Yet whoso shall doubt, may the difference tell: What we rightfully buy, we may honestly sell. The world moves, slowly it may be, but surely. Russia abolished Serfdom by an imperial decree, and our Republic is cutting a tangled knot by the edge of the sword. The loathing with which the Slave Trader has long been regarded, even in the South, was the index-finger of the hand of God. It is now a voice sounding in the darkness as a prophecy of coming day. Will not angels join the chorus of welcome? May the good Lord hasten the hour of deliverance. [Illustration: 0027] |U Stands for _Union_. The Federal law Into true common weal would the Colonies draw, And States, that might else into anarchy run, Were banded and leagued, indivisibly one-- And a _Nation_ was born, with the rallying call, "The Stars-and-Stripes Banner that waves over all!" Secession may rage, and the kingdoms afar May shout the brief wrath of a fiery star, But _E Pluribus Unum_ shall evermore be The motto and law of the land of the free! "I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it [the United States] is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man, that the sun ever shone upon."--_Alexander H. Stephens_, in Georgia Convention, Jan. 1, 1661. [Illustration: 0028] |V Stands for _Victory_. Villainy long, "The _sum of all_ villainies," prospered in wrong; But when it uplifted the bloody red hand, The verdict was sealed of its doom in the land. Poor _whites_, in the South by aristocrats bowed, And millions of bondmen are crying aloud; And Freedom's renown, and Humanity's need, Alike for a _Liberty-Victory_ plead; And triumph and peace shall thro' righteousness come, When Slavery dies and its pleaders are dumb. Even when Fort Sumter was environed by threatening Rebel batteries, there was a spirit of compromise in all the land; but the first gun aimed at the Flag of Liberty was "the beginning of the end" of Slavery, The Star Spangled Banner of our fathers, that had long floated in honor and triumph, was trodden down and trailed in the dust by miscreant-traitors; and it _must_ yet be vindicated and exalted in righteousness, though it be through blood and fire. [Illustration: 0029] |W Stands for _Woman_. In Slavery-life, Full many are mothers, but no one is wife For decency's sake, form of wedding there is, But the parties are claimed by the master as his; And the children are sold, and the father is sold To this or that trader, "to have and to hold"