guard of police. Now, at this moment of my writing, he is a popular
hero. The very men who, five years since, were accustomed to make
speeches, strong as words could frame them, against abolition, are
now turning round, and, if not preaching abolition, are patting the
backs of those who do so. I heard one of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet
declare old John Brown to be a hero and a martyr. All the
Protestant Germans are abolitionists--and they have become so strong
a political element in the country that many now declare that no
future President can be elected without their aid. The object is
declared boldly. No long political scheme is asked for, but instant
abolition is wanted; abolition to be declared while yet the war is
raging. Let the slaves of all rebels be declared free; and all
slaveowners in the seceding States are rebels!

One cannot but ask what abolition means, and to what it would lead.
Any ordinance of abolition now pronounced would not effect the
emancipation of the slaves, but might probably effect a servile
insurrection. I will not accuse those who are preaching this
crusade of any desire for so fearful a scourge on the land. They
probably calculate that an edict of abolition once given would be so
much done toward the ultimate winning of the battle. They are
making their hay while their sun shines. But if they could
emancipate those four million slaves, in what way would they then
treat them? How would they feed them? In what way would they treat
the ruined owners of the slaves, and the acres of land which would
lie uncultivated? Of all subjects with which a man may be called on
to deal, it is the most difficult. But a New England abolitionist
talks of it as though no more were required than an open path for
his humanitarian energies. "I could arrange it all to-morrow
morning," a gentleman said to me, who is well known for his zeal in