The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-11-26

NEGRO AGITATION IN THE CoNrEDER-
AcY.-The irrepressib!e conflict has broken
out in its full dimensions in the Confetler-
acy.. To be or not 70 be, is the question.
by negro soldiers or lost by the whites
whether it were nobler in the Confederate
mind to suffer the sings and arrows of out
rageous fortunes, or raise the slaves to
arms against sea Of troubles, and by thus
opposing end them and the Confeder-
acy and slavery, all at once. On the one
side it is argued that there is no salvation
to the eonfederacy but by. tine negro; on
toe ether, that suck salvation will sacri-
Gee all they are lighting ior on the one
side that emancipation and negro soldiers
will be the ruin of the Censederacy, on
the other that the cOnfederacy is ruined
without il.
The Richmond Examiner argues the
question In the manner following. We re-
publish the argument 1 II is memorable
logic, but there must be little satisfaction
to the Confederate mind in proving the
policy suicidal, when the argument on the
other side il that the COnfederacy will
surely die without this black aid. First,
the Erdnai,ser argues that the idea that the
blacks will fight better for them than for
as, Is merely q sentimental one, and that
ssaitachment to his master would be NO
balance to his native fckleness and the
strong incentives to deeertion which
she enemy would hold out to him -
and then 1t goes on to the doctrinai
points; e~e
But the existence of negro soldier is to.
tally inconsistent with our political aim
and with our social as well Is political
system. We surrender our position when.
ever we introduce the negro to arms, If 4
negro is TIT to be = soldier he is not fit to
DC slave, and II any FARCE portion Of. the
race is fit for free labor-fit TO live and to
be useiui under the competitive system Of
iabor-then the whole race is fit forit. The
employment Of negroes as soldiers in orr
armies, either with Or without prospac.
tive emancipation, would involve all the
rest, to universal oblivion. It would he
80 understood and regarded by. ali the
world. Our enemy would preceiye that
ne had succeeded In his design to the point
Of moral sunjugation, and would not doubt
that orr absolute submission was far re-
moved. To our own hearts it would be n
not only Of weakness. bnt Of
absolute inability to secure the object for
which we undertook the war. It wonld be
felt by alb compromise to the abolition.
ism OF the world, Incompatible with that
Independence Of action for which the South
strives. tp
But the objections to this project are so
that It il unnecessary al present
SVCA W SukkcSt t0eIus Inc PRESIDENT OD.
poses the introduction Of negroes into the
army IS soldiers, but desires a CORPS of
forty thousand TO be used in labor on for
AZ engineers, as transfers, and
IS sappers and miners. To a proposition
Or that sort no one could have the least OBJ
ection, II he had not concluded with an
obscure passage, which if it means any
hing, means that the FORTY thousand
slaves so employed shall be set free at the
end OF the war rs reward for their service.
Here, while refusing tn employ the slaves
under arms, he adopts the fatal principle
Ct the original proposition to its fullest ex-
tent, and puts forth I'm idea which, If add
United by the Southern people as truth,
renders their position on the matter OF
slavery utterly untenable.
We hold that the negro is in his proper
is to say, in the condition
which is the best for him, where lie reach
es his highest moral, intellectual and phys.
zeal development, and can enjoy the full
sum Of his natural happiness; in word.
that.while living with the white man in
.he relation OF a slave he is in state supe-
rior and better for him than that freedom.
But the negro's freedom is to be given him
as q reward for his service to the country
his freedom, therefore is boon-it is a
better Etate-asnatural good Of which our
laws deprived him and keep him FROM
NOW that the whole theory as the Adolf
ZIONIST, and we have the sorrow to think
that If one portion of this Presidential
message means any thing it means that.