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502 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. AUGUST, 1861 [[line across page]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] to be forearmed, and the country is now indebted perhaps to the New York [[italics]] Tribune, [[/italics]] more than to any other source, for keeping it alive to this possible danger. But the question arises as to what kind of a compromise the people of the North can be made willing to assent. I answer, judging the future by the past: they may be brought to assent to anything short of a dissolution of the Union. Thus far our Government has done nothing against the alleged compromises of the Constitution of the United States, the old bond of Union. It has taken up no hostile attitude against slavery itself, and thus has left the door of compromise wide open. This fact, and the additional fact that there are political schemers who still look southward for political support in high and influential positions, increases my apprehension of danger. Until slavery is openly attacked, this danger will continue imminent. The great and grand mistake of the conduct of the war thus far, is the attitude of our army and Government towards slavery. That attitude deprives us of the moral support of the world. It degrades the war into a war of sections, and robs it of the dignity of being a mighty effort of a great people to vanquish and destroy a huge system of cruelty and barbarism. It gives to the contest the appearance of a struggle for power, rather than a struggle for the advancement and disenthrallment of a nation. It cools the ardor of our troops, and disappoints the hopes of the friends of humanity. Now, evade and equivocate as we may, slavery is not only the cause of the beginning of this war, but slavery is the sole support of the rebel cause. It is, so to speak, the very stomach of this rebellion. This war is called a sectional war; but there is nothing in the sections, in the difference of climate or soil to produce conflicts between the two sections. It is not a quarrel between cotton and corn--between live oak and live stock. The two sections are inhabited by the same people. They speak the same language, and are naturally united. There is nothing existing between them to prevent national concord and enjoyment of the profoundest peace, but the existence of slavery. That is the fly in our pot of ointment--the disturbing force in our social system. Every body knows this, every body feels this, and yet the great mass of the people refuse to confess it, and the Government refuses to recognize it.--We talk the irrepressible conflict, and practically give the lie to our talk. We wage war against slaveholding rebels, and yet protect and augment the motive which has moved the slaveholders to rebellion. We strike at the effect, and leave the cause unharmed. Fire will not burn it out of us--water cannot wash it out of us, that this war with the slaveholders can never be brought to a desirable termination until slavery, the guilty cause of all our national troubles, has been totally and forever abolished. [[line]] PATRIOTISM OF A SLAVE.--Lieut. Spiedel, of the Connecticut First, went out this morning with a squad of men on scout duty. He halted his men in front and within a short distance of a farm house, and was walking up alone to the building, when a negro woman called out, 'Massa, house full of sogers. Don't go dar.' The Lieutenant retraced his steps for the purpose of calling up his men, but before the house could be surrounded the rebels, about twenty in number, took the alarm and fled from the rear of the building. [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] CONGRESS REFUSES TO REPEAL THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. [[line]] In the House of Representatives, July 8th, the Hon. OWEN LOVEJOY, of Illinois, offered the following resolutions: 1. Resolved, That, in the judgement of this House, it is no part of the duty of the soldiers of the United States to capture or return fugitive slaves. 2. Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the expediency of repealing the law commonly called the Fugitive Slave Law. 3. Whereas, Major Emory of the United States Army resigned his commission under circumstances showing sympathy with rebellion against the Government; therefore, Resolved, That his restoration the service was improper and unjustifiable, and that this House, in the name of the people, demand of the Executive his immediate removal. These resolutions were, on motion, laid on the table by a vote of 87 yeas to 62 nays. Among the list of members voting in favor of laying the resolutions on the table, is recorded the name of our Member, ALFRED ELY. The [[italics]] Tribune [[/italics]] correspondent, however, says that the general sentiment among Congressmen is in favor of the absolute freedom of every slave who has shouldered a musket or lifted a spade in the service of the United States. MR. LOVEJOY, however, the next day re-introduced the substance of his first resolution, declaring that in the judgement of the House it is no part of the duty of the soldiers of the U.S. to capture or return fugitive slaves. Mr. MALLORY, of Kentucky, moved