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-                HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Title: Historical Romance of the American Negro
-
-Author: Charles H. Fowler, M. D.
-
-Release Date: February 05, 2011 [EBook #35189]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: US-ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE
-AMERICAN NEGRO ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
-at http://www.pgdp.net.
-
-This file was produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive/American Libraries.
-
-HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO
-
-BY
-
-CHARLES H. FOWLER, M. D.
-
-PRESS OF THOMAS & EVANS,
-
-604-608 Water Street,
-
-BALTIMORE.
-
-_1902._
-
-Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1902, by
-
-CHARLES H. FOWLER, M. D.,
-
-In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
-
-
-
-
---TABLE OF CONTENTS--
-
-
-  - PREFACE.
-  - INTRODUCTORY.
-  - CHAPTER I.
-  - CHAPTER II.
-  - CHAPTER III.
-  - CHAPTER IV.
-  - CHAPTER V.
-  - CHAPTER VI.
-  - CHAPTER VII.
-  - CHAPTER VIII.
-  - CHAPTER IX.
-  - CHAPTER X.
-  - CHAPTER XI.
-  - CHAPTER XII.
-  - CHAPTER XIII.
-  - CHAPTER XIV.
-  - CHAPTER XV.
-  - CHAPTER XVI.
-  - CHAPTER XVII.
-  - CHAPTER XVIII.
-  - CHAPTER XIX.
-  - CHAPTER XX.
-  - CHAPTER XXI.
-  - THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR--I.
-  - THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR--II.
-  - BLACKS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND IN 1812.
-  - "NICK" BIDDLE.
-  - COLOR IS NO BAR TO OFFICE.
-
---*ILLUSTRATIONS*--
-
-Respectfully yours--Charles H. Fowler M. D. A. M.
-BEULAH JACKSON.
-THE ESCAPE.
-SCENES IN NEW ORLEANS.
-SCENES IN BUFFALO.
-ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
-BATTLE OF MILLIKEN'S BEND.
-BATTLE OF PORT HUDSON.
-JOHN BROWN.
-FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
-MISSISSIPPI RIVER STEAMER.
-A SCENE ON THE JACKSON PLANTATION.
-SCENES AT NIAGARA FALLS.
-COTTON PICKING.
-A RELIC OF SLAVERY DAYS.
-MR. JACKSON.
-HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED.
-EMANCIPATION STATUE BOSTON, MASS.
-HAULING COTTON TO THE GIN.
-FIRST READING EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
-DE SOTO DISCOVERING MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
-IN DANGER OF THE OVERSEER'S LASH.
-JAMES A. GARFIELD.
-RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
-CHAS. SUMNER.
-WM. LLOYD GARRISON.
-FRED'K DOUGLASS, ROCHESTER, N. Y.
-SOUTHERN CHIVALRY--ARGUMENT VERSUS CLUB'S.
-STATUE OF LIBERTY.
-GRANT'S TOMB.
-DICKENS' OLD CURIOSITY SHOP.
-TOWER OF LONDON.
-GEN. ANTONIO MACEO.
-THE DEFENSE OF SANTIAGO.
-BATTLE OF SAN JUAN HILL.
-COLORED SOLDIERS AND MUSICIANS.
-SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
-THE BOSTON MASSACRE.
-THE GRAVE OF NICK BIDDLE.
-THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-[Illustration: _Respectfully yours--Charles H. Fowler M. D. A. M._]
-
-
-For a number of years it has been on my mind to write a book regarding
-the principal events that have occurred to the colored race since the
-beginning of the agitation against slavery, going on from thence to the
-great Rebellion, passing through that war, and also dealing with all
-subjects of great importance that have arrested our attention under our
-glorious freedom.
-
-At the same time it has occurred to me, as it has to many another
-writer, that my book would be far more interesting to the general
-reader, if I were to select a representative woman of our own race, and
-make her the mouthpiece of all I wished to say; in other words, to
-introduce the whole under the pleasing form of an historical romance, so
-that we might keep our heroine constantly before our eyes, and make her
-weave in a continuous tale of love, travel, war and peace, and thus
-portray the lady playing her own parts on that tremendous stage of Time
-that has been set forth for the gaze and astonishment of the whole
-country during the past fifty years. I hope those members of the general
-public who favor me by a perusal of my book will be pleased with my
-plan.
-
-"Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war," and I have
-introduced into my book all the great advances that our race has made
-since the fall of Richmond, and, indeed, have brought things down to
-this year. The reader will find a number of things that are intended to
-introduce humor, and to brighten the darker portions of the story.
-
-And as some fault-finding person may say that I have overdrawn my
-heroine, and made her far more clever than she could ever have naturally
-been, I venture to affirm that such a charge can by no means be just,
-for we have women among us, and men, too, who are as intelligent and
-clever as can be found among any other race on the face of the earth. I
-believe my book will prove the truth of this assertion in those cases,
-at least, where the heroines and heroes of the colored race are
-mentioned in its pages by name.
-
-Beulah Jackson will therefore stand as a representative woman among our
-own people.
-
-CHARLES H. FOWLER.
-
-Baltimore, Md., 1902.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTORY.
-
-
-In this period of the Negro's development so much has been wielded
-towards influencing him in the expression of manly sentiment, that when
-an unhampered and heartfelt defense is made in his behalf by one of his
-number, it should, and I believe will, secure a universal support by the
-defenders.
-
-The eagerness to devour books is so prevalent in the present decade that
-the Anglo-Saxon litterateurs and publishers endeavor to withhold and
-suppress all that tends to prove the Negro a man and an equal, patting
-all of their writers and molders of public opinion on the back, who are
-cringing and palliating with the deceitful exclamation, "Behold, thee!
-thou art great!" The desire to secure this cowardly approbation has,
-indeed, become too numerous. Learned men, with ability to withhold the
-sentiments of their hearts and people, have too frequently sold the
-golden opportunities of their lives for paltry sums and positions to
-these literary hawks. But few of the public speakers and writers of
-these times dare utter the thoughts of Douglass, Turner, Price, Garnett,
-and that grand galaxy of post-bellum fighters, who knew no middle
-ground, but stood out for all that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
-Amendments to the Constitution had embodied in them. They had no axe to
-grind, and even so, their oppressed feelings wouldn't permit them have
-it ground at the expense of the manhood of their four million brothers.
-
-It is high time that the Negro judge whose utterances are fitting and
-suitable to his case, who stands for his utterances, and which have his
-sanction, not to allow those hostile to your very existence select,
-under the guise of friendship, those sentiments put forth by
-aggrandizing writers and leaders distasteful to you, and brand them as
-your daily thoughts and hourly prayers. Respect for the sycophant cannot
-exist long, even among them whom he traitorously serves. A tree is
-judged by its fruit; so is a race judged by its representative men. If
-they be honest, the race is placed in the category of men; if wicked,
-treacherous and deceitful, their place is fixed among the distrustful.
-
-
-[Illustration: _BEULAH JACKSON._]
-
-
-It therefore becomes a small part for us to perform in signalizing the
-honest writer and leader by giving him our unanimous support. The author
-has spent months of effort and toil in compiling data and accounts, that
-Caucasian authors with alertness suppress. He has made a strong case and
-defense of the Negro's manhood and trustworthiness at a time when most
-men would have been honest with pain. The simplicity with which his data
-is compiled and presented to the reader stamps him neither in quest of
-gold or greatness, but striving to convince the ignorant that heroes and
-heroines can even be found among this despised race of America, whom
-some would brand as rapists and thieves. A tale is welded together in
-which every experience, occurrence and stage is passed through that can
-occur to a poor, struggling people; yet, no instance presents itself by
-which the character, the basal part of any people, can be impeached.
-'Twill serve as a firer of the ambition and aspirations of the young
-Negro, and at the same time, so thrilling are its narratives, that
-'twill prove as interesting reading matter as many a romance. The
-eagerness with which our youth devour such tales as relates the better
-side of his ancestry's life, is too well known to us. The story of
-Beulah Jackson will fill a long-felt niche in the young Negro's reading
-matter, that will in itself prove highly beneficial.
-
-JACOB NICHOLSON.
-
-HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-
-Though this is the year of grace, just forty-seven years after the date
-when my adventurous story begins, my recollections of that bright
-morning in May, 1855, when I arose and at one bound broke loose from
-slavery, are as vivid as the lightning's flash. "A still tongue makes a
-wise head," and so I held my tongue and bided my time until I made at
-last that successful spring. And never do I behold the glorious sun
-rising over the hills and forests but the joyous recollection of that
-Wednesday morning in May comes back to me, like the rebounding reaction
-of the bow that is unbent.
-
-I was born in the State of Kentucky, a few miles below Louisville, where
-my father's mansion stood on one of those sloping hills that faces the
-river Ohio, which the French named with justice, the "Beautiful River."
-That mansion, with all its splendid surroundings, belonged to my father
-and owner, a white man named Lemuel Jackson; but my own mother, a woman
-of uncommon beauty, belonged to the colored race. My mother, for some
-cause or other, was sold down the river in New Orleans, in the year
-1853, when I was but fifteen years of age. I never got over that sudden
-separation, and I at once formed my own resolutions, of which I said
-nothing.
-
-As my father was a rich man, who indulged me in many ways and appeared
-to love me, and as I often had occasion to accompany him and Mrs.
-Jackson, or some of the other members of the family, to Louisville, he
-seldom refused to give me the cash I asked for, which I now began to
-carefully put away in a secret place only known to the Lord and myself.
-Two eventful years had passed away. I had by this time discovered the
-whereabouts of my mother, Harriet, in New Orleans, and my hopes of
-meeting her again grew stronger every day as the time approached for me
-to kick off the detested chains of slavery. For the coming of this happy
-deliverance I prayed to my good Lord both day and night.
-
-At last that day dawned upon me, the spring-time of all my joys. The
-Lord heard my prayers, and He cleared the way to freedom. There was to
-be a big church gathering at Louisville, and the first session of that
-great time was to be on Wednesday morning--the first Wednesday in the
-month, as I very well remember, indeed.
-
-The bishop and his wife, who were invited guests to our house, had
-arrived the day before. They were to spend the night with us, and all
-things breathed religion and excitement over the events of the morrow
-and the rest of the week to come.
-
-Among the inmates of the house was one Tom, whom I was accustomed to
-call, Tom Lincoln--a tall, splendid young man, a shade darker in
-complexion than myself, and, like myself, a slave. Tom was now
-twenty-seven years old. He had been casting "sheep's eyes" at me for
-several years past, but who could think of marriage whilst in a state of
-slavery? Therefore I gave him no encouragement, but as he was thoroughly
-reliable, I said to him one day in strict confidence, and in the most
-significant manner possible, "I will talk to you about that when we are
-free. While in a state of slavery it is a mockery to profane the names
-of love, courtship and marriage. I will never, so help me God, be
-married in the house of bondage!"
-
-Tom Lincoln was a clever fellow, a general factotum, and acquainted with
-everything about the house. He was always relied on, and the great
-house, as it was called, would be left in his charge while the family
-and the upper servants attended the gathering at Louisville. Soon after
-the bishop and his wife arrived, I called Tom aside and laid before him
-my whole plan, which had been well formed for some time past in my mind.
