The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-08-08
COMMUNICATIONS.
'In War, Slavery is the Strength of the
SOuth.,


From the "Golden Hour" book recently
published, We copy the following extract,
which treats of slavery as being an element of
strength to the rebellious States We COM
mend it to those tender footed people, who
have such holy horror of emancipation as a
military necessity. We are waging this war
for the preservation of the government against
the attempts of armed rebels to destroy it. II
slavery stands in the way--if the clanking
chains of bondmen impede our progress. let
them be stricken off, We do not wage this
war for any other purpose than to maintain
the supremacy of the Federal Government.
but If forced upon us by the rebels, it results
in the overthrow of this system of human
slavery instead of its triumph, as they fondly
hoped, can they blame anybody but them
selves? If slavery be an element of strength
to the enemies of the Government then it is
the duty of Government to deprive those enc
mics of that element. But TO the extract in
question:
In WAR SLAVERY is THE STRENGTH OF
THE ESoUTH.-The institution of Slavery, which
in time of peace is a weakness of the South, is
IN time of war, and untouched by us, strong
enough to equal the numbers and means of the
North. 1t has not yet been sufficiently con-
sidered that war and slavery naturally consort;
war was the cradle of slavery; the first slaves
were war-captives. In essence, slavery is the
imposition of one will on another by physical
force; in that alone it differs from spontaneous
or free labor. And war is but the acute form
of the same disease Slavery has been per-
petual training for the camp.
Every man who leaves the North for the field
of battle is a laborer, and leaves SO much de-
rangement in the usual social integrity; some
wheel Of the machine stops when he goes, and
some deprivation ensues but in the South the
war is the vent of idlers, giving aim to lives
hitherto aimless. This military life is a step
in advance for the South, which has already
displayed energies of which it had not been
suspected. The South will not get sick of war
so soon as the North, it being quite atwin with
its slavery, for the South to become formally a
military country. Whilst the training of free
dom has led the North every day farther from
war, every day of slavery has accustomed the
South to it. The North has to 90 back hun
dred years to reach the plane of war; the land
OF slavery never was beyond it.
In war, all you have added to the world in
century is not only out of place, but in your
way; only the coarsest and rudest things avail
here, and those who are most at home in the
coarsest and rudest forces will, in conflict of
W,
are four millions of slaves working for the
South. There being for military purposes
corn and pork wanted, and not arts and ele-
gances, all the superiority of intelligent over
unintelligent labor ceases The man who can
dig row of corn or feed swine is equal to the
finest mechanic. And since every man who
produces soldiers ration points the soldier at
us, just as the soldier points his gun at us,
these four millions of negroes must be counted
as our Toes, whatever their feeling toward u.s.
The South Is, then, at the start twelve mil
lions to our eighteen. But of our eighteen
the women do not work in the field, and the
children 60 TO school, whereas the black wo-
men and minors do work in the field-whch
for military force, would make them nearly fiji
teen millions. Then we must estimate pro-
duction in its relation to consumption the
black laborer, being fed at less than third the
cost OF the corresponding Northern laborer,
sustains at least two more soldiers in the field
than the Northerner. Thus does the reign of
barbarism reverse all the advantages of free
over slave labor. In a conflict of mere brute
force, slavery has only to emphasize the old
menace, fetter and bowie-knife, to which it is
accustomed.
The North has imagined that it could bring
the balance TO its side by its superior wealth
but it must be remembered, that those who get
without paying for it what others have TO pay
for, are as rich as If they had the wherewithal
to pay. Who would wish to be troubled with
money, II he could get things for dollar a
year spent in cowhides?
In the above estimate, which would make
the contendng parties in this country substan-
tally equal In numerical force, it has not been
forgotten that 1t is urged that large portion
of the Southern people are Unionists. AL
though the evidences of this seem to me slight.
1t would be, If true, of less bearing upon the
question than might be at first supposed. For.
no matter what mans sympathies may be,
he cannot labor in any section but he adds 10
the wealth of that section, and to its military
stores and strength.