The Shasta courier., 1861-12-07
Virtual Emancipation.

The ageht of the Associated Press tele-
graphs from Fortress Monroe the following
news, under date of October 10th
s.General Wool has issued an order CIV
ING every male contraband' employed in
the Department eight dollars per month,
and every female four dollars per month"
A few days since similar fact was re.
ported from the army of General Mcclellan.
namely: that negro named Luckey had
come within the lines, that he gave no little
useful information, and that, being good
blacksmith, he was set to work, at the iegu-
lar rate of wages, shoeing the cavalry horses
and repairing army wagons
Thus, while the newspapers are discussing
abstract principles, our army leaders are
compelled to act while this man insists up
on a proclamation of freedom to all men,
from Congress, and another opposes it, our
Generals cut the Gordian knot by single acts
of immediate emancipation. Every instance
in which they take fugitive slave and set
him to work at wages is such an act. 1t
takes the poor creature out of the cat CORY
of chattels, and puts him in the class of hu-
man beings. 1t says to him that he no long
er owes service to another, that he is no long
er bound to labor for the benefit of another,
but that his limbs and muscles are his own,
and the rewards of his industry, whatever
they may be, his property. In word, he is
treated as man, entitled, like any other
man who works, to the legitimate fruits OF
that work
Generals Wool and Mcclellan deserve the
thanks of the country for this recognition of
the truth and yet they could scarcely adopt
any other course. All our Generals, from
the time of jackson to the time of Taylor.
as soon as they were brought in contact with
slayery-as soon as they had to apply mill
tary laws to the exigencies created by it
have been compelled to adopt a similar pro-
cedure They have practically declared all
slaves making their way into the army free
men. In the first place, they cannot consent
to return them to their masters, for that is a
judicial duty with which the military arm
has nothing to do. Besides, they have found
it demoralizing to turn the gallant fellows
in the ranks into mere slave catchers or slave
factors In the second place, they cannot
allow them to starve to death by remaining
idle in the camps, and neither have they the
means of transporting the fugitives to some
free State, where they might make living
for themselves. AS matter cf necessity.
then, they must put them to work and pay
them for what they do. General jackson
did so at New Orleans he employed slaves
upon his intrenchments, and afterwards not
only refused to compensate their alleged
masters, but set the men free. In the Creek
war, in Florida, General Gaines, having oc-
casion to adjudicate upon the case of re
claimed negroes, who had been used as spies,
decided the claim in the same way.
"He asserted that in time Of war all slaves
are belligerents as much as their masters
The slave men cultivate the earth and sup
ply provisions. The women cook the food
nurse the wounded and sick and contribute
to the / aintenance of war. often more than
the same number of males. The slave chill
dren equally contribute whatever they are
able to support the war. lie could enter
into no judicial examination of the claim of
one man to the bones and muscles of anoth-
er as property. AS military officer, MAIN
tanning the Federal Government by force of
arms, he could not know what the laws of
Florida were lie could be guided only BY
the laws Of war, and the laws of any State
must yield to the safety Of the Federal Gov
ernment Doe. House Of Representatives.
I'd Session, 26th Congress, No. 225.
Gaines decision was approved by the
War Department. then administered BY Gen
eral Cass, and it seems TO have become a
pre- .edent, for it was followed subsequently
by Generals Jessup and Taylor. Again. in
the present rebellion, General Butler, though
gly pro-savery in his sentiments, was
at first compelled to invent his ingenious doc
trine of {. contraband,' and finally to de-
clare out and out. as he did in his letter to
the Secretary of War, that the slaves must
be employed and paid. At the outset Gen
eral Mcclellan chose another. course. He
undertook to return the fugitiyes; but we
infer now, from the action in the Luckey
case. that he finds it impossible to do so.
and prefers using them as laborers.
But to engage person as a laborer, CIV
ing him the usual wages of labor, is to ac-
knowledge and declare his rights as a man.
The act. by single stroke. nullifies the pre-
tended claim of the slave-master, and invests
the slave with the property of bis own body.
Once possessed Of it by any legal proceed
ing. either of civil or military authority,
he cannot be dispossessed. A free man
once is a free man forever. Nothing but
force. or a law which is the nature Of force,
can reduce free man TO slavery.
Thus we take it fo- granted that the es-
tablished formula of the Government is.
that slaves who make their way into our
camps are virtually emancipate and free
Without proclamation, or even without a
special Act of Congress, the great events of
the day, which are more powerful than Con-
crosses and Administrations, have determin-
cd the question. In order to render this
form settled general principle. it might be
we'll to put it in documentary shape. as cir
cular addressed to all the commanders who
may be called upon to act in the premises
Custom is, we know. the unwritten law,
but written rule is always clearer, more
imperative, and liable to fewer Mistakes
n. l. Erening Post.