Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-05-28


persons from our all-embracing arms, and |
20 10 wander accursed over the earth,
whose shuddering surface will reeOil from
the pollution Of their footprints? Upon
such We can work no retribution, save the
poor cheap process Of seizing 70 the pub
lie use such substance as they could not
take with them.
Am to be told that under the COnsutu-
ton tho power does not exist 70 seize and
oonhseats the property Of those huge and
blackened felons7 Who will stand here 10
plead the cause Of treason BY suggesting
learned, artificial quibbling and unworthy
doubts Of this power that have a founda-
tion nowhere, save in q willingness to aid
the guilty2 Clearly we have that power and
as certainly will it be vigorously exercised
on at least this class of criminals.
The law was the study of my youth and
its practice has absorbed all the years Of
my manhood, but, thank Heaven, l am not
lawyer enough to find the only measure
and estimate Of nations opportunities
and needs in the artificial rules Of Hisi
prius court, devised in the withered brain
of warped judges in a barbarOus time to
get around hard obstacles they had not
courage to remove-rliles haply hid away
for centuries in the dust Of the dead gene
rations. l will never be found estimating
and weighing the everlasting equities by
the narrow precedents Of a fVe-pound
court. Our way shall never be walled up
with the disinterred tones Of this lost and
forgotten lore Learning and ghOstly
lawyers who glide from their musty leaves
like dried geraniums from mislaid and
= nj a. Iori
lips shock us with the rude jargOn Of past
ages, may gather up this brain debris Of
! judiciiA cemeteries and HE them back to
the hooks Of foTgetfulness, for these issues
are not to be decided by rules from that
source Some reason must be given for
deciding our tremendous case amiss, other
| than that courts have always adjudged
the petty cause Of their litigious suitors
amiss also.
To those who say that we cannot pass 4
confscation bill, l will only say that they
will see that we can. In its scope and
iterms, any act that is not 10 be the
nearest Of shans must be general
must in its provisions embrace all
all traitors. know I'VE are told by
! absurdly wise men that such law must
be curiously and ingeniously framed it
must graduate and classify the rebels into
ut least six classes, and be so specified and
nice and wise that no conviction can pos
sibly be had under it.
Sir, to me traitor is a traitor; they all
| belong to one bad class, and as such all
must be obnoxious to all punishment.
\ have already indicated who should be pun
/ ished, and how; but it must be left to the
prosecuting officers, to the courts, and the
Executive, who of the whole mass shall be
lpunished, as well as the degree Of its Sc
verify. An effort TO discriminate by law
will defeat the just object of all law. |
would set free the slaves Of every man and
woman engaged in this rebellion. The
/ enilt Of the master should inure at least to
the benefit Of the slave, and from this huge
crime should spring greater bene6cence.
have twice occupied this floor and the
press on this general subject, and do not
now propose even to epitomize the argu-
ments for this proposition. I may, how
ever, be permitted a remark or two upon
some of the weightest objections to the eX-
pediency Of this measure.
The citizens Of slave States implOre and
beseech us not to I" Africanize '-as they
call it-their sections, by the emancipation
Of the slaves OF the rebels. do not think
/ quite understand the force of this express
sion, if by il they mean the odiOus and
uncomfortable presence Of the descendants
these Africans in their midst, and propa-
gated and increased them there2 Not we
. They would have them. They outraged
Heaven and insulted the earth TO get them
and it is because they have them that this
war came Where should the especial con-
sequences fall if not on them? They ex
claim against this scheme as if emancipa-
ton would increase qusdruple, the num-
Der of the negroes and as if they had none
now.
/ know these gentlemen occasionally
startle themselves with the horrant pictures
of a negro insurrectiOn. Out Of what grows
this awful fear of insurrection. rape and
blood 1t is the pure, lawful child of slave
ry alone. 1t is the slave that meditates
and broOds over the idea of insurrection
and solely and purely because he is slave;
and it is to get rid of his chains and their
attendant curses that he becomes a con-
spirator, and in secret whets his knife and
appetite for blood Strike down slavery
and you annihilate the possibility of in
surrection by the destruction of the sole
creating cause. There have been innu-
merable slave instructions under the stars
and stripes-an insurrection of free ne
groes never, and there never viii be; anC
least Of all in the presence Of FIVE hundred
thousand soldiers
We are told by the men of the North and
South that the emancipation of the slaves
will, as the phrase is, " "Africanize" the
North also. If so, this would relieve the
South in a measure. know the strength
and depth and blindness of the unseeing
unhearing unknowing, and unreasoning
brute prejudice against this race, and that
I can neither enlighten or instruct it.
know that legislatures and constitution.
makers in the free States are now busy
adding dark hues to their already blacken.
ed institutions, and just as if by Legislation
they could fence against these negroes. L
these blind workers would but open their
eyes to the. width Of careless observation
they would at least learn the utter futility
of hedging up the way Of his people BY
legislation.
Sir the census of 1910, 1880 and 1850
show these amazing facts: that from the
more Northern Of the free States, and
where, under the laws, negroes are sub
iected 10 the fewest disabilities and enjoy
sort of qualified citizenship, that race is
slowly and certainly receding While in
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri
Southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, not.
withstanding the fearful penalties and
disabilities imposed for the sole purpose o.
, driving them away, the free eolored Popu.
. lation rapidly aecumulates and increases
Demonstrating that the movements Of tha
race are in obedience to law stronger anC
J deeper than your superficial Constitutions
and statutes. Why does q negro ever &,
North but to escape slavery and its attend.
! ant ills2 Abolish it, and the blacks of tn,
: North would joyfully tnrn to the land o.
their birth and love- The dark cloud tha
: hangs in the frozen sky Of Canada vii
be dispelled in a month.
But we are told that this emancipation
would bring the freed slaves directly int,