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FEBRUARY, 1863 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 799 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] Truth before which falsehoods and sophisms of the pro-Secessionists are scattered as chaff by the invincible tempest, Frederick Douglass is correct. The war in America is a War for Freedom. It was commenced by the South to perpetuate and extend the curse of slavery ; the gauntlet was taken up by the North with no thought at the outset on the part of the majority of destroying slavery. But the unanswerable logic of events has overruled the determination of the South and the vacillation of the North. The war commenced by the South for Slavery has changed into a War for Freedom, and we have the settled conviction that unless the Slave-holders are aided by European recognition and intervention, the issue will be the destruction of the horrible system the South went to war to maintain and to propagate over a great portion of the American Continent. Mark Freedom's gains already in this war! The new anti-slave trade treaty with Great Britain, conceding the right of search ; the abolition of slavery in the capital of the United States, and in the territory of Columbia ; the decree by which all slaves belonging to rebel owners are set at liberty ; that which forbids the officers of the Federal army to give back fugitive slaves ; that which abolishes slavery in the immense territories which will eventually become populous States ; that which promises an indemnity to those three or four slave States which have remained in the Union if they will emancipate their negroes, and the proclamation of the President which calls upon them to avail themselves of this advantage without delay ; that which recognizes the Republics of Liberia and Hayti ; lastly, the decree of general emancipation of slaves in the insurgent states, from and after the 1st of January next. Against these irreversible results place the avowals and declarations of the Confederate States that they fight to establish a system of which Slavery shall be "the corner stone," and which shall interminably perpetuate the bondage, degradation, and misery of millions of human beings! Judge ye, Freeman ! which side is worthy of your sympathy ! May God defend the Right ! [[line]] A Curious Case—Legal Decision under the Emancipation Proclamation. [[short line]] In St. Louis, Judge Claver of the Criminal Court has recently pronounced a decision affirming the constitutionality and validity of the Emancipation Proclamation. A negro man named Benjamin Williams was convicted of grand larceny. By the law of Missouri a slave who is convicted of such an offense is punishable with stripes instead of imprisonment in the Penitentiary, and the questions was raised what the legal status of this individual culprit was. It appears that the name of the prisoner is Benjamin Douglass, and that he escaped from his master, a rebel residing in the State of Mississippi, some three months ago, and went to St. Louis. There, subsequent to the first day of January, 1863, he committed the offense of which he was convicted. The prisoner's counsel attempted to show that his client was a slave and could not therefore be subjected to imprisonment, while the prosecuting attorney maintained that he was a free man by virtue of the President's Proclamation. We quote the following from Judge Claver's decision. It will be seen that he fully sustains the Proclamation as a justifiable and legal exercise of the war power. The counsel for the prisoner who argued this case so learnedly and so eloquently was necessarily led to the assertion of the principle that the Congress of the United States would have no more right to pass a law in the nature of the proclamation than he conceives the President has, denying to both branches of the Government equally any such right or power. And in the same breath with this assertion he quotes from this same author (Vattel) the declaration and remarks: "Let us being by laying down the rights of a "nation engaged in a just war ; let us see what "she is allowed to do to her enemy. The whole "is to be deduced from one single principle, "from the object of a just war: for when the end [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] "is lawful, he who has a right to pursue that "end, has, of course, a right to employ ALL the "means which are necessary for its attainment. "The end of a just war is to revenge or prevent "injury, that is to say to obtain justice by force "when not attainable by any other method ; to "compel an unjust adversary to repair an injury "already done, or give us securities against any "wrong with which we are threatened by him. "As soon, therefore, as we have declared war, "we have a right to do against the enemy whatever "we find necessary for the attainment of "that end, for the purpose of bringing him to "reason, and obtaining justice and security "from him. "The lawfulness of the end does not give us "real right to anything further than barely the "means necessary for the attainment of that "end. Whatever we do beyond that is reprobated "by the law of nature, is faulty and condemnable "at the tribunal of conscience.— "Hence it is that the right to such or such acts "of hostility varies according to circumstances. "What is perfectly just and innocent in war, in "one particular situation, is not so always on "other occasions. "Right goes hand in hand with necessity and "the exigency of the case, but never exceeds "them." I have quoted largely in this connection from this authority, because in my judgment it contains the very gist and substance of the law upon this subject. Whatever is not expressly malum prohibitum, what is not forbidden by the law of nations, is a proper means of warfare ; and I deduce from authority as well as conclude from reason, that in many cases concerning the application of principles of national law to the condition of things, as to the condition of foreign and civil war we are necessarily remitted to the court of conscience and pure equity, as well for the determination of what those principles are, as for a proper and just course of action under them. If it be said that by this measure the innocent may be involved in a common punishment with the guilty, this is only an argument against the exercise, not against the existence of the power. The counsel argues, and quotes from the same authority to sustain his argument, that in this rebellion or civil war the obligation to observe the common laws of war is absolute, indispensably binding on both parties, and the same which the law of nature imposes on all nations in transactions between State and State. To this doctrine I yield my hearty concurrence, and