Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-11-01
VIrtuaI EmnneIpn,Ion.

Hom roIueSS MOnToe the ioHoWing news, un-
der date of October 10Th;
Gen. Wool has issued an order giving every
male contrahand' employed in the department,
eight dollars per month"; and every female foui
dollars per month"
few days since similar fact was reported
from the army of Gen. Mcclellan, namely, that
a negro named Luckey had come within the
lines, that he gave no little useful information
and that, being good blacksmith, he was set "a
work, at the regular rate Of wages shoeing the
| cavalry horses and repairing army wagons
Thus, while the newspapers are discussing
abstract principles, our army leaders are com.
PEELED to act; while this man insists upon pro.
clamation of freedom to all men from Congress
and another opposes it, our Generals cut the
Gordian knot by single acts of immediate eman-
cipation. Every instance in which they take a
fugitive slave and set him to work at wages is
such an act 1t takes the poor creature out Of
the category of chattles and puts him in the
| class Of human beings, 1t says to him that he
no longer owes service to another, that he is no
longer bound to labor for the benefit of another
but that his limbs and muscles are his own; and
the rewards ofhis industry, whatever they may
be, his property. In word, he is treated as a
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 slavery as
soon as they had to apply military laws to the
exigencies created by it, have been compelled
to adopt similar procedure. They have prac-
tically 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 judicial duty with which the mill
tary arm has nothing to do. Besides, they have
found it demoraizing 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 of 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 entrenchments, and
afterwards not only refused TO compensate Their
alleged masters, but set the men Free In the
Creek war, in Florida, Gen. Gaines, having oc.
casion TO adjudicatc upon the case of reclaimed
negroes, who had been used as spies, decided
the question in the same way
"He asserted that in time of war all slaves ar
belligerents as much as their masters The slav
men cultivate the earth and supply pro
visions. The women cook the food, uurs
the wounded and sick, and contribute to tn
maintenance of war, often more than the sam
number of males. The slave children eouall
contribute whatever they are able, to supper
the war. He could enter into no judicial exam
ination of the claim of one man to the bones an,
muscles of another as property. As a militar,
! officer, maintaining the federal government bl
force of arms, he could not know what the law
of Florida were. He could be guided only by
| the laws of war, and the laws of any State mus
yield to the safety of the federal government
! Il Doct. House Of Representativcs, ID Session
25th Congress, No. 225.
Gaines decision was approved by the Wm
Department, then administered by Gen. Cass
and it seems TO have become precedent for il
was followed subsequently, by Generals Jessur
and Taylor. Again, in the present rebellion
General Butler, though strongly proslavery in
his sentiments, was at first compelled to invent
his ingenious doctrine of "contraband," and fin.
ally to declare out and out, as he did in his let.
ter to the Secretary of War, that the slaves must
be employed and paid At the outset Genera
Mcclellan chose another course. He undertook
to return the fugitives; but VIC infer now, from
the action in the Lucky case, that he finds il
impossible to do so, and prefers using them a.
laborers.
But to engage person as laborer, giving
him the usual wages of labor, is to acknowledg,
and declare his rights as a man. The act, by
single stroke, nullifes the pretended claims o
the slave-master and invests the slave with tn
property of his own body. Once possessed G
it by any legal proceeding, either of civil @
military authority, he cannot be dispossessec
. A free man once is free man forever. Nothin
t but force, or law which is in the nature
$ force, can reduce free man to slavery.
q Thus we take it for granted that the esta
!. lished formula of the government is, that slav
: who make their way into our camps are virtua
: ly emancipate and free. Without formal pr
: clamation, or even without special act of Co
u gress, the great events of the day, which a
b more powerful than Congresses and administr
: tions, have determined the question. In ord
Q to render this form a settled general princip
: it might be well toput it in documentary shaI
= as a circular addressed to all the commando
? who may be called upon to act in the premise
a Custom is, we know the unwritten law, bat
"a written rule is always clearer, more impcratil
e and liable TO fewer mistakes.--N y Post
e e COnflscatIRg slaves. a