How to treat the black men that came into our lines, or were liberated by the advance of our armies, was another of the pressing questions at this time, and one concerning which there was a great difference of opinion. He treated this subject in a column article on this page, entitled “_Men_, not _Slaves_.” The position which he held, and advocated with great force and clearness, is given in this sentence: “One thing is plain—one thing as a starting-point admits of no doubt, needs no hesitation: let us forget that these blacks ever were _slaves_, and remember only that they are _men_. With this as our first principle we cannot go far wrong.” This money-raising was a matter of so great importance that he devoted another column to it on this same page, on the “Duty of the Hour.” In the first article he sent a message to Congress; in this he speaks to the Christian public: “Whether the great impending patriotic tax shall be a moral triumph and a testimony to the religious life of this people will depend largely upon the conduct of Christian men and the action of Christian teachers.... There seems to have been very _little education of the consciences of Christian men to the duty of a cheerful support of government by their property_. Even Christian men are tempted to give grudgingly, selfishly, meanly. The nobler sentiments of the heart have been allowed but little scope in this part of citizen duty. “Is the Gospel worn out? Are ministers of the Gospel less manly and Christian than in the days of the fathers? Has the American pulpit forgotten that its place is in the van—that it leads, not follows, the camp? “Every church should have a public sentiment developed within it which shall make this national tax almost a free-will offering. Let Christian laymen take counsel together. Let the leading men of towns and neighborhoods not only set a good example, but make it their duty to cheer and inspirit the slow and reluctant. Let Christian men everywhere, and in all things, seek to inspire the public mind with an earnest willingness to discharge this great debt which we are called to pay for _national unity, national safety, and national glory_.” In those days of dress-parades in our largest army, and “all quiet on the Potomac,” men chafed continually over what appeared to be inaction and timidity on the part of the government at Washington. This found expression in still another article by this same pen upon this same page, “Courage and Enterprise”: