Mr. Chairman,
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Forty-four years and seven months have passed away since the
sanguinary conflict known as the battle of Shiloh took place here.
With some of you, I was numbered among the 6,664 Iowa men
who, on that occasion, sustained the shock of battle and I bore an humble part
in both days’ engagements. This is the first glimpse I have had of the field
since April eighth or ninth, 1862, immediately following the battle, when we
turned our bronzed faces towards Corinth, Mississippi, another Campus Martius
in the neighboring state some twenty miles away to the southwest. The visit and
the occasion which have called us hither have profoundly impressed my mind,
inspired and quickened my memory. This serious thought, among a multitude of
others, impresses me. All the great commanders who faced each other in this
arena are gone. Some of them fell here — notably, Generals W. H. L. Wallace, of
the Union forces, and Albert Sidney Johnston, of the Confederates. These men
fell by the side of thousands of the brave men who served under them. Nearly
all of their subordinates, and the rank and file — as gallant as were ever
marshaled or led to battle upon the earth, have passed into the realm beyond.
And yet it seems but as yesterday since we were here in the strength, bloom and
fire of our youth. Friends, there is no time. We live in eternity. We count
what we call days and years by the rising and setting of the sun, the
recurrence of the seasons and the return of the equinoxes. But neither sunshine
nor shadow, darkness or light; neither the seasons nor the movements of the
heavenly bodies can separate us from eternity in which we live and move, and
which (a most comforting thought) is also the dwelling place of our Almighty
Creator and loving Father.
It seems to me that the firmament above our heads is full of
the disembodied spirits of our old comrades. The blue and the gray are at peace
over there, and I fervently thank Almighty God that their surviving friends,
now constituting a united and mighty nation, are at peace also — peace among
themselves.
If our eyes should be opened as were the eyes of the servant
of the Prophet Elisha, we would behold the air filled with chariots and with
horsemen. They are certainly all about us, and we can almost feel them fanning
our brows, hear the rustle of their celestial garments and can almost grasp
them by the hand.
But why was this battle fought, and what lasting good was
accomplished for civilization by the prodigious sacrifices made here and then —
a combat so epoch making that a half century after it took place it calls for
the erection of these cenotaphs and mausoleums, designed to challenge the
attention of mankind for all time? The world knows what was accomplished at
Marathon in the year 490 B.C. But for that victory all Greece would otherwise
have become a part of Persia. Persian power was on that occasion broken
forever. The 192 Greeks who laid down their lives to accomplish that result
were accorded the honor of burial upon the field and the tumulus which covers
their dust remains to the present day. Ten thousand Greeks under Miltiades,
with a loss of only 192 men, vanquished 110,000 Persians under Darius. The
important achievement secured to the world by that victory is easy of
comprehension.
We know what the battle of Pharsalia signified. In the year
48 B.C., Caesar, the Commoner, brought the civil war to a close by overthrowing
Pompey, the aristocrat, and with him the hosts of the Roman aristocracy. It
ushered in the era of peace throughout the Roman empire and prepared mankind
for the advent of the new conscience from Palestine. From two households then
formed or forming in the atmosphere of love's sweet affiance, were soon to
issue John the Baptist from the one, and the Virgin Mother and the Prince of
Peace from the other. A greater than Caesar came. We can grasp, then, the
significance of the great conflict at Pharsalia. We can also understand the
value to mankind the triumph of Charles Martel. Eight hundred years after
Pharsalia, at the end of seven days of hard fighting Charles the Hammer, on the
banks of Loire, midway between Tours and Poitiers, hurled the Saracens from
France, drove them beyond the Pyrenees, saved Europe from the grasp of the
Turk, and made it the abode of our blessed Christian faith. Had Charles Martel
failed, all Europe would have become Mohammedan. Although these great battles
occurred 2,500, 2,000 and 1,300 years ago, respectively, their ripe fruits in
an ever increasing harvest is constantly falling into the lap of civilization
and will continue to bless all generations of men through all time.
I have mentioned these three great battles of antiquity and
merely hinted at their lasting significance in order that I might help you, as
well as myself, to grasp more clearly the far reaching character of the victory
at Shiloh. It was indeed a costly victory and can not be justified by the
considerate judgment of mankind unless some lasting good was secured. The first
day, the Union forces consisted of about 40,000 men and the Confederates about
44,000. The second day the Union army was reinforced by nearly 18,000 men under
General Buell, which gave us greater preponderance over the Confederates on the
second day than they had over us on the first.
The total loss of the Union army in both days was 13,047 —
or 22 per cent, the total loss of the Confederate army, both days, was 10,699 —
or 24 Per cent, the total number of men engaged on both sides was 101,716 and
the total loss was 23,746 — or 23½ per cent. Iowa had 6,664 men engaged with a total loss
of 2,409 — or 36 per cent.
