CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



217 



gatkn, as well as exemption from military ser- 

 vice meanwhile. 



How did gentlemen propose to fight negro 

 troops? He hoped they did not propose to 

 commingle them with our hrave white soldiers. 

 How would they fight them ? Not hy regi- 

 ments ; not by brigades ; not by corps ; but by 

 companies. Place the negroes in the front; 

 put a company here and a company there, and 

 all mutual rivalry is lost by the interposition 

 of this timid material, our line wavers and is 

 swept away. 



Mr. Chambers said he was ashamed to de- 

 bate the question. All nature cries out against 

 it. The negro was ordained to slavery by the 

 Almighty. Emancipation would be the de- 

 struction of our social and political system. 

 God forbid that this Trojan horse should be 

 introduced among us. 



It is not denied that the negro will tight, but 

 will he fight well enough to resist the Yankee 

 armies? The negro cannot be made a good 

 soldier. The law of his race is against it. Of 

 great simplicity, of disposition tractable, prone 

 to obedience, and highly imitative, he may be 

 easily drilled ; but timid, averse to effort, with- 

 out ambition, he has no soldierly quality. 

 Being adapted by nature to slavery, as he 

 makes the best of slaves, he must needs make 

 the worst of soldiers. He could recollect no 

 instance in the war of '76 where negro troops 

 were used in regular organization and regular 

 battle,. except the battalion of slaves which 

 Lord Dunmore brought into the fight near Nor- 

 folk against the Virginia militia, and in that 

 affair, we are told by the historian Botts, they 

 " acted shabbily, and saved themselves by flight." 



When, in 1793, the English landed on the 

 island of Saint Domingo they found it defended 

 by over twenty thousand troops, chiefly mulat- 

 toes and negroes, but with less than one thou- 

 sand men captured several important strong- 

 holds, and with less than two thousand finally 

 seized upon Port au Prince, the capital of the 

 island. The French authorities, in their ex- 

 tremity, offered freedom to the slaves over 

 four hundred thousand in number on con- 

 dition of military service for the occasion, in 

 defence of their homes, as we would say, yet 

 only six thousand availed themselves of the 

 offer, although these slaves were still bloody 

 from the insurrection of 1790. They pre- 

 ferred slavery to military service. 



So, in the beginning of this war, the negro 

 escaped at every opportunity to our enemies, 

 to avoid work ; but since the system of negro 

 conscription has been adopted by the United 

 States Government he now remains with us, 

 true to the instincts of his race. It is not 

 slavery he desires to avoid ; it is work in any 

 form, but especially work in the form of dan- 

 gerous service. This Government possessed 

 the war power originally possessed by all the 

 people of the several States. "With wise de- 

 sign they have delegated the whole, with little 

 or no reservation. It is not too much to say 



that not the Czar of Russia not even Peter 

 the Great, whose despotism was restrained by 

 no traditions and alarmed by no fears conld 

 have brought into the field so promptly and 

 thoroughly the entire war power of that des- 

 potism as this Government has elicited the war 

 power of the several States in defence of the 

 rights of the States. 



For this purpose the first gun at Fort Sumter 

 moved them to arms; they will again fly to 

 arms in the same sacred cause, whenever and 

 by whomsoever menaced. When the last man 

 shall have sunk in his tracks, when the last 

 steed shall have fallen beneath his rider, and 

 the last morsel of food shall have vanished 

 from the land, then, and not till then, will the 

 war power of this Government be exhausted. 



Mr. Goode, of Virginia, said he was opposed 

 to the employment of negroes as soldiers under 

 any circumstances. He was opposed to it be- 

 cause it was a confession of weakness to the 

 enemy. He was opposed to it because he 

 thought it would end in abolition. He was 

 opposed to it because it was degrading to our 

 men. He believed that the right place for 

 Cuffee was in the corn field. 



At quarter-past two o'clock, on motion of 

 Mr. Russell, of Virginia, the House went into 

 secret session to consider a bill reported from 

 the Judiciary Committee. 



A bill to arm the slaves subsequently passed 

 the House, but was lost in the Senate by one 

 vote. The Legislature of Virginia instructed 

 her Senators to vote for it. Whereupon it was 

 reconsidered in the Senate in the following form : 



A Bill to Increase the Military Forces of the Confeder- 

 ate States. 



The Congress of the Confederate States of America 

 do enact, T'hat in order to provide additional forces 

 to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession 

 of the Confederate States, secure their indepen- 

 dence, and preserve their institutions, the Presi- 

 dent be and he is herebv authorized to ask for and 

 accept from the owners of slaves the services of such 

 number of able-bodied negro men as he may deem 

 expedient, for and during the war, to perform mili- 

 tary service in whatever capacity he may direct. 



SECTIOX 2. That the General-in-Chief be authorized 

 to organize the said slaves into companies, battalions, 

 regiments, and brigades, under such rules and regu- 

 lations as the Secretary of War may prescribe, and 

 to be commanded by such officers as the President 

 may appoint. 



SEC. 3. That while employed in the service the said 

 troops shall receive the same rations, clothing, and 

 compensation as are allowed to other troops in the 

 same branch of the service. 



SEC. 4. That if, under the previous section of this 

 act, the President shall not be able to raise a suffi- 

 cient number of troops to prosecute the war success- 

 fully and maintain the sovereignty of the States and 

 the independence of the Confederate States, then he 

 is hereby authorized to call on each State, whenever 

 he thinks it expedient, for her quota of three hun- 

 dred thousand troops, in addition to those subject to 

 military service under existing laws, or so many 

 thereof as the President may deem necessary, to be 

 raised from such classes of the population, irrespect- 

 ive of color, in each State, as the proper authorities 

 thereof may determine. 



SEC. 5. That nothing in this act shall be construed 

 fo authorize a change in the relation of the said slaves. 



