To assure you of the sincerity of my intentions, and my anxiety to engage your invaluable services to our country, I have communicated my wishes to the Governor of Louisiana, who is fully informed as to the manner of enrollment, and will give you every necessary information on the subject of this address.
Andrew Jackson, Major-General Commanding.
[Niles Register, vol. vii. p. 205.]
When the news of Gen. Jackson arming the free negroes reached the North it created no little surprise, and greatly encouraged those, who, from the commencement of hostilities, had advocated it. The successes of the summer were being obliterated by the victories which the British were achieving. The national capitol was burned; Maine had virtually fallen into their hands; gloom and disappointment prevailed throughout the country. Enlistment was at a stand-still, and as the British were threatening with annihilation the few troops then in the field, it became evident that the States would have to look to their own defence. New York again turned her attention to her free negro population; a bill was prepared and introduced in the legislature looking to the arming of her negroes, and in October, a month after Gen. Jackson issued his appeal to the negroes of Louisiana, the Legislature passed a bill of which the following are the most important sections:
"An Act to authorize the raising of Two Regiments of Men of Color; passed Oct. 24, 1814.
"Sect. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That the Governor of the State be, and he is hereby authorized to raise, by voluntary enlistment, two regiments of free men of color, for the defence of the State for three years, unless sooner discharged.
"Sect. 2. And be it further enacted, That each of the said regiments shall consist of one thousand and eighty able-bodied men; and the said regiments shall be formed into a brigade, or be organized in such manner, and shall be employed in such service, as the Governor of the State of New York shall deem best adapted to defend the said State.
"Sect. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the commissioned officers of the said regiments and brigade shall be white men; and the Governor of the State of New York shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to commission, by brevet, all the officers of the said regiments and brigade, who shall hold their respective commissions until the council of appointment shall have appointed the officers of the said regiments and brigade, in pursuance of the Constitution and laws of the said State.
"Sect. 6. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for any able-bodied slave, with the written assent of his master or mistress, to enlist into the said corps; and the master or mistress of such slave shall be entitled to the pay and bounty allowed him for his service: and, further, that the said slave, at the time of receiving his discharge, shall be deemed and adjudged to have been legally manumitted from that time, and his said master or mistress shall not thenceforward be liable for his maintenance.—Laws of the State of New York, passed at the Thirty-eighth Session of the Legislature, chap. xviii."
The organization of negro troops was now fairly begun; at the South enlistment was confined to the free negroes as set forth in Gen. Jackson's Proclamation. In New York, the slaves who should enlist with the consent of their owners were to be free at the expiration of their service, as provided in the Sixth section of the law quoted above.