of the moment. The name of Abraham Lincoln was near and dear to our
hearts in the darkest and most perilous hours of the Republic. We were
no more ashamed of him when shrouded in clouds of darkness, of doubt and
defeat, than when we saw him crowned with victory, honor, and glory. Our
faith in him was often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never
failed. When he tarried long in the mountains; when he strangely told us
that we were the cause of the war; when he still more strangely told us
to leave the land in which we were born; when he refused to employ our
arms in defense of the Union; when, after accepting our services as
colored soldiers, he refused to retaliate our murder and torture as
colored prisoners; when he told us he would save the Union, if he could,
with slavery; when he revoked the Proclamation of Emancipation of
General Fremont; when he refused to remove the popular Commander of the
Army of the Potomac, in the days of its inaction and defeat, who was
more zealous in his efforts to protect slavery than to suppress
rebellion; when we saw all this and more, we were at times grieved,
stunned, and greatly bewildered, but our hearts believed, while they
ached and bled. Nor was this, at that time, a blind and unreasoning
superstition. Despite the mist and haze that surround him; despite the
tumult, the hurry, and confusion of the hour, we were able to take a
comprehensive view of Abraham Lincoln, and to make reasonable allowance
for the circumstances of his position. We saw him, measured him, and
estimated him; not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious
delegations, who often tried his patience; not by isolated facts, torn
from their connection; not by partial and imperfect glimpses caught at
inopportune moments; but by a broad survey, in the light of the stern
logic of great events, and in view of that divinity which "shapes our
ends, rough hew them as we will," we came to the conclusion that the
hour and the man of our redemption had somehow met in the person of
Abraham Lincoln. It mattered little to us what language he might employ
on special occasions; it mattered little to us when we fully knew him,
whether he was swift or slow in his movements; it was enough for us that
Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement, and was in living
and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things,
must go on until slavery should be utterly and forever abolished in the
United States.
When, therefore, it shall be asked what we have to do with the memory of
Abraham Lincoln, or what Abraham Lincoln had to do with us, the answer
is ready, full, and complete. Though he loved Caesar less than Rome,
though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under
his wise and beneficent rule, and by measures approved and vigorously
pressed by him, we saw that the handwriting of ages, in the form of
prejudice and proscription, was rapidly fading away from the face of our
whole country; under his rule, and in due time, about as soon, after
all, as the country could tolerate the strange spectacle, we saw our
brave sons and brothers laying off the rags of bondage, and being
clothed all over in the blue uniforms of the soldiers of the United
States; under his rule, we saw two hundred thousand of our dark and
dusky people responding to the call of Abraham Lincoln, and with muskets
on their shoulders, and eagles on their buttons, timing their high
footsteps to liberty and union under the national flag; under his rule,
we saw the independence of the black Republic of Haiti, the special
object of slave-holding aversion and horror, fully recognized, and her
minister, a colored gentleman, duly received here in the City of
Washington; under his rule, we saw the internal slave-trade, which so
long disgraced the nation, abolished, and slavery abolished in the
District of Columbia; under his rule, we saw, for the first time, the
law enforced against the foreign slave-trade, and the first slave-trader
hanged like any other pirate or murderer; under his rule, assisted by
the greatest captain of our age, and his inspiration, we saw the
Confederate States, based upon the idea that our race must be slaves,
and slaves forever, battered to pieces and scattered to the four winds;
under his rule, and in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln,
after giving the slave-holders three months' grace in which to save
their hateful slave system, penning the immortal paper, which, though
special in its language, was general in its principles and effect,
making slavery forever impossible in the United States. Though we waited
long, we saw all this and more.
Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all
men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January,
1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as
good as his word? I shall never forget that memorable night, when in a
distant city, I waited and watched at a public meeting, with three
thousand others not less anxious than myself, for the word of
deliverance which we have heard read to-day. Nor shall I ever forget the
outburst of joy and thanksgiving that rent the air when the lightning
brought to us the Emancipation Proclamation. In that happy hour we
forgot all delay, and forgot all tardiness, forgot that the President
had bribed the rebels to lay down their arms by a promise to withhold
the bolt that should smite the slave-system with destruction; and we
were thenceforward willing to allow the President all the latitude of
time, phraseology, and every honorable device that statesmanship might
require for the achievement of a great and beneficent measure of liberty
and progress.
