Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 25, 1864

Reverses in North Carolina are bad at this time. The death of Flusser is most unfortunate. I presume the blame of the disasters will be attributed to the Navy, which, in fact, is merely auxiliary to the army. Letter-writers and partisan editors who are courted and petted by the military find no favor with naval men, and as a consequence the Navy suffers detraction.

Burnside's army corps passed through Washington to-day, whites, blacks, and Indians numbering about 30,000. All the indications foreshadow a mighty conflict and battle in Virginia at an early day.

Fox and Edgar have gone to Fortress Monroe. Calls for naval aid and assistance come up from that quarter.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 17

John A. Quitman to Colonel Platt Brush, August 23, 1823

Soldier's Retreat, near Natchez, Aug. 23d, 1823.

Since my last letter, my dear Col. Brush, I have been a refugee from Natchez, where the yellow fever is raging. Our bar is quartered at various country-seats — not boarding; a Mississippi planter would be insulted by such a proposal; but we are enjoying the hospitalities that are offered to us on all sides. The awful pestilence in the city brings out, in strong relief, the peculiar virtues of this people. The mansions of the planters are thrown open to all comers and goers free of charge. Whole families have free quarters during the epidemic, and country wagons are sent daily to the verge of the smitten city with fowls, vegetables, etc., for gratuitous distribution to the poor. I am now writing from one of those old mansions, and I can give you no better notion of life at the South than by describing the routine of a day. The owner is the widow of a Virginia gentleman of distinction, a brave officer, who died in the public service during the last war with Great Britain.¹ She herself is a native of this vicinity, of English parents settled here in Spanish times. She is an intimate friend of my first friend, Mrs. Griffith, and I have been in the habit of visiting her house ever since I came South. The whole aim of this excellent lady seems to be to make others happy. I do not believe she ever thinks of herself. She is growing old, but her parlor is constantly thronged with the young and gay, attracted by her cheerful and never-failing kindness. There are two large families from the city staying here, and every day some ten or a dozen transient guests. Mint-juleps in the morning are sent to our rooms, and then follows a delightful breakfast in the open veranda. We hunt, ride, fish, pay morning visits, play chess, read or lounge until dinner, which is served at two P.M. in great variety, and most delicately cooked in what is here called the Creole style — very rich, and many made or mixed dishes. In two hours afterward every body — white and black — has disappeared. The whole household is asleep—the siesta of the Italians. Tho ladies retire to their apartments, and the gentlemen on sofas, settees, benches, hammocks, and often, gipsy fashion, on the grass under the spreading oaks. Here, too, in fine weather, the tea-table is always set before sunset, and then, until bedtime, we stroll, sing, play whist, or coquet. It is an indolent, yet charming life, and one quits thinking and takes to dreaming.

