2

The Slaves of Rebels.

We see by the Southern papers that the rebels are making use of the blacks, both bond and free, to swell their armies and strengthen their positions. The free blacks, were they do not voluntarily enter the rebel service, are impress, while the slaves in great numbers are employed in digging trenches and building fortification. It was thought by many in the incipient states of this war, that the slaves would prove a source of weakness to the rebel cause, but the instigators and leaders of the rebellion boasted that their slaves were an element of strength. The traitors were right. Through the labor of slaves they keep their white soldiers fresh and vigorous. Their servants, their teamsters and all their details for fatigue duty are slaves. Nor is this all. While the master is in the field of war the slaves are at work in the fields of cotton, corn, wheat, potatoes, cane, etc., thus supplying the rebel army with the means necessary to its existence. Thus is Slavery made an element of strength by the traitors. Now, when we taken into consideration the fact that slavery is the cause of this war — that the desire of Davis, Toombs, Yancey, Floyd, Pillow, Polk, and that class of men to build up a Confederacy based upon Slavery has led to the rebellion and plunged the country into all the evils and horrors of civil strife, we ask if it is not time to make some effort to remove, as far as possible, that element of national discord and rebel strength? We think so, and to us it seems strange that there should be more than one opinion on this subject. That some evil might result from an act of Congress declaring the slaves of rebels to be free, we admit, yet we think that it would be infinitely less than that resulting from their use against us by the so-called Southern Confederacy. The right of the Government to declare the slaves of rebels free will not be questioned by any intelligent loyal man, and by but a few of the traitors themselves. They have not hesitated to confiscate the estates, slaves, and all of Union men. The only question that can arise is upon the expediency of the step proposed. In our judgment it is both right and expedient. When we pass out of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Western Virginia, it will be difficult to find a slaveholder who has not participated actively in this rebellion, and, therefore, an act giving freedom to the slaves of rebels would, except in the States we have named, well nigh wipe out the peculiar institution in the South. This done, it would not be many years before the plan proposed by Mr. LINCOLN would be adopted by the States having slaves, and, sooner than the most sanguine have dared to hope, the institution of slavery would disappear from the country. What to do with the "Elephant" when we get it, is a difficult problem, but one that the wisdom of American statesmen will solve when the task devolves upon them. The "Universal Yankee Nation" never yet got a job on its hands that it failed to get through with, and it only needs to be brought face to face with the business of getting rid of the "colored population" to go through with it successfully. We like the plan proposed by Mr. RICHARDSON, of this State, to set apart a certain portion of the national tax for the purchase of territory in which to colonize the free blacks. There is room enough on this continent for both white and blacks to live, and to live separately, too, for as great a length of time as any government has ever existed on earth. The blacks are nearly all skilled some kind of labor, and a colony of them under the direction and management of Federal agents, would, in our judgment, soon become self-sustaining, and a source of profit to both our government and people. The work of removing the incubus of slavery from our country will prove a gigantic one, but the benefits and blessings to flow from its accomplishment will prove incalculable. To accomplish this work, there is no necessity for a violation of a word or line of the Constitution of the United States, and in advocating its commencement, we are not liable to charge of Abolitionism or anything of the kind.