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FEBRUARY, 1862.      DOUGLASS MONTHLY.      605

NO SYMPATHY WITH THE SOUTH.

The Liverpool Mercury of the 10th inst., says:

The surrender of the illegally captured Confederate Commissioners is one of he most cheering pieces of intelligence that it was our happiness to publish.   Although, under present circumstances, a war with America wo'd have been unattended with those specially calamitous results to English industry and commerce which would have ensued at any former period——although it would in fact, have brought us a temporary and limited advantage by putting an end to the blockade of the Southern cotton ports——no thoughtful Englishman could ever have viewed such a war as other than a grave misfortune.  Apart from all other considerations, the mere fact that the war with the North could necessarily have brought us into relations of virtual alliance and co-operation with the South, renders it matter for the heartiest congratulation that peace has been found compatible with national and self respect.  It is to the last degree undesirable, on grounds of policy no less than of feeling, that England should mix herself up with the affairs of Southern slave owners.

Of course we shall have no reasonable choice but to recognize the Confederate States as an independent power whenever it shall become apparent that their independence is definitely established; but recognition is not alliance and in no respect implies a guaranty of either moreal or material support.  We shrink with aversion from the idea of entering into any closer political relations with the Southern Republic than those of ordinary international courtesy; and we dread a renewed dependence on a tainted and most precarious source of supply for our chief industrial staple.  In no point of view is the peaceful settlement of the Trent question more satisfactory than in enabling us to keep clear of a dangerous and discreditable itimacy with the slave-owning Confederation."


SENATOR TRUMBULL'S CONFISCATION BILL.

The following is the Confiscation and Emancipation bill introduced into the Senate by Mr TRUMBULL, from the Judiciary Committee:

A Bill to Confiscate the Property and Free the Slaves of Rebels.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the property, real and personal, of every kind whatever, and wheresoever situated within the limits of the United States, belonging to any person or persons beyond the jurisdiction of the same, or to any person or persons in any State or District within the United States now in a state of insurrection and rebellion against the authority thereof, so that in either case the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon them who shall during the present Rebellion be found in arms against the United States, or giving aid and comfort to said Rebellion, shall be forfeited and confiscated to the United States; and such forfeiture shall take immediate effect upon the commission of the act of forfeiture, and all right and title and claim of the person committing such act, together with the right or power to dispose of or alienate his property of any and every description, shall instantly cease and determine, and the same shall at one vest in the United States.

SEC. 2.  And be it further enacted, That every person having claims to the services of any other person in any State under the laws thereof, who, daring the present rebellion, shall take up arms against he United States, or in any manner give aid and comfort to said rebellion, shall thereby forthwith forfeit all claims to such service of labor, and the persons from whom it is claimed to be due, commonly called slaves, shall ipso facto on the commission of the act of forfeiture by the party having claims to the service or labor as aforesaid, be discharged, therefrom and become forever thereafter free persons, any law of any State or the United States to the contrary notwithstanding and wherever any person claiming to be entitled to the service or labor of any other person declared to be discharged from such labor or service under the provisions of this act shall seek to enforce such claim, he shall in the first instance, and before any order of the surrender of the person whose service is claimed, establish not only his title to such service as now provided by law, but also that he is and has been during the existing rebellion, loyal to the Government of the United States, and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person or to surrender up any such person to the claimant.

SEC.3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to make provision of the transportation, colonization, and settlement, in some tropical country beyond the limits of the United States, of such persons of the African race made free by the provisions of this act as may be wiling to emigrate, having first obtained the consent of the Government of sid country to their protection and settlement within the same, with all the rights and privileges of freemen.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the President of the United States, as often as his opinion the military necessities of the arm, or the safety, interest and welfare of the United States, in regard to the suppression of the rebellion shall require, to order the seizure and appropriation by such officers, military or civil, as he may designate for the purpose, of any and all property confiscated and forfeited under and by virtue of this act, situated and being in any District of the United States beyond the reach of civil process in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, by reason of such rebellion and the sale or other disposition of said property, or so much of it as he shall deem advisable.

SEC.5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the officers so designated to make to the President full reports of their proceedings under such orders, which report shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of Treasury; and all moneys received on the sale of the confiscated property of any person, as aforesaid, shall be deposited in the United States Treasury.

SEC 6. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of enforcing the forfeiture specified in the first section of this act of property situate and being in loyal states or Districts in which the ordinary course of judicial proceedings is not obstructed by the rebellion, proceedings in rem may be instituted in the name of the United States in any District Court of the United States within which the estate or property so forfeited, or any part thereof may be found which proceedings shall confirm as near as may be to the proceeding in prize cases, or to cases of forfeiture arising under the revenue laws, and in all cases the property condemned whether real or personal shall be sold, and then proceeds deposited as provided in the fifth section of this act.