-
-"Capital!" said he, slapping his knee with his big hand. "Capital,
-indeed! Strike when the iron is hot, and kill chickens when they are
-fat! But, Beulah, will you marry me then?"
-
-"Yes, with pleasure, when we are free from the chains of slavery."
-
-When I gave Tom that answer his eyes flashed bright as the stars on a
-frosty night, and mine, no doubt, flashed back in a reflected lustre.
-
-"All right," said he, and then, after some thought, he added: "Get your
-trunk ready by ten o'clock to-morrow morning, as all things will be in
-readiness by that time. Beulah, I will be a bondman no longer. Just
-think of it. Twenty-seven years old, and a slave!"
-
-"That's right, Tom; stick to it! Minds are never to be sold! Stick to
-it!" was my instant reply.
-
-With immediate freedom and all its joys before him, the brave Tom did
-not let much grass grow under his feet. We kept a boat near the house,
-and although not an expert oarsman, he knew enough to handle it when
-called upon. In the darkness and silence of Tuesday night, he slipped
-over to the other side of the stream, then made his way for a mile or
-two down the Indiana side, where he ran the boat up a creek, near which
-stood a little cabin in which some acquaintances of his lived. He
-confided his secret to his friends, and as the man of the house kept a
-horse and wagon, the latter consented to convey our trunks to the house
-of a mutual friend in New Albany next morning. Then leaving this cabin
-and the boat tied up in the creek, Tom made his way to New Albany on
-foot, where his mission was also successful. With these preliminary
-preparations, he returned to the great house in safety, and it was never
-known that he had so much as been out of his own room! Of course there
-was some risk to run, but who would not dare all for freedom?
-
-As for that anxious Tuesday night, my excitement was such that I never
-slept a wink. I thought much of a similarly planned and quite successful
-dash for freedom that took place shortly before this near our place. A
-girl of fifteen and her brother, twelve years of age, were left alone
-one day to take care of the house while all the white people had gone
-away. They never suspected anything so unusual from a girl of fifteen,
-especially as she was mild and quiet.
-
-But after they had gone, Muriel called her brother Willy, and said,
-
-"Willie, do you see that boat? We are nothing but slaves, and yonder
-across the river lies Indiana--a free State. Master keeps money in the
-bureau, and I will burst it open and take what will carry you and me on
-the train to a place of safety and freedom. Let us take clothes along
-with us, and whatever we need. This is no robbery. It belongs to us by
-right, for slavery is nothing but a system of robbery, anyhow."
-
-So Muriel and Willy crossed the Ohio river in the open day, walked to
-the nearest railway station, took a train for the North, and speedily
-arrived in a land where they were slaves no longer.
-
-The longest night comes to an end, and the morning of that
-never-to-be-forgotten Wednesday in May brought lovely weather, lots of
-fine prayers from the bishop, and an immense show of devotion from Mrs.
-Jackson, the woman who caused my precious mother to be sent down to New
-Orleans. There was a grand breakfast at the big house, and, as usual, I
-figured like a flower girl at a wedding. I did my best to keep down my
-excitement, but, indeed, it would never have been noticed that morning,
-such was the stir on the account of our visitors and the coming glorious
-gathering of the "saints" at Louisville.
-
-Horses and carriages, and all the rest of our rich display soon hove
-into sight, and in due time the coast was clear for Tom and me to strike
-for freedom. We packed two large leather trunks that had long done
-service on the steamboats and railways of the sunny South.
-
-We had clothing enough to put us through for a long time to come, both
-summer and winter. Tom being a big and powerful man, soon carried the
-trunks down to the boat, without exciting any undue suspicion among the
-few old folks and children about the house. It was wonderful, under the
-circumstances, to see him so cool and circumspect.
-
-Tom heaped up some sacking and other things upon the trunks to give the
-whole the appearance of a trading skiff, and as the wind was blowing in
-the right direction, he put up a little sail.
-
-To still further avoid unwelcome attentions, I insisted on lying flat on
-the bottom of the boat, and being covered with sacking (the Fugitive
-Slave Law was in force now, and the sleuth hounds of slavery might be
-upon our trail). At last the boat was cast loose and headed for a little
-ways down the Kentucky shore. Then my adventurous pilot crossed to the
-Indiana side, and concealed our little craft behind a string of barges
-floating down the Ohio. Several steamboats came puffing and blowing up
-the stream, and so, amid the general turmoil and confusion, we slipped
-into the little creek, ran our boat under the bushes, and in a short
-time had our trunks and belongings safe inside the cabin of our friends.
-O praise ye the Lord! for His mercy endureth forever! We had completed
-our first step towards liberty!
-
-
-[Illustration: _THE ESCAPE._]
-
-
-Our good friend next got out his horse and wagon, our trunks and things
-were speedily flung in, and he took his way alone for New Albany. After
-I had made many promises to write, and given a thousand thanks, I
-started for the place of meeting, and my gallant Tom brought up the rear
-at a safe distance. Of course, we were now in a free State, but Kentucky
-still lay in full view of us.
-
-One by one we arrived at the appointed number and street in New Albany,
-and here we dressed for the immediate journey by rail. Having blessed
-one another, and made many promises to write to these friends also, we
-hurriedly betook ourselves to the station. Tom marched up to the ticket
-office, two tickets were quickly secured, and at last the supreme moment
-of happiness arrived when we took our seats for the far-famed city of
-Cincinnati. I have seen many horses in my time, and mules like the sands
-of the sea, in my native State of Kentucky, but the nicest, dearest,
-most lamb-like and sweetest horse I ever saw in all my life was that
-strong, iron horse named "Steam Engine," that stood ready in the station
-waiting for the command to start.
-
-We were now in the carriage: it was just twelve o'clock, and the
-glorious free sun shone down upon us. The train began to move, and when
-it did so, I felt as though I would faint for very joy. I don't believe
-that Tom was any better than myself, the transition from slavery to
-happiness came with such a rush. But, then, I was only a sensitive young
-woman of seventeen, whereas Tom was an experienced man ten years my
-senior, and, in appearance, at least, he managed to bear things with
-more composure than did I. As our train rushed along through the
-beautiful land, all adorned with the thousand beauties of the pleasant
-month of May, all things looked to me like consecutive scenes in a new
-paradise, as when we look through rose-colored glasses all things are
-colored like the rose. The winds played, the sun shone brightly, and all
-nature's face was gay, and as our mighty iron steed sped along in his
-vigor. Tom and I talked but little. The time for talking would come
-another day, never fear! In truth, we were too happy to talk.
-
-The afternoon wore on, and we crossed the Indiana State line and entered
-Ohio, the sight of which gave our eyes the most unbounded pleasure. On,
-on, sped our devoted iron horse, until at last he came to the end of his
-race in the beautiful city of Cincinnati. When we two fugitives from the
-land of slavery stepped on the platform here, all safe and sound, we
-were reminded of a ship entering, after many risks in the voyages of
-life, the port of Heaven, with all sails spread, and never an injured
-plank. I looked across the "beautiful river," and beheld the hills of my
-native State coming down to the water's edge, and laving their feet in
-the cooling waves. An immense traffic was rolling down, down, down to
-the Mississippi and the Gulf States, and everything was hum and bustle.
-
-Thus I stood musing at the top of one of the steep streets that run down
-to the Ohio river, while Tom nearby entered into some serious
-conversation with a gentleman. At last he came back to me and said,
-
-"Beulah, let us go this way."
-
-After walking for some time we found the right address, the home of the
-Rev. John Robinson, a minister of the A. M. E. Church. In the most
-polite manner possible we were asked in, and invited into the parlor.
-Mr. Robinson, a jolly, fat-faced, pleasant-looking Reverend, was on hand
-at once. Tom told him the main points of our history in a few minutes,
-and finished by requesting him to marry us any time that night.
-
-When the question arose as to whether the marriage should be performed
-in private or public, I insisted on it being done as publicly as
-possible, and that a newspaper reporter should be called in, too.
-
-Now, as good luck would have it, there was to be a great gathering at
-the Methodist Church that night, so it was decided that the wedding
-should take place an hour after the meeting commenced. Mrs. Robinson and
-the entire family were now called into the parlor, when we were all
-introduced to one another, and there was a mighty season of rejoicing.
-Tea was prepared, and we adjourned to the dining-room.
-
-In the meantime some of the friends and neighbors were sent for, a
-reporter was notified, and the news of our safe arrival and prospective
-marriage spread like wildfire throughout the good city of Cincinnati.
-The ladies, both white and colored, were tremendously interested in my
-case. They lavished attentions upon me, and caressed me to such an
-extent that I was afraid I would faint!
-
-In due time, however, we took up our grand march to the church, and here
-I will give the account of our wedding as it appeared next morning in
-the Cincinnati News:
-
-"WEDDING AT THE A. M. E. CHURCH.
-
-"Last night we were called in to witness a happy wedding, which reminded
-us of that of Jacob and Rachel. The contracting parties were Mr. Thomas
-Lincoln and Miss Beulah Jackson.
-
-"This Thomas Lincoln, aged twenty-seven, a fine, tall young man, was
-formerly the house steward and general factotum of Lemuel Jackson, Esq.,
-of Riverside Hall, below Louisville, Ky. The beautiful
-seventeen-year-old bride is the daughter of Mr. Jackson himself, by one
-Harriet, a slave woman of many graces, whom Mrs. Jackson two years ago,
-through jealousy, caused to be sold to New Orleans.
-
-"Miss Beulah was indeed 'a bride adorned for her husband,' and the
-ladies had her duly arrayed in orange blossoms and the regulation
-wedding costume. 'The Flower Girl of Riverside Hall,' as she has been
-often called, it seems, carried a beautiful bouquet. The church was
-filled to suffocation, and the interest in the ceremony was intense.
-
-"After the knot was tied, a gentleman advanced to the front, placed a
-five-dollar bill on the table, and called for a wedding present 'for
-these two ex-slaves from the State of Kentucky.' The call was readily
-responded to, and a good sum was contributed. The young couple passed
-the night at the home of the Rev. Mr. Robinson, who performed the
-ceremony. They leave this morning for Columbus, Ohio, and points beyond.
-Lincoln stated that he could have left Kentucky at almost any time, but
-remained until he could find an opportunity to assist in the escape of
-the girl.
-
-"As the immense assemblage at the A. M. E. Church looked upon this
-splendid couple, all hearts were filled with compassion to think that
-the South should call such men and women 'goods and chattels.' It was
-the outspoken opinion that a day of reckoning is coming; a day of war, a
-holy war, sent by God Himself, that will end this system of robbery and
-oppression."
-
-I bought several copies of the paper that contained the account of our
-wedding, and posted one to Riverside Hall, one to our friends at New
-Albany, and another to our benefactors in the little cabin by the creek.
-Next morning at breakfast the fun was delightful, and I was obliged to
-laugh when Mrs. Robinson called me "The flower girl of Riverside Hall."
-Breakfast over, our host and hostess insisted on accompanying us to the
-station to see us off, and here we took leave of our kind friends, whom
-we felt that we could never thank enough.