General Grant says, in his Memoirs, “Shiloh was the severest
battle fought at the west during the war, and but few in the east equalled it
for hard, determined fighting.” Grant
was a competent judge. He was here in person. His impressive figure, stern
face, and resolute bearing were photographed indelibly upon my brain as I saw
him ride along our depleted lines. He knew what victory would mean and grasped
the full significance of possible defeat. The victory, dearly purchased, was
with the Union arms. The Confederate army, sorely decimated, was sent reeling
in despair to the southward.
When Albert Sidney Johnston attacked our lines so furiously
and so unexpectedly on Sabbath morning, April 6, 1862, he knew that Grant’s
army, including Buell’s forces, numbered less than 60,000 men. He knew that
this was the only obstacle between the Confederate army and the banks of the
Ohio. If that force could be overcome, the cities of Louisville, Cincinnati and
Nashville with their adjacent territory were within his grasp, and that henceforward
the war would have to be fought out in the north. Johnston knew further that
the defeat of the Union forces here meant the annihilation of Grant’s army — for
remember that yonder river (pointing to the Tennessee), swollen to its brim,
was back of us, and in case of defeat, made our retreat impossible and our
capture certain. If defeated, we would have no army left in the west. The west,
then, was saved by this victory and the Confederate forces were hurled
southward upon their own territory, and their dream of northern invasion from
the west was gone forever. Henceforth, they were to act chiefly upon the
defensive. This was the immediate result achieved on this field. It opened the
way for the later triumphs at Corinth and Vicksburg, and made it reasonable to
expect success at Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. It enabled Sherman to
enter upon his succession of victories which made his march to the sea
possible. Our victory here then was of tremendous consequence to the Union and
Confederate forces, and to their respective governments. Yea more, it was one
of the bloody blows delivered during the war for human rights, and for the
equality of all men before the law. It was one of the great events of the war
that made final emancipation of the black race possible, and it lit up the
Declaration of Independence with its original effulgence. Along with other
similar battles, it quickened the conception of all the world of that
unalterable truth that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness,” and that governments are instituted among men to secure these
rights and not to destroy them. That the unconstrained consent of the subject
is essential to all good government. This declaration, and the amendments to
the constitution which followed the civil war, must and will forever stand.
They “were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever.” All attempts
to shake them are frivolous and merely loquacious.
The things accomplished in the sixties are numbered among
the eternal verities, and their logic is inexorable. The fifteenth amendment is
among these verities. To disturb or attempt to disturb them can in no way
afford a solution of the perplexing problems bequeathed to us by the civil war.
On the contrary, it would delay their solution indefinitely.
I noticed a few days ago that Governor Vardaman of
Mississippi — a gentleman for whose exalted talents and sincerity of purpose I
have the highest appreciation — is reported to have said, on the occasion of
the dedication of the Illinois monuments at Vicksburg, that he did not believe
that all men are created equal. He thinks there are inferior races. I deny it.
God’s inferior family is found among the brute creation and over them man has
complete dominion. But he was never given dominion over his brother. You cannot
find it in the commission. Can he find a race of men not endowed by their
Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness? If he can not, then all races of men are entitled to an opportunity
to develop all the good there is in them, and the privilege of doing this
within their own governments instituted by themselves. But when a race of a
lower order of development is domiciled with a race of superior development,
must the race of inferior growth be allowed to dominate the superior? A
thousand times no. It is contrary to the natural order. It can never be. One of
the errors both of emancipators and the apologists is that having developed one
truth they have too often failed to reason on to other cognate truths. They
stop short in their investigations and think there is no more truth beyond.
They see one star through a rift in the clouds, and conclude that it is the
only star in the firmament.
I observe that the Honorable John Sharpe Williams, in a
recent utterance, advises the people of the south to import white labor to take
the place of the present industrial force. This is most excellent advice, and
should be acted upon in every southern state at once. But it does not touch the
alarming situation that confronts the southern people. It does not touch the
real dilemma that confronts the whole country, and that concerns us all — What
is to be done with the Negro? I realize that the question to which I am now
addressing myself is unquestionably one of the overshadowing contentions of the
age in which we live. It is the second and complex phase of the controversy
that precipitated our civil war. I cannot at this time treat the subject fully —
simply suggestively. But why temporize? It must be met. We must look squarely
at it and settle it justly and quickly. While I cherish firmly the doctrine
that all men are created equal, I also hold that this is a white man’s
government. The two apothegms are not in conflict. They are both true. This has
been made clear to me by the lapse of time, the growth of the problem, and by
research. Formerly I abhorred the latter when it was made to do service for
slavery. But I now suggest that it be made the slogan of final emancipation.
France is the Frenchman’s government, England is the Englishman’s government,
China is the government of the Mongolian. This is the white man’s government
and Africa the black man’s government, or country. But all nations of men were
created equal. There are four great mountain peaks that stand hard by the
stream of human history and lift their heads through the clouds into perpetual
sunshine. First, in the councils of eternity, God said, Let us make man.
