^ - - - aV ' ^ ^ '^^ *» ■<5' -^^Kir % ^^ *'^^Va'«. t<. ^ *'^ •/ \/^^\/ "o^^^-/ \^^'?^\/ "^ 'X /.c:^.% >*\.^^j^>^_ co^c^.% A' ' ^0 0^ *l'°' -?■ ♦ o f« W*" ^ -^ ;<» •' sP^ ^^ . t • %♦ - • • • » '>\ C\> . t • ■>( V-^^ '•IP^*' /"^"^^ "^^^' ^^ "^ '-IP^^*' /'^ ^-^ ^^0^ .^^ «4 0> s.;''^-?i\y 'o,;'..^-\o- LETTEPt FROM ROBERT DALE OWEK Edilorialfrom i/is Fve.ni.vg Post of mvemlerii, 1SG2.) I anrestiicted pen, ia her own hand-under which THE POLIflCAL PaOBLEM. she will coneent to rtunior, (x.e?t in me coc "We publish elsewhere a discussion of the as- '•'"gencj— conquest, more or lets complete, by pects dnd duties of tbe times, by one of our most '°''.^® °^ ^'"™^- distinguished statesmen and poliiicians, Robert 5''^ ^^ ^}^'']^ *° ^'^^^^^ P«^=« ^^ coDquest ? T. , 7^ TT 1! .u J xr \ ^"^ ^^^f '^■^ o*^ an answer, let US look closelv at a Dale 0(vei. ITnliliO some other democrats, Mr. | j^^ at^^i^ji^^^ ^^^^^ ooit cioseiy at a 0<»ea does not deceive himself as to the nature of By the census of 1860 the numhfr of wh'te the civil war in which we are engaged. He takes . males between the ages of 18 and 45 is, in the no narrow or partisan view of the motives under ; loyal states, about four millions ; antJ, in the dis- which it should be conducted. He desires no end 'oj^il states, about one million tfcree hundred of it which shall not be enduring in its results. ! thousand ; a little upwards of three to one. Iha Mr. Owen discerns, what many had long since I disproportion seems overwhelmingly great, discerned before, and many more are just begin- .E'^V,*^'.^ calculatiot., as a basis of military ning to discern, that tbe continued existence of two orders of society, so different as those of the strength, is wholly fallacious ; for it includes per sons of one color only. , , . . . , . . ^^^ °f *^^ above f jur millions the North hi3 free and slave states, is mcorapatible with the to provide soldiers and (with inconsiderable ex- peace of the continent. Whether ia the Union or I ceptions, not usually extending to field- labor) cut of it, slavery can only prove a cause of per- laborers also. petual irritation and conflict, and a suspeusiou ofj But of the three millions atdahalf of slaves hostilities or truce of any kind a mere postpone- j o^^ed in the rebel states about two millions may ment of a more dreadful outbreak. Emancipation I ^^ estimated as laborers. Alloiv three hundred is at once the surest means of suppressing tbe re- 1 ^''°'!'''°'^ f ^^^^^ «« employed in domestic , ,,. J •. A (u - • services and other occupations folio wed by women hellion a3 an armed resistance, and of harmonizing „^^„„, „ j u ^ , , ,. ,. . ° among us, and we have seventeen hundred thou- the sections as bodies politic. j ,^^^ plantation hands, male and female, each one His statements are clear, his arguments cogent, | of which counts against a northern laborer on his motives patriotic, and we ask for his presenta- farm or in work-shop. lion of the case the calm, unprejudiced considera- ; Then, of that; portion of population whence tion of men of all parties, and particularly of that soldiers and outdoor laborers and mechanics democratic party to which the writer has all his '^"^'' '^^''^^5' ^s taken, the northern states have tour millions and the southern states three millions. Supposing the negroes all loyal to their masters, it follows that the true proportion of strength available in this war— that i?, ot soldiers to fight and laborers tosupportthenation whilefighting— may fairly enough be taken at three in the South life adhered. THE COST OP PEACE. To the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Trtamry : Sir: In briefest terms I state the propositions which, as the subject of our recent conversation, j to four in the North. I promised to reduce to writing. Under this supposition of a South united, with- What are the reasonable hopes of peace? i out regard to color, in an eflfort for recogDition, Not, that within the next fifty dajs the South, shall we obtain peace by subduing ber? If hietoiy availing herself of the term of grace offered in teach truth, we shall not. Never, since the world the President's proclamation, may, to save her \ began, did niae millions of people band together, favorite institution, return to her allegiance, resolutely inspired by the one idea of achieving Let us not deceive ourselves. There are no con- 1 their independence, yet fail to obtain it It is dilions, no guaranties— no, not if we proffer her , not a century since one-third of the number sue- a blanS sheet on which to set them down, with j cessfuUy defied Great Britain. *c 2 ■OV Bat let T13 snppoEe the negroes of the Sonth loyal to the Union instead of to their masters, how stands the matter then ? In that ease, it is not to a united people, but to a Confederacy divided against itself, that we are opposed; the misters on one side; the laborers, exceeding them in number, on the other. Suppose the services of these laborers trans- ferred to us, what will then be the proportion, on either side ot Icrces available, directly and in directly, for military purposes? As about five and three-lourtbs to one and a third : in other words, nearly as nine