The great American rebellion, therefore, is a legitimate revolution growing out of the incongruity of freedom and slavery; and the first gun fired at Sumter was hailed by every true friend of freedom, and especially the negro, as the dawn of a brighter day for the black man. But it was evident, from the commencement of the clash of arms, that the despised race was to take no part in their exercise, unless the Federal authorities were forced into it by the magnitude of the rebellion. His services refused by the Federal government, all classes declaring that they would not "_fight by the side of a nigger_," the black man had nothing to do but to fold his arms and bide his time. Defeat after defeat appeared to make no change in the pro-slavery public mind, for the nation seemed determined to perish rather than receive help from a black hand. The rout at Bull Run, the sad affair at Ball's Bluff, the unfortunate mistake at Big Bethel, the loss of 100,000 brave men during the first fifteen months of the rebellion, and the display of Copperhead feeling in the Northern States, caused the far-seeing ones to feel that the ship of state was fast drifting to sea without a rudder. The announcement that a proclamation of emancipation would be issued on the 1st of January, 1863, brought forth a howl of denunciation from those who despised the negro more than they did the rebels. Still the cry rose from the majority, "Let the republic perish rather than see the nigger in uniform." All this time, the black man was silently, yet steadily, creating an under-current, which was, at a later day, to carry him to the battle field. The heroic act of Tillman on the high seas, the "_strategy_" of Captain Small in taking the Planter past the guns of Sumter, and the reliable intelligence conveyed to the Union army by "intelligent contrabands,"--all tended to soften the negro hate, and to pave the way for justice. All honor to the "New York Tribune," for its noble defence of my race, and its advocacy of the black man's right to bear arms. The organization of negro regiments once begun by General Hunter, soon found favor with the more liberal portion of the northern people. By and by, that brave, generous, and highly cultivated scholar, gentleman, and Christian, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, lent the influence of his name, and accepted an office in the first South Carolina regiment, made an excursion into the heart of slavery, met the rebels and defeated them with his negro soldiers, and reported through the public journals what he had witnessed of the black man's ability on the field of battle. Then the tide begun to turn.