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Semi-Weekly Dispatch: March 11, 1862 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Missionaries for Port Royal
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports that about sixty persons departed on the steamer Atlantic from New York, bound for Port Royal, where three-fourths of the men will manage the abandoned plantations. The twelve or fifteen women will serve as teachers at an industrial school in Port Royal.

Origin of Article: N. Y. Evening Post

Full Text of Article:

Stores and Teachers for the Contrabands.

The steamer Atlantic sailed from New York, a day or two ago, for Port Royal, with a large cargo of army stores for our troops, and about sixty persons who accompany Mr. Edward L. Pierce, the Government agent in charge of the plantations and contrabands at Port Royal. These persons were all recommended by the National Freedman's Relief Association, and its auxiliary, the Educational Commission, at Boston. Three-fourths of the whole number are men who are to be the superintendents of the abandoned estates, and will direct the labors of the negroes, who are to be employed in such agricultural pursuits as cotton-culture and raising vegetables for their own support and for the use of the army at that point.

Twelve or fifteen of the passengers are ladies, who will become teachers of an industrial school, which will be at once established at Port Royal, under the superintendence of Rev. M. French, of New York. Mrs. Senator Harlan, of Iowa, is among the ladies, and will assist in some department of the work. Rev. Dr. Floy, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of New York, is a passenger by the Atlantic. He goes to Port Royal for the purpose of preparing for missionary efforts among his negroes.

A portion of the superintendents and teachers receive compensation from the associations in New York and Boston; but some are volunteers. Among the number are men of almost all trades, and some professions. There are several physicians and one or two clergymen.

About three thousand dollars' worth of agricultural implements, including plows, hoes, and others in most common use have been purchased by Mr. Pierce, and will be taken to Port Royal in the Atlantic. He takes also a quantity of seeds, including one barrel contributed from the Patent Office at Washington; as well as some medicines, and other necessary articles.

From New York forty barrels and boxes of clothing, seven or eight boxes of shoes and two sewing machines are sent for the use of the negroes, from the Association in that city. Besides these, a large number of boxes and packages of all sorts were put on board the Atlantic. From Boston, about twenty-five boxes of clothing, with many barrels of goods and "notions," have been forwarded.

All the superintendents and teachers were requested to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, previous to going on board the steamer. Twenty seven gentlemen and four ladies from Boston; twenty-one gentlemen and seven ladies from New York, and Miss Susan Walker, Mrs. Walter R. Johnson and Miss Mary Donalson, from Washington and Philadelphia, subscribed to the oath. No man who would not, in case of necessity, fight for his country, was permitted to go to Port Royal to assist in the management of the contrabands.--N. Y. Eve. Post.

Prenticeana
(Column 5)

Summary: Comments that the "rebels" repeatedly spend their energy and talent on building fortifications to protect various important locations, but then they retreat from them when Union soldiers approach, sometimes without even fighting.

A Richmond Editor's Ravings about "The Yankee"
(Column 1)

Summary: Reprints a portion of an article published in the Richmond Whig the previous summer that characterizes the North as the rightful slave of the South. The Dispatch points out the dignity of free labor and denounces what it perceives as the misdirected belief of "Southern aristocratic lords" that all who work are slaves.

Full Text of Article:

The following editorial appeared in the Richmond Whig last summer. A correspondent desires its publication at this time to how rebel sympathizers how impotent have been the threats of their traitor friends:--

"To be conquered in open and manly fight by a nation of gentlemen, and subjected to their sway, might not drive us raving distracted with rage and shame: but for Yankees--the most contemptible and detestable of God's creation--the vile wretches, whose daily sustenance consists in the refuse of all other people--for they eat nothing that anybody else will buy--for them to lord over us--the English language must be enlarged, new words must be invented, to express the extent and depth of our feelings of mortification and shame. No, it is not possible that we can be reduced to a state which there is no words to describe. Instead of this, we must bring these enfranchised slaves back to their true condition. They have long, very properly, looked upon themselves as our social inferiors--as our serfs--their mean, niggardly lives--their low, vulgar and sordid occupations have ground this conviction into them. But of a sudden, they have come to imagine that their numerical strength gives them power--and they have burst the bonds of servitude, and are running riot with more than brutal passions of a liberated wild beast. Their uprising has all the characteristics of a ferocious, servile insurrection. Their first aim is demolition--the destruction of everything, which has the appearance of superior virtue, which excites their envy and hate, and which, by contrast, exposes the shameful deformity of their own lives.

They have suggested to us the invasion of their territory, and the robbery of their banks and jewelry stores. We may profit by the suggestion, so far as the invasion goes--for that will enable us to restore them to their normal condition of vassalage, and teach them that cap in hand is the proper attitude of the servant before his master. A cock for a sailor, a goose for a soldier--a Yankee for a gentleman--images incongruous and unnatural!"

Such are the sentiments entertained by the Southern aristocratic lords of the last of the people of the North, because they prefer to do their own work, and will not worship their barbarous institution of Slavery. On perusing the above ravings of the Richmond Whig, we could not help smiling, and indulging a feeling more of pity than anger. Capital is the product of Labor--Labor, intelligent, free and compensated, has made the Free States what they are in power, wealth, and greatness. In the North, labor is honorable; in the South, it is degrading for a white man to work, especially if he works from necessity to support himself or family. The lordlings of the South have always maintained, that the "normal condition" of all who work for a living, whether white or black, is slavery; and with "cap in hand" should stand before their masters.