to two. Such a wholesale transfer is, of course, impoesi ble in practice. But in so far as the transfer is possible, and shall occur, W3 approach the above results. How much wisdom, under these circumstances, is there in the advice that we should put down the rebellion first and settle the negro question aiterwards? What shall we say of their states- manship who, in a war like this, would leave out of view the practical effects of emancipation ? On the other hand, however, it is to be admitted that African loyalty in this war will little avail us, if we have not good sense and good feeling enough properly to govern the negroes who may enter our lines. To render their aid available, in the first place we must treat them humanely ; a duty we have yet to learn: and secondly, bath for their sakes and for our own, we must not support them in idleness. Doubtless, they are most efficient as laborers, as domestics in camp, as teamsters, or employed on entrenchments and fortifications, or in ambulance carp?, or as sappers and miners ; or, as fast as southern plantations sh'aU fall into our possession, as field-hands. But if all these posts become over filled, better do away with the necessity for further draft in the North by putting muskets in the.hands of able-bodied men, colored differently from ourselvee, thaa to delude their ignorance into the opinion that among the pri pi leges of freedom is food without work. Have we philanthropy and discretion enough wisely to administer eueh a change of system ? Possibly not. Administrative capacity in public affairs is not our strong point. We would do well -to bear in mind, however, that without such ca- pacity not this war only, but cur entire govern- mental experiment, will prove a failure at last. Do other objections hold against the plan ? Dees humanity forbid us to accept the aid of an en- slaved race? in so far ashuminity can ever enjoin war at all, ehe enjoins the emplojmsnt, by us, of the African in this; first, because his employment may shorten, by years, the fratricidal struggle ; and then, because, if he is not permitted to assist in civilized warfare under tib, and if, withont hia aid, we fail to effect his liberation and thus disap- point his hopes, he may be overtaken , by the temptation to seek freedom and revenge in his own wild way. In accepting the liberated slave as a soldier we may prevent his rising as an assassin. By the creation of negro brigades we may avert the indiscriminate massacres of servile insurrection. Or is there an insuperable difficulty of caste in the way? In a contest likely to eventuate in se- curing to another race than ours the greatest of temporal blessings, are we determined to shut out that race from all share in its own liberation ? Are we so enamored of the Moloch, War, that we will suffer none out our sons to pass through the Qre ? Terrible penalty to pay, with life and death at stake, for a national prejudice against the southern Pariah ! As to the duty of our rulers in the premises, cannot see according to what principle of ethif a government, charged with the lives of million the patting dowa of a gigantic rebellion and tt restoring of tranquillity to the land, has the righ in the hour of its utmost need, to scorn a vast eli ment of strength placed within its reach and ; its clisposal ; nor why, if it refuses to avail itse of such an element, it should not be held respoi sible for the lives it sacrifices and the hopes . blights. But we need emancipation far less for the m; terlal aid it affords— great, even indispeneabh though it be— than because of other paramour considerations. We have tried the experiment of a federr Union, with a free-labor system in one portion ( it and a slave- system in another, for eighty yeare and no one familiar with our affairs for a quarts of a century past is ignorant that the result hs j been an increase— embittered year by year in evex accelerated ratio— of dissentions, of section; jealousies, of national heart-burnings. Wher eighteen months since, these culminated in wa: it was but the issue which our ablest etatesmei looking sorrowfully into the future, had Ion since foretold. Bat if, while yet at peace ana with all the influence of revolutionary reminip cences pleading the cause of Union, this diversity of labor systems, producing variance of character and alienation of feeling, proved stronger to di- vide than all past memories and present interests to unite, what chance is there that its baneful power for evil should cease, now, when to thoughts of fancied injuries in other years are added the recollections of the terrible realities enacted on a hundred bloody battlefields, from which the smoke has scarcely passed away ? None— the remotest ! A suspension of hostilities we can purchase ; a ' few years' respite, probably, in which to return to our money-getting, before the storm bursts forth anew with gathered force ; but if we look bet yond 6elfl3hneBS and the present ; if our children are in our thoughts ; if we are suffering and es- pending now, that they, in aland of prosperity, may live and die in peace, then must we act so that the result shall endure. We must not be