may, the soldiers of the Union, it
occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could not so much
as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now is both great and
gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought the change, and
the fair women who strive to reward them for it!

But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The change
within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the war began,
three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till
now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did
any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war.
But here we are; the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected
how much needs not now to be recounted. So true is it that man proposes
and God disposes.

But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it;
and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the
future.

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the
American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for
liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.
With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with
himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may
mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product
of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible
things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of
the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and
incompatible names--liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep
thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the
same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black
one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of
the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among
us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty.
Hence we behold the process by which thousands are daily passing from
under the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and
bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it
seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty,
and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the