The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1863-01-09

on the solid and enduring basis OF univer-
4 sal liberty.
I 1t is now but too plainly the policy of
our Government to strike fatal blow at
4 What We know and v hat the Confsdcfatcs
themselves claim is be the chief Element
of their strength.
| George w. johnson, the secession
provisional Governor of Kentucky, in
his message of November Goth, 1861,
says:
"The presence of the negro race adds
| greatly to the military spirit and strength
of the Confederate States. They till their
| grounds, while our sons fight our battles
and our Ordinary pursuits are scarcely in
terrupted BY war"
That lie is right in this view, ask
you 10 look at the fact that the. South has
population Of about FIVE and half mill
ions fwhites, who are devoting all their
energies to the, prosecution OF the rebel
lion, and abe ut three and q half millions
of blacks, who are ut work upon their
farms and in their shops supplying the
white population with everything rcqur-
ed to subsist the rebels Ia the army and
their families at home. If we enamel
pate the slave, call him off from raising
supplies on the farm and in the shop, we
would thus drive the rebel home to sup
port and protect his family, reduce large.
| ly his effective fighting force, very soon
bring him to terms of submission, and the
war 70 close; and the nation by the
kind Providence of the Almighty God
would stand forth redeemed and Olsen
thialled from the curse of slavery
In the new policy of emancipation,
) thus iDaugulated, | feel that it is of the
utmost importance to meet and silence the
prejudice which, for partisan purposes, is
attempted to be excited against the al
legged injurious effects Of emancipation.
1t is not to be overlooked that there ex-
lists degree of prejudice in the minds of
the people, upon the subject Of giving
freedom to the slave, to Which politicians
appeal with fatal Injury to the cause of
that enlightened progress which has been
SO ProvideD TALLY placed within the reach
of the present generation, A grand OPP
portunity is presented to us by the logic
:, Of events Ey wise and Christian poll
cy, We blot out mighty wrong to one
class of people now in bondage, and Sc
: cure lasting peace and happiness to an
other.
/ am sure of two things: First-that
when slavery is removed, this rebellion
: will die out, and not before. Second
hall anI ,r.liaf nd
: diction in this State paper to meet the
verdict of my successors in office and of
posterity, that the change brought about
by the policy OF emancipation will pass off
IN way so q"iclJ en- 50 easily, that the
world vi stud ,ma2ed laat we should
have entertained such fears vi its evils
During the war, there will be necessarily
some suffering among SO many slaves
thrown out OF employment, and many,
perhaps large numbers of them, viii seek
temporary refuge in the free States
. and every man who has human heart
= within him, will treat them kindly but
with the return of peace, the demand for
labor in the Sputh will be greatly increas-
: Ell, and there will be an exodus not only
: of these fugi,ves, but of the free colored
4 population to the South, The demand
Z for labor in .he South will be greatly in
Q creased BY the subdivision Of large farms
e into numerous small ones, in the hands
: of much larger number of owners also
: by the reclamation of immense regions Of
: fertile country in all our Southern States,
I waiting only the plastic touch of free la
Dor, the settlement Of which has been re-
0 tarded by the existence of slavery, tend
e ing, as it always has, and necessarily al
: ways will, to discourage the Immigration
: of free white citizens. No reasonable
: fears of composition with the FREQ labor of
i the Northern States need be entertained,
i because the emancipated slave will have
i protection and employment upon the soil
a which he has heretofore cultivated in
J bondage. Emancipation does not increase
5 the number of negroes by an additional
one. There will not be single acre of
d land less for cultivation, but great deal
} more viii probably be cultivated; there
$, will be the same and an increasing de-.
u mand for the culture of cotton, tobacco,
l. sugar, and rice, for which the negro is
II peculiarly adapted; the Southern climate
> will remain unchanged, congenial to his
l. constitution and it is the highest de-
II gree improbable that the negro will leave
r the State of his nativity, where his labor
II is in dem and, whore he understands, bet
Is ter than any one else the business to be
d done, and where the climate is adapted to
Y him, to seek the cold climates of the
) North, to face the strong competition Of
10 northern. skilled free-labor, to encounter
3 the prejudice against his color, and the
) pauperism and neglect which would NEE,
l. him on every hand.
l. =
d In view OF these facts, demand the
y removal Of slavery In the name Of my
rs country, whose peace it has disturbed