The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-01-29

rebels, Just as we will it shall be. II VIC
say to the slaves Of rebels, We are your
enemies, they willremain with their masters
and be to them strength and support
five say to them, We are your friends
come to US and you shall be free, they
will seek to come by thousands, and tho
armies now standing in battle array agains
our soldier, will be needed at home to res
train them. Take the case Of Soutl
Carolina. Our soldiers are to-day upol
her soil. She has population Of abou
zoo, 900 souls more than one-half of whom
are slaves. Experience, the best Of teach
ers, has shown that these slaves want free
dom. that they look upon our soldiers a
friends, and would, if encouraged SO to do
flock to our camps by thousands. As th.
slaves Of rebel masters, their labor in thu
field and in the camp, furnishes the rebe
troops with food, and does for them mucf
of that severe camp labor which exhausts
the energies Of the soldiers and bring.
sickness upon them. Thus rebellion j.
strengthened by slavery. Shall we con
tinue to leave its strength? Shall VI
do more than this9 Shall we continue
to drive back to their rebel masters these
unfortunates, and COMPEL them to be ou1
enemies, although they wish to be oul
friends? Shall we continue to require ol
our brave soldiers, who have gone forth ia
fight our battles, those exhausting labors
that have brought sickness and death ia
SO many of them, when these people stand
ready and willing to relieve them if allow,
ed.
It may be said if We proclaim freedom
to slaves of rebel masters, slavery must
suffer and may be exringuished. I reply;
So be it. The friends Of Slavery have in
its supposed interest thrust this war with
all its evils upon the country, and upon
them and upon it be the consequences
1t may be said the slaves of loyal masters
will escape, and thus loyal men will suffer
loss. This may be, probably will be so.--
But if We shall be successful in preserving
our Government and putting down this re.
bellion, we can and will make good to
them all losses caused to them by the acts
Of the Government for its preservation.
Besides, it is their misfortune and not
our fault that they live in sections Of our
country in which the war is carried on and
in which either majority Of the people
are rebels, or the loyal men in the major.
ity have suffered themselves to be prostra-
ted aud trampled upon by the rebel ms
nority. We regret their condition, we
pity their misfortunes, we will make good
their losses caused by our acts for the pres.
ervation of the Union, but we cannot al
low the Union TO be stricken down because
efforts for its preservation may work them
present injury. War necessarily brings
suffering and loss to the people among
whom it is waged. This war brings SUI:
fering and loss to the loyal people Of all
our States, and we all must bear as well
and as patiently as we may, until he end
when it will be our duty to repair SO far
as we may, the losses sustained by loyal
men because of their devotion to their
country.
It will not be misunderstood. This
war is wagcd by our government for the
of our Union, and not for the
extinction of slavery, unless the preserva-
ton of the one shall require the extinction
of the other. IF the war were SO prose
cuted that ON tomorrow the preservation
Of the Union were effected and secured,
would not now wage the war another day.
l would not now spend further treasure o,
further life, to effect the extinction of
slavery, although might regret that the
war Of Its own producing had left In it
enough of life to leave it to be our bane
and pest in the future as it has been in the
past. But while this is true, it is also true
that if I had the power on tomorrow to
end this terrible strife and preserve our
Union by the extinction of slavery, while
10 preserve both would require q months
or weeks or days or an hours further
war; the spending of an additional dollar,
or the loss Of single additional life; SO
surely as the Lord lives, this war would
close Tomorrow. No wife should mourn
her husband, no mother her son, no maid
en- her lover, slain in war prQtraoted by
me single hour, to preserve to rebels that
which caused them to commence aud
which enables them to maintain rebellion.
would not believe that I had, nor do I
believe that others have the right, altho'
they may have the power to protract this
war in order to preserve that which has
caused the war. My deliberate oonvic-
tions are that to prosecute this war success.
fully, we must strike directly At slavery,
and that the time must soon come when
every man must determine for himself
which he loves most, the Union or slavery