Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1861-08-15
Number q

! which I had been empowered to raise
| and they had but single rife oannon, an
iron poeuder. OF course every thing nfost
and did WELD to the supposed exigercy and
the orders. This ordering away the troops
+ from this department, while it weakened the
posts at Newport News, necessitated the
| Withdrawal Of the troops from Hampton,
! where I was throwing up entrenched works
to enable me to hold the town with smals,
force while advanced up rx or James
River In the village of Hampton there
were large number of negroes, composed,
in great measure, of women snd children
of the men who had fedfthither within my
! lines of protection, who had escaped from
the maraading parties of rebels who had
been gathering up able bodied blacks to aid
them in constructing their batteries on tho
! York and James Rivers. had Employer
The myn 10 Hampton 10 throwing up IN
trenebmerts, and they were working zeal
ously and efficiently at that duty, saving onr
soldiers from that labor under the gleam OF
the midday sun. The women were earning
substantially their own subsistence in wash
ing, marketing, and taking care of the clothes
of the soldiers, and rations were being serv-
ed out to the men who worked for the sup
port of the children. But by the evacuation
drawal of troops, leaving me scarcely 5000
men outside the fort, including the force at
Newport News, all these black people wera
obliged to break up their homes at Harnp-F
toe, Seeing across the creek within my lines
for protection and support. Indeed it was
most distressing sight, to see these IooT
creatures. who had trusted to the protection
of the arms of the United States, and who
aided the troops of the United States in their
enterprise, to be thus obliged to flee from
their homes, and the bomes Of their masters,
who had deserted them, and become not fu-
gitives from fear of the return Of the rebel
sodiery, who had threatened to shoot the
men who had wrought for US, and to carry
of the women who had served Us, to worse
than Egyptian bondage have, therefore,
nlw within the peninsula, this side OF
Hampton creek, 900 negroes 300 OF whom
are abie-bodied men, 80 of whom are men
sui 8 antially past hard labor, l75 womens
225 children under the age of ten years, and
ITO between ten and eighteen years, and
many more c1ming in. The questions which
this state of facts present are very embar-
rss'ing.
Erst-What shall be done with them p
and Second, What is their state ana condi-
tion
Upon these questions 9esss5 tho inssfuc-
tons of the Department.
The first question, however, may perhaps
he answered By considering the last. Are
these men, women, and children slaves Are
they free2 Is their condition that of men,
women, and children, or of property, or is it
mixed relation? What their status was
under the Constitution and laws, we all
know. What has been the effect of rebellion
and a state of war upon that status
When adopted the theory of treating the
ablebodied negro ut to work in the trenches,
as pronertv liable to be used in aid of REBELS
ion. ands; contraband of war, that condition
of things was in so far met, as | then and
still believe, on a legal and constitutional
basis. But now a new series OF questions
arise Passing by women, the children GER.
tainlv cannot be treated on that basis; it
property, they must be considered the incum.
brance rather than the auxiliary of an army;
and. of course, in no possible legal relation
could be treated as contraband.
Are they property If they were SO, they
have been left by their masters and owners,
desered, thrown away, abandoned. Ike the
wrecked vessel upon the ocean. Their fer
mer possessors and owners have causelessly,
traitoroualy, rebelliously, and, to carry out
the figure, practically abandoned them to be
swallowed up by the winter storm OF starva'
tion.
Ifproperty DO they net become the prop
erty of the salvors? but we, their salvors, do
not need and will not hold such property and
will assume no such ownership; has not
therefore all proprietary relation ceased r
Have they not become thereupon men wos
men and children? No longer under owns
ership of any Kind. the fearful relicts of fu-
gitiyo masters, have they not by their mas
ters acts, and the state of war, assumed the
condition, which we hold to be the normal
one, of those made in Gods image. Is nat
every constitutional, legal and moral re-
ouirement, as we'll to the runaway master
as theiI relinQuished slaves, thus sansweredf
j confess that my own mind is compelled by
this reasoning to look uron them as men and
women. Ifnot free born, yet free, manumit
ted, sent forth from the hand that held them
never to be reclaimed.
Of course it this reasoning thus imperfect
~ set forth is correct. my daty as humane
man is very plain. should take the same
care Of these men, women and children,
houseless, homeless and unprovided for, as
would of the same number OF the men, wo-
men, and children, who for their attachment
| 20 the Union DaU D66H uIAFCu OI diuWCN W
flee from the Confederate States. should
have no doubt on this question, had | not
seen it stated, that an order had been issued
by General Mcdowell in his department.
substantially fofbidding ell the fugitive
slaves from coming within his lines, or being
harbored there Isthat order to be enforced
il all military departments? II so, who are
to be considered fugative slaves? Is slave
to be considered iugative whose master runs
away aud leaves him? Is it forbidden to
the troops to aid or harbor within their lines
the negro children who are found therein, or
/ is the soldier. when his march has destroyed
their means of subsistence, to allow them to
| starye because he has driven off the rebel
master? Now shall the commander OF reg
iment or battalion sit 10 Judgment upon the
question, whether any given black man has
! fled from his master, or his master fed from
him ? Indeed, how are the free born to be
distinguished? Is any one more or less
fugitive slave because he has labored upon
the rebel entrenehmants 1t be has sc
| labored, if | understand it, he is to be har-
bored, By the reception of which are the
rebels most to be distressed, By taking those
who have wrought all their rebel masters
desired, masked their battery, or those who
have refused to labor and left ths battery un>
masked.
havs very decided opinions upon the
suhiect of this order 1t does not becoms