The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-09-12


abroad. Boston Journal.
AN ENGLISH PAPER ON TIKI NEGRO
SoLDIER.-The Manchester, (England) Er.
an,iner, in a late number thus discourses
upon the negro as a soldier, and our duty
towards him in that capacity. The Exam
iner, we may remark, is not a whit too ia
vorable to the Union cause.
1.-THE negro in the United States has won
another step in the ladder of promotion tc
the rights and duties of human being
President Lincoln declares that a black
man falling into the enemy's hands shall
be treated exactly as if his skin were Of
the orthodox color. He is not to be shot
nor yet to be sold into slavery, but simply
detained as a prisoner of war till he is pa.
rolled or exchanged. This will be bite,
pill to the Confederate authorities, but
there is really no choice in the NATTER
President Davis will have TO eat his own
words. He may treat as he chooses those
rational chattels over whom his power ex-
tends, but when the chattel is dressed in
United States uniform, his excellency
must learn to treat him as a man. This
necessity will be for the Southerners a very
salutary discipline. Who knows but that
if the war should continue long, the en-
forced habit of treating black men on the
lOOUlIlS VI uuIldu DcllSS Will peCOIQo Ill
veterate, and pave the way to emancipa-
ton? AS the Southern prisoners in the
hands Of the Federals are all white, South
ern whites will have to be exchanged for
Northern negroes. The sons Of rich plan
ters will thus be likely to find themselves
weighed off against their own escaped
slaves-sO much white flesh in one scale,
so much black in the other; st. Clair against
Sanlbo. 1t will no doubt be felt as an aw-
f,ll dot
perhaps elect to remain in confinement
rather than endure the ignominy OF being
rated at the same price as their niggers.
Let them take comfort. The ignominy of
being exchanged on such terms is one
which may be buried in the depths of their
own consciousness and forgotten, for it
is one of which the world takes no account.
1t isSall the same to us whether the human
spirit chooses temple of ebony or of ala
baster. 1t is the soul within the man, and
not the color of the skin, that gives the ar
ticle all it's value. A slave and his owner,
if both stripped and covered with coat of
whitewash, will seem so very much alike
that one may be eGuitably exchanged for
the other. If, however, the soreness as to
color be found very serious, it might be
arranged that the black prisoners should
undergo a private whitewashing at Rich
mond before they are exchanged, so that
by an innocent device the cartel might still
deal with whites only. With or without
this accommodation to Southern tenden-
cies, President Davis will have to come to
terms. President Lincoln has the means
of coercion in his hands, and will assured
ly use it. ''For every soldier of the United
States killed in violation of the laws of
war, a Rebel soldier shall be executed, and
for every one enslaved by the enemy, or
sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be
placed to hard labor on the public works,
and continued at such labor until the other
shall be released, and receive the treatment
due to a prisoner of war We. need not
shudder at a prospect of endless retalia-
ton. President Davis will know better
than provoke it.
p "The policy of the North in enlisting ne
groes is one the justice and humanity OF
which are open to serious doubts; but,
however this may be, there cannot be two
opinions as to the course which the Presi-
dent has now taken. Having resolved to
call the negro to arms, and employ him
against the enemy, he was bound to secure
for him the fullest protection allowed by the
laws of war. Ii the President had allow
ed the Proclamation of Jefferson Davis to
take effect upon negro prisoners, he would
have been denounced all over the world as
poltroon. He is bound to tend to their
safety and comfort with Just the same
Jealous and stringent care as he eXpends
upon his white soldiers. The COnfed-
crates will deciaim and denounoe
but they will see the wisdom ofsubmitting.
Nor will the arguments they may employ,
have any weight with the opinion of man
kind. 1t may seem hard to them that they
should be compelled to treat as prisoners
of war the poor wretches who few
months since were working on their own
plantations, and who are now brought for
ward by the enemy to fight against them.
T.
their own property wherever they find it,
and.:o fix an extra demand upon the trail
torous chattel caught in the attempt to STAY
it's master. But the Southernrrs must re-
member that this is one of the accidents of
the peculiar institution 1t not tha first
time they have had to learn that chattels
with legs and arms and animating pas
sions are awkward things. They are chat
tells SO long as they can be kept in that
escape, no matter how, the chattel attr-
butes disappear, and those OF humanity
take their place. Once out of their mast
er's reach, the world holds them to be free
as himself. If they choose TO use their
freedom to enlist in the armies of a
lawful belligerent, they are sheltered
by the laws of war. They cannot be
dealt with as rebels, because they are
not the subjects of allegiance. The
zens cannot punish them for treason. They
have betrayed neither country nor state
for they have neither. These remarks ap.
ply TO those ofthe negro soldiers who were
lately slaves, but probably the largest por
ton OF the oolored soldiery in Federal pay
consists of free negroes from the North
many of whom never were in bondage a
all, and some Of whom-the possessors O
freehoids-have exercised the rights of cit
| liens in several of the Northern States.-
| The Southerners have no more right to sci
! these men into Slavery than they woult
| have to sell President Lincoln himself,
he choose TO take the field as Commander
in-Chief, and had the ill luck to fall int,
their hands. Their theory as to color, an,
their chronological and physiological view,
regarding tho African race, are peculia
to themselves, and it is mere ogotistica
impudence to fancy that they can carr,
into practicein transactions with third par
4