-
-As we steamed away for Columbus, all things were still new and
-delightful, and I never tired of beholding the fair face of nature as
-our train wound along the banks of the Little Miami. I was immensely
-pleased with the beautiful State of Ohio, its fine churches along the
-way, its fair and fertile farms, and all its magnificent forest-clad
-hills. In due time we arrived at Columbus, the State capital, and were
-much impressed with the beauty of the sweet little city.
-
-We continued our journey on through Ohio until we crossed into
-Pennsylvania, by the shores of Lake Erie, that flowed away towards
-Canada like a little inland sea. Thus we continued on to Buffalo, New
-York, where we left the train. Here we determined to settle down, at
-least for some time. For a few days we put up at a friend's house, for
-we were both very much fatigued, indeed, with our long journey and its
-incidental bustle and confusion. I was only seventeen years old at this
-time, the most romantic age of a woman's life--or rather she is standing
-on the borderland with girlhood just behind her, and all the joys of
-womanhood and matrimony just before. Anticipation invests all things
-with the glories of the rainbow. It is certainly a good time to get
-married, for then a girl's nature is soft and pliable, and she has had
-neither time nor opportunity to become possessed of cast-iron ways of
-her own.
-
-During the few days that we were resting ourselves we became acquainted
-with a few most worthy colored families who belonged to the A. M. E.
-Church on Vine street, as good and loving a congregation as I have found
-up to this year. God bless that loving flock!
-
-Just at this time Tom and I had a good deal of conversation about my
-writing a letter to my father at Riverside Hall. If it was to be done at
-all, it had better be done soon, lest the door between us be permanently
-closed. Had my father done the right thing he would have married my
-mother, Harriet. She was ten times more amiable and lady-like than Mrs.
-Jackson, a woman whom he married for fashion's sake; but he never did or
-could love her as he did my mother, or even myself. It was the identical
-case of Rachel and Joseph over again. If all the rest had died, and
-Harriet and Beulah had remained alive, it would have been all right to
-him. Thus were there two wives in the same house--Rachel and Leah once
-more. The one was loved and the other hated. So it came to pass that
-through jealousy that raged in her heart, Mrs. Jackson had my beloved
-mother sold down the river to New Orleans.
-
-I ran no risk in writing to Lemuel Jackson, as everyone at Riverside
-opened his own letters. So we decided that I should write home in a week
-or two, when we were settled down to practical house-keeping. And,
-besides all that, the old gentleman liked a good letter, and I knew mine
-would be doubly welcome.
-
-It is very true that the Fugitive Slave Bill was on the statute books of
-Congress, but that bill was practically a dead letter, and it was now
-only one chance in ten thousand that anyone would attempt to come after
-us all the way to Buffalo. It is quite true that immediately after the
-passage of that infamous bill there were several fugitive slaves caught
-close to the border, and carried back to slavery, but the true spirit of
-the North arose against such Southern barbarism, and after a few
-slave-hunters had been shot, the South ceased to send her couriers even
-to the borderland, but remained at home nursing her sullen wrath,
-cursing the Underground Railroad and all Christian abolitionism, and
-flaunting her oft-repeated threat in the face of the nation, that unless
-she could have her own way in the Union she would have it out of it.
-
-We did not consider, therefore, that we had any risk to run in settling
-down here in Buffalo, or even in writing to my father and giving him our
-street address. Mrs. Jackson would have no doubt been capable of setting
-the man-hunters on our track, but father, though a rich man, would never
-have made the outlay of money necessary. Besides it would have exposed
-his shame and disgrace.
-
-In the meantime, then, we rented a small and cosy cottage not far from
-the sweet little church on Vine street, furnished it cheaply, but
-comfortably, and at the appointed time we invited the pastor of the
-church and his good wife to come and spend the evening and take tea,
-that the Lord might bless us in our happy home.
-
-After we had been settled in Buffalo about a month, I wrote the
-following letter to my father, which he duly received:
-
-"Lemuel Jackson, Esq., Riverside Hall, Ky.
-
-"My dear Father:--
-
-"With great pleasure I take my pen in hand to write you a few lines. It
-is but natural that your daughter should take a delight in writing to
-you, and we have lived too long under the same roof for me not to know
-that you will be glad to receive a letter from me. I can never forget
-you, my own dear father.
-
-"I have great pleasure in informing you that Tom is a very thoughtful,
-considerate and loving husband, and is most indulgent and kind to your
-own dear Beulah. If I had searched the whole United States I don't
-believe that I could ever have found a better man than Tom. He promised
-to be good to me when we were married in Cincinnati, and I believe he
-always will.
-
-"The first thing we did, after we had furnished our cosy little cottage
-and settled down, was to join the sweet little A. M. E. Church on Vine
-street. We desired to have the approbation of the Almighty upon
-ourselves and on our works and ways. Therefore we joined the church of
-God first of all. I do believe that if people would always put God first
-they would have more luck.
-
-"I don't know how it is, but the people of Buffalo, both white and
-colored have taken a very great liking indeed to Tom and myself from the
-very first hour when we left the train here and set our wandering feet
-within the Queen City of the Lakes. The sweet ladies of Buffalo have
-been here to see me in numbers, and I also have been to their homes,
-where I am received as a daughter or a younger sister. Indeed my lines
-have fallen in pleasant places, and I cannot but believe that the good
-Lord sent us to Buffalo.
-
-"We have been over on a visit to Canada, which lies across the Niagara
-River, for the city of Buffalo, as you are aware, lies at the foot of
-Lake Erie just where it enters the Niagara River. There is a settlement
-of colored people at St. Catherine's, in Canada, only a few miles back
-from the river, and Tom and I were greatly interested in them.
-
-"They all fled from slavery in the South, and many of them have come up
-on the rough side of the mountain. I can assure you, when Tom and I saw
-the marks of their horrible treatment, we praised the Lord that our own
-cases had been so mild and bearable at Riverside Hall.
-
-"We consider that we are lucky in coming here at this delightful season
-of the year, for the pleasant month of May seems to surpass all the
-other months of the year for sweetness and flowers. All around Lake Erie
-and the Niagara River, both in Canada and the State of New York, the
-fair face of Nature is just blooming; all the woods are dressed in their
-mantle of green, the countless birds sing among the branches, and all
-things hereabout clearly shows that the self-same God that has adorned
-the State of Kentucky has done as much in these parts.
-
-"I am not aware whether you have ever visited Niagara Falls or not, as I
-have never heard you say, but whether or not, it is a most wonderful
-place, and one well worth the trouble of coming even from the ends of
-the earth to see. It is well for Buffalo and all the towns and villages
-that lie around about this river, that they are so located, that is, so
-near the falls, because there is always a great tide of people coming
-here from every land beneath the sun, almost; and these same people seem
-never, never to grow weary of one of the most stupendous works that the
-great Creator has made.
-
-"After we had settled down at home here, and before Tom went to work as
-house steward in one of the first mansions on Delaware Avenue, the
-leading avenue for private residences in Buffalo, we took a special day
-and went to see Niagara Falls. As we had read and heard so much of these
-celebrated falls, I might almost say since the time we were born, we
-were both in a state of great excitement on the morning of this
-expedition. Really, my dear papa, there are some things that we really
-never, never can forget.
-
-"There were hundreds on the early morning train with us--almost all
-strangers, and all in a state of highest excitement. We soon drew out of
-the railway station, and left the city behind. Now we were on the bank
-of the Niagara River, which flows on almost a perfect level with the
-fields, and on the opposite, or Canadian side, the tall pines were
-beautiful to behold. As we drew near to the station at the falls, the
-roaring of the mighty waters struck with great force upon our astonished
-ears, and when we got out, what astonished us more and more was the
-grand stampede of every person down the road in the direction of the
-great river. No need to ask which way to go; we had but to follow the
-sound. At last, through the tall trees we beheld the flying waters, and
-there we saw Niagara Falls before us in all their grand and terrible
-array!
-
-"For about three-quarters of a mile above where we stood, the Rapids of
-Niagara came thundering down the steep incline, and the great waves
-leaped like the waves of a troubled ocean. It was just one continuous
-and eternal yell. I was completely dumfounded. I could do nothing but
-quote from the Bible, and shout the praises of the great Creator. But
-who heard me then? For the Rapids made such a noise that nobody else
-could hear!
-
-"The American Fall, on our own side, is the smaller one; the opposite,
-or Canadian Fall, which assumes the shape of a gigantic horseshoe, is
-the grandest one. The waters are deeply green, and at the top are said
-to be eighteen feet deep. Oh, my! What a place it is, to be sure!
-
-"We now crossed a light wooden bridge that connects our side with Goat
-Island. This portion of the Rapids of Niagara was now just under our
-feet, and it required all the nerve we had to allow us to even look down
-upon the flying, yelling, and most tremendous waters! This is one of the
-places to which so many come for the purpose of committing suicide. But
-we are Christians, my dear father, and we could never think of doing
-such a very foolish thing.
-
-"My dear papa, I shall have to stop now, and continue my narrative at
-another time. Here comes Tom home for his tea, and our minister and his
-wife along with him. Our love to you all. Au revoir!
-
-"From your most affectionate daughter,
-
-"BEULAH LINCOLN."
-
-I ran to the nearest box and posted my letter, and in ten days received
-the following reply from my dear papa:
-
-RIVERSIDE HALL, NEAR LOUISVILLE, June, 1855.
-
-"Mrs. Beulah Lincoln,
-
-"My Dear Daughter:--
-
-"I duly received your nice, kind and most welcome letter. I am heartily
-glad to hear that you are both in good health, and so very comfortable
-in every way. I did not take your sudden leaving so much to heart as you
-might imagine--I mean in the way of vexation--but Mrs. Jackson was so
-much disturbed that she has not recovered from the effects of it yet, as
-she did not think you and Tom would leave us. However, now that you have
-gone, I wish you well, and I enclose herein a postoffice order for
-$50.00, which is my wedding gift to yourself and Tom. Please excuse my
-short letter; you know I am not fond of writing. Please send me a letter
-at any time that you feel like writing. I am,
-
-"Your most affectionate papa,
-
-"LEMUEL JACKSON."
-
-As far as my father was concerned, then, it seemed that we were safe.
-From him, at least, we had nothing to fear.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-
-_Beulah's Journey to New Orleans--Rescues Her Mother From Slavery, and
-Mother and Daughter Return to Buffalo on the Good Boat Columbia, by Way
-of Havana, in the Island of Cuba, West Indies and New York City._
-
-The present was a great time among all classes of the abolition party,
-the "Underground Railroad," and all that sort of thing. There were the
-border ruffians in Kansas, where John Brown, that hero of fame, led on
-the fray, and fugitive slaves escaped over the lines into the free
-States, whence their owners were unable to get them back. The Fugitive
-Slave Law was a dead letter, for the great gospel guns over all the
-North had denounced it as a shame and a disgrace to a Christian nation;
-and when the South found that fugitive slaves would resist their
-pursuers unto death, and that their messengers were likely to be shot
-down, they ceased to send them, at the same time making the slave laws
-worse than ever before. However, the tighter and more oppressive they
-made them, in greater numbers did the slaves escape from the house of
-bondage, for who can stem the spirit of the brave? Slavery is an
-abomination before the Lord!
