Why are negroes exempt from the burthens of the war? Why are black men alone allowed to remain at home in peace and quiet, while the white men of the land re called into the ranks and sent to dig, suffer, fight, and die perhaps on Southern soil? One of the victims of the first collision between the citizens of Boston and the British soldiery was a negro. Negroes fought at Bunker Hill. New York sent her negroes into the field during the Revolutionary war. Virginia planters sent their slaves into the army as substitutes during the same war, and the State, under the lead of Jefferson, subsequently gave freedom to those who had been thus engaged. Even South Carolina herself did not hesitate to resort to a similar policy, and the letter of Col. Laurens, of that State, on the subject, is conclusive as to the right and expediency of calling in the services of negroes in time of war. The negro regiment from Rhode Island received them thanks of Washington for their bravery and fidelity. Jackson called the negroes of new Orleans to his side as soldiers, on terms of perfect equality, when the British assailed that city. Is the present war so much higher and holier than the war of the Revolution, that the employment of black soldiers would lower its character or debase its purposes? Are our Generals so much better than Washington, and Jefferson, and Jackson, that they may be contaminated by the apparition of negro regiments in their camps? Are we so strong that we need no assistance in the field? The rebel armies are backed by nearly four millions of negro slaves, who plant, and till, and gather, build fortifications, perform the thousand drudgeries of the camp, and thus contribute in a degree scarcely to be estimated to the rebel strength. The rebels do not hesitate to boast of this element of power. "It is true" says a late number of the Richmond Whig, "we have not as many men as the north, but our slaves, under the management of the boys under 18 and the old men, attend to the crops, and leave our fighting men in the field. Not so with the North. Whenever she puts anything like her military strength in the field she weakens her power to feed her people, and although her white population, in 1860, was 19,000,000, against 8,700,000 whites of the South, and although she ought, therefore, to be able to send out two soldiers where we can send one, yet we question much if she can send out her one million as readily as the South can." Experience has shown that the advantage here claimed for the South is real. The question simply is, shall they be allowed to retain it?