SUNDAY
NOVEMBER 2, 1862
THE TIMES PICAYUNE (LA)

Characteristics of the War.

One characteristic of  the war is the gigantic scale upon which it is carried on. The appearance of a million warriors in the field, and as courageous soldiers as ever filled the ranks of an army, is a spectacle that has rarely been seen either in ancient or modern times. It is true that the old lords of the world, such as Cyrus, Xerxes, Tamerlane, may have had greater hordes, reckoning all their camp followers . . . than are found in martial array at the present time in the United States and Confederate armies. Those vast masses of men that were obedient to the behests of the old monarchs of the world could not be called soldiers; in our acceptation of the term, at least, a great proportion of them could not. Separate the warriors from the servants and those who went along to add to the splendor of the moving pageants, and the remnants in most cases would fall below the number of men—Americans by birth or adoption--now confronting each other in hostile attitude.

Another characteristic of the war is the nature of the terrible engines of death that modern skill and science have produced to make the work of mutual slaughter more general and more dreadful. It has been said that the invention of every “infernal machine,” designed to destroy men by the hundreds, must tend to promote peace among the nations, since they will, with the vast means of slaughter at their commands, be chary of invoking the dread arbitrament of war. But is the fact so? Does the present war prove it?

We pass to another characteristic of this great struggle—the unhappy division of families it has caused. There is probably not a single State, except some of the newest ones, that has not, more or less, native representatives in the opposing armies. Several of the superior officers, and many subordinate ones, with thousands of privates in the Confederate armies, are natives of States loyal to the Union. On the contrary, in the United States army and navy, every one of the Southern States is represented. The same great principle holds good in regard to natives of several foreign countries. Great Britain and Germany are largely represented in both armies, and other countries more sparingly.

This is what the war has done. This is a characteristic of it. It is literally a war among brethren, a war that ahs divided households, a war of father against son and son against father; a war not more of blood than of tears, of the heart’s great agonizing sweat. Humanity shudders at it, civilizations deplore it, the shadows of desolate homes rest upon it. Eyes all dry with weeping gaze half unconsciously upon the wreck of blasted hopes and crushed spirits with which it ahs strewn the land. May the great God and Father of us all put a speedy stop to it.

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Letter from Richmond.—The Advocate copies from the Memphis (Grenada) Appeal a letter from its Richmond correspondent, from which we extract the following:

Richmond, October 15, 1862.—Stuart’s expedition into Pennsylvania and Imboden’s dash upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, both crowned with the most complete success, will cause a very wholesome alarm among the Yankees on the border, and impress them with the fact that because the two great armies lie inactive in their respective encampments, offensive operations on our part along the Potomac are by no means to be abandoned. Much can and will be done by this wing during the fine weather of the fall, and it is certain that such enterprise will prove the very best means of conducting the war in Western Virginia.

The dread the Yankees have of our guerrillas and bushwhackers is attested by the penalties they have denounced on all who may be caught, and furnishes the best evidence of the efficiency of this sort of service. Imboden and Jenkins are admirable leaders of such troops—as for Stuart’s cavalry, it is, next to Jackson, the terror of the whole North.

The adjournment of Congress has caused already a perceptible falling off in the crowds round the hotels, and unless the army of Gen. Lee should return to the neighborhood of the city, Richmond will probably be as dull for some weeks to come as any town in the Confederacy. Martial law has not been relaxed, and there is no probability that it will soon be.  But Richmond has already suffered an increase in the numbers of her dangerous classes that is quite alarming. Thieves, burglars, pickpockets, highwaymen, nymphs du pave, and the and the “respectable” gamblers swarm along the streets. The dexterity with which the laws are evaded is quite equal to the most accomplished tricks of the swell mob of London and the badauds of Paris.

Whiskey and brandy are brought into town in large quantities every day, and sold at fifty cents a drink, in spite of Gen. Walker and his detectives. Sometimes the contraband article is brought in by the quarter cask, ingeniously concealed in a cord of wood; and sometimes in bladders, hidden under the amplitudinous petticoats of a French or German woman, whose husband keeps a fruit store of an eating saloon on Broad street. Garroting and street robbing are of constant occurrence, and scarcely occasion remark. As if to add to the ease and impunity with which crime can be committed, our excellent superintendent of the city gas works has again cut short the supply of gas, and the street lamps are no longer lighted.

