The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-06-21


There is no more authority to declare, by
general law, that the slaves of all rebels
shall be free, without provision for trial
of the treason, than there is to declare, sums
marily, by similar law, that all rebel
shalt be hanged, without any provision for
q trial.
"The military commander has no au-
thority to emancipate the slaves, except as
q part OF his military operations, and these
cannot extend beyond the actual power OF
the force under bis command. His mere
proclamation of emancipation as means
of suppressing the instruction is entirely
nugatory. So far as his military array ex-
tends, 80 far martial law prevails, and mar
tial Law supercedes for the time being the
municipal law, in those particulars ia
which there is conflict between them.
WIf, under the operation of martial law,
the duty which the slave, under the State
law, owes to his master, is terminated for
the time being, and the slave avails himself
of such emancipation te secure his free
dom, BY a transit to free Stale, the clause
of the Constitution relative to fugitives
from service cannot rightfully be invoked
to enforce return, because 1t is not appli-
cable to the case of slaves whose duty of
service is terminated, and whose masters
have therenpon lost all custody and con-
troll over them. When the master ceases to
provide for the slave, he may provide for
himself. If the master has any claim, it is
upon the government, whose military ope-
rations terminated the relations between
him and his slave, for the time being, so
that the slave was left at liberty. A rebel
master could maintain no such claim. If
q master abandons the control of his slave,
and be avails himself Of his liberty, he
cannot rightfully be sent back under the
constitutional provisions Bnt in either
case, if the slave remains, and the martial
law ceases, or the master, in case of his
FIGHT. returns and resumes his control, the
emancipation will probably be temporary
one. as no right to freedom could after
wards be asserted under the laws of the
United States. The operation of the mar
tial law would be only temporary upon the
subject matter, and would not, under such
circumstances, effect q permanent emanci-
patton.
alt is no part Of the duty Of the COM
mander or officers of military force to
assist the people of any State into which
that force may enter in obtaining the pos
session of their slaves, any more than it is
their duty to aid them in holding any other
species of property, or other servants. On
vs.
the services of the slaves in the suppression
of the insurrectiou, in all cases where he
could REQUIRE the aid of persons or proper
~ for such service. And this extends even
70 placing arms in their hands, and using
them as a part of his military force, if the
exigency of the case require it; of which
he must Judge, as he judges of other modes
of conducting the war in the suppression OF
the Rebellion, Whether the master will
have a claim upon the Government for in
density, must depend upon the circum-
stances of each particular case"
Il is reserved for gentlemen here in 1ndi-
ana to manifest this wonderful alarm about
freeing the negroes. Yancey don't fear
general emancipation, for in the letter of the
Southern Commissioners, Yaneey, Rost and
Mann, to Earl Russell, the following Lam
guage is used:
GSuIice it to say that thus were the
great American institutions framed, and
thus have they remained unchanged to this
day. 1t was from no fea- that slaves would
be liberated that secession took place. The
very party in power has proposed to guar
antee slavery forever in the States, if the
South would bat remain in the Union. Mr..
LincOln's message proposes no freedom to
the slaves, but announces the subsection OF
hi sowner to the will of the Union, in other
words, to the will of the North Even af-
ter the battle of Bull Run, both branches
of the Congress at Washington passed res
olutions that the war is only Waged to up
hold that (pro-slavery) Constitution, and to
enforce the laws (many of them pro-slave-
rY1. and out of l72 votes in the Lower
House, they received all but two, and in the
Senate all but one vote. As the army COM
menced its march, the commanding Geuer-
al issued an order that no slaves should be
received into or allowed to follow the camp.
The great object of the war, therefore, as
now officially announced, is not to free the
slave, but to keep him in subsection to his
owner, and to control his labor through the
legislative channels which the Lincoln
Government design to force upon the mas
ter"
FUTURE ORGANIZATIONS.
There had been a call for a Union Con-
vention, to be held in this city on the 18th
of June. It is as follows:
Over SIXTY thousand of the citizens OF
Indiana having voluntarily taken up arms
for the defense of the Government, and the
preservation of the Constitution and the lib
critics of the people, it is unbecoming those
who remain at home to array themselves in
partisan warfare against each other, when
the probable consequences must be to pre-
vent the resources of the country from be-
ing applied to the support and maintenance
of the army, to engender strife and discord,
to withhold supplies from the war-worm
soldiers, and recruits from the ranks thinned
by battle and may terminate in the demo-
ralization of the army, and the overthrow
of constitutional liberty.
Therefore, most earnestly deprecating
all efforts to keep on foot party influences,
prejudices and discipline, ali persons Elect
90 sc Indiana, who are in favor of the vig-
orous prosecution or the WAT fOr tho preser-
walton Of the Union and the maintenance Of
the Constitution, and opposed to the dis
loyal convention of the 9th of January
last, are, without respect to past political
associations, invited to meet in Mass Con-
vention, at Indianapolis, on the 18Th day of
June next, for the purpose of nominating
candiiates:for the Offices of State, to be voted
for at the next general election.
"And to the end that Indiana may con-
tinEe to enjoy the high position with the
other States which she has in the present
- ID thaR all ho