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.
