The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-11-02
31olitiral.
Based on Ealsehood.

The whole radical scheme of reconstruction
s must and ought to fail because it is based on
a stupendous falschood. The plea is, that the
whites of the south ought to be subjected to
negro domination, because the whites were
rebels and trait Ors, while the negroes were all
loyal. "Let the south be governed by loyal
men and let traitors take back seats say they.
The statement is viainously false Not one.
fourth of the negro population of the south
gave the remotest sign during the rebellion Of
greater attachment to the government at
Washington rather than to that at Richmond,
The mass Of negroes remained ut home work
inc faithfully on the plantations supplying the
sinews Of war while their masters werc in the
tended field; or thcy drove the teams, dug the
trenches and did all the other hard work for
the conlclcracy with a hoartiness and zeal in
the cause equal to their masters, and this when
there was not a single confederate musket in
the way Of their passage in body across the
Union lines, and when earnestly urged and
invited to do so. Indeed the proof is con-
elusive and overwhelming, that the mass of
the southern negroes were, during the whole
war. as sincerely and heartily rebels, as ever
their masters were. The negroes who volun-
tarily escaped into the Union lines were the
exception, not the rule; while the greater
mass of those who were found within the
Union lines got there either by force of cir
cumstanccs, or were attracted by the 'rations"
northern munifccnce had in readiness for
them. On this head we have some conclusive
evidence furnished by Col. IIalpne, Gen
Hunters chief Of staff during the war in
South Carolina
For fifteen months of the late war the write
was Adjutant General and Chief of Staff of the
Southern Department, embracing South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida, and during that time all
negroes who came within our lines were immedi-
ately brought before him to be examined as TO
the position or strength of the enemy, the state
OF public feeling in the South, and the abundance
or scarcity of supplies. These negroes, we now
state after full consideration did not average five
each week-Inen, women and pccanninies in
cluded AMI this, although there were no rebel
forces u iold them in check on the other side of
our lines, and although the whole coast-line of
creeks, bayous and swamps-was thickly stud
ded with boats canoes, and dug-outs, in which
il they had been so minded, the blacks could
have crossed over
On the islands of Port Royal. Edisto, st.
Helena, Hilton Head, st. Simons, Lady's and
Paris Islands, the Hunting Islands and so forth,
they would hayebeen welcomed by loyal soldiers,
fighting the last two and half years of the war,
avowedly and openly for the universal emanci-
NJ tho ll.ck md IN,
not for want of invitation or knowledge that they
refused to come. There were employed, at head
quarters Of the department, secret service corps
of black spies, who continually crossed tver to
the main land, offering rations, liberty, land and
education to all such negroes as would come over
but they would not come. They, therefore,
deliberately remained on their various planta-
tons, helping the enemy, helping the rebellion :;
and they were, therefore, Just as bad rebels as
the whites of the South, only more mean and
cowardly. 1t is against giving these black ex-
rebels--ignorant and besotted-political power
over the white ex-rebels, educated and intelligent
that we now protest and the vote of Ohio, in
which the Colored Citizen is published, gives evil
dence that the Radicals of Ohio have not receiv.
ed our words OF warning with deafness.
One fact more When the Congress of the
United States passed law drafting so many
hundred thousand white citizens into the mill
tary service of the Union-Major General David
Hunter, finding himself unable to fill his color.
ed regiments with volunteers, issued an order
through the writer of this article, drafting into
the military service of the Union. all able-bodied
blacks who We're then employed as laborers in
the Qiartermaster Commissary and other nom
combatant departments of the old Tenth Army
Corps. What was the result At once the able
bodied blacks commenced general skedaddle
from the Sea Islands held by loyal soldiers, rush
ing back into slavery rather than take service
with arms against the rebellion; and, on the Sec
ond or third day after the issuance of that draft
ing,.order, solemn delegation, headed by Govern
or Rufus Saxton and embracing nearly all the
white and black brothers Of "Gjdeous Baud" came
down in force upon Department Headquarters,
fierce in demanding tie revocation of thut order,
and specifically alleging that, OF their own lnow-
edge, NEARLY all the ab!e-bo,lied blacks of the
Sea Islands would rather return to slavery on
the mainland than remain within our lines as
soldiers" For this we refer to General Hunter.