content to put off the evil day. The root of the evil— the pregnant cause of the war — that must be eradi- cated. Report has it that a western i)oiitician recently proposed, as the best solution ol our difhculties, the recognition of slavery in all the states. Such an idea has a basis of truth ; namely, that a state of war is, among us, the necessary result of con- flicting labor systems. Such an idea might even . Je carried out and lead to peace but for that pro- jressive spirit of Christian civilization which we 'are not openly outrage, how imperfectly soever ^ obey its humane behests. There are a thousand reasons— geographical, ommercial, political, international— why we ^^liouldnot consent to a separation into two c?n- ^deracies ; it is a contingency not to be thought a or entertained ; but if we look merely to the \ndUions of la&tivg peace, the chance of main- ";xiDing it would be far better if the independence jf the South were to be recognised with her legroes emancipated, than it she were to return '} her allegiance, retaining her slave system. For in the former case, the cause of dissension . eing uprooted, thetendency would be to re unite, Qd a fe w years might see us a singld nation again ; *hile, in the latter, a constantly active source of fritation still existing, three years of breathing ^me would not elapse without bringing endless fuarrels and a second rebellion. ' Conceive re union with slavery still in existence, •nagine southern sympathizers in power among '3, offering compromises. Suppose the South, ^ihausted with military reverses and dedring a -.w years' armistice to recruit, decides to accept under the guise of peace and reconstruction? |7hat next? ThousandSkOf slaves, their excited bpes Of emancipation crushed, fleeing across the border. A Fugitive Slave law, revived by peace, demanding their rendition. Popular opinion in the North opposed to the law, and refusing the demand. Renewed war, the certain consequence Or take, even, the alternative of recognition- recognition ol an independent confederacy, still slave-holding. Are we, then— becoming the sole exception among the nations of the earth— to make ourselves aiders and abettors of the slave- system of a foreign nation, by agreeicg to return to her negro refugees seeking liberty and an asy- lum among us? National self-respect imper- atively forbids this. Public sentiment would compel the rejection, as abase humiliation, of any proposed treaty stipulation, providiog for rendi- tion of runaway slaves. Yet the South would re- gard such rejection in no other light than as a standing menace — a threat to deprive her ol what she regards as her most valuable property. Co- terminous as for hundreds— possibly thousands — of miles our boundaries would be, must not the South, in coa».mon prudence, maintain all along that endless border-line an armed elave- police? Are we to consent to this? And if we do, shall we escape border raids alter fleeing fugi- tives? No sane man will expeciit. Are we to suffer these? Wc are disgraced. Are we to resent them ? It is a renewal of hostilities. State elections may go as they will. Their re- sults can never change the fact that auy patty ob- taining the control of the government and adopt- ing the policy that the settlement of the emanci- pation question is to be postponed till the war shall be closed, will never, wriile it pursues that policy, see this war permanently closed — noteven by accepting a shameful disruption of our country. Bat if emancipation is to avail us as a peace meas- ure, we must adopt it boldly, resolutely, effec tually. It must be genera!, not partial; extend- ing not to the slaves of rebels only, but to every slave on this continent. Even if it were practi- cable, which it is not, with slavery non-existent in the northern states and abalished in those which persist in rebellion, to maintain it in the narrow border-strip, it is precisely there, where negro fugitives can the most readily escape, that its maintenance would the most certainly lead to war. Can this great peace measure be constitutionally enacted ? A proclamation or (the more appropriate form) an act of General Emancipation, should, in its preamble, set forth, in substance, that the claims to service or labor of which it deprives certain persons having been proved, by recent events, to be of a character endangertng the supremacy of the law, jeopardizing the integrity of the Union, and incompatible with the permanent peace of the country, are taken by the government, with just compensation made. Under circumstances far less urgent than these, the law or custom of civilized nations, based on considerations of pub- lic utility, authorizes such taking of private pro- perty for public use. We ourselves are familiar with its operation. When a conflagraiion in a city threatens to spread far, houses in the line. of Its progress may legally be seized and destroyed by the authorities in order to arrest it ; and the owners are not held to have been wronged if they are paid for such losses under an equitable ap- praisement. But it is not the existence of part of a city that is now endangered ; it is the integrity of one