The Daily Dispatch: January 3, 1863., [Electronic resource]

A Canadian Opinion of the situation of the people of the North.

‘ The white soldiers at Beaufort, South Carolina, under Generals Hunter and Sexton, have literally become hewers of wood and drawers of water to the blacks. Sambo is undisputed master of the situation. He is free; free from labor, by which the white man earns his bread; free from the restraints of military and civil law; and, moreover, glories in the reddest of nether garments. What a paradise for the negro. But years ago an American statesman, who has gone to his long home, warned his hearers lest in giving freedom to the colored race they should enslave their own. And if a large faction in the Northern States, of which Horace Greeley is the exponent through the columns of the press, and Wendell Phillips on the forum, were permitted to have their way, the worst fears of the departed statesman would be realized. The edifice of liberty which he lived to see attain a ground and commanding position, and which is now tottering to the fall, would, under a general edict of emancipation, crumble into the dust, never more to rise again.

’ At Beaufort, the Abolition Generals Hunter and Sexton have been left to their own devices, and the result has been most deplorable. The position of the two races has been reversed.--We see the white soldier down-trodden and degraded; the negro elevated into an elysium of freedom. The negro brigade proved a failure. Conscription was resorted to to fill its ranks. Guards were sent to Beaufort from the camp to arrest and bring before the recruiting officers such negroes as were physically competent to serve in the army, that they might volunteer into the Black Brigade — at least get into it in some shape or other. The poor fellows attempted to resist, but found it of no avail.--They attempted to hide from their pursuers, but they were hunted like dogs, and dragged out of their houses, from barns, cellars, and taken from their wives and families, that they might enjoy the privilege of volunteering. --The scenes which occurred beggared description. When the brigade was turned out for exercise, more than half its numbers, after firing blank cartridges, squatted and dropped down, frightened at the noise of the guns in their own hands. Desertions were so frequent that the camp had to be surrounded by a cordon of white sentinels. And yet, one night, some two or three hundred escaped through the lines, carrying their Enfield rifles and equipments with them, and have not since been heard of. Doubtless the same weapons are now doing good service against the North.

Despite the endeavors of the commanding General the brigade did not flourish. While it did exist in tolerable numbers it occupied the finest encampment on the island — the beautiful grounds and stately mansion of the Confederate General, Drayton. A relation of General Hunter held command in it. The men were provided with the Sibley tent and Enfield rifles, while the white soldiers had nothing better than the ordinary field tent and the old Harper's Ferry musket. Their clothing even, was superior. As for their utility, that was not clearly apparent. For the purpose of holding together this organization of six hundred negroes, nearly an equal number of white soldiers was required to discipline and guard them in their quarters. They were too treacherous to place on picket or guard duty, and too indolent to cultivate the deserted plantations; nor were they permitted to perform fatigue duty. One morning forty negroes from the black brigade were employed on fatigue duty at the dock in unloading vessels; but, it coming to the knowledge of Gen. Hunter, the quartermaster was ordered to relieve them from work and send them back to their quarters. If he wanted men for fatigue duty he must take them from the white regiments. With the remainder of the brigade now remaining a like policy is pursued. They are said to be the especial pots of Gen. Hunter.

When the exigencies of the service requires arduous work to be performed at night the slumbers of the negro are never disturbed.--During the heat of the day he ceases labor, but the white man works on. The effect of this ill-judged policy, this undue elevation of an interior race, has been to make the negro insolent and overbearing to a degree unendurable. And one day a white soldier struck a negro in a scuffle brought on by the insolence of the latter. The affair took place near Gen. Hunter's headquarters, and within the observation of that individual. Down he rushed to the beach, bare-headed, in shirt sleeves and slippers, and actually "pitched into" the white soldier, and the two had a rough and tumble fight about the negro. While Gen. Sexton is said to have remarked, in the presence of several privates and non-commissioned officers, that "he thought more of a negro which stole than he did of an honest one; and if he had the power he would put a rifle in their hands, and let them steal from every white man they could; and unless we arm the negroes the Union cannot exist." A case is also cited in which a negro confessed to having stolen a sum of money from the Captain of a transport. The money was restored, but Gen. Sexton afterwards ordered it to be given back to the negro, we presume that his thieving propensities might be encouraged. Through the effect of such treatment the white soldiers have been several times on the point of an outbreak; and it is by no means improbable that such an event may yet occur if Generals Hunter and Sexton remain long in command.

