CHAPTER XI. COLORED SOLDIERS. - MR. WILSON'S BILL. - MR. GRIMES'S AMENDMENT. — REMARKS OF MR. - MR. REPORT ADOPTED. IN N the Senate, on the 8th of July, 1862, Mr. Wilson (Rep.) of Massachusetts reported, from the Committee on Military Affairs, a bill to amend the act calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion, approved Feb. 28, 1795. On the 9th, on motion of Mr. Wilson, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill as in Committee of the Whole. Mr. Grimes (Rep.) of Iowa moved to amend it by adding three sections, providing that there shall be no exemption from military duty on account of color; that, when the militia shall be called into service, the President shall have full power and authority to organize them according to their race or color. Mr. Saulsbury (Dem.) of Delaware denounced the attempt "made on every occasion to change the character of the war, and to elevate the miserable nigger, not only to political rights, but to put him in your army, and to put him in your navy." Mr. Carlile (Dem.) of Virginia declared that "the negro constituted no part of the militia of his State. I do not," he asserted, "think it is an effort to elevate the negro to an equality with the white man; but the effect of such legislation will be to degrade the white man to the level of the negro." Mr. King (Rep.) of New York moved to strike out the first two sections of Mr. Grimes's amendment, and insert these two sections: "That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to receive into the service of the United States, for the purpose of constructing intrenchments, or performing camp service or any other labor, or any war service for which they may be found competent, persons of African descent; and such persons shall be enrolled and organized under such regulations, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws, as the President may prescribe; and they shall be fed, and paid such compensation for their services as they may agree to receive when enrolled. 66 That, when any man or boy of African descent shall render any such service as is provided for in the first section of this act, he, his mother, and his wife and children, shall for ever thereafter be free, any law, usage, or custom whatsoever, to the contrary notwithstanding." Mr. King hoped that Mr. Grimes would accept the amendment. "I accept it," replied Mr. Grimes, "if it is in my power.' Mr. Saulsbury pronounced this amendment "a wholesale scheme of emancipation." Mr. Sherman (Rep.) of Ohio said, "The question arises, whether the people of the United States, struggling for national existence, should not employ these blacks for the maintenance of the Government. The policy heretofore pursued by the officers of the United States has been to repel this class of people from our lines, to refuse their services. They would have made the best spies; and yet they have been driven from our lines." "I tell the President," said Mr. Fessenden (Rep.) of Maine, "from my place here as a senator, and I tell the generals of our army, they must reverse their practices and their course of proceeding on this subject. . . . I advise it here from my place, treat your enemies as enemies, as the worst of enemies, and avail .yourselves like men of every power which God has placed in your hands to accomplish your purpose within the rules of civilized warfare." Mr. Rice (war Dem.) of Minnesota declared that "not many days can pass before the people of the United States North must decide upon one of two questions we have either to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy as a free and independent nation, and that speedily; or we have as speedily to resolve to use all the means given us by the Almighty to prosecute this war to a successful termination. The necessity for action has arisen. To hesitate is worse than criminal." Mr. Wilson said, "The senator from Delaware, as he is accustomed to do, speaks boldly and decidedly against the proposition. He asks if American soldiers will fight if we organize colored men for military purposes. Did not American soldiers fight at Bunker Hill with negroes in the ranks, one of whom shot down Major Pitcairn as he mounted the works? Did not American soldiers fight at Red Bank with a black regiment from your own State, sir? (Mr. Anthony in the chair.) Did they not fight on the battle-field of Rhode Island with that black regiment, one of the best and bravest that ever trod the soil of this continent? Did not American soldiers fight at Fort Griswold with black men? Did they not fight with black men in almost every battle-field of the Revolution? Did not the men of Kentucky and Tennessee, standing on the lines of New Orleans, under the eye of Andrew Jackson, fight with colored battalions whom he had summoned to the field, and whom he thanked publicly for their gallantry in hurling back a British foe? It is all talk, and idle talk, to say that the volunteers who are fighting the battles of this country are governed by any such narrow prejudice or bigotry. These prejudices are the results of the teachings of demagogues and politicians, who have for years undertaken to delude and deceive the American people, and to demean and degrade them." Mr. Grimes had expressed his views a few weeks before, and desired a vote separately on each of these sections. Mr. Davis declared that he was utterly opposed, and should ever be opposed, to placing arms in the hands of negroes, and putting them into the army. Mr. Rice wished "to know if Gen. Washington did not put arms into the hands of negroes, and if Gen. Jackson did not, and if the senator has ever condemned either of those patriots for doing so."—"I deny,” replied Mr. Davis, "that, in the Revolutionary War, there ever was any considerable organization of negroes. I deny, that, in the war of 1812, there was ever any organization of negro slaves. . . . In my own State, I have no doubt that there are from eighty to a hundred thousand slaves that belong to disloyal men. You propose to place arms in the hands of the men and boys, or such of them as are able to handle arms, and to manumit the whole mass, men, women, and children, and leave them among ús. Do you expect us to give our sanction and our approval to these things? No, no! We would regard their authors as our worst enemies; and there is no foreign despotism that could come to our rescue, that we would not joyously embrace, before we would submit to any such condition of things as that. But, before we had invoked this foreign despotism, we would arm every man and boy that we have in the land, and we would meet you in a death-struggle, to overthrow together such an oppression and our oppressors. Mr. Rice remarked in reply to Mr. Davis, "The rebels hesitate at nothing. There are no means that God or the Devil has given them that they do not use. The honorable senator said that the negroes might be useful in loading and swabbing and firing cannon. If that be the case, may not some of them be useful in loading, swabbing, and firing the musket?” The Senate, on the 10th of July, resumed the consideration of the bill. Mr. Collamer said, "I never could understand, and do not now understand, why the Government of the United States has not the right to the use of every man in it, black or white, for its defence; and every horse, every particle of property, every dollar in money, of every man in it. As to the using of colored men, that is entirely a question of expediency, whether you need them, whether you can use them to advantage; and that depends on so many contingencies, that I have always supposed the President, the generals, the men |