The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-05-18
Freemen sold into slavery.

1t seems to US that TO greater insult could be
offered to the Government Of the United States
than the seizure of the coiorcd men in our naval
| service found on board the steamer Star of the
West, and selling them into slavery. The nc
count which we publish to-day, given by that
portion Of the crew who arrived at Chicago,
makes them three in number; a report of Quar-.
termaster McGrath gives the names of two--one
of them, Levi Mann, about fifty years Of sge and
the other Walter Goodyear, aged about thirty
the latter having n wife and family in New
York, and the former also. as the Quarter master
believes. They were hurried oft to the auction
block without ceremony, and, in spite of entren
~ and remonstrance disposed of to the highest
bidder. The motive alleged for depriving them
of their liberty was as dirty and sordd as the
act was atrociously tyrannica-thc poor fellows
were sold to defray the expense Of sending out
of the free States the rest of the crew, when it
was found that they conld not be bribed to enter
the rebel service. With a part Of the money de-
rived from the sale of these men they sent the
Quartermaster and nine others as far as Cairo at
| the extreme southern border of Illinois. Here,
fortunately, the found body of loyal troops
under Col Prentiss, who received them kindly
and sent them at the expense Of his State to
Chicago.
1t lis to be observed that this outrage was not
committed until the captured crew Of the Star
| of the West had reached Montgomery. Some
| hostile feeling was manifested in Texas when
| the people of the State saw the colored men
among the sailors, and thought them too well
treated by their companions; but it was not IN
til they arrived at the seat of tie rebel govern
| meni, where Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet are
supreme, that this act of defiance to the Ameri-
can Government was ventuted upon. The sale
| of our seamen at public auction was doubtless
intended to express, in the most deliberate and
emphatic manner possible, the contempt in
which the heads Of the reoel government hold
| Northern rights and Northern feelings.
The men thus deprived of freedom were in
the service of the United States. Looking at
this act in its relation to the laws of war, it is as
fragrant a violation Of them as to have made
slaves Of the white members of the crew II she
Sscessionists shall claim that these men, BY the
decision OF the Supreme Court, are not citizens
OF the United States, and are not entitled by the
laws OF war to be dealt with as citizens, they
cannot at least deny that they we're the Deepen.
dants Of the United States that they we're in
its service and entitled to its protection. If we
fail to afford that protection, we shall admit a
principle which the leaders Of the rebellion
themselves rpust see is full of danger to the Sou
thern States.
For if the chiefs of the new Confederacy inss.
upon selling the negroes of the free States into
|
pose of their negroes also. If they claim that
the war in which they have engaged gives them
right of conquest over the bodies of all the
colored inhabitants of the free States whom
they may entrap into their power or capture
in a conflict, they concede the right Of inter
ference with their slaves as o means of retal;a
ton and prevention.
We have often referred to the evidence;
which the rebel States are giving OF their re
lapse into tac practices of harbsr;-m. Here i;
another and most striking Illustration Of III,
degradation TO which thy have sunk. It is ths
habit only Of savage tribes to make slaves o
those whom they take in war.
If the United States submit to this indignit.
they will allow the rebels whenever patty o
citizens from the loyal States may fall into thei
] hands, to select those whom they may fancy Il
! be Of colored descent, and sell them to pay tn
expense Of guarding the Others. Our Govern
ment should lose n, time in coming forward 4
the rescue OF those unfortunate men who enter
ed its service relying upon ito protection, an
: who have been sold away from their families in
to what is meant shall be lifelong exile az
bondage. II should be made poiut of homo
with our Government to redeem them. If thi
! be not done, SO far as lies in our power, W
shall deserve the scorn of the world.-[N.
/ Eve. Post