The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-03 00:00:00

GENERAL PIIELPS'S PROCLAMATION

.61G4INST SLAVERY.

The following is the text of the proclamation
issued by General Phelps:—

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH-WEST.

Headquarters, Middlesex Brigade, Ship Island,
Mississippi, Dec. 4.

Co the loyal Citizens of the South-West,—With-
out any desire of my own, but contrary to my
private inclinations, I again find myself among you
as a military officer of the Government. A proper
respect for my fellow-countrymen renders it not
out of place that I should make known to you the
motives and principles by which my command will
be governed.

We believe that every State that has been ad-
mitted as a Slave State into the Union since the
adoption of the constitution has been so admitted
in direct violation of that constitution.
We believe that the slave States which existed as
such at the adoption of our constitution are, by be-
coming parties to that compact, under the highest
obligations of honour and morality to abolish sla-
very.

It is our conviction that monopolies are as de
structive as competition is conservative of the prin.
ciples and vitalitica of republican overnment ; that
slave labour is a monopoly which excludes flee la-
bour and competition ; that slaves are kept in com
parative idleness and ease in a fertile half of our
arable national territm y, while free white labourers
constantly augmenting in numbers from Europe,
are confined to the other half, and are often dis-
tressed by want ; that the free labourer of the North
has more need of expansion into the Southern
States from which it is virtually excluded, than sla-
very had into Texas in 1846; that free labour is
essential to free institutions ; that these institutions
are naturally better adapted and more congenial to
the Anglo-Saxon race than are the despotic ten-
dencies of slavery; and, finally, that the dominant
political principle of this North American continent,
so long as the Caucasian race continues to flow in
upon us from Europe, must needs be that of free in-
stitutions and free government. Any obstructions to
the progress of that form of government in the
United States must inevitably be attended with dis-
cord and war.

Slavery, from the condition of a universally re-
cognised social and moral evil, has become at length
a political institution, demanding political recogni-
tion. It demands rights to the exclusion and anni-
hilation of those rights which are insured to us by
the constitution, and we must choose between them
which we will have, for we cannot have both.
The constitution was for freemen, not for slaves.
Slavery as a social evil might for a time be tole-
rated and endured; but as political institution it
becomes imperious and exacting, controlling, like
a dread necessity, all whom circumstances have
compelled to live under its sway, hampering their
action, and thus impeding our national progress.
As a political institution it could exist as a co-
ordinate part only of two forms of government,
namely, the despotic and the free, and it could
exist under a free government only where public
sentiment in the most unrestricted exercise of a
robust freedom leading to extravagance and licen-
tiousness, had swayed the thoughts and habits of
the people beyond the bounds and limits of their
own moderate constitutional 'provisions. It could
exist under a free government only where the 'peo-
ple in a period of unreasoning extravagance had
permitted popular clamour to overcome public rea-
son, and had attempted the impossibility of setting
up permanently as a political institution a social
evil which is opposed to moral law.
By reverting to the history of the past, we find
that one of the most destructive wars on record, that
of the French Revolution, was originated by the
attempt to give political character to an institution
which was not susceptible of political character.
The church, by being endowed with political power,
with its convents, its schools, its immense landed
wealth, its associations, secret and open, became the
ruling power of the State, and thus occasioned a
war of more strife and bloodshed, probably, than
any other war which has desolated the earth.
Slavery is still less susceptible of political charac-
ter than was the church. It is as fit at this moment
for the lumber-room of the past as was in 1793 the
monastery, the landed wealth, the exclusive privi-
lege, &c., of the Catholic Church in France. It be-
hoves us to consider as a self-governing people, bred
and reared and practised in the habits of self go-
vernment, whether we cannot, whether we ought
not to revolutionise slavery out of existence with-
out the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of
the French revolution.