I am glad to learn from many sources that the army of Gen. Lee is in the highest state of effectiveness. Severe discipline has put a stop to straggling and desertion—thousand who had left their regiments about the time of the advance into Maryland have been brought back—recruits from Maryland, and even from Pennsylvania, are coming in daily, and large quantities of winter clothing and shoes are on the way to the present encampment. Let us hope that through the efforts of the quartermaster and the benevolent contributions of our people, the whole army may be clothed and shod by before Christmas.

John Mitchell, the Irish patriot, succeeded in crossing the Potomac last night, and is expected in this city tomorrow. He has been living in Paris for two years past, but has two sons in the Confederate army, one of whom has been twice wounded. He brings with him a third to help us fight our battles. They came via Quebec, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, running the blockade from the latter city.

MONDAY
NOVEMBER 3, 1862
THE MACON DAILY TELEGRAPH (GA)

The Washington Contrabands--
What Will be Done With Them This Winter?

Now that the weather is growing cool, the question naturally arises, what is to be done with the numerous contrabands in Washington and vicinity this winter? Will the poor wretches be permitted to starve or freeze to death, or will the government undertake to support and provide for them? Their present condition, even before cold weather has set in, is miserable and abject in the extreme. What is likely to be a couple of months hence, it is not difficult to imagine. Hundreds of the contrabands here have had already quite enough of liberty and abolition philanthropy. They would gladly return now to their masters or mistresses, but they have no power to do so, and, indeed, are not permitted any opportunity to carry such desire into effect.

This morning a stout Negro, rigged up in cast off army clothing, came to a door where I was standing, and entreated to be given a “job”—anything by which he could earn a meal of victuals. I questioned this man, and found he was from Fredericksburg, having belonged to a well known lady of that town. Jerry (the Negro) had for several years “hired his time” from his mistress, and was getting along very well as a carter. In an evil hour he determined to turn “contraband,” and came to Washington, bringing a hundred dollars in silver—his savings. This hard earned money is now all gone, and Jerry himself, sadly out at elbows and toes, humbly begs a little employment at sawing wood to postpone starvation. He is very anxious to go home; but, according to his own statement, is not allowed to do so. He may rot among the philanthropic abolitionists, but cannot be permitted to “return to slavery.” This is one instance out of many which have fallen under my observation, and of thousands which undoubtedly exist in this city. What have the abolition fanatics to say to it? What remedy do they expect others to apply?—Washington Correspondence of the N. Y. Express.

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What Then?

The New York Times, in what is called an able Cotton Article, shows that the world will be out of raw Cotton and Cotton Goods in about four months, unless the South, in the meantime, is whipped and robbed of her stores of the staple. It will be an interesting problem what the world is going to do in such a contingency—where the world’s shirts are to come from, and how the world is to provide clothing for the female part of his numerous family. We confess it was a very distant view of this punishing proposition, which deluded us into the opinion that sooner than be placed in any grave danger of such a predicament, the world would get mad and knock Lincoln’s blockade out of the water. But we were mistaken, and the stock of clothing on hand is now counted by months. Substitutes are out of the question. A hundred have been heralded to the world in our time, but not one has proved of any account. It is a simple alternative of cotton or nakedness, as to a large portion of civilized humanity, and that alternative, they say is coming during the ensuing year. We confess a lively interest in this problem. Perhaps, its pendancy may have stirred up Lord Palmerston to the action the New York Express says he has taken; but whether so or not, it is bound to stir up something by and by.

The Southampton Fight.—The “big fight” at Franklin, in Southampton county, Virginia, an account of which we gave to our readers yesterday on the authority of the Petersburg Express, turns out to have been very much like that famous affair in which the King of France was engaged when he marched up the hill and down again; in other words, a complete bugaboo, invented by some mischievous person to frighten the people of Petersburg from their property and mislead our editorial neighbor into the belief that our valiant army in Southampton had been “soundly thrashed.” A gentleman from the immediate scene now informs the Express that there was no fight at all. According to the version given by this information, some 800 or 1000 Yankees from Suffolk crossed the Blackwater river at a point known as Bowden’s Seine Hole, and captured six of our pickets. Information was speedily conveyed to a force of Confederates not far distant, but before they could reach the spot, the enemy, suspecting something of the sort, recrossed and took up the line of march for Suffolk. Out of this comparatively insignificant affair grew the startling report to which we have alluded.—Richmond Whig, Oct. 29.