This excellent lady is not rich, merely independent; but by thrifty housewifery, and a good dairy and garden, she contrives to dispense the most liberal hospitality. Her slaves appear to be, in a manner, free, yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well worked. With all her gayety of disposition and fondness for the young, she is truly pious, and in her own apartment every night she has family prayer with her slaves, one or more of them being often called on to sing and pray. When a minister visits the house, which happens very frequently, prayers night and morning are always said, and on these occasions the whole household and the guests assemble in the parlor: chairs are provided for the servants. They are married by a clergyman of their own color, and a sumptuous supper is always prepared. On public holidays they have dinners equal to an Ohio barbecue, and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a protracted festival for the blacks. They are a happy, careless, unreflecting, good-natured race, who, left to themselves, would degenerate into drones or brutes, but, subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus, become the best and most contented of laborers. They are strongly attached to “old massa” and “old missus,” but their devotion to “young massa” and “young missus” amounts to enthusiasm. They have great family pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and aristocrats in the world. At a wedding I witnessed here last Saturday evening, where some 150 negroes were assembled, many being invited guests, I heard a number of them addressed as governors, generals, judges, and doctors (the titles of their masters), and a spruce, tight-set darkey, who waits on me in town, was called “Major Quitman.” The “colored ladies” are invariably Miss Joneses, Miss Smiths, or some such title. They are exceedingly pompous and ceremonious, gloved and highly perfumed. The “gentlemen” sport canes, ruffles, and jewelry, wear boots and spurs, affect crape on their hats, and carry huge cigars. The belles wear gaudy colors, “tote” their fans with the air of Spanish senoritas, and never stir out, though black as the ace of spades, without their parasols. In short, these “niggers,” as you call them, are the happiest people I have ever seen, and some of them, in form, features, and movement, are real sultanas. So far from being fed on “salted cotton-seed,” as we used to believe in Ohio, they are oily, sleek, bountifully fed, well clothed, well taken care of, and one hears them at all times whistling and singing cheerily at their work.² They have an extraordinary facility for sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He will, after laboring all day in the burning sun, walk ten miles to a frolic, or to see his “Dinah,” and be at home and at his work by daylight next morning. This would knock up a white man or an Indian. But a negro will sleep during the day — sleep at his work, sleep on the carriage-box, sleep standing up; and I have often seen them sitting bareheaded in the sun on a high rail-fence, sleeping as securely as though lying in bed. They never lose their equipoise, and will carry their cotton-baskets or their water-vessels, filled to the brim, poised on their heads, walking carelessly and at a rapid rate, without spilling a drop. The very weight of such burdens would crush a white man's brains into apoplexy. Compared with the ague-smitten and suffering settlers that you and I have seen in Ohio, or the sickly and starved operators we read of in factories and in mines, these Southern slaves are indeed to be envied. They are treated with great humanity and kindness. I have only heard of one or two exceptions. And the only drawback to their happiness is that their owners, sometimes, from extravagance or other bad management, die insolvent, and then they must be sold to the highest bidder, must leave the old homestead and the old family, and pass into the hands of strangers. I have witnessed one of these scenes, and but one, though they occur often, and I never saw such profound grief as the poor creatures manifested. I am opposed, as you know, to all relief laws, but, I confess, I never hear of the sale of old family servants without wishing that there was some provision by which some of them, at least, might be retained as inalienable. It is a grave question for those interested in slavery to determine whether some protection of this nature is not a necessary adjunct of slavery itself.

_______________

¹ The late Gen. F. L. Claiborne.

² Contrast this with life at the North, as recorded by his brother Henry in a letter dated Rhinebeck, Feb. 3d, 1823: “We have not had snow enough for sleighing, so every body has to stay at home. In the morning I feed the cows, take care of the horses, and cut wood until dinner-time. In the evening I take care of the cattle, and go to bed. I would willingly exchange my residence here for one where I might do for myself, were my earnings ever so small, and lay by a little for a rainy day. It is a hard place to get along in — cold winters and hot summers; snow, or slush, or dust, or drought. Work, work, work, and money always scarce. I wish I had been brought up a tailor, or shoemaker, as you say they have none at Natchez.”

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 83-6

Caroline E. Croome, November 23, 1863

Newbern, November 23d, 1863.

Mr. James gave me a School which Miss Canedy was teaching, consisting of adults and a few children who could not attend her large school. It is one of intense interest. The scholars manifest the most enthusiastic desire to learn. The great point with all seems to be to read the Testament. Some learn very rapidly and quite well, but when they attempt to spell, have no idea whatever of the sound of letters, nor can you give them any if they are old; with the younger ones I am trying to overcome this, and by perseverance shall, I hope, succeed. With those who have grown old, it seems only to be necessary to teach them to ready and the quickest method (however irregular) is the most desirable.

I found everything in Newbern so much more comfortable than I expected, that I have not for one moment felt as though I was enduring any privations. Our ungratified wants have only been a source of amusement, and our many comforts a continual cause for congratulation.

I cannot feel that I am engaged in teaching, in an ordinary way, reading, writing, and spelling; but, that each one to whom we impart any instruction, any spark of knowledge, is so much pressure bearing on a lever, that is slowly, but inevitably, elevating a nation.

When I witness their delighted earnest effort to improve, my own heart catches the spirit and echoes the fervent, “bress de Lord,” that involuntarily escapes so many lips when they find they can spell out a passage in the Testament or Psalms.

I cannot close without giving you a few incidents connected with my School, and those with whom I come in daily contact. One of my pupils, thirteen years of age, could, six months ago, read only very small words, and that by spelling them out; now she reads better than the average of white children of the North of the same age. She spells difficult words with ease. She is very black — intensely African. She has been at school only part of the six months. Another case is a woman of about sixty-five. She reads well in the Testament or in any book at sight, but cannot spell the simplest words. She has learned almost entirely since the Federal forces took Newbern.

