The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1864-03-29

blOOd-at the Cape of Good Hope, Eng
lish regiments are ive-sixths native Hot
tentots-at the Gold Coast of Western
Africa, the British artillery force is re-
eruited wholly from negroes. In Brazil,
the army is made up almost entirely of
negro recruits, and the police force Of Rio
JaneirO, which is military IN Its Organiza-
ton, consists mostly of colored men. In
Cuba, the black and mulattO corps con-
stitute permanent division Of the Span
ish army. -s---
The strong argument in favor Of Sla-
very, based upon the natural infeTiOrity Of
races, is continually so defended by an
appeal to ancient human example; butwe
insist, that if the dOughface is to use his
tory at all, he is not to be at liberty to Sc
lect such portions of it as may suit his
needs, and to reject all the rest. Moth
ing could be more wretched, or at least
more politically degraded than the con-
-dition Of the HelOts, yet they composed
three-quarters of the victorious Spartan
army at Plataa Nor was there any at
tempt to evade an equitable recognition
of these services, for freedom was decreed
to all these Helots who had fought In
Thrace under Brasidas. The slaves who
contended at Marathon and Ch@ronea
we're emancipated. So the Athenians in
vested with the rights of citizenship those
who engaged in the sea-fght of Arginu-
rae. The Thessalians compelled their
slaves to follow the army, and during the
Peloponnesian war a simple citizen of
Thessaly put $4,000 of them at the dispO-
sal of Athens. The Thessalians even ad-
-1;tted them into the cavalry service
The classical Man-0Wner of South Caro-
lima is continually mouthing of Athens,
but he never tells you that the Athenians
sent their slaves and freemen side by side
to the rescue Of the feet blookaded by
the Spartans In the harbOr of Mitylene,
and that the enterprize was crowned with
success. The light troops of Argos were
slaves, and the Dardanians, great slave
holders, employed their bondmen as sol
diers, as a matter of course. Roman his
tory tells the same story. When Marius
and CHINA beseiged Rome, the latter ap-
pealed directly to the Roman slaves to
shake of the their masters yoke, and take
refuge in his camp where they were to be
declared free, Sylla, Whenv victorious gave
liberty and Roman citizenship to ten
thousand slaYes-men who were ready to
fight and vote for him on all occasions.
Slaves assisted Cato at the defense of Utica,
with the distinct understanding that eman- !
cipation was to be their reward. During
4bo o1v-1l g7o,-oz vro-1 oonoy,,rliooo
conspiracies and soldiers In battle. Sat |
urnius, the instrument Of Marius in the |
movement which he prepared against |
Rome, had early pointed them to the
feedman's bonnet as a bribe to draw them
to his standard. Marius made them a
more direct appeal when Sylla had seized |
the city. Neither party disdained such |
auxiliaries. There were slaves in the
camp Of Labierius after the defeat of
POmpey-slaYes in the two armies In Af-
rica-slaves in the army of Spain, and at
the death Of Caesar, the conspirators had
an escort of gladiators when they pro-
ceeded to occupy the Capitol in the name
of liberty. In the second civil war we
find the same characteristics. The van
quished Antony sought for succor even
in the shambles Of Slavery. Octavius
drew as many as 10000 manumitteds slaves
for. his fleets. Sextus Pompeius cOurted
the freedmen and slaves in order to keep
them around him. The ill-fated son of
the great Pompey, fleeing from the ruin
ed fortunes of -Brutus and =Cassius, arm
ed large body of slaves, and kept a
brief possession of Italy. Sextus, in his
treaty with the victorious tTIUmYirs stip-
ulated for the freedom Of all those slaves
who had fought under his orders. Oc-
taYius shamelessly violated this article,
and returned those to bondagewhO should
have been protected by it. Hence follow
ed a succession of servile wars, illustrat-
ed by the dauntless courage Of Spartacus,
and his extraordinary succession, when he
cut to peices consular armies, destroyed
consular camps, defed the whole military
power Of Rome, and died with his army
at last, the victim only Of stratagem. The
same dauntless bearing marked the Sicilian
nsurgents-they won the same glory and
they shared the same fate.
But our limits do Dot permit US to 90
into further historical detail, and we can
only refer to the emancipation of the
gladiators of Caesar by Lentulus-to the
employment Of slaves by the inhabitants
of Salena against Marcus Octavius-to
the use made by Milo of the gladiators and
of the slaves from the Workhouses-to the
use Of slaves by Caesar against Scipio Af-
the enlistment of slaves in
the time of the Empire, when they had
their places regularly assigned them by
the side of the free soldiers whenever it
was question of defending the Empire
with 0tho against Yitellius or with Vitel-
ius against Vespasian. IgnOble auxilia-
ries," says Tacitus, with concise disdain
of that great but cynical
historian, " but auxiliaries seized by the
most scrupulous general in the midst Of
civil war"
There are those who will not regard pre-
cedents of kind as of much value, and
who will claim that every age, in compOs-
ing It's own distractions and working out
its own problems, is quite at liberty to fol- {
low novel paths and to become itself the /
legislator Of the future aad the creator Of
a history. We do not object to a consis-
tent Indifference to precedents but we do
object with all our force, to the shuf1ing
subterfuge which uses history when it is
convenient and ignores it when it is other
wise. We should be ashamed to defend
Slavery because Slavery existed in Rome '
but if gentlemen will fall back forever up
on the ancients it becomes them to acquire
a respectable knowledge Of the history of {
those times which they effected to recre- .
ate. :