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Hermes of the Mercury says: From Lee’s army there are tidings that do not indicate fighting. A gentleman, who went under permit to Washington to look after his papers and was detained there two months, has returned to this city. He says the signs are quite in favor of peace. The Yankees are tired of the war, and anxious for foreign interference as an excuse to end it. The rascals begin to see that it is easier for them to inundate and cheat us out of our estates in peace than in war. Henceforth, so they inform this gentleman, the war is to be conducted on civilized principles: no picket firing to be allowed; private property and private citizens to be respected; and all that. This is to be incorporated in the cartel, which has been informally and will soon be formally sanctioned by the two Governments. Tales like this, I suppose, will lull our simple Government and people into security, in spite of the fact that we see, as it were with our own eyes, the most tremendous preparations going on for the subjugation of our coast, and the insurrection and confiscation programme formerly set forth, to be put into effect when it can be.

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Lincolnism Upon the Seas.

The New York Tribune of the 22d, details the particulars of the capture and burning of the British ship Blanche, on the 18^th instant, by the Lincoln steam cruiser Montgomery. The Blanche was on a voyage from Matamoras to Cuba, when seen, pursued, and ran upon the rocks near the Moro Castle by the Montgomery. The Blanche was then  boarded by the Sea Alcalde from Havana, and afterwards by Capt. Hunter of the Montgomery. Finding her papers all right, the Sea Alcalde commenced an expostulation with Hunter, who replied by slapping his jaws and ordering him off, and when he had retired, fired the Blanche and totally destroyed her. The Tribune says it has positive information that the Blanche was a British vessel, engaged in a legitimate trade, and is apprehensive of some fuss about the affair with England, as well as with Spain, on account of the insult to the Alcalde.

TUESDAY
NOVEMBER 4, 1862
PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

Another Response to the
“Gentleman of Extensive Observation.”

Editors Portland Daily Advertiser:--While at Harrison’s Landing, in August last, we received an editorial on “Gen. McClellan and the War,” clipped from the Press, which its New England readers might think evinced a thorough knowledge of the subjects discussed, while, to the soldier of the Peninsula, it shew a thorough ignorance of the subjects it was trying to handle, of the topography of the country, and war matters generally. Since that time we have seen nothing in the columns of the Press about the army, its gallant commander of the war, which evinced any study or practical knowledge of the matters discussed.

We have unbounded confidence in General McClellan, from personal observation of his ability to organize and move an immense army. Yet we did not feel badly to see the article by “Portland,” for no reasonable man can possibly believe his bare-faced statements.

“Portland” visited the immense army of the Potomac, the front of which extends many miles (?); he examined the feet of the various regiments he visited (?); he has seen the front and he has seen the rear of the army (?); he has visited those positions of the army “which have been in the hardest service” (?), (and they are scattered along that front of many miles); he has conversed with the soldiers long enough to ascertain that “there is a stupid indifference and total disregard of the value of time;” and finally we find he has been everywhere, for he says “mismanagement is everywhere visible,” and all in the space of one week (?), We would like to inquire of this “gentleman of extensive observation,” what were his means of locomotion?

“Portland” tells us that the army is in bad discipline. Why is this? If true, because of the influx of new regiments, discipline is the work of time. He likewise says the troops were badly managed at South Mountain and Antietam; we wonder that they were managed at all, as many of the regiments had been but a few weeks organized.

He tells us if we visit the army, we can go where we choose, and “no questions asked,” we can be a traitor; we can pass pickets where pickets should not pass us, &c., &c.; and all this he flaunts in the face of common sense as coolly as McClellan managed the battle of Malvern Hills, when that struggle decided the fate of his army.¹ And all this because of the carelessness of a couple of undoubtedly green sentries at the Navy Yard bridge. Fifteen months’ experience with guards and pickets prove to us the fallacy of his very broad statements.

We are told that the army is becoming demoralized. And why shouldn’t it, when half the prints of the day which are received in camp tell them that they are already in that state, and this to encourage the patriotism of the soldiers?

We think the finale of “Portland’s” communication the most absurd and ridiculous. He says: “If the people do not insist upon an advance, &c.” If the people do not insist upon any advance, before the leaders, chosen by themselves, are prepared, let them advance and try Virginia, and we feel confident that they will return more in favor of “A Peace Commission” than now.

President Lincoln is in command of the Army and Navy. Gen. McClellan is his chosen leader, (for he can remove him at any time). When then should the people do any such thing as “Portland” suggests, viz: “Insist on an advance?” Is it not much better to place confidence in our leaders, which their laborious and trying positions require that we should do, and allow them to know whether the “Army of the Potomac” is prepared, and whether it is policy to move or not? Success is as much a problem as is our form of Government. Let us stop then this criticizing of, and advice to, our superiors. But why does “Portland” insist upon an advance of an army which he says is completely demoralized? How could such an advance be wise?

