The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-24
Rebel Slaves the Feeders Of the
Rebel Armies.
From the Richmond Exsminers
Read carefully The following article
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LABOR NORTH AND SOUTH.

goes on much longer. Thatlconntry has
already lost million of able bodied
men from the business of production
The drain is still going on, and half
million more must be added in another
year Thisis a frightful loss 10 COM
munity whose labor is all performed by
the class from which enlistments for
the army is made. at South.gIe heavy
6abor 81 Tie country goes on Ia spite Oh the dram
of y0tin9 t0liite men fof The toar That labor
was always sufficient to provide bread
and meat for the population, beside per-
forming much of the work of clothing,
lsbetering, and otherwise providing for
the people.
Except in districts overrun by the enc
my, This labor system is still intact and oroan-
tzcd perjorniag all its usual o6ices for sosiety.
But the North possesses no such system.
I The war makes a frightful hiatus in the
ranks of ils producing class. A million
of men are tsken from the support of
their families 10 join the army, and prob.
ably half million more are diverted from
old productive pursuits TO the expensive
work connected with arming and supply
ing troops in the fold and vessels on the
water.
Upon this scarce condition of labor has
come the war, taking off from one to one
and half millions of men from the in.
dustry of north, and furnishing a heavy
demand for new departments labor, for
maintaining the most stupendous of all
military operations. Every hour EN-.
ployed by soldier in the duties of the
camp, and by an artisan in manniactu-
ring war material, is a dead loss TO the
wealth of the north. This loss cannot
fail to be felt, sooner or later, in the most
intense degree by that people 1t will
manifest itself in the rise of all prices;
in the decrease of exports in the search
ity aud exhorbitant prices of foreign
goods; in the depreciation Of money:
in the weight of taxation; and In the
lamentable Sufferings of the poor, the
widow and the orphan, for the necessa-
ries of life.
The fanatics of the north used 10 de-
nounce the young men of the south for
idleness and pride but, if they did
nothing before, these young men fight
now and if they were idle befoie the
war, their employment in the army does
not decrease the labor of our country
In proportion as the northern young men
were industrious before, is the loss for
the labor of that country felt now. They
were more industrious, in fact, than our
southern young men, but they were so
from necessity, and that the very pame
necessity which then compelled then to
labor, now Expresses the country which
has lost their labor by sending then to
the army.
The Richmond journal boasts inthe
above article, that the Confederate troops
are supplied with provisions, clothing,
and shelter, by the labor of that species
of property known as slaves The slaves
labor and thus enable the great body of
the white population TO become soldiers,
and these slaves according to the claim
Of the rebel themselves, are not persons,
but property, just as much as oxen,
horses, and mules. They may be bought,
sold, transferred, and given away, at will.
Now if we have a right to weaken the
rebels by capturing their horses, cattle
and other brute property, why may we
not embarrass them by taking their
slaves? If we may lawfully destroy, or
carry off their commissary stores, why
may we not take possession Of the
"chattels" whose labor produces these
stores ? If the mules which plough the
corn crop may he taken as a lawful
prize of war, why may not the slave also
be taken, who guides and drives the
mules We see no reason why one
specios of the enemy's property may be
captured, and another more dangerous
species, be allowed to continue in his
possession, on the ground that its safety
is guaranteed by the Constitution, which
the enemy is laboring to destroy Com
mon sense dictates that the Federal Gov
eminent should do with the slave what
ever may be most profitable TO Itself and
here 10 the rebels, If we cannot touch
the slaves ofrebels, neither can we touch
their stock. their CROPS, or other prOpertv