We have a boy employed in the house, who has all the proverbial characteristics of the negro, and is in all above mediocrity. He keeps his book constantly with him, not only studying when an opportunity is given him, but stealing time from his work for that purpose. Often when I know he should be at work, I have listened in vain for the sound of his axe, and going quietly out to the wood yard, have seen him hide his Reader under a large stick of wood, and with a sheepish look and a real negro laugh, resume his work; but unless watched the axe will soon be dropped for the book. We have also a girl in the house, who has never had any advantages. She does not know all her tetters, but is very observing. This morning she said to me, in as good English as I could use, “Miss Carrie, James did not cut one particle of wood last night.” I looked at her astonished, for three weeks ago she could not have put together a correct sentence. She also said to the boy (when he tried to excuse himself for neglecting the wood), “If I could read as well as you can, I would not say gwine for going, specially when the white folks take so much pains with you.” Thus daily are brought before us such demonstrations of the high ability of the negro as must convince those who have hitherto denied that his elevation was possible.

C. E. Croome.

SOURCE: New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen, Extracts from Letters of Teachers and Superintendents of the New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen, Fourth Series, January 1, 1864, p. 9-10

Gerrit Smith to the Chairman of the Jerry Rescue Committee, August 27,1859

[August 27, 1859.]

For many years I have feared, and published my fears, that slavery must go out in the blood. My speech in Congress on the Nebraska Bill was strongly marked by such fears. These fears have grown into belief. So debauched are the white people by slavery, that there is not virtue enough left in them to put it down. . . . The feeling among the blacks, that they must deliver themselves, gains strength with fearful rapidity. . . . No wonder is it that in this state of facts which I have sketched (the failure of the Liberal Party, the Free Soil Party, the Republican Party, to do anything for the slaves) intelligent black men in the States and Canada should see no hope for their race in the practice and policy of white men. No wonder they are brought to the conclusion that no resource is left to them but in God and insurrections. For insurrection then we may look any year, any month, any day. A terrible remedy for a terrible wrong! But come it must unless anticipated by repentance, and the putting away of the terrible wrong.

It will be said that these insurrections will be failures — that they will be put down. Yes, but, nevertheless, will not slavery be put down by them? For what portions are there of the South that will cling to slavery after two or three considerable insurrections shall have filled the whole South with horror? And is it entirely certain that these insurrections will be put down promptly and before they can have spread far? Will telegraphs and railroads be too swift for even the swiftest insurrections? Remember that telegraphs and railroads can be rendered useless in an hour. Remember, too, that many who would be glad to face the insurgents, would be busy in transporting their wives and daughters to places where they would be safe from that worst fate which husbands and fathers can imagine for their wives and daughters.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 240-1

Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, January 23, 1851

Boston, Jan. 23rd, 1851.

My Dear Mann: — I am very unfortunate in my attempts to correspond with you. I wrote a long letter last night and left it at South Boston, and it is now too late to get it for the mail. It was perhaps of no consequence, but explained a little the awkward and unfortunate chain of untoward events which have defeated Sumner's election.

On the first ballot to-day Sumner lacked five of the record he gained; they are now on the third, and I shall know the result before long.

The excitement here is intense: the pressure upon the waverers enormous. There are at least a score of Whigs voting for Winthrop who in their souls long to see Sumner elected, only their souls are not their own.

Our friends are very much encouraged to-day about the result: I am not. There are Democrats, I fear, who have voted for Sumner because they thought to save their pledge and do no harm to their party, but who will start back at the last pinch. I was in hopes they would be rebuked by the thunder of popular indignation at home, last Saturday and Sunday, but it is not so. The truth is that though the sentiments of the Democratic masses point in the right direction when let alone, they will not be let alone by the leaders, nor by their own prejudices. They would plunge the country in war and go to the death, to rescue three hundred white Americans from Indian, Russian or Algerian bondage, — but as for three million black Americans, why “damn 'em! good enough for them!” They have no business to be speckled, as the man said when he agreed to spare all snakes but the speckled ones.