Thousands of years afterward, He sent His Son into the world to redeem man —
not any one race of men — and by the grace of God, Jesus Christ tasted death
for every man. Less than a century after the crucifixion, that marvelous man
Paul stood up at Mars Hill and said to the learned Greeks, “Of one blood God
hath created all the nations of men who dwell upon the face of the whole earth
and hath defined the bounds of their habitations.” There is a scientific, ethnological fact
clearly stated. If your streets are stained with blood, your chemist can tell
you whether it is the blood of a human being or of one of the lower animals.
But he can not tell you whether it is the blood of a white man or a black man.
But 1,700 years after Paul's speech at Mars Hill, Thomas Jefferson, with
Pauline faith, declared, and our forefathers proclaimed it, that all men are
created equal and endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these ends governments
are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed. Now there are the four mountain peaks upon whose majestic brows is
gleaming and will forever gleam the Divine halo — creation, redemption, unity
of blood and equality of rights for all men derived from heaven. I thank my
Creator that these great landmarks are forever beyond the reach of malice,
ignorance or greed.
But if all men are created with equality of rights, and at
the same time this is a white man’s government, what is to be done with the
Negro? Did you catch Paul’s meaning when he said that God had created of one blood
all the nations and “defined the bounds of their habitations?” America is not
the Negro’s habitat. This country is not within his habitation. God never
domiciled two nations of men together. Heaven loves peace and commands justice.
When one nation invades another, you have war. When the Mongolian attempts to
crowd in upon us, there is trouble, and they are excluded by law. Commercial
relations are natural and tend to peace. But all attempts to settle two
distinct and antagonistic races within the same territory is unnatural and
destructive of social security. The Negro does not belong here. He was brought
hither by crime, which was prompted by greed. He is out of his latitude and
away from home. He can never reach his natural and proper development here. He
has a country richly endowed with everything necessary to the comfort and
happiness of man. There he can live in peace, equality and respectability. He
can never do so on this continent. Two distinct races can not dwell together in
happiness. We might as well recognize this burning fact first as last. Neither
can the Negro be held among us in a position of inferiority and dependence. It
is contrary to sound ethics, at war with the whole genius of our institutions,
and it makes the Golden Rule a farce. While here of course the Negro must be
secure in his rights before the law, and the door of opportunity open to him.
But he should be prepared for his exodus — not by forcible deportation, but by
voluntary, intelligent migration. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. That
people never could have been incorporated into the Egyptian body politic. They
went to their own country through forty years of rough discipline, in order
that they might accomplish their Divinely appointed work. The Negro has had a
like probation. Our whole national policy toward him has been false, cruel, and
unchristian. At the close of the war, he should have been sent home by
deportation instead of being made the plaything of politicians. It was not
done, however, and now the problem is upon us with tremendous weight. It is
estimated that they are increasing at the rate of 1,500 per month. They
numbered four millions at the close of the war. They now number ten millions.
At the end of the next forty years they will reach the forty million mark, and
within the lifetime of children now born they will nearly, if not quite, number
one hundred millions.
Now what is to be done with them? Talk of the problems which
are pressing upon us for a solution — and they are many and mighty; but none of
them are equal in importance to this awful storm now gathering upon our
horizon. We of the north are too far from the storm center to be properly
sympathetic with our white brethren in the south, and they are too near to have
an accurate perspective of the situation. One thing is sure — they can not be
retained here as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the cultivated men
among whom they dwell. They can not be kept here for exploitation. They can not
be retained in the south, for soon the south will not be big enough to hold
them. They can not, in any considerable numbers, he diffused throughout the
north, for they are fast becoming as distasteful to us as they are to the
south. We must awake to the fact that the Federal government has not
discharged, it has scarcely begun to discharge, its full measure of duty toward
these people. It liberated them and sent them adrift without chart or compass.
It must now promote their exodus. Let the whole Negro race in this country set
their faces toward Africa and a Black Republic. I would have the colored
schools and colleges make the study of Africa a part of their curriculum. They
should send expeditions of their brightest young men and women to Africa to
study its climate and resources, and they should return and make report as did
the spies who explored Canaan, and these reports should be scattered among the
colored people like the leaves of the forest. When they learn of their
inheritance, they will go, and their Moses will appear. The coasts of Africa
should be surveyed and its harbors sounded, its rivers navigated, its forests
penetrated and its mines prospected. Colored medical students should be sent to
study climatic diseases and remedies. The Federal government should encourage
this, open the way by its splendid diplomacy, and all good people of the north
and south should speak of the contemplated exodus with favor.
The immigration of white labor will be slow, of course, and
so will the exodus of the blacks. The one will come in as the other goes out,
and there will be no resultant shock to industrial progress. The young and the
middle-aged among the Negroes should lead the way to the promised land, and the
older classes can go later. These people were brought here in chains in the
dismal holds of slave ships. Let them return as freemen in our modern ocean
steamers and with the flag of the Black Republic streaming from the masthead. I
pray God that the people of the United States may awake to the situation ere it
is too late.
SOURCE: Alonzo Abernathy, Editor, Dedication
of Monuments Erected By The State Of Iowa, p. 268-77
