![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
JULY, 1862 DOUGLASS MONTHLY. 679 go with apparent willingness, and carry all information from our camps to ingratiate themselves, once more in their master's favor.– They knew all about our troops, and no doubt carried information of much value to the enemy. He told Gen. Burnside, who then said that the act of Congress that said no officer should return a fugitive should be his rule and law. (Applause) Mr. Colyer told how a negro woman, with a family of five, came thirty miles down the Neuse river, wading part of the way in the shallows and holding the sides of the canoe to steady it and keep her infants from being drowned. She brought a basket of eggs to Gen. Burnside, and said that she left her master by advice of her mistress, who said 'Juno this is terrible. My husband is a secessionist, and I am a Union woman. I advice you if you can, to get to the Yankees with your children. Take this basket of eggs as a present to Gen. Burnside from me, and tell him if he can rescue a Union woman for God's sake do it.' Juno also said that one of her children had died on the plantation, and when her master sulkily refused to assist in its burial, her mistress, with her own fair, white hands, sawed out some boards, made a coffin, dug a grave, and buried the little corpse. Mr Colyer related how a negro guided a detachment of soldiers to a lot of cotton near the river, and a boat load was thus obtained ; how 'Sam' a bushy contraband, had submitted to the Union forces a plan to capture a regiment of rebels in a swamp, the secret paths and defiles of which he was well acquainted with, and how it only failed because Sam's plan was not strictly adhered to. An officer said, in the presence of one of generals, that there was not a braver man in North Carolina. A fugitive negro on arriving in the Union lines said to General Foster: 'You's sure to win, suh ; you's sure to win 'cause tousands of darkies is allus praying for you's, years and years.'– Among all the negroes there has been the best of order preserved and neither on the fortifications or in the schools had they ever had a fight or serious disturbance. Mr. Colyer then spoke about the whites. He had one school of sixty white children. He had not asked whether their parents were loyal or secession ; the charity was extended to all.– General Burnside, a few days ago, honored the school with his presence, and was so much pleased with it that he said he would give fifty dollars a year rather than have the schools closed. In regard to provisions, many ladies who at the commencement of the war, were worth $30,000 or $50,000, now trusted for sustenance to the supplies he had distributed. There were four hundred suffering white females there to whom he had sent provisions The press had criticised him, saying that he had not right to do that, but he knew that some of the supplies came from Saint George's Church, and was convinced none of its members would find fault for thus relieving actual necessity. Fifteen or twenty wives of soldiers in the rebel army were thus assisted. When the rebels ran away, of course the women were left behind, and those women have been treated humanely, and now feel kindly toward our government. There were always many poor who never been disloyal at heart, who have expressed the greatest joy at the arrival of forces, and hoped the rebel troops would never come back. They too, sympathize with the slave, and wish for his freedom. There have been four hundred and fifty families of whites, loyal and disloyal, who have received their charities. These families averaged about four persons each. There were also one thousand black families assisted and cared for, averaging five persons to a family. The dispensing of provisions had forced him to keep six black men continually weighing and dealing out. When our troops first went to North Carolina they found a number of men in the secesh hospitals, and had taked care of them, 'doing good to those who despitefully use us.' Mr. Colyer spoke with much feeling at the scenes at the battle ground at Newbern. A young and beautiful boy lay all night upon the ground where he had died. A coverlet had been placed over the body, and when he turned it down in the morning and saw the white and dead but beautiful features of that noble boy, his face still stained with the blood that had clotted about his death wound, there right by his reddened cheek, was a little blue violet that had just blossomed. Mr. Colyer stated that the whole value of the stores and books and tracts that have passed through his hands, and been distributed by him since the battle of Bull Run, is $17,500: Rev. Dr. Tyng closed the meeting with some remarks. He thought Mr. Colyer co'd do more good by going through the country and telling the whole North the story he had told them, than he could by going back to North Carolina. He proposed that 'a meeting should be held in the Cooper Institute next week, and Mr. Colyer should retell his story.– World To the Editor of the New York Tribune. SIR: It is now more than a year since I left my business, my home, and my family, to fight for defense of our government.– During that time I have seen this war in all its phases and in many places. I have been in Patterson's, Bank's, Mansfield's, McClellan's, and am now in Burnside's Division.– I have been ordered by military command to search my camp for fugitive slaves, and send every negro in camp to General Headquarters for examination, on the presumption that he was some one's slave. But thank God that Military orders that command me to hunt a slave, no earthly power can make me obey.