Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First TimeFreese, Jacob R.
History
Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time
Freese, Jacob R.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
That rings the knell
Of Slavery forever!-
"Then let the selfish lip be dumb,
And hushed the breath of sighing;
Before the joy of peace must come
The pains of purifying.
God give us grace,
Each in his place
To bear his lot,
And, murmuring not,
Endure, and wait, and labor!"
To this was added another of Whittier's poems, called The Crisis, as
follows:
"The crisis presses on us; face to face with us it stands,
With solemn lips of question, like the Sphinx in Egypt's sands!
' This day we fashion Destiny, our web of fate we spin;
This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin;
Even now from starry Gerizim, or Ebal's cloudy crown,
We call the dews of blessing, or the bolts of cursing down!
"By all for which the martyrs bore their agony and shame;
By all the warning words of truth with which the prophets came;
' By the future which awaits us; by all the hopes which cast
' Their faint and trembling beams across the blackness of the past,
' And in the awful name of Him who for earth's freedom died;
O ye people, O my brothers! let us choose the righteous side!
"So shall the Northern pioneer go joyfully on his way,
To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's bay;
To make the rugged places smooth, and sow the vales with grain,
' And bear, with Liberty and Law, the Bible in his train;
The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea;
' And mountain unto mountain call: Praise God, for we are
free!"
Though the regiments to which they sang were made up principally of
anti-slavery men, yet there were a few proslavery men among them, and
these objected, loudly and vehemently, to introducing or stimulating
anti-slavery sentiments among the soldiers. Especially did they object
to those lines by Whittier. This caused considerable discussion among
both officers and men, which, through one of the pro-slavery officers,
finally reached the ears of General McClellan, then in command of the
forces south of the Potomac. The General, for reasons best known to
himself, thereupon issued an order to the "Hutchinson Family" to sing no
more in the camps, and retire at once.
In obedience to this order, the "Family" left the camps and came to
Alexandria, on their way to Washington. The reason for their leaving the
camps had reached Alexandria before the coming of themselves, and had
produced a very strong feeling among the Union men of the city against
General McClellan, and in favor of the Hutchinsons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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