Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-06-27
Written for The Delaware Gazette
No. 8.
Those cOutrabands- Shall They be Employed in
our Armies?

all the multitude OF the reptile tribe. And
yet as hated and dreaded and fatal its touch
as the Cola is, it is among the Hindoos an
object of worship. They never kill, never
harm, but spare, pet feed and adore. But how
much like these poor, pitiable Hindoos are a
certain class which we have here among US
They are negro worshipers. The fell Cola
Of American slavery is their God. Let all
else perish but harm not this. Though EN-
5odying in itself more iniquity than Beelzebub
can boast of; though accursed in name, vile
in appearance and fatal in its touch and havr
ing more greed than the mouth of the bottom
less pit, its votaries exalt it above all that IS
called God; lavish upon it the choice milk o.
their kindness and in sacrifice pour out, in riv5
er streams, the blood Of their nation, the blood
of their aeighbors, and even of their OWE
brothers, fathers and sons and yet their walls
ing cry is, Don't touch this our idol y Greas
is slavery of the negroes, the peculiar institu-
tion of the South, which tumbled down d.
rect from Jupiter, from heaven! Disappear
in smoke the wealth of the nation; mangle and
rot the thousands of our armies; let the nation
itself be broken in fragments, and its name be
speak not disrespeetfully, even. Of this our
dear, malignant, kissing, biting and killing
god of slavery! Don't touch this dear old nest
of dear, dear, C0LzAs!!
Solomon is called the wisest man; Job the
most patient; ard Moses the most meek. But
we think if these three worthies were among
US, the first would excIain. @You great pack
of PaltroOns, the whole of you ! the veriest
fools out of whom the folly could not be beat
en- with pestle in the great mortar of the
Almighty's retribution - The patience OF
the second would snap into quarter inch pieces,
while the meekness of the third would blaze
and burn and explode with more ferceness
than five foot bomb-shell Here this evil
has been among us and been increasing in its
monster proportions for near two hundred
years; it has been our weakness IN war; oar
dlscord in peace; the shame of our pretensions;
and now is aiming its fatal blow at the very
heart of our nation, and writhing its hideoas
folds around and attempting to crush every
thing that we hold dear in liberty or religion,
and yet we must not touch the accursed thing.
Our negro worshippers are ready to go into
spagms lest this great COLA of their purest de-
votions shall be harmed, Free the negro,
treat him as a man, and make him soldier TO
defend his own and our rights This would
be the sacrilege Of sacrilege.
But, Mr.. Editor, let me enireat your readers
to be calm for moment. and to lay aside all
preconeeived feelings and in the light of can
dor, look at the question before Us:
/. We have already in the field moro Union
L L. IL al,
Shareholders in the entire land. Already nearly
or quite onelourtb as many Of our soldiers as
there are actual shareholders, have perished,
been manned or had their constitutions broken
for life
2 1t is among the things possible that the
present war may continus in some form for
years yet to come, thus requiring new and re-
peated calls for more soldiers, sacrificing, in the
end, greater number of our choice young
men than there are Shareholders in the entire
land.
3. IL the war shonld come to a speedy close,
in all probability large military force will be
required at the South for years to guard our
forts and other public property, and to insure
the permanence of peace.
4. To send men from the North to the South
and expect them 10 remain there for years as
soldiers, is but to send them to their graves.
5. The negroes are accustomed to the eli
mate of the South and can remain there with
out any of those dangers of sickness which
must inevitably attend soldiers from the North
aud West.
6. They, the negroes or mulattoes, are
known TO be first class of soldiers. They
have proved this in our revolutionary contest,
at the battle of New Orleans (under Jackson),
in the French army, and in our own navy in
our present contest.
Z. If we do not enlist and employ them in
our services, the rebels will in theirs. This
they have already began to do. Sore Of their
sharpest shooters at Yorktown were of this
class; they have at present whole regiments
armed against US, and one of their last boasts
is that ten thousand of their negroes armed
and in their service, would be an equivalent
against fifteen thousand of our troops. 1fthis
latter statement is true, it most conclusively
proves that the negroes are the superiors OF
their masters, and consequently are worthy OF
and entitled TO their freedom).
s. Not 10 enlist and employ them would be
to weaken ourselves and strengthen our enc
mics. II we employ them, one negro will stand
good against one Southern white man. But
if left for them to employ, then we mast en-
list two white men to answer the purpose that
one black man would have done We must
enlist one to be pitted against the Southern
white man and another 20 be pitted against
the negro whom the Southern white man has
taken to his side. 1t is also 10 say that we
value the life of one negro more than We do
two OF our own white men, our own neighbors
our relatives, our fathers, brothers, sons.
What then, in conclusion, is our policy, our
wisdom? 1t is as clear as the light of the
midday sun, that we should not only free
every negro that comes within our lines, OF
appeals to US for protection, but that we enlist
uniform and arm them in any needed numbers
and employ them in our military service; in
building forts, garrisoning them, in fighting
our battles or in any other way in which they
can be made useful. Not to do this would be
to blind our own eyes and jump into a pit
without bottom. Monstrous absurdity to
suppose the South may still Retain their mill
lions of slaves and employ them, rot only ii
supporting their armies while they are fight
ing against us, but in their armies themselves
in building and defending their forts, before
which thousands Of our own men must perish
while we must absolutely prohibit the employ
of a negro in return, Why not be consistent
with ourselves and say that we willnot employ
horse, OK, man, gun Or bushel Of corn or .
silver dollar that has once benin the power
of rebel ? s.r a.
1t has been objected that the naughty
Southerner would not brook the arming of hi'
own negroes against him. But how. pray, i
he going 20 help himself? The only way Il
deal with the proud leaders. of this rebellion i
to make them feel their own utter helplessness
and there is no way in which this can be dom
so rediIy and completely as to let him see tina