Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-05-02
written for the pelaware Gazette !
Those Contrabands-They are among Us and have
to do With Them We Must


to do With Them We Must.
The manner in which some talk upon this
subject is not little surprising, not to sav a
musing. They would seem TO carry the idea
that they do not want anything TO do with
the negro, and therefore they need not and will
lot. But such thought is as wide from tie
Truth as pole is from pole. The system of sla-
very Is right here among US. Not in name or
in fact in the free States, but in its influence
in its demands and in it consequences. 1t has
from the first of our national existence formed
part of The great body polite, has infused
with its venom the entire of our national being;
given its tinge ta our character, and modified
and even shaped our destiny. 1t was the mill
stone that well nigh sunk the cause of meri-
can independence; it formed the great barrier
to the harmonious construction of our Federal
Constitution; it has even been the great apple
of discord in our national councils; and now
has forced upon US the most unnatural, unnec.
esSary and vast civil war that the world has
ever known. Statesmen, Moralists and Theo-
logians have often tried to ignore its existence.
deny its character, or escape its consequences.
But as well might they attempt to escape their
own shadow, amid the blaze of noonday, or to
throw Oh the impurity of corrupted blood
While they were fondly cherishi9g the source
OF that corruption. No. we cannot thus dis
pose of this question. 1t is something that is
among US, not in name merely, nor in shadow
out III iact and substance, and we must have
to do with it whether we would Or no. While
1t is the source of our present troubles, il meets
us III our contest with troubles; whatever we
*ttempt to do; in every law we attempt to PASS.
In every advance of our army; in every battle
we light aud in every thought of future pe,ce
The quesIio. of slavery is now up and in this
contest-must be decided for good or for evil.
and that not only for the present age, but for
ages yet to come.
What then is our duty? What is our wis
dom? 1t is to look at the subject as it is and
deal with 1t ~ a matter of sober earnest and
mighty fact. To attempt to ignore its exis-
tence; to turn our eyes from it or escape onr
connection with it is impossible We must
take 1t as it is and deal with it accordingly
Were the small pox or the plague 10 our midst,
committing its widest and most fearful ravages
or were it simply skirting our borders, threat
enlHg daily to overleap its present barriers.
we should not stand and gaze as listless spec-
tators, and Indifferent whether the fearful ca
lamity should stride on with an unchecked
tread, carrying dismay and death wherever it
might choose to go. No, nor should we con-
tent ourselves with wishing such thing as
Pox or plague never existed, or with eursipg
the man who was so wicked as to invent it or
SO hllhy as to breed it. We should see and
feel that the calamity is among US, and that
It must he met and conquered at any price,
SO in the case before u.s. The evil is upon Us.
not as matter of Imagination, but of fact,
and we must deal with it as such. 1t is use
less TO stand and regret that negro was ever
brought to this country, or wish that the YES
sci which first attempted to bring him here
had been sunk in the oceans lowest depths. or
that the man who first conceived the idea Of