soldiers in setts. On the 11th of April, the former of the above letters was Negro duly referred to a joint committee, "to consider the same, and Massachureport." On the 17th, "a resolution of the General Assembly of Rhode Island for enlisting negroes in the public service" was referred to the same committee. On the 28th, they reported the draught of a law, differing little from the RhodeIsland Resolution: but a separate organization of negro companies, by Kench, does not appear to have been deemed advisable at that time; and the usage was continued, of "having," in the words of Kench, "negroes in our service, intermixed with the white men." Many other specimens of legislative action on the subject in the Northern and Middle States might be produced; but enough have already been given to show the general current of public sentiment in this part of the country. An extract from a letter to Washington, written by John Cadwalader at Annapolis, Md., June 5, 1781, relates to the doings of that State: soldiers in "We have resolved to raise, immediately, seven hundred and fifty Negro negroes, to be incorporated with the other troops; and a bill is now Maryland. almost completed."- Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 331. In an act passed by the Legislature of New York, March 20, 1781, for the purpose of raising two regiments upon the inducement of "bounty lands unappropriated," is to be found the following section: soldiers in "SECT. 6. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Negro that any person who shall deliver one or more of his or her able-bodied New York. male slaves to any warrant officer, as aforesaid, to serve in either of the said regiments or independent corps, and produce a certificate thereof, signed by any person authorized to muster and receive the men to be raised by virtue of this act, and produce such certificate to the Surveyor-General, shall, for every male slave so entered and mustered as aforesaid, be entitled to the location and grant of one right, in manner as in and by this act is directed; and shall be, and Negro soldiers in hereby is, discharged from any future maintenance of such slave, any New York. law to the contrary notwithstanding: And such slave so entered as aforesaid, who shall serve for the term of three years or until regularly discharged, shall, immediately after such service or discharge, be, and is hereby declared to be, a free man of this State." Laws of the State of New York, Chap. 32, (March 20, 1781, Fourth Session.) Where the soldiers in the Conti vice came Tacitly or by positive law, the policy of arming the negroes and employing them as soldiers, either in separate companies or mingled in the ranks with white citizens, almost everywhere prevailed. In Georgia and South Carolina, however, where there was the most urgent call for more troops, and where the slave-holders were backward in enlisting, the case was different. These States, it will be remembered, contained so many Tories, whose sympathies were with the enemy, that it was impossible to obtain from them enough soldiers for a "home-guard." It may not be amiss for Massachusetts men to refresh their memories by referring to the history of their Commonwealth in regard to supplying soldiers during the Revolution; and it may be well for all to notice, that, where there was the greatest opposition to the arming and employing of negroes as soldiers, there was the least disposition to furnish a fair supply of white soldiers. The following items of Revolutionary history were published several years since by our associate, the Hon. Lorenzo Sabine, in the historical essay prefixed to his excellent history of the "American Loyalists": “The whole number of regulars enlisted for the Continental service, from the beginning to the close of the struggle, was 231,959. nental ser- Of these, I have once remarked, 67,907 were from Massachusetts; from. and I may now add, that every State south of Pennsylvania provided but 59,493, or 8,414 less than this single State; and that New England now, I grieve to say, contemned and reproached -equipped and maintained 118,350, or above half of the number placed at the service of Congress during the war. I would not press these facts to the injury of the Whigs of the South. The war, after the evacuation of Boston, I am aware, was transferred from New England to the soldiers in vice came Middle and Southern States; and these States accordingly required Where the bodies of troops to be kept at home to protect themselves. But as it the Contiis to be presumed that most of such bodies composed a part of the nental serregular force employed by Congress, and were, therefore, included in from. the Continental establishment and pay, the argument is in no essential particular weakened by the admission, that the Whigs of the South were, of necessity, employed in the defence of their own firesides; for, were this the truth of the case, the numbers in this service, as well as in other, would still appear, in making up the aggregate force enlisted from time to time in each State. The exact question is, then, not where were the battle-grounds of the Revolution, but what was the proportion of men which each of the thirteen States supplied for the contest. "In considering the political condition of Virginia and North Carolina, it was admitted that these States were not able to provide troops according to their population, as compared with the States destitute of a 'peculiar institution.' The same admission is now made in behalf of South Carolina. Yet did 6,660 Whig soldiers exhaust her resources of men? Could she furnish only 752 more than Rhode Island, the smallest State in the Confederacy; only one-fifth