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JULY 1862  DOUGLASS MONTHLY.  681

day after day and month after month on the very brink of ruin, yet undaring to speak itself, delivered and free, by uttering the word Liberty, held spell-bound and prostrate by incantation of parchment Constitution and statute Enactment, as before all truth, all justice, and even the national life itself, juggle even in the midst of its rebellion and fierce exterminating onslaught, of supposed inviolate rights of slavery.

4.  Resolved, That while we hail more than willingly whatever bright and hopeful signs the time affords–evidence of increasing sobriety on the part of considerable numbers up and down through the land-- awakened attention, under the recent startling events in our history, to the inherent nature of slavery—growing recognition of its essential character as crime and atrocity—conviction that it must and determination that it shall at any hazard be extinguished–indications of disposition of manly and humane attitude on the part of some of the commanding Generals in their relation to the negro, beneficent act of emancipation by the General Government throughout the Federal District–and remaining hopeful still that, through the events of this terrible war, liberty for the slave shall yet be wrung from this unwilling nation, we yet remember that our relations are primarily and most of all to simple Truth and Justice;  that never, in the sphere of human conduct are we to sit supinely waiting what the providential issues may bring;  and so we still bear our testimony for the slave, and call upon this nation and government, now as never before responsible for slavery, now as never before imperilled and involved by its continuance, instantly to wipe out the guilty curse, to wash its hands of the blood of the crushed millions, and penitently bid them, in God's name, be free.

5.  Resolved, That for a government to affiliate with oppression, to extend recognition, fellowship and protection to slavery, is at the outset to make itself the accomplice of treason, partner with rebellion,–to break up and annihilate all true grounds of distinction between loyalty and justice and their opposites,–to put itself exposed perpetually to factional revolt like the present, wide-spread and violent, and tie its hands forever, while in that attitude, against the possibility of effectual resistance and repression.

6.  Resolved, That the attempts still widely and in official quarters avowed and persisted in, to re-establish on its old basis the Union,–basis of fellowship and guarantee to slavery,–is the attempt to repeat, and, under the circumstances, aggravating ten-fold its infatuation and its guilt the old mistake, and intrinsically wrong, and a crime as it is pronounced by late events in our history, to be from this time forward an utter fatuity;  the only Union henceforth possible, or even desirable, or even worthy of toleration, the Union of freemen for the maintenance of justice and freedom.

7.  Resolved, That with indignation and shame we witness the renewal and prosecution, with unwonted rigor, of slave-hunting in the midst of the Federal Capital;  and, mortifying and humiliating as is the admission, we are yet compelled to believe that even now the government and nation have not suffered enough at the hands of the rebellion to be divorced and emancipated from is terrible idolatry of slavery, and insane and criminal hope of still propitiating the monster, or at least regaining its indulgence and tolerant favor.

8.  Resolved, That we hail the proclamation of David Hunter, declaring emancipation to the slaves throughout the limits of his military district, with great gratulation and joy,–a proclamation worthy to be made, honorable to his judgement as a commander, to his qualities of heart as a man;  and we can only here testify our sorrow and indignation, that the executive head of the nation should show himself so signally unfaithful to humanity, so lacking in just comprehension of the crisis, so subject to the influence of detestable border State dictation, as to interpose with his disavowal, and rescind the operation of this benign proclamation.

9.  Resolved, That in the desolating war now raging in our country, we recognize a just retribution, visited on the people as the sure and awful result of their oppression of a race subjugated by our fathers, and attemptedly made menial not only by governmental statutes, but by social restrictions fed and nourished by unnatural teachings that the negro is not an equal man and brother, alike eligible to place and position, not only by and for himself, but with and for us.

10.  Resolved, That the time has gone by for a people professing progress to set bounds which any of the human family are forbidden to pass, because of the color of the skin, the texture of the hair, or the form of the features;  and that it becomes the emphatic duty of every reformer who has learned the first letter in the alphabet of justice, to insist upon the entire emancipation of this oppressed people from all invidious restrictions, either social, ecclesiastical or political.


MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

NEGRO REGIMENT.  Several days ago a resolution was passed by the House inquiring of the Secretary of War whether Gen. Hunter has organized a regiment of negroes, fugitive slaves, etc., for the defense of the Union.  Secretary Stanton has answered this resolution, to the effect that the Department has no official information on the subject.  In order to ascertain if the information is true, a copy of the House resolution has been transmitted to Gen. Hunter to make a report thereon.

The Secretary adds that Gen. Hunter was not authorized to organize such a regiment;  but, upon his requisition, arms and clothing have been sent to the forces under his command without instructions as to the manner in which they are to be used.  He has not been furnished with arms to be placed in the hands of slaves and black fugitives.  As to that part of the resolution calling for the orders and the correspondence between Gen. Hunter and the Department, the President instructs him (Stanton) to say that such a report at this time would, in his (the President's) opinion, be improper and incompatible with the public service.

THE APPROACH ON CHARLESTON.  A correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, describing the passage of our gunboats up Stono Inlet, says the rebels had constructed numerous strong batteries on both sides of the river all the way up, but immediately abandoned most of them and burned their barracks.  Had they made good use of their defenses, the entrance of the Inlet by our fleet would have been thwarted for a long time.  Negroes were flocking to the fleet by hundreds.

– Experiments are said to have been made at the Washington Navy Yard to test the capability of the description of iron armor adopted by the Navy Department to resist shot.  It was found that it amounts to a perfect shield against such ordnance as pierced the armor in England, similar to that of the celebrated vessel Warrior.  The President witnessed the experiments, the details of which it is improper to publish.

– The prospect now is that the emanicipation cause will sweep the State of Maryland.  The planters and farmers are said to be urging, Gov. Bradford to call the Legislature together to pass the Convention bill, as amended by Reverdy Johnson, who succeeded in the House in striking out the section forbidding the discussion of the slave question, and it is thought that the Governor will yield to the public demand.

– The officers of the Monitor have stated that with the improvement of her smoke-stack, they were willing to go to sea in her, and therefore it is presumable that the others of her pattern are intended for sea-going.

– The confiscation bill which passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, was the same as Mr. Elliot's original bill, with the exception of a single amendment proposed by Mr. Porter, of Indiana.  It designates six classes of rebels– officers of various kinds, and persons being willfully engaged in the rebellion who shall not lay down their arms in sixty days after the passage of this act– whose slaves shall be liable to confiscation.  The bill also disqualifies the said six classes from holding office under the United States Government.–
The President is authorized to negotiate for the acquisition, by treaty or otherwise, of lands or countries in Mexico, Central America or South America, in or the islands in the Gulf of Mexico, or for the right of settlement upon the lands of said countries for all persons liberated under this act, to be removed with their own consent.  For the purpose of paying the expense of the purchase of lands and the removal, the President shall use such money as Congress may from time to time direct, arising out of the sales of the property formerly owned by rebels and which shall have been confiscated to the use of the United States.

An officer of the army serving under Burnside, writes as follows:
'I have always been a very stiff advocate for southern rights, as you well know;  but I have become so far educated up that the little strip of dry land between Charles Sumner's views and mine only wants another such a wave to wash it away entirely, and drop me in head over heels.  I have to struggle very hard to keep my footing.

Another from McClellan's:
Since I have been in the army I am compelled by the daily evidence of what I see before me, to change my opinion regarding the manner of conducting the war.  I now think, if we wish to bring this rebellion to a speedy and successful close, that the sooner we adopt the most severe measures the better.  I want to see Congress pass the confiscation bill, slavery abolished and traitors punished in every way the Government can do so constitutionally, and if necessary unconstitutionally.

Our pro-slavery and semi-secession friends North can but poorly conceive how patiently and composedly we await the ripening of events.  When the army returns from the war the apologists for slavery and advocates of rose water and fur gloves will think an avalance had rolled down upon them.

– The Nashville Union is severe on radical abolitionists.  The class it includes under this designation will be seen by the following extract:

[[symbol: fleuron]] By radical abolitionists we mean wretches who are destroying the system of slavery by sword and fire, and devastation.  The fiends of hell are more humane and noble.  They are hastening the overthrow of slavery by brining not only on the South, but on the public great tribulation.  These devils in human shape abound in this city, and call themselves Secessionists, Southern Rights men, Fire Eaters and Confederates.

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