When we see men who earn their bread by their daily toil, supporting the Breckinridge wing of the Democratic party, thus aiding to elevate men who believe they should be reduced to slavery just because they are poor and are compelled to work for a living, and that, instead of standing erect in all the dignity of their manhood, the peer of the wealthiest in the land, he should be bowed, with "cap in hand" before his employer or his owner--we repeat, when we see working men supporting a party which is led by men believing and enforcing such ideas, our heart sickens at the sight. But so it is.

These principles of the Southern chivalry are not uttered now simply because they are at war with the North, but they were indulged, uttered and enforced long before the Rebellion was seriously meditated. If any people should oppose Slavery, and seek its utter and entire destruction and extirpation from the land, by every means which they may possess, it is the working men of the Free States.--It is they who are immediately affected by the degrading system, and that any one of them should seek to uphold the "institution," is not only marvellous [sic], but shows a want of intelligence and self-respect that is truly humiliating.

"Let Us Be Consistent"
(Column 2)

Summary: Refutes the Spirit's claim that the Republicans are "intolerant" by pointing out that many Democrats are present in high office during Lincoln's administration, while Democrats rarely extended office to members of the opposing party.

The Treason of Buchanan and Floyd Exposed
(Column 2)

Summary: Reprints a letter written by Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany Evening Journal that gives his account of the treason of John B. Floyd and also implicates Buchanan in treason.

War News! From Fortress Monroe!
(Column 3)

Summary: Describes the attack on the Union fleet by the Southern iron-clad boat, the Merrimac, at Fortress Monroe. Many Union ships were destroyed, damaged, or captured.

The Rebels at Manassas
(Column 4)

Summary: Reports the position of Southern troops and an estimation of the numbers of those troops at each location.

Touching Appeal of Condemned Rebels
(Column 5)

Summary: Prints a letter from "rebel" soldiers in prison in Missouri and condemned to death for destroying bridges in that state. The soldiers plead to their fellow Southern troops not to burn any bridges in Missouri, since General Halleck has declared that the sentence of death will not be carried out against these men unless further destruction of railroads or telegraph lines in Missouri makes it necessary to make an example out of the prisoners.

Full Text of Article:

The condemned rebel bridge-burners of Missouri, in a letter, dated Palmyra Military Prison, Feb. 22, 1862, thus address the citizens of Missouri, and all whom it may concern:

Fellow-citizens:--We, the undersigned, "charged with bridge burning," and sentenced>

As men sentenced and confined, we can only reach you through the channel of the public press. Having thus placed before you the conditions upon which hang the duration of our lives, we earnestly request a due observance of the conditions, and enter our solemn protest against the destruction of railroad property in the State of Missouri. The responsibilities incident to these conditions being unequal to the circumstances by which we are surrounded, (as far as influencing or controlling this matter is concerned,) we can only present this case, with anxious solicitude, and commit our lives to your care and protection. Believing that even in the frenzied madness of the clash of arms, you would not show an utter disregard to the lives of our fellow-men, we remain, very truly and sincerely, your fellow citizens,

John Patton,
R. B. Crowder,
G. H. Cunningham,
T. M. Smith,
W. J. Forshey,
G. M. Pullam,
John C. Tompkins,

P. S. Stephen Scott has been sent to Alton previous to this date.

Col. Harlan
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that General Wool did not approve the general court marital of Colonel Harlan and that, as a result, Colonel Harlan has been released from arrest and ordered to resume command of his regiment, the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Caution to the Public--Treasury Note Trick
(Column 1)

Summary: Warns that some traders have been defrauded by manipulation of treasury notes.

Sudden Death
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports the death of John Miller, about 49 or 50 years of age, the previous Saturday evening at the hotel of Jacob S. Brown, Esq., in Chambersburg. He died kneeling by his bed, possibly in the act of prayer, and leaves behind him a wife and several children in Pittsburgh.

Melancholly Occurrence
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that William Ewing of Shippensburg was accidentally shot by his colleague at Camp Marcy near Washington.

Origin of Article: Shippensburg News

Methodism and the Government
(Column 1)

Summary: Prints the resolutions of the East Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church that express approval of the federal government in seeking to crush the rebellion at the South and "abhorrence" of the rebellion that has compelled the federal government to action.

President's Message
(Column 1)

Summary: Relays the President's message to Congress from the previous Thursday.

Full Text of Article:

The President, on Thursday last, remitted to Congress the following Message:--

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:--I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:--

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system."

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing inserrection [sic] entertain the hope that this Government will be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the Slaves States north of such parts will then say--The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.

To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the States imitating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that, in no event, will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say initiation, because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of the war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State.

Such a proposition on the part of the general Government sets up no claim of a right, by Federal authority, to interfere with slavery within the State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and to its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them. In the annual Message, last December, I thought fit to say:--the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed. I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical re-acknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.

If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue, and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency towards ending the struggle, must and will come. The proposition now made is an offer only. I hope it may be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned, than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect of affairs. While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and within itself a practical measure, it is recommended, in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.

(Signed)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.