New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-04-14
PROTECT THEM !

The Government has sent AdJt.-Gen. Ih0mas
TO the West with full authority to arm and
organize the negroes for service against the
Rebels. They are to be employed to protect
the navigation of the Mississippi and other
rivers against guerrillas and us garrisons at
fortified posts, and are evidently destined for
al varieties of military duty. Seven thousand
soldiers who listened to this announcement at
Fort Curtis received it with satisfaction and
applause. Gen. Thomas, heretofore known as
opposed TO this and all similar measures, urged
in his address that the blacks should be treated
with kindness, declared his belief in their
capacity, and informed the officers OF the army
that no one would be permitted to oppose or
in any way interfere With this policy Of the
Government
II is not directly stated, but may be infer
red from the dispatch, that the negroes are
not to be encouraged to enlist, but are to be
drafted At all events, the policy Of the Gov
eminent to employ black troops in active SER
vice is definitely established, and it becomes
as indeed it has been for months-a very se-
rious question what steps are to be taken for
their protection The Proclamation of Jefier-
son Davis remains unrevOked. BY it, he threat
ened death or slavery to every negro taken
in arms, and to their white officers the same
fate. What is the response Of our Govern
rnenti Hitherto, silence. The number of ne
groes in its service has steadily increased in
South Carolina, they have already been mus
tered into regiments by sweeping cOnscrip-
ton; and now in the West apparently the
same policy is adopted and vigorously enforced.
Does tho Government mean that tho men
whom il forces TO become it's soldiers shall be
exposed not merely to the chances of battle,
but to the doom which the unanswered proc
lamation of the Rebel President threatens!
Every black soldier now marches to battle
with halter about his neck. The simple
question is: Shall he DO protected and insured
the ordinary treatment of prisoner of war
The Rebei proclamation is not an idle menace.
Under it, every negro yet captured has suffered
death or been sent back to the he'll of Slavery
from which he had escaped. The bloody mas.
sacre Of black prisoners at Murlreesboro'
evoked, so far as the public knows, no retaha-
ton nor even protest from the military author
tiles ut Washington. The black servants cap
tured at GalVeston-freemen and citizens of
Observation-Disclosures sold into Slavery, and re-
main there. In every instance in which they
have had the opportunity, the Rebels have en-
forced their barbsrOus proclamation. How
much longer are they to DO suffered to do it
without remembrance
Gen. Hunter-at this moment in the field
Gen. Butler and hundreds of other white
officers, are included in this proclamation, or
were previously Outlawed and adjudged
q felOn's death. Delay remOustranco much
longer and Retaliation must supersede it.
If the Government wishes to be spared the
Of retaliating, it has only to sag that
it will retaliate-to declare by proclamation or
general order that all it's soldiers who may be
captured must receive from the Rebels the
treatment to which, as prisoners Of war, they
are, by the usages of war, entitled. The Re-
public can know no distinction of color under
It's flag. The moment a negro shoulders a
musket he is invested with every military
right which belongs to white soldier. He
Is at least and above oil things entitled to the
safeguards which surround bis white comrades. |
1t ia not possible to suppose the Government
means TO withhold them: We only urge that
he wisest, safest, and humsnest, as well as
he most honorable, policy is at once to an
iOunce its purpose.
xrrEsrzzsrzs,rz-srs ,-7srzru--r--
The unfortunate merchants and Traders of our |