Thus has the white race been degraded.--Has the negro of the North or the save of the South been the gainer? Not at all. The former, President Lincoln advises to colonize elsewhere, and laws are passed excluding him from certain Northern States; the latter, when he finds his way into the Federal camps, has a musket forced into his unwilling hands, or, except in Gen. Hunter's command, is made to labor far harder than he had heretofore been accustomed to. So far as we can ascertain, in both North and South the negro deprecates interference with his condition. He is averse to being made the subject of the war. The slave finds his way into the Federal camps only when deserted by his master; and in no one instance have these refugees voluntarily lent aid to those whose protection they have sought. In many cases they have carried back important information to the enemy. The negro of the North has no wish to fight in the army. Nor does he wish to abandon his home for a new one in a distant land. He simply wants to be left alone. So does the slave.--And any attempt to coerce either class into a condition for which they have shown no desire has proved, and will prove, a delusion and a snare.

The record of the Northern Abolitionists contains little to approve of, and much to condemn. They brought about this war ostensibly for improving the condition of the blacks, and giving them their freedom, and the best they can do is to propose an emigration scheme to get them out of the country. On the other hand, by their united and persistent efforts they have succeeded in separating for years, at least, the two great natural divisions of the country; they have bathed the land in blood; brought sorrow into many a household; transformed a free country into a despotism which has no parallel; squandered recklessly untold millions of money; and now there remains but the last act in the drama to be enacted — the freeing of the blacks by the force of arms, the destruction of the South by murder and pillage, and the throwing of eight millions of shiftless creatures upon the North for support. But this the strong arm and steady aim of the Southerners seems likely to prevent.

English Opinion.--The following extract from a letter dated Manchester, England, October 27th, is published in the Charleston Courier:

‘ I could say much, but will say but little, upon the terrible struggle in which you are engaged. You may rest assured that you have the sympathy of almost all England in the noble fight your people are making for liberty and self-government. Whatever differences of opinion there may have been as first, there are none now. You are bravely fighting for liberty against the most cruel despotism which has appeared in modern history — the despotism of a selfish, headstrong and lawless mob, who, in carrying on the war of dominion, are violating every principle they profess to respect, and sacrificing their own liberties to the gratification of a diabolical revenge.

’ You may say that a little help is worth much sympathy, and for my own part I must say I hope that help will not long be withhold; but I cannot say that public opinion is decidedly expressed in favor of intervention. I think that the Government are, to some extent, kept back by the hope of the speedy collapse of Northern finance and general exhaustion. The suffering of our manufacturing population is greatly increasing, and may exercise an influence before the winter is over. I cannot say, however, that I have any decided hope of any bold course being yet adopted. One thing I must say, though you owe us no thanks for it, and that is, that there can be no doubt that the tardy recognition of the South by Europe has been in the highest degree beneficial to your cause. You have been thrown upon your own resources, and have learnt self-dependence, and you have an united people. The dignified tone and conduct of your Government has made it respected, and it is in strong contrast to the vulgar ignorance and bombast of the Northern Cabinet. I fear you have the prospect of another struggle for Charleston, but the spirit of your people will, by God's blessing, be equal to the occasion.

I have little to say about business. Sea Island spinners generally continue on full time. Egyptian is very much substituted; and their stocks of Sea Island were so large that the small quantities running the blockade, or captured, which come here, have been sufficient to keep up stock, though not to keep down prices.

I cannot help again saying how deeply I sympathize with you in your struggle. The frenzy of the North is appalling. The excesses of the French revolution may be said to be almost, and probably soon will be quite reached. Humanity is outraged and Christianity banished, or at least fails to make its presence known. I do think that better days are in store for you, and for us at no distant day.