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That Slavery has been a great strength to Whe rebels, that the able bodied slaves have two 1ounted in fact, as so many soldiers in the Am elield against our men, no man who will let imenteason perform its work can for a moment ut\,loubt. The slaves have performed necessary and .1,vork, either as laborers in the army, as ser- 17th 1ants and camp followers, or at home on the not w■arms and plantations of the rebels. They to inn•eleased in so doing white men for the army,uid insomuch as they did not demand whiteWithinM\nen to oversee and guard them, increased lie soldiers in the tield in proportion to their )wn numbers. The rebel soldiers at Pea the aRidge, at Donelson, at Corinth, at Bull Bun, the eit Winchester, Ac., e., wherever our sol- siBotliers have met and fought them, were in- maktTeased in numbers, by the thousand or ten del thousand, because there were slaves at home to I atnaise corn Ac.. to feed them and their farni- EVenies. It would not be unsafe to sav that lt;»h cthere have been more than 100,0lt;)() rebel undesoldiers in the lield, who, had it not been for betwlie slaves, would have been compelled to be some\t home to work on their farms and planta- tooklions, to save the South from inevitable thestarvation. Thousands, if not tens of thou- tingands of Northern men have been slain thus Plan—orkept in the field! l°nSThe rebels themselves understand this— sheland thev know lt;00 what able allies the 0u*Northern loyalists are to their cause, who histstrenuously insist that slavery shall not be m(Mltouched, that tliev shall have this immense inKstrength continued to them at any cost of 8,01Northern blood and treasure. The Rich- al‘mond Dispafh of the 27th ult., does not lies- *heitate to call it uso valuable an element of strength,'' ©relas well it may, for if slaves are not soldiers tr(Kin the field—they put them there, which exlamounts to the same thing. The Dispatch *therefore demands that immediate steps tonshall be taken to prevent the loss of this UP* “element of strength.” It alleges that 1‘ wherever the Union armies have advanced COI‘the negroes have been swept off as clean as ^ *the Eastern locusts sweep otf a field of !'grain.” “It alleges that the neighborhood of ’'ua Yankee army creates as complete a stampede among negroes as the approach of alocomotive among cattle!” It therefore calls re*for something to be done, to prevent the like lt;aloss of strength in the future. It desires tiie UPGovernment to take the matter up and pro- ailvide for the removal of the slaves from any ',aregion threatened by our army.Then was not, and is not, slavery con- 1KIcerned in this war ? Was not something to aiifbe done with slavery in carrying 011 the war?No matter what men thought of slavery, of 11I its rightfulness or wroagfulness, of its in- 111fernal iniquity or its indifference, ft was han element of strenath to the rebellion. It tkhad its thousands and its tens of thousands 111of armed men in the field warring against hthe Union and those who were fighting for theUnion* The slain of the Union army were multiplied by t housand and by tens of thou- nlt;sands, through the “strength of slavery. ^The blood of Northern men shed by it wasdrank up on many a field! The noble, the 1true, the generous, the brave, were its vie-tims! Were these sacrifices lobe contin- Ifued indefinitely? Were the lives of truemen and brave men not too great a sacrifice.to be given, to preserve to the rebels thielement of strength ? There was no claimto its protection—to rebels—in the Constitution or in right or injustice. ! *!ut|ie I Surely there could he no more imperativedemand than that this element of strengtht• •reti-hould be taken awav from the rebels as farIa-as jiossible. Justice to our soldiers, justiceaedto the brave men who were giving theiro-11-illlives to put down the rebellion, demandedthat something should be done to deprivetvhe11their traitorous foes, as far as might be, of this vast strength. To have an idea of howIrimportant il was, one has only to reflectIhow weak would have been the rebels, hadofitsit been possible to have abstracted all their\slaves in a single day! They could have1)e_ been overwhelmed in a six months and at 0f an expense of hundreds of millions less sts than the cost will be with the strength af-j -j | forded by slavery, and at a saving of tens of thousands of valuable lives. Any man canintoers?enlikIealsee this. Then in proportion as they aredeprived of their slaves, in that proportionare they weakened! In that proportion arethe lives of loyal soldiers saved and in thattiertheirkproportion loyal treasure saved.That the rebels can he weakened in thisway, the confession of the Richmond Dispatchaffords abundant evidence, if any werewanting. What, then, would those men havewho are crying “nigger,” “fighting for the11orehersednigger,” “ abolition war,” c., Arc.? Wouldthev have thousands and tens of thousandsof lives sacrificed, lt;0 secure the rebels the aid of their slaves? Do they value loyal white men so cheaply, that they would throw their lives away, rather than disturb slavery ? Such seems to be their idea and suchtheir purpose. Will the people, the friends el* of the soldiers, those to whom their lives arten- ! precious, coincide with them? I)o they hold tern I those lives so cheaply? We trow not. Let them vote accordingly 011 the 14th.ereal-The New York World says: “ It grievesmany a patriot more to withdraw his supportre-from the Administration, now that it hasneeabandoned such a policy, than it grieveslorsthose who perceive so keenly the peril of. ^ i their party to part with them?” How if grieves the World, when it had alreadyIfloretacked, before the policy of which it com-1 I 1 11 n \ / 1 \ /1 (i 1 tt n «■» 1 .. » .1__ .
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Daily Commercial Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Fri, Oct 03, 1862
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Charles F.
OH, USA 07 May 2019
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