SEC 7. And be it further enacted, That the several District Courts of the United States are hereby invested with power to issue all process, whether mesne or final, including garnisher and process, as in the cases of foreign attachment, and to do every other matter and thing necessary and proper to carry out the purpose of this act.


THE CONTRABANDS AT FORTRESS MONROE.

——A meeting was recently held in the Church of the Puritans, New York, for the benefit of the emancipated slaves in the neighborhood of Fortress Monroe – Wm. Goodell occupying the chair.

Rev. Mr. Lockwood, the Agent of the American Missionary Association at the Fortress, addressed the meeting.  He said that the negroes had as yet but exchanged one slavery for another.  They were now Uncle Sam's slaves.  At one time they had been assured that they would be paid for their labor by the Government, and that they had been valued by Mr. Goddard, an Assistant Engineer, belonging to Boston, and formerly engaged near Hampton, at $2 per diem.  On the strength of that promise the poor slaves had worked with a will and an energy seldom to be witnessed elsewhere.  They had not to this day, after a lapse of several months, been paid one cent.

William Davis, one of the contrabands, was then introduced, and gave a very graphic and characteristic account of the treatment of slaves in Virginia.  He stated several instances in which overseers had been dismissed, and intelligent negroes put in charge of farms, much to their improvement, and greatly to the profit of the masters.  He referred to the introduction of educational facilities among his people, and said that it cheered all hearts to observe with what rapidity young children and old men and women were learning to read.  New times had come among them.  The voice of the slave-driver had ceased to be heard, and he hoped slavery had fallen in the dust, never more to rise again.

CAPTURE OF THE SLAVER LYRA, WITH 890 NEGROES.– A latter dated Jamestown, St Helena, Nov. 26, says:

"On the 18th inst, the bark Lyra, said to be American and of New York, arrived at this port in charge of Lieut. Dales of the British Navy, and had on board on arrival 825 slaves.  This vessel was captured by H. B. M. steam gunboat Ranger, on the 29th of October last, off the river Congo, and had on board when captured about 890 Africans, several of whom, from the crowded state of the vessel, perished on the voyage.  The negroes have all been landed at the depot at Rupert's, described to you in a former letter, and appear to be in a tolerably healthy condition.  There were about two hundred Africans already in the depot when the Lyra arrived–remains of other captures.  About 250 adults will be shipped off to one of the British West India Islands, by the bark Clarendon, now lying in this port, and chartered by the Government for that purpose.  The remainder will continue at the depot until opportunities occur for their being sent away.

The slave trade is reported very brisk on the South Coast, chiefly carried on by the vessels under the American flag, since the squadron has been withdrawn.  The bark Fleet Eagle is supposed to have gone clear, with 900 slaves, to Havanna; and the J. J. Cobb has either left on the same errand, or is still dodging about the coast, waiting an opportunity to ship her cargo."


JENNISON AND MONTGOMERY.– Col. Jennison, Kansas 1st Cavalry, is a small man–delicate constitution–a physician–originally from Livingston County, N. Y. When the Border Ruffian horde went into Kansas to elect the first Territorial Legislature they passed Jennison's house.  His wife and only child, attracted by the cavalcade, went to the door, and while standing there, were both shot dead by the ruffians.  "That's what ails Jennison, the Jayhawker."

Jack Montgomery, of the Kansas Cavalry, is a Kentuckian–a mild, gentlemanly, highly educated man–a clergyman, and a graduate of Oberlin.  When the Border Ruffians, in one of their raids, reached Montgomery's home, they took him prisoner, tied him to a tree, and brought out his wife–an educated, accomplished lady–and violated her person in the presence of her husband; "and that's what ails Montgomery."


The following advertisement in a Richmond paper shows that the rebels are making use of free colored men as well as slaves in their camps.  This is from Gen. WINDER:

WANTED – For sixty days, THREE HUNDRED NEGRO MEN, slaves or free men, to be employed in the construction of military roads, for the use of the army of the Potomac.  these negroes are much needed, and it is hoped that those who have will spare them, so that the roads may be constructed before winter.  Twenty dollars per month and one ration per day will be paid to each man.

At New Orleans, at New Madrid, and in South Carolina and Georgia, it is an undisputed fact that the slaves have been put to work upon rebel fortifications, and some cases formed into regular companies.

It is understood that the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which Hon. Chas. Sumner is Chairman, will soon report a bill for the recognition of Hayti and Liberia.– The bill makes provision for the appointment of a Charge to both of these countries, to be empowered to act as Commissioner of Emigration.

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