Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments, / and the Duty of the Colored People in Regard to the Great Slaveholders' Rebellion, in the United States of America

by Alfred M. Green

NEGROES IN THE SERVICE.

From the Philadelphia Sunday Transcript, May, 1861.

The colored portion of our population are anxious to do the State some service. Already they have organized one or more regiments, and are perfecting themselves in the drill. Among the documents which have already emanated from this branch of our population, as to the propriety of their engaging in such service, is the following from the pen of “Hamilcar,” a negro of more than ordinary ability. Without endorsing his communication we give it place, so that all sides may be heard:

“While many persons in the North—perhaps strong friends of the Union—are not prepared to endorse the idea of admitting colored regiments into its service, it might be well for us to remember that every effort is being made by the South to make their black population efficient aids in defending their soil against our army. The State of Louisiana, for more than three months, has had colored regiments in the home guard service, under the most efficient drill and pay. Vice President Stephens recommended this course to all the States. Tennessee, in pursuance of this recommendation, has passed an act to employ all the available muscle of her free black population. There are four colored regiments now in Virginia, in the service of the rebel government. It is said, on perfectly reliable authority, that black troops shot down Union men at the late battle at Manassas Gap.

“Where, then, is the consistency, or expediency, of fruitlessly wasting so much time at the North, in discussing the propriety of adopting such a measure, with reference to preparing our colored population for an emergency, such as may be thrust upon us by the introduction of 50,000 or 100,000 Indians and negroes brought into the field against us, and they having all the advantage of the most efficient drill and endurance, by long months of preparation and practice, that we have hopelessly wasted in discussing questions of propriety, &c., &c.

“Are we to be duped and forestalled in this last hope, so much relied upon as a means of bringing rebels to terms, as we have been in almost every other available means of speedy and honorable settlement? Should the South generally adopt the idea of their dictators, Davis and Stephens, to place in the field 50,000 free blacks, at $12 per month, (term of enlistment for three years,) will they not soon discover that the same amount of money would emancipate and place in the field 125,000 men, paying their masters liberally—settling also the question of servile rebellion among themselves, the question of contraband emancipation, and the general insecurity of that species of property during the rebellion?

“Would any offer of our government induce those people to desert or fight against their former masters and emancipators in such an event? Does not our own wars, and the French and Spanish wars in Hayti, sufficiently develop the fact that the slaves will defend the soil of their birth, even on the most superficial promise of those who are their superiors. Would not the South, by such an act, draw largely upon the moral sentiment of Europe, (that must in no small degree operate for or against their recognition,) by such an act in advance of the North?

“Could we draw more largely on that sentiment at home or abroad by adopting such a measure, by mere necessity, than would the South by the same principle? And especially, when we had to throw into the field raw and undisciplined recruits against the most able and efficiently drilled regiments?

“To me it seems that reason, prudence, and judgment, aided by the present signs of the times, would indicate that the available muscle, the bone and sinew of our 30,000 colored inhabitants of the city and county of Philadelphia should be encouraged in their (already manifest) patriotic efforts in preparing to sustain and defend the soil and interests of their native State.”

HAMILCAR.

From the Pine and Palm, June 22, 1861.

Mr. Editor:

Since I last wrote you, on the subject of American revolution, and the manifest interest we have in the great issue now before the country, I have been incessantly laboring, with might and main, to carry out, or to propagate, by all practicable means, the policy therein indicated. Of course, I have not closed my eyes to the various objections raised by learned and tried friends of the enslaved and disfranchised colored Americans of these United States. Nay, on the contrary, I have read and pondered them all over and over again, and I think I gave them the consideration they merit. I do not advance these suggestions I am now about to make, (in continuation of the position I have maintained in my previous letter,) with any direct reference to any one of the opinions I have met differing from my own; but merely for the purpose of indicating to those who have been long acquainted with me and my most implacable hostility to the slave power, and all who could in any way sympathize with or apologize for the cruel system of tyranny in this country: and to let those of our rulers who expect our cöoperation know, and know in time, that while I am largely filled with patriotism and sympathy for the government, yet that government must be magnanimously generous to the poor and oppressed of this land, ere it can have my hearty and willing support; and until it can have it thus, it cannot have it at all, by no principle, nor by any rule of coercion or impressment that it might adopt in this direction. I think, indeed I know, I have made myself more thoroughly understood on this point by those in authority, both of the State and of the United States, than among our own people. Many of our people would be willing, after an act was passed, by which they were to be forced into the field, to do the work white men would have them do, i. e.—shoot down the slaves and free colored population of the South, who might have no possible means of escaping the necessity of going into the service of the Southern Confederacy. As I remarked to a gentleman, a few days ago, it would take a degree of patriotism that I do not possess, to go South for such a purpose. I would readily go to shoot the enemies of the government; but until it was made manifest to me that these men were possessed of discretionary power, of their own will to act in the case as they felt disposed, I should not be willing to shoot them; nor would I do it, whatever the consequences of a refusal might involve in such a case.

