On the 22d of September, President Lincoln at last spoke the word so long
earnestly desired by the friends of Freedom and the victims of slavery,
abolishing slavery on the first day of the coming year in those states
which should then be in rebellion against the United States.
At a meeting held in Boston in honor of this auspicious utterance, Mr.
Emerson spoke, with others.
The address was printed in its present form in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for
November, 1862.
[168] _Page 316, note 1._ It may be interesting in this connection to
recall the quiet joy with which Mr. Emerson in his poem “The Adirondacs”
celebrates man’s victory over matter, and its promise to human
brotherhood, when the Atlantic Cable was supposed to be a success in 1858.
[169] _Page 320, note 1._ Milton, “Comus.”
[170] _Page 321, note 1._ It is pleasant to contrast this passage with
the tone of sad humiliation which prevails in the address on the Fugitive
Slave Law given in Concord in 1851.
[171] _Page 324, note 1._ See the insulting recognition of this
disgraceful attitude of the North by John Randolph, quoted by Mr. Emerson
in his speech on the Fugitive Slave Law in Concord in 1851.
[172] _Page 326, note 1._ Shakspeare, Sonnet cvii.
[173] _Page 326, note 2._ The tragedy of the negro is tenderly told in
the poem “Voluntaries,” which was written just after they had gallantly
stood the test of battle in the desperate attack on Fort Wagner.
On the first day of the year 1863, when Emancipation became a fact
throughout the United States, a joyful meeting was held in Boston, and
there Mr. Emerson read his “Boston Hymn.”