s one of life and death for
the greatest human interests ever brought face to face in hostile array.
But a single step is wanting, and we may at any moment be forced over
the boundary which hitherto has prevented it from being a conflict
avowedly for the utter extinction of the institution of slavery on the
North American continent, on the one hand, and for the triumphant
establishment of the policy and power of that institution over the whole
land on the other.

'In case such an event as that above alluded to should occur, a new
disappointment will probably, to some extent, break upon the Northern
mind. It will be found that the slaves of the South are not, as a body,
so desirous of freedom, not so consciously intent upon the attainment of
that boon, as ardent philanthropists at the North have supposed. The
great masses of that population are too far depressed in the scale of
humanity to avail themselves earnestly and at once, of even the most
favorable means which should be placed at their disposal to secure their
own emancipation from thraldom.

'To progress, even from slavery to freedom, is progression,
nevertheless; and, as such, it is beset with all the hindrances and
prejudices from ignorance and superstition which the advancement of the
race meets always and at every step. Those among the slaves who fully
appreciate the disadvantages of their position, and are earnestly intent
upon the achievement of freedom, are a minority--the vigorous thinkers
and reformers of the slave-population. The great masses are stupid and
conservative, in the midst of the evil which they endure, until aroused
by circumstances or the appeals of their more enterprising leaders. Even
John Brown, knowing as much as he did of the South and of the negro
character, miscalculated the readiness of the slaves of Virginia to fly
to his standard, judging them by his knowledge of the readiness of
Missouri slaves upon the Kansas border, who, through a few years of
local agitation, had come to be on the alert and ready to move.

'In case, therefore, of the proclamation of emancipation in any
slaveholding districts by our military chiefs, it will not be surprising
if, for a time, the results of that step shall seem to be feeble, and
shall be disproportionate to the expectations based upon it.

'The course of events will probably be this: The emancipation of slaves
by the proclamation of Northern generals will be followed by a partial
tendency on