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V\ ATHE COUNTRYMANJGA„ MARGi Brown on Ariqingt the SlftYes.?“vT“here part oHGow-Brown’s vile, andXpcendiwry noeetage, in which hefortunate in his logic, and more inconsistent in ^li^lrej^^oning, than he is, in that part of his traitor qua £»laver, that relates to arming the*|a£e«i lor. the defence of their masters’ homesirid firesides, as well as their own,«; ‘lri^this phrtof the message, cur malignant goterhor takes occasion, as in all other parts• Of hii splenetic doctiment, to vent his rage up-*on the president. He says, ‘ The administra-tldn’ by its unfortunate policy, having wasted OUT,Strength, and reduced our armies, and be-infc u’nable to get freemen Into the field, as cfh-•bnpta/.Ao;, ‘‘will .... soon resort to the 3*hlic'y Of filling them up by the conscription ofiWfei.1/ 'Here it is charged that it is Pr. Davis who tt,as '* wasted our strength, and reduced our ar* mies.’ ’ It Is not yankee bullets that have done this—it is Pr. Davis: and the misfortune is, Brown finds plenty of fools to believe what he •ays, and plenty of knaves to back him in all his meanness.Gov. Brown tells us, we are obliged to have the negroes to make provisions for us: and this im one reason be is opposed to arming the slaves. Now, our own impression is, that we have plenty of slaves to work the fields, and fight the ja.nkeesx too. We wish our people to investi-this matter. Let them go to the towns, villages, and cities, and see how many idle negroes throng the streets, while white women, •and children, are at work in the corn-field, because their husbands, and fathers, are absent in the army. There iB many a white woman* now, who, with her children, not only makes enough bread, but who makes, also, a few sur-plupi bushels of corn lor sale. Now, where does this, surplus go ? It goes to the towns, •and cities. And who eat it V The refugee negro^r-help to consume it, though they don’t work for it. They live in idleness, and extravagance, and the white women, and children, work'for them, while the huabandB, and fathers •of these white women, and children, are shot .down by the yankees. The negroes, though, *rb kept in the bomb-proofs, and Gov. Brown iB opposed to taking them out, and putting -them, in the army, where they can Btop their share of yankee bullets. No class in our land •ftf more interested in southern independence,thain the negroes. Why not let them do their •hire of the fighting, if they are to have their full share of the blessing/Now, we are in favor of taking all these high-strung buck niggers out of the cities, where jthejr .ride over the poor white rain’s neck, every and putting them in the army: and we jarb itir favor of taking the high flown nigger weibes away from their posts of (dis)‘ honor and profit/ where they flaunt their silks, and •Mfthft, UVer the home-spun dress of the poorisnd putting them in the field, to 't^^ooVa'Tqr'the army, and collardB for Gov. B^n:ind‘ pther people who can afford to eatWe sha11 have a plenty of negro** tb'wltivate allthe land that is leftus, in obr circumscribed limits, with several21, 1865. ) hundred thousand to spare, to swell the ranksof our armv.a/We wish to impress it upon our people, that, owing* to the fact that we have been compelled to abandon so much of our territory, and from the fact that so many negroes have taken re^ fuge in the interior, we have not land enough for all these negroes to work. There are a plenty of idle, profligate, ‘fancy’ negroes in the country, to more than fill the places of ail who will be taken from the corn-field, to be put upon the battle-field.We suppose that in the town of Eatonton, there are fifty to one hundred negroes doing nothing—or worse than nothing. In the county of Putnam, outside of the village, we presume there are a hundred, or two, more ; and this state of things exists all over the country. There is not land enough for them all to tend. The lazy, good tor nothing vagabonds’ arethey too good to be put either in the corn field, ; or field of battleV jWe have thus successfully met Gov. Brown’s assertion, that we cannot spare our slaves from the corn field, for the battle-field.Our acetic governor’s next argument, with reference to arming the slaves, is, ‘ we cannot rely upon them as soldiers ’ He does not say that they will not make soldiers^ but we cannot uely upon them as warriors. He says, they remain with us, now, because they are afraid that if they leave us, the yankees will make soldiers of them.There is not a word of truth in this assertion.