Indeed, we feel assured that the moment slavery
is abolished, from the moment our Southern
brethren, every ten of whom have probably seven
relatives in theNorth,would begin to emerge from a
hateful delirium. From that moment, relieved
from imaginary terrors, their days become
happy, and their nights peaceable, and free from
alarm. The agregate amount of labour under
the new stimulus of fair competition becomes
greater day by day; property rises in value, invi-
gorating influences succeed to stagnation, degene•
racy, and decay ; and union, harmony, and peace, to
which we have so long been strangers, become re-
stored, and bind us again in the bonds of friendship
and amity, as when wo first began our national

PRICK.... ...4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

career, under our glorious government of 1789.
Why do the leaders of the rebellion seek to
change the form of your ancient government ? Is it
because the growth of the African element of your
population has come at length to render a change
necessary ? Will you permit the free government
uuder which you have thus far lived, and which is
so well suited for the development of true manhood,
to be altered to a narrow and belittleing despotism,
in order to adapt it to the necessities of ignorant
slaves, and the requirements of their proud and
aristocratic owners ? Will the labouring men of the
South bend their necks, to the same yoke that is
suited to the slave ? We think not. We may safely
answer that the time has not yet strived when our
Southern brethren will abandon their long-cherished
free institutions, and enslave themselves for the
mere sake of keeping Africans in slavery.
It is the conviction of my command, as a part of
the national forces of the United States, that labour,
manual labour, is inherently noble ; that it cannot
be systematically degraded by any nation without
ruining its peace, happiness, and power; that free
labour is the granite basis on which free institutions
muet rest ; that it is the right, the capital, the in•
heritance, the hope of the poor man everywhere—
that it is especially the right of five millions of our
fellow-countrymen in the Slave States as well as of
the four millions of Africans there, and all our
efforts, however small or great, whether directed
against the interference of government from abroad
or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be
for free labour, our motto and our standard here
and everywhere, and on all occasions, " Free la--
hour and working men's rights." It is on this basis
and on this basis alone that our munificent govern-
ment, the asylum of nations, can be perpetuated
and preserved.

J. W. PHELPS, Brigadier-General of Volunteers,

Commanding.

THE NAVY.

VALETTA, Dee. 21.—The only addition to her
Majesty's ships in port since the departure of the
last mail is the Doris, 32, Capt. Sir F. L. M'Clin-
tock, which arrived to-day from the coast of Syria,
pursuant to orders from Malta. This fine frigate
is to proceed with all possible despatch to join the
squadron now in course of formation on the North
American and West Indian station. The gunboat
Foxhound, 4, Commander the Hon. A. C. Hobart,
left Malta harbour on the 16th inst. to exercise her
crew in the use of the Armstrong gun, and returned
next day. The James Watt, 89, Capt. Codd, left
port to-day for a similar purpose, and will, it is said,
proceed as far as Naples. The ships just now in
port are the Marlborough, 131, the Hibernia, re-
ceiving ship, the former bearing the flag of the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and the latter that of the Admiral
Superintendent ; Neptune, 89; Medina and Firefly,
surveying vessels, and Foxhound, 4, Wanderer, 4,
and Growler, 3, gunboats. The Growler is to be
paid off here on Tuesday. Intelligence of the death
of the Prince Consort was officially received here
on Sunday last. On the following day the Governor
issued a proclamation, desiring that the constituted
authorities, civil servants, and inhabitants gene-
rally, should put themselves in mourning, and that
all public places of business and amusement should
be closed for three days.
The iron screw steamer Resistance, 18, 3,668 tons,
600 horse power, was yesterday placed in No. 3
deck at Chatham, vacated the previous day by the
Defence. Apart from a slight hitch occurring at
the entrance to the dock, the operation was success-
fully performed under the direction of Mr. Lang,
master shipbuilder, and his subordinates. Her
draught of water forward was 19ft. 9in., and aft
just 22ft., leaving about a foot between her keel and
the blocks on the floor of the dock. She will proceed
with her fittings as fast as the present resources of
the establishment, taxed as they are to the utmost,
will admit. The operation of pumping the water
out of the dock after the iron ship had been shored
up occupied until late last evening. The bottom of
the Resistance is ordered to be payed over with
Peacock's composition, to prevent corrosion.
The screw steam sloop Zebra, 17, 951 tons, 200
horse power, having completed her necessary alter-
ations:and the trifling repairs ordered to be executed
has been removed out of the steam basin at Sheer-
ness, and now lies moored in the harbour. During
the time she was in dock an alteration was made in
her catheads, which were removed further aft, to
allow of the freer working of her Armstrong guns
at the bow, ',and ratchet plates were fitted to her
stern-post. This fine steamer presents an exceed-
ingly smart and yacht-like appearance as she lies at
anchor, and is much admired by all nautical men.
She will be attached to the first division of the
steam reserve in the Medway for the present, and
being fully equipped with her armament on board,
will be ready to proceed to any part of the world at
a very few days' notice.
The War Department vessel Henry arrived at the
Ordnance Wharf, Chatham, yesterday, from Wool-
wich, with a full cargo of 100-pounder and 40-
pounder Armstrong solid shot and miscellaneous
stores, for the steamers fitting for commission.
Sails were drawn yesterday (Thursday) for the fleet
of gunboats fitting in the basin at the Devonport
dockyard ; several are already fit for the pennant.

