Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-12-06
golitital.
HON. SIMON CAMERON U. S. SENATOR, sc.

HON. SIMON CAMERON U. s. SENATOR, &c.
Mr. EDITOR In your issue of Nov 22d,
is an editorial favoring the election Of Hon.
SIMON CAMERON to the U. S. Senate. The
successor of the recreant CowAN should be
characterized by breadth of comprehension,
firmness of will, readiness to assume all
responsibilities dictated by passing emer-
gencies, and his past record should be a
sure guarantee that he would be for the
Government against its betrayers, and
friend to its friends against all their op-
pressors. How nearly SIMON CAMERON ap-
proaches this standard, let the following
extract from his Report as Secretary of
War in 1861 be taken in evidence. Bear
in mind, at that early date, to talk of eman-
cipation was fanaticism with many, to ad-
wise the arming of negroes was sacrilege
with more. But subsequent events vindi-
Gated the wisdom of the wise and stamped
with infamy the follies of the fearful
Extract From the Report Of The Secretary of War,
Simon Cameron.
WASHINGTON, Dec l, 1861.
1t has become a grave question for de-
termination, what shall be done with the
Slaves abandoned by their owners on the
advance of our troops into Southern terri
tory, as in the Beaufort district of South
Carolina. The whole white population
therein is six thousand, while the number
of negroes exceed thirty-two thousand. The
bai in
confusion from their homes, leaves them in
undisputed possession of the soil. Shall
they, armed by their masters, be placed in
the field to fight against us, or shall their
labor be continually employed in reproduc-
ing the means for supporting the armies
of rebellion?
The war into which this government has
been forced by rebellious traitors, is car
ried on for the purpose of repossessing the
property violently and treacherously seized
upon by the enemies of the Governmen, and
to re-establish the authority and laws of
the United States in the places where it is
opposed or overthrown by armed insurrec-
tion and rebellion. Its purpose is to recov-
er and defend what is justly its own.
War, even between independent nations,
is made to susdue the enemy, and all that
belongs to the enemy, by occupying the
hostile country, and exercising dominion
over all the things within its territory
This being true in respect to independent
nations at war with each other, it follows
that rebels who are laboring by force of
arms to overthrow a government, justly
bring upon themselves all of the conse.
quences of war, and provoke the destruc-
ton merited by the worst of crimes. That
government would be false to national
trust, and would justly excite the ridicule
of the civilized world, that would abstain
from the use of any efficient means to pre-
serve it's own existence, or to overcome a
rebellious and traitorous enemy,by sparing
or protecting the property of those who
are waging war against it.
The principal power and wealth of the
rebel States is peculiar species of prop
erty, consisting of the service or labor OF
African slaves, or the descendants of Afri-
cans. This property has been variously
estimated at the value of from 500, ,000,-
900 to l,00O,000,000
Why should this property be exempt
from the hazards and consequences of re-
bellious war?
1t was the boast of the leader of the re-
bellion, while he yet had seat in the Sen
ate of the United States, that the Southern
States would be comparatively safe and
free from the burdens of war, if it should
be brought on by the contemplated rebell
ion, and that boast was accompanied by
the savage threat that Northern towns
and cities would become the victims of ra-
pine and military spoil" and that North
ern men should smell Southern gunpowder
and feel Southern steel" No one doubts
the disposition of the rebels to carry that
threat into execution. The wealth of North
ern towns and cities, the produce of North
ern FARMS Northern workshops and manu-
factories, would certainly be seized, de-
stroyed, or appropriated as military spoil.
No property in the North would be spared
from the hands of the rebels, and their ra-
pine would be defended under the laws of