Address Of Hon George S Boutwell

Author : UNKNOWN. AUTHOR
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781331457787
Total Pages : 26 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (577 download)

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Download or read book Emancipation written by UNKNOWN. AUTHOR and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Emancipation: Its Justice, Expediency and Necessity, as the Means of Securing a Speedy and Permanent Peace: An Address Delivered by Hon. George S. Boutwell, Tremont Temple, Boston, Under the Auspices of the Emancipation League, December 16, 1861 The South is encouraged, the North is discouraged, and the world is disgusted with the policy of our government in this matter. An army needs ideas as well as bread. Like a man, in order to do great deeds, an army needs an imposing idea - a great watchword - an object worth fighting for and dying for. Such an idea - such a watch-word would be the emancipation of four millions of human beings; but such is not a vague cry of Union - Union! But not only does the government withhold this breath of life and honor from the army, but it converts it into an engine to keep up slavery, to keep down emancipation, and to hold the slaveholder's victim for him if perchance he escapes. From the early proclamation of McClellan that servile insurrection should be put down with an iron hand, to the late proclamation of Halleck, which virtually drove back fugitive slaves from our lines, the policy of our commanders when they approach a slave region has been, with a few honorable exceptions, to deter the negro from acting against his master, and so to convert the black race into enemies. Nay! Northern officers have been found base enough to betray poor fugitives. Northern soldiers have been made slave-catchers for Southern masters; and Northern officers have disgraced themselves by deeds which even heathen knights would have spurned as mean and cowardly. The scutcheon of our beloved State even has been soiled and disgraced in this way. It is not the public and acknowledged policy of the government to hold fugitive slaves for the benefit of their masters, and so to keep open a door for reconstruction upon the same old iniquitons basis of Union, but that it is the real aim facts will show. Fugitives arc never invited into our lines, but when they force themselves in they arc taken into custody at those places there is a chance for them to escape to the North. Look at Fortress Monroe; not only cannot a fugitive get a passage to the North, but the vessels leaving the place are searched to prevent it. At Washington they are locked up in jail to prevent their escape. The public prints have lately told you all about this. Dr. Howe then related his recent examination of the jail in Alexandria, Va., where he found about a score of fugitives, men, women and children, who had committed no offence against the laws of the United Stales, save that of running from rebel masters, but who were locked up in prison by the United States Marshal. They all expressed a wish to be free; they dreaded being returned to their masters; and were evidently perplexed by their present treatment. One man, on being asked if he could take care of himself if he were set free, said, "Tse took care of myself forty years, and helped massa take care of hisself - tink I can't take care of myself alone?" The ideas of the administration, as shown by the operations of our army all along the slave border, from Missouri to Port Royal, has been such as to discourage all hopes of its adopting the policy of emancipation; and it is for the people, for the men and the women of the country, to speak out in its favor. It is that they may do so that this Emancipation League is formed, and that similar ones are earnestly recommended everywhere. Dr. Howe then apologized for taking so much time, and introduced the orator of the evening. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com