'But the war,' we are told, 'has ended all that. _There can be no mobs
where the bayonet governs; nor arbitrary local laws where general
military law is paramount. The discussion of slavery is as free now in
New Orleans as it is in New York.'_ _True: therefore_, hasten to restore
the reign of mobs, or you will hurt the feelings of the men who make the
mobs. Withdraw speedily 'the general military law,' and its 'paramount'
control, expressly in order that the operation of 'the arbitrary local
laws' may be resumed. Urge up the measures which will put an end to the
state of affairs in which 'the discussion of slavery is as free in New
Orleans as it is in New York.'
_'And in the Border States, where the civil laws still prevail,
hostility to the rebellion has excited such a dissatisfaction with
slavery as its cause, that, by general consent, perfect freedom is
allowed in arguing against the institution.'_ This is true while a
United States force is in the vicinity to overawe traitors--while the
friends of freedom feel confident that they have the strength of a
nation at their back to aid them in resisting the local tyranny; hasten,
therefore, to remove these supports, and leave them to struggle single
handed and hopelessly against an inveterate and hoary despotism, which
knows no law higher than its own will; and which has always been
competent to crush out every rising aspiration toward freedom; until the
accidental advantages of the war encouraged that timid utterance of true
American sentiment in those quarters which is just now beginning feebly
to make itself heard and felt.
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