3 o'clock. Third ballot taken — Sumner still in the vocative. He seems to be the least interested man among us. Oh for five men like Downer, — to work outside: they could carry Sumner through.

Park Street and Beacon are sweating blood: grant they may sweat to death!

Ever yours in haste,

S. G. Howe.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 334-5

George L. Stearns to Mary Hall Stearns, May 8, 1860

[May 8, 1860.]

Yesterday a black man was kidnapped from this place, which set the people in some commotion, but the real abolitionists are the exception. Have seen most of the latter class. They are a sturdy race.

Ames, the United States marshal who was shot at Topeka, was the same who previously tried to arrest Montgomery and there has been no second attempt, as I supposed, to arrest him. All is quiet here, and I do not think there will be any trouble in this territory this year. It is generally understood that it was an attempt on the part of the marshal to get some money, instead of which he got a ball.

Conway is here, but will leave with us for Chicago to attend the convention. I never saw him in so good health as at present. I am glad I came out here, and hope some time to come again with you. I think in another year we can accomplish it. They are having a fearful drought here. It has hardly rained at all since last September. Their winter wheat all dried up, and the corn does not even swell in the ground. If it continues there will be a famine here.

Of course all is dust, but it is not troublesome to me, at least as it would be to you. I send you samples of it in this paper, which was clean when I began to write.

May 9. So busy last night that I forgot to put this in the mail. My visit has been eminently successful, but not exactly as I supposed. I stay here to-day to get letters from home. Hope to get one from you.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 224-5

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Louisa Storrow Higginson, June, 17 1859

Worcester, June 17, 1859

Dearest Mother:

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

We have had the greatest heroine of the age here, Harriet Tubman, a black woman, and a fugitive slave, who has been back eight times secretly and brought out in all sixty slaves with her, including all her own family, besides aiding many more in other ways to escape. Her tales of adventure are beyond anything in fiction and her ingenuity and generalship are extraordinary. I have known her for some time and mentioned her in speeches once or twice — the slaves call her Moses. She has had a reward of twelve thousand dollars offered for her in Maryland and will probably be burned alive whenever she is caught, which she probably will be, first or last, as she is going again. She has been in the habit of working in hotels all summer and laying up money for this crusade in the winter. She is jet black and cannot read or write, only talk, besides acting.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 81

Elizabeth Adams Lusk to Lieutenant-Colonel William T. Lusk, July 14, 1863

Longview, Enfield, Conn.,

July 14th, 1863.

My own dear Son:

I received your last letter on Saturday, and rejoice in your health, and in your resolve to relinquish the use of tobacco. I have no doubt your flesh will increase, and that you will be benefitted by the change.

The terrible riot in New-York is at present engrossing our thoughts. The blacks seem to be peculiarly obnoxious to the excited mob; I suppose you have seen that they have burned the Colored Orphan Asylum. The draft commenced yesterday in Hartford. All was quiet through the day, but some anxiety seems to be felt lest the example of New-York may produce an evil efFect to-day. They have tried to obtain a few companies of Regulars to preserve order (from New Haven) but they cannot be spared. Aunt Sarah, Nellie and Tom were to return to New-York to-day, but they dare not until the disturbance is quelled. The telegraph wires are all cut, and I fear we shall have no papers. The Times and Tribune offices are torn to pieces. We are all sad enough. God is merciful, may He speedily help us, and deliver us from our troubles.

Cousin Henry is wishing for, and looking for, a Dictator, the sooner the better. Capt. Nichols has gone to Vicksburg with Col. McKaye, to inquire into the condition of the Freedmen. You have no idea how unreasonable the lower class (of Irish particularly) are in this vicinity. Their feelings have been so wrought upon by unprincipled men. The leader in the N. Y. riot was a man from Virginia, who harangued the multitude and counselled resistance.

A telegram has just arrived from your Uncle Phelps at Saratoga, saying Nellie and Aunt Sarah must not return to-day. Dr. Grant leaves in ten minutes, so good-bye. A longer letter next time. God guard you, my own dear, dear son, is my constant prayer. All send love, and I am

Always

Your loving

Mother.

