History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 35

A severe winter had set in. The rebels had shown the kind-hearted President no disposition to accept the mild terms of his proclamation.

On the contrary, it was received with gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth and bitter imprecations. On the 12th of January, 1863, the t.i.tular President of the Confederate States, in his third Annual Message, gave attention to the proclamation of the President of the United States. Mr. Davis said:

"It has established a state of things which can lead to but one of three possible consequences--the extermination of the slaves, the exile of the whole white population of the Confederacy, or absolute and total separation of these States from the United States. This proclamation is also an authentic statement by the Government of the United States of its inability to subjugate the South by force of arms, and, as such, must be accepted by neutral nations, which can no longer find any justification in withholding our just claims to formal recognition. It is also, in effect, an intimation to the people of the North that they must prepare to submit to a separation now become inevitable; for that people are too acute not to understand that a rest.i.tution of the Union has been rendered forever impossible by the adoption of a measure which, from its very nature, neither admits of retraction nor can coexist with union.

"We may well leave it to the instincts of that common humanity which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of our fellow-men of all countries to pa.s.s judgment on a measure by which several millions of human beings of an inferior race--peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere--are doomed to extermination, while at the same time they are encouraged to a general a.s.sa.s.sination of their masters by the insidious recommendation to abstain from violence unless in necessary self-defense. Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable measures recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by profound contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses. So far as regards the action of this Government on such criminals as may attempt its execution, I confine myself to informing you that I shall--unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient--deliver to the several State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured by our forces in any of the States embraced in the proclamation, that they may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of those States providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection.

The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling instruments in the commission of these crimes, and shall direct their discharge and return to their homes on the proper and usual parole."

And although the President and his supporters had not reaped the blessings their hopes had sown, they were, nevertheless, not without hope. For when the sober second thought of the nation took the place of prejudice and undue excitement, the proclamation had more friends.

And so, in keeping with his promise, the President issued the following proclamation on the first of January, 1863.

"_Whereas_, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"'That on the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"'That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members, chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have partic.i.p.ated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.'

"Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, a.s.sumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St.

Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

"And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States, are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

"And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Const.i.tution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty G.o.d.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Was.h.i.+ngton, this 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United States the 87th.

[L. S.]

"By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_."

Even this proclamation--not a measure of humanity--to save the Union, not the slave--left slaves in many counties and States at the South.

It was a war measure, pure and simple. It was a blow aimed at the most vulnerable part of the Confederacy. It was destroying its corner-stone, and the ponderous fabric was doomed to a speedy and complete destruction. It discovered that the strength of this Sampson of rebellion lay in its vast slave population. To the slave the proclamation came as the song of the rejoicing angels to the shepherds upon the plains of Bethlehem. It was like music at night, mellowed by the distance, that rouses slumbering hopes, gives wings to fancy, and peoples the brain with blissful thoughts. The notes of freedom came careering to them across the red, billowy waves of battle and thrilled their souls with ecstatic peace. Old men who, like Samuel the prophet, believing the ark of G.o.d in the hands of the Philistines, and were ready to give up the ghost, felt that it was just the time to begin to live. Husbands were transported with the thought of gathering to their bosoms the wife that had been sold to the "n.i.g.g.e.r traders"; mothers swooned under the tender touch of the thought of holding in loving embrace the children who pined for their care; and young men and maidens could only "think thanksgiving and weep gladness."

The slave-holder saw in this proclamation the handwriting upon the walls of the inst.i.tution of slavery. The brightness and revelry of his banqueting halls were to be succeeded by gloom and sorrow. His riches, consisting in human beings, were to disappear under the magic touch of the instrument of freedom. The chattel was to be transformed into a person, the person into a soldier, the soldier into a citizen--and thus the Negro slave, like the crawling caterpillar, was to leave his grovelling situation, and in new form, wing himself to the sublime heights of free American citizens.h.i.+p!

The Negroes had a marvellous facility of communicating news to each other. The proclamation, in spite of the precautions of the rebel authorities, took to itself wings. It came to the plantation of weary slaves as the glorious light of a new-born day. It flooded the hovels of slaves with its golden light and rich promise of "_forever free_."

Like St. Paul the poor slaves could exclaim:

"In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of G.o.d, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

And the significant name of Abraham--"father of the faithful"--was p.r.o.nounced by the Negroes with blessings, and mingled in their songs of praise.

