Year: 1862

officers at Beaufort, South Carolina. the follow
ing letter addressed to j. j. Elwell, Assistant
Quartermaster General. q. s. A, now on duty
at that place. In referring in this letter to the
Carolina negroes, Mr.. GNdings says:


would call your attenten 70 tpe fact that the Govern
them altogether Congress can agree upon no legislative
action in their favor and they placed precisely
IN the same condition IN which @ the people Of California
Government Nothing Is can be clearer to my mind
than that ii Is the duty Of these people at once to form
Government for themselves. Indeed they have had
Carolina according TO the Declaration Of Independence
but that Government having abolished itself and left the
loyal people without Government. there can be no
doubt 70 the right duty of these loyal people
organize the governmental of that State in such
form as TO them snail appear the most likely 70 secure
their interests or happiness Do not however UNDER
stand adopting the doctrine Of the Democratic
party by declaring that they may form their own domes
tic institutions IN their way, by ensapng other per-
sons. They may consult their interest and happ-
ness but they invade the rights Of others They
must not enslave their former masters, but they may
govern themselves.


Now SIR suggest that the greatest service which you
and other phlanthropists, public officers and teachers
can do country, mankn Is at rally these
people TO the formation Of State Government or, IL
please to reorganze the old State Government Of
South Carolina. Let day be agreed upon once let
these people elect good and loyal TO their Legsla
ture. When elected, let them and authorize
convention 10 amend the Constitution. Let free Con-
4
gress will again convene 1T have free and loyal
State Government in full operation Just We had in
California This will inspire the emancipated people TO
obey their laws, educate children acquire
knowledge and become useful IL will silence that
slant inquiry OF the conservatives, what will you do with
them when free These people remain where they
60 supply with cotton. Every European nation
demands that they shall exercise their rights men,
shall cultivate the soil and supply the people of other
countries with its products thus contributing to the
wealth. tie comfort and the elevation Of the human
family, while all Christian nations will protest against


the removal of these from their homes from the land Of
their birth, their childhood and youth-from the place
where they will be most useful to themselves and to
mankind.


| Thus, side by side with my friends, the repre-
sentatives of the people and the State of Indiana
in the Congress of the nation, would sit the loy-
al blacks of South Carolina regulating your con-
duct by law, hut taking to shape their legs-
lation as not to allow you to form your r"oSn do
mestic Institutions in your own way"
People of Indiana, the power is with you and
your brethren of the loyal States 10 see that this
war is waged for the purposes declared in the Ju-
ly resolution. Will you at the ballot box make
good the declarations cf that resolution! ICries
of 1--WE will ''"we will


Men who place the success OF party above the
integrity and peace of the country ought not to be
entrusted by the people with any portion of gov
ernmental power Before the war began when
patriots everywhere were striving avert il, when
good men were exerting all their energies OF mind
and body to prevent it, a letter which will pres
emily read you, was written by gentleman
and then representing sovereign State in the
Senate and at this time member of the Com
mittee on the Conduct OF the War.


You will remember that at the instance of my
State before she entered upon the wickedness and
madness OF secession, while she still remembered
the ,5OO, ,OOO Northern men, good and true, who
voted against the Republican party at the last
Presidential election, convention or conference
was assembled at Washington and called the
Peace Congress. While this Congress was in
session and while good men we're exerting
themselves to save us from the caiamities
upon Us, and when it was hoped their efforts
might save the country from the wasting horrors
of civil war, then and there, at that hour, in
that city of Washington, the following letter
written to Governor of one of the States Of this
Union, written, as it states at the request of
State upon whose soil was Matched this treasona-
bic doctrine of secession, whose now Governor in
conformity to this doctrine Of seeesssn and the
necessary result of it. proclaimed in 1860 that
claws were not made to be forced against a COM
munity but, only against exceptional, individual,
transgreSsors At the instance of a State which
| twenty years and more ago convulsed the entire
land, because, she asserted, the right of peti-
tion was violated by the manner petition OF her
citizens praying for adissolution of the Union was
received But to the letter. L read it:
WASHINGTON February IL, 1861.


Ny DEAR GovERNoR;-Gev. Bingham and myself tele-
graphed you Saturday. the request Of Massachusetts
and New York, send delegates the Peace Compro
mise Congress. They admit that right and they
wrong that Republican State should have dele
gates but they are here and can't get away Ohio Ind
Rhode Island cavng in and there is doubt
OF Illinois; and they beg for Gods sake TO come
to their rescue and the Republican party from
ture.


hope you will send stiff-bscked men or none. The
whole thing was gotten up against my judgment and ad
vice. and will end in thin smoke Still hope, as mat
ter of courtesy to erng brethren that you will send


- ; Z. CHANDLER.
His Excellency, AUSTIN BLAIR


p. 5. Some of the manufacturing States think that


fight would be awful Without little blood letting this
Union would not be worth curse


AS | read this letter. it says, that unless the
Republican party is saved from rupture. the onion
lis not worth curse, and to save the Republican
party there must be little blood-letting. A
whole people must be involved in civil war, and
blood letting must follow, to save patty.
| 1t not the Constitution and the preservation
of the Union under ii that is to be saved from
rupture.


Fellow citizens, the day when / was party
man-but never did / place the interests OF my
party above the peace and quiet of my country
| merely recognized party as means by which
| the interests of my country were to be promoted.
l know, and have known since the commence
/ mcht vi tllS nO pdfty Dut Tue party VI
the Union, and no cause but the cause of my
country. This Republican party in Congress has
| kept up its distinct party organization, and has
not failed to resort to the nightly caucus to car
ry its measures. | feel it TO be duty to nv
countrymen to warn them of this, in the hope
that hereafter the partisan may give way to the
patriot.


And now, when all the patriot holds dear
/ when the Government he has been taughtto ven
! and iS ano1 md q
sion of their public acts proposed, l hear that
there are some who would prevent it BY cries of
TRAITOR" and threats of Fort Warren. Years
ago, the great Northern statesman gave utterance
| to the following sentiments, which | commend to
you:


Important as / deem it to discuss, on all
| proper occasions the policy of the measures at
present pursued, it is still more important to main
tain the right of such discussion in its full and
just extent. Sentiments lately sprung up, and
now growing popular render it necessary TO be
explicit on this point. 1t is the ancient and con-
stitutional right of this people to canvass public
measures and the merits. of public men. 1t is a
homebred right, fireside privilege. lt has ever
been enjoyed in every house, cottage and cabin
in the nation. 1t is not to be drawn into contro-
versy. 1t is as undoubted the right of breath
ing the air and walking On the earth. Belonging
to private life a right, it belongs to public life
as duty: and it is the last duty which those
whose representative l am Shall find me to aban-
don This high constitutional privilege / shall
defend and exercise within this House, and with
out this House, and in all places, ia time Of icdr,
in time of peace, and. at all times. Living, |
will assert it-dying, will assert it; and should
leave no other legacy to my children, by the
blessing of God. will leave them the inherit
ance of free principles, and the example of a
manly, independent and constitutional defense of
them"