Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1862-07-18


Gen. Hbotor'o letlcr about his hoero foe
iucnt aud his intention 10 fdrnlsh tie Gov.
eminent with 4s,oc0 10 10000 loyal, ac-
climated, and drilled soldiers Of the same
color BY fall brought up lively debate ia
the House on the 9th, 10 which, says tho
Cincinnati Gdzetts's dispatch, some very
conservative mon said somo very ultra
things, that must prove sadly firing 10 the
: Southern heart. Wickliae wanted TO re-
consider the vote BY which Gen. Hunters
letter was ordered printed, and could not
contain himself on the insult Hunter hnd
offered TO loyal people. He charged off,
GERS Of the Government and of the army
with having undertaken without law, against
order, and in violation Of every principle Of
humanity, to assume the power Of enlist
ing slaves to serve against their masters.---
Gen. Hunters letter was in manner and
terms unbecoming a General. He held
Secretary Stanton responsible for Hunters
conduct, and sneeringly said Hunter had
better been seeing to his business whom
the late disaster in South Carolina took
place, than tinkering with negroes.
Mallory made the usual Kentucky speech
against arniDg the blacks. He ridiculed
the idea Of making them soldiers; said
single cannon shot would put ten thousand
Of them to fight; and closed by declaring
that armiug them was barbarous, inbuman
and contrary to the practice Of all civilized
nations, and that il was most as bad as put
ting the tomahawk into the hands of tho
savage.
This stirred up Thad. Stevens, who in
quired, how does il come that they are 80
dangerous to their masters, when single
cannon shot will put ten thousand 10 flightG
Or how is il they have not courage enough
to mako soldiers when you call them as
savage and dangerous as Indiansl But the
gentleman was mistaken 10 his facts. Com
mon history, be repeated, proved them
false. 1t had been the general practice Of
civilized nations to employ slaves for mill
tary purposes, whenever and wherever
needed.
Lovejoy here begged leave to interrupt,
and read from common school history about
Jackson's arming slaves 10 the war of 1912,
and his promise to give freedom to all who
served. He then read Jackson's General
Order thanking the negroes for their gal
liant success, saying that he bad not been
unaware Of their good qualities as soldiers,
but that they had Ear surpassed his highest
texpoctations, and reassuTing them Of eman-
+ cipation as a reward for their conduct
Lovejoy concluded bis demonstrations on
the negro frightened gentleman BY reference
to another history, showing that one. fourth
of the men who helped to win Peuy's VIC
tory on the lakes were negroes. The Of
feet OF all this was sensational. Men who
had been denouncing Hunter could not have
been more astoDished if one Of Hunters
own bombshells from Port Royal bad been
dropped amoEg them.
Sedgewick heightened the effect by read
| ing an elaborate statement of the Now
York State Librarian, showing that nearly
every civilized nation had, sometime or
other, employed negroes as soldiers ard al
ways with success, and winding up with tho
example of Brazil, the largest sIaveholdinp
empire in the world, using regiments Of
slaves at this very day as among the best
soldiers they have.
Diven begged to trespass on Stevens
time, just to say that be had long been
profoundly convinced that Congress failed
in its imperative duty, just SO long as it
failed to provide tor enlisting negro troops
to serve in unhealthy regions to which they
had become acclimated, and he now had a
bill to that end prepared, and was ready to
offer it at the first opportunity.
That, resumed Mr.. Stevens, is precisely
what would have done long ago, only /
was not conservative, and so they'd have
called it an Abolition scheme. Stevens
then went on with unusual earnestness and
force to urge the necessity for using negroes
to save white men. He declared that all
over his State, households were everywhere
desolated to-day because we hadn't troous
enough, and now they wanted to call on
them for more, to be sent into unwhole-
some climates, where exposure was certain
death to any white man, and asserting that
while such policy was pursued the sup
preston ofthe rebellion was hopeless.
The effect of the discussion was seen when
at the close Of Stevens speech the House
laid Wickliffe's motion on the table BY q
vote of "a to 20.
There will be no more sneeriug at Hun
ters letter or his negro brigade.