December 18, 1863
The meeting was held at the Concert Hall, Philadelphia, and here the article includes speeches by many leaders of the movement. In his introductory remarks, Garrison, predicts that this Third Decade meeting “will, in all probability, be the last one that we shall hold; for who now believes that slavery is to continue ten years longer in our land, rendering necessary ten years longer of anti-slavery effort for its overthrow? We trust that we are very near the jubilee…
October 23, 1863
One again, here is the petition, sponsored by the Loyal Women of The Republic, through their National Association, calling upon the Congress to enact emancipation of all persons of African descent held in involuntary servitude.
October 9, 1863
Here is a letter to the Editor of the Pilot, with a direct criticism of its mis-representation of abolitionists, and its failure to represent Daniel O’Connell’s appeal to the Irish population on behalf of abolitionism.
September 25, 1863
This brief article begins with a description of the condition of Irish people in Ireland as a people “without education, very poor, under the absolute control of superstition and priestcraft, and, consequently, greatly demoralized…….In Ireland they knew nothing of prejudice or malevolence against the negro race….and it is among the dreadful results of American slavery, that it has infected the minds of the Irish, who have come over here, with a colorphobia far surpassing in venom and brutality even that which so disgracefully characterizes native-born Americans. …Nevertheless, we entertain for them nothing but the utmost good will and the deepest compassion. ..Our moral indignation is directed wholly against those who take advantage of their ignorance and credulity to make them serve the cause of injustice and oppression….”
September 11, 1863
“Our nation has made a long step forward in its course toward victory….Even if we creep slowly onward, hereafter as heretofore, it is now made certain that we are creeping in the right direction, and that Abraham Lincoln intends to proceed in that direction…..There was some reason to fear that a man who excused himself for doing justice, on the ground of military necessity, might, in changed circumstances, avail himself of the same plea for perpetuating injustice. ..Now, Heaven be praised! This danger is forever past. Mr. Lincoln has evidently taken courage from the movement of Northern people in the direction of freedom, and is relieved from the fear that movements of his own in that direction would fail for want of popular cooperation. He now declares, in a tone more affirmative and decided than ever before, his purpose to stand by the policy of enfranchisement, as far as the enforcement of the Proclamation. ….Congratulations on the present, however, must not make us forgetful of the work yet to be done…. Let us recognize the utter abolition of American slavery not only as indispensable, …but as the indispensable pre-requisite ‘in order to form a more perfect union’…” Signed “C.K.W.”
August 7, 1863
Here is an order by President Lincoln, insuring that there should be “no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies”. It indicates that “if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation between the enemy prisoners in our possession. It is therefore ordered, that for every soldier of the United States, killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed, and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works……”
August 7, 1863
Here is more on the attack, and one specially titled, “Tribute to the Late Col. Shaw”
July 31, 1863
An account of the assault, including the 54th Massachusetts Regiment is quite detailed, and affirms the bravery of the unit, and the large loss of life.
July 24, 1863
“Whoever attempts to charge upon the conscription act the origin of the late fiendish riots in New York and elsewhere, is to be set down as extremely credulous or boldly dishonest….. It has been a part of the programme of the Southern traitors, from the beginning of their revolt, if driven to the wall to stir up in due time, in all the leading cities and towns of the North, those elements of ignorance and depravity which are easily ’set on fire of hell’ by the concealed hands of confederate sympathizers…The draft simply furnished the occasion to inflame the passions of the dangerous classes, under the guise of resisting a tyrannical edict; but the determination to invoke the aid of incendiarism and assassination, in the last resort, was coeval with the act of Southern secession…..The peculiarity of these riots is, that the mass of those who participate in them are the lowest and most brutal of the Irish population. …For them we have no burning indignation: they are the wretched victims of intelligent and desperate conspirators, who deal with them as the gambler does with his loaded dice….”
July 17, 1863
Here is action by the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, relative to the proposition of the Rev. Moncure D. Conway who, has proposed that abolitionists would oppose the prosecution of the war if the Confederate States would agree to emancipate the slaves. The statement, signed by Garrison, repudiates all such ideas, and also the representation by Conway, in England, that he represents wide abolitionist sentiment.
