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586      DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.      JANUARY, 1862
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employed in the surrender of fugitive slaves.——
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SENATE——DEC. 18.

On the 18th, a communication was received from the War Department transmitting the orders given Major-Gen. Halleck.

The resolution offered by Mr. Sumner, that the army shall not be used to surrender fugitive slaves, was taken up.

Mr. SUMNER said he had various letters stating abuses of this kind in the army.  Brig.-Gen. Stone was adding to his achievement at Ball´s Bluff, by busying himself in surrendering up slaves.  He (Gen. Stone) had made Massachusetts soldiers do this vile duty.  The Governor of Massachusetts had already complained of this.  This outrage must be stopped at once.

Mr. COWAN (Rep., Pa.) thought that the one great trouble was, that every General thought he must make up his mind as to what he will do in a contingency which never arises.  He (Cowan) thought that Generals had no right to settle the question as to who was the owner of a slave, and that the whole matter should be left to the Executive, and need not be put on the statute book.  The fact that the army were in the rebel States was sufficient.  He thought that Generals must take the natural result which comes with each fact, without a special legislation for emancipation or confiscation.  They had nothing to do with these questions in the Senate, which were only keeping up angry agitation.

Mr. SUMNER'S resolution was agreed to.

In the House on the 18th, Mr. JULIAN offered a resolution amending the Fugitive Slave Law, which was carried by a vote of 77 to 38.
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REBELLION AND COLOR.
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The following is an extract from an able and timely sermon preached in Syracuse, on Thanksgiving, by Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY: 

If this war had been on our part, from the beginning, waged against the cause of the rebellion; if, from the first, it had been declared, as well as plainly obvious, that slavery would have to be utterly abolished before peace could be permanently restored, we should have heard from England only the most cordial expression of wishes for our speedy and complete success.  Even the London Times would not have ventured to show its aristocratic hostility to our political existence.  But the British anti-slavery people have, not without reason, been perplexed by the dubious attitude of the Federal Government, in respect to slavery, and disgusted at the treatment of the poor fugitives by some of our military commanders.  These feelings among that large portion of the people in Great Britain have given the enemies of our country there license to write as they have written, and to proffer to the Secessionists the little aid they have had it in their power to give them, in defiance of the express prohibition of their Queen.  The more, therefore, we make this war on our part, a war for the abolition of slavery, as it is fast becoming, (whether the General Government would have it so or not,) the more shall we receive from England sympathy and moral co-operation.

But fourthly——We should this day give thanks, rejoice——yea, cry aloud for joy, that the people of the loyal States have so promptly, eagerly and generously responded to the demand thus suddenly made upon them.  Was there ever an uprising of a people equal to this?  In less than eight months an army of half a million of men, enlisted, clothed, equipped, provided for and conveyed to camps many hundreds of miles from their homes, and many hundreds of miles from each other; two naval expeditions fitted out, one of them second only in size to the largest that was ever known.  Expenditures incurred, amounting to more than $1,000,000 per day, and all provided for without resorting to the
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semblance of coercion.  Whatever one may think about the sinfulness and folly of war, it is impossible, not to be filled with admiration of such an exhibition of patriotism.  No warrant of conscription was sent abroad over the land to gather by the irresistible hand of government the needful troops; but they come voluntarily, eagerly came——for awhile they came in numbers greater than could be received; in many instances men came, who were exempted from military duty by reason of their age——and many more beardless youth came, younger than the law permitted to enter the ranks, feeling it to be almost a crime not to be old enough to fight for their country.  They came not alone from those classes of society which are dependent for their daily bread upon their daily toil, hoping to get for their services in the army higher wages than they were wont to receive in ordinary occupations, with better food and handsomer clothes; no——they came, the sons of the rich, as well as the poor——many of them unused to toil or exposure; they came by thousands, leaving comfortable homes and lucrative situations in business.  They came, not only with the reluctant consent of their loved ones——but often encouraged and urged onward by the patriotic appeals of their mothers, wives, sisters and sweathearts.  Yes, widowed mothers have given up their sons, in some instances, their only sons, to fight for, and, if it must be so, to die in defence of their country.——Never, I believe, never before was such a costly oblation so promptly and so cheerfully laid upon the altar of a country.  I was in Tuscany in May, 1859, and witnessed the uprising of that people.  It was a glorious sight.  But then they were accustomed to war——trained for the battle field——taught, like most of the people of the continent, to except no better lots in life than those of soldiers, and they had long been goaded almost to despair by the oppression of their Grand Duke, upheld in his tyranny by the heartless House of Hapsburg.  But the loyalists of our country have known nothing of war.  Without experience, without training, without any love for fighting, they have come at their country's call——bringing only their manhood with them——ready to attempt whatever they should be required to do——and to suffer whatever hardships or losses may befal them.  Men, animated by such a spirit, will of course be apt learners; and the peaceable citizens of last Spring are already found to be able-bodied, enterprising, courageous soldiers.  Moreover, although unused to military subordination and severe discipline, they have readily submitted to it as the necessity of war, wherever it has been enforced.  Nay more, have they not been submissive under circumstances peculiarly trying to their feelings? 

