Part 1

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LETTERS AND DISCUSSIONS ON THE FORMATION OF COLORED REGIMENTS

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.

PHILADELPHIA: RINGWALT & BROWN, STEAM POWER PRINTERS, 111 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, 1862.

At the beginning of the great struggle between the Government of the United States and the traitors who lifted their hands against it, I sought the oracles of history for a precedent; and, having easily found it, before uttering a single sentence as to its influence or results upon the great question of slavery in America, I carefully scanned and surveyed the whole question or ground upon which the issue rested. By the fairest rules of comparison and analogy, I found it impossible to separate slavery extension, or the nationalization of this vilest of evils, from the purpose of the arch traitors as their avowed object, and the determination on the part of slaveholders to exercise unlimited power over their dejected victims of the African race as their leading object and the mainspring of the rebellion. Then, having followed history by the same rules of comparison and analogy, it was not very difficult for me to decide as to our duty. Nor have I ever seen anything written, spoken, or performed by the government—its agents—by my abolition friends and associates—or by the conservative Democracy of our land—which has given me occasion to change my opinion.

I have not a doubt at this hour, but that my hopes on the one hand, and my fears on the other, may both yet be realized. A careful reading of the following pages will clearly develop in what these hopes and fears consist. My friends, who ask me from time to time what I think of the present aspect of affairs, may learn from these pages that I am still sanguine of the success of our cause as the result. Still, much depends upon our own exertions as to the character and quality of freedom, suffrage or the enfranchisement that we may enjoy.

Having written much upon the subject, I have been induced to throw together some scraps of arguments offered in reply to the opposition I have met in regard to my opinions, &c.

The first two articles in this pamphlet may be justly styled the foundation of all discussion upon the questions presented. They were met and opposed by white and colored men, while many others of all parties gave my views support. After discussing the question through the columns of the _Pine and Palm_ with my anti-slavery coadjutors, I met and discussed it before the Church Anti-Slavery Society of this city on the second Tuesday in September, 1861. A short report of said debate appearing in the _Anglo-African_, drew forth the vigorous discussion through the columns of that journal from which the body of this pamphlet is made up.

I have several lectures and a poem on this same subject, entering more minutely upon the details of the war and its results, which I have delivered with great success and which I now propose, at the suggestion of friends, to lay before the public for perusal at their leisure.

A. M. GREEN.

THE COLORED PHILADELPHIANS FORMING REGIMENTS.

From the Philadelphia Press, of April 22, 1861.

A number of prominent colored men are now raising two regiments at the Masonic Hall, in South Eleventh street, and hundreds of brawny ebony men are ready to fill up the ranks if the State will accept their services. Peril and war blot out all distinction of race and rank. These colored soldiers should be attached to the Home Guard. They will make Herculean defenders. Colored men, it will be remembered, fought the glorious battle of Red Bank, when the city was in peril in 1777. The following is the address:

The time has arrived in the history of the great Republic when we may again give evidence to the world of the bravery and patriotism of a race, in whose hearts burns the love of country, of freedom, and of civil and religious toleration. It is these grand principles that enable men, however proscribed, when possessed of true patriotism, to say: “My country, right or wrong, I love thee still!”

It is true, the brave deeds of our fathers, sworn and subscribed to by the immortal Washington of the Revolution of 1776, and of Jackson and others, in the War of 1812, have failed to bring us into recognition as citizens, enjoying those rights so dearly bought by those noble and patriotic sires.

It is true, that our injuries in many respects are great; fugitive-slave laws, Dred Scott decisions, indictments for treason, and long and dreary months of imprisonment. The result of the most unfair rules of judicial investigation has been the pay we have received for our solicitude, sympathy, and aid in the dangers and difficulties of those “days that tried men’s souls.”

Our duty, brethren, is not to cavil over past grievances. Let us not be derelict to duty in the time of need. While we remember the past, and regret that our present position in the country is not such as to create within us that burning zeal and enthusiasm for the field of battle, which inspires other men in the full enjoyment of every civil and religious emolument, yet let us endeavor to hope for the future, and improve the present auspicious moment for creating anew our claims upon the justice and honor of the Republic; and, above all, let not the honor and glory achieved by our fathers be blasted or sullied by a want of true heroism among their sons. Let us, then, take up the sword, trusting in God, who will defend the right, remembering that these are other days than those of yore—that the world to-day is on the side of freedom and universal political equality.

