The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-07-31
Gen. Lew. Wallace on the Conduct Of the
War.

Gen. Lew. Wallace ON the Conduct Of the
I War.
He Wishes to Use Controbands And
.Su5sist the Arnay on Rebel Property.
On Wednesday, night last, the gal
liant and brave Gen. Lew. Wallace. was
serenaded at the National Hotel, in
Washington. In reply, Gen. Wallace
made stirring speech. We extract
the following, giving his views on the
conduct OF the war, in which he takes
the only true and safe ground, in our
opinion, upon which the war can be
honorably and speedily ended, by
crushing the rebellion: 9.il
i am no politician. Cries of "Good
for that" and Don't want any now
a days."] Probably for regular
speech l bad been much obliged to
some of my political friends if they had
made it for me. s' Keep them in the
dark" and laughter.] Ifit is expected
that am to speak on the subjects of
political character to night, / know /
should have been obliged for some of
them to have performed the task for
me. If tonch upon them bear me
witness that / speak of them not as a
politician, but as soldier. TApplause.1 I
was at the Senate Chamber today.
They were discussing the policy of the
war. The question in agitation was,
or what at least seemed to be the par
amount question, Should the negro
he used or net?" Cries of " Yes"
"yes," and No." no. We'll, I find
my audience precisely as found the
Senate. Laughter and applause.
Some said "yes," and some said ssno"
just as you are saying. Laughter.
n Voice" Will you give US a soldiers
opinion ?'l Yes, let me speak about
that as a soldier T"Good''l, not as
politician, ["Don't want any politi-
cians.''] He aoould be a poor soldier,
in nsy opinion, scho acould .fa;Ito use
every element of acar schich God HI
mighty gaze him, If he could use ITO
his ddoantDge Prolonged and en-
thusastic cheering. ! think yon con-
cur with me in that at least. Cries of
" Certainly we do )" Every sensible
man will."1 Now, then, if we find the
negro before us, or around US, as We
advanre, planted there by some acci-
dep.-Providence may have had a
great deal to do with lt-and we can
find his service available, acould not
that General be a crezy man aoho aoeula
refuse to use them T" Most assured
ly," and applause. SO i, seems to me,
and my position may be plainly stated
upon that If by the service of me-
gro / can make my soldiers comtorta-
Bile; if by the service of band Of me-
groes / can relieve them of enormous
duties and hard work; If can make
them available to dig my trenches
I" That's right'l, shall I not do it
Cries of'' Yes, yes" Loud appiause.1
Yes, and / will do it. Vociferous
cheering. A voice" Soldiers viii fol-
low you to the death for that'' An.
other voice" Put no arms in their
hands," Several voices-"Oh yes, az
many as they want.''] Now, then, let
me speak about that. Cries of /" All
tight now )" You are mighty good
noy"l If / accept the services of
negro, and he works well and faithful
ly, fed by us, clothed by us, and he
stands by my gallant regiment, reliev-
ing them of the hard duties / have men,
toned, would it be human, would it
not be cruel, TO put him into the army,
in the way of shot. and yet give him
nothing with which to defend himself!~
Cries of That's So" and loud and
continued cheering My fellow-citi-
zens, speak as a soldier all the time,
rccollcct. am not viewing this mat
ter i'm its political aspect, for i have as
much prejudice against the negro, po-
litically, and am as much opposed to
slavery agitation as any Of you can be.
Yet where he can be made available,
let us make him so. Then what shall
we do with HIM? A voice" Place
him in the rear" "No, put him in the
front. (Applause.) Avoice-sI Inths
ditch."I Stop one moment, there is
policy in war as well as in politics.
One thing is very certain; nothing is
to be SO carefully guarded as the preju-
dices of soldiers, and unless it was
some desperate occasion, some last re-
sort, when even soldiers would be
grateful for their assistance, would
not propose TO put him in the line Of
battle to the front. That's the true
doctrine" and applause. But TO every
brigade | would have regiment Of
working negroes-to every company
would have a fair complement of cooks.
[ Applause. l would feed them, I
would organize them, and TO each one
who did good service would at the
end of the war give him or her free
dom. Immense cheering. ars9a
Let me make one remark further.
The common impression has beenthat
this was war in which we b ad all the
advantages. Now, then, listen to my
practical experience. tell you;it has
not been such war of inquality in our
favor as many suppose. lhave visited
plantations in the course of marches:
/ have asked, Where is the man of the
house? lie is in the army have
looked around, ! have seen his harvest
field full of stalwart negroes They
reap his harvest and pat it away as
well and as carefully as if the man had
been at home and not in the army; and
what was the results? He had plenty
To eat superabundance-s of
which he was sure would come to the
sustenance of the Southern army.
There are supposed to be 100000 of
negroes. Do you suppose that JEFF