Fellow citizens, there is little necessity on this occasion to speak at
length and critically of this great and good man, and of his high
mission in the world. That ground has been fully occupied and completely
covered both here and elsewhere. The whole field of fact and fancy has
been gleaned and garnered. Any man can say things that are true of
Abraham Lincoln, but no man can say anything that is new of Abraham
Lincoln. His personal traits and public acts are better known to the
American people than are those of any other man of his age. He was a
mystery to no man who saw and heard him. Though high in position, the
humblest could approach him and feel at home in his presence. Though
deep, he was transparent; though strong, he was gentle; though decided
and pronounced in his convictions, he was tolerant towards those who
differed from him, and patient under reproaches. Even those who only
knew him through his public utterances obtained a tolerably clear idea
of his character and personality. The image of the man went out with his
words, and those who read them knew him.
I have said that President Lincoln was a white man and shared the
prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking
back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled
to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may safely be set down
as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American
people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely
through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things:
first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and secondly, to
free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the
other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful
co-operation of his loyal fellow countrymen. Without this primary and
essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and
utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the
salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a
powerful class of American people and rendered resistance to rebellion
impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed
tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment
of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he
was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.
Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white countrymen against
the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he
loathed and hated slavery.[16] The man who could say "Fondly do we hope,
fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass
away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two
hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood
drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword,
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether," gives all
needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing,
while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh,
because he thought it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than
this, no earthly power could make him go.
[Note 16: "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong,
nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and
feel."--Letter of Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Hodges of Kentucky, April 4, 1864.]
Fellow citizens, whatever else in the world may be partial, unjust, and
uncertain, time--time--is impartial, just, and certain in its action. In
the realm of mind, as well as in the realm of matter, it is a great
worker, and often works wonders. The honest and comprehensive statesman,
clearly discerning the needs of his country, and earnestly endeavoring
to do his whole duty, though covered and blistered with reproaches, may
safely leave his course to the silent judgment of time. Few great public
men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham
Lincoln was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house
of his friends. Reproaches came thick and fast from within and from
without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed by abolitionists;
he was assailed by slave-holders; he was assailed by the men who were
for peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more
vigorous prosecution of the way; he was assailed for not making the war
an abolition war; and he was most bitterly assailed for making the war
an abolition war.
But now behold the change; the judgment of the present hour is, that
taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the
work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying
the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into
the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln. His birth,
his training, and his natural endowments, both mental and physical, were
strongly in his favor. Born and reared among the lowly, a stranger to
wealth and luxury, compelled to grapple single-handed with the flintiest
hardships of life, from tender youth to sturdy manhood, he grew strong
in the manly and heroic qualities demanded by the great mission to which
he was called by the votes of his countrymen. The hard condition of his
early life, which would have depressed and broken down weaker men, only
gave greater life, vigor, and buoyancy to the heroic spirit of Abraham
Lincoln. He was ready for any kind and quality of work. What other young
men dreaded in the shape of toil, he took hold of with the utmost
cheerfulness.
"A spade, a rake, a hoe,
A pick-axe, or a bill,
A hook to reap, a scythe to mow
A flail, or what you will."
All day long he could split heavy rails in the woods, and half the night
long he could study his English Grammar by the uncertain flare and glare
of the light made by a pine-knot. He was at home on the land with his
axe, with his maul, with gluts, and his wedges; and he was equally at
home on water, with his oars, with his poles, with his planks, and with
his boat-hooks. And whether in his flat-boat on the Mississippi River,
or on the fireside of his frontier cabin, he was a man of work. A son of
toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil
in every loyal part of the Republic. This very fact gave him tremendous
power with the American people, and materially contributed not only to
selecting him to the Presidency, but in sustaining his administration of
the Government.
Upon his inauguration as President of the United States, an office, even
where assumed under the most favorable conditions, fitted to tax and
strain the largest abilities, Abraham Lincoln was met by a tremendous
crisis. He was called upon, not merely to administer the government, but
to decide in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
A formidable rebellion rose in his path before him; the Union was
practically dissolved; his country was torn and rent asunder at the
center. Hostile armies were already organized against the Republic,
armed with the munitions of war which the Republic had provided for its
own defense. The tremendous question for him to decide was whether his
country should survive the crisis and flourish, or be dismembered and
perish. His predecessor in office had already decided the question in
favor of national dismemberment, by denying to it the right of
self-defense and self-preservation--a right which belongs to the meanest
insect.
