The year 1863 began with several events of the first importance. On December 31st and January 2d there was a great battle in the West, which has just been described. On New Year's Day the final proclamation of emancipation was issued, and measures were taken for the immediate enlistment of black troops. On that day, also, in the State of New York, which furnished one-sixth of all the men called into the National service, the executive power passed into hands unfriendly to the Administration.
The part of President Lincoln's proclamation that created most excitement at the South was not that which declared the freedom of the blacks—for the secessionists professed to be amused at this as a papal bull against a comet—but that which announced that negroes would thenceforth be received into the military service of the United States. Whatever might be said of the powerlessness of the Government to liberate slaves that were within the Confederate lines, it was plain enough that a determination to enlist colored troops brought in a large resource hitherto untouched. Military men in Europe, having only statistical knowledge of our negro population, and not understanding the peculiar prejudices that hedged it about, had looked on at first in amazement, and finally in contempt, at its careful exclusion from military service. The Confederates had no special scruples about negro assistance on their own side; for they not only constantly employed immense numbers of blacks in building fortifications and in camp drudgery, but had even armed and equipped a few of them for service as soldiers. In a review of Confederate troops at New Orleans, in the first year of the war, appeared a regiment of free negroes, and early the next year the legislature of Virginia provided for the enrolment of the same class.
| EVENING AT A NEGRO CABIN. |
But the idea that emancipated slaves should be employed to fight against their late masters and for the enfranchisement of their own race, appeared to be new, startling, and unwelcome; and the Confederates, both officially and unofficially, threatened the direst penalties against all who should lead black soldiers, as well as against such soldiers themselves. General Beauregard wrote to a friend in the Congress at Richmond: "Has the bill for the execution of Abolition prisoners, after January next, been passed? Do it, and England will be stirred into action. It is high time to proclaim the black flag after that period. Let the execution be with the garrote." Mr. Davis, late in December, 1862, issued a proclamation outlawing General Butler and all commissioned officers in his command, and directing that whenever captured they should be reserved for execution, and added, "That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of said States," and, "That the like orders be executed with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States, when found serving in company with said slaves." The Confederate Congress passed a series of resolutions in which it was provided that on the capture of any white commissioned officer who had armed, organized, or led negro troops against the Confederacy, he should be tried by a military court and put to death or otherwise punished.
Democratic journalists and Congressmen at the North were hardly less violent in their opposition to the enlistment of black men. They denounced the barbarity of the proceeding, declared that white soldiers would be disgraced if they fought on the same field with blacks, and anon demonstrated the utter incapacity of negroes for war, and laughed at the idea that they would ever face an enemy. Most of the Democratic senators and representatives voted against the appropriation bills, or supported amendments providing that "no part of the moneys shall be applied to the raising, arming, equipping, or paying of negro soldiers," and the more eloquent of them drew pitiful pictures of the ruin and anarchy that were to ensue. Representative Samuel S. Cox, then of Ohio, said: "Every man along the border will tell you that the Union is forever rendered hopeless if you pursue this policy of taking the slaves from the masters and arming them in this civil strife."
It is impossible at this distance of time, and after the question of slavery in our country has been so thoroughly settled that nobody disputes the righteousness and wisdom of its abolition, to convey to younger readers an adequate idea either of the diversity of opinion or the intensity of feeling on the subject, when it was still under discussion and was complicated with great military and political problems. Not only before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, but for a considerable time afterward, these opinions were tenaciously held and these feelings expressed. The so-called conservatives of the Northern States constantly affirmed that abolitionists of whatever degree, and active secessionists, were equally wrong and blameworthy; that the latter had no right to break up the Union for any cause, and that the former had no right to emancipate the slaves even to save the Union. They assumed that the Constitution of the United States was perpetual, perfect, and infallible for all time, and ignored the natural antagonism between the systems of slave labor and free labor. In June, 1862, the conservative members of Congress held a meeting, and adopted a declaration of principles which included the following: "At the call of the Government a mighty army, the noblest and most patriotic ever known, sprung at once into the field, and is bleeding and conquering in defence of its Government. Under these circumstances it would, in our opinion, be most unjust and ungenerous to give any new character or direction to the war, for the accomplishment of any other than the first great purpose, and especially for the accomplishment of any mere party or sectional scheme. The doctrines of the secessionists and abolitionists, as the latter are now represented in Congress, are alike false to the Constitution and irreconcilable to the peace and unity of the country. The first have already involved us in a cruel civil war, and the others—the abolitionists—will leave the country but little hope of the speedy restoration of the Union or peace, if the schemes of confiscation, emancipation, and other unconstitutional measures which they have lately carried, and attempted to carry, through the House of Representatives, shall be enacted into the form of laws and remain unrebuked by the people. It is no justification of such acts that the crimes committed in the prosecution of the rebellion are of unexampled atrocity, nor is there any such justification as State necessity known to our government or laws."
On the other hand, at a great mass meeting held in Union Square, New York City, July 15, 1862, a series of resolutions was adopted which included the following:
"That we are for the union of the States, the integrity of the country, and the maintenance of this Government without any condition or qualification whatever, and at every necessary sacrifice of life or treasure.
"That we urge upon the Government the exercise of its utmost skill and vigor in the prosecution of this war, unity of design, comprehensiveness of plan, a uniform policy, and the stringent use of all the means within its reach consistent with the usages of civilized warfare.
"That we acknowledge but two divisions of the people of the United States in this crisis—those who are loyal to its Constitution and every inch of its soil and are ready to make every sacrifice for the integrity of the Union and the maintenance of civil liberty within it, and those who openly or covertly endeavor to sever our country or to yield to the insolent demand of its enemies; that we fraternize with the former and detest the latter; and that, forgetting all former party names and distinctions, we call upon all patriotic citizens to rally for one undivided country, one flag, one destiny."