Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-10-17

and Liberia. For years the African sIoya-
traders have carried on their inhuman and ac-
cursed traffic, under the protection of the
| American flag, and slavery saw neither inbu.
mainly nor dishonor in this degrading prosti
tuition of the emblem of our sovereignty. The
senate promptly ratified the treaty made by
| the administration with England for the efFec.
tual suppression of the traffic, by the mutual
recognition of the right of visitation and
search on the coast of Africa, and congress
also enacted the needed legislation to carry
the treaty into effect
Officers in the military service have dishon-
ored that service by surrendering persons
claimed as fugitive slaves Sometimes per-
sons claimed as fugitive slaves have been
given up to rebel claimants and inhumanlv
treated. Our camps have been searched by
traitor masters, weaponed for violence, and
brave officers have been arrested and punished
for refusing to stain their souls with the
crime OF surrendering to rebels escaped slaves
who have served the country with noble fideI-
ity. The 37th congress enacted and made it
one OF the articles of war, that persons claimed
as fugitive slaves shall not be surrendered by
persons engaged IN the military and naval SER
wee, on pain of dismissal from that service,
Congress also declared in the tenth section of
the confscation act
"lhat no slave escaping into any state, terri
tory,or the District of Columbia from any of
the states, shall bedeivered up, or in any way
impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for
CRIME, or some offence against the laws, I'M
less the person claiming said fugitive shall
hrst make oath that the person to whom the
labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to
be due is his lawful owner and has not been in
arms against the United States in the present
rebellion, norin any way given aid and comfort
theretoi and no person engaged in tie mill
tary or naval service of the United States
shall, under any pretense whatever, assume
to decide upon the validity of the claim of any
person to the service or labor of any other
person, or surrender up any such person to
the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from
the service"
by the ninth section of the confiscation act
the 37th congress provided -
''That all slaves Of persons who shall be here
after engaged in rebellion against the govern
ment of the United States, or who shall in any
way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from
such persons, and taking refuge within the
lines OF the army; and all slaves captured
from such persons or deserted by them and
coming under the control of such persons in,
or being within any place occupied by rebel
forces, and atterward occupied by the forces
of the United States, shall be deemed cap
lures of war, and shall be forever free of
their seryitude, and not again held as slaves"
This broad and sweeping act, if faithfully
executed, annihilates slavery wherever the
armies march in the rebel states. Freedom
now follows the advancing flag Of the republic.
The president was authorized by congress
to accept the services of the slaves of rebels
tor military purposes, and the slaves so ac-
cepted, their mothers, wives, and children, if
held by rebel, are made free forever. This
series of acts of the 37th congress, CLOSING"
in the words of John e.. Breckenridge, ''all
bonds" will be sancponed by the approval of
the present and Of coming ages, by that pat
riOtism that embraces the permanent and last
ing interests of United America, by that hui
mainly that cares for the poor and lowly-by
that religion that recognizes in the humblest
of the children of men a being made in the
image of God, for whom Christ mounted the
cross. The act giving gratuity of million
dollars to the loyal slave masters of the Dis
trict of Columbia and the vote pledging the
nation to aid emancipation in the loyal states
will stand forever, as evidences of the moder-
ation the justice, and the self-sacrifcing spirit
Of the men who carried through congress this
series Of humane, christian, and patriotic
measures.
On the 22d of September the president en-
| joined upon and ordered persons engaged in
| the military and naval service of the United
| their respective spheres of service, ''the acts
and sections above recited." BY the provis-
ions of 'the act and sections above recited"
the president, emo persons engaged in the
military or naval service Of the United States
shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to
decide upon the validity Of the claim of any
person to the service or labor OF any other
person, or surrender up any such person to
the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from
~ NOR fffof, rpln,
into any state, territory, or the District of CO.
lumbia, be delivered up to any rebel, or in
any way impeded or hindered of his liberty"
by any rebel; and all slaves of rebels taking
refuge within the lines of the army, or who
may be captured" from rebels or deserted
by them," and call slaves of such persons in
or being within any place occupied by the
rebel forces and afterward occupied by the
forces of the United States, shall be forever
free of their seryitude and not again held as
slaves" The president calls the attention of
the nation to these humane, wise, and COM
prehensive provisions of the laws of congress,
and ''enjoins" and ''orders" persons engaged
IN the military and naval service to observe,
obey, and enforce them" and these title deeds
TO freedom are hereafter to be ''enforced" by
the glittering bayonets of million of men in
the land Of the rebellion.
The president proclaims in his immortal
proclamation Of the 22d Of September;
'That, on the first day of January in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves with
in any state the people whereof shall be in re-
bellion against the United States, shall be
then, thenceforward, and forever free; and
the executive governmental of the United States
including the military and naval authority
thereof will recognize and maintain the free
dom Of such persons, and will do no act or
acts to repress such persons, or any of them,
in any efforts they may make for their actual
freedom"
BY this exercise of the war powers of the
government by the commander-in-chief of
the army and navy of the United States, all
persons held as slaves within any state or part
| thereof in rebellion on the first day of the
coming January ''shall be then, thencefor-
ward, and forever free" and the executive of
the United States, including the military and
naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom Of such persons This
proclamation that ''all persons held as slaves"
in rebel states on the first day of January,
'.shal be them thencefOrward and forever
free" is a complete, absolute and final de-
cree Of emancipation. No proclamation, or
der or decree, in rebel states, "shall be then,
thencef0rward and forever free will be re-
quired on the first day Of January, 1863 All
that is then required to make this decree of
freedom unconditional is for the chief magis-
trate of the United States to redeem his SOL
emn pledge-whch the recording Angel has