Viewing page 13 of 16

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

SEPTEMBER, 1861.  DOUGLASS'S MONTHLY.  525

peaceful citizens in a house or field, nor will you in any way encourage such servants to leave the lawful service of their masters.— Nor will you, except in cases where the public good may seem to require it, present the voluntary return of any fugitive to the service from which he may have escaped.

I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.

To Maj. Gen. Butler, Commanding Department of Virginia, at Fortress Monroe.

THE WAR, WASHINGTON, AND THE BLACK WARRIORS.

We find the following communication in the New York Tribune, written by the Rev. H. T. Cheever, of Jewett City, Conn.:

SIR:— The pertinent question of your correspondent, 'M. T. V.,' On Saturday, why, while the South are employing slaves and Indian sharpshooters in their savage warfare for slavery against the north, we may not enlist the sympathy and aid of our free colored population on the side of freedom, is eminently suggestive.  Is it right, he asks, to set aside the services of so many stout and brave fellows, because God has tinged their skin with a shade darker than ours?

In the Revolutionary War, who does not remember with what power it was argued, on the floor of the British Parliament, that it was right to use all the agencies 'which God and nature had put in our power.'  And, in an age eminent for its humanity, it was no derogation to British philanthropy to employ the services of Indian allies and refugees from slavery.

The use to which Washington himself wisely put the trusty colored men, of whom there were not a few in the armies of the Revolution, is well illustrated in fact which I have from a Doctor of Divinity in New London, and which has never yet, I believe, in this shape, been put in print.  There was an important point at one of the beleaguered fortresses from which the sentinels had been taken off night after night.  At length Washington himself set a trusty colored man on guard, with the charge to be vigilant, and to hail every moving thing with the challenge, 'Who goes there?' three times, and then instantly to fire, or his own life would probably pay the forfeit.

The shrewd son of Africa seriously took his post, with steady hand and watchful eye, and energy roused to its utmost tension, pacing to and fro his solitary beat till the still hour after midnight.  Meanwhile, revolving the danger, he settled in his mind the course to be taken to save his own life, to discover the enemy, and to render a service to Washington and his country, while he should keep within the exact letter of his instructions as a sentinel to challenge, 'Who goes there?' three times.  Suddenly his quick ear detected a rustle in the darkness before him, and presently his sharp eye discovered dimly something creeping on the ground.  Instantly leveling his musket he called out lustily, 'Who go dere tree time?' and let fly, without the interval of a second.  It was enough.  The Indian scout was shot just as his finger was put upon his own trigger to make away with the faithful sentinel before he should have time to repeat the challenge, and the post was saved.

It were needless to say how generously Washington rewarded this dusky representative of a docile race, in regard to which it has been left for our day to make the grand discovery and flaunted to the world from our highest judicial tribune, through our hoary-headed Chief Justice, that the black man has no rights which white men are bound to respect.

Now, who does not ask what should prevent our beleaguered nation, in the hour of its peril, from availing itself in this wicked pro-slavery war, of the invaluable services of thousands of such men as this, like the late black hero Tillman of the schooner Waring?  Men, shrewd, wakeful, enduring, fertile in resources, strong of will, brave in heart, bristling with brawn—men, panting to serve their country, and to strike effectively at slavery at one and the same time—men, who, if cordially invited and enrolled under our starry standard, and led into the South, would make the most effective arm of the public service which we can possibly command.

Your correspondent, 'M. T. V.,' is at a loss to express his wonder that some good people of the North are found declaring that slavery has nothing to do with this war, and that it is simply a question of Government or no Government; and he very naturally exclaims, 'Slavery nothing to do with it!  Perhaps a just God will ere long teach our people that slavery has all to do with it.'  How much better that we should be taught it now, and that we should practically act upon it before it is too late!

A very vigorous writer in the Anti Slavery Standard forcibly remarks: 'That at length the United States will be forced to strike at the rebellion by annihilating the cause of the rebellion, we firmly believe. But it will make the greatest difference in the future of the country whether this is done at first or at last—whether it is done deliberately in our strength and vigor or desperately in our ruin and defeat.  In the first case we shall present the spectacle of the nation long bound to sin by deeds of others which it feared to repudiate; but when at length a release was given, which every despotism in Europe must acknowledge, springing at once to health and liberty.  In the other case, we should resemble some gray-haired reveller, so wedded to vice that he cannot abandon it, although it has ceased to be profitable or attractive, but who waits for utter physical inability before he can sham a virtue which is the contempt and hissing of men.'

