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DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.   517


OUR ARMY STILL SLAVE-CATCHING 

When Congress passed Mr. LOVEJOY'S excellent resolution declaring it no part of the business of our army to catch and return run away slaves to their masters, we fondly hoped that we should hereafter hear no more of such means and scandalous transactions;  but the fact is far otherwise. General BANKS of Massachusetts seems to have taken up the infamous business of slave-catching, just about where General BUTLER, of the same State but of different politics, left it off.  Every little while we have a telegrams like the following, which reach[[d?]] us this day, (August 22) showing that the disgraceful business still goes on, and that whatever the people of the North mean by giving their lives and fortunes to this war, the Government means that no harm shall come to slavery:

'By order of the Secretary of War, a fugitive slave was yesterday arrested near Rockville, and surrendered to his owner.  The slave was running about camp until he was pursued, when he ran into the country.'

It makes the faces of the Northern men blush, and their blood boil, to see, at such time as this is, the noble troops who have rushed forth to peril every thing they have under heaven to put down the slaveholding rebellion, employed in the loathsome and shocking business of hunting down negroes for no other crime than seeking their freedom.  Even in time of peace, nobody pretends that the army has anything to do with this business of our Christian Republic, unless called upon to do so by judicial decision;  but never until now has it been thought to be the duty of the army to seize any body pointed out as the slave of any other, and thus hand him over to the tender mercies of slavery.  There is nothing either in the Constitution or in the custom of the country to justify this base and hateful business ; and the continuance of it by our Secretary of War and the Generals acting under him, shows their heartlessness and their utter contempt for the resolution passed by Congress, and for the anti-slavery sentiment of the North.

This mode of reducing men to slavery is even worse than that of the Fugitive Slave Bill.  That does propose a trial, or at least the mockery of a trial, but according to this military method, any scoundrel may pass through the Federal camp and point out a man, call him his property, pay for him the price of loyalty, when our Generals will put him in possession of his victim.  He does not even, from all that appears, have to prove property, but only his loyalty.  This does the work, and makes him the owner of the bones and muscles of his fellow-man.  No doubt some care is taken to see that no free person, not a slave before, is thus consigned to slavery;  but most clearly it is impossible in the circumstances to prevent this slave-claiming from reaching this enormity.  The whole thing is conducted upon the presumption that every colored man is a slave, and every loyal slave claimant is an honest man.  Both presumptions are entirely false. 

There are in the States of Maryland ninety thousand free colored people, many of them freed for conscience sake by their owners.— The liberty of this class is seriously endangered by this military slave-catching.  It is said that there is policy in war ; but is there any wise policy in slave-catching?  Never did a Government need trust-worthy friends more than our's.  Our army is in an enemy's country, open where they are not overpowered, and concealed where they are overawed by superior force.  The slaves of the most loyal master is more loyal than he.  They are the natural friends of the Government and of the army.  How foolish, as well as wicked, is it then to alienate them from our army, by teaching them that we are not only not liberators, but are enslavers of men?

Then too, many of the troops have been bred to the belief that slave-catching is a crime against human nature, and revolt at being made parties to such crimes.  Above all, they know that this war in which they are sacrificing time, money and blood, is a war forced upon the country by slavery, and it must grate harshly upon every nerve to be called upon to assist in strengthening the horrid system in any way.  The whole business is unwise, disgraceful, wicked and unconstitutional, and must benumb the national feeling unless discontinued at once.  If there is any one thing more manifest in the Constitution than another, it is that the men who made it purposely refused to recognize in it the right of property in man.  They made that Constitution for a free age, a free country, and a free people, and never intended that it should be used to hunt or hold slaves.  There is no obligation whatever resting upon the army to deliver up any body, owing service or not, to any one claiming him as a slave, for the Constitution knows no man as a slave.  But the fact is, as we have said elsewhere, our Government is still deluded with the idea of conquering by conciliation, and are for healing the wounds of the Union by new drafts upon the negro's blood.


PRIZE TRACT.— The Church Anti-Slavery Society has re-issued its offer of a prize of $100 for an acceptable tract, which is not to exceed twenty-four pages, on the question— 'How shall Christians and Christian Churches best absolve themselves from all responsible connection with slavery?'  This prize was offered last year, but the number of competitors was few, and the efforts were not deemed worthy of popular circulation.  The time is now extended to January 1, 1862.  Manuscripts are to be sent to either of the following Committee on adjudication: The Rev. J.C. Webster, Hopkinton, Mass.;  Deacon J. Washburn, Worcester, Mass.;  the Rev. Samuel Souther, Worcester, Mass.


