than in the whites. Could they be incorporated, and employed for its defence, it would afford you double security. That they would make good soldiers, I have not the least. doubt; and I am persuaded the State has it not in its power to give sufficient re-enforcements, without incorporating them, either to secure the country, if the enemy mean to act vigorously upon an offensive plan, or furnish a force sufficient to dispossess them of Charleston, should it be defensive.

"The number of whites in this State is too small, and the state of your finances too low, to attempt to raise a force in any other way. Should the measure be adopted, it may prove a good means of preventing the enemy from further attempts upon this country, when they find they have not only the whites, but the blacks also, to contend with. And I believe it is generally agreed, that, if the natural strength of this country could have been employed in its defence, the enemy would have found it little less than impracticable to have got footing here, much more to have overrun the country, by which the inhabitants have suffered infinitely greater loss than would have been sufficient to have given you perfect security; and, I am persuaded, the incorporation of a part of the negroes would rather tend to secure the fidelity of others, than excite discontent, mutiny, and desertion among them. The force I would ask for this purpose, in addition to what we have, and what may probably join us from the Northward or from the militia of this State, would be four regiments, upon the Continental, and two upon the State, establishment; a corps of pioneers and a corps of artificers, each to consist of about eighty men. The two last may be either on a temporary or permanent establishment, as may be most agreeable to the State. The others should have their freedom, and be clothed and treated, in all respects, as other soldiers; without which they will be unfit for the duties expected from them."-Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. ii. p. 274.

two

The author of "Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Gen. Greene," himself a Southerner and a resident of Charleston, thus comments on the proposal to employ the negroes as soldiers:

"Those who can enter into the feelings and opinions of the citizens of those States which tolerate slavery will be not a little startled at the proposition submitted to the Governor and Council in this letter. A strong, deep-seated feeling, nurtured from earliest infancy, decides, with instinctive promptness, against a measure of so threatening an aspect, and so offensive to that republican pride, which disdains to commit the defence of the country to servile hands, or share with a color to which the idea of inferiority is inseparably connected the profession of arms, and that approximation of condition which must exist between the regular soldier and the militia-man.

"But the Governor and Council viewed the subject under the influence of less feeling. It seems the proposition had formerly been under consideration in the State Legislature; and, as the meeting of that board was now at hand, it was resolved to submit it to their decision.

"There is a sovereign, who, at this time, draws his soldiery from the same class of people; and finds a facility in forming and disciplining an army, which no other power enjoys. Nor does his immense military force, formed from that class of his subjects, excite the least apprehensions; for the soldier's will is subdued to that of his officer, and his improved condition takes away the habit of identifying himself with the class from which he has been separated. Military men know what mere machines men become under discipline, and believe that any men, who may be made obedient, may be made soldiers; and that increasing their numbers increases the means of their own subjection and government.

Johnson

soldiers.

"It is now probable that the idea of forming a military Judge force by a draught from the slaves had been suggested to on negro Gen. Greene by a recent acquaintance with the habits, character, and feelings of that class of people. It could not escape his eye, that there was no sense of hostility existing between the master and slave, but rather something of the clannish, or patriarchal, feelings known to exist between the inhabitants of a village and their chief. He had remarked the joy expressed by the slaves on their deliverance from the tyranny of the enemy, and the return of a protector in the person of their master; and it was obvious, that if the State could give a slave for the services. of a man as a soldier for ten months, as had been the case in raising some of its troops, it would be great gain to convert the same slave into a soldier for the war, to be paid only by his freedom, after having served with fidelity. But the Legislature, when it met, thought the experiment a dangerous one; and the project was relinquished. They adopted, however, the alternative of raising soldiers on the black population by giving a slave for a soldier. Parties were sent to collect slaves from the plantations of the loyalists, and rendezvous established in vain in various places in the interior country." — Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. ii. pp. 274, 275.

Propositions for peace were introduced in the British Parliament, and preliminary steps were taken towards the cessation of hostilities, before the letters from Lord Dunmore reached the Secretary, Lord George Germain. But these letters, and those written by Colonel Laurens and General Greene in the last months of the Revolutionary War, are of historical importance. They contain the mature opinions and the deliberate decision of the highest British

and American military authorities, in unequivocal support of the policy of arming the negro slaves, and employing them as soldiers.

The following letter, addressed to Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam, and afterwards printed, from his papers, at Marietta, Ohio, shows the tender care which the Commander-in-chief had for the rights of the negro soldiers in the army:—

"HEAD QUARTERS, Feb. 2, 1783. "SIR, Mr. Hobby having claimed as his property a negro man now serving in the Massachusetts Regiment, you will please to order a court of inquiry, consisting of five as respectable officers as can be found in your brigade, to examine the validity of the claim, the manner in which the person in question came into service, and the propriety of his being discharged or retained in service. Having inquired into the matter, with all the attending circumstances, they will report to you their opinion thereon; which you will report to me as soon as conveniently may be.

I am, Sir, with great respect,

"Your most obedient servant,

"G. WASHINGTON.

"P.S.- All concerned should be notified to attend. "Brig.-Gen. PUTNAM."

Luther Martin, it will be remembered, in his address to the Legislature of Maryland on the Federal Constitution, deplored the. growing laxity of public sentiment on the subject of slavery. "When our liberties were at stake," he said, "we warmly felt for the common rights of men. The danger being thought to be past which threatened ourselves, we are daily

A sad

growing more insensible to those rights." illustration of the truth of this declaration was found in the conduct of some of the slaveholders, who, having sent their negroes to the army with the promise of personal liberty, at the close of the war attempted to re-enslave them.

To the honor of Virginia,-who could then claim Washington and Jefferson and Madison among her living patriots, this wrong to the negro soldiers was not overlooked, nor permitted to continue. The General Assembly of that State, in 1783, enacted the following law:

"An Act directing the Emancipation of certain Slaves who have served as Soldiers in this State, and for the Emancipation of the Slave Aberdeen.

soldiers

"I. Whereas it hath been represented to the present Negro General Assembly, that, during the course of the war, many emancipersons in this State had caused their slaves to enlist in pated. certain regiments or corps raised within the same, having tendered such slaves to the officers appointed to recruit forces within the State, as substitutes for free persons whose lot or duty it was to serve in such regiments or corps, at the same time representing to such recruiting officers that the slaves, so enlisted by their direction and concurrence, were freemen; and it appearing further to this Assembly, that on the expiration of the term of enlist ment of such slaves, that the former owners have attempted again to force them to return to a state of servitude, contrary to the principles of justice, and to their own solemn promise;

"II. And whereas it appears just and reasonable, that all persons enlisted as aforesaid, who have faithfully served agreeable to the terms of their enlistment, and have thereby