e bill by the soldiers engaged in capturing and returning
the negroes coming into the Union lines.[13] Undoubtedly it was the idea
of the Government to turn the course of the war from its rightful
channel, or in other words,--in the restoration of the Union,--to
eliminate the anti-slavery sentiment, which demanded the freedom of the
slaves.

[Illustration: QUARTERS PROVIDED FOR CONTRABANDS.]

Hon. Elisha R. Potter, of Rhode Island,--"who may," said Mr. Greeley,
"be fairly styled the hereditary chief of the Democratic party of that
State,"--made a speech on the war in the State Senate, on the 10th of
August 1861, in which he remarked:

"I have said that the war may assume another aspect, and be
a short and bloody one. And to such a war--_an anti-slavery
war_--it seems to me we are _inevitably_ drifting. It seems
to me hardly in the power of human wisdom to prevent it. We
may commence the war without meaning to interfere with
slavery; but let us have one or two battles, and get our
blood excited, and we shall not only not restore any more
slaves, but shall proclaim freedom wherever we go. And it
seems to me almost judicial blindness on the part of the
South that they do not see that this must be the inevitable
result, if the contest is prolonged."

This sentiment became bolder daily as the thinking Union men viewed the
army turning aside from its legitimate purposes, to catch runaway
negroes, and return them. Party lines were also giving away; men in the
army began to realize the worth of the negroes as they sallied up to the
rebel breastworks that were often impregnable. They began to complain,
finding the negro with his pick and spade, a greater hinderance to their
progress than the cannon balls of the enemy; and more than one said to
the confederates, when the pickets of the two armies picnicked together
in the battle's lull, as frequently they did: "We can whip you, if you
keep your negroes out of your army."

Quite a different course was pursued in the navy. Negroes were readily
accepted all along the coast on board the war vessels, it being no
departure from the regular and established practice in the service. The
view with which the loyal friends of the Union began to look at the
negro and the rebellion, was aptly illustrated in an article in the
Montgomery (Ala.) _Advertiser_ in 1861, which said:

"THE SLAVES AS A MILITARY ELEMENT IN THE SOUTH.--Th