year 1862, presented a mild form of servitude, as servitude then existed
and immemorially had almost everywhere existed, was, moreover,
incontrovertibly proven in the course of the Civil War. Before 1862, it
was confidently believed that any severe social agitation within, or
disturbance from without, would inevitably lead to a Southern servile
insurrection. In Europe this result was assumed as of course; and,
immediately after it was issued, the Emancipation Proclamation of President
[3] Bussell's (Dr. F.W.) "Christian Theology and Social Progress."
Bampton Lectures, 1905. Lincoln was denounced in unmeasured terms by
the entire London press. Not a voice was raised in its defence. It was
regarded as a measure unwarranted in civilized warfare, and a sure and
intentional incitement to the horrors which had attended the servile
insurrections of Haiti and San Domingo; and, more recently, the
unspeakable Sepoy incidents of the Indian mutiny. What actually occurred
is now historic. The confident anticipations of our English brethren
were, not for the first time, negatived; nor is there any page in our
American record more creditable to those concerned than the attitude
held by the African during the fierce internecine struggle which
prevailed between April, 1861, and April, 1865. In it there is scarcely
a trace, if indeed there is any trace at all, of such a condition of
affairs as had developed in the Antilles and in Hindustan. The attitude
of the African towards his Confederate owner was submissive and kindly.
Although the armed and masterful domestic protector was at the front and
engaged in deadly, all-absorbing conflict, yet the women and children of
the Southern plantation slept with unbarred doors,--free from
apprehension, much more from molestation.

Moreover, as you here well know, during the old days of slavery there
was hardly a child born, of either sex, who grew up in a Southern
household of substantial wealth without holding immediate and most