The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Twelve years ago, when all England
was sympathising with the terrors of Maria and the
sufferings of Uncle Tom, it was little expected that
the whole negro population of Louisiana would soon
be emancipated, and that the chain and lash would
be snatched from Legree and placed in the hands of
a great Abolitionist Power. Let people beware
how they indulge too freely in the luxury of senti-
ment and opinion, for they know not how soon they
may be called on to prove their sincerity. So far
as regards that wide region of which New Orleans
is the centre the day of personal slavery is over ;
the African is a man and a brother s no ;finger a
chattel. He is conscious of the boon; he has en-
joyed his new born liberty; he has eaten and drunk,
danced:and sung, and then fallen asleep, to dream
of new joys and awake with the sense of freedom.
But neither here nor at the head-quarters of Aboli-
tion has this glorious consummation been celebrated
as it deserved. Thirty-two years ago there was
scarce a child in England who did not on a
certain day eat plumcake and drink tea in honour
of our own Negro Emancipation. In America there
has been no jubilee; but, perhaps, what we see
there is something more serious and substantial.
Perhaps the negroes are not only emancipated, but
taught to use their freedom and made worthy of
their new calling. We omitted to do that in the
West Indies, and hence possibly our misc.iance and
degradation of the free negro. The American Abo-
litionist has profited by that warning, and will not
do the work by halves. Here is the sew Charter of
American freedom ; here is the birthright which
American Christianitv;offers instead of the curse of
Ham. Englishmen are not only familiar with the
principle of liberty, but accustomed to discuss and
even frame Constitutions. It was bat the other day
that we were giving at the point of the bayonet
Constitutions to Sicily, Naples, and Greece, to Por-
tugal and to Spain. With rather more right, and
happily more success, we have given Constitutions,
or rather conceded the power of making their own
Constitutions, to many of our colonies. So it is with
scientific zest and a practised eye and touch that we
take up the Constitution which is to regenerate the
African race, and raise the free negro himself into
an insurmountable barrier against the returning
wave of slavery. What shall we expect to find its
first axiom, its distinguishing feature, and the
pivot upon which the minor arrangements all turn?
Lycurgus wanted to make soldiers ; Solon to make
citizens; so Lincoln, doubtless, has his grand idea.
It is soon told. Every man mast do his day's
work. So that is what we are coming round to at
last. A continent is covered with fire and blood to
proclaim anew the old text, " In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread." Such is the simple issue
of all this long controversy: Hear it, Exeter Hall,
and learn at last that you must not hope to be much
wiser than your grandmother. That is what she
used to say, and her grandmother before her. But a
very rough and stern grandmother is now teaching
this first lesson to the negroes of Louisiana. Work,
Work, Work is the order of the day ' • yes, literally,
the Order of the Day, published at "Headquarters,
Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, February 3,
1864." And when we come to the nature of the work,
and the manner of the work, and the hours, and
the motives, the superintendence and whole domes-
tic discipline, then we see that General Banks has
not minced the matter. What chiefly marks the
document before us is a total absence of the plati-
tudes usually employed in addressing the negro race.
It commences significantly with suspending the
negro enlistment. After localising the negro in
his district ur parish, placing him everywhere under
the Provost-Marshal, cutting off the supply of dan-
gerous luxuries, interdicting aims, and making other
salutary regulations, the Generai Order informs
the negroes that in return for good keep and suffi-
cient wages they must and shall work tea hours a
day in summer and nine in winter, of course on the
plantations, under their existing employers. The
arrangements are evidently those heretofore in force
in those regions. Gen. Banks appears to have had
at his elbow some sensible planters, who have done
justice to both sides according to their own light,
but who certainly have not suppressed their convic.
tion that a nigger must work, and, if he does not
like work, must be made to work. He is not, in-
deed, to be flogged, no: is he to be punished in any
cruel or unusual manner. That is a matter for the
district Provost-Marshal, or any that he may ap-
point. The negro is to choose his own employer
but having made his choice is to abide by it. Small
quantities of land are to be allowed on private ac-
count. Families are not to be separated, if it can
be helped. Saving banks are es; be, provided, the
sick and aged care for, and the Sunas-lys not to be
needlessly encroached on. Indeed, it mut."." be ad-
mitted, in justice to Gen. Banks, that the negsl° i 8
here treated as an article of value, as something to
be kept alive and well if possible, and a real neces-
sity in the social system. That has not been the
case in the provision made for emancipated negroes
in the North. But after some pious regard to the
dictates of humanity and the minor requirements
of a new industrial system Gen. Banks returns to
the principles or theory of his order :—" These re-
gulations are based upon the assumption that labour
is a public duty, and idleness and vagrancy a crime."
This soundest of doctrines the general illustrates by
referring to different classes and appealing to various
sanctions. We will not dispute it. But though
labour be a terrible and universal necessity, yet we
see it usually allied with some liberty of choice, and
not made absolutely dependent on the will of cer-
tain employers, backed by Provost-Marshals. There
are men, even with the protection of a black skin,
who cannot work in the sun ten hours a day. Yet
they are to work on the plantations of Louisiana.
They are to have no choice as to the nature of the
work, for they must do the work required to be done
on the spot. The General Order fixes the pay and
other conditions of the work. What is this but pre-
dial instead of personal slavery P The negro is de-
clared a serf, bound to the soil, and yet told that he is
free. But the General Order reveals its true spirit in
the concluding articles, just as a lady's letter re-
serves its meaning to the postscript, and a re ttle-
snake puts its mind into its tail. General Banks,
in return for the labour of these negroes, expects
that the employers will troop to the ballot-box and
' vote for Mr. Lincoln. The slaves are evidently the
' price of their political support. Such planters as
L can reconcile it to their conscience to vote for Mr.
' Lincoln as President of the whole Union, and so
abandon the cause of the Confederates, are promised
a good supply of negroes, with a Provost-Marshal
• to each gang, to do the usual work of their planta-
tions. Should they decline this offer, should they
l even be " indifferent" and wish to keep out of it
t altogether, they will be regarded and treated as
traitors. The oath of allegiance will be tendered
) to all, and woe to those who refuse. They will be
3 put out of the pale of the law. Their plantations,
r with the negroes in them, will be handed over to
more loyal and trustworthy men. This of course
adds to the completeness of these regulations. The
Federals are to take the place of the Confederates
in the possession of the Southern soil and the com-
mand of its negro population. The former would
be useless without the latter, so it becomes neces-
sary to organise a system under which the substance
.
. of slavery may be retained without the name. This
is serfdom, if, indeed, without a personal tie, it is
worthy even of that name. So, while the Emperor
of Russia is abolishing serfdom, the President of
the Unit©d States is adopting it as a new institu-
tion, a new pledge of reconciliation, and a new
bond of union between the Northern and Southern
States. Such is the practical conclusion we have
3 ca.ue to twelve years after the publication of Mrs.
L Beecher Stowe's incomparable tale.

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