The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1863-02-25
NUMBER 81.
"GoD AND THE NEGRO"

L
One member Of the Beecher family has
enriched the phraseology of the American
people with the refined and pious ejacula-
ton of Bully Hallelujahp' Another
scion OF the same stock has now favored
us with new national slogan.
"God and the Negro" 10 the war-cry
which Henry Ward Beecher recommends
to the armies of the republic, through
the columns Of the Independent, in the
following passage, which nothing but .
sense of public duty could induce us to
quote:
| Congress is in dispute over bill to
arm and equip $50, 200 negroes, to serve
in the war. Let it stop the debated The
case is settled; the problem is solved; the
argument is done. Let the recruiting
sergeants beat their drums The neI3
levy of troops must not be made in the
North, but on the plantations. Marshal
them into line by regiments and brigadssl
The men that have picked cotton must
now pick Aints Gather the great Third
Armyl For two years the Government
has been searching, in an enemy's country,
for path to victory; only the negro can
find it Give him gun and bayonet, and
let him point the wayl The future ID fair;
God and the negro are to save the rspub-
licl''
If these brutal and blasphemous ravinps
reached our ears from Bedlam they would
be sufficiently shocking. But they are
deliberately printed in a paper professsd-
ly religious. They are intended to BE-
read in the homes of civilized and Chris
tian men. They are the creed of q man
calling himself minister of love and Of
mercy; and mad as they are, there is :
mean method in their madness. This
sanguinary ribaldry is the calculated voice
of most slavish cowardice. Here il the
argument Of this horrible cry:
"The interval between the destruction
and the salvation of the republic is meas
ured by two steps; one is emancipation,
the other military success. The FIRST 10
taken; the other delays. How is it to be
achieved? There is but one answer: BY
the negro
+" The negroes are the final reliance Of
the Governpent. They are the forlorn
hope of the republic. They are the last
safe-keepers Of the good cause. We emust
make alliance with them, or our final suc-
cess is imperiled.' -.
We beg the reader to control for . 1xo-
ment his disgust and his indignation, to
weigh these words coolly, to measure With
unimpassioued eye the abyss of degrade,
ton which they reveal Three rude, ig-
norant millions of negroes are the ssfor-
lorn home" of twenty millions Of civil
lied Anglo Americans waging great war
against Eve millions of their own race.
Unless we can seduce these African allies
into taking our guns and bayonsts, and
fighting for us, we are hopelessly beaten.
| We have not the manhood to maintain
our own cause; and when We offer freedom
to the Southern slave, it is not because NJ
feel ourselees strong enough to give him
what we promise, but because we hope he
will be strong enough not only to secure
his own freedom, bat to save us also from
defeat and shame. Is the.man who writes
these things an American or Chiness7
Are We Greeks Of the Lower Empire
clamoring for the help of black Var.p-
gians, against the terrible hordes of Jack
son and of Lee?
The negroes are not commonly reputed
very warlike race; but the nifdest Oens
go that ever summed himself among HE
pumpkins might shrink in scorn from ~
"alliance" with men whose philanthropy
thus shamelessly proclaims itself ia -
poltroonery in disguise. saF
With the soldiers and the citizens Of
the North this browning insult, offered by
the radicals to the American name and
race, may safely be left for redress.
| Wherever MAN turks within the most
stolid armor of fanaticism, they must
surely find him out and sting his spirit
up to some dim sense at least Of the crisis
we have reached: and of the future which
!, threatens u.s. Pr0r;deuce Post fsFts