I felt as if inspired, and I wrote an article entitled, "Woe to the South." At this time, "Woe to the North" was the fear in every heart. I showed clearly that if we would only keep up our hearts, that the utter ruin of the South was inevitable, while that for us there was close at hand such a period of prosperity as no one ever dreamt of--that every factory would soon double its buildings, and prices rise beyond all precedent. I followed this article by others, all in a wild, enthusiastic style of triumph. People thought I was mad, and the _New York Times_ compared my utterances to the outpourings of a fanatical Puritan in the time of Cromwell. But they were fulfilled to the letter. There is no instance that I know of in which any man ever prophesied so directly in the face of public opinion and had his predictions so accurately fulfilled. I was _all alone_ in my opinions. At all times a feeling as of awe at myself comes over me when I think of what I published. For, with the exception of Gilmore, who had a kind of vague idea that he kept a prophet--as Moses the tailor kept a poet--not a soul of my acquaintance believed in all this. Then I went a step further. I found that the real block in the way of Northern union was the disgust which had gathered round the mere _name_ of Abolitionist. It became very apparent that freeing the slaves would, as General Birney once said to me, be knocking out the bottom of the basket. And people wanted to abolitionise without being "Abolitionists"; and at this time even the _New York Tribune_ became afraid to advocate anti-slavery, and the greatest fanatics were dumb with fear.