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may be fully satisfied that this promise will be held inviolate, it must be Lord Dungiven by the officer appointed to command them, he being empowered Henry so to do, in the most ample manner, by your Excellency. As there Clinton. will no doubt be a great many men come in that will be unfit for military service, I would propose employing them, with the women and children, under proper managers, to cultivate any lands in our possession; and I doubt not, with proper management, to raise sufficient food for the maintenance of the black troops at least, and perhaps enough to dispose of that would both pay and clothe the whole. But should this plan fail, contrary to my most sanguine wish and real opinion, the expense will be so trifling in trying the experiment, that it can never be thought an object of the smallest consideration.

"In order to obviate the only objection that I see to this plan (namely, that of employing slaves, the property of a few friends that are with us here), I would propose that they should be valued by three gentlemen of known skill and probity, and that a receipt should be given them for the value of such slaves; paying them six per cent. interest upon it till the expiration of the war, or so long as the holders' allegiance lasted: and, if that continues to the expiration of the war, pay them the principal. And, indeed, I would propose that no money should in future be given for any thing taken from the inhabitants for the use of the troops, but receipts granted on the same terms.

"Should this plan in general meet with your Excellency's approbation, there are many more ideas relative to it that I will take another opportunity of communicating to you.

"I have wrote fully to Lord George Germain on this subject, and have sent him a copy of this letter; but I hope, before we can hear from home, you will have had the credit of adopting the plan."

(Extract.)

EARL OF DUNMORE TO SECRETARY LORD GEORGE GERMAIN.

"CHARLES TOWN, S. C., Feb. 5, 1782.

"Enclosed I send your Lordship a copy of a letter I have Lord Dunwrote to Sir Henry Clinton, for employing Negroes in this country."

(Extract.)

EARL OF DUNMORE TO SECRETARY LORD GEORGE GERMAIN.

"CHARLES Town, S. C., March 30, 1782.

"Since writing to your Lordship of the 5th of February, there has been a motion made in the Rebel Assembly of this Province for raising

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a brigade of negroes, which was only negatived by a very few voices, and it's supposed will be re-assumed and carried on a future day; and we, by neglecting to make a proper use of those people, who are much attached to us, shall have them, in a short time, employed against us. They are now carrying them up the country as fast as they can find them.

"As soon as this is closed, I shall set off for New York in the 'Carysfort.'

One of the ablest, most experienced, and most successful of the American generals, second only, in the estimation of many, to the Commander-in-chief,- General Nathaniel Greene, -in a letter to Washington, dated on the 24th of January, 1782, says:

"I have recommended to this State to raise some black regiments. To fill up the regiments with whites is impracticable, and to get reenforcements from the northwards precarious, and at least difficult, from the prejudices respecting the climate. Some are for it; but the far greater part of the people are opposed to it.” Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 467.

The letter of General Greene to Governor Rutledge, of South Carolina, is printed below. The opinion of such an officer, formed after the experiment of employing Negro soldiers at the North had been fully tried, and after a residence in the Southern States had enabled him to consider the subject with the advantage of an "acquaintance with the habits, character, and feelings of that class of people," is of the highest importance.

"The natural strength of the country, in point of numbers, appears to me to consist much more in the blacks 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.

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"The number of whites in this State is too small, and the state of General 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, two 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.

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

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“Those who can enter into the feelings and opinions of the citizens Judge of those States which tolerate slavery will be not a little startled at the Johnson proposition submitted to the Governor and Council in this letter. A soldiers. 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 influ

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ence 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 govern

ment.

"It is now probable that the idea of forming a military force by a draught from the slaves had been suggested to 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.

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“SIR, Mr. Hobby having claimed as his property a negro man Washington's regard now serving in the Massachusetts Regiment, you will please to order a for the court of inquiry, consisting of five as respectable officers as can be rights of found in your brigade, to examine the validity of the claim, the manner soldiers. 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.”

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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 growing more insensible to those rights." A sad 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 Wash

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