RochESTER, August 1st, 1863.
MAJOR GEORGE L. STEARNS:
My Dear Sir, Having declined to attend the meeting to
promote enlistments, appointed for me at Pittsburgh, in present circumstances,
I owe you a word of explanation. I have hitherto deemed it a duty, as it
certainly has been a pleasure, to coöperate with you in the work of raising
colored troops in the free States to fight the battles of the Republic against
slaveholding rebels and traitors. Upon the first call you gave me to this work
I responded with alacrity. I saw, or thought I saw, a ray of light, brightening
the future of my whole race, as well as that of our war-troubled country, in
arousing colored men to fight for the nation's life. I continue to believe in
the black man's arm, and still have some hope in the integrity of our rulers.
Nevertheless, I must for the present leave to others the work of persuading
colored men to join the Union army. I owe it to my long abused people, and
especially to those already in the army, to expose their wrongs and plead their
cause. I cannot do that in connection with recruiting. When I plead for
recruits I want to do it with all my heart, without qualification. I cannot do
that now. The impression settles upon me that colored men have much over-rated
the enlightenment, justice, and generosity of our rulers at Washington. In my
humble way I have contributed somewhat to that false estimate. You know that
when the idea of raising colored troops was first suggested, the special duty
to be assigned them was the garrisoning of forts and arsenals in certain warm,
unhealthy, and miasmatic localities in the South. They were thought to be
better adapted to that service than white troops. White troops trained to war,
brave and daring, were to take fortifications, and the blacks were to hold them
from falling again into the hands of the rebels. Three advantages were to arise
out of this wise division of labor: 1st, The spirit and pride of white troops
was not to waste itself in dull, monotonous inactivity in fort life; their arms
were to be kept bright by constant use. 2d, The health of white troops was to
be preserved. 3d, Black troops were to have the advantage of sound military
training and to be otherwise useful, at the same time that they should be
tolerably secure from capture by the rebels, who early avowed their
determination to enslave and slaughter them in defiance of the laws of war. Two
out of the three advantages were to accrue to the white troops. Thus far,
however, I believe that no such duty as holding fortifications has been
committed to colored troops. They have done far other and more important work
than holding fortifications. I have no special complaint to make at this point,
and I simply mention it to strengthen the statement that, from the beginning of
this business, it was the confident belief among both the colored and white
friends of colored enlistments that President Lincoln, as commander-in-chief of
the army and navy, would certainly see to it that his colored troops should be
so handled and disposed of as to be but little exposed to capture by the
rebels, and that, if so exposed, as they have repeatedly been from the first,
the President possessed both the disposition and the means for compelling the
rebels to respect the rights of such as might fall into their hands. The
piratical proclamation of Jefferson Davis, announcing slavery and assassination
to colored prisoners, was before the country and the world. But men had faith
in Mr. Lincoln and his advisers. He was silent, to be sure, but charity
suggested that being a man of action rather than words he only waited for a
case in which he should be required to act. This faith in the man enabled us to
speak with warmth and effect in urging enlistments among colored men. That
faith, my dear sir, is now nearly gone. Various occasions have arisen during
the last six months for the exercise of his power in behalf of the colored men
in his service. But no word comes to us from the war department, sternly
assuring the rebel chief that inquisition shall yet be made for innocent blood.
No word of retaliation when a black man is slain by a rebel in cold blood. No
word was said when free men from Massachusetts were caught and sold into
slavery in Texas. No word is said when brave black men, according to the
testimony of both friend and foe, fought like heroes to plant the star-spangled
banner on the blazing parapets of Fort Wagner and in so doing were captured,
mutilated, killed, and sold into slavery. The same crushing silence reigns over
this scandalous outrage as over that of the slaughtered teamsters at
Murfreesboro; the same as over that at Milliken's Bend and Vicksburg. I am free
to say, my dear sir, that the case looks as if the confiding colored soldiers
had been betrayed into bloody hands by the very government in whose defense
they were heroically fighting. I know what you will say to this; you will say “Wait
a little longer, and, after all, the best way to have justice done to your
people is to get them into the army as fast as you can.” You may be right in
this; my argument has been the same; but have we not already waited, and have
we not already shown the highest qualities of soldiers, and on this account
deserve the protection of the government for which we are fighting? Can any
case stronger than that before Charleston ever arise? If the President is ever
to demand justice and humanity for black soldiers, is not this the time for him
to do it? How many 54ths must be cut to pieces, its mutilated prisoners killed,
and its living sold into slavery, to be tortured to death by inches, before Mr.
Lincoln shall say, “Hold, enough!”
You know the 54th. To you, more than to any one man, belongs
the credit of raising that regiment. Think of its noble and brave officers
literally hacked to pieces, while many of its rank and file have been sold into
slavery worse than death; and pardon me if I hesitate about assisting in
raising a fourth regiment until the President shall give the same protection to
them as to white soldiers.
With warm and sincere
regards,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass, 418-20
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