-
-We had at this time all the anti-slavery leaders coming round the
-country--the greatest speakers I ever heard. I never had a more
-wonderful experience than turning out with Tom at night to the halls and
-churches to listen to such arguments and eloquence as I had never
-dreamed had any existence in this or any other country. William Lloyd
-Garrison came to Buffalo, and Fred. Douglass, and all the rest were
-there. We listened to men and women who had seen slavery in all parts of
-the South, people who had been in Kansas, and almost everywhere else,
-and such tales of truth and horror I never heard before in all my life.
-
-It is true that even slavery had its backers in the North, and too many
-of them at that, but the entire Christian portion of the population was
-determined that slavery should come no further, although the South
-seemed to demand, with the most unblushing impudence, that they should
-carry their slaves into every State and territory under the stars and
-stripes. The South acted like a violent, high-strung woman, whose
-husband tries to reason with her in vain. She seemed to say, "I shall
-have my own way, or I will fight with you, Sam! I'll be no submissive
-wife! I'll be master and mistress, too! I'll fight and have my own way!"
-
-At this time, freemen from Europe were pouring into the United States in
-legions. They had no slavery in those countries from which they came,
-and coming here while the tidal wave of anti-slavery sentiment was at
-its height, they were ready not only to attempt to stem the
-encroachments of slavery, but to resist them by force, if the worst came
-to the worst. The Quakers were also in the field, and they gave Congress
-no rest. The Southern senators and representatives resisted them at
-Washington, and demanded that the whole subject be laid upon the shelf.
-Here they were opposed by such men as Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens,
-and a host of others. Thus things went on from bad to worse in the halls
-of Congress, and all over the free North. The heavens grew darker and
-darker as the months rolled by, and the South prepared to leave the
-Union unless she had her own way.
-
-There was very little sign, indeed, of her ever getting it, for how
-could freedom and slavery ever be dominant in the United States at one
-and the same time? It is very true that slavery was a legacy left the
-thirteen original States by England, but we had gone ahead and spread
-the iniquity ourselves, after the disposal of it was left entirely in
-our hands; whereas England had long since abolished both slavery and the
-slave trade throughout her dominions. She had even paid the owners full
-indemnity for the loss of their slaves.
-
-I dwell the more fully on these things because they led up to the war of
-secession, and actually brought it on in the year 1861.
-
-
-[Illustration: _SCENES IN NEW ORLEANS._]
-
-
-How did the South treat the oppressed African? She bought, she sold, she
-stole, she killed for gold. She hurled all revealed religion to the
-winds, and set the Almighty at open defiance. Thus millions of backs had
-to bend and labor over the cotton plant, the sugar cane and the rice
-stalks of the South. Families were torn asunder, and every human feeling
-violently dealt with in men and women born in the image of God, that
-silver and gold might be extracted through their blood and tears from
-the cotton fields, from the sugar plantations, and from the rice swamps
-of the Sunny South. With such crimes as these and a thousand nameless
-ones besides that high heaven had to avenge, was it any wonder that the
-coming tempest was heralded by rising winds, by darkening skies, by
-colder weather, and violent flurries of snow, hail and sleet?
-
-It was one of the curses of slavery that the slave-holder often had a
-colored wife in the kitchen, and a white one in the parlor. This was
-very bad, indeed. It was just Hagar and Sarah over again, and not only
-did the iniquitous system bring the two women into conflict, but the
-poor, guileless children were brought into conflict also. It was a shame
-and a disgrace all the way through. If white American parents had never
-taught their innocent babes that the color of the skin made a
-difference, "American prejudice" would never have been known in the
-world.
-
-My own beloved and charming mother was the first in the field. If my
-father had done the right thing by her, he would have married her out
-and out, and made her his wife de jure, as she certainly was de facto.
-Thus it always was in those days of slavery.
-
-The grand, chivalric white planter had a splendid octaroon or quadroon
-for his "house keeper," a woman whom he loved supremely till Southern
-pride took alarm, and he took unto himself a white wife--to be like his
-neighbor! Alas! Alas! Such a crooked, dual system as that never worked,
-and it never will! Sarah and Hagar could not get along; neither could
-Rachel and Leah, and so on to the end of the chapter. Turkish women in
-the same harem fight among themselves like dogs and cats, and the poor
-miserable Turk sometimes has to provide a separate establishment for
-every wife.
-
-At last my father brought Mrs. Jackson to the house, and my mother,
-Harriet Jackson, as she was called, was pushed to the wall. I am glad
-that I was my father's only child by his first wife, for had there been
-more of us, the mischief would have been the greater. As the reader
-already knows, a day came when I was up the river at Louisville, when,
-in some way only known to the devil and herself, Mrs. Jackson caused my
-beloved mamma to be spirited away, and as we all subsequently learned,
-to be sold down the river to New Orleans. Mr. Jackson seemed very sorry,
-indeed, but he said nothing about it at the time, as he knew that he
-himself was to blame for the whole matter. But I made up my mind at once
-to endeavor to find out her exact place of abode, and to trust in God to
-bring us together again.
-
-Alas! my dear reader, how shall I ever make you understand the dreadful
-gap that was now created in my sensitive heart, when dear mother and I
-were torn apart? You can imagine how grieved I was, but how much worse
-must mother have felt? It was a shame to separate us, but Mrs. Jackson
-was fond of making grand, ostentatious shows, and she determined to keep
-me to grace her grand festal occasions. Still, I missed my dear mother
-for many a day. Clouds and thick darkness would gather round my heart. I
-was in great heaviness every now and then, and often would I retire to
-my bed-room, where I used to get into bed, cover myself up, and there
-lie and weep, and pray to God to bring mother and me together once more.
-
-Now, one would imagine that this feeling would have worn off in the
-course of time, but it never did. Two whole years had passed away before
-I made my escape. I must admit the truth, that my newly-found freedom,
-marriage and acquaintance with the glorious people of the North brought
-me immense relief all the summer, but one day, about the beginning of
-the fall, I was once more completely overshadowed by grief. It was the
-self-same "old trouble"--a trouble that no doctor could cure. I locked
-up the house, and went to bed as I used to do at Riverside Hall, and
-wept and prayed until I fell asleep. The first thing I knew I was
-awakened by a very loud knocking at the door; Tom had come for his tea,
-so I arose and let him in, and he was greatly surprised to find me all
-in tears, and in such a bad way generally.
-
-"Why, Beulah," said he, "what is the matter with you to-day? You have
-been crying, and you seem as though you have lost your reason
-altogether."
-
-"Well, Tom, I have had such a heavy day on account of my mother. It is
-one of those 'spells' come back again, the same as I used to have at
-Riverside Hall. I declare I hate to feel in this uncomfortable way, but
-it just came on me, and I could not help it."
-
-"I am afraid, Beulah," replied Tom, "there are bad times in store for us
-both if you are going to be subject to those spells of crying and sorrow
-as came over you now and then before we left Riverside. I wonder if
-anything can be done to put an end to this state of affairs once for
-all? I would give a good deal to put an end to such a very mournful
-state of affairs. Can you suggest no remedy, my own dear Beulah?"
-
-"I am not aware, Tom," said I, "that there can be any remedy in the
-world, unless it be to bring my mother and me together again. I think
-one of the greatest horrors of slavery is to tear a family in pieces. I
-firmly believe that Almighty God is driving the South into a terrible
-war that she may receive her well-merited punishment for her blood-red
-crimes like these. Even one of her preachers once preached a sermon in
-defence of slavery, and he took for his text these words of Holy Writ,
-'These are the Lord's doings, and they are wondrous in our eyes!'
-Indeed, Tom, they are truly wondrous!"
-
-On the morning after this conversation, I went to work at an early hour
-and packed my trunk. It was now the fall of the year, and glorious
-weather for me to travel. All nature's face was gay, and I myself was
-blessed with health and strength and vigorous life. At all events, I
-felt a hundred times better than I had twenty-four hours before! The sun
-of righteousness had risen upon me with healing in his wings. "Arise,
-shine forth, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen
-upon thee."
-
-Once more I found myself at one of the railway stations, and took my
-departure for Cincinnati, by way of Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. It was
-most delightful traveling to speed over the rails along the shore of
-Lake Erie, to see once more the lovely foliage of the forests of the
-beautiful state of Ohio, and then at last to skim away, and away down
-the smooth and level banks of the Little Miami river, where I could
-hardly hear or feel the train in motion at all. At last the "beautiful
-river," as the French called the Ohio, hove in sight once more, with the
-delightful hills of Kentucky and Ohio, on opposite sides, running up
-from the water's edge, all clad with forest trees.
-
-I next came to Cincinnati, and the "Public Landing" was crowded with
-passengers and traffic going up and down the river, and as neither Tom
-nor myself were millionaires, and I was desirous of cheapening things as
-much as I could, I went aboard one of these floating palaces of the
-Mississippi, and engaged myself as a waitress for the voyage down the
-Mississippi. The "Natchez" was to leave at 4 P. M. the same day, so I
-got my trunk on board, and reported myself for duty.
-
-I gave a shout for joy as we left the Public Landing and floated out on
-the mighty and splendid Ohio. Owing to the recent heavy rains all along
-the head branches of this beautiful river, the stream was swollen from
-bank to bank, and presented a grand appearance as we plunged into the
-high-rolling waves and surges in the centre of the river. The glorious
-sun danced upon the silvery tide, and covered all the forests, the hills
-and dales on each side of the great and rushing flood. Huge barges were
-floating down from Pittsburg, and the far North, and large and small
-craft of every description were dancing and whirling away, whistling and
-screaming and advancing towards us, or retreating around the bends.
-
-So far as my duties on the boat permitted, my eyes were never off the
-river, the hills, woods and forests, and the wild, fast-flowing traffic
-that was going up and down, and which seemed to have no end. The red and
-fiery sun went down in the wild waters of the beautiful river that
-looked like heaving, molten gold; then up came the silver moon, and
-turned all things visible into silver sheen.
-
-The great Creator, indeed, was on the waves, and the Natchez drove on at
-a rapid rate. We had now the Indiana shore on our right hand, having
-passed the Ohio state line at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. In the early
-morning we came to Louisville, Ky., where we remained for a few hours.
-Here we passed through the Portland canal, and soon went by Riverside
-Hall, and the little cabin on the opposite side of the river. It stands
-two or three miles below New Albany, and I could see some of our dear
-friends standing before the door. It was here that Tom and I had crossed
-the Ohio.
-
-The "beautiful river" still continued to increase and to swell, and we
-plunged along at a glorious rate. All on board seemed to be in a
-laughing mood, for the weather was superb, and that floating palace,
-"The Natchez," swept along at a furious speed. You can talk as much as
-you please about a light heart, but during this most delightful voyage
-mine did seem "as light as any feather." I had such joyful dreams every
-night, and hailed each coming morning with delight. Indeed I dressed
-myself every morning while my mouth was full of laughter.
