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DECEMBER, 1861.      DOUGLASS MONTHLY.      565
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numerous than they were when we left St. Louis; and I have not heard as yet of Gen. Fremont engaging in the business of slave catching.——Yesterday morning, a secessionist came into our camp, and claimed a negro who is acting as body servant to Col. Owen Lovejoy of the staff, which was about as near the climax of absurdity as it is possible to arrive.  Colonel Lovejoy quietly advised him to leave the camp by the shortest possible road——and the gentleman left!  'I would return the slave certainly,' remarked Colonel afterward, 'if I found any man who owned him.'

A slave named Peter——an active and intelligent man, though black as Erebus——arrived here yesterday from the rebel army, after a somewhat peculiar experience.  Peter is the joint property of Capt. Vaughan, a rebel in Price's army, and Capt. Bigby, a staunch Union citizen of this town.  When Vaughan was leaving for the South, two weeks ago, he insisted on taking his half of the chattel Peter along with him as a body servant.——Capt. Bigby, of course, objected; but this Vaughan had the power on his side, and carried away the negro.  Peter, however, being, like all the slaves, on the Union side, found means to send to Capt. Bigby that he would embrace the first opportunity to run away and return to him; and surely enough, at noon yesterday, he was back again, with a horse, which he had ridden without saddle, bridle, blanket, or spur——guiding him by rope halter——all the way from Price's camp at Neosho, more than eighty miles distant, since dusk on the previous evening!  It would be difficult to find a match for this in all the instances of hard riding under adverse circumstances.

JOHN COCHRANE'S POSITION.

On the occasion of Col. Cochrane's regiment receiving their new uniforms, the gallant Colonel delivered an address to his soldiers, in the presence of Secretary Cameron and other distinguished gentlemen.  The most important point in his argument was in relation to the treatment of slaves during the present contest.  He said we should use every means in our power to subdue the rebellion; that we should take their cotton and sell it, or burn it, as might be best; seize their arms and munitions of war; confiscate their property, and when necessary, take their lives, and, as their slaves were used as an element of strength against us, we should not hesitate to take them, and, if necessary, to place arms in their hands that they might assist in establishing the rights of a common humanity.  This sentiment was cheered by the soldiers with unbounded enthusiasm.  At the close of the address, they loudly called upon Secretary Cameron, who stepped forward and said:

SOLDIERS:——It is too late for me to make you a speech to-night, but I will say that I heartily approve every sentiment uttered by your noble commander.  The doctrines which he has laid down I approve as if they were my own words.  They are my sentiments——sentiments which will not only lead you to victory, but which will in the end reconstruct this our glorious Federal Constitution.  It is idle to talk about treating with these rebels upon their own terms.  We must meet them as our enemies, treat them as enemies, and punish them as enemies, until they shall learn to behave themselves.  Every means which God has placed in our hands it is our duty to use for the purpose of protecting ourselves——I am glad of the opportunity to say here, what I have already said elsewhere, in these few words, that I approve the doctrines this evening enunciated by Col. Cochrane.  (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

GEO. BANCROFT ON RETURNING SLAVES.

At a recent meeting held in New York City to discuss the method and means of raising aid for the suffering Union men in North Carolina, Geo. Bancroft, the historian, 
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made a speech, from which we quote the following extract:

Listen to the words that come to you from the tomb of Andrew Jackson: 'The Union must be preserved at all hazards.'  (Great cheering.)  I do not understand turning a soldier of the United States into a constable to keep the peace on the plantations of the secessionists.  (Enthusiastic and prolonged applause.  'Give it to them.')  It is not the part of strength to return slaves; it is not the part of a brave man to make himself a police officer of that sort.  (Cheers.)  It is not the part of a soldier who fights under the flag of the revolution.  It is not worthy of a man of honor.  It is not consistent with the duty of a commanding officer in the service of the people of the United States.  We send the army into the South to maintain the Union, to restore the validity of the Constitution; let him begin by placing the Constitution in power, by respecting it and upholding it.

COL. JENNISON'S POSITION.

The Missouri correspondent of the Boston Traveller gives the following account of the arrival of John Brown, Jr.'s company of volunteers at Kansas City, Nov. 14th, and a short speech from Col. Jennison delivered on the occasion:

Capt. John Brown, Jr.'s company of Mounted Riflemen joined the command to-day.——They numbered 60 men, and were under command of Lieuts. Bostwick and George H. Hoyt (formerly of the Suffolk Bar.)  Captain Brown is recruiting, and will be here soon.——As they marched up Main street, they sung the "John Brown" song and splendid style, and with great effect.

