[164] _Page 308, note 1._ Mason and Slidell, the emissaries sent by the Confederacy to excite sympathy in its cause in Europe, had been taken off an English vessel at the Bermudas by Commodore Wilkes, and were confined in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. President Lincoln’s action in surrendering them at England’s demand had been a surprise to the country, but was well received. [165] _Page 309, note 1._ From the Veeshnoo Sarma. [166] _Page 309, note 2._ See in the address on Theodore Parker the passage commending him for insisting “that the essence of Christianity is its practical morals; it is there for use or nothing,” etc. [167] _Page 311, note 1._ In the agitation concerning the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, gradual emancipation was at first planned, as more reasonable and politic, but, in the end, not only the reformers but the planters came in most cases to see that immediate emancipation was wiser. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION On the 22d of September, President Lincoln at last spoke the word so long earnestly desired by the friends of Freedom and the victims of slavery, abolishing slavery on the first day of the coming year in those states which should then be in rebellion against the United States. At a meeting held in Boston in honor of this auspicious utterance, Mr. Emerson spoke, with others. The address was printed in its present form in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for November, 1862. [168] _Page 316, note 1._ It may be interesting in this connection to recall the quiet joy with which Mr. Emerson in his poem “The Adirondacs” celebrates man’s victory over matter, and its promise to human brotherhood, when the Atlantic Cable was supposed to be a success in 1858. [169] _Page 320, note 1._ Milton, “Comus.” [170] _Page 321, note 1._ It is pleasant to contrast this passage with the tone of sad humiliation which prevails in the address on the Fugitive Slave Law given in Concord in 1851. [171] _Page 324, note 1._ See the insulting recognition of this disgraceful attitude of the North by John Randolph, quoted by Mr. Emerson in his speech on the Fugitive Slave Law in Concord in 1851. [172] _Page 326, note 1._ Shakspeare, Sonnet cvii. [173] _Page 326, note 2._ The tragedy of the negro is tenderly told in the poem “Voluntaries,” which was written just after they had gallantly stood the test of battle in the desperate attack on Fort Wagner. On the first day of the year 1863, when Emancipation became a fact throughout the United States, a joyful meeting was held in Boston, and there Mr. Emerson read his “Boston Hymn.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN