The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-11-19

thereof, including that of persons
held to labor or servitude by the laws
of said State. In the rapid progress
of events and growth of passion this
amendment, though passed by Con
gress, was not sent to the States for
ratification, and therefore fell to the
ground. 1t is, however, on record,
to show the readiness of the Federal
Congress to debar itself forever from
any pretence to interfere with slavery
in the States, and this, whilst
persons in this country were loudly
asserting that it was to destroy slavery
that the war was waged. AL amend
ment has recently been passed, the
reverse of the foregoing, and declar-
ing the abolition of slavery It has
not yet been ratified, we believe, by
the requisite number of States, and
if ratified, will be plain breach of
the Federal compact, which reserved
to the representative States all powers
not delegated to the Government.
This amendment would be in direct
conflict with the body of the instru-
ment, or rather with prior amend
ment, No. 10. Soon after the date
we have named, the negro question
was presented in an entirely new
phase. The Federal generals, find
ing at that early period some difficult
ty IN appropriating what their own
laws held to be private property, in
vented an escape from this dilemma
by declaring the poor negro contra
band of war" Thus the growth of
this virtue, which Mr.. Beecher would
have us to believe is nurtured by
bloodshod, proceeded so far as to raise
the negro from his former condition
into that OF a contraband commo-
dity.
The next remarkable step in the
progress of the anti-slavery movement
was Mr.. Lincoln's proposal to get rid
of the difficulty by shipping the race
away to foreign parts. He selected q
district in Central America for the
purpose, assuming that its Govern
ment would make no difficulty in
the matter; indeed, apparently deem
ing it superhuous to consult them
about it. This strange scheme for
dealing with four millions of people
was actually set in motion, but, as
might have been expected, came to
nothing. About this time appeared
the famous letter to Horace Greeley,
in which, with perfect candor, Mr..
Lincoln stated that he would free the
negroes, OF some of the negroes, or
none OF the negroes, according rs he
found that, by freeing them, or
some Of them, or none of them,
he could save the Union. Nothing
could be more explicit nothing more
honest tahn this-nor any more direct
denial of the shallow pretence that
the object of the war was to give
liberty to the slave. Then followed
the famous slave-proclamation which
he was persuaded to issue against his
own Judgment; for but fortnight
before, it will be remembered that he
told dep tation who urged it upon
him, that It would be as futile as 'sthe
Pope's B j against comet" So it
has proved. 1t failed to incite SER
vile insurrection, the only way in
which it could possibly produce a
practical result; nor is there reason to
believe that a single negro was freed
by it who would not have been equally
lfeco Dy the action OF the Federal
armies without it. AS war measure.
nothing could be more reprehensible
than to adopt such means of fight
ing an enemy-any enemy-and these
were of the same kin; as matter of
moral principle, nothing more incon-
sistent, for it prohibited the sin to
the enemy and permitted it to the
ally. 1t made right and wrong a
matter of geographical convenience,
for certain counties of Louisiana were
to retain the system, whilst the rest
were denied it; and more than this, it
retained slavery where there was
power to end it, and it pretended to
sweep it away where there was no
power to touch it. On this subject,
as with the others already considered.