The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-03


Notifications, or in ambulance corps, or
as sappers and miners; or, as fast as
Southern plantations shall fall into our
possession, as field hands. But if all
these posts become over-filled, better do
away with the necessity for further draft
in the North by putting muskets in the
hands of able bodied men, colored diff
ferently from ourselves, than TO delude
their ignorance into the opinion that
among the privileges of freedom is food
without work.
Have we philanthropy and discretion
enough wisely to administer change of
system. Possibly not. Administrative
capacity in public affairs is not our strong
point. We would do well to bear in
mind, however, that without such capac-
ity not this war only, but our entire gov
ernmental experiment, will prove fail
ure at last.
Do other objections hold against the
plan? Does humanity forbid us to &C
cept the aid of an enslaved race? In so
far as humanity can ever enjoin war at
all, she e9oin8 the employment, by us, of
the African in this first, because his
employment may shorten, by years, the
fraricidal struggle; and then, because,
il he is not permitted to assist in civilized
warfare under US, and if, without his
aid, we fail TO effect his Liberation and
thus disappoint his hopes, he may be
overtaken by the temptation to seek
freedom and revenge in his own wild
way. In accepting the liberated slave
as a soldier we may prevent his rising as
an assassin. By the creation of negro
brigades we may avert the indiscrimi-
nate massacres of servile insurrection.
Or is there an insuperable difficulty of
caste in the way? In contest likely
to eventuate in securing to another race
than ours the greatest of temporal bless
ings, are we determined to shut out that
race from all share in its own liberation ?
Are we so enamored of the moloch, war,
that we will suffer none but our sons to
pass through the fire? Terrible penalty
to pay, with life and death at stake, for
national prejudice against the Southern
Pariah!
AS to the duty of our rulers in the
premises, cannot see according to what
principle of ethics Government, charged
with the lives of five millions, the put
ting down of gigantic rebellion and
the restoration of tranquility to the land,
has the right in the hour of its utmost
need, to scorn kRst element Of strength
placed within itsreach and at its dispo-
sal; nor why, if it refuses to avail itself
of such an element, it should not be held
responsible for the lives it sacrifices and
the hopes it blights.
But we need emancipation far less for
the material aid it ahords-great, even
indispensable, though it be - than
because of other paramount considera-
tions.
We have tried the experiment of a
Federal Union, with free labor system
in one portion of it and slave-sy stem
in another, for eighty-years; and no
one familiar with our affairs for a
quarter of century past is ignorant
that the result has been an in
crease-embittered year by year in
ever accelerated ratio-of discussions, Of
sectional jealousies, of national heart
burnings. When, eighteen months since
these eliminated in war, il was but the
issue which our abest statesmen, looking
sorrowingly into the future, had long
since foretold, Butt if, while yet atpeace
and with all the influence of revolution
airy "reminiscences pleading the cause o
the Union, this diversity Of labor sys
tens, producing variance Of character
and alienation of feeling, proved strong
er TO divide than all past memories anC
present interests to unite, what chance il
there that its banelul power for evi
should cease, now, when to thoughts o
fancied injuries in other years are added
the recollections of the terrible realitie
enacted on hundred bloody battleiields
from which the smoke has scarcely passet
away.
None-the remOtest!
A suspension of hostilities we can pur
chase; few years respite, probably, il
which TO return to our money getting
before the storm bursts forth anew will
gathered force; but if we look beyont
selfshness and present; if our children
are in our thoughts; if we are suffering
and expanding now, that they, in lanC
of prosperity, may live and die in peace
then must we act so that the result shall
endure. We must not be content TO pu
off the evil day. The root Of the evil
the pregnant cause of the war-tha
must be eradicated.
Report has it that a Western pOliti
clan recently proposed, as the best solu
ton of our difficulties, the recognition o
Slavery in all the States. Such an idei
has a basis of truth namely, that
state of war is, among us, the necessary
result of conflicting labor systems. Sucl
an idea might even be carried out ant
lead TO peace but for that progressive
spirit Of Christian civilization which W,
dare not openly outrage, how imperfect
ly soeyer we obey its humane behests.
There are a thousand reasons-geog
raphical, commercial, political interna
tional-why we should not consent TO
separation into two confederacies il is
contingency not 10 be thought of or en-,
tprtaiund lint II ana Ig.E 5,5oyaJIi IN yI4 can.