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Terrific Locomotive Boiler Explosion in Jersey City.—About 7½ o’clock on Saturday evening last, the boiler of a locomotive belonging on the New York and Erie Railroad exploded near the Long Dock in Jersey City, by which five men employed on the road were killed and two others were injured. The explosion was the most terrific one of the kind ever known, and the shock, as if of an earthquake, was felt throughout the city. Houses near by were shaken, window glass was shattered, and at a distance of a mile or more the windows and doors rattled so violently that it attracted the attention of all within. The report of the explosion was heard at a great distance, and was so loud that it caused general remark. The engine, which is a coal-burner of the largest kind, had been undergoing thorough repairs to her machinery, and her boiler had been supplied with a new furnace or fire-box.

The engine, No. 104, was brought down from the shop at Patterson on Saturday, and arrived in Jersey City about 1 p.m.; it stood in the engine-house until nearly 6 o’clock with the fire up, for the purpose of taking out a freight train which was to leave about 7½. The man employed to take care of the engines noticed that the engine was blowing off steam very rapidly, and upon getting up on the platform saw that there was from 145 to 150 pounds of steam on; he then ran her up and down the road for the purpose of reducing the steam. While so engaged, the engineer, Wm. Root, came and took possession of the engine. At that time there was 140 pounds of steam, which is 20 pounds more than is allowed by the instructions for running. The engineer also ran the engine up and down the road, and finally ran down to a building for the purpose of having sand put on board, which is used for sanding the track when the wheels slip. While two of the firemen and the oilman were engaged shovelling the sand, the explosion occurred, instantly killing the engineer, two brakemen, and the oilman; the fireman died half an hour later. The conductor and a boy were injured.

WEDNESDAY
NOVEMBER 5, 1862
THE CONSTITUTION (CT)

The Cotton Supply.

An important statement has just been made with regard to the supply of cotton in England. If true, and there is no reason to doubt its truth, there is a prospect of a complete revolution in the commerce of this country. On the authority of the London Daily News of October 6th, it is stated that at the end of the previous week, cargoes from India began to arrive. Upwards of 10,000 bales from Bombay came in during three days, and the quantities from that port actually at sea and at Liverpool was found to be about 397,000 bales. It was also disclosed that there was a prospect of a supply in 1863 of 1,630,000 bales. This amount will be just double the quantity used per week for the last three months, and thus it would seem that the worst of the “cotton famine” has passed.

These facts have a great importance in this country. We have hitherto had a monopoly of the cotton trade. The looms of England and France and Germany have been supplied from the cotton fields of America. Not only the South but the whole country has grown rich from the cotton trade. Are we now about to lose this trade? Is the monopoly about to pass from our hands? Is a British colony to enjoy the splendid advantages which we have had ever since Eli Whitney gave the world the cotton gin? We trust not.

But if the war is to be protracted through two or three years more, the cotton scepter will inevitably pass out of our hands. One year more may do it. In another year England expects to obtain half her ordinary supply from India, beside what may come from other sources. In two years more it is not improbable that a full supply may be obtained without counting a bale from America.

The southern states did not foresee this when they commenced the rebellion. The slaveholders had no expectation that American cotton would lose its power in Europe. On the contrary, they believed that this very cotton monopoly would compel a speedy recognition of their claims by European powers. Instead of such a recognition they see their claims set aside, and England looking elsewhere for a supply of the all-important fabric. They must see that if they succeed in protracting this war, they are in danger of sinking into insignificance. Without cotton the southern states are little more than a cipher.

The people of the loyal states, as well as the General Government itself, must feel a deep interest in this subject. It is a matter of national concern. The United States ought not to lose her monopoly of the cotton trade. But can it be retained if slavery is destroyed in the cotton states? There is not a doubt of it. The cotton of India is produced without slave labor; and if India should become the great cotton producing country that America has been, it would be on the basis of free labor. Texas planters who pay wages can to-day compete successfully with such planters as use slave labor in raising cotton. This is no longer a matter of speculation. It is clearly proved and demonstrated that cotton can be raised to better advantage in the end by free than by enforced labor.

If the south, therefore, becomes free from slavery as there is now a prospect that it will, there is good reason to believe that a glorious future is in store for that section. On the basis of free labor the cotton trade will be secure against those anxieties and uncertainties which have hitherto attended it. Under an improved system of culture which must ensue, a larger amount of the best qualities of cotton will be produced and the southern states will be prepared to defy all competition. Only let the rebellion be crushed speedily, and judicious measures be taken by the Government wherever its authority extends in the south to encourage the raising of this fabric and we shall soon be in a position where we shall have nothing to fear from the cotton plantations of India or South America.