-
-"What are you laughing at?" "I think you must be in love." "You always
-appear in such tip-top humor." Such remarks were addressed to me by my
-companions in the waiting department, as we made our toilets before the
-looking-glass. To which I would reply, "I am laughing for the self-same
-reason that the bird sings in the forest, because the sun shines. As the
-children say, I am laughing at nothing!"
-
-By this time the beautiful hills on both sides of the Ohio had fallen
-away. We had the state of Illinois in front of us at last, when we
-passed the mouth of the Wabash; and lower down on our left, the
-Cumberland and Tennessee rivers poured all their flood into the Ohio,
-after they had drained the mountain lands of Virginia, North Carolina,
-Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. "The beautiful river" was
-beautiful no more, but on both sides the lands were flat and fertile.
-
-Ho for the Mississippi! What a rush there was among our passengers to
-behold the great "Father of Waters" absorbing our smaller Ohio at Cairo,
-in the state of Illinois. The city of Cairo lies right in the fork of
-these two rivers--the Mississippi and the Ohio. "Whew! What a river!
-Why, to be sure, this is, indeed, something like a river! It is more
-like a flowing sea of fresh waters than a river," were the remarks of a
-gentleman on board, and the sight was one that I am sure I never shall
-or can forget, either.
-
-Our arrival upon the Mississippi seemed to add to my good humor, and
-then I was drawing nearer and nearer to my devoted and beloved mother
-every hour, and I seemed to have a firm presentiment from high heaven
-that my adventurous mission would turn out a success.
-
-On, on, on, we rushed night and day, passing the mouths of the St.
-Francis, the White, the Arkansas and Red rivers on our right hand, and
-the Yazoo and other smaller ones on our left. It grew much warmer as we
-advanced farther south. We were now coming into the lands famed for the
-cultivation of the sugar cane, the cotton plant, and the rice. The only
-thing that dampened my spirits was to behold from the deck of the
-swift-flying Natchez, hundreds and thousands of oppressed colored people
-toiling and sweating in the sun, whilst their overbearing overseers
-stood over them, whip in hand, to make them work on, or receive the lash
-on their backs. How even Southern people could look upon such barbarity
-as that, and call themselves Christians, I could not understand. But as
-sure as there is a God in heaven, there is a terrible "judgment day" in
-store for all this, and I firmly believe that we shall all see it very
-soon.
-
-What was to hinder Mrs. Jackson from selling me down South here, and
-forcing me to work till I died, in these very fields that I can see from
-the deck of the Natchez? Wherein am I better than these full-blooded
-Africans before my eyes, who were murderously torn away from their
-beautiful homes in Africa, brought over in "floating hells," and sold
-like cattle in the markets of the South? Shall not these who criminally
-carry on the slave-trade, and slavery, soon atone for all this? As
-surely as God lives, the "judgment day," even in this world, cannot be
-far off! The Southern people, like the doomed inhabitants of wicked
-Jerusalem, know not the approaching day of their visitation.
-
-Musing in this way, we passed the cities of Memphis, Helena, Vicksburg,
-Natchez, Baton-Rouge and Donaldsonville, and, at last, amidst a great
-deal of noise and excitement, came to the wharf at New Orleans.
-
-During all this glorious and enchanting travel from Buffalo by rail and
-steamboat, like a good and faithful wife, I never forgot to write every
-second day to my brave and beloved Tom, and I knew well that he would be
-greatly interested in hearing of my progress down the Ohio and the
-Mississippi. He afterwards told me that he used to read these letters of
-mine over, and over, and over again, and sometimes before he went to
-sleep, he would again light the lamp and read the last "arrival" from
-end to end once more.
-
-Here, then, at last, the good boat Natchez has brought us all safe and
-sound to New Orleans, in the Sunny South. There is no snow here, and
-fruits and flowers are to be found all the year round. The climate is
-almost tropical, and everything out of doors breathes of orange blossoms
-and all those exotics found in the warm climates. The whole scene had an
-irresistible charm for me, and I felt a pleasure in being in the state
-of Louisiana that I felt quite unable to describe.
-
-But even the charms of nature and the strange French air of the people
-did not produce the greatest impression on me here. That which produced
-the greatest impression of all, was the mighty river Mississippi itself,
-and the immense traffic carried over its irresistible waters. It is true
-that its banks are quite plain and homely when compared with the
-beautiful Ohio in its upper and middle courses. But then the Mississippi
-is so big, that it is always majestic, solemn and grand. You are never
-tired of looking at the immense and gigantic "creature," and especially
-where it has constructed for itself a high embankment, cast up by the
-silt and overflow of its muddy waters, in the lofty bosom of which the
-mighty river flows as in an elevated canal.
-
-And thus the Natchez was high up above the level of the plains on our
-right and left hand, and we could look down on the valley of the
-Mississippi from the deck of our palatial steamboat. Oh, the Mississippi
-is a glorious sight to behold, always immense, solemn and grand!
-
-The next thing that attracted me so much was the immense traffic that
-came rolling down from the North, and that ascended the stream. When I
-came off its mighty waters, I felt as if I was coming up from a wild,
-riotous and troubled sea. And though forty-six years have now fled and
-gone, the tremendous impression made upon my heart and soul by the
-Father of Waters remains. I therefore cried, Ho for the Mississippi! as
-I walked the gang-plank into the city.
-
-My dear and beloved mother, Harriet Jackson, was one of those religious
-women who would go to church if she went nowhere else. She went to the
-A. M. E. Church whenever she could get there, and I had ascertained
-before I left Riverside Hall, that she attended the services of that
-congregation that lay nearest the mansion of the family to whom she had
-been sold. I cannot say that she belonged to that family, for slavery
-was nothing but a system of robbery in its best estate. She had been
-sold down the river to an ancient French family--Roman Catholics--but,
-in their indifferent, careless way, they allowed mother to go to her own
-A. M. E. Church. She was so steady and devoted in her ways, and so very
-remote from Kentucky, that they regarded it as an impossibility that she
-would ever even dream of making her escape; and never, never, that any
-one would ever come after her in this far-away part of the great world.
-
-First and foremost, then, I made inquiries from those who could speak
-English, for the name of the pastor, and found it with no great
-difficulty. (As my complexion was so light and fair, I passed for one of
-the whites of the city. There are many thousands of "whites" in the
-South like me). I informed the reverend gentleman, when I first met him,
-that I wished to have a private, confidential talk with him. I felt that
-I was indeed conversing with a father, and there was not the slightest
-fear. He informed me at once that my dear mother attended his church,
-and was a warm-hearted and enthusiastic member of the same. He said she
-would be at the prayer-meeting that very night, and named the hour when
-it began; but while he should be glad to see her obtain her freedom, it
-was the part of prudence that it should not even be known that he knew
-anything about it, as they might murder him outright for even holding
-his tongue! To this I replied that no doubt I could manage very well
-myself, and that mother would perhaps have some amendments to put to my
-own schemes after we met. In the meantime, I engaged a room with a nice
-family, being fully resolved to stay there till such time as mother
-could make her escape. I depended upon a well-laid plan, and to carry
-out that plan with boldness. When I got myself settled in my temporary
-home, and had written another letter to Tom, I walked out to see the
-far-famed city of New Orleans, and indeed I obtained a pretty good idea
-of it before my return in the evening. New Orleans is indeed a wonderful
-place. But I need not take up the reader's time in describing this
-quaint French city in America. The kind reader knows all about it
-already. What I am most of all interested in at this time is the meeting
-with my beloved mother, and getting her away from slavery into a land
-where she shall be free to come and go, and do as she pleases, just as I
-am doing!
-
-Many thousands of slaves obtained their freedom by running away from
-their owners; some of them encountered great difficulties on the way,
-while others seemed to meet with no difficulties at all. I am also safe
-in saying that many a hundred more might have gained their liberty, but
-they were simply afraid to venture--they were too timid to take the
-first step, or they were deterred from going by being unable to make up
-their minds to leave parents, wives and children behind them. The latter
-step was proven over and over again by their running away, obtaining
-their freedom, but afterwards becoming so homesick that they actually
-returned and surrendered themselves again to slavery, being unable to
-stay away from those they loved most upon earth.
-
-The African is both pleased and cursed by being possessed of a very warm
-heart, and tender and loving affections. This is indeed a blessing and a
-curse at one and the same time. We need not go far for the proof, for I
-myself am a living witness to the same, and here I was at New Orleans
-after my dearly-beloved and tender-hearted mother, whom I was unable to
-live without; and then behold what I have suffered for the want of her
-for more than two years--wrenched from me by the diabolical ways of
-slavery, and the malice and spite of Mrs. Jackson! If my pinings and
-regrets have been so great, longing day and night after my dear mother,
-how much worse must that dear mother have felt for the loss of me? I
-dare not even look at the picture! But our prayers have been heard by
-the Lord; for He always hears those who love Him, and the hour for the
-prayer-meeting is drawing nigh; the shades of night are at last falling
-upon the long autumn day, and I find myself in the dusk in the
-neighborhood of the A. M. E. Church, watching for the approach of my
-mother, as maiden never waited for the coming of her lover advancing
-among the trees to the well-known trysting-place.
-
-All things come to those who wait, and here she comes at last! She is as
-sweet and graceful as ever, and her step as light as the greyhound's! I
-advanced to meet her, first looking cautiously around into the
-increasing darkness, that no other was too near. The over-hanging trees
-favored our meeting as I came up to her, and whispered softly in her
-ear, "Mother!" We took each other by the hand, and kissed one another,
-when she hurriedly drew me round into a side entrance to the basement
-and rear of the church, where, entering a small classroom which would
-not be used for the night, we sat down together, had one very long and
-close embrace, and the happiness of that blessed and speechless half
-hour seemed to me to equal all that which might be called out of an
-ordinary lifetime. "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, which within
-thy courts I spend!" The remaining hour was passed in conversation,
-during which we gave and received a complete history of the time that
-had elapsed since the time mother was sold down the river.
-
-"There will be no difficulty whatever about my getting away. They are
-old people, and have not the remotest idea that I would ever make the
-attempt. The best time for us to leave will be at this hour a week
-to-night, and, my dear daughter, there is a big leather trunk that is
-called mine, and which stands in my little bed-room upstairs, in an
-out-of-the-way wing of the house, which I will manage to send empty to
-your lodgings, whither I will send or bring my entire wardrobe myself. I
-must not go without clothes, as they will be both necessary and useful
-for me for years to come, if God my life shall spare. In the meantime
-write Tom and give him all my love, and tell him when he may expect us
-at home."
-
-To all of this I most heartily agreed, and I was more happy and
-lightsome than a butterfly. We came out before the congregation, and
-another warm kiss and embrace under the trees, then mother steered away
-homewards for the old French mansion, and I took my way to my lodgings,
-where the people received me with great affection. I had told them that
-I was married, and wore a gold ring to that effect, because without
-giving them that needful piece of information, young beaux are bad for
-coming around seventeen-year-old girls, and I did not wish any of the
-kind New Orleans flunkeys to be coming around me with any of their sweet
-kind of foolishness. When I got into my bed-room, I found the flowers of
-the Sunny South perfuming the whole place like cologne, and I slept like
-the angels there. Seven days and nights came and went. Mother and I met
-one another as often as it was discreet and prudent for us to do. There
-was not the remotest suspicion of her approaching departure--much less
-of the direction which we meant to take. Like Tom and myself leaving
-Riverside Hall, our plans were well-laid and matured, our hearts were
-stout and brave within us, and we carried things out with a bold front.