That the war-cry of the howling leaders of Secession and treason is, let us drive back the advance guard of civil and religious freedom; let us have more slave territory; let us build stronger the tyrant system of slavery in the great American Republic. Remember, too, that your very presence among the troops of the North would inspire your oppressed brethren of the South with zeal for the overthrow of the tyrant system, and confidence in the armies of the living God—the God of truth, justice, and equality to all men.

With a knowledge of your zeal and patriotism, and a hope of its early development, I am yours, for God and humanity,

A. M. GREEN.

PHILADELPHIA, April 20, 1861.

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.

MEETING OF THE CHURCH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

From the Anglo-African, September, 1861.

The regular monthly meeting of the Church Anti-Slavery Society was held on Tuesday evening, September 10th, at the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Cherry street, east of Eleventh. The meeting was considerably larger than usual, which, of course, during these times, is ominous of good to our cause. Another very important item is the fact that the meeting was largely interspersed with the leading and representative families of color belonging to this city. Our people have long been derelict to duty and interest in this direction, but it is hoped that war—this great purifier and refiner’s fire of this as well as every other age—will eventually bring us up to the standard of true elevation.

Wm. S. Young, Esq., was called to the chair, by the temporary absence of the Rev. Dr. Church, the regular chairman. The Rev. Mr. Johnston, of the Old School Presbyterian Church, as I was informed, opened the meeting with prayer.

A note was then read from the Chairman (Rev. Dr. Church,) expressive of his regret for unavoidable absence, and expressing the desire that the meeting might be favored with the best consequences, &c.

By reading the minutes of the last meeting it occurred that, agreeably to announcement, Prof. A. M. Green had been invited to address the meeting on the Duty of the Colored People of the North in Relation to the Great Rebellion. At eight o’clock Mr. Green was introduced, and proceeded with great ability to reason not only the propriety but the practical necessity of colored men taking an active part in this war, against the aggressive power of the mighty dragon of the nineteenth century, American slavery. Mr. Green argued that, viewed from whatever stand-point, every honest man must conclude that this war is one that has been inaugurated by the labors of abolitionists and anti-slavery men, in a moral contest against this great evil; men have avowed it to be their purpose to bring the two elements to a hand-to-hand struggle; the efforts of our party for thirty years have been to array the North against the South on this question of slavery. And though the government denies the responsibility to be incurred by acknowledging the true issue, yet it also denies that it had any thing to do with inaugurating it. It is just as emphatically true that the government cannot control the issue involved in this war, as it is true that it could not for thirty years control the moral conflict kept up on this same question. It was our duty from very many considerations, elaborately presented by Mr. Green, to bear an honorable part in the great contest.

When Mr. Green closed, an opportunity was afforded for any remarks that might be offered on the question of the evening. A white gentleman present, whose name I learned at the time, but have since forgotten, took the floor, and strongly opposed Mr. Green’s position. He claimed that the government was even worse, if possible, than ever it was, for now that it could justly, by availing itself of the war power, emancipate every slave in the South, yet instead of doing so, it fled from it as a man would flee from deadly poison. He said he had neither sympathy nor faith in the government; and until the war-making power became honest enough to emancipate, enfranchise, and wash its hands of the injustice done to black men in the country, it was not fit for Christian men, white or colored, but more especially the latter, to touch, taste or handle. The gentleman argued in this strain at some length. Mr. Isaiah C. Wears was called on, and in his usual very forcible manner dissented from Mr. Green. He made many allusions to the meanness of the government, and thought men would fall like sheep; that colored men could not be spared at such a time, and in such a cause. He said the South were more practically a fighting people than the North; that they were undoubtedly the superiors of the Northern whites in this respect, and the Northern whites were our superiors as much as the South was theirs; it could readily be perceived that we were, therefore, of all people the least prepared to go into this great slaughter-house of the government. He agreed, however, with many points Mr. Green had raised, and was pleased with his treatment of the subject; he believed this would be a long war, and that no doubt thousands of colored men would see service in this war before rebellion was put down. Several other gentlemen, white and colored, participated on both sides of the question, which kept up quite a friendly and spirited meeting till a late hour of the evening. Just before adjournment, Mr. Green arose and said, he had taken the main points suggested by those who expressed themselves as opposed to his position, and he was willing to give them the consideration they deserved. But he said his opponents admitted too much that was argument for him; he said:

1. They had admitted it was a war between North and South.

2. That these two sections were naturally at war on the slavery question.

3. That the South openly admitted that she was fighting for the uninterrupted extension of the slavery power.

4. That they (the South) were the best fighters.

5. That we, the colored people, were the poorest fighters of either of the disputants.

6. That it would probably be a long war, and we would be called into it after a while.