It was a moment in my life worth being proud of when, later in the evening, the same lyric was sung in front of the Colonel's tent, and our gallant leader came out and responded to the enthusiastic cheers of the new comers.  Colonel Jennison gave his programme, in the course of which he said:

"Old John Brown when living was the only man he took stock in, and when he first took arms under him he vowed never to lay them down until the last slave was free in the United States.  He had but six men when he commenced and the nation against him.——The time had come.  He meant to work, and if the Government objected to decisive action or sought longer to evade the true issue and strike at the cause——Slavery——they could have his commission, but he meant to go in then on his own hook; all his regiment was abolitionists, and if there were any others, he didn't want them in it.  The rights of Union men must be respected, but the last thing valuable to the rebels and of use to us will be taken.  If a rebel's slave comes into our camp, it must be protected to the last bullet and the last man.  Nor was he too good to fight by the side of the contraband, and he could find no better use for rebel arms than to put them in the hands of black men."

This is a specimen brick from the speeches which were made.  Col. Anthony, as also Lieuts. Bostwick and Hoyt and your reporter made speeches.  Speaking of contrabands, our stock has been increased by the addition of some twenty since Sunday.

CHARLES SUMNER ON THE SUBJECT.

The Hon. Charles Sumner delivered a characteristic lecture in Philadelphia, recently, before the largest audience ever assembled there.  He said that the policy of maintaining Major Henderson in possession of Fort Sumter, was dictated by Gen. Cass.  The government were now about to adopt the course indicated by the motto, 'On to Liberty.'  He read a letter from the Secretary of War to the commander of the naval expedition, authorizing, among other things, the freeing of fugitive slaves, and the employment of them in 'squads or companies,' in those avocations to which they were best adapted.  He thought that this course was most noble and commendable.  (Great applause.)

By the way, the instructions to Secretary Cameron to Commander Sherman, of the great naval expedition in regard to 'fugitives 
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from labor,' cover all the offensive ground of Gen. Fremont's proclamation, and even go a step further in allowing the use of the slaves 'in squads or companies' for any purpose which Gen. Sherman may consider expedient or necessary.  In plain terms, they allow him to use all good fighting muscle wherever he may find it, without regard to color.  Will the President now correct and counteract the War Secretary's instructions, or will he retract the sharp rebuke of Gen. Fremont, and allow the gallant Pathfinder the credit he deserves, for taking the right course in advance of the Secretary and the Administration?  We claim for Gen. Fremont 'the right of discovery,' of the way to kill rebellion.  So says the Pittsburg Dispatch, and so say we.

GEN. HEINTZELMAN AND WIDOW TRIPLET.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune relates the following incident:

Widow Triplet, who lives near Alexandria, and whose sympathies are believed to be with the rebels, unaccountably lost eight slaves.——She thought that they were within the lines of Gen. Heintzelman's command, and applied to that officer for relief.  Forseeing [sic] one possible objection to the return of her chattels, she backed her petition with a penal bond, pledging herself not to sell them South.  The bond, Gen. Heintzelman told her he was lawyer enough to know to be worthless, because without a consideration.  The slaves he declined to search for or surrender, adding that he was no 'negro-catcher.'  It is said that this reply has excited great apprehension in the minds of Widow Triplet's slaveholding neighbors.
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THE NEGROES AT BEAUFORT.

The Evening Post's correspondence from Beaufort gives the following particulars about the negroes in that vicinity:

The negroes ran to greet our boats as we landed to take possession of the fort, and among those found on the shore by our marines were several belonging to Gen. Drayton, commander of the Post, whose plantation on Hilton Head Island was well stocked with fellows of genuine ebony cast.  Two of them were taken on board of the Wabash and gave much interesting and reliable information in regard to the situation of affairs on the island.

One of them asserted that his master had that morning assured him that he might fall into other hands before night, and he seemed to have been sufficiently pleased with the prospect of a change of masters to get his little bundle ready to be taken off.

THE NEGROES TRADING.

Early in the morning after the victory, the plantation negroes began to come into camp, and with the genuine African instinct for trade, each had provided themselves with a turkey, a shoulder of bacon, or two shoulders and a brace of hams in the shape of a struggling porker, which he bore kicking and squealing under his arm.  It was amusing to see the pertinacity with which the fellows would cling to their prize, even while waiting to be questioned under guard of a file of soldiers.

The instant one was spoken to, the bit of wide-awake or the rimless crown of straw which did duty as a hat would be jerked off with characteristic obsequiousness, the negro stand scraping and bowing, answering meanwhile his catechism, as well as he could with the noisy and struggling beast distracting his attention.

Several who came in brought wagons loaded with knapsacks and other accoutrements which they had picked up on the way.  All seemed ready to work, and those who were fortunate enough to have possessed themselves of some stray horse or a pair of plantation mules found abundant occupation.

THEY ARE CARED FOR.

As our troops were at first too busy in making good their position to attend to anything else, and the Quartermasters had already more upon their hands than they could well attend to, the negroes who appeared were not encouraged to remain but were at once sent back, on one pretense and another
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