Armies contrabands.
We have before, referred to the organization by Federal
Generals of the contrabands for military purposes, an already almost unparalleled, in all its circumstances, in the history of nations.
Not content with despoiling the
North of this, as of every other description of property; with enticing them from their comfortable homes and putting them in chains when they desired to return to their masters, they are now embarking in the horrible' business of putting arms in their hands and preparing them to shed the blood of their masters.
The solitary example of the
British, who made such an attempt in their wars with
America, is not to be compared in atrocity with the present proceeding.
This deed is done by men who still claim that both they and we are bound by the national compact which recognizes slaves as property, and who have always professed to regard the conduct of the
British in the employment of negroes and Indians against white men as an abominable crime against humanity.
Such it undoubtedly was, and still is, and yet the very men who were most obstreperous in their outcries against it, now, in their malignity and vengeance, resort to it with fiendish alacrity and joy.
The condition of the negro in the
South is one which was brought into existence not by the
South, but by English and Yankee agency.
They were the men who carried on the slave trade, who caused the negroes to be hunted in
Africa, and brought to their ships, and who sold them to the
Southern proprietors and pocketed the profits.
They owe their wealth and prosperity to negro labor.
Their manufactures, their commerce, their large cities, and the material greatness of the
United States have all been built up by the domestic institution of the
South, which has yielded to the
South, however, only the bare means of subsistence.
The condition of the slaves, in the hands of Southern masters, has been one of greater case and comfort than that of any other class of laborers under the sun. They perform less work than the white laborers of the
North, a fact which the
Yankees themselves admit, who, in the present war, are making the contrabands work harder than they ever before worked in their lives.
In
Africa they were more barbarians, cannibals, and but little removed from brutes.
That they have been well treated here, is shown by their admirable physical condition, and by the rapidity with which they multiply, a fact which does not exist among the free negroes of the
North, where the race is so rapidly dying out that, but for the fresh accessions by runaway negroes, it would long since have ceased to be. Moreover, it is not only their physical condition which has been improved.
They have been civilized and Christianized, and that, to such an extent, that the number of negroes converted to Christianity under Southern influences is vastly larger than that which the combined churches of
America have succeeded in converting by all their foreign missions throughout the world.
Now, it is such a class of people, brought here by the
North itself, and raised in the physical and moral scales by Southern hands, whom the
North is endeavoring to arm against those from whom they have derived so many blessings!
It is idle, however, to dilate upon the horrible iniquity and brutality of such a procedure.
Those who perpetrate it are prepared to hesitate at no crime whatever by which they can accomplish their ends.
We should as soon think of pointing out to the murderer who demanded our money or our life the injustice of such a demand, or of reasoning with the tiger who was about to descend upon our sheep-fold, as to expect the
North, from any regard for humanity or civilization, to desist from its fell purpose.
In this, as in all other circumstances of this unparalleled war, we rely alone upon Heaven and upon our strong right arms,--not upon their sense of justice or humanity.
We ask neither favor nor fair play, and do not expect them.
But undoubtedly we shall take care of ourselves.
The men of the
South are prepared for any phase which this war may assume.
They understand the negro race, and are prepared to deal with any position which they may be made to assume.
They have shown that they are their truest benefactors and friends.
They can also show, if need be, that they know how to execute judgment and vengeance.
They do not dream of treating as ordinary enemies the dependents of their own household who may be transformed into assassins.
It will be a day of darkness and tribulation for those poor wretches who may be enticed to raise their hands against their masters and their friends!
In playing this last card of disappointed cupidity and vengeance, the
North is destined to find itself as signally failed as in its other plans of Southern subjugation.
The experiment made by the
British in the same line proved a ridiculous failure.
The
African was fond enough of the pomp and circumstance of war; but they could never convert him into a brave and reliable soldier.
His sable checks blanched in the presence of the race whose superiority he had felt from the hour he saw the light, and whose hands were as heavy in retribution as generous in patronage.
What has been, will be again.
The
Yankees have never understood the negro.
They believed at the beginning of the war that there would be a general insurrection.
Failing in this, they betook themselves to the enticement of contrabands from their homes, in which they have been successful, simply on account of the contraband's childish love of novelty and his favorite idea that liberty means nothing to do. As soon as they discover their mistake in this respect they are anxious to return to their old homes.
The military organization will prove as impracticable as it is inhuman.
If it could be accomplished on a large scale, it would indeed lead to the abolition of slavery; but it would be by the extermination of the slaves.
