The proposition to put negroes in the army has the Richmond Enquirer for an advocate.  This is a matter of regret; for the Enquirer has usually been ably conducted, and has wielded a great influence. Some of its positions are replied to by "Ora" as follows:

The "proposition" seems to be not so much a question of defense as it is one of emancipation, while the former is made the plea under which the latter is to be effected.  Last winter a Major General, of foreign birth, submitted to the general officers of the army of Tennessee this same proposition, with whom it is believed it originated: the measure was at once discountenanced and frowned down, and what was considered a faux pas of the officers was "hushed up."  It is unscrupulously asserted that the army favorably entertains this expediency, while the Enquirer is "decidedly of the opinion that the whole country will agree to the proposition," and that Congress will provide for it accordingly. So far as the action of Congress is concerned; the able and unanswerable argument of the [Charleston] Mercury on this subject, in its issue of the 3d instant, incontrovertibly establishes that Congress has neither power to conscribe our slaves into our armies, nor to emancipate them.

But the Enquirer makes the startling declaration that "This very exception (the non-conscription of our slaves) is an imputation that this war is for slavery and not for freedom."  No, this war is not for freedom---it is for Liberty and Independence!  The liberty and right of States to maintain and protect the institution of slavery independent of the interference of the world, and from the cut-throat robbers of the North.  Southern slavery is Liberty.  Northern freedom is the abomination of slavery.  What have we been fighting for, if not for the security of our honor, the liberty of our institutions?  To what amounts the political struggle of forty years and waste of talent to prove to the whole world the humanity and Christianity of our institution of slavery, maintained by four years of bloody fratricidal strife, if, to-day, on the dawn of our liberty and independence, we are to accept of a proposition to emancipate our slaves?  And what is contained in this proposition?  Why, we are called upon to abjure our faith, our laws, and our religion!  The proposition is monstrous.  It is a civil, political, and religious incest---violating every principle of law, nature, and God.

To what amounts the millions of treasure spent and property destroyed---the horrible sufferings of the wounded and dying braves whose blood waters every hill-top and valley from Kentucky to Texas---the hetacombs of our gallant dead who fought and fell believing in the institution and Liberty of Slavery, and the Great God of the Universe who established it---the wail and wo, the heartaches, griefs and sorrows, the shocking suffering, and terrible sacrifices endured by our heroic, angelic women amid scenes of unheard of atrocity and carnage---to what amounts all this, I say this unparalleled exhibition and maintenance of the virtue of our land, if we shall yield at last to the fiendish desires of the Abolitionists?  

This war has proved the undeniable fact, that our negroes prefer bondage with us, according to their voluntary admissions, to freedom with the Yankees.  And the reality is sustained by the living truth, that with every inducement our foes could hold out, they have failed to promote a slave insurrection among us.  This has astonished all England.  When "the worst shall come to the worst" we can arm our slaves against the invader without emancipating them, or promising them the reward of turning them out on an uncharitable abolition world, homeless and houseless, to take care of themselves---for this is the genuine article of England's Island of Jamaica philanthropic emancipation.