population under the Constitution, having pledged the Constitution to
the protection of slave property, it required an almost superhuman
effort to confine the evil to one section of the country. Like a
loathsome disease it spread itself over the body politic until our
nation became the eyesore of the age, and a byword among the nations
of the world. The time came when our beloved country had to submit to
heroic treatment, and the cancer of slavery was removed by the sword.

In giving an account of the _Anti-Slavery Agitation Movement_, I have
found myself able to deal briefly with methods and results only. I
have striven to honor all the multifarious measures adopted to save
the Negro and the Nation. I have not attempted to write a history of
the Anti-Slavery Movement. Many noble men and women have not even been
mentioned. It should not be forgotten that this is a history of the
Negro race; and as such I have not run into the topic discussed by the
late Henry Wilson in his "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power."

In discussing the problem of the rendition of fugitive slaves by the
Union army, I have given the facts with temperate and honest
criticism. And, in recounting the sufferings Negro troops endured as
prisoners of war in the hands of the Rebels, I have avoided any spirit
of bitterness. A great deal of the material on the war I purchased
from the MS. library of Mr. Thomas S. Townsend of New-York City. The
questions of vital, prison, labor, educational, and financial
statistics cannot fail to interest intelligent people of all races and
parties. These statistics are full of comfort and assurance to the
Negro as well as to his friends.

Every cabinet minister of the President wrote me full information upon
all the questions I asked, and promptly too. The refusal of the