In accordance with orders to that effect received
from the Admiralty, the various gunvessels ordered
to be fitted at Chatham and the other ports for home
service are to have their present smooth-bore guns
removed, and each to be fitted instead with a 100-
pounder and 40-pounder Armstrong.
Yesterday three Limmense anchors for: the iron
screw frigate Defence, 18, Capt. Powell, C. 8., ar-
rived at Chatham from the establishment of Messrs.
Brown and Lennox, Cardiff, where they were
forged. The- anchors are of the largest kind used
in the service, the sheet anchor weighing
95 cwt., and the two bower anchors 92 cwt. each.
They will be tested by the hydraulic engines before
they are placed on board the Defence. The cupola
furnace for heating the red hot shot having been
completed at the factory in the dockyard, it has
been shipped on board the Defence. The furnace
is as large as those used in line-of-battle ships, and
is capable of heating 10 inch shot as fast as re-
quired. Yesterday fires were lighted and steam got
up on board the Defence, for the purpose of testing
her boilers. The iron mainmast, weighing 16 tons,
was fixed in its place yesterday.
The deaths of the following officers have been
officially reported at the Admiralty since the 20th
of Sept. last :—Vice-Admiral G. Le Geyt, C. 8.;
Rear Admiral W. P. Stanley; Capts. S. Morrish,
W. F. Leith, R. Hall, and R. H. Elliot ; Comman.
ders J. M. Cooke, P. C. C. M'Dougall, W. Thomp-
son, W. Pardoe, W. J. S. Clark, B. R. Robertson,
R. N. Kelly, R. Barclay, W. Welsh, A. Young, and
T. Read ; Lieuts. J. H. Whitshed, S. Osborne,
W. J. Stevenson, S. W. H. Handley, R. Hea,
D. Moodie, W. Hooper, B. G. Bowles, and F.
Willoughby ; Masters W. Byford, F. Prior, and
W. W. White ; Inspector-General of Hospitals and
Fleets 0. Evans; Surgeons W. M‘Dermott, M.D.,
E. D'Anvergne, Sir J. Forbes, M.D., D. .FLeerwg
uiss'soWn;
Watson, M.D., P. Ramsay, and
M.D. ; Assist.-Surg. F. J. Withers ; Chief Engineer
E. West ; Sub-Lieut. J. Tracey ; Paymasters J. B.
Moorman, J. Olive, W. Pritchard, W. G. Tomlin-
son, and W. G. Hopkins ; Assist.-Paymaster H. T.
West. Royal Marines.—Major-Gen. R. Mercer ;
Captains G. Hockey and R. J. Little; Lieuts. L.
, and G. D. Lane.
Roteley, R. Standish

On Wednesday a detachment of Royal Engineers,
consisting of 5 officers and 120 men, together with C
battery of the Royal Artillery, consisting of 7 officers
and 255 men, and No. 6 battery of the Royal Artil-
lery (garrison), consisting of 5 officers and 117 men
accompanied by 12 men of the Army Hospital Corps,
arrived in Liverpool by the London and North-
Western Railway. They marched down to the
landing-stage, and wero immediately conveyed on
board the Canadian mail steamer Hibernian. Yes-