It seemed to be calling: "All right, my boy! the good gods were with you, but don't do it again!" At an early age I became a strong anti-slavery partisan and hailed with enthusiasm the first national meeting of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh, February 22, 1856, although too young to vote.

I watched the prominent men as they walked the streets, lost in admiration for Senators Wilson, Hale, and others.

Some time before I had organized among the railroad men a club of a hundred for the "New York Weekly Tribune," and ventured occasionally upon short notes to the great editor, Horace Greeley, who did so much to arouse the people to action upon this vital question.
The first time I saw my work in type in the then flaming organ of freedom certainly marked a stage in my career.

I kept that "Tribune" for years.

Looking back to-day one cannot help regretting so high a price as the Civil War had to be paid to free our land from the curse, but it was not slavery alone that needed abolition.