Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1864-11-17


After deriding the employment of
the negro as soldier, the Southern
press is now urging the rebel govern
ment 80 to employ him. Alter ridicul-
ing the policy of tempting him to our
armies by the pledge of freedom, that
press now insists that freedom be Of
fered him a. an inducemcnt to fight
in the rebel cause. After often and
emphatically declaring freedom only
curse. and slavery solely blessing
to the negro. the secession philoso-
piers now eloquently portray the pro-
priety Of rewarding the lighting ne
gro with freedom After laying down
slavery as the corner stone Of their
model government, they propose with
freedom to pay their slaves for becom-
ing soldiers for that government !
Such is the Conference of the logic
Of slavery's rebellion against popular
and free institutions. How thorough
ly has the course Of events demonstra-
ted the absurdity of those theories on
which the corrupt casuists Of the
southern political and theological
schools have attempted to justify
their insurrection o.. f.
At last the chivalry recognize in
the negro the elements Of a heroic
manhood. This is a great confession
for the Southern mind. Northern men
have long almost universally regard
ed mere animal courage as far from
the highest of the qualities that emit.
tie their possessor to esteem and to
freedom. In the land of the duelist,
the New England idea Of moral cour-
age, and the superiority of honest toll,
have been secuted at and despised,
and the free laboring masses sneered
at as mud.sills," fit only to be own.
ed as property. Today the Southern.
er has come to accord to his slave the
possession Of those qualities on which
he had been taught to pride himself
as superior to the Northerner-the
qualities that make the soldier-and
TO acknowledge that the display Of
those qualities in exercise entities
their possessor to freedom ! How long
. step in advance will it be to admit
that the having those qualities proves
that he who has them was designed
by nature to be free! ...
"was man ordained the slave Of man to toll,
Yoked with the brutes and fettsred TO the soil,
Weighed in the tyrant's balance with his gold
No Nature stamped him in n heavenly mould /"
Something of this mould the haugh.
ty slave aristocracy, through their
own experience of weakness, are be-
ginning to discover in the down.trod-
den black man. Failing in their fight
for the sweet privilege Of keeping
their foot upon his race, they offer to
withdraw the heel of tyranny from
such individuals of the abject race as
will aid them in trampling upon the
rest Of that race forever I
Is it possible that SO desperate and
base an effort of perishing wickedness
can succeed Z Can it be that the his
torian Of these times will ever be cal
led to pen such paragraph as this /:
"When slavery and its confederacy
were on the point of utter defeat, they
were saved. and the slavery Of ne
groes was made eternal, through the
employment of negroes as the soldiers
Of such slavery! Such result may
safely be set down as morally impos-
sible. Heaven cannot permit it. The
Southerners have not finished their ed.
ucation in learning. at last, that the
negro is fit for a soldier. They have
yet to learn that he is unfit to fight
for slavery.