-
-As the New York passenger boat Columbia lay at her pier with steam up in
-readiness for her departure on the following Wednesday night, while the
-streets were full of horses, wagons, porters, passengers, and all the
-rest of it; while late passengers were hurrying into the office to get
-their tickets for New York, and boys were shouting the latest edition of
-the city papers, two ladies in half mourning and heavily veiled, drove
-up in a carriage, alighted in haste, had a heavy leather trunk carried
-on board, and the elder of the two (a lady seemingly about thirty-six or
-thirty-seven years of age) made for the ticket office and procured
-tickets for two, and a corresponding cabin for New York. These two
-ladies, the reader will understand, were my own dear mother and myself.
-No notice was taken of us in any way. All was noise, bustle and
-confusion about the Columbia. We were shown to our cabin like the rest,
-and felt at home at once. It was growing dusk, the last bell was rung,
-and with anxious hearts and high-beating hopes we cut loose from the
-shore, and plunged out into the great river. The night being warm and
-balmy, as is usual in the Sunny South, mother and I went on deck to see
-our own departure, and to watch the passing vessels coming to and going
-from the port of New Orleans. Here, in taking leave of the "Queen City
-of the South," as the metropolis of Louisiana is called, I must say that
-I was most delightfully impressed. I had been so very kindly treated on
-all hands, and there was so much to charm the senses about this famous
-French city. As for mother, the depth of the ocean was as nothing
-compared with the depth of her contentment at getting away with her
-beloved Beulah, the separation from whom had given her so much sorrow.
-
-We were only sorry that we could not see the usual sights along the
-Mississippi river to the same extent, as if we had left in the morning.
-But that was impossible, and I think mother and I had great reason to
-thank God that all things fitted in so well at the hour of our
-departure. It was the night and hour for the prayer-meeting at the A. M.
-E. Church--Wednesday night--with the good boat Columbia leaving at the
-same hour. In this crooked world it is a difficult thing to make all
-things work together just as we want them. We did indeed want to see our
-poor, oppressed race at work among the sugar-canes, the cotton and the
-rice, and the orange and fig-trees, and all the rest, which could only
-be done rightly by day. We did indeed see plenty of their humble
-quarters and cabins along the shores, and some little way back into the
-country, and knew them well by the lights in the windows. Alas, alas!
-for these poor, dear, miserable creatures! There they lay, no doubt,
-sound asleep--sleeping in the sleep of the oppressed--poor old men and
-women, laboring and toiling their lives away under a Southern sun, that
-oppressors may feast and riot at their expense. But there is a God in
-heaven, and we snuffled both war and freedom in the wind. Even a child
-could foresee all that.
-
-We retired early to bed. When were two women ever so happy on a New York
-boat on the Lower Mississippi? It was enough to make the angels laugh
-for joy, to think of it! Our departure was another installment in
-swelling the volume of Southern wrath to break up the Union, as the
-Fugitive Slave Bill would not work in their favor. Mother and
-I--murmuring our thanks to Almighty God--soon fell into a happy sleep,
-while the Columbia was ploughing her way down the Mississippi, and
-moving out at the mouth of one of the passes, as they are called, into
-the Gulf of Mexico. When we came back on deck next morning, the weather
-was most delightful. The water was intensely clear--indeed it was as
-clear as crystal! All things smacked of the Southern seas--of Southern
-people, and all things Southern. In due course of time the west end of
-the Isle of Cuba hove in sight, and soon the Columbia tied up in the
-harbor of Havana.
-
-As the Columbia was to remain a few hours at Havana, we were permitted
-to go ashore to see the most famous city in the West Indies. The
-tropical vegetation was all that the heart could wish, but what
-interested mother and me the most was the quaint old city of the
-Spaniards, and the different races of people who inhabited the "Ever
-Faithful Isle," as it is called. Here we found Spaniards from old Spain,
-Spanish creoles, free colored people and slaves. I hated the very sight
-of slavery here in the Spanish island, though I have always understood
-that slavery was less cruel here than in the Southern States. But all
-the same it is slavery, and not freedom. Almighty God certainly never
-meant that one man should own another. Besides, these odious Spaniards,
-a lying, thieving nation, have promised the civilized nations of the
-world a hundred times to abolish slavery, but they have always broken
-their promises, and they will continue to break them until they are
-compelled to give their slaves up by force. Spain is a dark, suspicious
-nation, reduced to the last stages of poverty, but swollen with
-ignorance and pride. But this present time of writing is 1897. We may
-next take a retrospect, as it is forty-two years since mother and I were
-at Havana. Poor Spain has already lost all her slaves, because she could
-keep them no longer; and the Cuban war has now lasted for over two
-years, during which the patriots have gained possession of the whole
-island, except a few fortified towns like Havana. I will not here
-narrate the sights, sounds and scenes that came under our observation in
-the metropolitan city of Cuba. I will just mention that I was infinitely
-amused at the system of courtship that was in vogue in their parts. The
-young men went to see their fair lovers, and conversed with them through
-grated windows, the young ladies being inside the bars, and the young
-gentlemen standing outside on the street. I never think of these funny
-scenes without laughter!
-
-The Columbia got up steam once more, and we got out of the harbor of
-Havana, passed through the Florida Straight, and in a few days were off
-Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. All these places were new to us, and as
-the fall weather was of the most delightful description, my dear mother
-and I spent a great deal of time on deck. At last Sandy Hook was passed,
-and we shortly after landed in New York.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-
-_Mrs. Lincoln Brings Her Mother to Buffalo--Warm Welcome Home--Harriet
-Jackson married to Mr. J. B. Sutherland--Letter From Mrs. Sarah Jackson
-and Beulah's Answer--Beulah, Mrs. Sutherland and Tom at a Great
-Abolition Meeting--A Famous Gathering of the Clans._
-
-Our delight at being once more on shore in our own country, and so near
-home, and for the first time in the full possession of our own freedom,
-filled our hearts and souls with the wildest enthusiasm, and from the
-very bottom of our hearts we blessed and praised the Lord for His mercy
-endureth forever.
-
-We had intended to send a telegram to my own dear Tom at Buffalo, but we
-changed our minds, and determined to take him by surprise. Besides, when
-we had reconsidered the matter, we did not deem it altogether prudent to
-send a telegram, because there were many wealthy families in New York,
-who owned thousands of slaves in the South, and in some respects this
-great city was even more dangerous than Georgia and Louisiana. So we
-left on the first train for Buffalo, where we arrived in due time, and
-hired a cab that took us home. Tom had left the key with a good
-neighbor, so we opened the door, went in, and prepared tea for him by
-the time he came home. It is very true that we had more need of going to
-bed than to thus attend to the work of the house; but we were so excited
-with our freedom, our successful journey from New Orleans, and the
-exciting times right ahead, that we never thought of fatigue, but only
-the present enjoyment.
-
-
-[Illustration: _SCENES IN BUFFALO._]
-
-
-At last we saw Tom coming up the street, when such a scene ensued as it
-would take the very angels of heaven to tell. We sat up to a late hour
-that night, and seemed quite unwilling to break up and retire for the
-night. The pastor of the church, his good lady, and all the friends came
-flocking round to see us, and the rejoicing over our mother's safe
-arrival from the land of slavery was both loud and deep. When we next
-went to church, the interest there was most unbounded, and the
-enthusiasm ran higher than the waves of the sea. We made no secret of
-anything. Abolition was now under full swing; the "Border Ruffians" were
-now in Kansas, and the temper of the whole North was up, that slavery
-should come no further. Therefore our white and colored friends came on
-in droves to church to see mother, and welcome her to Buffalo, and
-prayer, praise and hymns of rejoicing were kept up till a late hour.
-Praise ye the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever!
-
-It is sometimes a very difficult thing for a young person like myself at
-this time to know what to do for the best, lest I should be doing wrong.
-It has often been said that a woman cannot keep a secret, and I am bound
-to confess that I had hard work to hold myself back at this time from
-writing to my father and telling him the good news of mother's escape
-from slavery. In the secret of his heart I knew well that he would
-rejoice to hear it; but Mrs. Jackson might get hold of the letter, and
-that was where the trouble came in. In fact, so far as unruffling her
-feelings was concerned, I did not care whether she saw my letter or not!
-I certainly intended to pen no falsehoods, and saw no good reason why
-any one should object to the simple truth. Thus openly to publish our
-whereabouts might have endangered mother, Tom and myself, because the
-Fugitive Slave Bill was on the National Statute books. It is true that
-some of the Southerners had been up to the far North after their
-fugitives, and tried hard to carry them back to slavery; but though the
-public officers were vigorously called on to do their duty, according to
-the letter of the law, the general public arose against such arrests,
-and the slave hunters had to go home again to the South without their
-prey, avowing and swearing that this would never be a country anyhow
-till slavery extended from the Lakes to the Gulf. There was, therefore,
-no real cause for fear on account of either mother, Tom or myself. I had
-promised my father to write again, and besides he had sent me a present
-of fifty dollars, which I was bound to acknowledge, and then my
-description of our first visit to Niagara had been broken off in the
-middle. There was another thing that would deter Mrs. Jackson from
-sending any expedition after us, and that was the fact that we were
-right on the Canadian border, there being nothing between us and the
-British dominions but the Niagara river. Indeed this was the true reason
-why my own dear Tom and I never came to a halt till we reached the
-beautiful city of Buffalo. Upon the least hint of man-hunters being on
-our trail, we had nothing to do but steer across the river, where we
-could have a glorious holiday among our friends, and come back again to
-Buffalo as soon as ever our pursuers had returned home.
-
-One thing was certain--if I were going to write at all, I must write
-soon, or let it slide altogether. Of course, I could never make up my
-mind to follow the latter alternative, so I took my pen in hand and sat
-down and penned the following epistle:
-
-"BUFFALO, N. Y., October, 1855.
-
-"To Lemuel Jackson, Esquire,
-
-"My Dear Father:--I am sure it shows very bad manners in me to be so
-very slow in answering your thrice-welcomed letter. I am under a
-thousand obligations to you for your present to my own dear Tom and me
-on the occasion of our happy wedding. We consider that you have indeed
-been most mindful of us, and we return you our warmest thanks. We are
-both well, and Tom has a good situation on Delaware avenue, the
-principal residence street in Buffalo.
-
-"The last time I wrote you, I was giving you a description of our first
-visit to Niagara Falls, and was interrupted in the middle of it by Tom's
-coming home to tea, in company with our pastor and his wife. I am now
-desirous of finishing the narrative, but before I do so, I will tell you
-something that will indeed surprise you.
-
-"You will remember the fits of sadness and depression I was subject to
-every now and then after dear mother was sent down the river to New
-Orleans. My happy marriage had suspended these attacks altogether for a
-time; but one day in the beginning of the fall, they returned in great
-force. That was the first attack, and after Tom and I had discussed the
-matter over, it was at last fully decided that I must not have a second.
