Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-04-22
The Abolition of Slavery in the
District of Columbia.

The Republicans have finally entered
uean their mission Of emancipation. The
Ill abohshiug slavery IN the District Of
Columbia las passed both branches Of
Congress received The approval Of the
Presideat is therefore the law Of the
land % citizens Of that district, will
be ferci compelled to give up their
slave property, receiving therefor nom
inal sum from the national treasury. The
/ Democrats, Of course. opposed the meas
ure, while the Republicans and Abolition
isss,snpported it.
I We must say we were disappointed in
the course of President Lincoln on this
measure. Notwithstanding his recommen
dation of the emancipation resolution to
I Congress, we hoped that the Abolition bill
for the freeing of the slaves in the District
of Columbia, would not receive his sigma
ture. The exigencies Of the times. we be-
Iieyed. would cause him to veto the dan
gerous enactment.
But it seems that he has been seduced
by the AbOlitiouists; and, we fear, has
thrown FIRE brand into the mrena that
will render the war more relentless on the
! part Of our enemies, and moro disastrous
to the Union forces.
The news Of the passage Of the bill abol
ishing slavery in the District Of Columbia
and its approval by the President, VIII
reach the soldiers of the South and nerve
their arms tc deeds Of greater valor.
They have proclaimed from the fret COM
Eencement Of the rebellion, that the design
Of the Republican party way to abolish
slavery, and the action Of our President
and Congress, indicates that the predic-
ton was correct. No sooner does Congress
become intensely Republican by the with
drewal Of the members of Southern States,
that the Summers, and Lovejoys, and VIII
sons, and Wades, open their crusade upon
the institution Of slavery. To the neglect
of other matters, they have howled inces,
sanity on the negro question, and have fin
ally commenced their work Of emancipa-
tiou. The slaves in the District of Colum
bia have been liberated, and there ID strong
reason to believe that the work of Adolf
ton will 60 on, so long as fanatics and agi
tators have majority in Congress.
Such being tho condition of affairs 4
1 Washington, is it any wonder that tht
Southerners fight with desperation tina
has already caused thousands of our brave
soldiers to fl the trenches of the lata
fields and their blood to drench contested
ground. And whilst the rebels are nervei
to deeds of desperation and valor by thu
fanatical course Of the dominant party al
Washington, the noble patriots Of the Dor
der States who are 10 the field periling
J their lives for the Government as admins.
tered at present, have little to encourage
them and TO nerve their arms for the con-
fict. Indeed, it is wonder that theJ
.l2ht al all, under such circumstances.
We very much fear that il this crusade
. inst The constitutional rights and N II
j.tlons of loyal States Oc carried on ~ in,
= leaders Of the ruling rartg il Congress
thousands who now swell the ranks
{ Union army viii take the backward r
; If this war DC narrowed down {, G 81
between the two systems, free and slave
Dor, which have respectively characterized
the N0rthera and Sru.hern States for q
long period, and under which both have
prcspeTed in degree unparalleled in tht
history Of nations, many of our best Cen
erals and soldiers will be compelled to figb
against their own rights and interests, fyi
mauy oS them are pro-slavery men, or owl
slaves themselves.
The recent successes of the AbolItionists
10 our national council, and the cousumma
ton Of their plans in the liberation Of the
negroes Of the District of Columbia, would
look as though there is no hope for the res
toration Of the Union. If this war is to bt
turned into q strife between negro freedom
and negro slavery, and there is really
to be an "irreptessible conflict" between
the systems of free and slave labor, thel
the American Union has proved failure
an its founders have labored in vain.
The Twentieth Regiment.