As I before stated, I have a motive, and an honorable and just policy to be effected by the position I have assumed on this question, and that policy must be accomplished through the issues arising out of this great revolution, or rebellion, as you may choose to style it. I can realize the necessity of a brother even shooting a brother, or of a father shooting a son, in behalf of the government, among the whites—for with them it is like Absalom’s rebellion against the house of King David. The South, and all who aid them, are fighting for a principle that anticipates the subversion of every principle of justice, and the overthrow of the best and most liberal government the sun ever shone upon. It is the right, therefore, of all white men who love government and the blessings guaranteed to them by the government of the United States, and who believe that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” to defend it even with the shedding of their own kindred blood, to put down treason and rebellion, and maintain the Constitution and the laws. With us it is different—it is different with the slaves and free people of the South—and it is equally so with us. There can be no comparison of the patriotism required to produce such a feeling in us, and that which actuates white men in the same direction. Finding myself greatly deficient when measured by such a standard, and learning that this was the one by which white men measured for us, I have chosen to make known my devotion to the government, and my willingness to serve it in any just and honorable way. But to set myself boldly in the way of any principle or theory, originating from whence it may, that might serve to decoy my brethren, and lead them indiscriminately into the field, with no other motive or purpose than to serve the doubly rapacious desire of unworthy and unjust, hatefully prejudiced men against ourselves, as well as those poor, friendless men they would have us fight, and who, by a proper appreciation of the government paid to their defenceless and unhappy condition, would settle half the bill with their masters, and leave them an easy prey to the popular government, instead of being compelled by the menacing attitude of both North and South, to take sides against the former, even though they should have to settle with masters whom they well understand afterwards—in such an event, I will never, nor will a single man of the hundreds of my acquaintances, take sides with the milk-and-water policy now manifested by the leaders of the United States forces, though it is evident that they neither reflect the popular sentiment of the people, or the policy of the Administration, only so far as that policy is modulated by circumstances brought about by the long reign of Hunker Democracy, whose demagogues early sought for place and position in the army, since they could not get them by the voice of the people at the last election; but who now for a time are allowed to put in their last pleading, in behalf of their miserably deluded and tyrannical brethren of the South, the slaveholders, whose days of glory and profit, like their own, “are dwindled to the shortest span.”

In my last, I left off by introducing an analogy between our condition and that of four persons living as neighbors in the same vicinity. A, who hates me always, is a slaveholder. B, who is influenced so much by A, is the government. C, who I represented as our friend, is the liberal, true-hearted anti-slavery man of the country, who seeks by any and every means, to emancipate the slaves and enfranchise the already freed man. D, is the colored people, North and South; of course, we’ve all but one interest in this matter, at least. A and B are already in deadly combat. C has a manifest disposition to lend B a hand, for he has often expostulated with B about his allowing A so much influence and power in controlling his affairs, especially on this very subject which has created the quarrel. Of course, if they are not enough for A, D can do nothing less than come in for his share of the responsibility. In a word, if the government and the straight-out anti-slavery men of the North cannot settle satisfactorily with the slaveholders, we are ready to give them such a helping hand as will be felt by Southern chivalry to their heart’s content. If the government is not willing to endorse our project till it is reduced to an extremity, it may by such a course advance our interests the more. At all events, hundreds of the noble sons of the old Keystone State are coming into the ranks of our regiments now being organized, and going through with the regular drill and school of the soldier, knowing that the day is not far distant when duty will demand efficient service at their hands, in behalf of the slave. Whether government sanctions it or not, God will.

Respectfully, yours,

A. M. GREEN.