Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-12-30

placed before the American people Is this: shall
We restore the American Union as il was, with
slave States and with the slavery Institution IN
touched. or shall we abolish slavery at once by
popular decree. and then fight 70 restore the
Union without sIaveryi This is the milGest way
OF stating the question. There are some men,
some clergymen, even some respectable clergy
men, who have said publicly that they were OPP
posed TO the restoration if slavery we're to exist in
the Unioni To such persons we have nothing to
say. They are worse enemies to their country
than Southern rebels, because they fight TO keep
the Sites out, which their country is fighting to
bring in.
But We state the question as it occurs to
the minds of some reasonable men, and TO them
we propose to submit the remarks we have to
make
And we say that it is evidently more desirable
that the Union should be restored with slavery
existing as before, than without it. unless form
Of labor be at the same time substituted, which
shall save US from ruin. We have not drifted
into the folly of forgetting our principles, be-
cause there is war in the land. A year ago, no
thoroughly sane man in America would have con-
scented TO decree of absolute emancipation, if
such decree could have been made The rea-
sons are unchanged. To restore this Union with
four millions of unprotected blacks on the couE-
try, free to work or not, with their old men and
women, their sick and their children unprovided
for, would be 70 curse the race with the worst
Abandonment they have known in their entire hu-
initiation.
To restore the Union with the slave States
suddenly deprived of the institution which has
has been the foundation of their prosperity, and
on which we depend "a much as they for the very
productions which make them valuable members
of the Union, would be to perpetuatethe very
evils we are now suffering. No blockade would
eff mali sion tha ofc
would so thoroughly impoverish the families of
the South; DO degree Of con6scasion would so
thoroughly annui the prospect of collecting for
eign debts; no invading army would so wholly
depopuate the plantations of the South, and no
devastation Of the sword would so totally destroy
the South commercial correspondent of
the North, and purchaser of Northern com
modities.
Let no man saw this is a base and sordid view
of question of personal freedom. 1t is not SO.
We say nothing in favor of the perpetuatlon OF
slavery as an institution. If any man will devise
a substitute for il which will take care of the
black families alone, to say nothing of the white
| be will do the age service. But immediate
emancipation is idea that all of us regarded rs
the ruin OF both black and white year ago; and
some few, in the excitement of war, have forgot
ten that such emancipation by the war would be
fatal in its effects as if it had occurred in times
OF peace.
Men imagine that the only thing to be done is
TO make the blacks Free and that then they would
be naturally employed as free laborers at rate
of payment that would make them comfortable
and that the Southern countries would go on
calmly producing and selling and buying as here
tofore. The idea is chimerical. The history OF
the world proves it. In no tropical country on
earth will the human race work for any more
than the bare support of life. except on com
pusion; and unless the reformer can, with his
emancipation scheme, introduce new and super
human industry, economy, thrift and persever
ance into the negro, it will result that he will not
earn a support for himself alone. much less for
his family; that he will often beg steal, or starye
rather than work. that the old and helpless will
be abandoned. that children will be cast out to
suffer and die; in Short that all the ills which at
/ tend poverty here will at once attach to negro
| poverty there, and that the Southern system will
change from one of forced labor with good pay
to one of no labor and no pay.
Men may well propose to take now, as some
have proposed, hundred a thousand, or many
thousand negroes. and pay them wages for their
labor. But will the same men take them, with
their families, old and young, sick and insane,
and contract to furnish them. instead of pay ia
money, abundance of food, clothing, medical at
tendance, and the necessaries of comfortable life
throughout life with all its chances? Who will
make the proposal and agree to let the negro
work as freeman, and be the Judge of his own
hours and time, and leave when he pleases with
out CARRYING his dependents with himl Philan
thropic gentlemen may send in applications for
| ''contrabands,'' but they very careful not to
| say anything about contrabands wives and chill
dren; and old parents and sick sisters. and al
their helpless relations. Men may be willing tc
contract for the stout, sturdy negro, who can dc
| aud ncix h,,t mill hos
hire the old "mammies and daddies," and pay
them support and clothing till they diet
The proposition to make use of the war fol
the purpose of emancipation, is virtually u
plunge the SoDth into the depths of poverty, o.
both white and black.
What then, in times like these, would be tht
desire of true statesman in managing tile affairs
of his country2 Would he seek, a means Of
putting down rebellion. TO destroy the very coun
try which is in rebellion. and with it DESTROY our
own prosperity Would be seek TO plunge the
black race into ruin with the white? The poll
ticiah who does this is blind to all questions Of
public good, and must have his mind fixed or
one idea, TO the exclusion of all good reasoning
| He would seek to restore the Union to ia
| ancient prosperity. He would endeavor to bring
back the revoted States with their institutions
intact. He would treat slavery precisely as he
would treat cotton growing. Both nstitu
ions, D0tn are sources OF wealth ana prosperity,
the abolition of either would abolish the other
almost if not wholly. But would he forever for
bid cotton growing for the sake of frightening
the cotton grower into submission? Would ht
forever forbid slave owning for the sake of com
polling the slave-owner to yiedf
In either case he would strike deadly blow al
the nations prosperity. On the contrary, ht
would desire labor to restore the Union, precisely
as it was, prosperous and having vast popula
ton OF happy whites and happy blacks, and thei
he would set himself to work 10 deTise way o
ameiorating the condition of all the laborine
| classes = men, and if he could find substitut,
for slavery which would take care of the blacl
race, he would urge its adoption. possibly h,
would endeavor to remove that race from in,
lani. Who can doubt that the American Unior
is more valuable with four million of slaves. al
well cared for and well provided as they are will
the possibility of improving their condition. and
perhaps, substituting another form of labor To-
absolute slavery. than it would be with four mil
lions of free blacks roaming through desolat
and poverty stricken South?
1 a