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 287-8

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: June 18, 1864

At 4 A. M. moved out on Sussex C. H. road and camped 8 miles from Petersburg. In evening drew rations and forage. In P. M. awful connonading and musketry, the most terrific we have yet heard. Already last night we held all but the inner line of works. Captured 22 guns and many prisoners. Report that the blacks captured one fort with 4 guns, and killed all the garrison. Yesterday was almost sick, am better today, but weak. Awful bad water for a few days. Oh the anxiety to know the result of the fighting today. God grant us success.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 120

Samuel Gridley Howe to William M. Langhorne, September 5, 1856

Sept. 5, '56.

Wm. M. Langhorne, Edgewood, Va.

Dear Sir: — I recollect perfectly your proposal to instruct blind negroes. It was a most humane and Christian project, and I trust you have not abandoned it.

You ask me whether in my opinion you would not “take from Northern fanaticism a potent weapon by a vigorous and systematic plan of moral and religious instruction of our (your) negroes.” I answer that any plan for the moral elevation of the blacks must have a higher motive than that of human favour or disfavour. Never mind what fanatics in the North who would give to slaves their freedom may say, never mind what fanatics in the South who would deny them freedom may say, but go on, in God's name, and give to the negroes moral and religious instruction.

But in order that they may obey the Scripture command, and be able to give a reason for the faith that is in them, enlighten their minds with ample knowledge; cultivate their understandings; improve all their faculties; teach them to reason; to understand all the laws of God whether revealed in his book of nature or in the Bible; to know their rights and duties, and the rights and duties of others. Do not bury their poor talent in a napkin, but improve and increase it. Do to them as you do to your own children. Develop all the moral and all the mental faculties which God has implanted in them (and to smother which is quenching the spirit), train them up to the practice of all the virtues, including self respect and a determination to wrong no man and let no man wrong them; do all this and the blessing of Heaven will rest upon you.

If, thus enlightened — thus trained — the negroes on arriving at man's estate choose to work for the whites without wages; choose to be considered as chattels; to be bought and sold as cattle are — to be deprived of all those rights which you value so highly — why, then they may do so, at their own dreadful peril and cost; for it would be selling what they ought to maintain to the last gasp of their lives.

Until you have done all this you should not conclude as you seem to do that they do not want to be free; any more than you would take a white child of eight or ten years old and assert that because he said he preferred to be always a child and depend upon you, he therefore renounced the glorious privilege of coming to manhood, calling no man master, and bowing down to God alone.

Remember, you have kept your slaves in mental childhood; you do not help them develop to the uttermost the mental faculties which God gave — as he gives every thing, — to be used and improved.

Look at the matter, my dear sir, from the standpoint of high humanity, — of reason, — of Christianity (not the letter, but the spirit of Christianity), and I think some scales will fall from your eyes. They have from mine, for I did not always think as I do now about it.

Truly yrs,

S. G. Howe.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 246-8

Gerrit Smith, August 27, 1859

It is, perhaps, too late to bring slavery to an end by peaceable means, — too late to vote it down. For many years I have feared, and published my fears, that it must go out in blood. These fears have grown into belief. So debanched are the white people by slavery that there is not virtue enough left in them to put it down. If I do not misinterpret the words and looks of the most intelligent and noble of the black men who fall in my way, they have come to despair of the accomplishment of this work by the white people. The feeling among the blacks that they must deliver themselves gains strength with fearful rapidity. No wonder, then, is it that intelligent black men in the States and in Canada should see no hope for their race in the practice and policy of white men. . . . Whoever he may be that foretells the horrible end of American slavery is held both at the North and the South to be a lying prophet, — another Cassandra. The South would not respect her own Jefferson's prediction of servile insurrection; how then can it be hoped that she will respect another's? . . . And is it entirely certain that these insurrections will be put down promptly, and before they can have spread far? Will telegraphs and railroads be too swift for even the swiftest insurrections? Remember that telegraphs and railroads can be rendered useless in an hour. Remember too that many who would be glad to face the insurgents would be busy in transporting their wives and daughters to places where they would be safe from that worst fate which husbands and fathers can imagine for their wives and daughters. I admit that but for this embarrassment Southern men would laugh at the idea of an insurrection, and would quickly dispose of one. But trembling as they would for beloved ones, I know of no part of the world where, so much as in the South, men would be like, in a formidable insurrection, to lose the most important time, and be distracted and panic-stricken.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 544

Frederick Douglass to Major George L. Stearns, August 1, 1863

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

Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas to Edwin M. Stanton, April 12, 1863

MILLIKEN'S BEND, April 12, 1863.