-—Whenever the negroes have an opportunity, they go with the yankees, and become soldiers lor them. They are not at all afraid of being made soldiers : and even if they were, they are willing to run the risk, in order to be-oome free, as they suppose they will be, with the yankees.Gov. Brown volunteers to tell Lincoln how he can disband the negro soldiers, should they be put into our army* It-is not his ostensible object to do this, but, in effect, it is just as we say. He tells Mr. Lincoln that a ‘ single proclamation from him, that all who will desert us, after they are forced into service, and go over to him, shall have their freedom, be taken out of the army, and permitted to go into the country, in his possession, and receive wages for their labor, would disband them by brig, ades/ No doubt Pr. Liocoln will thank Gov. Brown for his advice, and gratefully take it. Rut our opinion is, that Browu and Lincoln both will be disappointed in their calculations, and that the slaves will make good soldiers for us, in spite of the joint efforts of the president of the United States, and his concordant governor of Georgia, to prevent it. Some of the most noted victories of the world have been won by slaves, for their masters.It is said that Pr. Lincoln, and the north generally, are very uneasy at the idea of our arming our slaves. Gov. Brown, however, steps forward, and tells them they need have no uneasiness upon the subject,, and informs Lincoln how he can avert the blow wtiich he so muoh dreads.In the following extract from Gov. Brown’s message, is the quintessence of abolitionism. Speaking of the negroes, he says ;* Whatever may be our opinion of their normal condition, or of their true interest, we can- Inot expect them, if they remain with, us, to perform deeds of heroic valor, when they are fighting to continue the enslavement of their wives, and children. It is not reasonable for us to demand it of them, and we have little cause to expect the blessing of Heaven upon our efforts, if we compel them to perform, sucha task.’The gist of all this is, slavery is a curse to the negro race, and we cannot expect the ne. gro men to fight, in order to Continue this curse upon their wives, and children—Heaven will not bless us in an effort to make negro men fight to continue their wives, and children, in bondage.That this is the sum and substance of Gov. Brown’s argument, is proved conclusively, from what he says about the blessing of Heaven. We cannot expect the blessing of Heaven upon an effort to make negro men fight to continue their families in slavery. Why? Because slavery is a wrong, and vve cannot expect Ibaven’s blissing upon a wrong. If slavery were a blessing to negro women and children, then we might expect Heaven’s smile upon the fighting, by their husbands, and fathers, to continue thetn in bondage. But slavery is not a blessing—it is a curse : and, therefore, we cannot expect Heaven’s blessing upon a fight to continue the curse.Now, there is no avoiding the force of wbat we say here: there is no avoiding- the conclusion that Gov. Brown does regard slavery as a curse to negro women and children, and that, therefore, we need not expect Heaven’s blessing upon a fight, by negro men, to continuethis curse.Now, then, if we cannot expect God to bless the negro, in fighting to fasten the curse of slavery upon his wife and children, how can we expect the bless iDg of Heaven upon white men, fighting to continue Ibese same negro women and children in bondage? According to Gov. Brown’s logic, it is all well endugh for white men to fight for the preservation of negro slavery : but if negroes fight for a continuance ol the same blessing, then we need expect nothing but Heaven’s frowns. If a white man upholds negro slavery—that is right; if a negro upholds negro slavery—that is wrong. Such is Gov. Brown’s quintessence of logical assininity. What the oolor of a soldier’s skin has to do with the question of right, in the cause for which he ie battling, we leave to theAsstuteness of our redoubtable state executive and his admirers.But Brown thinks it it is established that negroes are a military people, they are ready for freedom, and should no longer be held slaves.Now, we are not particularly anxious to shov that negroes are a ‘ military people but tbi we do believe—that if you put muskets in tbei hands, they can be taugty to ghoot them, par ticularly as there is no very great art in tbi matter. All they have to do is to puli the trig ger. And as wo have already remarked, bow of the most noted victories, in the world’s his tory, have been won by slaves. Therefore i does not follow that because ^groesmay fight they may, therefore, not be slaves.But we wish to show Gov. Brown’s inconsis tency, at this point, as he is, universally, om of the most inconsistent men we ever knew.Dr. Natt Crawford has been making a goot
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Eatonton Countryman
Eatonton, Georgia, US
Tue, Mar 21, 1865
Page 13
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USA 11 May 2020
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