[
280]
of “The Atlantic Monthly” of the year following, and thus concludes:--
Behold the rebel States in arms against that paternal government to which, as the supreme condition of their constitutional existence, they owe duty and love; and behold all legitimate powers, executive, legislative, and judicial, in these States abandoned and vacated.
It only remains that Congress should enter, and assume the proper jurisdiction. If we are not ready to exclaim with Burke, speaking of revolutionary France, “It is but an empty space on the political map!”
we may at least adopt the response hurled back by Mirabeau, that this empty space is a volcano red with flames, and overflowing with lava-floods.
But, whether we deal with it as “empty space” or as “volcano,” the jurisdiction, civil and military, centres in Congress, to be employed for the happiness, welfare, and renown of the American people, changing slavery into freedom, and present chaos into a cosmos of perpetual beauty and peace.
On
Mr. Wilson's bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,
Mr. Sumner made (March 31) a very statesmanlike speech, advocating ransom rather than compensation, and clearly intimating what was soon to come.
At the national capital, “said he,” slavery will give way to freedom; but the good work will not stop here: it must proceed.
What God and Nature decree, rebellion cannot arrest.
And, as the whole wide-spread tyranny begins to tremble, then, above the din of battle, sounding from sea to sea and echoing along the land, above even the exultations of victory on well-fought