I know that my Government acts upon this sensible and human law. When he contends, however, that this measure is not a common law of war, we meet immediately, upon the very question to be decided. What is the common law of war? When he endeavors to illustrate, when he cites the case of a clandestine seduction of the enemy's people, when he shows that Vattel, the eloquent and humane writer, hints rather than asserts that such proceeding may not be honorable or compatible with the laws of a pure conscience, when he argues that this measure may strike at the foundation of the common safety and welfare of mankind, I cannot overlook the fact that the same author in the same connection asserts as well that even these measures are excusable in a very just war, when the immediate object is to save our country when threatened with ruin by a lawless conqueror. And is not the object of this proclamation to save the country ? Not perhaps from the rule of a lawless conqueror——that I pray God may never be, but still from ruin and destruction.——The motto of the coat of arms of our State proclaims an evident principle. The safety of the people is the chief law. It has, indeed, been pronounced the plea of the tyrant ; but inasmuch as despotism is better than anarchy, as a harsh law is better than no law, so times my occur when that shall be the first consideration. If it be allowable to save our country at all hazards, when threatened by a lawless conqueror, I think it is equally allowable to rescue it by the same means, the ends being as great, from anarchy, bloodshed and confusion. The President and the nation must stand before the world to be judged by the nations of the earth, before the court of the general, universal conscience of mankind, for the rectitude of the intention, the emergency of the case, the object to be attained, in the issuance and execution of the principle of the proclamation. I have not sought this question; the decision of it became necessary in the course of my judicial duty; I could not have avoided it if I would. I have had but little difficulty in arriving at a conclusion in this case. It is true that previous education and reflection upon the subject may have aided me in arriving at this conclusion. It is perhaps difficult for one to throw off long-entertained opinions and convictions upon matters of governmental and social policy, and determine a matter of this character in the light of pure science and reason without being affected by these considerations, yet I have endeavored to do so. From the best judgment which I can bestow upon the question, I am of opinion and so declare, that the prisoner is a free man, free by virtue of the proclamation, and that [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] being once a free man he is forever a free man, for I know of no power or law by which a man being once emancipated can be again mancipated. On the last day of January of the present year of grace, the prisoner, then a slave, became rehabilitated with freedom and though he has again lost that freedom, it is only temporarily; though again placed in servitude for a period of his life, it is only that servitude affixed as a penalty for crime and which has been recognized in all ages and countries under Mosaic as under the Christian Dispensation. [[line]] COLORED AMERICAN PATRIOTS.--We under-stand that Mr. William C. Nell is preparing for press second edition (revised and enlarged) of his valuable historical work, entitled "Colored American patriots," in which their services in the present struggle to put down the Slaveholders' Rebellion will be duly chronicled. In the Revolutionary war of 1776, and the war of 1812--15, none exhibited more heroism and devotion to the cause of their country than themselves. They are still ready and desirous to serve that cause in every possible way, and to seal it with their blood, if necessaay. What they have already done, and what they are capable of achieving, if properly encourages, may be ascertained by a perusal of Mr. Nell's work. The proposed additions will add much to its interest as well as value. IT deserves a place in every library, and in every family. [[line]] A CUTE LAWYER.--When Gen. Butler took command of New Orleans, the French and English residents, though naturalized, were very anxious to show their national origin, so as to escape the emancipation of their slaves, Gen. Butler calmly waited till they had all registered themselves, and then informed every Frenchman that the code civile of his own country expressly forbids a Frenchman to hold a slave, and every Englishman, that by British law every subject of that country holding a slave was subject to a penalty of $500 for each ! He left but a few slaves, though many negroes in his department. [[line]] SOUTHERN "LADIES."--A Corinth letter of Nov. 2, says that women have flocked in Inka from Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, and all points of Mississippi, to nurse the rebel wounded, and that the case has become absolutely disgusting from the general disregard to cleanliness, the dressings of the wounded being thrown into the street in front of the houses. The impudence of these women is immeasurable, for although their wounded relatives have been paroled and still receive supplies of every kind from us, they insult our messengers, and spit treason with the most vixenis vehemence. Kindness is thrown away on such people. [[line]] SERVIOE OF LOYAL BLACKS. [[line]] While the negroes in the Department of the Southwest are receiving the worst possible treatment at the hands of the Government and its agents, they do not permit their loyalty to be shaken, but constantly render most important services to our commanders. An instance of this is thus reported by a correspondent of a Boston paper, in an account of the late operations in Berwick bay: "The rebels have placed all sorts of obstructions in the bay and river, but our forces were not aware that they had resorted to their old practice of placing torpedoes in chains across the rivers, until they were fortunately informed by two intelligent negroes, who jumped from the Cotton and swam ashore to warn our troops of their danger. The slaves pointed out the exact location of these dangerous and infernal machines, showing our offices the lines attached to the torpedoes. Our offices removed two of these destructives, and in one of them was five gallons of powper. The contrabands said the rebels have planted many more of larger size further up the river. One of the torpedoes discovered by our troops was enclosed in a square wooden box and marked ' medical stores.' Had this been opened, as the inventors intended it should be, the loss of life must have have been large." [[/column 3]]
