tation. Hence in the chapter of truths of color he might be lauded, in that of truths of vegetation scourged. He also declares it to be necessary thus to seemingly deny yourself if you would be true to truth. In his lecture before the Cambridge school of art he playfully says: "Perhaps some of my hearers may have heard that I am rather apt to contradict myself. I hope I am exceedingly apt to do so. I never met with a question yet of any importance that did not need for the right solution of it at least one positive and one negative answer, like an equation of the second degree. Most matters of any importance are three-sided or four-sided or polygonal, and the trotting round a polygon is severe work for people any way stiff in their opinions. For myself, I am never satisfied that I have handled a subject properly till I have contradicted myself three times." In spite of these defects, if defects they be, that inhere in all human things, his works are a still lesson if not a law to artists. To him more than to any other man do they owe the lesson of humble faithful obedience of nature. Before he arose they esteemed their genius as greater than that which poured through her. He taught them that all art was the feeblest shadowing forth of her supernal grandeur; that a little pigment, ranging from black paint to white, and a bit of canvas, would fall infinitely short of reproducing those spectacles that have the scope of heaven for their canvas, and the colors of heaven, from the sun shining in his strength to midnight clad in thunder robes, on their palette, with infinite genius to mingle and arrange them. He taught them more than this: that nature is animate with Deity, even with the Deity of Christ. Him he beholds not only coming, but dwelling in the clouds of heaven. He yet walks the waves not only of Galilee but of all He cleaves the skies that glow forever under his burning feet. He transfigures the mountains with the perpetual overflowing of his uncreated glory. Thus art becomes the handmaid of religion, and may be permitted to serve her in the adorning of the temple where God in Christ is seen and worshiped. seas. She has felt his influence. A new school acknowledges him as its founder. Architecture is feeling it. The Church cannot "grow as grows the grass" unless its architects have "visitations from the living God," who alone can give them types of those perfections which flashed before the eyes of Moses in the mount. Not only should the student of art make him his companion, but the student of nature will also find him a guide both in the insight which he seeks, and in keeping himself from the perils of irreverence and unbelief to which his studies will tempt him. Above all, the minister at the altar should read him, for he who enters the holy of holies ought to be conversant with the forms and meanings of lesser ceremonies. He who offers the life of God to the soul of man, should know that life in its weaker yet divine force that flows through the inferior creation. He will find the other book of God of which he is the appointed interpreter is in closest sympathy with this earlier but lesser revelation. That begins with a description of nature as it emerged from nothing by the voice of God, and as it assumed form and comeliness in the heavens and on the earth under his creative guidance. It closes with a description of the same nature as it shall re-emerge from a new chaos of fire under the decree of the same Son of God, and shall be fashioned into new heavens and new earth. It is full of descriptions of her loveliest aspects-the primeval perfect garden, the garden of Canaan, and "the statelier Eden come again." The highest notes of the Psalmist's harp ring with praises of nåture; the grandest visions of the prophets are painted with its scenery; the sweetest sayings of the Saviour are full of its fragrance. Thus discerning the unity of the kingdoms of nature and grace, and "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" pervading both systems with his ineffable infinitude, he will be able to say with far more profound and spiritual significance than he felt who first uttered it: "Be mute who will, who can, Yet I will praise Thee with impassioned voice; In such a temple as surrounds my soul, Reared for thy presence; therefore, am I bound ART. II. THE FLORIDA MAROONS. The Exiles of Florida; or, The Crimes committed by our Government against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other Slave States, seeking Protection under Spanish Laws. By JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. Columbus, Ohio: Follett, Foster, & Co. 1858. MR. GIDDINGS's book has had a large sale, and its well-authenticated narrative has made a strong impression on the public mind. Its simple story makes it abundantly evident that slavery is not only a stupendous wrong in itself, but that it clouds the sense of justice in the state, corrupts the judiciary, paralyzes the arm of the executive officer, and retards the development of the nation. It may be true that the story is marred by the idiosyncrasies of its venerable author: but, on the other hand, his habits of research, his long familiarity, as a member of Congress, with the documentary history of the nation, and his liberal quotations from official letters, reports, and state papers, have enabled him so to fortify his statements as to put them beyond reasonable question. It will be remembered that Florida, down to 1819, was under the dominion of Spain. The settlements were small, and on the coast or the larger rivers; while the interior was a vast wilderness, known only to the Indians. Slavery was then the universal usage of the emigrants, and many attempts were made to enslave the Indians as well as the negroes. But, accustomed as they were to a wild, roving life, these efforts were attended with indifferent success, as they could easily fly from their masters to the forest, where they were always at home and where they found a secure refuge. In the Carolinas the attempts to enslave the Indians were not only a failure, but rendered more insecure the bondage of the negroes. The ease with which they escaped to the shelter of the Georgia forests encouraged the negroes to undertake similar enterprises; and as the Indian country, as Georgia was then called, presented only a partial protection against the slave hunter, they pursued their way south into Florida, where they were cordially welcomed, permitted to occupy lands on the same condition as other citizens, and soon became a free and flourishing community. As early as 1738 these refugees had become so numerous that the authorities of South