– We came here and fought the rebels in forts, and behind earthworks built by slave labor. We drove them before us, and they vainly tried to take their negroes with them. Some they took by force, and others they tried to scare away. They told them that all the young able bodied we would sell in Cuba and the old, the infirm and the children would have their heel cords cut and be turned out to die. But Sambo didn't believe a word of it, and stayed. We have employed over nine hundred men among those slaves on our fortifications, and their families in all number over four thousand, who have received more or less of their support from the Union army. We have been happily disappointed in their industry, fidelity and intelligence. No one can dispute the fact that they are superior so the laboring whites in this vicinity in everything that makes a man. At first we got North Carolina white overseers ; and out of six only one could read. We then put in the soldiers overseers, merely to lay out and superintend the work. A more cheerful, willing and active lot of men I never saw. Mr. Vincent Colyer of your city, has been their General Superintendent, and also of the poor whites. He opened a free school for white children, and also an evening school for negroes. Our soldiers volunteered to teach, and thus without cost to any one, a ray of light was allowed to shine upon the poor slave.– These poor men would work on our fort all day, go home to their families, and come with them two or three miles to an evening school, in the heat of a Southern Summer. All this was under military rule. And lo ! a Governor comes, in the person of Edward Stanley. His first act was to suppress the black school. He says the laws of North Carolina forbid the teaching of negroes, and he comes to execute the law. Stanley's next act was to order slaves delivered up to their Rebel masters. One so delivered on his orders was a woman, and she refused to walk back into bondage.– The contrabands now here tell us that they carried her a piece, then drove her home by beating her with a cudgel, then beat her often after they had got there, and the next morning her soul took its flight to that land where the slaveholder cannot go. He had beaten her body back, but the spirit would not be enslaved. Can God be just and these things be? Did we come here to fight for slavery or for freedom? God forbid that Northern men should come here to execute the infamous laws of North Carolina. Congress passed a law I believe, that all slaves who were employed in the Rebel army, should be free. The laws of North Carolina don't say so, and Stanley says the black laws of North Carolina must be enforced by our bayonet, and sealed with our blood. These men must now be sent to their masters, to erect new forts for us to encounter, and dig new graves for freemen to fill, that Slavery may not die. But my soul sickens, when I think I am here fighting under such command. If we were not a law abiding people, we would defy his power, and Stanley would fail to execute those laws by the power of our arms or at the expense of our blood. But as it is our only hope is in our Government at Washington. They must soon see that love is lost on Rebels. Men that will decoy and then fire upon flags of truce, raise the white flag themselves to approach our lines within pistol shot, and then supplant it with the black flag of piracy and murder, deserve nothing but death by the hangman. In common with thousands of others I have been a conservative, but the day of moderation has passed. Our friends say, you must not exasperate the South. You might as well talk of exasperating a mad bull. They have already passed from exasperation to desperation. God bless Gov. Andrew, for his manly utterance of the sentiments of glorious old Massachusetts. Her voice is still for war; but amid the din of battle, and rising high above the clash of resounding arms, she speaks out manfully. "May God defend the right," and the people say Amen. STUBBORN FACTS AND UNAVOIDABLE CONCLUSIONS.– Every blow struck against slavery is felt, at the South, to be a blow against the rebellion. And every blow struck against the rebellion, is felt, at the South, to be a blow struck against slavery. Every Northern utterance in favor of slavery, in palliation of it, or in favor of Federal non-interference with it, is understood at the South, to be an utterance in the interest of the Rebellion, in virtual justification of it, and against the effort making for its suppression. Every Northern utterance, against slavery, in condemnation of it or in favor of the national suppression of it, is understood, at the South, as an utterance against the Rebellion, and in favor of the effort for its uncompromising suppression. These facts, being undeniable, lay a foundation for conclusions equally indisputable. The out-spoken abolitionists of the country are the best friends of the country, the most available supporters of the Government and of the Union, against Rebellion and Secession. The worst enemies of the country, the most available allies of the traitors, are those who cry out against abolition and abolitionists, who oppose all action against slavery, and clamor for a reconstruction of the Union, on a pro-slavery basis ; a thing manifestly impossible on any other condition than the subjection of the whole country to the oligarchy of slaveholders - the very proposal of which amounts to a renewed declaration of war. - Principia. By the steamer Guide, from Newbern, North Carolina, we learn that Governor Stanley is riding an exceeding high horse, and disgusting not only civilians but military men with his despotism. The house in which he had the negro girl hunted down for the whip of her master, has been burned. Stanley sent orders to the Harbor-Master to search all vessels for runaway slaves, but the Harbor-Master sent him word that he would see him (Stanley,)–before he would obey such an order. Stanley is decidedly in bad odor.– Tribune The charter election at Washington yesterday passed off quietly. Mayor Walach, unconditional Union, was re-elected by a large majority. Lewis Clephane, who, but little more than a year ago, was waited upon by a committee and ordered to leave the city because he was a friend of John Brown, is chosen Alderman by 300 majority.– Tribune
Transcription Notes:
See instructions re formatting - there is no need to include details of italics, bold etc., nor lines, columns etc. unless it is a table.