(Received 9 p.m. 16th.)

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

I arrived here, the headquarters of General Grant, yesterday, but am too weak to leave the steamer. To-morrow I hope to address the troops. The policy respecting the negroes having been adopted, commanding officers are perfectly willing and ready to afford every aid in carrying it out to a successful issue. The west bank of the Mississippi being under our control, General Grant will send forage parties to the east bank to collect the blacks, mules, &c., for military and agricultural purposes. We shall obtain all that we require. I shall find no difficulty in organizing negro troops to the extent of 20,000, if necessary. The prejudice in this army respecting arming the negroes is fast dying out. The transports are not used for quartering troops or officers. General Grant has only used a steamer, which was necessary. A quartermaster's and commissary boat loaded with supplies is with each division, and the proper staff officers are with their supplies on these boats. I am engaged in ferreting out some cotton speculations. Most of the rascalities in this respect took place early in the season and are now beyond my reach. I send by mail the plan for occupying the abandoned plantations. To have fully effected this I should have been here weeks since.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 3 (Serial No. 124), p. 121

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 23, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,

New Orleans, May 23, 1862.

Brigadier-General PHELPS,

Commanding Camp Parapet:

GENERAL: You will cause all unemployed persons, black and white, to be excluded from your lines.

You will not permit either black or white persons to pass your lines, not officers or soldiers or belonging to the Navy of the United States, without a pass from these headquarters, except they are brought in under guard as captured persons with information; these to be examined and detained as prisoners of war if they have been in arms against the United States or dismissed and sent away at once, as the case may be. This does not apply to boats passing up the river without landing within lines.

Provision dealers and market men are to be allowed to pass in with provisions and their wares, but not to remain overnight. Persons having had their permanent residence within your lines before the occupation of our troops are not to be considered unemployed persons.

Your officers have reported a large number of servants. Every officer so reported employing servants will have the allowance for servants deducted from his pay roll.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 443-4

Edwin M. Stanton to Congressman Galusha A. Grow, June 14, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D.C., June 14, 1862.

Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW,

Speaker of the House of Representatives:

SIR: A resolution of the House of Representatives has been received, which passed the 9th instant, to the following effect:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform this House if General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them.

2. Was he authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States as soldiers the fugitive or captive slaves?

3. Has he been furnished with clothing, uniforms, &c., for such force?

4. Has he been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of those slaves?

5. To report any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department.

In answer to the foregoing resolution I have the honor to inform the House—

First. That this Department has no official information whether General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has or has not organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them. In order to ascertain whether he has done so or not a copy of the House resolution has been transmitted to General Hunter, with instructions to make immediate report thereon.

Second. General Hunter was not authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States the fugitive or captive slaves.

Third. General Hunter, upon his requisition as commander of the South, has been furnished with clothing and arms for the force under his command without instructions as to how they should be used.

Fourth. He has not been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of “those slaves.”

Fifth. In respect to so much of said resolution as directs the Secretary “to report to the House any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department,” the President instructs me to answer that the report at this time of the orders given to and correspondence between General Hunter and this Department would, in his opinion, be improper and incompatible with the public welfare.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 147-8

A Word to Messrs. Wickliffe and Mallory — What The Forefathers Thought of the Military Capacity of the Blacks.

It is perhaps too much to expect of our enlightened Congressmen that they shall inform themselves of what their predecessors in the National Legislature thought and said on subjects they are now discussing. If they would take this trouble, however, it would often, certainly, save a great deal of time that might be otherwise better employed. For instance, the House of Representatives consumed the best part of Saturday last in debating the military capacity of the Blacks. Now, this whole question was thoroughly discussed in the very first Congress held in 1790; and if the honorable members had taken the pains to consult their files of GALES & SEATON, they might have saved themselves a good deal of pulmonary exercitation, without leaving the country any less wise than it was before. The using of the Blacks is a question of practical policy which may or may not be adopted, as exigencies shall demand; but speculations on the military capacity of the negroes are abstractions that can lead to nothing. Meanwhile, we commend to Messrs. WICKLIFFE, MALLORY & Co., who think “negroes are naturally afraid of guns,” and that “one shot from a cannon would disperse thirty thousand of them,” the views of another Southern member some seventy-two years ago. Mr. SMITH, member from South Carolina, in the House of Representatives 1790, in the course of an elaborate debate on the question, said:

