Jim Lane In Chicago

General Lane, of Kansas, was in Chicago on Wednesday last, and was called on at his hotel by an immense throng of citizens who clamored for a speech until he responded.

The uppermost fact in every loyal man’s mind was that this rebellion must be crushed in some way.  He knew there was not a loyal man present who was unwilling to lay down his own life and sacrifice even his own family to accomplish this result.  There was no resolution so strong among all true patriots as that demanding that the rebellion must be put down so as to stay down.  The curse of slavery has been agitated long enough and it must now be radically cured.  For eight long months the North has been contending against the rebels, and what have we got to show for it?  What results have been accomplished – what advantage obtained?  For eight long months the Government has been prosecuting this war so as to hurt nobody.  It is time some one was hurt.  We were willing enough to kill white men in the South and to allow them to be killed in the North but we were afraid of committing sacrilege if we touched the sacred negro.  [Cries of “that’s so”] – Yes, afraid to touch the sacred negro who has caused the whole of this trouble.  But let me tell you the government has got over it and I think I can certify that this crowd have got over it. – [Applause and cries of “yes we have”]  We have been permitted to discuss all questions human and divine, all questions of society of morals and religion to canvass the character of God and the nature of his laws, but have been forbidden to say a word about the viper which has stung us in our bosoms.

It is no time for talking now, but for action.  We have consumed eight months in inactivity, have wasted three hundred millions of dollars and sacrificed twenty five thousand lives, and turned this country upside down in our insane endeavors to put down this infernal rebellion and to save slavery.  I tell you it can’t be done and the Government has come to that conclusion.  Let me tell you confidentially that on Monday last, they opened a new set of books and came to the conclusion that if the Union can’t be saved and slavery saved then down goes slavery.  The rebels have either got to submit to die or to run away.  I tell you the time has come when play must stop.  The rebels must submit or be sent down forthwith to that hell already yawning to receive them.

The desirable consummation was effected by compromise.  The radical men agreed the conservative men should carry on the war according to their notions for eight months provided they were allowed the next eight.  The time is up for the conservatives and they now hand the war and its conduct over to the radicals and every conservative man should now extend the same encouragement and support which we gave to them in the prosecution of their method.

There are in the South 600,000 strong and loyal male slaves who have fed and clothed the rebel army and have as good as fought upon their side.  Government now proposes that these loyal slaves shall feed and clothe our army and fight upon our side.  The other day while I was talking with the President, Old Abe said to me, “Lane, how many black men do you want to have to take care of your army?”  I told him as my army would number 34,000, I proposed to have thirty four thousand contrabands in addition to my teamsters and wagon masters.  I consider every one of my soldiers engaged in this glorious Crusade of Freedom a night errant and entitled to his esquire to prepare his food, black his boots, load his gun and take of his drudgery.  Vanity and pride are necessary adjuncts of the soldier and I do not propose to lower him by menial offices nor compel him to perform the duties of the slave.  So while I shall elevate the slave by giving him his freedom and making a man of him I shall also elevate the soldier and leave him no work to do but fighting.  [A voice in the crowd – “What are you going to do with the niggers?]

The General, singing out to the owner of the voice and pointing his finger at him replied –

“Ah, my friend, you are just the man I have been looking for.  I will tell you what I am going to do with them.  I am going to plant them on the soil of the gulf coast, after we have got through this war, let them  stay there and cultivate the land, have Government extend a protection to them as it does to the Indians, and send superintendents and governors among them and pay them wages for their labor.  There could be no competition between black and white labor.”  He believed whether the rebels killed the idea or not that the blacks at no distant day would have possession of that Gulf country to which they were acclimated and physically conditioned.  He proposed to establish free State governments as he went along and he could promise his hearers that either he or the rebels would be cleaned out.

After urging the benefit of a vigorous prosecution of the war, the General closed by again thanking the crowd for the handsome reception and retired to the parlors amid almost enthusiastic applause.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3