As the fear of the British, as an outside pressure, drove, and for a time kept and held the Union together, so will the fear of the loss of liberty and their political status, as an element in this great nation, serve as the outside pressure necessary to secure the fidelity of the blacks to the Union. And this fidelity, unlike that of the rebels, need never be mistrusted; because, unlike them, the blacks have before them the proofs of the power and ability of the Union to maintain unsullied the prestige of the national integrity, even were they, like them, traitorously disposed to destroy their country, or see it usurped by foreign nations.
This, sir, seems to me conclusive, and is the main point upon which I base my argument against the contingency of a future dissolution of the American Union, and in favor of its security.
I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
M. R. Delany,
Major 104th U. S. C. T.
Port Royal Island, S. C., July 25, 1866.
On another occasion from his island post he stood an interested listener to the sounds which the breeze bore up to him, telling of the plans of reconstruction towards the Southern States. Impatient, he watched for the action of the leaders of colored people themselves on this momentous question, but as yet saw no evidence of it.
In his position as an officer in the service of the government, and a civil magistrate, as all officers of the Bureau necessarily are, he was contributing a giant’s help to the cause, which, in view of the limited sphere apportioned his race, rendered him an invaluable auxiliary.
The political horizon had suddenly become overcast; the rôle of the executive was changed to that of Pharaoh instead of “Moses,” and he beheld with joy the general uprising of the colored people in their strength to avert the threatening ruin.
It was an occasion long to be remembered, and suggestive of a moral which should not be lost sight of by the American people. They sent from every section of the Union delegated representatives of their own race to the national capital, near the government, to “lobby” for their claims in the great American body politic, as at this time these claims were fast being evaded, if not actually ignored.
It is not yet forgotten the visit of the delegates to the president; his remarks on the occasion, with the advice to place their cause before the people; or the able manner in which the noble Douglass replied to him, and the subsequent ringing appeal which he made resound through the land to reach the people.