Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-04-15
characterization.

prove panacea for all our ills. They
allege that slavery is the cause OF the war.
and are urging its removal as the surest
means ofsecuring peace.
Already have these fanatical agitators
inaugurated their emancipation policy at
Washington and there is little doubt but /
that the slaves in the District Of Columbia
will be liberated by an act of Congress
during the present session.
Thus, these ultras, regardless of the
compromises Of the constitution and heed
less Of the terrible bloody conflict now going
on between our people, and which grew
out Of The agitation of the slavery question,
are madly determined to force the measure
through. Their darling project is negro
emancipation; ard they do not care for
the Union, Or constitution, or the happiness,
prosperity and peace of thirty millions Of
white people, so long as four millions of
blacks are held in bondage. They want
them freed and endowed with alLthe rights
and privileges enjoyed by white men.
Now we shall not attempt to reason with
those who believe in the emancipation plan,
but will refer them to the expressions of
those who are in position to decide cor
recily in the premises and who have been
loudest in their cries for freedom.
A leading English journal, of recent
date, after expatiating upon the workings
of emancipation in tie West Indies, SAYS:
'The emancipation of the slaves has
been blow to our West India colonies
Where once prosperity reigned, there are
| now poverty and distress +; furnishing towns
have assumed the character of poor country
| villages: forests have taken possession OF
laud once in high state of cultivation
thousands Of families havo been ruined or
| become hoPelessly involved; whilst the
negro, for whose sake sacrifices SO vast
have been made, has hitherto shown no
inclination to take advantage of the free,
dom which the nation generously bestowed
upon him. Ali the predictions of our
philanthropists have been falsifed. The
negO, unless compelled by necessity, will
not work. 1T he can make sufficient money
IN day to cover the expenses Of a whole
week, he will only work one day out of the
seven; and he is, moreover, very chary
OF entering into any contract or engage
ment that can be enforced by law"
The same is said of the abolition of negro
slavery everywhere, Hayti, which, few
years since, before emancipation, produced
thousands Of hogsheAds Of sugar, now
produces not one. The negroes will not
work voluntarially, and wherever they have
been liberated, the same picture of decay is
presented to view. Even SeweIl, the dis
tinguished advocate of negro freedom, has
been compelled in his work on the Ordeal
OF Free Labor, to admit the following, as to
the free blacks in Kingston:
''The:e is not a house in decent repair
not wharf in good order; no pavement.
no sidewalk, no drainages, and scantv
water; no light. There is nothing ike
work done, Wreck and ruin, restitution
and neglect reigns. The inhabitants. taken
en- mdsse, are stepped to the eyelids in
immortality. The population shows I'm
natural decrease. Iigitimacy succeeds
legitimacy. Nothing is replaced that time
destroys. Ii a brick tumbles from the
house TO the street, 1t remains there. If a
spout Is l1osened By the wind, it hangs
there by thread til it falls; iffuruiture
Is aGcldeGtly broken, the idea of having it
mended Is not entertained
y God-torsaken place, without life or
energy, old, dilapidated, sickly, filthy cast
away from the anchorage of sound moral
ity, OF reason and comm N sense. Yet this
wretched hulk is the capitol of an Island
the most fertile IN the world. 1t is blessed
with a climate the most glorious; it lies
r0ttlng IN the shadow of mountains that can
be cultivated from summit to base with
every product of tropic and temperate re-
glon. 1t is the mistress Of harbor wherein
thousand line Of battle ships can ride
safely at anchor"
We might go on and give the evidence
OF every traveller who has visited the places
where the negro population has been SET
free, corroborating the above, but it is not
necessary. In every country were the
blacks have been turned loose to shift for
themselves the picture is the same.
we would ask those who are in favor of
immediate emancipatin to consider well
the proposition. Suppose the negroes were
| III 0Sb ~ &C tO-IllOTTOW, what would become
OF them? Are they prepared for freedom ?
Would freedom be blessing to class of
people who are incapable of approaching its
value or providing for themselves Free
dom to fiddle, steal and starye is hardly
desirable, yet we have a strong party in
this country who would turn four millions
semi barbarians loose amongst us, without
a moments warning or preparation, to be
consigned to such an inevitable condition.
And then, does not every intelligent
person know that if the slaves were liber-
eted, they wo'd come amongst US in swarms
like the plaques of ancient Egypt, for they
have an idea that the North is the promised
land. Therefore, we protest against all
emancipation schemes, at least for the
present. We know ofno greater nuisance
to any community than a population of
free negroes-and we trust the dominant
party will pause in its mad career before
1t faSteus the evil upon us.
Maj. BarIiesOn Wounded.