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were traitors. The lessons learned at his father's knee, the influence of the visit to his home of Fred Douglass, the arguments he had heard at the meetings of the debating-societies, the discussions at Jefferson with Giddings and Wade, combined to make him look upon his enrolment in the newly-formed Republican Party as a responsibility which could not be lightly considered. His duty lay not only in his expression of his opinion at the polls, but also in making use of his power as a speaker, even as a youth, in stimulating others to his own high pitch of enthusiasm.

Fort Sumter was fired upon on April 12, 1861, and three days later President Lincoln called by proclamation for seventy-five thousand volunteers. Burrows was inflamed with patriotism, and would have enlisted at once except for pressure brought to bear upon him by influential friends who urged him to make use of his natural gifts to arouse and maintain a similar degree of patriotic fervor among his townsmen. His law practice was forgotten, Blackstone gave way to tactics of war, and clients were turned into recruits. This service was recognized by Governor Austin Blair by issuing a commission to Burrows as Captain of Company D, Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, under date of June 17, 1862. This regiment had been organized in Detroit in the Spring of 1862 with an enrolment of 982 officers and men,

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under the command of Colonel William H. Withington of Jackson.

With the signing of his commission Burrows saw no legitimate excuse for postponing the forward movement of his regiment. Patience has never been a characteristic of youth, and although a captain Burrows was still a boy. Patriots older than he chafed at the seeming deliberation with which the President and his Cabinet met the crises, and became disheartened by the delays and excuses made by McClellan, which gave the Southern army opportunity to augment its strength and to gain prestige by its early successes. Burrows fairly fumed over the "unwarranted delays" and the restraint they imposed, until at last he burst forth in a burning letter to a local Kalamazoo paper. It is youthful in expression and grandiloquent in style, but it displays the boy's temper, and pictures the sentiment of the period:

"When this direful rebellion first showed its hideous front, and commenced its war of murder and rapine," he wrote, "the loyal people, responding magnanimously to the call of the President, were told that this rebellion should be put down by the strong arm of the Government, and that in a few months peace would smile upon our country. Stimulated by that promise, and urged forward by an undying love for our institutions, our men of wealth poured

forth their treasures, and many a home took from the chain of its circle the golden link, and placed it with tears upon its country's altar. The people, confiding in their rulers, have not lagged in their duty, but life and treasure have been at the command of the Government. All that the people could do has been done willingly, and with an energy and earnestness unequaled in the history of the past. Almost by magic a mighty army sprang into existence, and with uplifted arms stood ready to smite the despoiler to the earth. But the blow was arrested. The people were wisely told that the troops must be drilled, and that the weather was too warm to venture on a Southern campaign; and that until the weather should be more favorable, traitors must rule.

"How the hard Northern cheek tingled with shame and indignation at the thought that homes must be plundered, loyal American citizens insulted and murdered, and our flag, the idol of the heart, torn and trailed in the dust, simply because the weather was not suited to the taste of 'red tape'! Yet the people endured and obeyed the high mandate, and were still cheered with the promise that when that propitious time should arrive the blow would be struck. Then all minds were directed to the coming Fall as the probable time when the army would move. The heart was filled with new life, and the people almost

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