The echo has died of the scandalous boast, "Hurra for the banner that Liberty waves, "With stars for the Masters and stripes for the Slaves!" A history of this Liberty War would be very incomplete without sample-sketches of the patient, shrewd efforts of individuals and families of Slaves in getting away from the house of bondage into the lines of the Union Army. Almost starved, hunted by dogs and men, shot at, some of the party killed,--none but the good Lord knoweth the miseries endured by thousands in escaping from the comfortable, patriarchal, Gospel institution of the South! [Illustration: 0013] |G Stands for _Gospel_. How beautiful are The feet of the bearer of news from afar, When coming to touch a humanity-chord - And preach the acceptable year of the Lord! Set free the scourged bondman, now branded and sore, And write him a freeman, _a man_ evermore, Around whom a family closely may draw. --Or if the Good Gospel be Slavery Law, The clergy, for aught that to reason appears, Might honestly prosper as Slave Auctioneers! Why not? Disrespect is intended for such clergymen _only_ as put Southern Slavery on Bible grounds. They might sell books, shoes, horses, by public outcry, and feel no shame of sin. If the Gospel endorses colored people as property, _why_ should the clergy scruple to be Slave-Auctioneers? Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, might do a thriving business in that line, down South. Doubtless he is popular in that region, and would be largely patronized! [Illustration: 0014] |H Stands for _Harvest_. We reap as we sow: If thistles you plant, do you know what will grow? Enlarge your plantations, and multiply slaves, Till luxury gets what it wrongfully craves,-- Yet woe be to _him_ who the inquiry scorns, Do grapes grow on brambles or figs upon thorns? Consider it well, ere the summer be past, And the harvest be ended, with gloom at the last. And ever this adage in memory keep, Who sows to the wind, of the whirlwind shall reap. The evils of Slavery to the _white_ race, in a material sense, are clearly shown by statistics; but no one can reckon the low estate of education, religion, and morals, especially in the country-districts of the South. The larger the plantations are, the wider is the space between the white families; and an increase of the number of slaves, is no increase of exalting social intercourse. The mansion cannot escape the malaria of the hovels, nor can _any_ one escape the just judgment of the Almighty. [Illustration: 0015] |I Stands for _Infidel_. Many contemn What you and I hold, as a riddle to _them_; And sceptics are made (it is mournfully true) By priests in the pulpit and saints in the pew, Who torture the Gospel to get at the proof