Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1864-03-09

the dead are stolen. Mills and implements
Of agriculture are destroyed. Private salt
works are broken upon. The introduction
of medicines is forbidden. Means of sub.
sistenoe are wantonly wasted to produce beg.
gary. Prisoners are returned with conta.
gious diseases. The last morsel Of food has
been taken from families, who were not al.
lowed to carry on trade or branch of in.
dustry. A rigid and offensive espionage
has been introduced to ferret out "disloyal.
ty." Persons have been forced to choose
between starvation of helpless children and
taking. the oath of allegiance to hated
Government. The cartel for exchange Of
prisoners has been suspended and our unfor.
tunate soldiers subjected to the grossest in.
dignities. The wounded at Gettysburg
were deprived of their nurses and inhnman.
ly left to perish on the field. Helpless
women have been exposed to the most cruel
outrages and to that dishonor which is infn.
itely worse than death. Citizens have been
murdered by the Buffers and McNeils and
Milroys, who are favorite generals of our
enemies. Refined and delicate ladies have
been seized, bound with cords, imprisoned,
guarded by negroes, and held as hostages
for the return of recaptufed slaves. Unof-
Tending non.combatants have been banished
or dragged from their quiet homes to be i'm.
INJURED in filthy jails. Preaching the gos.
pei has been refused except on condition OF
taking the oath of allegiance. Parents
have been forbidden to name their children
in honor of "rebel" chiefs. Property has
been oonfsoated. Military governors have
been appointed for States, satraps for pro
vinces, and Haynaus for cities.
These cruelties and atrocities of the enc.
my have been exceeded by their malicious
and bloodthirsty purposes and Vaccinations
in reference to the slaves. Early in this
war, President Lincoln averred his consti'
tutional inability and personal unwillingness
to interfere with the domestic institutions OF
the States and the relation between master
and servant. Prudential considerations
may have been seiled; under conscientious
scruples, for Seward; in confidential in
struction to Mr.. Adams, the Minister to
Great Britain, on 10th March, 1862, said
oIf the Government Of the United States
should precipitatsly decree the immediate
abolition of slavery, it would reinvigorate
the declining insurrection in every part Of
the South" Subsequent reverses aud the
refractory RIGHTEOUSNESS of the seeded
States caused a change of policy, and Mr..
Lincoln issued his celebrated proclamation,
a mere brutens .tuzmen, liberating the slaves
in the s'insurrectionary districts" On the
Oath June, 1776, one of the reasons as.
signed by Pennsylvania for her separation
from the mother country was that, in hel
sister colonies, the "King had excited the
negroes to revolt" and to Undue their hands
in the blood of their masters, in manner
impractical by civilized nations. This,
probably, had reference to the proclamation
of Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Vir'
ginia, in ITS, declaring freedom to all ser.
wants o. negroes, if they would join "fOr
the reducing of the colony to q proper sense
of its duty" The invitation to the slaves
to rise against their masters, the suggested
insurrection, caused, says Bancroft, ga thrill
of Indignation to run through Virginia, eff
facing all differences of party, and ropsine
one strong, impassioned purpose to drive
away the insolent power by which it hae
been put forth" A cotemporary annalist
adverting to the same proclamation, sale
ssit was received with the greatest horror il
all the colonies
"The policy adopted by Dunmore," sayl
Lawrence in his notes on Wheston, 10
arming the slaves against their masters, wa
not pursued during the war Of the Revolu
ton; and when negroes were taken by tn
English, they werenot considered otherwis
than as property and plunder." Emanci
patton of slaves as a war measure has beef
severely condemned and denounced by tn
most eminent publicists in Europe and tn
United States. The United States, "il
their diplomatic relations, have ever main
tained," says the Northern authority jus
quoted, "that slaves were private property
and for them, as such, they have repeated.
received compensation from England. ~
Napoleon I, was never induced to issue
proclamation for the emancipation of tn
serfs in his war with Russia. He said
ri could have armed against her part o
her population, by proolaiming the li5ort
of the serfs. A great number of village
asked it of me, but I refused to avail mysel
of measure which would have devoted t
death thousands of families" In the dis
cussions growing out of the treaty Of peac
of 1914, and the profered mediation 9
Russia, the principle was maintained by tn
United States that "the emancipation 6
the enemy's slaves is not among the acts
legitimate warfare" In the instruction
from John Quincy Adams, as Secretary 9
State, to Mr.. Middleton, at Saint Peters
burg, October IS, 1920, it is said: 9Th
British have broadly asserted the right
emancipating slaves, (private property as
legitimate right of var. No such right
acknowledged as law of war by write'
who admit any limitation. The right
putting to death all prisoners in cold bloc
and without special cause, might as we'll
pretended to be law of war, or the rigl
to use poisoned weapons, or to assassinate.
Disregarding the teachings of'the al
nroved writers on international law and tt
nractices and claims of his own Governmel