Oh! that we knew to-day of our visitation and were wise to see and to seize the providential juncture which of the Supreme Ruler of Nations has offered us, to proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.  May God of His mercy grant that our nation shall not be left—by failing to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God at the critical moment—to become a hissing and a by-word to other people and to other ages, like the stiff-necked Jews!  Let the gentle Cowper read to us their fate and our own likewise, if we will have righteousness:

'Peeled, scattered and exterminated thus,
The last of nations now, though once the first;
They warn and teach the proudest, would they learn—
Keep justice or meet judgment in your turn.'

A CANADIAN OPINION.— The Toronto Globe closes an article on the late defeat of the Federal army at Bull Run in the following words:

'We should have thought the stern lesson given at Bull Run would have convinced Mr. Lincoln that this rebellion is not to be suppressed by appealing in any way whatever to the reason of the men in arms against the Government.  The fact that the Washington Cabinet hesitates to take decisive measures for the manumission of the slaves, is to them a confession of weakness.  They cannot see it in any other light.  They cannot understand how an enemy with whom they are waging a most deadly war, should hesitate about employing the most efficient means to crush them.  Whether they will or not, despite the efforts of politicians, and despite the much lauded Constitution too, the war is resolving itself surely into a contest for the suppression of slavery.  To that complexion it must come.  And the sooner the fact is recognized, the sooner will an end be put to the deplorable contest now being waged.'

—The delivery of fugitive slaves by army officers is being discussed, and a petition has been in circulation in Lynn, Mass. addressed to Hon. J. B. Alley, asking the removal of Col. Cowden for delivering a fugitive to his master.

LET US HEAR NO MORE OF SENDING BACK THE SLAVE.

Stand up in the Capital, and proclaim
To wondering nations the fearful game
Which the soldier's play for us, North and South,
At the bayonet's point and the cannon's mouth—
Count up the stakes, and reckon the chances,
Say as each bristling column advances,
'So we contend against Slavery,
Lying and cheating and knavery'—
And then send back the slave.

North, East, and West have poured out their treasures—
Doubled their tithes, and heaped up their measures—
Called to the strong men, 'Now arm for the fight,
Crush the proud traitor, and strike for the Right!'
Into the ranks slip young men and bold men,
Into the ranks step wise men and old men—
And the mothers kiss and caress them,
And the maidens cheer them and bless them
And you send back the slave.

'Forward!' they march at the President's call
Through Baltimore's streets to the Capitol.
'Forward!' where foes are entrenched in their might.
(Now God be with them and favor the Right!)
And they see the hard battle before them,
And they think of the mothers who bore them,
And the maidens' cheers and flatteries—
March up to the murderous batteries—
While you send back the slave.

Weary and thirsty, they strike for the Right—
New men, but true men, they gallantly fight,
Bravely resisting, they stand by their flags
Till their gay colors are torn into rags.
They are falling, the young men and bold men,
They are falling, the wise men and old men—
And the cannon-ball leaps and whistles,
And cuts down the shamrocks and thistles—
And you send back the slave.

Ay, weep for the soldiers who lie there dead,
And weep for the soldiers who turned and fled.
Send to the Northland, and gather a host,
Fill up the places of those you have lost.
Cry to the nations, 'Come now and aid us
Crush out the wrong for which you upbraid us.'
Then call upon God for assistance
For strength in your holy resistance—
And then send back the slave.

My countrymen, can you not understand
'Tis a 'holy war' which the Lord hath planned;
That Justice and Vengeance shall make you strong
When you throw in the scales the pond'rous WRONG?
They have hated you, scorned you, scouted you,
And now from the field they have routed you,
While you with clinging humility
Kiss their soft hands in servility—
And you send back the slave.
[Independent.


IMPRESSMENT OF FREE NEGROES.— The Cincinnati Gazette learns from free colored men arrived in that city from Nashville, Tenn., that the whites in that city have commenced the impressment of black men into the Army.— Gov. Harris authorized the recruiting officers to bring to their aid the police and jailors, and seize any they wanted, and lodge them in jail until they were ready to take them to the camp.  Many were taken in the midst of their business and huddled into jail, without allowing them any chance to arrange their business, and sent off to camp next day.  As many as could, made their escape from the city, into Kentucky, and eight or ten have reached Cincinnati.

THE CONFISCATION BILL.— The confiscation bill passed by Congress provides that whenever the owner of a slave employs him in the rebel service—whether in working upon entrenchments, or in carrying arms—the 'chattel' shall be forfeited.  This agrees with Gen. Butler's idea that the slave employed in the rebel service is properly a 'contraband' article.

—Private letters from Gen. Fremont speak of the great assistance which his wife, 'Jessie,' is rendering him in this most serious contest.— She acts as his private secretary, writing many of his most important business letters, and taking notes of his conversation with officers on matters of moment.

Transcription Notes:
Reviewed - removed unnecessary descriptions of format - see Instructions... & fixed a couple of typos (x2)