither will there be found, what is deemed by some proofs of superior merit, any open or covert sneers at the Holy Scriptures. The writer receives these writings as a partial unveiling of providential government as well as a revelation of redemption, and allusion to their teaching and illustrations from them are freely made.

One Avord with regard to the form of this writing. The heroic pentameter has not been essayed. With a step more easy and facile to us we have walked over the fields we have surveyed ; and if any do us the honor of walking with us, we trust they will not conclude there is nothing worth seeing because they are permitted to make the journey with even and quiet step. The Author.

Table Of Contents

I. — The Discovery.

PAGE

Starting from port — The master — His employment — His dreams —

Prologue

OF makiDg books there is no end,

And study wearies much the flesh, But seers have said there may be found Sermons in stones, books in the brooks; And if from dead and senseless things The sage can tomes of wisdom draw.

Shall not the deeds of living men.

Their pride, their passions, and their strife. Their prayer and labors most severe.

Their hopes and fears, their joys and pain. Afford to us the lessons wise.

To guide our feet through tangled life ? The preacher’s place is to arrange And classify the truths he finds.

And speak the same to listening men.

Diverse the gifts; but shall the one To whom a rushdight hath been given,

The same beneath a bushel hide.

Because ’tis not a blazing sun ?

Because the eagle, strong of wing, Sweeps grandly through the upper air,

So far above the mountain tops ;

May not the robin chirp his song,

Among the haunts and homes of men, When winter storms have passed away? May not his plumage cheer the eye.

While he shall fly from field to field ?

1 2 Prologue.

The clearer vision yet may pierce Beyond where now our eye can reach; The lips anointed yet may tell The story that we trembling speak,

In tones so clear that every age Shall listen to the wondrous tale.

But till the kingly prophet comes, Bearing aloft his flaming torch.

We humbly speak of that we know.

And testify that we have seen, Remembering that a little light Shows far when all around is night.

THE

OVERTHROW OF AMERICAN SUVERY.

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

SIGNAL-GUN boomed on tlie air,

Bearing upon its silken folds Arms of Castile and Aragon ;

And answering guns resounded far,

And answering flags wei’e lifted high.

Three barks that lay in Palos road Lifted their anchors from the deep,

Shook out their sails to catch the blast.

Turned their slight prows toward western seas, Thus starting forth to find a world.

The master, standing on the deck,

With eagle eye turned toward the West,

Has passed the acme of his life ;•

His locks once jet have turned to steel ;

The seams are deep upon his brow —

Sorrow hath left its traces there.

And hope hath often met defeat.

An early toiler on the sea,

He learned to love its dashing waves,

To muse of all within its depths.

To dream of all beyond the lines Where boldest mariner had gone.

A streamer floated fi-om the mast

14 The Overthrow of American Slaver}/.

The broken branch with curious leaf,

Tile weeds that came from climes unknown, The wood which was so strangely wrought, The dusky forms, that western winds Had stranded on the ancient shores.

All told of land beyond the sea.

And he had passed from court to court. And converse held with kings and queens. And councils grave had heard his plans, And met them with their doubts and fear.

Thus baffled oft, he sought the aid To solve the problem of the seas.

These cares have touched the outer life, But have not bent his iron will —

H:ive not destroyed his faith in God ;

But prudent, firm, heroic, true.

He walks a humble, prayerful man.

The name ! till then to fame unknown. Colombo, in his native tongue ;

In Spain, where help he found, he called It Colon, as the Spaniards do.

In hopeful youth, in learning’s pride A Latin form, Columbus, called.

Prophetic of its coming fame.

And now in Anglo-Saxon tongue, Columbus it shall still remain.

He walks his deck in thoughtful mood, The hour he long had sought has come ; The land is fading from his sight.

The canvas stiffens in the breeze ;

As war-horse snuffs the field afar.

As racer bounds along the track.

The ships swept forward in their course, Still sailing toward the setting sun.

No white-winged rover of the deep

The Discovery of America.

Is seen athwart their bows by day,

No friendly light is seen by night,

No signal gun, no cry for help

From those who sink beneath the waves.

But all alone the little fleet Sped o’er its yet nntraveled track.

Till days had grown to weeks and months.

The seamen of those fragile barks Were only versed in inland seas.

Or hovering near frequented coasts.

Untutored minds soon took alarm.

Portents were thick in all the air.

Forgetting all its ancient truth.

The needle varied from the pole;

But still the master kept his path Until, on an October night,

A w^atchful eye descried the light.

And when the morning sun was bright,

A new world broke upon their sight.

These islands of a tropic sea Were jasper gems, set to adorn The girdle of a virgin land;

The gate- ways of a palace fair.

Through which should come, as ages pass, Uncounted multitudes of men.

To pay their court to crowns within.

They w^ere the sentinels who stand To challenge all who may approach;

And by their presence always tell.

The solid hosts are lying near.

Columbus saw the flashing gems;

He passed the temple’s beauteous gates;

He hailed the sentry on the watch;

And, though the main his feet ne’er pressed, His eye ne’er caught the mountain tops Of the great land for which he sought.

Historic pen shall ever say,

“ Columbus found America.'^'*

The slumbering thought of the Old World Was thrilled as by electric touch,

Wiien through her courts, her camps, her marts Of trade, her legislative halls,

A world long hid was first revealed:

A new discovered ancient world.

Set in its place by Him whose word First spake created things from naught;

When morning stars rejoiced anew.

An 1 sons of G-od did shout for joy, —

Here waiting for the sons of men.

And all along the ancient coast,

There poured a restless, eager throng.

Who sougiit distinction on the seas.

Who sought for gold and precious gems.

Who sought for conquest, kingly rule;

And in these stirring, active times.

The coast was searched from end to end.

A land so vast in its extent.

Reaching from northern frozen seas.

From caves where iceberg fieets are launched, Down through the wide-spread temperate dime. To torrid heats of central zone,

Where sun forixets his south decline.

And from his fiery throne on high Pours his fierce rays dii'ectly down;

And then to temperate climes again.

Where men look northward to the sun.

Till frozen seas are reached anew.

And through this coast-line’s vast extent. Were seas, and gulfs, and bays, and roads,

And harbors, sheltered from the blasts Of Ocean in his stormy wrath ;

The Discovery of America. 17

While through the gate-ways of the land The mighty floods of Amazon And Mississippi, pouring forth,

Betokened spaces vast within.

The daring ones who passed these gates Found wealth of soil, and rock, and mine, And forest trees; spices and gums;

With open streams and sleeping seas That might bear up a nation’s wealth.

And open spaces by the sea,

Where mighty cities should be built;

And traces -of the seats of power Of ancient peoples passed away.

This land, of such resources vast.

Of possibilities so great,

Now held by feeble wasting bands,

And only waiting brain and hand That should transform its wilderness To fruitful fields and pleasant homes ; Should dot its seas with cities fair.

That should uncover all its mines,

Should harness streams for human use Which now run capering to the sea.

And virtue, skill, and industry Should throng its vales with kingly men.