The Portland daily press., 1865-02-21
Armizg Slaves for Slavery,


TIoN OF ITS IMPRACTIACBmITY.
Hon. Thomas S. Gholson of Virginia
long an influential Democratic member of hel
Legislature, afterward Representative al
Washington-has been making, in the rebe
House powerful and unanswerable argu
mert against the hare-brained project of arm
! ing the slaves to uphold rebellion whose solt
impulse was the aggrandizementa and perpetu
alton of slavery. We ask the careful atten
tlon Of those who believe, that the rebels have
vast military resource as yet untouched, ir
the persons Of their slaves, to the following
extract from Mr.. G.'s speech, giving synop
sis of his reasons for opposing the scheme
Mr.. Gholson's cardinal objections to The pro
posed arming of the slaves are these:
IL. That it would be virtually stalking oul
success in this great struggle on the capacity
and fidelity OF negro troops; because, if as
large a number of slaves as proposed were
placed in tn, army, victory or defeat in the
day OF battle would necessarily depend, TO
some extent, on their courage and efficiency.
Ii they proved brave and true, they would
render great service; If they faltered or de-
serted, they might prove our ruin. Ii every
soldier would carry his slave, and keep Fim
by his side, he would protect him from the
deception and fraud of the enemy; but this
would be impossible, and our slaves would be
exposed to their cunning aud devices, and he
knew but little of the negro character who
believed that he would be able to resist them.
The enemy would promise them freedom from
their masters, and also exemption from war,
and the experiment, in all probability, would
fur ont trao ino1f II, fl 4
not for us. lElt
III. The introduction Of slaves into the ar
my would be obnoxious to large portion of
our soldiers. 1t would be impossible he be
lieved, to have an army composed of black
and white, without finally placing them pret-
ty much on terms of equality. They would
fight together. If defeated they would be
prisoners together; if victorious, they would
rejoice together. They would be subject to
the same military laws, and tried by the same
courts. Would onr soldiers agree to this
ill. The plan proposed by those high in
authority is to liberate the slaves introduced
into the army at the termination of the war.
What is this but abolition? Our proposition
would be: Go fight for us, and when the war
is over we will make you free Our enemies.
say to them: Come to us and we viii make
you free now.' Then liberty to the slave is a
boon-a boon worth fighting for. Heretofore
we have declared that freedom to the slave
was a curse-that he was incapable of self
government-that the only freedom he had
ever enjoyed was that resulting from the re-
straint we mpose-Iiberty from the dominion
OF the vices Of the barbarian. We are now
by our conduct to declare that all these SOL
emnly proclaimed convictions were hypocriti-
cal, or else we are proposing to reward his
services by curse instead of blessing
that instead of giving him an egg, we desire
to give him serpent. l4
But suppose the war over, our independ-
ence achieved, and that the slaves carried in
to the army have remained with us, prefer
ring to fight for prospective freedom than to
go TO the enemy and receive present freedom,
what then is to become Of these freedmen |?
We surely will not deny them home in the
land they have defended; so we should have
q large number of free negroes scattered over
the several states We shall have conceded
that they are worthy of freedom. No state
could deny to their black soldiers liberty to re-
main within their limits, no matter what
may be the provisions of their present Con-
stitution on that subject. What shall be-
come of their wives and children? Shall they
remain slaves while their husbands and fathers
who have fought for our liberties and their
homes, are permitted to become wandering
vagabonds, and finally die of starvation, hav.
ing, by their valor, earned the glorious liberty
Ito starve? Or shall we give liberty to their
wives and children, and thus make our black
population part free and part slave? Who
would consent to live in it? What would be-
come of slavery? What would be the charac-
ter of the returned negro soldiers, made fa-
miliar with the use OF firearms. and taught by
us that freedom was worth fighting for? ln
many sections of the country the two races
could not continue together.
According to the census of 1860, the white
population OF five OF the counties comprising
my congressional district was 13, ,792, the black
population 81 ,228-I allude to the counties OF
Prince George, Nottoway, Amelia, Powhstan
and Cumberland. There would be nearly six
thousand male slaves between the ages of Is
and As. Ii 10000 or 100000 slaves were
put into the army it,would require, as / will
show hereafter, at least half between those
ages. So that from the five counties named
there would be taken about 3 600 male slaves.
Suppose only 1000 of this number are return
ed after having fought as well and bravely as
the friends OF the scheme promise themselves,
we should then have some 400 negro soldiers
in each of these counties. We shall have
tau hit them, as already stated, the use of fire
arms, and that liberty is worth fighting for
They will have learned the power OF comb
nation, and have their minds set on mastering
will have become indolent and mischievous.-
They will be withoutrestraint, and ready fol
all excuses. Here let the curtain drop. OBJ
jections multiply as we advance, and can dc
but little more than suggest them.
"IV. BY the conscripiion of slaves we shal
surrender every ground assumed by US at the
beginning Of the war. We solemnly declared
thatno necessity should induce us TO treat oul
own slaves as prisoners of war. We now pre-
pose to arm them as soldiers. We shall also
be bound by every principle of humanity tx
| claim for them the rights of soldiers-that ii
case of capture they shall be treated as pris
oners. This necessarily comedies CORE
| spending right on the part of our enemy
| There will no longer be any contest witt
| Beast Butler.' We shall have placed blaol
and white soldiers on the same footing.
"V. 1t will be a confession of weakness
which will operate to our disadvantage, botl
at home and among our enemies. They vii
! regard it as an admission of great exhaustion
| and it will enable them to advance NOR,
readily in raising troops.
"VI. The question of supplies for our arm,
and people cannot be overlooked. We hav
difficulty in providing for our army, withou
danger of producing scarcity among the peo
pie. Some sections produce q surplus, bu
they are SO remote and transactions SO limit
ed, that every section has been compelled t,
rely chiefly on its own products. With al
our slave population now under our control
we have pi oduced only enough to supply on
Wants. 1t would be hazardous to withdraw
large part OF cur labor. 1t would be sal
spectacle to see large army compelled t.
disband or give up its position for want O
food. The question Of supplies is question
Of army.
"ae then went into a statistical calculation
to show the number of male slaves betwee
the ages of IS and 45 was very much exae
gerated, and would not exceed 100000 afte
the number required for teamsters and cook
had been raised and argued that it would b
most unwise to take these from the felC
without an assurance, which, so far. no one ha
been able to give, that they would make trust
worthy soldiers.