Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-03-09

~. lffOfn the new fofk IfibuneJ
Slavery dies hard and the spectacle ofits
parting egonies, though instructive,is revolt
ing. Even in our loyal States, little Delauare
silently, sullently, rejects ths Constitutional
Amendment, though she knows-her citi
z,ns who can either rsad or think cannot
but know-that the adoption Of that Amend
ment would increase the value OF every acre
Of her soil--would speedily double her
population, converting her sterile wastes IN.
70 fruitful gardens sad orchards. Kentucky,
too, rejects the Amendment, though her |
! new II. ). Senator and her Governor (both |
\ zsalons supporters Of fMcClellan) reeominen. |
ded its approval. The loyal millions would
have gladly given Kentucky twice the
present value Of her slaves, just as they
would gladly have paid for those Of Mary
! land and Missouri two years ago, when the
| prefer was srejected with scorn. Since then,
the shareholders ofthese States have had to
submit to Emancipation ,eithout compeusa
tion; as those of Kentucky and Delaware
soon must. Such is the perverse tenacity,
the nulish stubbo nness, ,of this great wrong.
The Rebellion il based on the natural, fit,
necessary, eternal enjlaveU ent OF the negro.
If this dogma is unsound, then the Confed
eracy is at once blunder and crime.
That its high priests should hate to proclaim
their Apostles Creed delusion and lie,
was most natural. We all remember how
they dcrided our Presidents first Proclama-
ton Of Freedom as at once preposterous and
audacious. 1T has divided the North and
united the South, )" exclaimed their North
ern serviiors. And when, soon afterward,
we took the next step in logical sequence to
this, by calling on Black men to feht for
their country against the Shareholders
Rebellion, how they howled and shricked
and affected horse-laugh at the amazing
, absurdity of the notion that negroes would
: fight, especially that they would fight
Chivalry whose boots they had blacked,
whose tables they had scved, from child.
! hood. The said Chivalry protested thut
, they would never waste good cartridges nor
flesh their swords on these impudent mig
= gers !" they woul d simply provide them
selves with cudgels or stout walking canes
r wherewidh the, would deal each ebony
e 'Yank "a whack across the shins. and send him
t yelping to the rear as fast as his ungainly
S Hudson, Helena, and Fort Wagner, rather
e cooled this conceit hence the butcheres OF
r Fort Pillow, etc., which have thrilled the
civilized world with horror. Yet stll the
negroes would fight, and fighting die, if neec
were, for Freedom and their country.
: At last, the drear reality stares the mos
d stolid Rebel in tho face. Sheridan's sue
: cession Of victories, Shermau's triumpha
;, march through the very vitals of the Con
J. federacy, Grants grim persistency befor,
" Richmond, and the crushing blows dealt by
}. Thomas, drive the stoutest and mos
l. obstinate Confederate to despair. "Sa
- vannah has fallen P-.Colunbia. too p
r "Chnrleson also p Yes, aud Whining
n ton '-and still Sherman pushes on, AM
le Beauregard is unable even to bring to
hol tha nv ha I'll
resist if he dared. Not till its last sand
l.. are visibly running out does the grea
=. conspiracy against the rights of Human
ts Nature confess toitsef, what every one els
is has long perceived, that its only hope lies i
= freeing and arming tho victims who's
enslavement it rushed into treason to rende
secure and eternal.
= = Irt, having at last discerned and con
:. fesseu he patent fact, why not act upon
r. frankly uu1 nanfrlIy? Why not say to tn
!, negroes w" meant by rebellion to wide
i the area and s.rtngthen the tenure of you
N bondag, but Gol has pronounced agains
I us, an 4 We bow to His hat. Take your free
3. dom-let it be complets and without ez
,e ception--and hell us to repel the danger
We so rashly invoked, Share our peri
y. manfully, an you shall shere whatever els
g rem1ins to US. We are not sure tnst eve
" we ,ubt that the slaves could have contidet
in this eleventh hour penitenc, and trLste'
their all to its sincerity and their oppressols
10 persistence therein; but, had it been sincere
j. though it had not averted, it would hav,
n dignited and hllowed the Chivalry's down
- fall. But to behold them, with the death
n rattle in their throlts, scheming and plotting
n to make the negroes bodies their defens
against Union bullets--to save themselyo
o from imminent destruction by the yalor o
their own slaves yet keep those slaves, S,
y far as possible, in lifelong bondage
r, how can you help loathing selfshness Sc
craven and revoltingi Just think of pro
j. jects to kaap the negroes fighting to the ent
At thereafter if they shall be adjudged to hav
deserved ito free the actual fighters, bu
leave their wives aud children in eterns
y, chsttelhood ('for the negro, says one Rich
1t mond oracle, don't care who is,left in slave
ID ry, 80 that he is free !)-to give every whit
soldier in the Rebel armies slave TO marc
at and fight beside him when on duty, aud b
cook for and wait on him while in camp, an
be his properly, his chattle, evcrmore--t
have tho fighting thoroughly done by nc
groes right off, but postpone the whole sui
ject OF emancipation to calmer season, etc
etc.--who can doubt that the authors ofsuc
% absurdiics are mad, though their insanity
~ ~ rooted in chronic wckedness, and is but
|" foretaste ofits righteous retribution?
u. And still Sherman advances upon Mort
~ Carolina-still Grant knocks at the gates @
p" the doomed capital--still tho rebel ranks ar
daily thinued by desertion--stil despair be
" " oomesd daily more general, more obstinate
>" and still the Rebel Congress higgles an
=, quarrels overriyal projects for arIning tn
~ slaves. Have its members never read 9
~ heard Of the doom of BelshazzAr7