bow of promise was set on the dark background of the receding storm.
American slavery was swept into oblivion, and the end of the third
quarter of the century saw such a condition established in both the
New World and the Old, as made the restoration of human bondage
forever impossible.

Not until the present order of civilization shall be destroyed will
man be permitted again to hold his fellow-man in servitude. The chain
that was said "to follow the mother," making all her offspring to be
slaves; the manacles and fetters with which the weak were bound and
committed to the mercies of heartless traders; all of the insignia and
apparatus of the old atrocious system of bondage, have been heaped
together and cast out with the rubbish and offal of the civilized life
into the valley of Gehenna. There the whole shall be burned with
unquenchable fire! Then the smoke, arising for a season, shall be
swept away, and nothing but a green earth and a blue sky shall remain
for the emancipated race of man.


THE PERIL OF OUR CENTENNIAL YEAR.

Americans are likely to dwell for a long time upon the glories of our
Centennial of Independence. The year 1876 came and went, and left its
impress on the world. Our great Exposition at Philadelphia was
happily devised. We celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of our
independence, and invited all nations, _including Great Britain_, to
join us in the festival. The Exposition was successful in a high
degree. The nation was at its best. The warrior President who had led
her armies to victory announced the opening and the close. Great
things were seen. One or two great orations were pronounced, and in