Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-11-26
Secretary Cameron and the Negro
Question

Secretary Cameron is greatly exercised on the
negro question He has been at Springfield
lately, and in bis private conversation he talk.
ed about arming negroes. He says. so the re,
port goes, that he sent to Beaufort an extra
quantity OF arms, to be used by any men who
wished to use them. He couldn't coutiin him.
sell at private entertainment, but must give
out that, In last resort, he would arm all men
who wished to strike for liberty. lew crazy
Abolitionists would coolly sanction this, and q
man carried away with passion and resentment;
Dnt Tour htths OF the white men in the United
states will read 1t with disgust and contempt
When England, in her extremity, armed the
lndian, the act was condemned on the simplest
principles OF humanity. Aiming the negro
would DC worse. IL is no justification if me-
groes are armed by the Southern Confederacy
The Government needs the moral power ofright
and justice, and constitutional law. In that is
its strength, Let deSperadoes disregard them,
and insult the moral sense of mankind It Is
the weak and wicked that resort to such expe.
dlents. IL will be sorry comment If twenty
odd millions OF white men can't manage one
third OF the number In rebellion without ca ling
on the negro; the suggestion is humilating and
disrepuiabe. We hope all Union men will de-
nounee 1t. Such suggestions aid the rebellion;
IL hves on them; and they ought not to be tol
Grated in Secretary, and, especially, in the
Secretary OF War
Only reflect on the meanness ard logfuDg
Character of such suggestion. This Govern
ment was made by white men for white men,
from first to last, IL has been administered on
that ground, The free States have treated the
negro on the same principle upon which the
South treat him. They don't treat the negro
as having any rights in this county. Ho can
live at the convenience of the white man. In
tho Tree States generally he can't vote, can't
hold otiicc can't serve on juries, can't give tes.
timony against white man. He has no politi-
cal rights, still less any social position. In some
states he is not allowed TO live and breathe the
air OF heaven, unless be resided there when the
State Constitution was adopted Then the
white. man IN his extremity CALI on the poor
negro to shed his blood aud risk his life in a
cause not his own. fe
They need not tell US that they have any
thing TO CHER the negro, If they were 20 dis
posed, The status OF the negro is fixed by a
law that no human power can repeal. The
legal bond that connects the negro and the
white mac may be severed, but Immediately
something must supply Its place; and to invenI
any condition other than the one that obtains
now, Is beyond mans ingenuity. The whit
man Will treat the negro hereafter as he ha
done heretofore, and Cameron can't help it.
The negro may be deceived and misled b.
demagogues, white and black, The best evil
dence that he is incapable Of apprecating biz
condition would be his willingness TO be used in
this war between white men, in which ho is "a
fare alike, no matter which wins.
If he were ft for such a contest at oil, he
would see that our Government is not his, and
never can be. .--
We have noticed these Outgiviugs OF Came.
ron, not that we have any apprehensions that
they will be carried into practice. Congress
and the Administration are too smart for that
and, we may safely say, have too much princi
pie. Cameron is demagogue. He strikes ou
to out.Herod Herod; not that he cares for the
negro; but seeks to pander to an element in the
free States that may be useful to Simon Came
ron. He has never been suspected of much
zeal, except for fat contracts and political hon.
ors; and 1t is useful, he thinks now, to make
show Of frmness, beyond ordinary, against reb
els, and show, too, of zeal for negro freedom
OF which be has never been much suspeced--
Louisville Democrat, ....-. d
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