of the number of Connecticut; only one-half as many as New Hampshire, then almost an unbroken wilderness? She did not: she could not defend herself against her own Tories; and it is hardly an exaggeration to add, that more Whigs of other States were sent to her aid, and now lie buried in her soil, than she herself sent to every scene of strife outside of her own borders from Lexington to Yorktown.. "South Carolina, with a Northern army to assist her, could not or would not even preserve her own capital. When news reached Connecticut that Gage had sent a force into the country, and that blood had been shed, Putnam was at work in his field. Leaving his plough in the furrow, he started for Cambridge, without changing his garments. When Stark heard the same tidings, he was sawing pine-logs, and without a coat: shutting down the gate of his mill, he commenced his journey to Boston in his shirt-sleeves. The same spirit animated the Whigs far and near; and the capital of New England was invested with fifteen thousand armed men. "How was it at Charleston? That city was the great mart of the South, and, what Boston still is, the centre of the export and import trade of a large population. In grandeur, in splendor of buildings, in decorations, in equipages, in shipping and commerce, Charleston was soldiers in Where the equal to any city in America. But its citizens did not rally to save the Conti- it; and Gen. Lincoln was compelled to accept of terms of capitulanental ser- tion. He was much censured for the act. Yet whoever calmly vice came from. examines the circumstances will be satisfied, I think, that the measure was unavoidable; and that the inhabitants, as a body, preferred to return to their allegiance to the British Crown. The people, on whom Congress and Gen. Lincoln depended to complete his force, refused to enlist under the Whig banner; but, after the surrender of the city, they flocked to the royal standard by hundreds. In a word, so general was the defection, that persons who had enjoyed Lincoln's confidence joined the royal side; and men who had participated in his councils bowed their necks anew to the yoke of Colonial vassalage. Sir Henry Clinton considered his triumph complete, and communicated to the ministry the intelligence that the whole State had yielded submission to the royal arms, and had become again a part of the empire. To the women of South Carolina, and to Marion, Sumpter, and Pickens, the celebrated partisan chiefs, who kept the field without the promise of men, money, or supplies, it was owing that Sir Henry's declaration did not prove entirely true for a time, and that the name and the spirit of liberty did not become utterly extinct." The American Loyalists, pp. 30-33, (as corrected by the author for a second edition.) This statement was not allowed to pass without contradiction, and the author of it was fiercely reproached. His facts and figures were called in question; but they were not proved to be incorrect. From a recent careful examination of the statistics as contained in the official report of General Knox, the Secretary of War, made to Congress in 1790, I am satisfied that Mr. Sabine, in this case, has not departed from his general practice of stating with scrupulous accuracy and impartiality the simple facts relating to his subject. The difficulty of obtaining a sufficient number of white soldiers in the Southern States to defend them from the invasion of the enemy, and the fact that the employment of negroes, where the practice had prevailed, had proved entirely successful, led to a vigorous effort in Congress and elsewhere to take advantage of this class of persons for increasing the army, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina. Colonel John Laurens, of South Carolina, was one of the most earnest advocates of the measure. His father, the Hon. Henry Laurens, on the 16th of March, 1779, wrote to Washington: Laurens to Wash "Our affairs in the Southern department are more favorable than Henry we had considered them a few days ago; nevertheless, the country is greatly distressed, and will be more so unless further reinforcements ington. are sent to its relief. Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of success in driving the British out of Georgia, and subduing East Florida, before the end of July." Sparks's Washington, vol. vi. p. 204, note. ton to In his reply to Mr. Laurens, on the 20th of the same month, WashingWashington, with his characteristic caution and modesty, Henry suggests his doubts, but adds that they are "only the first crude ideas" that struck him. "The policy of our arming slaves, is, in my opinion, a moot point, unless the enemy set the example. For, should we begin to form battalions of them, I have not the smallest doubt, if the war is to be prosecuted, of their following us in it, and justifying the measure upon our own ground. The contest then must be, who can arm fastest. And where are our arms? Besides, I am not clear that a discrimination will not render slavery more irksome to those who remain in it. Most of the good and evil things in this life are judged of by comparison; and I fear a comparison in this case will be productive of much discontent in those who are held in servitude. But, as this is a subject that has never employed much of my thoughts, these are no more than the first crude ideas that have struck me upon the occasion."-Sparks's Washington, vol. vi. p. 204. Alexander Hamilton, who had thought much on the subject, and had considered it in its various relations, gave his unqualified and hearty support to the measure. In a letter to Mr. Jay, which has been preserved and published, he states his views with great clearness: Laurens. |