The testimony of the new special correspondent of the Times
in the North, in letters from Baltimore and Washington to the "social revolution" which is going on as regards slavery, is exceedingly striking. There is not, he says, a single male slave to be seen in Baltimore. The slaves are pressed to serve in the army ; they consent, and when they return, they "wave the star-spangled banner in their masters' faces, and dare them to reclaim them if they can." If they make the attempt, the slave takes refuge with the Provost-Marshal, or at any military station, and "the slaveowner who might be ill-advised enough to lodge a complaint for the recovery of his property, would sooner incur the risk of his own liberty than be allowed to dispute that of his former bondsman." And in the disloyal States, so far as they are in possession of the North, we are told that "the North is pouring itself out upon the South." "The United States Government undertakes to organize and compel the work of freed men, and these will be placed under the supervision either of such of their former masters as may be willing to fall in with their views, or else with men of the North who will have no scruple in enforcing the new social system." The freed men able to work are, says the writer, to be made to contribute to the support of the non-workers. That is, the Government "'will reserve a portion of their wages sufficient to provide for the sustenance of those who cannot help themselves." From North and South alike the one clear point is that the leaven of freedom has got fairly into the huge lump of slavery, and slowly but surely will leaven the whole.
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