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The Louisiana Sugar Plantations.—A New Orleans letter in the New York Journal of Commerce says the plantations in the vicinity are all deserted. The cane is said to be beautiful and ready for cutting, but none to do it. Many persons are buying crops as they stand, some intending to try white labor, others are trying to hire Negroes. Gen. Butler says the Negroes may be hired at ten dollars for the men and five dollars for the women,  a month, to be worked ten hours a day, and that he will not force them to remain on the plantation unless they wish to remain. The planters intend grinding all their cane, leaving none for seed, so this year will probably be the last sugar-growing year for some time to come.

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Navy Yard at New London.—The commissioners appointed by the Secretary of the Navy have made a report in favor of New London as a naval station. This is but just to Connecticut and to the Government. It is quite time that this state should receive some notice from the powers that be. New London has one of the best harbors in the United States, and the Government is only advancing its own interests by making use of the superior facilities it may have there for a naval station.

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A Cairo dispatch states that the Negroes at Helena, Ark., are unwilling to be sent North. Neither do hey want to go back to slavery. They readily consent to work for wages and arrangements are being made by which they are to be paid fifty cents per day, except in cotton picking, when they are to have seventy cents.

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The rebel General Van Dorn was instantly removed by Jeff Davis after losing the battle of Corinth. Gen. Halleck remarks that the same rigid system of accountability would doubtless have saved us many disasters and reverses in the past, but our leaders are too kind-hearted and complaisant to dismiss incompetent generals from the service.

THURSDAY
NOVEMBER 6, 1862
THE PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

ENGLISH WOMEN
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

I have heard a good deal of the tenacity with which the English ladies retain their beauty to an advanced period of their life; but (not to suggest that an American eye needs use and cultivation before it can quite appreciate the charm of English beauty at any age) it strikes me that an English lady of fifty is apt to become a creature less refined and delicate, so far as her physique goes, than anything that we Western people class under the name of woman. She has an awful ponderosity of frame, not pulpy, like the looser development of our fat women, but massive with solid beef and streaky tallow; so that (though struggling manfully against the idea) you inevitably think of her as made up of steaks and sirloins. When she walks, her advance is elephantine. When she sits down it is on a great round space of her Maker’s footstool, where she looks as if nothing could move her. She imposes awe and respect by the muchness of her personality, to such a degree that you probably credit her far greater moral and intellectual force than she can fairly claim. Her visage is usually grim and stern, not always positively forbidding, yet calmly terrible, not merely by its breadth and weight of feature, but because it seems to express so much well-founded self-reliance, such acquaintance with the world, its toils, its troubles and dangers, and such sturdy capacity for trampling down a foe. Without anything positively salient, or actually offensive, or indeed, unjustly formidable to her neighbors, she has the effect of a seventy-four gun ship in time of peace; while you assure yourself that there is no real danger, you cannot help thinking how tremendous would be her onset if pugnaciously inclined, and how futile the effort to inflict any counter-injury. She certainly looks ten-fold, nay, a hundred-fold better able to take care of herself than our slender-framed and haggard womankind; but I have not found reason to suppose that the English dowager of fifty has actually greater courage, fortitude and strength of character than our women of similar age, or even a tougher physical endurance than they. Morally, she is strong, I suspect, only in society, and in the common routine of social affairs, and would be found powerless and timid in any exceptional strait that might call for energy outside of the conventionalities amid which she has grown up.

You can meet this figure in the street, and live, and even smile at the recollection. But conceive of her in the ball-room, with the bare, brawny arms that she invariably displays there, and all the other corresponding development such as is beautiful in the maiden blossom, but a spectacle to howl at in such an over-blown cabbage-rose as this.

Yet, somewhere in this enormous bulk there must be hidden the modest, slender, violet-nature of a girl, whom an alien mass of earthliness has unkindly overgrown; for an English maiden in her teens, though very seldom so pretty as our own damsels, possess, to say the truth, a certain charm of half-blossom and delicately-folded leaves, and tender womanhood shielded by maidenly reserves, with which, somehow or other, our American girls often fail to adorn themselves during an appreciable moment. It is a pity that the English violet should grow into such an outrageously developed peony as I have attempted to describe. I wonder whether a middle-aged husband ought to be considered legally married to all these accretions that have overgrown the slenderness of his bride since he led her to the altar, and which make her so much more than he ever bargained for! Is it not a sounder view of the case, that the matrimonial bond cannot be held to include the three-fourths of the wife that had no existence when the ceremony was performed? And as a matter of conscience and good morals, ought not an English married pair to insist upon the celebration of a silver wedding at the end of twenty-five years, in order to legalize and mutually appropriate that corporeal growth, of which both parties have individually come into possession since they were pronounced one flesh?

