Negroes were to be used was not mentioned. In all, about 200,000 Negroes were enlisted in the Union armies/^ With a better than average insight into the implications of the proclamation, Owen analyzed the war prior to January 1863 as a struggle for national supremacy between two geographic sections. In light of the proclamation, he viewed the war then as one that had attained the "grandeur and magnitude of a great struggle for human rights."^^ The Emancipation Proclamation was to him both a military necessity and a righteous measure.
Following the proclamation, many argued that the Negro would overrun the North and cause sociological and economic problems. Owen denied this. He thought the Negro would remain where the climate was more congenial and his services more in demand. He, however, did not deny to the Negro the right as a free man to move wherever he pleased. Freedom for the Negro, in his opinion, did not elevate him to social equality with the whites because, "Social equality . . . is a myth even among the white race."^* Once again he indulged his theory of natural progression when he wrote that for slavery to conquer freedom would be to reverse all known functions of this law.^^ He saw in the separate schools which existed for Negroes in San Jose a "vestige of barbarism," but he advocated no immediate change "in the face of existing prejudices."^^ At about the same time, he insisted that once and for all the word "white" be stricken from the California constitution and that the Negro enjoy "full, free and equal privileges with every citizen of the State."^^
From the very beginning of the Civil War, ways and means of financing the conflict occupied the minds of the leaders of both North and South. The proposed taxation of incomes above a certain level and the raising of the schedules of various other sources of revenue by the Federal Government induced Owen to suggest that at least a portion of the war expenses could be procured by selling the lands of secessionists "to loyal Union men."^^
The long anticipated war tax measure was passed by Congress late in 1 862. Early in 1863, Owen explained the nature of the bill to his readers and voiced the optimistic opinion that actually more profit would accrue to the nation in better post-war trade relations because of the new tax law. Just how this was to be accomplished was not mentioned. He again declared that the cost of the war ought to be borne by the South alone.^^
In order to bolster its credit and more adequately sustain the value of the currency in circulation, the Federal Government suspended specie payments on January i, 1862. Prior to this date, several large banks in the East had done the same thing on their own initiative. Regarding these independent suspensions before the general Government order had been issued, Owen, doubtless to ease the minds of some panicky individuals, wrote that this action was necessary to "enlarge the financial operation of the country"
