"General, to save you the trouble and folly of such a course, let me say that I shall not obey it."
The Colonel departed. Morning came, but brought no order for the delivery of the contrabands to their former owner.
As the regiment pa.s.sed through Georgetown, a large number of slaves belonging to citizens of that place fled from their masters, and found shelter in the army. Some of the officers who had less nerve than Colonel Utley gave them up, or permitted the owners to come and take them. A Michigan regiment marching through the town had its lines entered by armed citizens, who forcibly took away their slaves. Colonel Utley informed the inhabitants that any attempt to take contrabands from his lines would be resisted.
"Let me say to you, gentlemen," he said to a delegation of the citizens, "that my men will march with loaded muskets, and if any attempt is made upon my regiment, I shall sweep your streets with fire, and close the history of Georgetown. If you seriously intend any such business, I advise you to remove the women and children."
The regiment marched the next morning with loaded muskets. The citizens beheld their negroes sheltered and protected by a forest of gleaming bayonets, and wisely concluded not to attempt the recovery of the uncertain property.
The day after its arrival in Nicholasville, a large, portly gentleman, lying back in an elegant carriage, rode up to the camp, and making his appearance before the Colonel, introduced himself as Judge Robertson, Chief Justice of the State of Kentucky.
"I am in pursuit of one of my boys, who I understand is in this regiment," he said.
"You mean one of your slaves, I presume?"
"Yes, sir. Here is an order from the General, which you will see directs that I may be permitted to enter the lines and get the boy," said the Judge, with great dignity.
"I do not permit any civilian to enter my lines for any such purpose," said the Colonel.
Slaves fleeing to the Army for protection.
The Judge sat down, not greatly astonished, for the reputation of the Twenty-Second Wisconsin, as an abolition regiment, was well established. He began to argue the matter. He talked of the compromises of the Const.i.tution, and proceeded to say:-
"I was in Congress, sir, when the Missouri Compromise was adopted, and voted for it; but I am opposed to slavery, and I once wrote an essay on the subject, favoring emanc.i.p.ation."
"Well, sir, all that may be. If you did it from principle, it was commendable; but your mission here to-day gives the lie to your professions. I don"t permit negro-hunters to go through my regiment; but I will see if I can find the boy, and if he is willing to go I will not hinder him."
The Colonel went out and found the negro Joe, a poor, half-starved, undersized boy, nineteen years old. He told his story. He belonged to the Judge, who had let him to a brutal Irish man for $50 a year. He had been kicked and cuffed, starved and whipped, till he could stand it no longer. He went to the Judge and complained, but had been sent back only to receive a worse thrashing for daring to complain. At last he took to the woods, lived on walnuts, green corn, and apples, sleeping among the corn-shucks and wheat-stacks till the army came. There were tears in Joe"s eyes as he rehea.r.s.ed his sufferings.
The Colonel went back to the Judge.
"Have you found him?"
"I have found a little yellow boy, who says that he belongs to a man in Lexington. Come and see him."
"This man claims you as his property, Joe; he says that you ran away and left him," said the Colonel.
"Yes, sah, I belongs to him," said Joe, who told his story again in a plain, straightforward manner, showing a neck scarred and cut by the whip.
"You can talk with Joe, sir, if you wish," said the Colonel.
"Have not I always treated you well?" the Judge asked.
"No, ma.s.sa, you hasn"t," was the square, plump reply.
"How so?"
"When I came to you and told you I couldn"t stand it any longer, you said, "Go back, you dog!""
"Did not I tell you that I would take you away?"
"Yes, ma.s.sa, but you never did it."
The soldiers came round and listened. Joe saw that they were friends. The Judge stood speechless a moment.
"Joe," said the Colonel, "are you willing to go home with your master?"
"No, sah, I isn"t."
"Judge Robertson, I don"t think you can get that boy. If you think you can, there he is, try it. I shall have nothing to do with it," said the Colonel, casting a significant glance around to the soldiers who had gathered about them.
The Judge saw that he could not lay hands upon Joe. "I"ll see whether there is any virtue in the laws of Kentucky," he said, with great emphasis.
"Perhaps, Judge, it will be as well for you to leave the camp. Some of my men are a little excitable on the subject of slavery."
"You are a set of n.i.g.g.e.r-stealers," said the Judge, losing his temper.
"Allow me to say, Judge, that it does not become you to call us n.i.g.g.e.r-stealers. You talk about n.i.g.g.e.r-stealing,-you who live on the sweat and blood of such creatures as Joe! Your dwellings, your churches, are built from the earnings of slaves, beaten out of them by brutal overseers. You hire little children out to brutes,-you clothe them in rags,-you hunt them with hounds,-you chain them down to toil and suffering! You call us thieves because we have given your Joe food and protection! Sir, I would rather be in the place of Joe than in that of his oppressor!" was the indignant outburst of the Colonel.
"Well, sir, if that is the way you men of the North feel, the Union never can be saved,-never! You must give up our property."
"Judge, allow me to tell you what sort of Unionism I have found in Kentucky. I have not seen a half-dozen who did not d.a.m.n the President. You may put all the pure Unionism in Kentucky in one scale, and a ten-pound n.i.g.g.e.r baby in the other, and the Unionism will kick the beam. Allow me to say, further, that if the perpetuity or restoration of the Union depends upon my delivering to you with my own hands that little half-starved dwarf of a slave, the Union may be cast into h.e.l.l with all the nations that forget G.o.d!"
"The President"s Proclamation is unconst.i.tutional. It has no bearing on Kentucky. I see that it is your deliberate intention to set at naught the laws," said the Judge, turning away, and walking to General Gillmore"s head-quarters.
"You are wanted at the General"s head-quarters," said an aid, soon after, to Colonel Utley.
The Colonel obeyed the summons, and found there not only Judge Robertson, but several fine old Kentucky gentlemen; also Colonel Coburn, the commander of the brigade, who agreed with General Gillmore in the policy then current. Colonel Coburn said:-
"The policy of the commanding generals, as I understand it, is simply this: that persons who have lost slaves have a right to hunt for them anywhere in the State. If a slave gets inside of the lines of a regiment, the owner has a right to enter those lines, just as if no regiment was there, and take away the fugitive at his own pleasure."
"Precisely so. The Proclamation has no force in this State," said the Judge.
"I regret that I am under the necessity of differing in opinion from my commanding officers, to whom I am ready at all times to render strict military obedience, but (the Colonel raised his voice) I reverse the Kentucky policy! I hold that the regiment stands precisely as though there were no slavery in Kentucky. We came here as free men, from a free State, at the call of the President to uphold a free government. We have nothing to do with slavery. The Twenty-Second Wisconsin, while I have the honor to command it, will never be a regiment of n.i.g.g.e.r-catchers. I will not allow civilians to enter my lines at pleasure; it is unmilitary. Were I to permit it, I should be justly amenable to a court-martial. Were I to do it, spies might enter my lines at all times and depart at pleasure."
There was silence. But Judge Robertson was loath to go away without his flesh and blood. He made one more effort. "Colonel, I did not come to your lines as a spy, but with an order from your General. Are you willing that I should go and get my boy?"
The Colonel reflected a moment.
"Yes, sir, and I will remain here. I told you before that I should have nothing to do with it."
"Do you think that the men will permit me to take him?"
"I have no orders to issue to them in the matter; they will do just as they please."
"Will you send the boy into some other regiment?"