Disturbing Railroad Accident.—A dispatch was received yesterday at the Central telegraph office, in this city, giving the following particulars of a distressing accident on the railroad. The dispatch states that between ten and eleven o’clock on Wednesday night, while a troop train was moving in the direction of Charlottesville, when one and a half miles from Ivy Depot, the cow catcher struck a beef cattle that was standing on the track, and that the animal became entangled with the wheels of the tender, and threw the latter and five cards filled with soldiers down an embankment 75 feet, killing 10 instantly, and severely wounding between 75 and 100. The parties belonged to different regiments. All of them went from the Soldiers’ Home and the depot, on Franklin street, this morning, and were proceeding to join their respective regiments at Winchester.—Richmond Dispatch, 17th.

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Owe Nothing.—The happiest man in life is he who can say, “I owe no man a dollar.” The greatest hindrance to universal social harmony and comfort is the almost universal pecuniary obligation of mankind. The whole machinery of life is obstructed for want of square accounts. The credit system carries with it corroding interest, extra charges, disputed transactions, continual litigation, and life-long ruptures of friendship. All parties suffer under the owing system. Services are performed less promptly and efficiently, and wares are delivered less cheerfully on trust. He who has to wait for his due may reasonably plead the fact as an excuse for not paying his debts, and the involvement becomes general. The result is a periodical crisis, a storm of bankruptcy, and a fresh start on the same old track. And besides wide-spread discomfort and harassment, personal independence is involved in pecuniary debt. Every man knows the value to his peace of being able to say, “I owe no man anything, save good will.”

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People long ago must have had an inconvenient time of it. Just think: No railroad, no steamers, no gas, no friction match, no telegraph, no express, no sewing machines? Crawling along in stage-coaches, scratching the mast for a breeze, snuffing tallow-dips, exercising over a tinder box, waiting for messages, pestering friends to carry packages, puncturing fair feminine fingers with needle-points, with other attendant, unenumerated infelicities—how on earth did they get by?

FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 7, 1862
THE LIBERATOR (MA)

Emancipation—Suggestions by a Slaveholder.

A “Slaveholder” writes to the Missouri Democrat as follows:

“The subject of emancipation, which now occupies so conspicuous a place in the public mind, and in which slaveholders are particularly and most deeply interested, is perhaps not yet fully understood and appreciated; and it is from a desire to possess a more full understanding of the plan of emancipation as proposed by the Chief Executive, and that your humble servant (a slaveholder) addresses these lines to you, believing, as I do, that you are ever ready and willing to convey any desired information upon matters of great and vital public interest.

“The prevailing spirit of insubordination which now pervades almost the whole of the African race among us should cause every slaveholder to reflect upon the best measures to adopt in reference to our slaves. Shall we proceed to the exercise of cruelty and the infliction of sanguinary punishment, in order to check the growing spirit of restlessness in our slaves? Shall we gather them in pens out of which they cannot escape, and there torture them with all manner of horrible cruelties? Shall we make examples by tying them up in the presence of their fellows, and by a course of whipping and starvation bring them back to obedience? The day is past and gone for such practices, if it ever existed.

“Well, what are we to do with them? Our property is invested in them, we lose what we have paid out our money for, and cannot afford to sacrifice it. Such a course would be a public calamity which it would take years to overcome, and should be avoided if possible.

“We have arrived at a period in our history in which we are brought to the necessity of yielding to the force of circumstances—a condition in our public affairs in which we are driven by a mighty and irresistible current toward breakers and whirlpools which we see but too plainly, yet are impotent to arrest.

“To come now right fair and square to the point, if the proposition for emancipation by States be a good one, (and I believe it is,) why delay to embrace it? Why wait until we are pecuniarily ruined by the escape and total loss of that which now constitutes our property, our wealth? Is such a course possible? Is it sensible?