FOOTNOTES:

[90] Greeley, vol. ii. pp. 251, 252.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

THE QUESTION OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES.--THE REBELS TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARD THE MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES.--GRAND REVIEW OF THE REBEL TROOPS AT NEW ORLEANS.--GENERAL HUNTER ARMS THE FIRST REGIMENT OF LOYAL NEGROES AT THE SOUTH.--OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE SECRETARY OF WAR AND GENERAL HUNTER RESPECTING THE ENLISTMENT OF THE BLACK REGIMENT.--THE ENLISTMENT OF FIVE NEGRO REGIMENTS AUTHORIZED BY THE PRESIDENT.--THE POLICY OF GENERAL PHELPS IN REGARD TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS IN LOUISIANA.--A SECOND CALL FOR TROOPS BY THE PRESIDENT.--AN ATTEMPT TO AMEND THE ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL SO AS TO PROHIBIT THE FURTHER EMPLOYMENT OF COLORED TROOPS.--GOVERNOR JOHN A. ANDREW, OF Ma.s.sACHUSETTS, AUTHORIZED BY SECRETARY OF WAR TO ORGANIZE TWO REGIMENTS OF COLORED TROOPS.--GENERAL LORENZO THOMAS IS DESPATCHED TO THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TO SUPERINTEND THE ENLISTMENT OF NEGRO SOLDIERS IN THE SPRING OF 1863.--AN ORDER ISSUED BY THE WAR DEPARTMENT IN THE FALL OF 1863 FOR THE ENLISTMENT OF COLORED TROOPS.--THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YORK CITY.--RECRUITING OF COLORED TROOPS IN PENNSYLVANIA.--GEORGE L.

STEARNS a.s.sIGNED CHARGE OF THE RECRUITING OF COLORED TROOPS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE c.u.mBERLAND.--FREE MILITARY SCHOOL ESTABLISHED AT PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.--ENDORs.e.m.e.nT OF THE SCHOOL BY SECRETARY STANTON.--THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL.--OFFICIAL TABLE GIVING NUMBER OF COLORED TROOPS IN THE ARMY.--THE CHARACTER OF NEGRO TROOPS.--MR. GREELEY'S EDITORIAL ON "NEGRO TROOPS."--LETTER FROM JUDGE ADVOCATE HOLT TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR ON THE "ENLISTMENT OF SLAVES."--THE NEGRO LEGALLY AND CONSt.i.tUTIONALLY A SOLDIER.--HISTORY RECORDS HIS DEEDS OF PATRIOTISM.

At no time during the first two years of the war was the President or the Congress willing to entertain the idea of employing Negroes as soldiers. It has been shown that the admission of loyal Negroes into the Union lines, and into the service of the Engineer's and Quartermaster's Department, had been resisted with great stubbornness by the men in the "chief places." There were, however, a few men, both in and out of the army, who secretly believed that the Negro was needed in the army, and that he possessed all the elements necessary to make an excellent soldier. Public sentiment was so strong against the employment of Negroes in the armed service that few men had the courage of conviction; few had the temerity to express their views publicly. In the summer of 1860,--before the election of Abraham Lincoln,--General J. Watts De Peyster, of New York, wrote an article for a Hudson paper, in which he advocated the arming of Negroes as soldiers, should the Southern States declare war against the Government of the United States. The article was reproduced in many other papers, p.r.o.nounced a fire-brand, and General De Peyster severely denounced for his advice. But he stood his ground, and when the war did come he gave to his country's service three gallant sons; and from the first to the last was an efficient and enthusiastic supporter of the war for the Union.

The rebels took the first step in the direction of the military employment of Negroes as soldiers. Two weeks after the firing upon Sumter took place, the following note appeared in the "Charleston Mercury":

Several companies of the Third and Fourth Regiments of Georgia pa.s.sed through Augusta for the expected scene of warfare--Virginia. Sixteen well-drilled companies of volunteers and one negro company, from Nashville, Tennessee, offered their services to the Confederate States."[91]

In the "Memphis Avalanche" and "Memphis Appeal" of the 9th, 10th, and 11th of May, 1861, appeared the following notice:

"ATTENTION, VOLUNTEERS: Resolved by the Committee of Safety, that C. Deloach, D. R. Cook, and William B. Greenlaw be authorized to organize a volunteer company composed of our patriotic free men of color, of the city of Memphis, for the service of our common defence. All who have not enrolled their names will call at the office of W. B. Greenlaw & Co.

"F. t.i.tUS, _President_.

"F. W. FORSYTHE, _Secretary_."

On the 9th of February, 1862, the rebel troops had a grand review, and the "Picayune," of New Orleans, contained the following paragraph:

"We must also pay a deserved compliment to the companies of free colored men, all very well drilled, and comfortably uniformed.

Most of these companies, quite unaided by the administration, have supplied themselves with arms without regard to cost or trouble. One of these companies, commanded by the well-known veteran, Captain Jordan, was presented, a little before the parade, with a fine war-flag of the new style. This interesting ceremony took place at Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng's store, on Camp, near Common Street. The presentation was made by Mr. Bigney, and Jordan made, on this occasion, one of his most felicitous speeches."

And on the 4th of February, 1862, the "Baltimore Traveller" contained the following paragraph:

"ARMING OF NEGROES AT RICHMOND.--Contrabands who have recently come within the Federal lines at Williamsport, report that all the able-bodied colored men in that vicinity are being taken to Richmond, formed into regiments, and armed for the defence of that city."

The following telegram was sent out:

"NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 23, 1861.

"Over twenty-eight thousand troops were reviewed to-day by Governor Moore, Major-General Lovell, and Brig.-General Ruggles.

The line was over seven miles long. One regiment comprised fourteen hundred free colored men."

These are sufficient to show that from the earliest dawn of the war the rebel authorities did not frown upon the action of local authorities in placing arms into the hands of free Negroes.