Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/382

 370 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Mississippi river that the Confederacy was doomed, and the effort was to preserve the part of the United States west of the river to the Pacific Ocean as a slaveholding Confederacy. Of course, if the European nations adopted the plan, it was certain that the vast ma- jority of the negroes from the Carolinas to the river would be moved across it and that section would be an agricultural free-trade com- munity. It was, of course, an irridescent dream, but some of the ablest men in the South were dreaming it."

I should feel inclined to think that it is the dream of a dreamer, and that the correspondent of the Washington Post has dreamed it, for I have known all the most prominent men of the South and many others who might well come within the designation of "some of the ablest men," and never heard any of them as much as hint at such a venture. Indeed, many of them knew too well that the in- stitution of slavery proved the greatest bar to every hope of foreign assistance, and that the establishment of a new slaveholding com- munity with the aid of a foreign power was an absolute impossi- bility. But apart from this negative objection, I am able to give information of a positive nature which will point to the same conclu- sion.

I said that while I was at Shreveport, preparing for my journey, Governor Allen had imparted to me a scheme he was then revolving in his mind. I will now disclose it. Seeing that the South could not replace its fallen combatants, whereas the North disposed of an ever-increasing army of foreign mercenaries; moreover, that when- ever the Federals obtained temporary possession of Southern soil, they kidnapped the negroes and pressed them into military service, Governor Allen's idea was to arm the negroes, and as a consequence to give them their freedom. I remember his very words: "Of course," he said, "we must give them their freedom." Such a plan is obviously incompatible with the notion of a retrocession of Louisiana as a slave-holding community, and some interesting con- clusions can be drawn from it.

In the first place, it shows that a prominent Southern man, thor- oughly acquainted with all the conditions of political and social life in the Southern States, felt a perfect confidence in the loyalty of the black population. Many Northern men would, no doubt, have con- sidered the arming of the slaves as a risky undertaking on the part of the South.

But the history of the war bears out Governor Allen's confidence. During the four years the contest lasted no negro outrage or dis- turbance, arising out of the circumstances, has to my knowledge been recorded, nor is it possible to deny that the total want of effer- vescense in the black population in times where every facility for revolt was afforded them, bears testimony to and throws a favorable light upon the way in which the institution of slavery was under- stood and put into practice in the Southern States.

On the other hand, it is impossible to admit that Governor Allen should have brooded over such a scheme as I have stated had he