"Negroes, it was said, would not fight; but he would ask whether it was owing to their being black, or to their being slaves? If to their being black, then emancipating them would not remedy the evil, for they would still remain black; If it was owing to their being slaves, he denied the position; for it was an undeniable truth that in many countries slaves made excellent soldiers. * * Had experience proved that the negroes would not make good soldiers? He did not assert that they would, but they had never been tried. Discipline was everything; white militia made but indifferent soldiers before they were disciplined. It was well known that, according to the present art of war, a soldier was a mere machine, and he did not see why a black machine was not as good as a white one; and in one respect the black troops would have the advantage — in appearing more horrible in the eyes of the enemy.”

SOURCE: The New York Times, New York, New York, Monday, July 7, 1862, p. 4

Diary of Salmon P. Chase, Thursday, May 1, 1862

Mr. [French] don't like many things; thinks the Unitarians don't get hold of the work in the right way. The negroes are mostly Baptists, and like emotional religion better than rational, so called. They “       to Jesus,” and can not understand a religion that is not founded on His divinity. Many marriages have been “confirmed” among them. He had laid much stress on the duty of regular marriages between those who have been living together without that sanction. On some plantations the masters had allowed and encouraged marriages by ministers — on others, little was cared about it. A good deal of cotton had been planted, and more corn. The work of cultivation was going on as well as could be expected. Mr. F. thought Mr. Snydam would make a good collector. I talked to General [Saxton] about the work before him. He said the Secretary of War had authorized him to procure one or two thousand red flannel suits for the blacks, with a view to organization. No arms to be supplied as yet.

SOURCE: Robert Bruce Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 420-1; See John Niven, editor, The Salmon P. Chase Papers, Volume 1: Journals, 1829-1872, p. 333-5 for the entire diary entry.

Captain Charles Wright Wills: November 21, 1862

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, La Grange, Tenn.,

November 21, 1862.

Every one seems to think that we will start about day after to-morrow, Monday. We have drawn eight days' rations, and 200 rounds of ammunition has also been drawn for our corps. I don't think we have more than 14,000 in our corps, Logan's and McKean's Divisions, although there are some eight or ten new regiments here that I don't know, where assigned. Report to-day says that Sherman has moved from Memphis on the Holly Springs Pike. We are having delightful weather. No fires are necessary until dark, and we have had no frosts since our arrival. Hope we will keep ahead of cold weather if compatible with the interests of the service. I “borrowed” some citizens clothes and wrote myself a pass as suttler's clerk, last night, and strolled around the town a couple of hours. There are many fine buildings here, among the rest two very large academies. Many of the Memphian nobility have country seats here, some of them most elegant. Holly Springs, though, is the most important summer rendezvous for the Memphis folk. Our people have left the Springs, and I don't know that we have any troops in advance of this place. I am very comfortable in my quarters. Have plenty of blankets and a good stove. My colored boy, Dave, went into the country 20 miles last night and returned this p. m. with his wife, a delicate looking black woman, neat and much above the ordinary slave. She has been a sewing girl all her life, and I think would be worth something to a family that has much plain sewing to do. I think I will try to send her to Mrs. S. C. Thompson. “Dave” is a first rate cook and waiter, and I'll keep him with me until the war closes (if he don't spoil) and then take him to his woman. How'd you like a good colored woman for your kitchen? This woman mended my pants (I have two pairs) as neatly as any tailor could. Our regiment beats 19 out of 20 of the old ones for discipline, and averages with them for drill. Colonel Dickerman is a star, and Lieutenant Colonel Wright is proving himself much better than we expected. Colonel Oglesby has figured away ahead of anybody I've heard of yet in procuring wagons, tents, etc., for this regiment. Ours is the Only regiment I've heard of yet that is allowed to retain the old complement of transportation, equipage and tents. I'm officer of the day and 'tis my duty to make the rounds of the sentinels to-night at 1 or 2 o'clock; but in consideration of — etc., think the formality will be dispensed with.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 141-2

1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: August 19, 1862

Tuscumbia, Ala., August 19, 1862.