-If you wish to hear all the particulars of what followed, I am quite
-willing to give you them; but in the meantime--after your own style of
-writing--I will be brief. I proceeded to New Orleans, rescued mother
-from slavery, and brought her safe and sound home to Buffalo on the
-steamer "Columbia," by way of Havana and New York City. This successful
-and happy event has caused the liveliest satisfaction to dear mother, to
-Tom and myself, and to the entire population of Buffalo, so far as they
-have become acquainted with it. Tom is quite pleased to have such a
-delightful mother-in-law in the house, and all three work most
-harmoniously together.
-
-"In my letter, dearest papa, I promised to give you the rest of the
-account of our first visit to Niagara Falls. As, however, I have so very
-much to say, and as I think it may please you better, instead of giving
-you the rest of that most delightful narration and description in my own
-words, I will--on Tom's recommendation--send you a most capital 'Guide
-to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, with Numerous Illustrations.'
-
-"I beg leave now to draw these few lines to a close. Mother and Tom
-write in lots of love to you, and I am sure I shall be delighted to
-receive even half a dozen lines from you at any time that you can make
-it convenient, or feel disposed to write your dear daughter. And I am
-yours in all affection,
-
-"BEULAH JACKSON."
-
-Having written the above letter, I posted it at once, and no doubt but
-it was received in a couple of days and read with great interest by my
-own dear father, and also by Mrs. Jackson, though with very different
-feelings from his. I was perfectly well aware that there was an
-abundance of pent-up wrath in her imperious temper, and that it would
-explode one of these fine days!
-
-As my mother, Harriet Jackson, was a woman of great handsomeness, beauty
-and a thousand graces, and still comparatively young, being only
-thirty-seven, her hand was sought by a settled and most honorable man
-named Mr. John B. Sutherland, a resident of Buffalo, and a member of the
-A. M. E. Church. They had a nice wedding at the church on Vine street,
-in the presence of an applauding and highly-respectable company. It was
-a perfect union of hearts, like Jacob and Rachel's over again. As we had
-plenty of room, and were unwilling to have mother set up a different
-establishment, Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland took up their residence with us,
-and all things went on most harmoniously together. The Almighty seemed
-to pour His richest blessings upon us all, and we tried to honor and
-glorify His holy name in all that we did. Our experience in slavery had
-been light, and we were now only too thankful to be free.
-
-One day in the month of November, Tom received the following letter from
-Mrs. Jackson at Riverside Hall, though it was intended for all three of
-us:
-
-"RIVERSIDE HALL, Near Louisville, November, 1855.
-
-"Mr. Thomas Lincoln,
-
-"Dear Tom:--We duly received all your letters, and also the Buffalo
-newspaper with an account of the marriage of Harriet to Mr. John B.
-Sutherland. That would all be right enough if you were white people, or
-even free people of color, but the whole three of you are neither one
-nor the other. You are our goods and chattels, and our runaway slaves,
-and we have decided to bring you back, or else you must pay us the
-reduced sum of one thousand dollars apiece; that is, two thousand
-dollars, when we will give you your free papers, and a full discharge.
-As your master and mistress, we are herein doing you a great favor, for
-we could easily get two thousand dollars apiece for each of you, Tom and
-Beulah, in the public market. I suppose you are aware that the Fugitive
-Slave Bill is the law of the land, and in case you do not give us
-satisfaction immediately, we will proceed to put the law in force, and
-either bring you back to Riverside Hall, or sell you down the river.
-Now, Tom, a word to the wise is sufficient. We shall look for a letter
-from you soon.
-
-"I am yours respectfully,
-
-"SARAH JACKSON."
-
-When the above letter arrived at our house, the whole four of us were
-seated at the tea table in the evening, and laughing first over one
-thing and then another, as people will do at eventide when the work of
-the day is done. We read the letter aloud in the midst of great sport
-and laughter, which went on, grew and increased the more we examined it.
-It was the work of Mrs. Jackson and hers alone. None of us believed that
-father knew anything about it at all, and I am sure he did not. Mrs.
-Sarah Jackson evidently was unable to keep down her temper and spite
-after all our grand escapades, marriages and other things.
-
-"Why," said Mr. Sutherland, "I suppose she will be coming on us with
-bloodhounds themselves! She would look grand in hunting costume on the
-streets of Buffalo with bloodhounds!"
-
-"What makes me laugh," remarked Tom, "would be to see the boys and young
-lads pelting those dogs with stones, and belaboring their sides with big
-sticks!"
-
-This was followed by another shout of loud laughter, when mother
-exclaimed,
-
-"She would indeed be a sight well worthy of a first-class painter in the
-midst of an infuriated crowd who were bent upon our protection and
-rescue."
-
-As it was now my turn to put in a word, I remarked,
-
-"She had better send nobody after us. It is now five years since the
-passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill, which no man can enforce, because
-the Christian spirit of the North will not have it, and the North is
-right to resist it."
-
-The question next arose as to who should answer the letter. Tom and Mrs.
-Sutherland absolutely refused to answer it in any shape or form, so I
-took pity on the great lady of Riverside Hall, and said that I would
-answer her one of these fine days, which would be both sport and
-pleasure for me, and then perhaps she would let us all have a rest. So
-in a few days after the receipt of her wonderful letter, I took up my
-pen and wrote as follows:
-
-"BUFFALO, N. Y., November, 1855.
-
-"Mrs. Sarah Jackson,
-
-"Madam:--As both Tom and Mrs. Sutherland have absolutely refused to take
-the slightest notice of your letter, it has fallen to me to answer it.
-It would not suit the convenience of any of us to come to Riverside Hall
-at this time, or, indeed, to go anywhere else. Even if we had all the
-opportunities in the world, we would not come to Riverside unless we
-came as specially invited guests; a visit, in short, that would be a
-mutual gratification to us all. But at this time, Tom has got a most
-excellent situation on Delaware avenue, the grand residence avenue of
-Buffalo; besides, he has married a wife, and therefore he cannot come.
-(Such is the language of Holy Writ).
-
-"As for myself, the grand committee on abolition have engaged me to give
-a number of lectures, and to sing at their meetings in the interest of
-the freedom of all those who are held in the South in enforced and
-involuntary bondage. The committee on freedom think that the presence of
-a young woman like me would help on the good cause, draw the crowds, and
-drive another nail into the coffin of slavery in Kentucky, and wherever
-the hated institution exists.
-
-"It will not be a very hard thing for me to make out a clear case
-against slavery, and in favor of freedom. Now, just look at myself, and
-all those graces and qualifications that I possess and inherit from both
-father and mother, and how our gracious Lord has cut me out to be
-something, and to do something in the world! Suppose that I had chosen
-to remain at Riverside Hall! What was to hinder you spiriting me away to
-the cotton fields of the Sunny South to wear my life away as if I were a
-mere animal, instead of being a human being like yourself, and one for
-whom Christ died? I therefore rejoice at dear mother's freedom; for
-slavery is nothing but a revolting crime--a system of robbery and
-murder! Now, here I am, and in a short time intend to appear on the
-public stage in the capacity of a lecturer, a singer and a player on the
-piano. Just fancy the idea of a handsome young woman of seventeen, like
-myself, being sold away to Louisiana or Georgia to wear my life away
-among the rice fields, the cotton and the cane, when nature has
-qualified me with gifts and graces, the admiration of my gallant and
-clever Tom, and the 'pick' of the general public to serve against
-slavery in the Northern States! I only hope that I shall be able to do
-my full share to help on the great conflagration that is now raging all
-over the free states, and which I hope will never cease burning until it
-has burnt the whole 'institution' down to the ground. Here in the North
-I shall be seen and heard by legions of people. But who would ever see
-or hear me in the cotton fields, or the sugar plantations, and in the
-rice swamps of Louisiana or Georgia?
-
-"I have failed to answer your letter in the way intended. What
-impression you intended to make on my mind is more than I know. Your
-statements were nothing but the old parrot cries of the South, that have
-been heard for many years. Of course, you cannot compel us to come back
-so long as we ourselves object. If you write us any more, and expect
-your letters to be read, you will have to make them of a readable
-character. We will tolerate no less respect than if you were writing to
-the Bishop or his wife. I know you don't wish your letters to be
-returned to you unread. 'A word to the wise is sufficient.'
-
-"I am yours very respectfully,
-
-"BEULAH JACKSON."
-
-The country continued to ring with abolitionism. Orators and agitators
-continued to traverse it in all directions. Men and women mounted the
-rostrum, and held forth hour after hour before greatly-interested
-gatherings of both sexes and all ages. Fugitive slaves who had made
-their escape over the lines were introduced upon the platform, and gave
-their wonderful experiences of slavery in the South, and how they
-managed to get away. It was thrilling to hear some of them tell of all
-the dangers they encountered upon the road; how they were pursued for
-hundreds of miles by men, horses and even bloodhounds; how they were
-assisted by free people of color, and even by those in bondage and white
-people; and thus helped along week after week, and month after month,
-till they felt that they were at last both safe and free. When we
-consider how the slave States passed one law after another, and all
-pulled, and hauled, and banded together to protect and perpetuate their
-hold upon their human property, it was most wonderful how very many
-slaves effected their escape. The nearer the awful storm came to
-breaking over our heads, the more numerous grew the successful escapes
-that were made. The frantic South still kept tying the strings tighter
-and tighter; but instead of producing the effect she desired, the more
-daring grew the soul of the intrepid slave, who seemed encouraged by the
-very God of battles himself to strike for liberty and flee to the North.
-
-Thus the grand storm went on, increased and grew. Fred. Douglass,
-William Lloyd Garrison, and many other famous writers continued to issue
-their papers week by week, or month by month. The agitation was kept at
-fever heat by all sorts and conditions of men and women. Still the
-Abolitionists did not have the entire field to themselves, for there
-were thousands and thousands of people in the Northern states who
-believed in slavery for the colored man as much as the Southern
-slave-holder himself, away down in Louisiana and Georgia. But Henry Ward
-Beecher, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others without number continued
-to lay on with hard licks and steady blows; the public conscience of the
-free States became more and more educated, and the people in general
-came to take a sympathetic interest in the oppressed African they had
-never done before. The presence of the poor, oppressed fugitive slaves
-in their meetings, and seen streaming along the North towards the Great
-Lakes and Canada, with the marks of the "peculiar institution" stamped
-for life upon their backs, were proof positive that none could deny. The
-furious quarrel was carried into the halls of Congress at Washington,
-and the South was unable to keep it out, though they made the most
-determined efforts to do so. The Quakers and all the friends of the
-slaves were forever at it, ding-dong, hammer and tongs, and thus the
-family quarrel went on. John Brown and free-soil men were in Kansas, and
-so were the "Border Ruffians" who came pouring in from Missouri and the
-South, being determined to carry Kansas and all other new States and
-territories into slavery like the rest of the slave States in their
-rear. And still the great American family quarrel went on, increased and
-grew, and the Christian voice of the North declared, "Thus far shalt
-thou come and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." The
-far-away Christian nations of the world watched the gathering of the
-coming tempest from over the seas, and it was apparent to their
-unobscured vision that a fearful judgment was coming upon America, and
-that it would not be long in coming, either.
