Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1863-03-14
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THE N EGRO.

Never were predictions attended with
more signal failure than those of the radi
Gals with referance to the negro. We
we're told with the most confident assur.
ance that the commencement Of hostilities
would be the signal for universal upris.
ing Of these victims Of oppression; that
they would assert their manhood and
strike boldly for freedom. For two long
years we have waited to hear the promised
triumphant shout of our fellow African
citizens as they rushed like an overwhel.
ming avalanche upon their guilty perse.
cutors, and We are now forced to the
conclusion that at no period Of our history
has the South been more secure against
negro instructions than during the war.
Again, we were told that by encourag.
ing the escape Of slaves to our lines we
should have host Of valua bic auxiIiaries
to do the drudgery Of the camps, and 70
perform the necessary labor for Geld ope.
rations against the enemy. The host was
procured but the service has been like that
performed BY the locusts in the camps Of
the Egyptians. They have been tiled in
the camp, in the field, and upon the con.
quered cotton plantations, and everywhere
with the same melancholy result. Neither
moral suasion, the stimulous Of freedom.
nor the coercion Of military rule have
been found sufficient to overcome their
inherent lsziness. Everywhere the result
has been a failure. They have devoured
with the mos. hearty gusto the ra.ions
provided for our troops, but beyond this
they have been as passive and useless as
the stumps and trees Of Virginia.
Once more we were told that they must
be elevated to the dignity of freedom
placed upon par with our own brave
soldiers-clothed with the habiliments OF
war, and assigned honorable positions in
the face of common foe. This too, has
been tried. They were invited to unite
in the grand enterprise Of giving liberty
to their brethren, still under the yoke Of
bondage-but with proverbial modesty
they respectfully declined the protfered
honor-,hey preferred to take their ralions
in the rear. There is still another project
untried, and that is, Conscription. This
will hardly be resorled to as it would be
cruel to impose SO hard burden upon
our poor brethren, so long as there are
white men who can be reached by the
same process.
Thousands Of valuable lives have been
acriiced-,hou more will be requir.
ed-and can any one point out any good
result either attained or to be ANTICIPATED.
Suppose the country should be ultimately
saved, does any one doubt but for the
insane determination of the radicals to
destroy slavery the war might have been
averted in the first instance, and in any
event would long since have been closed.
The fact cannot be gainsnid that the abo.
ltion sentiment prevented an honorable
adjustment, and has protracted the con.
test to the present hour. The only trophy
therefore that can be claimed to compen'
safe for the lives that have been lost, the
treasure that has been expended, and the
ruin that has been wrought, is the freedom
claimed to have been conferred upon the
contrabands who have and may yet escape
to our lines. And how will this appear
when poised in the scale agains. the ter.
rible sacrifices which have been made
We have decoyed from comfortable homes,
where they were secure against want, and
in the enjoyment of comparative happin.
actual loss of white men who have been
killed in action. These sable refugees are
now huddled together in miserable filthy
pens in the negbborhood Of our camps as
helpless and incompetent to care for
themselves as the beasts Of the field. des.
pissed by the soldiers for their Incidence,
vice and cowardice; denied home in
those States whose politicians have been
most clamorous for their emancipa,ion.-
Who will undertake to say that their con
dition has been improved, or that bright
er future is theirs because OF this war;
Suppose the same fell spirit continues to
control our Govern ment and the war goes
on until the last shackle shall have fallen
from the bondmen, unit. The year of jubilee
has dawDed, probably . million of free
white men will have been slain, the coun.
try impoverished and desolated, the Con.
stitntion destroyed, the Union severed into
frng our own liberty so dearly pur.
chased gone, We shall then have achieved
the full frution Of abolition deIusion-
everything desirable gone beyond our
reach and remaining upon our hands
100000 Ignorant, lazy, vicious negroes
who will then have the same claims
to equality with the whites rs they now
have to freedom, and to whose level we
must be degraded or else commence anew
the bloody contest to test the superiority
of the races.
VIZ Oofica in onr On alarm ovchanoas a