Never again shall we listen to the arguments that may be offered in behalf of standing armies, or the expediency of training all our youths in the arts of war, or cultivating in their besoms the passions that impel men to fight.  Oh! no!  So soon as this dread conflict is ended, let our soldiers lay aside their arms and their trappings; forget, if they can, the horrid scenes they have witnessed, and assiduously cultivate the arts and the spirit of peace; knowing, as they do, and as all the world has now been taught, that whenever the awful necessity of war may arise again, which may God and Humanity avert forever, a free and intelligent people will know how to meet the emergency, and answer the demand.

One shadow only darkens the brightness of this part of the picture of our country, and abates our joy on this day of thanksgiving.——It is a shadow of disastrous import, and must therefore, if possible, be dispelled.  I allude to the refusal to receive into our armies any of our free colored men; and the heart-withering repulse, if no worse, which in so many instances, the poor fugitives have met with when they sought an asylum under our star-spangled banner.

It will, I grant, be glorious to carry on this war to a successful termination, if we can, without the aid of the slaves in arms.  For we, who have so long wickedly consented to 
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their bondage, are in honor bound to deliver them from their oppressions, at the expense of our own limbs and lives rather than of theirs.  Then again it is our duty humanity demands, that we spare the inhabitants of the revolted States from the indiscriminate slaughter, and savage butcheries, to which they would be exposed, if we should arm their bondmen.——But we ought to give those bondmen every assurance that we mean to break their yoke.  Whenever they seek it, they should receive our protection, and be made as serviceable to us as they may be; and independent of our charity, by being employed at fair wages, in such labors as they can perform in our camps, and for the sustenance of our troops.

But the free colored population of the land have an equal right with ourselves, and even a keener inducement to take an active part in this war with slaveholders.  They are able, willing, anxious to acquit themselves like men in this conflict; and nothing could so exasperate them as to be spurned from our sides in this battle for liberty——the redemption of the negro race.  Such treatment can be prompted only by that cruel, wicked prejudice against color, which is the offspring of slavery, and which more than any thing else leads us to consent to the continuance of slavery.  This is a prejudice which must indeed be conquered.  And now is the day, and now the occasion for us to gain this conquest ever ourselves, as well as over the Southern rebels.——Let us summon to the standard of our common country a fair proportion of our colored fellow-citizens.  Let us give them an equal opportunity to distinguish themselves, and to receive the honors they may fairly win.  And when this war is over, let them, and the newly freed men, and all other sorts of human beings in our country be generously encouraged, and assisted, to obtain all the improvement they need, and will seek; and at any, and at all times, let us frankly, gladly acknowledge them to be whatever they shall have become, even though it should be our superiors in any attainment, any virtue, any grace.  Nothing is so mean, so base, as to chain them down, and then taunt them with their abasement, to load them with disabilities, to deny them our advantages and privileges, and then despise them as our inferiors.  Let us henceforward give them an open field, a fair chance, and heartily rejoice in all the progress they may make.
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GEN. LANE'S BLACK BRIGADE.——Rev. E.D. Fisher, a Chaplain in Gen. Lane's Kansas Brigade, who commanded the black squadron of 220 refugees on the retreat from Springfield, and who brought them all safely into Kansas, writes:

'When we had crossed the Kansas line, we drew up our cavalry opposite the line of our train, and announced that we were in Kansas; that these men, women and children were free! and such cheering you never heard.——"Three times three" were given for Kansas and for Jim Lane, the liberator.  On the morning of the 13th, we began the arduous task of finding houses for the 220 refugees.——At Fort Scott we secured homes for about fifty, and distributed the property to their possession.  We removed with the balance of our camp to Fort Lincoln, where we encamped for the night, and on the morning of the 13th we commenced distributing other families, until forty or fifty others were disposed of.  We then moved forward toward Mound City, and disposed of thirty or forty others, getting all good homes, with plenty of work.  Since the days of Moses such a cavalcade never moved from slavery to the land of Canaan.  The anxiety about these families is well grounded.  But let us remember Kansas has been drained of her working men, who are now in the army.  Millions of bushels of corn are yet to be gathered——wood cut, and farming generally done.  And we most honorably believe we could find homes for at least a thousand families in our State.  Thus secession is weakened——her farms and crops stopped, and free Kansas can run the machine until Hayti and South America are full.  Let the work go on.' 
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Transcription Notes:
full word "employed" typed at beginning of page for clarity per Smithsonian instructions