to lay the resolution on the table. Mr. STRATTON (Rep., N.J.) raised the point that the resolution was in contravention of the rule adopted by the House to confine the business of the session to matters relating strictly to the prosecution of the war. The Speaker (Mr. GROW, Rep. Pa.) decided that the resolution was in order. Mr. CARLISLE, of Virginia, unsuccessfully sought to submit an amendment to Mr. LOVEJOY's resolution. Mr. STRATTON appealed from the Speaker's decision, but the appeal was laid on the table, and the Speaker was sustained. Mr. CARLISLE again unsuccessfully sought to offer an amendment. The main question was then ordered, and Mr. LOVEJOY'S resolution [[italics]] was passed by a vote of 92 against 55. [[italics]] The action of the House in refusing to repeal the odious Fugitive Slave Law, has called out the following LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH TO OWEN LOVEJOY. PETERBORO, July 12th, 1861. Hom. Owen Lovejoy, M.C.: My dear Sir: From its action on your Resolutions, I infer that Congress is not disposed to repeal the Fugitive Slave Statue. I judged after the bombardment of Sumter, that the North would put down the Rebellion in a few months. But if the patience of the Cabinet with the pro-slavery threats and deeds of some of our Commanders, and if the pro-slavery Congressional voting referred to are to be taken as reflecting the Northern mind, then did I widely misjudge. For then the North is not in earnest: and if she is not, or is not soon to be, then the Rebellion will never be overcome. Our Revolutionary Fathers were in earnest--so much so as to employ not only negroes but savages. Our enemies are in earnest. Whilst we will not so much as let the negroes help us, they make them help them. Nay, it seems that when such helpers of our foes desert to us, Congress [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] would still have us return them to our foes.--Was ever such infatuation before? Is it possible that either Congress or Cabinet is more concerned to save slavery than to crush the Rebellion? Possibly both are. Possibly the people are. Possibly slavery has debauched Congress, Cabinet and people beyond recovery. Possibly having so long succumbed to slavery, it may be as vain to try to arouse us against it, as to arouse the mass of the drunkards against drunkenness, or the mass of the gambles against gambling. When I saw the refined ladies of the South presenting canes to PRESTON BROOKS in honor of his murderous assault on CHARLES SUMNER, I feared that slavery had utterly and incurably spoiled the American heart. This fear was renewed when I saw the voting on your Resolutions. I see that Congress has since spoken against the Army's helping slavery. But it would still have the civil power help it--ay, and the Army, too, behind the civil power. Our Government is now calling for hundreds of millions more of money, and for hundreds of thousands more of soldiers. This is right, if necessary to put down the Rebellion. Let that be put down unconditionally and forever, even though at the necessity of arming us all and reducing us all to poverty. But why take a costly and weary way to put it down when a cheap and short one is at hand? Why choose crushing burdens of debt and immense human slaughter when both can be avoided?--The liberation of the slaves has obviously become one of the necessities and therefore one of the rights of the country. Let the President, in his capacity of Commander of the Army, proclaim such liberation, and the war would end in thirty days. The South, besides that she would, when her millions of chattels are transmuted into men, have quite too much to fight against, would, when her slavery is annihilated, have nothing left to fight for.--Our Army, in the event of the President's Proclamation, would be already large enough. There would then be no squeamishness about letting ten or fifteen black regiments move southward from Canada and the Northern States: and with that most attractive and efficient help, many of our white regiments might be left to 'stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.' That the President is authorized to liberate the slaves is as clear as that he may, when judging there is military necessity for it, order the destruction of all the railroads in the slave States. But it will be said that, on the return of Peace, the Government would provide payment for the railroads. So could it for the slaves also. Perhaps when the war is over, the Government will think it best to recall slavery, and re-establish it more firmly than ever. If in time of peace slavery is bearable--nay even suitable--nevertheless it does not follow that it must be maintained in a state of war. A people may find their railroads an inestimable facility in Peace, but a fatal one in War. It will also be said that the President cannot be induced to proclaim liberty to the slaves. Why not? His writing abundantly show that he hates slavery, and that he has tolerated it only through a construed necessity. Let Congress invite the Proclamation by repealing the Fugitive Slave Act; and as sure as the war continues, the Proclamation will not be long delayed. Only let Congress encourage the step, and the [[/column 3]]