Carolina sent a messenger to the Governor of St. Augustine, with a demand that they should be surrendered to their former owners. The refusal of this demand was the cause of much complaint; and Florida thenceforward became an asylum for the more enterprising sons of bondage in the border states. In 1750 a quarrel occurred among the Creek Indians, inhabiting the Indian country in Georgia, and a large body, under a distinguished chief, left the tribe and went south into Florida, where they were well received, and had lands assigned them in the vicinity of the negroes. Here they had an organization entirely distinct from the Creeks, elected their own chiefs, and bore the name of Seminoles, which is the Indian word for runaways. The Indians and negroes fraternized, and lived together in peace on the rich bottoms of the Appalachicola and Sewanee rivers, where they grew in numbers and wealth, and had large flocks and herds. The negroes increased, not only by natural production, but by accessions from the border states, and nothing occurred to disturb them in the "even tenor" of their security till subsequent to the revolutionary war. Georgia had now become a state, and her people were large slave holders. The white population encroached steadily on the Creek reservations, producing frequent disputes and collisions, which were generally compromised to the disadvantage of the Indians. In that early period of our history one uniform source of trouble between the Indians and the whites was as to runaway slaves. All along the Indian border, and far up in the interior states, there were frequent escapes of slaves from their masters, who were supposed to find homes and shelter among the Indians; and in all the treaties made between the whites and the Indians, there was sure to be inserted some stipulation in reference to the payment for escaped slaves, the harboring of slaves, the return of slaves, etc., etc. The Maroon settlements in Florida were objects of particular dislike, for the reason that they were originally made up of escaped slaves, and were still supposed to be a shelter for such as succeeded in getting safely through the Indian country. But, being under Spanish rule, no practical method of breaking them up seemed to present itself, short of an acquisition of the territory, which, for this reason, became a favorite idea in all the border states, and in 1811 was agitated in Congress, and a law actually passed in secret session for taking forcible possession of the country. This gave rise to several military expeditions from Georgia into Florida, one of which penetrated as far as the Maroon settlements, burned the Indian villages, destroyed the cornfields of the negroes, and drove off large herds of cattle. This unjustifiable conduct naturally engendered a bitter feeling toward the United States, then at war with Great Britain; and the English, to avail themselves of some advantage from it, sent Lieutenant Colonel Nichols up the Appalachicola River to defend the settlements, and probably with the expectation of enlisting the negroes and Indians in the service of the king. He built a fort on the river, mounted on it eight pieces of artillery, furnished it with small arms and ammunition, and drew around him a large force, which he was preparing for active service, when peace was proclaimed and he was recalled. Colonel Nichols, on evacuating the fort in the spring of 1815, left it, with its cannon, arms, and stores, to the allies, whose lands lay along the river, above and below the fort, making it an important acquisition to them, and greatly increasing their means of security against further incursions from the states. But what appeared to be so much for their security proved to be a cruel instrument of destruction. The fort was regarded as a depot for runaway slaves, and became at once an object of suspicion. General Gaines, who was in command on the border, wrote to the War Department in May that "certain negroes and outlaws have taken possession of a fort on the Appalachicola River," and that their movements should be carefully watched. From that time his correspondence makes frequent mention of the Maroons as "runaways," "outlaws," "pirates," "murderers," etc.; but no specific charges of wrong were made against them, and especially no acts of hostility against the United States. The weight of evidence seems to be that they were pursuing their occupations in a peaceful spirit, with no thought beyond the incoming crops. The Secretary of War, having his attention so frequently called to the "Negro Fort," wrote to General Jackson, then in command of the Southern Division, on the subject; and General Jackson (in May, 1816) wrote to General Gaines, saying: "I have little doubt that this fort has been established by some villains for the purpose of rapine and plunder, and that it ought to be blown up, regardless of the ground on which it stands; and if your mind shall have formed the same conclusion, destroy it and return the stolen negroes to their rightful owners." The mind of General Gaines was of the same opinion, and he only needed this order to impel him to immediate action. He at once secured the aid of five hundred friendly Creeks, under their chief, M'Intosh, detailed Colonel Clinch and his regiment, with two pieces of artillery, and two gun-boats under the orders of Sailing-master Loomis, who in due time reached the spot marked for vengeance. The Maroons, and a few of their Indian allies, had taken refuge in the fort, and were prepared to defend it to the last. But General Clinch, finding that he made no impression upon it with his batteries, prepared hot shot, and threw them in upon the magazine, which exploded with a most awful devastation. The fort was small and the people gathered in it numerous, and death, in its most horrid form, awaited the innocent victims. Some were buried in the ruins, some torn from limb to limb, some thrown high into the air, and some crushed by falling timbers. Of three hundred and thirty-four souls who had sought the protection of its walls, two hundred and seventy were instantly killed; and of the remaining sixty-four only three were without injury. Two of these were given over to the Creeks for slaughter, and were massacred on the spot as chiefs. The wounded were put on the gun-boats, and such as recovered were given over to pretended claimants as slaves. The dead were forever free.* Twenty-two years subsequent to the capture of this property and the massacre of those who were in possession of it, a bill was reported in the House of Representatives, and passed, granting five thousand dollars to the officers, ma |