THE COLORED TROOP.
The object of the Government, in the case of commandants of colored troops, was to secure officers of acknowledged military talent, experience, and unexceptionably good moral character. It therefore instituted the Examining Board for Officers, under the Presidency of General Casey. The officers assigned to commands in this service, entered upon the duties of their respective positions in this regular way. Many of them advanced, battle-scarred, step by step from the ranks. Some were previously connected with the regular army, and others with the volunteer forces. Their ability, bravery and gentlemanly character, in the strictest sense, produced a happy effect upon the troop. When it is considered that in the face of threatenings of a merciless death by the Rebels, should the fortunes of war place them in their hands, and against a current of prejudice, extant almost everywhere, and the whispered doubts and fears even of friends to the cause, they assumed command of this troop in its experimental state, and led it on to victory; their high-toned and unselfish patriotism, in this respect, is only equaled by the bravery and gallantry of their services. They are also the fit witnesses of the endurance, efficiency and bravery of the troop as attested on the field, and their susceptibility of true progress in intellectual culture. This troop in military discipline and efficiency bore a very favorable comparison with any other. Their standard was not simply passable, but excellent. In battle they were remarkable for their great coolness and courage. The school system inaugurated for their benefit, and which was conducted in many commands, in the camp and on the field, in its result was a decided refutation to the argument, that this race could not be improved.
Now, however, by more than sixty thousand sons of Liberty, of African descent, than whom none other fought with greater gallantry, numbered with the patriot dead, and by the many thousand heroic survivors, whose maimed bodies and torn and tattered battle flags, tell how fields were won, what is enjoined on the Nation? This fact alone forbids that any vestige of the former state of the oppression of this race should remain. It requires another positive duty. What are Freedmen without citizenship? Some doubt that they have sufficient knowledge to participate in this right. The presumptive judges, with their emissaries, who have forfeited this right to themselves, and are also culprits, blamable and guilty for any lack of such knowledge, in the case of this loyal race, entertain the doubt; and their weak faith cannot truly be shrouded in deeper uncertainty than that of every intelligent patriot, who contemplates the true exercise of the right of suffrage and representation by those whose hands are yet red with the blood of our noble slain. It is also said the liberated race, in their new relation, will not prove themselves industrious citizens. This argument by the indolent drones of the States in rebellion, and whose very sustenance was derived from the unpaid toil of this people, turns upon them with a peculiar reactionary force. We doubt not, it will be an easier task to elevate to a degree of intelligence, virtue and industry, and to imbue with the spirit of our Institutions as worthy citizens these Freedmen, thousands of whom pressed forward to the support of the Government, in the dark period of our country's history, than by any process of legislation that cleanses only the outside of the platter, to attempt to infuse loyalty into the hearts of those lately in armed rebellion, and in the name of the public peace, and in honor to Republican Liberty, to admit the Catalines and Judas Iscariots to the Senate and Congress of the United States. In a disregard of justice to the memory of our patriot dead, white and colored, such legislation would be worse than treason. No man, who voluntarily raised his hand against the flag, upheld by our patriot martyrs in the field, should ever participate in our legislation. If the Republic will be true to itself, it must and will be also to those who were, and are so eminently true to it. Punish treason, and reward loyalty.
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.
The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain.