Historical Romance of the American Negro. Fowler Charles Henry
but because they greatly assisted in firing the national heart, and urging on the hosts of men to war.
"Now, I am not saying that I myself will make a Deborah, a Joan of Arc, or an Elizabeth; but there are already in this campaign several heroic American women, who are doing yeoman service on behalf of the down-trodden and oppressed African, and if they can do something in this good cause, so can I. (Loud shouts of 'Yes, yes! so you can! Hurrah for Mrs. Lincoln!') I am at least willing to do my best in talking, in singing and in striking the dulcet chords of music, and wherein I may happen to fall short, others will atone for my deficiencies. Let the work go on! Let us lay the axe to the roots of this deadly and devilish upas tree! Let slavery be shaken to its lowest foundations, and be driven into the Gulf of Mexico! Forward, ye brave! And even if war itself must come, let it come, and even we women will go to the field!"
With the last exhortation, I resumed my seat, when the audience rose to their feet and cheered, and almost made me blush at the results of my own small efforts. When the excitement had abated, and the audience was in readiness to hear the next speaker, the Rev. Dr. Henderson arose once more and said:
"Ladies and gentlemen: – After the eloquent and stirring address we have heard from the wife, we shall now look forward with much pleasure to an address from that noble and gallant husband who safely piloted both himself and her out of slavery, as we plainly see here before us to-night. I beg to introduce to you Mr. Thomas Lincoln!"
Tom arose at once, and as he advanced towards the footlights, he pulled down his vest and cleared his throat in the masculine fashion, the audience in the meanwhile cheering loudly, after which he proceeded to speak as follows:
"My right good Christian friends: – It is with no small pleasure that I appear before you to-night to give you some of my sentiments, veins and opinions on the coming war in this country. (Sensation). I firmly believe that a war is impending over us, as I believe that there is a God of vengeance and of justice. Look at the millions and billions of money that the Southern chivalry have piled up, and they are piling it up still, at the expense of the poor, oppressed and enslaved African! And shall a sinful nation indeed escape from blood-red crimes like these? I am neither a prophet by profession, nor the son of a prophet, but even a child can understand that the funeral bell of slavery will be tolled before long, and depend upon it, ye young men! both you and I will be called into the field, and we will all be needed to pull down that most abominable and 'peculiar institution!' (Loud applause).
"Though neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, I affirm that a day is coming, and is now on the home stretch, indeed, when you young men and I will not be permitted to stay at home and dally with the apron strings of our mothers and sweethearts, but we will have to march to the field. We will then make it manifest what we men of Africa can dare and can do. I shall be quite willing to go for one, when the South, in her frantic anger, will secede; I am willing to do all I can for my own country, and if those who are soldiers themselves never come home, we, at least, will clear the great national gangway for coming generations, and the glories that are to follow! (Loud cheers).
"I suppose that some of our friends on the other side of the fence will begin to tell us here that the colored man will not fight, and that there is neither pluck nor courage in him. We shall certainly be told a hundred thousand times that there is no fighting in him, and that he was never intended for anything but a docile slave! Such persons who say so have never read even the A B C of history; for colored men fought quite as well as white men on many a hard-fought field, both in the War of the Revolution, and in the War of 1812; and what we did once, and did well, we can do again, and do better, and with a better motive, too, because we will be fighting for our own complete emancipation, and to put an end, once for all, to slavery in the United States, and purge the nation of a great crime. (Loud applause throughout the hall).
"I need not go back in history to prove the bravery of the African race, for this is a well-known fact, and the very school-books are full of it. The bravery of the slave is one of the main reasons why the slave-holders make such stringent laws in attempting to perpetuate their iniquitous system. They know our prowess, and the risks they would run in the case of a general rising, and therefore they exercise double caution in order to keep down even the slightest attempts at insurrection. But for all that, there is not the slightest doubt in my own mind that they will go out of the Union, as they have been promising us to do for the last fifty years, if they cannot get their own way! In all their plans, schemes and calculations, this slave-holding oligarchy have thrown the Almighty overboard, and every sacred right of the human race. They have treated the wronged and oppressed African as if he had neither rights nor feelings, and, indeed, as if he were not a human being at all. But there is a day coming, and it will soon be here, when the Great Creator of the entire human race will call an imperative halt to all this, and go into this war as we may, we will come out with four millions of people who will be redeemed from the yoke and curse of Southern bondage. (Loud cheers).
"I did not intend to make a lengthy address. I only wished to point out that we are drifting into war, and my own willingness to lend a hand to liberate the oppressed slave."
Tom now resumed his seat amidst great applause. The audience, though taken by surprise by his speech, were greatly delighted, because of his willingness to go to the field.
The reverend chairman now called on the glee club to give us some more of their musical compositions and campaign songs. These were given with a hearty good will, so that the enthusiasm of the audience rose higher and higher. The newspaper reporters were also kept busy, and a good account of the proceedings of this very successful abolition meeting was found in several of the papers next morning, and very extensively read. Before we scattered for the night, the Rev. Doctor Henderson arose, and made the following closing remarks to the audience:
"Ladies and gentlemen: We have all listened to a rare treat this night. Just think of it! The South calls these two ladies and this gentleman their 'goods and chattels,' and for the very life of me I do not see how a war can be avoided, and then we shall know what their so-called goods and chattels will do when the storm shall burst upon us in all its fury. No, no! I do not see how a war is to be avoided, for the passions of both the North and the South are being worked up in precisely the same way as is usual in quarrels between individuals, and no doubt but it will all end by coming to blows in a terrible conflict.
"In the meantime it is our duty to keep agitating as never before. It is a perfect outrage on humanity to hold in bondage such refined persons as these three here present to-night. We must agitate this great question, night and day, till the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings. I now call for a vote of thanks to Mrs. John B. Sutherland, and to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lincoln. Let three rousing cheers be given for them!"
The audience rose to their feet, gave three cheers and a tiger, and the great demonstration came to an end.
CHAPTER V
The Negro's Complaint – John Brown's Raid – The Secession of the Southern States – Battle of Milliken's Bend – Battle at Fort Hudson – The Effect of the Emancipation Proclamation on this Nation and the Entire Christian World.
As my indulgent readers would perhaps like to know the lines of "The Negro's Complaint," which were sung so beautifully by the campaign glee club that night at the great meeting at Buffalo, I will here insert them. They were written by the Honorable William Cowper, of England, and directed against British slavery in the West Indies, and the slave trade generally. They apply with such force and truth to that self-same blood-red crime as carried on by the United States that they are worthy of being committed to memory by every true lover of poetry in the English language throughout the world.
Forced from home and all its pleasures,
Africa's coast I left forlorn,
To increase a stranger's treasures
O'er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;
But, though theirs they have enrolled me,
Minds are never to be sold.
Still in thought as free as ever,
What