Not this is all. The Rebellion is not only ruled by Slavery, but, owing to the peculiar condition of the Slave States, it is for the moment, according to their instinctive boast, actually reinforced by this institution. As the fields of the South are cultivated by slaves, and labor there is performed by this class, the white freemen are at liberty to play the part of rebels. The slaves toil at home, while the masters work at rebellion; and thus, by singular fatality, is this doomed race, without taking up arms, actually engaged in feeding, supporting, succoring, invigorating those battling for their enslavement. Full well I know that this is an element of strength only through the forbearance of our own Government; but I speak of things as they are; and that I may not seem to go too far, I ask attention to the testimony of a Southern journal. “THE SLAVES AS A MILITARY ELEMENT IN THE SOUTH--The total white population of the eleven States now comprising the Confederacy is six millions, and therefore, to fill up the ranks of the proposed army, six hundred thousand--about ten per cent of the entire white population--will be required. In any other country than our own such a draft could not be met; but the Southern States can furnish that number of men, and still not leave the material interests of the country in a suffering condition. Those who are incapacitated for bearing arms can oversee the plantations, and _the negroes can go on undisturbed in their usual labors_. In the North the case is different; the men who join the army of subjugation are the laborers, the producers, and the factory operatives. Nearly every man from that section, especially those from the rural districts, leaves some branch of industry to suffer during his absence. _The institution of Slavery in the South alone enables her to place in the field a force much larger in proportion to her white population than the North_, or indeed any country which is dependent entirely on free labor. The institution is a tower of strength to the South, _particularly at the present crisis_, and our enemies will be likely to find that the ‘moral cancer,’ about which their orators are so fond of prating, is really _one of the most effective weapons employed against the Union by the South_. Whatever number of men be needed for this war we are confident our people stand ready to furnish. We are all enlisted for the war, and there must be no holding back, until the independence of the South is fully acknowledged.”[227] As the Rebels have already confessed the conspiracy which led to the Rebellion, so in this article do they openly confess the mainspring of their power. With triumphant vaunt, they declare Slavery the special source of their belligerent strength.