A united people cannot be conquered. Defeated on the battle-field, they will remain sullen and revengeful, ready for another rebellion. This is the lesson of history. Even Hannibal, after crushing in the field all the armies of Rome, and ranging at will throughout Italy, was obliged to confess the inadequacy of his triumphs, while he appealed for help to the subjects of Rome, exciting them to insurrection, and arousing them against the Roman power. To this long-cherished plan were directed all the energies he could spare from battle, believing that in this way his enemy could be brought under a double fire. But it is known that the people of the Slave States are not wholly united, and that among them are large numbers ready at call to uphold the Union. From the beginning of the war, we have assumed, as an element of strength, the presence there of large numbers devoted to the Union, ready at the proper moment to coöperate with the national forces. Yet most of these faithful Unionists are not white. The Unionists of the South are black. Let these be rallied, and the Rebellion will be exposed not only to a fire in front, but also to a fire in the rear. The two together are necessary to the operations of war. The Union army thus far is like a single blade of a pair of scissors, which, though of choicest steel with sharpest edge, must be comparatively useless. Let the other blade be conjoined, and the instrument will be perfect. The scissors of Fate could not cut more surely. * * * * * Is not our duty clear? And is not the President completely vindicated? By Emancipation we not only hasten the war to a close, but we give it an effective _finality_, preventing it from breaking forth anew, which can be obtained in no other way. The heads of the hydra will be extirpated and the monster destroyed, never more to show itself. Without Emancipation the whole contest is delivered over to present uncertainty, while the future is left to glare with all the horrors of civil strife unsuppressed. The last chapter of “Rasselas” is entitled “The Conclusion, in which Nothing is Concluded”; and this will be the proper title for the history of this war, if Slavery is allowed to endure. If you would trample down the Rebellion, you must trample down Slavery; and, believe me, it must be completely done. Among the terrible pictures in the immortal poem of Dante, where crime on earth is portrayed in so many fearful punishments, is that of Caiaphas, high-priest of the Jews, who, as penalty for his sacrifice of the Saviour, was stretched on the floor of Hell, where all who passed must tread on him. “Naked athwart this pathway he must lie, Condemned, as thou perceiv’st, to undergo The weight of every one who passes by.”[131] Such should be the final fate of Slavery, naked and dishonored, stretched where all may tread upon it. Never can the Rights of War be employed more justly than to create this doom.