Happily for the country, happily for you and me, the judgment of James
Buchanan, the patrician, was not the judgment of Abraham Lincoln, the
plebeian. He brought his strong common sense, sharpened in the school of
adversity, to bear upon the question. He did not hesitate, he did not
doubt, he did not falter but at once resolved, at whatever peril, at
whatever cost, the Union of the States should be preserved. A patriot
himself, his faith was strong and unwavering in the patriotism of his
countrymen. Timid men said, before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, that we
had seen the last President of the United States. A voice in influential
quarters said, "Let the Union slide." Some said that a Union maintained
by the sword was worthless. Others said that a rebellion of 8,000,000,
cannot be suppressed; but in the midst of all this tumult and timidity,
and against all this, Abraham Lincoln was clear in his duty, and had an
oath in heaven. He calmly and bravely heard the voice of doubt and fear
all around him; but he had an oath in heaven, and there was not power
enough on earth to make this honest boatman, backwoodsman, and
broad-handed splitter of rails evade or violate that sacred oath. He had
not been schooled in the ethics of slavery; his plain life had favored
his love of truth. He had not been taught that treason and perjury were
the proofs of honor and honesty. His moral training was against his
saying one thing when he meant another. The trust which Abraham Lincoln
had in himself and in the people was surprising and grand, but it was
also enlightened and well-founded. He knew the American people better
than they knew themselves, and his truth was based upon this knowledge.
Fellow citizens, the fourteenth day of April, 1865, of which this is the
eleventh anniversary, is now, and will ever remain a memorable day in
the annals of this Republic. It was on the evening of this day, while a
fierce and sanguinary rebellion was in the last stages of its desolating
power; while its armies were broken and scattered before the invincible
armies of Grant and Sherman; while a great nation, torn and rent by war,
was already beginning to raise to the skies loud anthems of joy at the
dawn of peace, it was startled, amazed, and overwhelmed by the crowning
crime of slavery--the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It was a new
crime, a pure act of malice. No purpose of the rebellion was to be
served by it. It was the simple gratification of a hell-black spirit of
revenge. But it has done good, after all. It has filled the country with
a deeper abhorrence of slavery and a deep love for the great liberator.
Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is
heir; had he reached that good old age of which his vigorous
constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been
permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of
death come down but gradually--we should still have been smitten with a
heavy grief, and treasured his name lovingly. But dying, as he did die,
by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without
warning, not because of personal hate,--for no man who knew Abraham
Lincoln could hate him--but because of his fidelity to union and
liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious
forever.
Fellow citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a
good work for our race to-day. In doing honor to the memory of our
friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and
those who come after us; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and
fame imperishable and immortal; we have also been defending ourselves
from a blighting scandal. When now it shall be said that the colored man
is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors;
when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is
attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may
calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of
Abraham Lincoln.
ADDRESS DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1880[17]
BY PINKNEY BENTON STEWART PINCHBACK
PINKNEY BENTON STEWART PINCHBACK _is one of the most interesting and
picturesque figures in the race. A staunch fighter in the Reconstruction
period in Louisiana, a delegate to many national Republican Conventions;
Ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana._
[Note 17: Delivered at Indianapolis, Indiana.]
_Mr. President and Fellow Citizens:_
The founders of the Republican party were aggressive men. They believed
in the Declaration of Independence and the great truths it contains; and
their purpose was to make these truths living realities. Possessing the
courage of their convictions and regarding slavery as the arch enemy of
the Republic--the greatest obstruction to its maintenance, advancement
and prosperity,--they proclaimed an eternal war against it and,
marshalling their forces under the banner of freedom and equality before
the law for all men, boldly and defiantly met the enemy at every point
and fairly routed it all along the line. Those men believed in and
relied upon the conscience of the people. To touch and arouse public
conscience and to convince it of the justice of their cause, they felt
was all that was necessary to enlist the people on their side.
