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 wolf's dictionary has been repudiated.

It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at great length, but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought to say a word.

A painful rumour true, I fear has reached us of the massacre by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hundred coloured soldiers and white officers, who had just been overpowered by their assailants. There seems to be some anxiety in the public mind whether the government is doing its duty to the coloured soldier, and to the service at this point. At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the use of coloured troops was not contemplated; and how the change of purpose was wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty, I resolved to turn that element of

strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American people, to the Christian world, to history, and, in my final account, to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the government is indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not today know that a coloured soldier, or white officer commanding coloured soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it

believe it, I may say - but we do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the assumption that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If after all that has been said, it shall turn out that there has been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say that there has been none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be conclusively proved; and

being so proved, the retribution shall as surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact course to apply the retribution; but in the case supposed, it must come.

HIS LETTER TO GENERAL GRANT.

April 30, 1864.

NOT expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant ; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints nor restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you.

HIS ANSWER TO A METHODIST DELEGATION.

May 14, 1864.

GENTLEMEN,

In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank you in the nation's name for the sure promise it gives.

Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing that might seem invidious against any. Yet without this it may fairly be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by its greater number the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to Heaven than any. Bless all the churches; and blessed be God who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.

REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE UNION

LEAGUE AFTER HIS RENOMINATION.

June 9, 1864.

I CAN only say in response to the kind remarks of your chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests of the country for the present and the great future; and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be entrusted with the place which I have occupied for the last three years. I have not permitted myself to conclude that I am the best man in America; but I am reminded in this connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion that "it is not best to swap horses while crossing the stream.”