Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-01-20
Mr. Bsw'amm to Mr.. Mann.
L No. 4. DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
Richmond, august IA. 1862.


Hon. A. Dudley MANN, &c. &C., Brussels,
Belgium.
SlR: We are informed that an arrange.
ment has been recently concluded between
the Government of the United States and
that Of Denmark for transferring TO the
Danish Colonies in the West Indies, Afri
cans who may be captured from slavers
aud brought into the United States. We
are not Informed of the precise terms of
this agreement, and can, of conrse. have no
objection to offer to lis execution, if con-
fined to the class of persons above desig-
mated, that is, of Africans released by the
United States from vessels engaged in the
slave trade in violation of laws and trea-
ties.
1t has, however, been suggested to the
President that under cover Of this agree.
ment the United States may impose npou
the good faith of the Government of Den
mark, and make it the unwitting and inno-
cent participant in the war now waged
against US. The recen: legislation of the
Congress of the United States, and in thc
action OF its military authorities, tetray
the design of converting the war into "A
campaign of indiscriminate robbery and
murder. enclose herewith a letter of the
Presluent to the General commauding-in-
chief of our armies, and general order ON
the subject of the conduct OF Major Gen.
Pope now commanding the enemy's forces
IN Northern Virginia, that you may form
some faint idea of the atrocities which are
threatened. The act of Congress of the
the United States, (of which a copy is en-
Closed,O decreeing the confscation of the
property of all persons engaged in what
that law terms n rebellion, includes. as
you are aware, the entire properly of all
tun ,,,FR . l. FTSI-
law DEGREES substantially the emancipation
of all our slaves aud an executive order OF
President Lincoln directs the commanders
of his armies to employ them as laborers in
the military service. It is we'll known.
however, that Notwithstanding the restric-
tive terms of this order, several of his Gen
erals openly employ the slaves to bear arms
against their masters, and have thus inaug-
urated, as far as lies in their power, n ser
vile war of whose horrors mankind has bad
shocking example within the memory of
many now living. The peridy, vindictive-
ness, and savage cruelty with which this
war ls waged against US, have but few par
allels In the annals of nations.
The Government of the United States,
however, finds itself greatly. embarrassed
in the execution of its schemes by the diff.
tculty of dispOsing of the slaves seized by
| ASS tAOOPS AuO SuOJGCIeU TO COunSCAIlOn Oy
its barbarous laws. The prejudice against
the negro race is in the Northern States so
intense and deep-rooted that the migration
of our slaves into those States would meet
with violent opposition both from their
people and local authorities. Already riots
are becoming rife in the Northern cities,
arising out of conflicts and rivalries be-
tween their white laboring population and
the slaves who have been carried from Vir-
ginia by the army of the United States.
Yet these slaves are an inapprectable frac-
ton of the negro population of the South.
1t is thus perceived that the single obstacle
presented BY the difficulty of disposiug of
slaves seized for confscation is of itself
sufficient to check in very great degree
the execution of the bsr6arous policy in.
augurated by our enemies.
The repeated instances of shameless
perfdy exhibited by the Government of the
United States during the prosecution of the
war, justify US in the suspicion that bad
faith underlies every act on their part hav.
ing bearing, however remote, on the hos.