SLAVES. 



643 



the persons thus received into the service of the 

 Union, and for just compensation to loyal mas- 

 ters. In this way only, it would seem, can the 

 duty and safety of the Government and the 

 just rights of all be fully reconciled and har- 

 monized. 



" You will therefore consider yourself as in- 

 structed to govern your future action, in respect 

 to fugitives from service, by the principles here- 

 in stated, and will report from time to time, 

 and at least twice in each month, your action 

 in the premises to this Department. You will, 

 however, neither authorize nor permit any in- 

 terference, by the troops under your command, 

 with the servants of peaceful citizens, in house 

 or field, nor will you, in any way, encourage 

 such servants to leave the lawful service of 

 their masters ; nor will you, except in cases ' 

 where the public safety may seem to require it, 

 prevent the voluntary return of any fugitive to 

 the service from which he may have escaped." 



It will be seen that these instructions are in 

 harmony with the act of Congress above men- " 

 tioned, and equally remote from emancipation 

 by proclamation and heedless inaction in regard 

 to such an important matter. 



The leading principle of the instructions is 

 that the existing war had no direct relation to 

 slavery. It was a war for the restoration of 

 the Union under the existing Constitution. 

 National success would establish each State of 

 the restored Union in full enjoyment of all 

 those rights which it possessed prior to seces- 

 sion, except so far as they may have been inevi- 

 tably damaged by it. 



The whofe subject of slavery in loyal States 

 was to be left to the civil authorities. No 

 action was contemplated in relation to it by 

 military force or direction. No hindrance 

 would be opposed to the exercise of the lawful 

 authority of masters within or without the lines 

 of the army. 



In seceded States the military authorities 

 were directed to refrain from all interference 

 with servants lawfully employed in peaceful 

 pursuits. But where servants were abandoned 

 by their masters, or escape from them, the in- 

 struct ions did not allow the troops employed in 

 suppressing the insurrection to be diverted 

 from their legitimate duties for the purpose of 

 determining claims to service, or of restoring 

 slaves to masters. They simply directed that 

 those who came within the lines and offered 

 their services to the Government be received 

 and employed, and that care be taken to pre- 

 serve a record which would enable loyal mas- 

 ters, after the end of the war, to obtain indem- 

 nity from Congress for the loss of servants so 

 received and employed. 



Thus the rights of loyal masters were to be 

 secured, and all interference with the internal 

 institutions of a State avoided, as far as practi- 

 cable ; at the same time the Government would 

 avail itself to a legitimate extent of the services 

 of that portion of the servile population not 

 otherwise lawfully employed. In using their 



services, the Federal Government followed the 

 example of the Confederate authorities. Slaves 

 and free negroes were pressed into service, or- 

 ganized into squads and companies, and compel- 

 led to labor on fortifications and in other em- 

 ployments. It was further argued, that if the 

 blacks who resorted to the lines of the army, 

 were repelled, they would either organize them- 

 selves as irregular partisans, or become hostile, 

 and be employed against the Federal troops. 

 If they were received, and organized and em- 

 ployed during the war, they would be under 

 control and discipline, and all excesses, and 

 all violent interference with peaceful industry 

 or existing institutions, could be restrained and 

 prevented. 



On the 16th of August, the Secretary of the 

 Interior, Mr. Caleb Smith, in an address to the 

 citizens of Providence, Rhode Island, at a social 

 festival, thus declared what was the position 

 of the Government : " The minds of the people 

 of the South have been deceived by the artful 

 representations of demagogues, who have as- 

 sured them that the people of the North were 

 determined to bring the power of this Govern- 

 ment to bear upon them for the purpose of 

 crushing out this institution of slavery. I ask 

 you, is there any truth in this charge? Has 

 the Government of the United States, in any 

 single instance, by any one solitary act, inter- 

 fered with the institutions of the South ? No, 

 not one. The theory of this Government is, 

 that the States are sovereign within their 

 proper sphere. The Government of the United 

 States has no more right to interfere with the 

 institution of slavery in South Carolina, than it 

 has to interfere with the peculiar institution of 

 Rhode Island, whose benefits I have enjoyed." 



On the 31st of August, Major-General Fre- 

 mont, commanding the Western Department, 

 which embraced Missouri and the portion of 

 Kentucky west of the Cumberland River, issued 

 a proclamation, (see MISSOUEI,) of which the 

 following are extracts : 



Circumstances, in my judgment, of sufficient urgen- 

 cy, render it necessary that the Commanding General 

 of this Department should assume the administrative 

 powers of the State, ****** 



In order, therefore, to suppress disorders, to main- 

 tain, as far as now practicable, the public peace, and 

 to give security and protection to the persons and 

 property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend and 

 declare established martial law throughout the State 

 of Missouri. The lines of the army of occupation in 

 this State are for the present declared to extend from 

 Leavenworth, by way of the posts of Jefferson City, 

 Rolla, and Ironton, to Cape Girardeau, on the Missis- 

 sippi River. 



All persons who shall be taken with arms in their 

 hands within these lines shall be tried bv court mar- 

 tial, and if found guilty, will be shot. T"he property, 

 real and personal, of all persons in the State of Mis- 

 souri who shall take up arms against the United States, 

 or who shall be directly proven to hare taken active 

 part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be 

 confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if any 

 they have, are hereby declared free men. 



Emancipation of the slaves as proclaimed 

 herein, attracted the immediate attention of the 