“As a loyal citizen of the United States—one who is devoted to our whole Union, slavery or no slavery, under any and all circumstances—I ask and demand the protection of my country in my person and in my property; and as it seems we can only have the benefit of the emancipation act by its being adopted by the State, why withhold it? In God’s name give us the benefit of it before it is too late; for even now how many good and loyal men, men who have stood with their shoulders unflinchingly to the Government wheel all their lives, are suffering severely the consequences of what I think is needless delay in giving them the advantages of this fair proposition of our Government. Let the proper authorities proceed to call the convention together without another moment’s delay.

“Let the convention give us relief as speedily as possible, and you will find hundreds, yea thousands, of our very best citizens, who are now in suspense what to do, which way to turn, you will see them flocking to the  standard of relief, glad to enjoy its blessings.

“One hint as to the advantages of this plan in a pecuniary point of view. Let us take advantage of this act, and we can then turn right around and hire our former slaves, and the proceeds of the emancipation will make a fund, the interest on which will go far paying them for their services, beside being doubly secure.”

The Free Negro and the South.

That class of politicians opposed to the President’s proclamation, which he proposes to issue on the 1st of January, for the general emancipation of the Negroes belonging to those in rebellion at that time, are trying to make the people of the North believe, that as soon as these Negroes are liberated, there will be an influx of this entire population into the Northern States.

The statistics of 1860 develop the following facts:

Virginia had 54,333 free Negroes.

While Ohio had 25,270.

Maryland had 74,723 free colored persons, with only 90,368 slaves.

At this time, New York had only 49,069 free Negroes.

At this time, the District of Columbia had 10,059 free Negroes, and 2,290 slaves.

North Carolina had 27,463 free Negroes.

Alabama had 2,265 free Negroes.

Georgia had 2,981 free Negroes.

Illinois had only 5,436 free Negroes.

Indiana had only 11,262 free Negroes.

While Louisiana had 17,662 free Negroes.

The white population of Indiana was 977,943, while the white population of Louisiana was only 255,491; while Maryland, with a population of 417,943 whites, has a population of free colored persons of 74,728.

And New York, with a population of 3,048,325 whites, has only 49,069 free Negroes.

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Stonewall Jackson and the Baptist.

Alas! that the human soul should so mistake the religion of Christ as to mix it up with the diabolical system of slavery and the rebellion! Bust such is the paradox of human nature—such the folly of poor misguided man. The following incident is another revelation of claiming discipleship, aye, evangelical discipleship, in virtue of a creed, or form, rather than the spirit of Christ, without which “we are none of his.”

“On the morning of a recent battle near Harper’s Ferry, after a sermon by one of his chaplains, Stonewall Jackson, who, by the way, is an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, administered the sacrament to the church members in his army. He invited all Christians to unite in this ceremony. A Baptist, the straightest of his sect, thoroughly imbued with the idea of close communion, was seen to hesitate; but the occasion, and the man who presided, overcame his scruples, and thus it has happened that the prospect of a fight, and the eloquence of Jackson, made a Baptist forget that baptism is the door into the church.”

It would be better far, if the Baptist brother had forgotten his close communion, in the higher though that no adulterer or murderer can enter into the kingdom of heaven, both of which contraband characteristics, and the violation of all the other characteristics, the slaveholder and his abettor possess.

The baptism through which the nation is now passing is more than water. God grant that it may leave us pure enough, at least, to acknowledge, practically, that a man is better than a sheep—to obey the voice of the Hebrew God—“Let my people go.”

SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 8, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

Progress of the War.