’Tis the old, old, story, burning railroad bridges, skirmishing between our scouts and theirs, etc. They opened on a new program by firing into a train, two days since, wounding five men only, though they put 200 shots into the engine and cars. They are burning cotton in very good style. Night before last eight fires were visible from our headquarters, and last night four. They destroyed about $300,000 in the two nights. They're getting scared about their negroes, and are carrying them off to the mountains as fast as possible. The blacks are scrambling in this direction to a very lively tune. Over 100 came in on one road within the last 24 hours. About 50 can be used in a regiment to advantage, but I am thoroughly opposed to receiving any more than we have work for within our lines. You have no idea what a miserable, horrible-looking, degraded set of brutes these plantation hands are. Contempt and disgust only half express one's feelings toward any man that will prate about the civilizing and christianizing influence of slavery. The most savage, copper savage, cannot be below these field hands in any brute quality. Let them keep their negroes though, for we surely don't want our Northern States degraded by them, and they can't do the Southerners any good after we get them driven a few degrees further down. These nigs that come in now, say that their masters were going to put them in the Southern Army as soldiers. I'm sure the Southerners are too smart for that, for a million of them aren't worth 100 whites. General Paine is gobbling up these secesh here and starting them North kiting. How they are shaking in their boots. Paine is going to clean out the country and make it Union if there is nothing but desert left. There are a number of very fine people here, such men as Jacob H. Bass, highly honorable, conscientious, etc., but strong believers in State sovereignty, and because their State has seceded, they are secessionists, and for no other reason. Paine is going to make them walk the plank with the rest. It looks a little hard to me, as they are willing to be paroled, but I'll never say stop when anybody is pounding the secesh.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 127

Diary of John Hay: November 18, 1864

. . . When the President came in, he called Blair and Banks into his office, meeting them in the hall.

They immediately began to talk about Ashley’s Bill in regard to States in insurrection. The President had been reading it carefully, and said that he liked it with the exception of one or two things which he thought rather calculated to conceal a feature which might be objectionable to some. The first was that under the provisions of that bill, negroes would be made jurors and voters under the temporary governments. “Yes,” said Banks; “that is to be stricken out, and the qualification ‘white male citizens of the United States’ is to be restored. What you refer to would be a fatal objection to the bill. It would simply throw the Government into the hands of the blacks, as the white people under that arrangement would refuse to vote.”

“The second,” said the President, “is the declaration that all persons heretofore held in slavery are declared free. This is explained by some to be, not a prohibition of slavery by Congress, but a mere assurance of freedom to persons actually there in accordance with the Proclamation of Emancipation. In that point of view it is not objectionable, though I think it would have been preferable to so express it.”

The President and General Banks spoke very favorably with three qualifications of Ashley’s Bill. Banks is especially anxious that the Bill may pass and receive the approval of the President. He regards it as merely concurring in the President's own action in the important case of Louisiana, and recommending an observance of the same policy in other cases. He does not regard it, nor does the President, as laying down any cast-iron policy in the matter. Louisiana being admitted and this Bill passed, the President is not estopped by it from recognizing and urging Congress to recognize, another state of the South, coming with constitution and conditions entirely dissimilar. Banks thinks that the object of Congress in passing the Bill at all, is merely to assert their conviction that they have a right to pass such a law, in concurrence with the executive action. They want a hand in the reconstruction. It is unquestionably the prerogative of Congress to decide as to qualifications of its own members:— that branch of the subject is exclusively their own. It does not seem wise, therefore, to make a fight upon a question purely immaterial; that is, whether this bill is a necessary one or not, and thereby lose the positive gain of this endorsement of the President's policy in the admission of Louisiana, and the assistance of that State in carrying the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting slavery.

Blair talked more than both Lincoln and Banks, and somewhat vehemently attacked the radicals in the House and Senate, who are at work upon this measure, accusing them of interested motives and hostility to Lincoln. The President said:— “It is much better not to be led from the region of reason into that of hot blood, by imputing to public men motives which they do not avow.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 250-2; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 252-4.