DONATIONS.— Rev. J.W. LOGUEN, of Syracuse, wishes us to acknowledge the following donations received by him for the benefit of fugitives:— From the Birmingham Negro's Friend Society, £5;  from the Dalkeith L.A.S Society, £5 10s.

We also beg leave to acknowledge the following:

Edinburgh A. S. Society - £5 0 0
Dalkeith A. S. Society - 5 10 0
Sheffield A. S. Society - 6 0 0 
Bradford A. S. Society - 2 10 0
Subscriptions - 6 0 0


— The privateer schooner Petrel has been sunk by the frigate St. Lawrence.  The pirates took the St. L. to be a merchantman, and fired several shots at her, when the frigate opened a broadside, which cut the Petrel completely in two, and she went down in a few minutes, with five of her guilty crew.  The rest of the crew were picked out of the water, and brought in irons to Philadelphia.



OUR SOLDIERS AND 'CONTRABANDS.'

AN INCIDENT IN THE MASSACHUSETTS SEVENTH.

The following incident in the experience of the Massachusetts Seventh Regiment as it passed through Baltimore, is related by a corespondent:— 'A fine looking colored man, about 22 years of age, liking the looks of the Massachusetts 7th as it passed, left his master, followed us to Washington, and into camp.  His master came to the city, and tracing him to our camp, called upon Col. Couch to deliver him up.  The Colonel told him that if the slave was willing to go, and the men would give him up, he would submit.  The slave consented to see his master, and went with him outside the guard.  Here the master tried to arrest him, knowing he was outside our camp ; but the slave started back on the run, his master after him.  The guard opened to the right and left, and let the slave pass, but as the owner came up, they charged bayonets.  He raved and stormed all to no purpose, and threatened if we ever came to Baltimore, to remember us.  The guard replied they should like to go to Baltimore and clear up all the rebels, adding the regiment would do it in a few hours ; and I believe they could, for a more determined company of men could not be found. 

A SLAVE-CATCHER GETS BADLY POUNDED.

Some time ago, a fugitive slave from Missouri was arrested near Mound City by a man named Duvall, with whom he started for Cairo.  When near there, he was set upon by a couple of colored sympathizers, his gun taken from him, and himself badly pounded, the three negroes then pushing off for the swamp.  Duvall managed to get into town, where he now lies.  The fugitives were pursued by a party of soldiers, who fired upon them, wounding two of the negroes.  The slave was caught and brought to the Cairo jail, where he now is, 'subject to order.' 

PRACTICAL JOKE OF A FIRE ZOUAVE.

The following incident is told one of the Fire Zouaves:— An F.F.V., driven in his carriage by his 'servant,' rode up, when Zoo-zoo stepped into the rode, holding his bayonet in such a way to threaten horse, negro and white man at one charge, and roared out, 'tickets.'  Mr. V. turned up his lip, set down his brows, and by other gestures indicated his contempt for such mud-sills as the soldier before him, ending by handing his pass over to the slave, and motioning him to get out and show it to Zoo-zoo.  'All right,' said the latter, glancing at it, 'move on'—accompanying the remark with a jerk at the coat collar of the colored man, which set him spinning several paces down the road.  'Now, sir, what do you want?' addressing the astonished white man.  White man had by this time reco vered his tongue:  'Want! I want to go on, of course.  That was my pass.' 'Can't help it,' replied Zoo; 'it says pass the bearer, and the bearer is already passed.  You can't get two men through this picket on one man's pass.'  Mr. V. reflected a moment, glanced at the bayonet in front of him, and then called out to his black men to come back.  Sambo approached cautiously, but fell back in confusion when the musket was brandished towards his own breast.  'Where's your pass, sirrah?' asked Zoo-zoo.  'Here massa,' said the chattel, presenting the same one he had received from his master in the carriage.  'Won't do,' replied the holder of the bayonet.  'That passes you to Fairfax; can't get any one from Fairfax on that ticket.  Move on.'  A stamp of the foot sent Sambo down the road at a hand gallop.  'Now, sir, if you stay here any longer, I shall take you under arrest to headquarters,' he continued.  Mr. V. grabbed up his lines, wheeled around and went off at the best trot his horses could manage over the 'sacred soil.'  Whether Sambo ever hunted his master up is not known.

—Walter Norris, son of the late ex-Senator Norris of New Hampshire, was killed at Bull Run.  He was a member of the Beauregard Rifles, and for many years a clerk in the Post Office Department, and resigned his place to enter the rebel army.
 


  

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