The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-09-13


subject was bond or free, of light com
plexion or of dark one? The thing is i'm
possible Discard all notions of philanthro-
Ply. and reflect upon this single fact, that
within two hundred years every body on
the continent of Europe, with a very few
exceptions. was serf, that is to say SLAVE,
with all the incidents of compulsory labor
except those which grow out of the preju-
dice of color.
This very day the distinction between
MOBILES and the commonality means nothing
more than that the ancestors of one were
freemen and the ancestors of the other were
slaves, within two or three generations.
This very day we are told that in Russia,
which, like ourselves, is in the throes of
spasm that is 10 result in the birth of free
men, or in the abortion of a dead birth of
slaves, the trouble is that the interests of
722, 900 mobiles are in opposition, or are
| thought to be in opposition, to those of 3d.
OOO,OOO of people, 100000 of whom
were serfs but two years ago, and the resi-
due of whom are the children and grand
children of serfs.
Does anybody think for moment that the
government of Russia pauses, where it
wants soldiers, to consider that the Ga, 0O0,
900 are serfs-"bound to Service'' to the
masters who are called mobiles? During her
war with England and France the Emperor,
for the purpose of stimulating enlistments,
proclaimed that the serfs, who were under
the obligation of giving three days labor to
their masters, should be thenceforth free
from any obligation except for ts0o days in
the week.-Mrs. transmitting them from half
slave to tyo-thirds freemen.
| When Prussia made its grand uprising
against the great Napoleon, the way its pat
riots took to stimulate enlstments was to
abolish seytdom, and give to every man the
right to acquire homestead. his own and
his heirs forever; for in Prussia that had
got to be the only distinction between the
serf and the noble: the one was capable of
owning land and transmitting it to his chill
dren, the other was not. l ask you again,
Can any government subsist which says to
any portion of its subjects: ''You owe no
duties to the State-if it goes to destruc-
ton it is no business Of yours. You are
to hoe corn, pick cotton, and do your task
work day by day without any concern or
any duty in saving the country from any
disaster that may happen to it. The only
government that you are TO look to Is the
government Of the overseer and the whip"
1t is impossible that human society can be
maintained upon any other principle than
that every member of it, without regard to
his social position, is equally bound to rem
der bis services in defense of the public
welfare and the existence of the nation.
The examples to which l have referred
show that no other nation than our own ever
hesitated a moment upon such question.
The point has always been, not "Shall we
employ slaves 90 but, ''What shall we do
/ L., of ell to Inn
teer with alacrity, and to enlist under the
stimulus of hope 90 If the contrabands
were aUhie, where is the man who would
suggest doubt that we not only had the
right, but we were inexcusable in emitting
to invite them to he'll us instead of helping
the enemy-tr treating them, in short, just as
we treat the loyal white men of the revolted
States? l won't talk of the question of
expediency; that is arguing itself In the
sickness that white men are dying, got by
doing work that black men long to do.
Yet another question arises, one of i'm
mense Importance in the future: What can
we do in the conquered States-what are our
restraints in respect to them? Our conserva-
tive friends have notion upon this subject.
| They think that the moment Louisiana or
| North Carolina is subdued, the immediate
consequence is that the inhabitants of each
are entitled to elect Senators and Represent
atves in Congress to govern US, the con-
querors. This, as near as l can make 1t
out, is what they mean by the "Constitu-
ton as it is and the Union as it was"
Now in the first place, l wish to rivet your
attention to the fact that the Constitution
does not, in one word Of its text, undertake
to declare what shall happen, or shall be
reserved to a revolted State or to State &C
quired BY dnt of arms. All it has to say
about war, is that Congress shall have power
TO declare war and to raise armies and ma
Wy; that the President shall be commander
in chief; and that he, with the concurrence
of thirds of the Senate, shall have power
to make treaties, which are the usual result
of war: and include this provision for that
reason, and not because in the Constitution
itself there are any words which connect
this with the subject of war.
But as TO the fashion in which war is to
be carried on, and as to the consequences
which flow from it, the Constitution is ut
terly silent. It's trainers knew perfectly
well that as to foreign war, it would be
fruitless to make any constitutional provl-
sions, because these could not be binding
upon foreign powers. and war with them
would be regulated by the general claw of
natious;" and as to domestic war 1t was
equally faultless, because, in the first place,
no such war could by any possibility exist
in accordance with the Constitution, and
because such a war would necessarily Of It,
self set aside all agreements. The question
then is all outside of the Constitution, and
he nv tho low of uatiOnS-