New-York daily tribune., 1863-07-31

our hearts on succeeding. We do mt like their
remorseless conscrption of Southerners, whether
Union or Rebel, to fll tho ranks OF tier
armies. We do mt like their conscripting ne
Qroes-bond and free alike-to construct the
iutrepchments and batteries from which eur
soldiers have been repulsed and moved down.
But if we ever think Of sending our Vice.
President in gunboat to Richmond to EenDn-
strate against any or all of these, wo will
thank Jeff. Davis to refuse US the opportunity
nd privilege of thus making asses Of our
selves.
The Rebels do not like our armng Of ne.
groes. OF course not. If we had submitted
our Conscription law to the action O. their
Congress, it would probably have been lost.
If not, JEFF. Eve judge from the language OF
his organs in this quarter) would have vetoed
it. We can t expect to sec these matters IN
the same light from the respective sides OF the
Rappahannock.
But if we do mt disarm our negroW and
quit the business, The Rebels, it is Threatened,
will 90 heavily into it.
that way. We may not like it, but W. shall
send no Vice. President, no gunboat, to remon-
strate against it. And perhaps-since it is now
proved that negroes fight splendidly-they
could mt do better.
But. then, if the Rebels arm their negroes,
they must FREE them. That is inevitable.
Our correspondents bosh about negroes tight
ing for their masters, will deceive no on.-not
even himself. There is many negr, who
loves his master or MISTRESS there is net one
who loves Slavery. If the Rebels should arm
Half a Million negroes aud not free then, they
would only make US present OF more nuskets
than they can well spare, with strong ANS TO
WELD them: if they arm and free their able
bodied males, these will insist that their wives
and children shall be free also. II il the
ea,iest thing in the world to arm slaves, pro
yded you have the arms;) to disarm item ia
quite another matter. The wide worlds history
contains no instance Of an army Of ,laves after
having bravely fought and won. sinking quietly
back into bondage, giving up the muskes and
tho knapsack to resume the use OF the hoe and
lump at the crack Of the whip No man with
half the sense Of A. H. Stephens will ever
think Of this as possible.
"But suppose the Rebels choose to free as
well as arm their negroes, and so triumph ut
the cost OF Slavery ?"
We answer-Such triumph, ii achieved
would be illusory and transient. The centnpc-
tai force of this countryside graytstion of its
parts TO each other-is irresistible in the long
run even by Slavery; but rihoHi Slavery any
opposing force is as n straw TO Ningnrn. Tho
Mississippi might more easily be turned into
the Great Lakes than the Union broken up
aud held apart il Slavery were bani.hed You
might Just as sen,ibly decree that tho waters
of the Ohio shall never mingle with those Of
the Arkansas or Tennessee, "a try to Keep
these States apart when the devil that now
ren ds them shnll have been cast out.
The Confederates, then, will not arm their
.l,ve. because that wouid insure 'neir defeat
anu overthrow in one way or another. II
they arm those slaves without freeing them,
they will bring their mu,kets over to our
camps ~ fast US possible; If they arm aud free
them, that will render certain the restoration
Of the Union, whether they succeed or fail.
Desperate and murderous a. this eIpedient
is, there is no chance Of its hnal success in
any possible result.
We appeal, then TO Mr.. Stephens, as to ono
whom we esteem and confde in-we appeal 10
all such as Mr. Stephens now embarked in the
Confederate cause-to give it up. You have
made q great fight, Us all tho world attcsts,
but you have not won. because the odds against
you were too great Two years ago, you had
a network Of railroads in good order and well
stocked now, they are quite otherwise, as
you well know. You had an uneIhausted pop.
ulation and full store houses; it is not so now.
You had cash aud credit with stores stuffed
with goods that New-York must whistle for; (;
you had more arms and munitions than We,
because you had been expecting. preparing to
fight, and we had not: while dollar Of your
Confederate paper would buy tenlold tho gold
food goods, munitions. or almost anything else
but negroes. that it will now. Mr.. Stephens
there comes time In the prosecution Of such
a struggle az ours wherein further persistence
is not bravery, nor fortitude, nor fidelity, but
a cruel aimess, wicked, wanton waste Of
Of property and human life-a callous, useless
multiplication of desolato hearth stones of
cripples and corpses. We have a right to
speak thus TO you. for THE TRIBUNE has
steadily repudiated all "last ditch I"
bravado. all talk Of fighting twenty or thirty
years, and beating you on the Connecticut or