among the first Powers of the world that is menaced with destruction. The truth ot the preamble suggested has be- come, in my judgment, incontrovertible. It will receive the assent of an overwhelming majority of *the people of the loyal etates. The public sen- timent of Europe will admit its truth. Let us confess that such a preamble, as preface to act or proclamation, could not have command- ed the assent of more than a small fraelion of our people, only two short years ago — two years, as we reckon time ; a generation, if we calculate by the stirring events and far-reaching upheavals that have been crowded into the eventiul months. In such days as these abuses ripen rapidly. Their consequences mature. Their ultimate tendencies become apparent. We ere reminded of their transitory character. We are reminded that al though for the time, and in a certain stage of hu man progress, some abuses may have their tem- poral y use, and for this, under God's economy, may have been suffered to continue ; yet all abuses have but a limited life. The Eight only is eternal. The rebellion, teacher end creator as well as scourge and destroyer, by sternly laying bare the imminent dingers of slavery, has created the con- Btitutionality of emanc'pition. It has done more. It has mide emancipatioa a bounden political duty, as well as a sirictiy constitutional right. Can we, in dtclaring emancipation, legally avoid the payment, say of two hundred millions, in the shape of compensation to loyal slaveholders? Not it a elaveholdtr 6 right to service and labof from his slaves, when not forfeited by treason, it legal. On humanitiirian grounds the legality ot that right, tas been denied. But a construction of the coDttituilon adverse to such denial, and ac quiesced in Vy the naiion throughout more than two generatioES, is held by most men to be reason snfficieit why the right in question should be re garded as private property. If it be private pro perty, ihtr, excfp'; by violating the fifth article of the amendments to the constitution, it cannot be taken for public use without just compensa tion. To violate any article of the constitution is a revolutioBaiy act; bu^- siich acts cost a ration more than a ftw hundred millions of dollars. The risk that a future decision of the Supreme Court might declsre emancipation without com- pent ation to be unconstitutional is, of i' self, suffi clent justification of the President's policy, corresponding to the above saggestions, in this matter. Such compenjation will be unpopular with many. Wise and just acts, when they involve sac- riflces, frequently are. A wrong long tolerated commonly entails a., penalty, which is seldom cheerfully paid. Yet, even on other grounds, we ought not, in this case, to begiuige the money. Who deserve better of their country than those brave men who, in the border and other slave states, have clung to their loyalty through all the dark hours of peril even to life ? Precautions naturally suggest themselves against false pretences of loyalty. Itsjems ex- pedient that he who fhall have proved that he is the legal owner of certiin slaves, and also that he has ever been loyal to the Union, should re- ceive a certificate of indebtedness by the govern- ment, not tratisferable, to be paid at some fixed time subsequent to the termination of the war : payment being made contingent on the fact that the claimant shall not, meanwhile, have lapsed from his loyalty. Every such claimant, once recognissf', would feel himself to be, by his ownatt the citizen of a free state ; one ot us, detached forever from the southern league. A government stockholder, he would become pecuniarily intf rested in the sup- port of the government and tha restoration of peace. Even it the legislatures of the border etates should not initiate such a policy, the loyal men of these states will accept it. Such a measure does not involve expense in conveying the liberated negro to other countries. It has hitherto, indeed, been the usuil policy in slave states to discourage, as d».ngerou9, the resi- dence thereof free blacks; and hence an idea that colonization should be the concomitant of eman- cipation. Of general emancipitiOD, there is no need whatever that it should be. Tnose who take up such aa idea forget that the jealousy with which slaveholders regard the presence of free negroes springs out of the dread that these coay infect vsrith a desire for fret dom the slaves around them, thus rendering th»m insubordi- nate. But when all are free thtra will be no slaves to incite, nor any chains to be broken by resort to insurrection. '' It is no business of ours either to decide, for the liberated neg'O, where he shall dwtl', or to fur- nish his iraveliing expenses. Freemen, black or white, ehoutd select their own dweUing place and pay their own way. As to the frfars of competiioa in labor sought to be excited in the minds ot the northern work- ing man, they have foundation only in case eman- cipation be refused; for tuch rtlasal would flood the North with lu^itives. If, on the contrary, emancipation be carried ont, the strong local attachments of the negro ■will lEduce him, with rarest exceptions, to