n of
their views, than the Rev. Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, R. I., who wrote a
"Dialogue Concerning the slavery of the Africans," published soon after
the commencement of hostilities. Here is an extract from a note to the
Dialogue:

"God is so ordering it in his providence, that it seems
absolutely necessary something should speedily be done with
respect to the slaves among us, in order to our safety, and
to prevent their turning against us in our present struggle,
in order to get their liberty. Our oppressors have planned
to gain the blacks, and induce them to take up arms against
us, by promising them liberty on this condition; and this
plan they are prosecuting to the utmost of their power, by
which means they have persuaded numbers to join them. And
should we attempt to restrain them by force and severity,
keeping a strict guard over them, and punishing them
severely who shall be detected in attempting to join our
oppressors, this will only be making bad worse, and serve to
render our inconsistence, oppression, and cruelty more
criminal, perspicuous, and shocking, and bring down the
righteous vengeance of Heaven on our heads. The only way
pointed out to prevent this threatening evil is to set the
blacks at liberty ourselves by some public acts and laws,
and then give them proper encouragement to labor, or take
arms in the defence of the American cause, as they shall
choose. This would at once be doing them some degree of
justice, and defeating our enemies in the scheme that they
are prosecuting."

Therefore it will be observed that public opinion regarding the arming
of negroes in the North and South, was controlled by sectional interest
in the one, and the love of liberty in the other. That both desired
America's Independence, no one will doubt, but that one section was
more willing than the other to sacrifice slavery for freedom, I think is
equally as plain. While the colonists were debating with much anxiety
the subject of what to do with the negroes, the New England States were
endeavoring to draw the Southern States or Colonies into the war by
electing George Washington as Commander of the army at Cambridge, and
accepting the mis-interpretations of the declarations of war. The Punic
faith with which the Southern States entered the war for liberty
humiliated the army, and wrung from its commander t