Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-03-24
SLAVERY's LAST HOURS.
Firm the New York Tribune. ]

Slavery dies hard and the spectacle of it;
parting agoniee, though Instructive, is revolt
ing. Even in our loyal States little Della
ware silently, sullenly, rejects the Co,stitution
al Amendment, though she knows-her citi
zans who can either read or think cannot but
know-that the adoption of that Amendment
would increase the value of every acre of her
soil-wouid speedily double her population,
converting her sterile wastes into fruitful gar
dens and orchards Kentucky, too, rejects the
| Amendment, though her new U. s. Senator
and her Governor Tooth jealous supporters OF
McC'eilan) recommended its approval The
loyal millions would have gladly given Ken
lucky twice the present value of her slaves,
just as they would gladly have paid for those
of Maryland and Missouri two years ago, when
the proffer was rejected with scorn. Since
then, the Shareholders of these States have had
TO submit to emancipation Uah0ut compensa-
tion as those of Kentucky aud Delaware soon
must. Such is the perverSe tenacity he mule
ieh stuboornness. of this great wrong.
The rebellion is based on the natural fit,
necessary, eternal enslaVement of the negro
If this dogma is uusuund, then the Confedera-
cy is at once b!under aud crime. That its
|
Apostles Greed delus0n and a lie, was most
natural. We all remember how they derided
our Presidents first Proclamation of Freedom
IS at once preposterOus and audacous. 1T
has divided the North and united the South, .
exclaimed their Northern serviors. And
when. soon afterward, we took the next step
in logical sequence 10 this, by calling on Black
men 10 fight for their country against the
Shareholders Rebellion, how they howed and
shrieked and affected a horse-Iaugh at the
amazing absurdity of the notion that negroes
would fight, especially that they would fight
chivalry whose boots they had bIacked. whose
tables they had served, from childhood. The
said chivaIry protested that they would never
waste good cartridges nor flesh their swords on
these impudeut "niggers ;" they would simply
provide themselves with cudges or stout
walking canes wherewith they would deal each
ebony ''yauk' a whack across the shius and
send him yelPing to the rear as fast as his III
gainiy leg. would carry him. Ere long. Por.
Hudson, Helena, aud Fort Wagner, rather
cooled this conceit; hence the bu cherries ol
Fort Pillow, etc., which have thrilled the civ
iliz9d world with horror YET still the negroes
l0ouid fight, and Lighting die, if need be- for
| treSuOm anu tu6lT Country.
At last the drear reality stares the most
stolid rebel in the face. Sheridln's succession
OF victories Sberman's triumphal march
through the very vitaIs of the Coufe1eracy
Grants grim persistency before Richmond,
and the crushing blows dealt by Thomls, drive
the stoutest aud most obstinate Confederate to
despair. Savannah has fallen Columbia
! tOo!-Oharleston also Yes, and Whining
ton !-and still Sherman pushes on, aud ,au-
| reguard is unable eveG to bring to halt th-
| Union columns he would gladly resist if h.
dared. Not till its last sands are visiby run
ming out does the great conspiracy against the
| tights of human nature confess to Itself, what
every one else has long perceived, that its only
hope lies in freeing aud arning the victims
tor whose enslavement it rushed into treason
to render it secure and eternal.
| But, having at last discerned aud confessed
the patent fact, why not act upon it frank and
manfulIy? Why not say to the negroes-"We
| mean; by the rebellion to widen the area and
strengthen the tenure OF your bondage; but
| God has pronounced against Us, and we bow
to His fat. Take yonr freedom let it be
complete and without exceplion-and help us
TO repel the dangers we rashy Invoked
Share our perls manfuiy, and you shall share
whatever else remains to US" We are not sure
that even this appeal would have been success
! Hul for we doubt that the slaves could have
confided in this eleventh hour penitence and
trusted their all to its sincerity and their op,
pressors persistence therein F; but, had it been
sincere, though it had not averted, it would
have diguified and haIlowed the chivalry's
dowGfall.
But to behold them, with tie death-rattle in
their throats, scheming and plotting to make
the negroes bodies their defense against Union
bulleis--tO save themselves from imminent
destruction by the valor of their own slaves
vet keep those slaves as far as possible, 10 life
long bondage--and how can you help Ioathing
a sel6shuess so craven and revolving? Just
think of projects to keep the negroes fighting
to the end OF the war by promises of emanci-
patton thereafter if they shall be adiudg ged to
have deserved ito free the acfud fighters,
bat leave their wives and children in eternal
chattlehood (''for the negro says one Rich
mond oracle, ''don't care who is left in slavery
so that HE is free r) 10 give every white sol
! dier in the rebel armies slave to march and
! 6ght beside him when On duty, and to cook for
and wait on him while in camp, and be his
property, his chattle, evermore-to have the
fighting thoroughly done by negroes right off
but postpone the whole subject Of emancipa-
tion to q calmer season, etc, etc.-who can
doubt that the authors OF such absurJities are
mad, though their insanity is rooted in chron
ic wickedness, ami is but a foretaate OF lis
righteous retri5ution
And still Sherman advances upon North
Carolina-still Grant knocks at the gates OF
the doomed capital-stiil the rebel ranks are
daily thinned by desertion-still despair be
comes daily more general, more obstinate, and
still the rebel Congress higgies and qnarres
over rival projects for arming the slaves
Have its members never read or heard of the
doom Of Belshazzar?