New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-08-05
4 PRACTICAL QUESTION NEEDING
SRVYB,R mRgT,

-
sETTLRMRnT.
In another column of tO-day's paper VIII be
found an interesting .and important letter from
Gen. Butler to the Secretary OF War, upon the
subject of slaves. Gen. Botler grNsps the diff
Gully without fnching, considering it as sol
der aud as q statesman, without ignoring it as
a question also of humanity 1t ia not merely
question of persons bound to service, upon whom
those claiming such service have a constitutional
right; not of persons capable Of service who, be-
log cOntraband of war, become c0nhscated prop
erty, and are converted necessarily into men by
natural law, as Federal law recognises no such
property except in the single case Of slaycs-iu-
gitiye but it is a question referring to men,
women and children, a large proportion OF them
incapable of labor, who have been abandoned by
their legal owners and belong, therefore, to no.
body. What shall be done with them 1t Is
practical question TO which no answer Is to be
found in the United States Constitution. Clearly
they are not fugitive slaves, for they have been
abandoned by those who held them as prop
erty under the laws of the Southern States and
they had, therefore, no masters to run
away from. If still property at all, it could be
only as shipwrecked goods found upon the high
seas, or on beach, TO which the first conner
is entitled. But, being human creatures with
certain inalienable rights, at least inallenabie
except by municipal law-wbich under the Federal
Constitution has never been enacted-then they
themselves are the first corners and are entitled
to themselves: first, by their inalenable right to
freedom; and, second, because they were the first
to pick up themselves and to take possession OF
the property which certain other persons had
thrown away and abandoned. Whether, then, as
men or slaves, they are free; as men, in resum'
ing their natural right, there being 10 claimant
to the contrary; as slaves, because they are the
first persons who found and took possession OF
goods aud chattes without an owner There
seems to be no legal, logical, or moral flaw in
this argument. Congress has already decided we
believe to the entire satisfaction Of the country,
the stairs of slaves who have been used by their
masters in aid Of instruction; it, or the Govern
ment has still to exercise its careful judgment
upon the legal relations Of large class Of per-
soDs with whom military commanders must come
! in contact more aud more as the war progresses,
who hitherto have been slaves, but whom their
| masters have abandoned.
But even then there viii remain The question
| Of how these people are to be treated. If con-
| sidered as persons, they are, in the eye of the
| law, paupers without hatita.ions and without
visible means of support. A paternal Govern
ment cannot leave them TO suffer or to become
vagabOnds or wanderers. Manfesily they should
not be left to prey upon the community at large,
or to become q prey to the enemy. The Legs.
lature of Tennessee has authorized the impress
ment OF oil free coored persons between the
ages of is and 80 to perform all the mental
service of camps for " the relief Of volunteers"
The hint is worth considering and may be i'm
proved upon. These people who have found
themselves may perhaps, with their own con-
sent be enrolled and brought under military dis.
cipline to do much needful work as laborers
upon entertainments and other service where
fighting men would otherwise be employed. 1t
is neither humane nor wiFe TO leave the cohdi-
ton even OF those who Congress has already
declared, shall become free rs cOuEfcafed prop
crty, without proper legislative consideration;
and still more is it necessary if their numbers
are to be added to from the class referred to
by General Batter. 1t certainly is not best
that these people should be left 70 wander
about the country as mendicants or laborers in
search Of hire, when the appeals 10 charity in
our own section are already sufficiently OnerOuF
and when the supply for labor is in excess Of
the demand. 1t is not desirable to drain the
South of its laboriDg class in any event, and it
will not be difficult to devise some scheme by
which these people may be kept at home and
put to some useful employment, at the same
time that they shall be protected in their newly
acquired rights. With o proper organization
and discipline they could probably be put in a
condition to protect themselves, at least so long
as there is o Federal army in their vicinity or
between them and their late masters They
could, too, undoubtedly, be made in some
measure seli-supporting. Where they have been
abandoned or coniiscated, the other property of
their masters will have been abandoned or
confscated, in whole or part, also. The land
and the laborers remain, though the owner may
have fed, and both being left to the care OF the
Government, there seems to be no good reason
why there should not still exist natural de-
peDdence upon each other. One NAV cultivate
and the other be cultivated, under proper rep,l-
lation and supervision as, at least, provisional
arrangement till more settled times shall demand
more permanent arrangements.
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