The advance of the army of McClellan into Virginia goes on steadily and with a good degree of speed.. But the news from the front is so limited, from motives of obvious military prudence, that we know only a part of what has been accomplished, and can only conjecture the plan of the campaign. It looks very much as if Gen. McClellan had got his forces in such a position as to outflank the enemy, and either compel them to fight where they are or be able to follow them up closely and punish tem severely on their retreat. If we understand the relative positions of the various forces, our armies command the most direct route to Richmond, and can beat the rebels in a race for that goal if that should be their endeavor. Gen. McClellan seems to be endeavoring to close all avenues of escape against the enemy, and it is believed at Washington that he is conducting the campaign with great sagacity and energy, and that he will win a great success without any such terrible loss of life as has attended most of our battles in Virginia. Our troops now hold all the mountain passes of the Blue Ridge from the Potomac down to Port Royal. If the rebels attempt to get down to the Rappahannock by forcing a passage through Ashby’s Gap they will encounter Gen. Sigel’s army. If they continue up the Shenandoah valley towards Stanton they will have a long and difficult march among the mountains, and are exposed to be flanked by Sigel while McClellan follows them up in the rear. A few days will determine whether the rebel army will escape to Gordonsville without fighting a decisive battle, or having its retreat changed into a disorganized rout and flight. If Gen. Lee succeeds in getting through the meshes so skillfully woven about him and in making a successful retreat to the Rappahannock, it is doubtful whether he will be followed beyond that point, or what direction will be taken thenceforth by the Virginia campaign. In that event, another movement up the James river is among the probabilities. The movements of Burnside and Sigel in Virginia have been made with admirable ability and success. The present position may be thus briefly described: McClellan is on the east side of the Blue Ridge, twenty miles nearer Richmond than the rebels, who are in force on the west side of the mountains; we have possession of all the gaps in the Blue Ridge up to Ashby’s Gap, and are sure to obtain what whenever we desire. Sigel and Sickles, having advanced from Washington, hold Manassas Junction and Thoroughfare Gap; McClellan’s left flank is therefore protected, Washington is secured against another sudden attack, the rebels are kept from the line of the Rappahannock—the fords across which are said to be strongly fortified—and are gradually being pushed farther up the valley. At every step, McClellan approaches nearer to, and the rebel army moves further away from, Richmond, with the mountain range separating the two forces. The only danger against which our commanders have to guard is an attempt of the rebels to push an overwhelming force through one of the mountain gaps in the rear of our army. The expected and desired fight for the possession of Ashby’s or Manassas Gap, through which the railroad passes, may bring on a general engagement, and in that case we may be confident of a favorable result, as our army is in better condition than ever before, with the exception of a lack of sufficient cavalry. Te Richmond papers now concede that northern Virginia is to be abandoned for the present. Our forces at Suffolk keep the rebels in that quarter awake by frequent skirmishes, and usually with successes of some value. The Merrimac No. 2 is again watched for in Hampton Roads, but the most reasonable opinion is that she will not be risked in any such doubtful enterprise, but will be held in reserve for the defense of Richmond when our fleet and army go up the James, which the rebels expect at an early day. A new expedition of large proportions has lately been started from Newbern. The exact destination is unknown, but it may be designed for a surprise visit to the rebel camp at Kingston on the Neuse river, or possibly to co-operate with our forces on the Suffolk in a movement towards Richmond by way of Petersburg. . .

The rebels are now entirely out of Kentucky. Gen. Rosecrans has taken command of the army of the Ohio and is organizing for a new campaign, in which he will make Nashville his base of operations and advance southward to Chattanooga, and eastward to Knoxville. Bragg’s army is believed to be at or near Cumberland Gap, he having gone to Richmond to explain his campaign in Kentucky and vindicate himself. There have been reports that his army was marching to Virginia, but they are not credited. His army is represented to be in sad plight and to be suffering much from want of clothing in the cold mountain region, notwithstanding their boasted plunder of Kentucky jeans. A series of successes is reported in Missouri, and Commodore Porter has commenced the gunboat patrol of the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis, and will soon extend his operations further south. The announcement of other acts of piracy and destruction by the British gunboat Alabama has added to the uneasiness in commercial circles. Several war vessels have been sent in pursuit of her, and it is hoped that her career may soon be terminated. Of the various naval and military expeditions expected along the southern coast, we have no recent information. The report of the capture of Mobile was evidently premature.

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The British Rebel Navy.

The destruction of eight more American vessels by the pirate craft Alabama, the present of British sympathizers to the rebels, has caused mortification at the Navy Department and alarm among mercantile men. Three men-of-war have been sent in pursuit of her, and it is hoped she may soon be overtaken and her destructive career terminated. It is also believed that five or six fast and well-armed gunboats have been, or are about to be, detached from the South Atlantic and West India squadrons to look after “the bold privateer.” The government should also send a fleet to cruise off the British coast, to nab others of these pirates as the English put them afloat to destroy the commerce of a nation with whom they profess to be at peace. The spasmodic naval successes of the rebels, by the aid of their trans-atlantic friends, have been very annoying, but they bring no permanent advantage to the rebel lion. On the other hand, our naval successes have been of great value, and will soon become more so. The government has now nearly four hundred vessels afloat, and a powerful fleet of iron-clads, fifty-two in number, will soon be thundering at the gates of Charleston, Savannah, and the other seaport cities of the South, while all their navigable rivers will be penetrated by our gunboats. There is some compensation for the Alabama’s mischief in the recent capture off Charleston of four British vessels attempting to run the blockade, richly laden with supplies for the enemy.

¹ McClellan didn’t manage anything at Malvern Hill—he spent the  battle aboard the ironclad USS Galena.