Your letter of the 25th is at hand. Its suggestions are very
valuable and will receive immediate attention. I shall send a copy of it to
Governor Johnson for his information.
As I intimated to you in Boston, the difficulties of raising
colored regiments are not material but political, and will now fully explain my
meaning.
I went to Buffalo in February last; the public mind was
unprepared for the work, and we had no success until it was shaped and led to a
full expression in favor of it. Then our success was marked.
For this vast work we want funds. This is the centre from
which operations can be carried on in all directions, and, unless removed, of
which I have no fear, I shall probably winter here and urge on the work. All
government interference with the slave, except to put him in the army,
demoralizes him. It is so here and everywhere. We must urge the government to
enlist as many as they can, and let the rest alone. To remove them from
their homes is the worst policy. I am taking the able men, and leaving the old
men, women and children. The latter will be wanted for labor, and will be well
treated, because they will run off if they are badly treated. Next spring there
will be a demand for labor on the farms and they will be paid, because others
will hire and pay them if the owners do not pay them.
SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public
Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 311-2
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