Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/232

 224 Southern Historical Society Papers.

A STRONG MEASURE.

The measure we propose will strike dead all John Brown fanati- cism, and will compel the enemy to draw off altogether, or, in the eyes of the world, to swallow the Declaration of Independence with- out the sauce and disguise of philanthropy. This delusion of fanati- cism at an end, thousands of Northern people will have leisure to look at home and see the gulf of despotism into which they them- selves are rushing. The measure will at one blow strip the enemy of foreign sympathy and assistance, and transfer them to the South; it will dry up two of his three sources of recruiting; it will take from his negro army the only motive it could have to fight against the South, and will probably cause much of it to desert over to us; it will deprive his cause of the powerful stimulous of fanaticism, and will enable him to see the rock on which his so-called friends are now piloting him. The immediate effect of the emancipation and enrollment of negroes on the military strength of the South would be to enable us to have armies numerically superior to those of the North, and a reserve of any size we might think necessary; to en- able us to take the offensive, move forward, and forage on the enemy. It would open to us in prospective another and almost un- touched source of supply, and furnish us with the means of prevent- ing temporary disaster and carrying on a protracted struggle. It would instantly remove all the vulnerability, embarrassment, and in- herent weakness which result from slavery. The approach of the enemy would no longer find every household surrounded by spies, the fear that sealed the master's lips, and the avarice that has in so many cases tempted him practically to desert us would alike be re- moved. There would be no recruits awaiting the enemy with open arms; no complete history of every neighborhood \vithreadyguides; no fear of insurrection in the rear or anxieties for the fate of loved ones when our armies moved forward. The chronic irritation of hope deferred would be joyfully ended with the negro, and the sympathies of his whole race would be clue to his native South. It would restore confidence in an early termination of the war with all its inspiring consequences; and even if, contrary to all expectations, the enemy should succeed in overrunning the South, instead of find- ing a cheap, ready-made means of holding it down, he would find a common hatred and thirst for vengeance which would break into