PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



697 



the slave might be recaptured after compensation for 

 his loss had been paid to the private owner. When- 

 ever the entire property in the service of a slave is 

 thus acquired by the Government, the question is 



E resented by what tenure he should be held. Should 

 e be retained in servitude, or should his emancipa- 

 tion be held out to him as a reward of faithful service, 

 or should it be granted at once on the promise of such 

 service ; and, if emancipated, what action should be 

 taken to secure the freed man the permission of the 

 State from which he was drawn to reside within its 

 limits after the close of his public service ? The per- 

 mission would doubtless be more readily accorded 

 as a reward for past faithful service; and a double 

 motive for zealous discharge of duty would thus be 

 offered to those employed by the Government, their 

 freedom, and the gratification of the local attach- 

 ment which is so marked a characteristic of the ne- 

 gro, and forms so powerful an incentive to his action. 

 The policy of engaging to liberate the negro on his 

 discharge after service faithfully rendered, seems to 

 me preferable to that of granting immediate manu- 

 mission, or that of retaining him in servitude. If 

 this policy should recommend itself to Congress, it 

 _-csted that, in addition to the duties heretofore 

 performed by the slave, he might be advantageously 

 employed as a pioneer and engineer laborer; and in 

 vent, that the number should be augmented to 

 forty thousand. 



Beyond this limit and these employments, it does 

 .ai to me desirable, under existing circumstan- 

 ce. A broad, moral distinction exists between 

 the use of slaves as soldiers in the defence of our 

 homes, and the incitement of the same persons to 

 insurrection against their masters. The one is justi- 

 fiable, if necessary, the other is iniquitious and un- 

 worthy of a civilized people; and such is the judg- 

 ment of all writers on public law, as well as that 

 expressed and insisted on by our enemies in all wars 

 prior to that now waged against us. By none have 

 the practices of which they are now guilty been de- 

 nounced with greater severity than by themselves, in 

 the two wars with Great Britain, in the last and in 

 the present century ; and in the Declaration of In- 

 dependence of 1776, when enumeration was made of 

 the wrongs which justified the revolt from Great 

 Britain, the climax of atrocity was deemed to be 

 reached only when the English monarch was de- 

 nounced as having "excited domestic insurrection 

 among us." 



The subject is to be viewed by us, therefore, solely 

 in the light of policy and our social economy. When 

 so regarded, I must dissent from those who advise a 

 general levy and arming of the slaves for the duty 

 of soldiers. Until our white population shall prove 

 insufficient for the armies we require and can afford 

 to keep in the field, to employ as a soldier the negro 

 who has merely been trained to labor, and as a la- 

 borer the white man accustomed from his youth to 

 the use of fire-arms, would scarcely be deemed wise 

 or advantageous by any; and this is the question 

 now before us. But should the alternative ever be 

 presented of subjugation or of the employment of the 

 slave as a soldier, thefe seems no reason to doubt 

 what should then be our decision. Whether our 

 view embraces what would, in so extreme a case, be 

 the sum of misery entailed by the dominion of the 

 enemy, or be restricted solely to the effect upon the 

 welfare and happiness of the negro population them- 

 selves, the result would be the same. The appalling 

 demoralization, suffering, disease, and death which 

 have been caused by partially substituting the in- 

 vaders' system, of policy for the kind relation pre- 

 viously subsisting between the master and slave, 

 have been a sufficient demonstration that external 

 interference with our institution of domestic slavery 

 is productive of evil only. 



If the subject involved no other consideration than 

 the mere right of property, the sacrifices heretofore 

 made by our people have been such as to permit no 



doubt of their readiness to surrender every: 

 sion in order to secure their independence. But the 

 social and political question which is exclusively un- 

 der the control of the several - a far wider 

 and more enduring importance than that of pecuni- 

 ary interest. In its manifold :abraees the 

 stability of republican institutions, resting on the act- 

 ual political equality of all its citizens, and includes 

 the fulfilment of the task which has been so happily be- 

 gun that of Christianizing and improving the con- 

 dition of the Africans who have, by the will of Prov- 

 idence, been placed in our charge. Comparing the 

 results of our experience with those of the experi- 

 ments of others who have borne similar relations to 

 the African race, the people of the several States of 

 the Confederacy have abundant reason to be satisfied 

 with the past, and to use the greatest circumspection 

 in determining their course. These considerations, 

 however, are rather applicable to the improbable con- 

 tingency of our need of resorting to this element of 

 ace, than to our present condition. If the 

 recommendations above made for the training of 

 40,000 negroes for the service indicated, shall meet 

 your approval, it is certain that even this limited 

 number, by their preparatory training in intermedi- 

 ate duties, would form a more valuable reserve force 

 in case of urgency, than threefold their number 

 suddenly called from field labor ; while a fresh levy 

 could, to a certain extent, supply their places in the 

 special service for which they are now employed. 



The regular annual reports of the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, the Secretary of the Xavy, and the Postmaster- 

 General, are appended, and give ample information 

 relative to the condition of the respective Depart- 

 ments. They contain suggestions for legislative pro- 

 visions required to remedy such defects in the exist- 

 ing laws as have been disclosed by experience, but 

 none of so general or important a character as to re- 

 quire that 1 should do more than recommend them 

 to your favorable consideration. 



The disposition of this Government for a peaceful 

 solution of the issues which the enemy has referred 

 to the arbitrament of arms, has been too often man- 

 ifested, and is too well known to need new assur- 

 ances. But, while it is true that individuals and par- 

 ties in the United States have indicated a desire to 

 substitute reason for force, and by negotiation to 

 stop the further sacrifice of human life, and to ar- 

 rest the calamities which now afflict both countries, 

 the authorities who control the Government of our 

 enemies have too often and too clearly exj 

 their resolution to make no peace except on terms 

 of our unconditional submission and degradation, to 

 leave us any hope of the cessation of hostilities until 

 the delusion of their ability to conquer us is dispelled. 



Among those who are already disposed for peace, 

 many are actuated by principle and bv disapproval 

 and abhorrence of the iniquitious warfare that their 

 Government is waging, while others are moved by 

 the conviction that it^is no longer to the interest of 

 the United States to continuous struggle in which 

 success is unattainable. Whenever this fast-growing 

 conviction shall have taken firm root in the minds 

 of a majority of the Northern people, there will be 

 produced that willingness to negotiate for peace 

 which is now confined to our side. Peace is mani- 

 festly impossible unless desired by both parties to 

 this war, and the disposition for it among our ene- 

 mies will be best and most certainly evoked by the 

 demonstration on our part of ability and unshaken 

 determination to defend our rights,' and to hold no 

 earthly price too dear for their purchase. Whenever 

 there shall be on the part of our enemies a desire for 

 peace, there will be no difficulty in finding means by 

 which negotiations can be opened ; but if is obvious 

 that no agency can be called into action until this 

 desire shall be mutual. When that contingency 

 shall happen, the Government, to which is confided 

 the treaty-making power, can be at no loss for means 

 adapted to accomplish so desirable an end. 



