The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-10-26
Slave owners the Favored Glass, and
Slavery the Badge Of H nor in the
Cotton Confederacy The Slave
owners Consumption Act

The ruling spirits in the Cotton Con-
federacy, IN every act they perform, in
every law they pass evince their deter
minaGon to make their new-fangled
Government essentially a SLATE Govern
ment, 10 which the highest order Of citizens
Is coaett,icJ ofdiose sCllo o0a the most aegroeS'
Tn this strange, so-called Government
whah, in spirit and in letter. is at least
two centuries behind the other political
organizations in Christendom, Of the pres
ent day, the nom slaveholder-the man
who is obliged to rely upon his own per-
sopal labor for a livelihood-is an inferior
being, and by the compulsion of the law,
is exposed to dangers and tolls from
which slave. owner is expressly exempt
We sec a remarkable illustration Of this
fact in the act recently passed by the
Rebel Congress, exempting certain persons
from the operations Of the Consumption
Act. One section of this act expressly
exempts cone person on EACH plantation
of twenty negroes" from military service.
This is virtually declaring that the own
er Of twenty slaves shall not b, required
10 serve in the army. 1t is an exemption
of the most unjust and odious character,
inasmuch as il discriminates between
the small and large slaveowners in favor
of the latter; for the act adds that con
t,eo or more plantations within five miles
of each other, and each having less hGn
gsoeaty negroes, one person" shall be ex-
empt from military service.
Now supposing that there are foe
farmers, each owning four negroes, in
neiehborhood, four of these five can be
forced into the army, whilst their wealth
Ter neighbor who owns twenty negroes
is allowed to remain at home. This is
devilish ingenuity to Cypress the small
slaveholders for the benefit of the large
ones, for it is easy TO see that the embar
rassmentof their private business which
would involve the small shareholders
compelled TO be absent from home for one,
two or three years, would soon enable
their rich neighbor, who remained at
home, TO swallow up their property by.
means of loans and mortgages. There
is no shadow Of justice or fairness in the
exemption Why should not the owner
of twenty slaves be subject to military
service lust as much as his neighbor who
owns no slaves at all? Is it not an insult
TO common sense TO say that the man who
makes an honest living for his wife and
children, ON little farm Of Fifty or one
hundred acres, by the labor of his own
hands. shall be torn away from home by
this damnoble CONSUMPTION act, while the
PROPRIETOR of a thousand acres and one
hundred slaves is allowed TO live az home
with his family, in the enjoyment Of ease
and luxury? Yet this is the practical
working of this law of the Confederate
Congress which may well be called a con-
scriptioa act for the benefit Of shareholders
But closer examination of this act
for the benefit of the cotton nobility,
will expose still more wildly the mon
,trous iniouity in which it was oonceiv-
I'd. We are told by every rebel leader
from JEFF. DAVIS, down to the miserable |
,ipers who. spew their malignant poison |
,bout the streets Of Nashville, that the
Federal government is waging war
,oainst Southern institutions, that this
var is only q loar ortbe abolition Qf slaUegH |
md that il behooyes Southern men 10
axe up arms in defence Of their rights
)ne would naturally suppose that il
hese were really the facts, the slave
lolders, who have an Immediate Pecni0,y
interest IN the preservation Of slavery
would bcthe first 10 enlist in the ranks
# the Confederate army, and that they
would not have the assurance 10 in
list on non-slayeholders being foremost
n defending Che properly of their neigh
ors. But is this so Are the ranks Of
he rebel army filed up with planters and
he sons Of planters Oris itnot noto-
ious fact that not one in ten Of the Con-
oderate soldiers ever owned one dollars
,orth Of slave property ? Il seems then
bat after all these vehement appeals 70
southern people 10 rally for the protection
f slavery Southern shareholders have
brust their poor non-slayeholding
eighbors forward TO receive the fire
{ the Federal armies, while they
..,,rnd Cor themselYes snug berlhs