“When I say that this rebellion has its source and life in slavery, I only repeat a simple truism,” declared Julian. The four million slaves “cannot be neutral. As laborers, if not as soldiers, they will be the allies of the rebels, or of the Union.” By freeing them the North would convert their labor power from support of treason to support of Union and liberty. This would hasten the day of national triumph, but even if the nation should triumph without such action “the mere suppression of the rebellion will be an empty mockery of our sufferings and sacrifices, if slavery shall be spared to
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