Year: 1864

4 6u6HGCb uOu0 VIII ulbPubG


with you) of being the first to advance it.
Can it be possible that you are serious
and earnest in proposing such a step to be
taken by our government. Or were you
merely discussing the matter as a something
which might lie done an element of pow.
er which might be used-meaning thereby
to intimidate or threaten our enemy! with
it as a weapon of offence which they may
drive us to use Can it be possible that a
Sodthern man-orator or Southern journ-
al-recogEizing the right of property in
slaves, admitting their ipfesiority in the
scale of being and also their social inferi-
ority, would recommend the passage of q
law which at one blow levels all distinc-
tons, depriVes the master of right to his
property, and eleVates the negro to an
equality with the white man 2-for, dis
guise it as you may, those who fight to"
gether in a common cause, and by success
Il with the same freedom, enjoy equal rights
and equal position, aud, in this case, are
distinguished only by color. Are we pre-
pared for this Is it for this i've are con-
tendiug2 Is it for this We would Geek the
aid of our slaves? To win their freedom
with our own independence, to establish in
our midst a half or quarter of million of
black freemen, familiar with the arts and
discipline of wRrland with large military
E kSAASAASS
of Virginia with regard to free negroes
already been forgotten? Has that fixed
subject of legislation found us solution
and remedy in the wise expedtent OF
arming aud training to arms not
only her worthless free negro popu-
lation, but is this olssss to be multiplied
tenfOld by this slave conscription. Will
ignorant, brutal free negroes be rendered
less ignorant, less thieVish, more humane
by this training of the camP2 by the cam.
paigu of three or four years2 When Pres.
| ident Davis said:-"We are not fighting
for slavery, but independence" he meant
that the question and subject of slavery
was matter to settle amongst ourselves,
aud one that admitted of no dispute; that
he intended to be independent of all for
eign Influences on this as we'll as on all
other matters; free to own slaves ii he
pleased, free to lay our own taxes; free to
| govern ourselves. He never intended to
ignore the question of slavery or to do
aught else than express the determination
to be independent in this as well as
all other matters. What has embittered
the feelings of the two sections of the old
Union2 What has gradually driven them
to the final separation What is it that
has made two nationalities of them, if it is
not slayery2 1t was slavery that caused
them to denouce US interiors; it was slave


~ that made the difference in our Con-


gressional representatives.; 1t was slavery


that made the difference in our pursuits, In


our interests, in our feelings, in our social
and political life; it is slavery which now


makes of US two people as widely antago-


nistic and diverse as any two people can
be-, and it only needs difference OF Ian.
gusge to make the Northerner and South


erner as opposite as the Frenchman and
II IRnuIfsh,non Won naV tIkha lihaFfV and


freedom of ourselves and children, the
nationality of our country, 80. are, in:
volved in this struggle" Yes, and of
this nationality you would deprive us;


for instead of being as we now are, a


nation of freemen holding slaves as our


property, you would make us ma


ton of white-men with free negroes for
our equals. Messrs. Editors, if you had


sought in the political body of the con.


federacy for some spot at which to aim


and strike one blow which should at once


deprive it oflife, you could not have found


one more vital, or have struck with more


deadly certainty than you have, done by


the advocacy of such scheme; and, If


there is any member of Congress so lost to


his sense: of the duty which he owes to his
country and the constitution which he has


sworn to defend, aud If there is one who is
not tired of the scenes of blood and ruin
and devastation which have stained and


desolated many portions of our beloved


land, but yet desires to see more and yet
a thousand fold more Of the strife and


woe and misery begotten by civil revolu-


tion, let him persuade Congress to pass


such law aud attempt to carry out such


a system, aud the things which have been
will be nothing to the things which shall


be-the revolution aud war, born and nur'
Il tured and raging in QUE midst, shall be
4 nothing when compared to that struggle
in which we are now engaged, as the wild
and desolating tornado, compard TO the
mild simmer Wiud-as the angry fury of
the ocean waves, when lashed by fierce
blasts, to the smooth surface of the noun


tain lake.


The Yankee steals my slave, and makes
soldier and free man of him to destroy


me. You take my slave, aud make sol.


dier aud free man of him to defend me-
The difference in your Intention is very
great; but is not the practice of both equal
lly pernicious to the slave aud destructive
) to the country and at the expiration Of
ten years after peace what would be the
relative difference between my negro sto.
len and freed by the Yankee and my negro
taken aud freed by you Z Would they
not be equally worthless aud vicious p
How would you distinguish between them1


How prevent the return of him whose
hand is red with his masters blood, and
his enjoyment of those privileges which
you SO lavisly bestow upon the faithful
freedman


Have you thought of the influence to be


exerted by these half or quarter million of
free negroes in the midst of slaves as you
propose to leave them at the end of the warI
These men constitute the bone and sinew
of our slaVes-the ablebOdied between
eighteen and forty Eve. They will be men
who knog the value and power Of combi-
nation; they will be well disciplined, train.
ed to the use of arms, wishfthe power and
ability of command; a. the same time they