commissioned us, His ministers of truth and justice, to a great and important undertaking! He has invested us with power and authority to influence and guide the actions of mankind, and aid them in their struggles for right and truth. He has bade us arm ourselves with the weapons of love and justice, and hasten to the rescue of our struggling brother man. His call is imperative and binding, and we must and WILL obey!

“We are able to discern the period rapidly approximating when man will take up arms against his fellow-man, and go forth to contend with the enemies of Republican liberty, and to assert at the point of the bayonet those rights of which so large a portion of their fellow-creatures are deprived. Again will the soil of America be saturated with the blood of freedom-loving children, and her noble monuments, those sublime attestations of patriotic will and determination, will tremble, from base to summit, with the heavy roar of artillery, and the thunder of cannon. The trials of that internal war will far exceed those of the war of the Revolution, while the cause contended for will equal, if not excel, in sublimity and power, that for which the children of ‘76 fought.

“But when the battle-smoke shall disappear, and the cannon’s fearful tones are heard no more, then will mankind more fully realize the blessings outflowing from the mighty struggle in which they so valiantly contended! No longer will their eyes meet with those bound in the chains of physical slavery, or their ears listen to the heavy sobs of the oppressed child of God. But o’er a land dedicated to the principles of impartial liberty the King of Day will rise and set, and hearts now oppressed with care and sorrow will rejoice in the blessings of uninterrupted freedom.

“In this eventful revolution, what the patriots of the past failed to accomplish their descendants will perform, with the timely assistance of invisible powers. By their sides the heavenly hosts will labor, imparting courage and fortitude in each hour of despondency, and urging them onward to a speedy and magnificent triumph. Deploring, as we do, the existence of slavery, and the means to be employed to purge it from America, yet our sympathies will culminate to the cause of right and justice, and give strength to those who seek to set the captive free, and crush the monster, Slavery. The picture which I have presented is, indeed, a hideous one. You may think that I speak with too much assurance when I thus boldly prophesy the dissolution of the American Confederacy, and, through it, the destruction of that gigantic structure, human slavery! But this knowledge was not the result of a moment’s or an hour’s gleaning, but nearly half a century’s existence in the seraph life. I have carefully watched my country’s rising progress, and I am thoroughly convinced that it cannot always exist under the present Federal Constitution, and the pressure of that most terrible sin, slavery!”

Had the people of this country been sufficiently enlightened to investigate these messages fairly, they would have seen that there was sufficient evidence that this warning really came from Washington, and the pulpit would have enforced its solemn truths. But our destiny was fixed; Washington knew that his voice would not be heeded, and that war could not be prevented.

Again came the warning in 1860, through the lips of a more intellectual medium, more capable of expressing the bright thought of the higher world. Mrs. E. Hardinge Britten tells the story in her “History of American Spiritualism,” pages 416-419. She refers to the stupid and criminal action of the Legislature of Alabama; and a similar piece of brutality has been recommended by a committee in the Pennsylvania Legislature recently. The following is quoted from the History.

The Alabama Legislature and the Spirits—Prophecy in the Alabama Legislative Halls—Retribution.

Sometime about the month of January, 1860, the Legislature of Alabama passed a bill declaring that any person or persons giving public spiritual manifestations in Alabama should be subject to a penalty of five hundred dollars.

We have given the substance, though not the exact wording of this edict, which was met by considerable opposition, not only on the part of great numbers of Spiritualists resident in the State, but also by the governor himself, who refused to give his sanction to the bill.

Mr. George Redman, the celebrated physical test medium, had just passed through the South, and remained long enough to create an immense interest throughout its length and breadth.

The author was already engaged to deliver a course of lectures in Mobile, and numerous invitations were sent to her from other parts of the State.

As Mrs. Hardinge’s visit was anticipated at the very time when the bill above named was in agitation, its friends in the Legislature considered themselves much aggrieved by the governor’s refusal to sanction its passage, and deeming either that he was suspiciously favorable to the cause it was designed to destroy, or that their own case would be aggravated by the advent of the expected lecturer, they passed their bill over the governor’s veto, just twenty-four hours before the explosion anticipated on her arrival could take place.

On landing in Mobile, Mrs. Hardinge was greeted by a large and enthusiastic body of friends, but found herself precluded, by legislative wisdom, from expounding the sublime truths of immortality in a city whose walls were placarded all over with bills announcing the arrival of Madame Leon, the celebrated “seeress and business clairvoyant, who would show the picture of your future husband, tell the successful numbers in lotteries, and enable any despairing lover to secure the affections of his heart’s idol,” etc. Side by side with these creditable but legalized exhibitions, were flaming announcements of “the humbug of Spiritualism exposed by Herr Marvel,” with a long list of all the astonishing feats which “this only genuine living wizard” would display for the benefit of the pious State where angelic ministry might not be spoken of.

Mrs. Hardinge passed through Mobile, leaving many warm hearts behind her, who would fain have exchanged these profane caricatures for the glad tidings which beloved spirit friends were ready to dispense to the world.

In passing through the capital city, Montgomery, a detention occurred of some hours, in forming a railway connection en route for Macon, Georgia, when Mrs. Hardinge and some friends travelling in her company, were induced to while away the tedious time by visiting the State House. The Legislature was not sitting that day, and one of the party, a Spiritualist, remarked that they were even then standing in the very chamber from which the recent obnoxious enactment against their faith had issued.

The day was warm, soft, and clear. The sweet southern breeze stirred a few solitary pines which waved on the capitol hill, and the scene from the windows of the legislative hall was pleasant, tranquil, and suggestive of calm but sluggish peace.

At that period—January, 1860—not an ominous murmur, not the faintest whisper, even, that the war spirit was abroad, and the legions of death and ruin were lighting their brands and sharpening their relentless swords to be drenched in the life-blood of millions, had made itself heard in the land.

The long cherished purposes of hate and fratricidal struggle were all shrouded in the depths of profound secrecy, and the whole southern country might have been represented in the scene of stillness and tranquility that lay outstretched before the eyes of the watchers, who stood in the State House of the capital city of Alabama, on that pleasant January afternoon.

There were present six persons besides the author, namely: Mr. and Mrs.