Year: 1864

A new Scheme to Abotitaonize the South.


1t is painful to reflect how soon the landmarks
Of great principles lost amid the throes Of revo
luton. For forty years the people Of the South
lave been fercely battling against the mad schemes
Of the aboitionsts to destroy the institution OF do
mestic slavery. We have uniformly contended thae
negroes were property and that slavery was local
institution with which no power under the sun
could interfere save the sovereign States themselves
in their individual capacity. For this great prne'
pie of the right of the States to regulate their do
mestic institutions to suit themselves, we went to
war with the North and for nearly four years have
maintained the dreadful conflict with unexampled
success. Just at the moment when ali the gigantic
schemes Of the enemy to subjugate US have failed
when Grant is painting for breath to renew . con-
test in which he has besn completely baff1ed, and
Sherman IS toiling to escape from the coils of Hood,
which threaten the destruction Of his army-just at
the auspicious moment when the bright and glori-
Gus day Of independence is about to break upon US
with the splendor of an unclouded sun-just such
moment it is gravely proposed by respectable !
though chimerical journals in the South to ignore
all Of our past cardinal principles, surrender the
great question for which we went to war, and do
for ourselves precisely what Lincoln and the abo
litienists proposed to do for US without war-abOt
ish slaueyyl


This is the naked proposition Of those who advo
cate the conscrption Of our slaves soldiers They
propose to conscrpt cell the able bodied negroes of
the country, between the ages of 18 and 45 respec
lively, arm and equip them and put them in the
field as soldiers, along with our white men. As an
inducement to make these negroes faithful to our
cause, they are to be given their freedom and per-
Mitted to live amongst us after the war as feemen
The result of such proposition, if successful can
not be mistaken by blind man or an idiot 1t
will convert the sovereign States of the Confeder
acy into free negro colonies, with all the social and
political evils which attend the amalgamation of nd.
verse races Ii our negro men are made free, then
Justice and sound policy would require that their
wives and children should be permitted to enjoy
freedom along with their husbands and fathers, on
the principles announced by the Richmond Enqui.
rer, "that they Who fight for freedom, deserve to
be freemen." Whether this be Just or not it is
very certain that slaves once made freemen, and
trained In the skill of arms and the hardships of
the camp and the dangers of the battle. field, would
not only insist on their own freedom, but on the
freedom Of their entire race Nay, more They
would insist, and have the right to irsist at the
point Of the bayonet upon enjoying all the CIVIL So
cal and political rights enjoyed by their former
masters, on the ground that they had suffered equal
y the dangers and responsibilities of the struggle
The horrible result would be either the amalsana.
ton Of the black and the white races in the South
with all its attendant shame and ruin, or dreadful
civil war of determination between the white men
and the blackl Can such consequences be contern.
plated by the Southern mind without shudder for
the result2 And yet this is the certain end to
which it is now proposed to educate our slaves for
We hold it to be impossible that escape these
caamitious consequences with half million of
negroes trained to the of arms and suddenly el.
evated to the rights and notions of freemen.


Look at the question in another point of view.
If our slaves made soldiers then they will have
to be governed by the same military laws which
govern the white men, because We have only one
military code. They will, therefore, be ipso .facto
the equal of their masters, entitled to the same
rights and subject only to the same punshmerts.-,
The insOlence of our former slaves would have to
be endured, or, if chastised they would have the
right and the force to chastise back agsin-thus
destroying the first principle Of negro subordina-
tion, which is the life of the institution of the
South.


But supposing the question to be fraught with
none of these terrible social and political evils
perfectly clear to our mind that armed negroes
would be source Of perpetual danger and weak.
ness to the South in this struggle, instead of
strength. When We shall have armed them what
security have we that they will not desert us and
join the enemy in bodyP Reasoning from all ma.
tural principles and from observation they would
certainly do So 1t would be folly for them to fight
for their profsEed liberty, when by simply walking
into the camps of the enemy, they would be ipso
taeto free by Lineolns proclamation. Place our ne.
III
render every position which they might be placed
to defend for it is idle to talk to sensible men about
the fidelity of slaves. That is subject which will
do to amuse the brains of romancers but the expe.
rience of this war as well the teaching Of com.
mon sense, have shown that not one negro IN .
thousand will refuse to accept the proffered boon
! of freedom rendered by the Yankees when he can
do so with impunity. To arm the slaves is to arm
! powerful foe in our own midstl


Nor is this all When we cOnscriDt all tho ohio
bodied negroes, who to cultivate our fields and
support our armiess Put the white men and ne.
groes all in the field and what will follow but gen.
eral starvation! With the negro in the field and
in the trenches he is powerful and indispensable
auxiliary to our cause. This is the capacity in
which Lincoln fears the power of slavery Five
thousand negroes with the spade have made Rich
mond invulnerable to all the powerful and ingenious
assaults of the enemy. The same number have
enabled Charleston to Withstand the most terrible
and prolonged siege Of modern warfare. With the
spade and the hoe, our slaves are more powerful
than an army with banners but with arms in their


hands, they at once become source of fearful weak
ness and inevitable destruction.


We caution the people and the press in all sol
emnity against eountenancing this new and mad
scheme of abolition-ths scheme to convert the
Southern States into free negro coonies-to make


the slave the equal of the white man-to rob the


master of his rlghtful property-to emancpate the


slaves against positive State ensctments-to destroy


all hope of civil liberty in the South, and make to


Lincoln and the world the humiliating confession


that we are incapable of defending our property OF


our rfreedom.-LynchburgR Republican


Gov. BRowN ON RECONSTRUCTION correspond


ent writes the Columbus Enquirer from Lumpkin


Ga, that it having been reported there that Gov.


Brown was In favor of reconstructing the old gov


ernment, provided We could get our rights, etc. in


him on the subject and received the following in


reply, which is explicit enough:


"ExEcur1vE DEPARTMENT.. !


Mledgeville, Ga, Sept 10, 1854