The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-08-06
---S-ON-
The Mission of Alexander stephens

RICHMOND, VA, July lG, 1868.
To the EDITOR of the N Y. Tribune.
On the Sd day of July, 1868,
the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice Pres
ident of the Confederate States of America,
ran down from Richmond in a Confederate
steamer, under flrg of truce, to the mouth
of the James River, where he had a confer
encr with the Acting Rear Admiral S. P. Lee,
commanding your blockading squadron, as
to certain matters of State / need not occu
py your space, Cor at least your time, sir, with
formal dilations You know there was a
brief correspondence between our Vice Presi-
dent and your Government. Mr.. Stephens
desired audience for the purpose of presenting
to the consideration of Mr. Lincoln, certain
propositions bearing upon the spirit and con-
duct of the war. MIR. Lincoln declined to con-
fer with Mr. Stephens, and Mr.. Stephens re-
turned to Richmond. Not to waste words in
controversy that, Mr.. Tribune was, | believe,
the end of the expedition, but not the end Of
speculations as to its real object. The CUES
ses of your journals have been far more nu-
merous than the possibilities. propose to
dis-enchant you. Therefore this letter.
The Vice-President of the Confederate
States, was sent to ask the President of the
United States to cooperate with the former
Government in measures conducive to the
cause of humanity, to the cultivation OF the
most Christian shapes of warfare-such
measures, in the first place, as might be agreed
upon between them to Tighten the troubles
ofprisoners, and alleviate the pains of the
wounded And had Mr.. Stephens been so for
tunate as to procure the audience he so frank
| ly and simply sought, /, for one believe that
| the mercy of his errand would have met with
proper recognition, This, however, seconda-
| riiy.
The primary object of the Vice-Presidents
mission was to protest, in the name OF his Govt
and people, against the mastering and arm
| ing of the blocks, which now constitutes al
most the only clear future of your policy He
came to implore you, in the name of a people
whose resources must have surprised you, o
a Government whose ability you have frank
Iy acknowledged, of soldiers whose courage
and devotion you have felt, to this consum
nation not to come at last. He came to as
sure you, on the good faith of his Govern
ment, on the simple truth of his follow coun
trymen, that not one regiment or single corp
at negroes has eUer been brought into The Con
federate Seryice, to be turned armed agains
you. He came to remind you that such ne
groes as have from time to time been founc
on breastworks and in trenches, have beer
caught with spades only or picks
in their hands-that such have beer
found in regiments in Insignificant number
have been in all cases, body servants, some
times of officers, sometimes of privates, who
of their own will, out of the love which you
k7eou they bear us, have chosen to follow thei
masters to the death. And these you have
found among your prisoners. He could have
told you diplomacy permitted sentiment
God save the mark y of many such 'chattels
some of them white haired, begging, stealing
fighting tehr way home again to the sol
missus" and the old place with all that wa
left of the ''young massa'-a lock OF hair, O.
a trinket.
But no matter for that He came to tall
to you of self-preservation, of retaliation, anc
all that's shocking in the meaning Of that
word He came to tell you of the native
devil that has slept so long, to be awoke a
last, in the bosoms of a simple, dependant, at
fectionatc race He came to implore you IL
the name of God not to do this abOminable
thing. Superior commands i'll the black reg
iments can be made the need of gallant ser
vice in the white. In fine, the entire system
as it operates in the Sepoy service in India
and as it has been modified by distinguished
British officers at the request of our Govern
ment to meet the neutrality-suspicious.
which constitute incalculable advantages, pre-
senting as they do, love and confidence IL
place of hate and jealousy and suspicion-caI
be put in working order at once This is what
| tell you can be done. This is what the
Vice President of the Confederate States came
to tell you and agjW certainly be done forth
with Will you tell your people this?
Else he would have to fall back upon sta
tistics and the grim phraseologies of war, anC
remind you that the 1000, 900 of negroes
that appear in the tablets of your census fol-
1860 are the working hands of both sexes on
w. That number does not include the super
animated or the infants. Out of these 4, 000,-
900, at least $50, 600 able-bodied fellows, low
ing and trusting their masters and ready tx
follow them to the mouths of your cannon
(ah! do not continue to bcfool yourself Oh
that question of ties, } can be enrolled armed
drilled, in three months. They can be off
cered in every grade by their own masters, tc
those who have seen most service, and VOL
most honor. They can be segregated regi-
ment by regiment, with the white troops. In
all the departments, the quartermasters, the
commissariat and the medical white officer;
can administer for them.
1t is not for me to speculate upon the con
sequences of these new and dreadful elements
whired into new forms of conflict and COM
plication, to prolong and intensity the war
My mind. in striving to grasp the subject
lets go its hold, and shrinks as from something
at once terrible and loathsome. l cannot
speak of things which seem to cry aloud out
of the future with the tongues of women and
of babes, with the contention of angels and Of
fends. mixed of pity and of fury.
But do see in all this hidden mine OF
power in the South which may in one fatal
moment, spring upon the country, to bury all
that we once loved and were proud of in an
undistinguishable monstro sity of disgust and
| death.
RANDOLPH.