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We have
forborne to
take any part in the discussions relative to the making soldiers of our
slaves because it had not yet been formally proposed as a practical
question,
and we had hoped that it would be passed over. We did not wish to
create
a breach at a time when harmony is so desirable. As the discussion is
to
be forced upon us, however, we wish to express our opposition, and the
grounds thereof in as few words as we can.
The
proposition, in the first place,
is totally unconstitutional. We parted from the Old Government
because
of its determined purpose to interfere in the domestic affairs of the
States.
Were we still under that Government, engaged in a war with all Europe,
and invaded by a million of men, surely nobody will contend that the
General
Government would possess the power; under the pretext of necessity, to
abolish slavery in the States by making soldiers of the slaves;for such
is the undoubted effect of that measure. Now, we are not aware that the
Confederate Government has any powers which the Federal Government had
not.
Second. Let it be conceded that the constitutional
power exists. The exercise of it is, nevertheless, a confession of
weakness,
or rather a profession of a weakness which does not exist. We have no
occasion
to resort to any such extreme measure. Our affairs are in a better
condition,
and our prospects brighter, than they ever have been since the
commencement
of the war.
Third. Armies must be fed, and in order
to feed them crops must be made. The negroes are our agricultural
laborers.
Take them from farm-work, and you destroy the army more effectually
than
Grant can do it with a million of men to back those he has in the field.
Fourth. It -would be a powerful stimulant to recruiting
for the Yankees. There can be no doubt that a vast number would
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resort to
them who are restrained
at present by the apprehension of being forced into the ranks. They
stay
at home because they are in no danger. Let them see that it is as
dangerous
to stay as to go, and they will be pretty certain to go. For, with the
Yankees, they get a high bounty for enlisting, and liberty and equality
into the bargain. The services are set before them which of the two to
choose, and there will, we fancy, be little hesitation as to the choice.
Fifth. We give up the whole question when we adopt this
measure. Whatever we may be fighting for, the Yankees are fighting for
"the nigger"; that is, to abolitionize the South. We are not disposed
to
gratify them if we can avoid it. Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his
speeches,
made about a year ago, boasted that slavery had received a mortal blow,
and that this war would be the means of spreading "New England ideas,"
that is, abolitionism, Fourierism, free-loveism, and the whole brood of
Yankeeisms, throughout the continent. These ideas, he concluded, would
make a surer conquest than the sword.
The Numantians of old won immortal renown
by burning up their city, their wives and children, and themselves,
rather
than be subjugated. If we are reduced to the same extremity, perhaps it
will be well to make soldiers of our negroes; for it seems to us that
the
one is about as much an act of desperation as the other. But we deny
that
we have come to that point, or are likely to come to it.
The proposition of the Confederate Executive
to introduce a larger number of blacks into the public service, as
teamsters
and laborers, cannot be reasonably objected to. There will be some
division
on the subject of setting free after the war such as are purchased by
the
Government for these purposes. It is to be hoped that the discussion of
the matter will not be indulged to an unnecessary length, and that the
action of the Government will be at once prudent and practical.
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