_A New Policy announced.--Adjutant-Gen. Thomas.--Major-Gen.
Prentiss.--Negro Wit and Humor.--Proslavery Correspondents.--Feeling in
the Army.--Let the Blacks fight._
Attorney-Gen. Bates had already given his opinion with regard to the
citizenship of the negro, and that opinion was in the black man’s favor.
The Emancipation Proclamation was only a prelude to calling on the
colored men to take up arms, and the one soon followed the other;
for the word “Emancipation” had scarcely gone over the wires,
ere Adjutant-Gen. Thomas made his appearance in the valley of the
Mississippi. At Lake Providence, La., he met a large wing of the army,
composed of volunteers from all parts of the country, and proclaimed to
them the new policy of the administration; and he did it in very plain
words, as will be seen:--
“_Fellow-Soldiers_,--Your commanding general has so fully stated the
object of my mission, that it is almost unnecessary for me to say
any thing to you in reference to it. Still, as I come here with full
authority from the President of the United States to announce the
policy, which, after mature deliberation, has been determined upon by
the wisdom of the nation, it is my duty to make known to you clearly and
fully the features of that policy.
“It is a source of extreme gratification to me to come before you
this day, knowing, as I do full well, how glorious have been your
achievements on the field of battle. No soldier can come before soldiers
of tried valor, without having the deepest emotions of his soul stirred
within him. These emotions I feel on the present occasion; and I beg you
will listen to what I have to say, as soldiers receiving from a soldier
the commands of the President of the United States.
“I came from Washington clothed with the fullest power in this matter.
With this power, I can act as if the President of the United States were
himself present. I am directed to refer nothing to Washington, but
to act promptly,--what I have to do to do at once; to strike down the
unworthy and to elevate the deserving.
“Look along the river, and see the multitude of deserted plantations
upon its banks. These are the places for these freedmen, where they can
be self-sustaining and self-supporting. All of you will some day be on
picket-duty; and I charge you all, if any of this unfortunate race come
within your lines, that you do not turn them away, but receive them
kindly and cordially. They are to be encouraged to come to us; they are
to be received with open arms; they are to be fed and clothed; _they are
to be armed._
“This is the policy that has been fully determined upon. I am here to
say that I am authorized to raise as many regiments of blacks as I can.
I am authorized to give commissions, from the highest to the lowest; and
I desire those persons who are earnest in this work to take hold of it.
I desire only those whose hearts are in it, and to them alone will I
give commissions. I don’t care who they are, or what their present rank
may be. I do not hesitate to say, that all proper persons will receive
commissions.
“While I am authorized thus in the name of the Secretary of War, I have
the fullest authority to dismiss from the army any man, be his rank what
it may, whom I find maltreating the freedmen. This part of my duty I
will most assuredly perform if any case comes before me. I would rather
do that than give commissions, because such men are unworthy the name of
soldiers.
“This, fellow-soldiers, is the determined policy of the Administration.
You all know, full well, when the President of the United States, though
said to be slow in coming to a determination, once puts his foot down,
it is there; and he is not going to take it up. He has put his foot
down. I am here to assure you that my official influence shall be
given that he shall not raise it.” Major-Gen. B. M. Prentiss, after
the cheering had subsided which greeted his appearance, indorsed, in
a forcible and eloquent speech, the policy announced by Adjutant-Gen.
Thomas, and said, that, “from the time he was a prisoner, and a negro
sentinel, with firm step, _beat_ in front of his cell, and with firmer
voice commanded silence within, he prayed God for the day of revenge;
and he now thanked God that it had come.” Turning to Gen. Thomas, the
speaker continued, “Yes: tell the President for me, I will receive them
into the lines; I will beg them to come in; _I will make them come in!_
and if any officer in my command, high or low, _neglects to receive them
friendly, and treat them kindly, I will put them outside the lines_.
(Tremendous applause.) Soldiers, when you go to your quarters, if you
hear any one condemning the policy announced here to-day, put him
down as a contemptible copperhead traitor. Call them what you please,
copperheads, secesh, or traitors, they are all the same to me: _enemies
of our country_, against whom I have taken a solemn oath, and called God
as my witness, to whip them wherever I find them.”
Congress had already passed a bill empowering the President “to enroll,
arm, equip, and receive into the land and naval service of the United
States, such a number of volunteers of African descent as he may deem
equal to suppress the present rebellion, for such term of service as
he may prescribe, not exceeding five years; the said volunteers to be
organized according to the regulations of the branch of the service into
which they may be enlisted, to receive the same rations, clothing, and
equipments as other volunteers, and a monthly pay not to exceed that of
the volunteers.”
Proslavery newspaper correspondents from the North, in the Western and
Southern departments, still continued to report to their journals that
the slaves would not fight if an opportunity was offered to them. Many
of these were ridiculously amusing. The following is a sample:--
“I noticed upon the hurricane-deck, to-day, an elderly negro, with a
very philosophical and retrospective cast of countenance, squatted
upon his bundle, toasting his shins against the chimney, and apparently
plunged into a state of profound meditation. Finding by inquiry that he
belonged to the Ninth Illinois, one of the most gallantly-behaved and
heavily-losing regiments at the Fort-Donelson battle, and part of which
was aboard, I began to interrogate him upon the subject. His philosophy
was so much in the Falstaffian vein that I will give his views in his
own words, as near as my memory serves me:--
“‘Were you in the fight?’
“‘Had a little taste of it, sa.’
“‘Stood your ground, did you?’
“‘No, sa; I runs.’
“‘Run at the first fire, did you?’
“‘Yes, sa; and would ha’ run soona had I know’d it war comin’.’
“‘Why, that wasn’t very creditable to your courage.’
“‘Dat isn’t in my line, sa; cookin’s my perfeshun.’ “‘Well, but have
you no regard for your reputation?’ ‘“Refutation’s nuffin by the side ob
life.’
“‘Do you consider your life worth more than other people’s?’
“‘It’s worth more to me, sa.’
“‘Then you must value it very highly.’
“‘Yes, sa, I does; more dan all dis wuld; more dan a million of
dollars, sa: for what would dat be wuf to a man wid de bref out of him.
Self-perserbashum am de fust law wid me.’
“‘But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?’
“‘Because different men set different values upon dar lives: mine is not
in de market.’
“‘But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that
you died for your country.’
“‘What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob feelin’ was
gone?’
“‘Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?’
“‘Nuffin whatever, sa: I regard dem as among de vanities; and den de
gobernment don’t know me; I hab no rights; may be sold like old hoss any
day, and dat’s all.’
“‘If our old soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the
Government without resistance.’
“‘Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn’t put my life in
de scale ‘ginst any gobernment dat ever existed; for no gobernment could
replace de loss to me.’
“‘Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been
killed?’
“‘May be not, sa; a dead white man ain’t much to dese sogers, let alone
a dead nigga; but I’d a missed myself, and dat was de pint wid me.’
“It is safe to say that the dusky corpse of that African will never
darken the field of carnage.”