remain aa a hired laborer where he worked as a s \'e. Thus humane masters will not lack sufflcient working hands, of which colonization would deprive them. And if, notwithstanding the probable rise of southern staples, profits, at first, should be less, the security of the planter will be greater. He will no longer lie down at night uncertain whether the morning's news may Eot be that his elaves have risen against them. This is the paper view of the question. Bat all edicts, ail proclamations, how wise and righteous soever, are but idle announcements now, if we lack courage and conduct to enforce them. Courage we have. Riw levies have behaved like veterans. Tbe skeletons of regiments re- duced to one-tenth their original number, attest the desperate valor with which they confronted death. Not with the rank and file is the blame ! The leading! There has been the secret of failure. Wi'h all the advantages of a just cause over cur enemies, we have suffered them to outdo us in earnestness. We lack the enthusiasm which made irresistible the charge of Cromwell's Iron- sides. We need the invincible impulse of a sen timent. We want, above all, leaders who know and feel what they are fighting for. This is a war in which mercenaries avail not. There must be a higher motive than the pay of a Swiss — a holier duty urging on, than the professional pride or the blind obedience of a soldier. By parlia- mentary usage a proposed measure is entrusted, for fostering care, to its friencJs. So should this warbe. Its conduct should be confided to men whose hearts and souls are in it. Again. It has long been one of our national sins that we pass by, with scarcely a rebuke, the gravest public offences. We utterly fail in hold- ing to a strict accountibiliiy our public men. The result of such failure, in peace, had almost escaped our notice. In war wa have now beheld its effects, flagrant and terrible. It was not to be expected that among so many thousands of offlotrs suddenly appointed there should not be some hundreds of incomietents Such things must be. No one is to blame if, in field or garden, weeds spring up. The blame rests with him who leaves them there to choke the crop and cumber the ground. Acconntabilitj — that should be the watchword — ACCODNTABiLiTY, Stem, Unrelenting ! Office hii its emoluments; let it have its refponsibilities also. Let us demand, as Napoleon demanded, success from our leaders. The rule may work harshly. War needs harsh rnlee. Actions are j not to be measured In war by the standard of peace. The sentinel, worn by extreme fat'gae, who elee^ps at his post, incurs the penalty ol death, ihere is mercy in courts-martial— drum- head courts- martial. A dozen officers shot, when- ever the gravity ol the offence demands it, may be the saving of life to tens of thousands of brave men. Eighteen months have passed. Eight hundred millions have been spent. We have a million of armed men in the field. More than a hundred thousand rest in soldiers' graves. And for all this, what result ? Is it strange if sometimes the heait sinks and resslution fails at the thought that, frora sheer administrative infirmity, the vast sacrifice may have been all in vain? But let the Past go! Its fatal faults, (difficult perhaps, to avoid, under an effort so cudden and so vast) can never be recalled. Doubtless they had their use. It needed the grievous incapacity we have witnessed, the stinging reverses we have suffered, the invasion even of free states we have lived to see commenced ; it needed the hecatombs of dead piled up unavaillngly on battle- field after battle field— the desolate hearths, the broken- hearted survivors— it needed all this to pave the way for that emancipation which is the only har- binger of peace. Toe Future ! that is still ours to improve. Nor, if some clouds yet rest upon it, is it without brigbt promise. S'gns of nascent activity, energy, and a resolution to hold accountable for the issue the leaders of our armies, are daily appa- rent. Better than all, the initiative in a true line of policy has been taken. The twenty-third of September has had its effect. The path of safety is before us ; steep and ragged, indeed, but no longer doubtful nor obscure. A lamp has been lit to guide our steps; a lamp that may burn more brightly before a new year dawns upon us. The noble prayer of Ajax has been vouchsafed in our case. At last we have light to fight by. We shall reach a quiet haven if we but follow faithfully and perscveringly that guiding light. There is, at this moment, in the hearts of all good men throughout the length and breadth of the land, no deeper feeling, no more earnest long- ing, than for peace ; peace not for the day, not to last for a few years ; but peace, on a foundation of rock, for ourselves and for our children alter us. May the hearts of our rulers be opened to the con- viction that tl.ey can purchase only a shambling counterfeit except atone cost ! God give them to see, ere it be too late, that THE prich ofendubinq P£\CE IS GENERAL EMANCIPATION ! I am, sir, your obedient servant, Robert Dalb Ovrsm. New York, November 10, 1863. W60 0Sy^\ ^^p.*'' /'""^^ '-y^^^/ -^^ -^^ %' _^ °o