Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1862-12-06

temporary use, and for this, under GODS
economy, may have been suffered to cen
tinue; yet all abuses have but limited
lite. The right only is eternal.
The rebellion, teacher and creator as
we'll as scourge and destroyer, by sternly
laying bare the imminent dangers of slave
ry, has created the constitutionality OF
emancipation. It has done more. 1t has
made emancipation a bounden political
duty, as we'll as strictly constitutional
right.
Can We, in declaring emancipation, le
gally avoid the payment, sag of two hun
dred millions, in the shape Of compensa-
ton to loyal shareholders!
Not if a Shareholders right to service
and labor from his slaves, when not for
feited by treason, is legal. On humani
has been denied. Bat a construction Of
the constitution adverse to such denial,
and acquiesced in by the nation through.
ont more than two generations, Is held by
most men to be reason sufficient why the
right in question should be regarded as
private property. If it be private proper
ty, then, except by violating the fifth ar
ticle of the amendment to the constitu
ton, it cannot be taken for pubic use
without just compensation. To violate
any article of the constitution is a revolu-
ulonary act but such acts cost nation
more than lew hundred millions of dol,
lars.
The risk that future decision Of the
Supreme Court might declare emancipa-
ton without compensation to be uncon-
stitutional is, of itself, sufficient justifca.
ton of the Presidents policy. correspond
ing to the above suggestions, in this mat
ter.
Such compensation will be unpopular
with many. Wise and just acts, when
they involve sacrifices, frequently are. A
wrong long tolerated commonly entails
penalty, which is seldom cheerfully paid.
Yet, even on other grounds We ought not,
in this case, to begrudge the money
Who deserve better of their country than
those brave men who, in the border and
other slave states, have chung to their 10y
atty through all the dark hours oil peril
even to lite?
Precautions naturally suggest themselves
against false pretences OF loyalty. 1t seems
expedient that he who shall have proved
that be is the legal owner of certain slaves
and also that he has ever been loyal to the
Union, should receive certificate Of in
debtedness by the government, not trans
ferable, to be paid at some fixed time sub
sequent to the termination Of the war:
payment being made contingent on the
tact that the claimant shall not, mean
while, have lapsed from his loyalty.
Every such claimant once recognised,
would feel himself to be, by his own act,
the citizen of free state; one of Us, de-
tached forever from the southern league.
A government stockholder, he would be.
come pecuniarily interested in the support
of the government and the restoration of
peace.
Even if the legislatures of the border
states should not initiate such a policy,
the loyal men Of these states will accept it.
Such measure does not involve ex-
pense IN conveying the liberated negro to
other countries. 1t has hitherto, indeed,
been the usual policy in slave states to dis,
courage, as dangerous, the residence there
of free blacks; and hence an idea that col
onization should be the copcomitant of
emancipation. Of general emancipation,
there is no Feed whatever that it should
be. Those who take up such an idea for
get that the jealousy with which slave-
holders regard the presence of free negroes
springs out of the dread that these may in.
feet with desire for freedom the slaves
around them, thus rendering them insub-
ordinate. But when all are free there
will be no slaves to incite, nor any chains
to be broken by resort to insurrection.
1t is no business of ours either to decide
for the liberated negro, where he shall
dwell, or to furnish his travelling expenses.
Freemen, black or white, should select
their own dwelling place and pay their
own way.
AS to the fears of competition in labor
sought to be excited in the minds of the
northern working man, they have founda-
tiCn only in case emancipation be refused
for such refusal would food the north
with tugitives. If, on the contrary, eman,
cipation be carried out, the strong local
attachments Of the negro will induce him,
with rarest exceptions, to rema Il as
hired laborer where he worked as slave.
Thus humane masters will not lack
sufficient working hands, of which coloni-
cation would deprive them. And if, not
withstanding the probable rise of South
ern staples, profits, at first should be less,
the security of the planter will be greater.
He will no longer lie down at night un-
certain whether the morning news NAV
not be thst his slaves have risen against
them.
This is the proper view of the question:
But all edicts, all proclamations, how wise
and righteous soever, are but idle an
nouncements now, if we lack courage and
conduct to enforce them.
Courage we have. Raw levies have
behaved like veterans. The skeletons Of
regiments reduced to one tenth their orig
inal number, attest the desperate valor
with which they confronted death. Not
with the rank and file is the blame! The
leading! There has been the secret of
failure.
With all the advantages of a Just
cause over our enemies, we have suffered
them to Guido Us in earnestness. We
lack the enthusiasm which made irresisti-
bic the charge OF Cromwell's Ironsides.
We need the invincibe impulse of senti-
ment. We want, above all, leaders who
know and feel what they are fighting for.
This is a war in which mercenaries avail
not. There must be higher motive than
the pay of Swiss-a hoIier duty urging
on, than the professional pride or the blind
obedience of a soldier. By parliamentary
usage proposed measure is entrusted, for
fostering care, to its friends So should |
this war be. Its conduct should be con
fded to NEIL whose hearts and souls are |
in it,
Again. 1t has long been one of our ma.
tional sins that we pass by, with scarcely |
rebuke, the gravest public offences. We |
utterly fail iu holding to strict accOuuta |