[174] Congress, in itself the excitant of advancing thought, many a representative made a record which to-day seems incredible. For example, one member said: “Must the Northern fanatics be sated with negroes, taxes, and blood, with division North, devastation South, and peril to constitutional liberty everywhere, before relief shall comet They will not halt until their darling schemes are consummated.”
Another, more proslavery still, cried out in despair: “Sir, pass these acts, confiscate under these bills the property of these men, emancipate their negroes, place arms in the hands of these human gorillas to murder their masters and violate their wives and daughters, and you will have a war such as was never witnessed in the worst days of the French Revolution, and horrors never exceeded in San Domingo, for the balance of the century, at least.”
These dreadful prophecies were never fulfilled. The famous Confiscation Act was approved July 17, 1862. Besides provision for the emancipation of slaves and confiscation of other property in any district in insurrection, the President, at his discretion, was authorized to use negroes in such manner as he should judge best for the public welfare in the suppression of the rebellion. Under this legislation numerous colonies were organized along the southern coast.
When the extreme destitution of the negroes at Hampton, Va., and vicinity became known in the North, Lewis Tappan, Esq., Treasurer of the American Missionary Association, wrote August 3, 1861, to General Butler suggesting the removal of the destitute negroes to the North. The general replied to him, August 10th, that it was better for them to remain