Ridiculed, threatened, ostracised, and assaulted, they could not be
turned from their purpose, and their achievements constitute the
grandeur and glory of the Republican party. There were no apologists
for wrong-doers among those men, and there ought to be none in the
Republican party to-day. The South was the great disturbing element
then as it is now; and the causes which rendered it so are, in a
large measure, the same. The people were divided into three
classes--slave-holders, slaves, and poor whites, or "poor white trash"
as the latter were called by the colored people because of their utter
insignificance in that community. Its peculiar condition established in
the large land and slave-owning portion of the people a sort of
privileged class who claimed and exercised the right not only to rule
the South, but the nation; and for many years that class controlled
both. Gorged with wealth and drunk with power, considering themselves
born to command and govern, being undisputed rulers, almost by
inheritance in their States, the Southern politicians naturally became
aggressive, dictatorial, and determined to ruin the country and sever
the Union rather than consent to relinquish power, even though called
upon to do so by constituted methods. Hence it was that, when the people
of the great North and Northwest concluded to assert their rights and
choose a man from among themselves for President, they rebelled and
forced upon the country so far as they were concerned, the most
causeless and unnatural war recorded in history.
I shall not dwell upon the history of the war or attempt to detail its
horrors and sum up its cost. I leave that task to others. If the wounds
made by it have been healed, which I do not concede, far be it from my
purpose to re-open them. My sole reason for referring to the war at all
is to remind the Northern people of some of the agencies employed in its
successful prosecution. When it commenced, the principal labor element
of the South--the source of its production and wealth--was the colored
race. Four millions and a half of these unfortunate people were there,
slaves and property of the men who refused to submit to the will of the
people lawfully expressed through the ballot-box. They were the bone and
sinew of the Confederacy, tilling its fields and producing sustenance
for its armies, while many of the best men of the North were compelled
to abandon Northern fields to shoulder a musket in defense of the Union.
As a war measure and to deprive the South of such a great advantage,
your President, the immortal Lincoln, issued a proclamation in
September, 1862, in which he gave public notice that it was his purpose
to declare the emancipation of the slaves in the States wherein
insurrection existed on January 1, 1863, unless the offenders therein
lay down their arms. That notice, thank God, was disregarded, and the
proclamation of January 1, 1863, proclaiming universal emancipation
followed. Had the requirements of the first proclamation been observed
by the people to whom it was addressed who can doubt what would have
been the fate of the colored people in the South? It is reasonable to
assume, inasmuch as the war was waged to perpetuate the Union and not to
destroy slavery--that they would have remained in hopeless bondage. On
more than one occasion President Lincoln officially declared that he
would save the Union with slavery if he could, and not until it became
manifest that slavery was the mainstay of the Confederacy, and the
prosecution of the war to a successful close would be difficult without
its destruction, did he dare touch it. I do not think that President
Lincoln's hesitancy to act upon the question arose from sympathy with
the accursed institution, for I believe every pulsation of his heart was
honest and pure and that he was an ardent and devoted lover of universal
liberty; but he doubted whether his own people would approve of his
interference with it. Assured by the manner in which the people of the
North received his first proclamation that they appreciated the
necessity of destroying this great aid of the enemy, he went forward
bravely declaring that, "possibly for every drop of blood drawn by the
lash one might have to be drawn by the sword, but if so, as was said
over eighteen hundred years ago, the judgments of the Lord are just and
righteous altogether," and abolished human slavery from the land
forever.
That this great act was a Godsend and an immeasurable blessing to the
colored race, I admit, but I declare in the same breath that it was
dictated and performed more in the interest of the white people of the
North and to aid them in conquering the rebellion than from love of or a
disposition to help the Negro. The enfranchisement of the colored race
also sprang from the necessities of the nation. At the close of the war
the Southern States had to be rehabilitated with civil governments and
re-admitted into the Union. The men who had plunged the country into war
and had tried to destroy the Government were about to resume their civil
and political rights, and, through the election of Representatives and
Senators in Congress, regain influence and power in national councils.
Apprehending danger from the enormous power they would possess if
reinstated in absolute control of eleven States, some means had to be
devised to prevent this. A political element, loyal to the Union and the
flag, must be created; and again the ever faithful colored people were
brought into requisition, and without their asking for it, the elective
franchise was conferred upon them. There was no question about the
loyalty of these people, and the supposition that they would be a
valuable political force and form the basis of a loyal political party
in the South was both natural and just, and the wisdom of their
enfranchisement was demonstrated by the establishment of Republican
governments in several of the States, and the sending of mixed
delegations of Republican and Democratic members of Congress therefrom
so long as the laws conferring citizenship upon the colored man were
enforced.