-
-The escape of mother and Tom and myself from slavery caused no small
-sensation in and around Buffalo. An endless tide of visitors came on to
-see us, and they had a thousand questions to ask us about our early life
-and experiences in Kentucky and Louisiana. As Lemuel Jackson had caused
-us to be duly educated, so that we could even play the piano well, we
-were rather more fortunate in the line of education than most of our
-fugitive brothers and sisters. In those days, great anti-slavery
-demonstrations were all the go. The announcement that some great
-national abolitionist was to be on hand at the Hall, to address the
-general public on the wrongs and crimes of slavery, would pack the whole
-place, and sometimes the crowds that came could not find even standing
-room. Then music was added at times, songs were sung, even brass and
-stringed bands were brought into play, and everything was done to draw
-the prohibition hosts of the great North, then to keep them there, and
-finally to make them come again.
-
-The Abolitionists took advantage of our presence in Buffalo to help one
-grand meeting in the city for the purpose of making a demonstration in
-force, to prove that colored people were just the very same as white
-people when they were educated and polished, as we three had been.
-Because the lie had been repeated ten thousand times in the South, and
-reechoed by their abetting friends in the North, that we were unfitted
-for civilization, and that the African was formed by God himself for
-slavery, and for slavery alone, and was never intended by nature to be
-the equal and companion of white men and women! It was considered that
-our presence in a highly intelligent audience would knock that argument
-completely on the head, and kill the abominable falsehood once for all.
-Therefore they made a demonstration in force, and we ourselves were on
-hand.
-
-When the night and hour arrived, Tom, mother and myself proceeded to the
-hall, which was already half full, though we were there early. We saw
-that great things were expected of us all, and we braced ourselves up
-for the occasion, determined that nobody should go away disappointed.
-The music discoursed sweet tunes as the people were gathering, and in
-due course of time the Rev. Doctor Henderson called the meeting to
-order, and took the chair for the evening. He called on our pastor to
-offer up prayer to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The glee
-club then sang "The Negro's Complaint," which was written by Mr. William
-Cowper, of England. Then the chairman exclaimed,
-
-"Now, ladies and gentlemen, the slave-holders tell us that the children
-of African descent in these United States are unfitted for civilization,
-and that they are nothing but goods and chattels. I will now call upon
-one specimen of these goods and chattels to give us a rattling tune on
-the grand piano, and to sing us 'The Mocking Bird,' and put some life in
-it." (Great display of approbation, mingled with shouts of loud
-laughter).
-
-Then said the reverend speaker, turning to myself,
-
-"Mrs. Lincoln, will you be so kind as to favor us with some of your warm
-Southern music?"
-
-Now, of course, the indulgent reader will readily understand that upon
-this august occasion I was arrayed like a bride adorned for her husband.
-So I arose, bowed to the audience, and put on one of my sweetest smiles,
-and proceeded to play and sing with unusual vigor. When I came to the
-chorus the whole audience joined in, and I thought they would have
-brought down the roof of the hall on our heads. Nor was that the best
-part of it, because they not only sang at the end of each verse, but
-when I got through the entire audience arose upon their feet and shouted
-their applause, calling for an encore, and would not be refused.
-
-I gave them a Southern song with music, for which they gave me another
-sounding cheer, when Dr. Henderson introduced my honored mother, Mrs.
-Sutherland, in the following happy terms:
-
-"Dear Friends: We are assembled here to-night, in our accustomed place
-of meeting, to give the grand chariot of progress another push towards
-the bottom of the hill. (Loud applause). The lesson we wish to teach
-upon this special and most exceptional occasion is to show what the
-colored race are capable of doing and becoming if they had simply an
-open field and fair play. It is our desire to see them get an open field
-and fair play! (More applause). But I will not detain this large and
-splendid audience any longer, but at once introduce to you Mrs. John B.
-Sutherland, formerly of Kentucky, but now of Buffalo, who will entertain
-us for a time and address the house."
-
-Loud applause followed the Doctor's remarks, when my honored mother came
-to the front of the platform, and spoke as follows:
-
-"My good friends, I consider myself most especially honored this night
-to be permitted to come before you, to assist in driving another nail
-into the coffin of the 'peculiar institution' from whose clutches I have
-just been rescued by the kindness and daring of my own daughter. (Loud
-cheers). The South has told you ten thousand times that we of the
-colored race are only fit for hewers of wood and drawers of water, like
-the Gibeonites. These drawers of water of our poor, oppressed race, that
-they themselves may live in mansions more palatial than the lords, and
-barons, and dukes of Continental Europe and the British Isles. Who ever
-heard of such unmanliness and cowardice? Men who ape the aristocracy of
-Europe, and even surpass them in brilliant, grand displays, wringing
-their wealth from the oppressed African!
-
-"I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Almighty God is getting tired of
-such refined badness, and that the day is coming, and will soon be here
-when such a storm of wrath will be upon the South as will wipe out the
-blood-red crime of slavery from Mason and Dixon's line to the Rio
-Grande. The sooner that day of judgment comes the better!
-
-"Just look abroad over all these far-spreading Northern and Western
-States, and hear how they are ringing with the loud notes of freedom,
-and the sounds of coming conflict! I am free to say that upon this
-night, and at this very hour there are hundreds of meetings going on all
-along the Northern States for the purpose of enlightening the nation as
-to the real character, intentions and purposes of the South. The South
-is not ignorant of these things. They have got Argus eyes for all we do,
-both in Congress and out of it, and they will push things as fast and as
-far as they dare. They will give us no rest till we are either all
-slaves, or all free! (Loud applause). I look around me at the political
-skies, and I see them growing blacker and blacker as the great national
-storm is gathering. John Brown and the free-soil men are in Kansas; loud
-and angry words are being bandied forth between the occupants of the two
-ends of the house--between the powerful North and the passionate South.
-From words they will most assuredly come to blows over that very
-'peculiar institution,' and American slavery and all the evils that
-follow in its train, will pass away. But of one thing rest assured. The
-South will never consent to emancipate her slaves. They have been
-throwing it up in the face of the North these past fifty years that they
-can't get their own way; they will go out of the Union, and set up a
-slave empire of their own. Then they will attempt a dissolution of these
-glorious States. Then they will dare and defy you to force them back
-into the Union by the sword. The day is coming, and what will you do
-about it?" (Great cheering).
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-
-_Continuation and End of the Great Abolition Meeting at Buffalo._
-
-"The determination of the slave-holding oligarchy is to keep our
-persecuted race under a bushel--both soul and body--and to sit down on
-the top of that bushel for all coming time. They are stone blind to the
-fact that they are sitting on the top of a bushel of dynamite, which
-will blow them sky-high one of these days, with terrible effect. They
-have entirely forgotten that this world belongs to God; and they and the
-devil between them have made up their minds to do as they please.
-Between bloodhounds and cowhides they think they will do very well. My
-own firm belief is that a war is coming upon us that will carry mourning
-into every house in this great republic, both North and South. There are
-thousands and ten thousands of the very same opinion as myself. The
-South will never surrender their 'peculiar institution.' If it were
-dogs, cows or horses that they were called upon to give up, they would
-cheerfully give them up for a fair price. But the very 'Old Lad' himself
-is in the business when it comes to claim property in men and women,
-especially when those men and women happen to be better than themselves,
-which is usually the case. (Loud laughter and cheering all over the
-hall). When a dog, a horse or a cow runs away, they will let it go, but
-if it be a man or a woman, they will pursue the fugitive over mountains,
-lakes and rivers, and even die in the attempt to bring them back to
-slavery. If this rising storm shall end in a war, the old lie that the
-black man will not fight will certainly be exploded, for every slave
-will go to the field, if necessary, and their strong arms will knock
-down the 'peculiar institution.' (Great applause).
-
-
-[Illustration: _ABRAHAM LINCOLN._]
-
-
-"On my way down the Mississippi to New Orleans, they brought an old
-colored man on board, having sold him to a family resident in the Queen
-City of the South. I conversed much with that grand old hero, and it was
-wonderful to see what an intuitive knowledge he had of human nature, and
-what a vast amount of natural goodness there was still left in him,
-after so much hard experience, labor and toil among the cane brakes and
-cotton fields. Such a man as Judah--for that was his name--ought to have
-been a bishop in the Church of God, instead of being reckoned among the
-bales and bundles, and goods and chattels, of the Southern States. If
-that good man (who left such a deep impression on the hearts and minds
-of all Christian people who conversed with him)--if he had been free
-according to the will of God, and been educated like white men, instead
-of being robbed and plundered of his rights, he would have made a
-splendid bishop, for I am perfectly positive that he had every
-qualification for that office in the highest degree. That saintly
-man--that Judah--should this very day be the right reverend and honored
-bishop among his brethren in a nation where all are free, instead of
-being no more than a favored spaniel or ornament to grace the pride of
-some family in New Orleans. If that grand old man had only had the same
-opportunities that the white bishops have had, he would at this hour be
-gracing the churches and halls of this nation, the very same as white
-men do. The day of judgment is at hand that will reverse all that!
-
-"On the same voyage down the Mississippi to New Orleans, they brought on
-board a fair and beautiful creature of seventeen, who, like Judah, was
-also intended to grace a baronial hall in the Queen City of the South. A
-more attractive woman I have never seen anywhere. It was pitiable to
-think of her future. She was graceful in all her movements; most
-handsome; had a musical voice, and was withal a splendid singer. Where
-she was born I cannot tell, but they gave $2,500 for her! The more I
-looked at poor Julia, the more mournful I became. What a glorious
-ornament for society she would have been had she been free! Almost any
-honorable man would have been proud to make her his wife. She could have
-led the choir in the house of God, and could have sung with the
-minstrels before Queen Victoria and all the crowned heads of Europe. She
-might have been a bright and shining light in some way or other, under
-the guiding hand of divine providence; her life and times might have
-been written by some famous author, and read by millions of people in
-this and other nations of the earth.
-
-"In this way we can go on to the end of the chapter. Our traducers and
-slanderers say that we are unfit for this, that and the other thing,
-which is a deliberate and willful falsehood. We are well qualified for
-everything that any other race upon earth is qualified to perform, and
-that is the very reason why our maligners say we are not; and they are
-even unwilling to give us the chance to try. It is true that a few of us
-are educated, but very few. We three, that is, myself and daughter and
-her husband, were taught a little because we were favorably situated
-under Mr. Jackson, but the slave-holders, as a general thing, make a
-specialty of keeping us in the most complete ignorance, and it is a
-crime for a slave to be taught to read, write and cast accounts, and it
-is also a crime for any man to be found teaching him.
-
-"But there is a better day coming, and will soon be here; only we will
-have to pass through a time of the most tremendous affliction before the
-better times arrive. When, by the predetermined will of God, all men and
-women are free from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to
-the Gulf, then, indeed, shall we arise and shine forth, for our light
-will be come, and the glory of the Lord will be risen upon us. Then
-shall new schools and colleges be established all over the land, into
-which our sons and daughters will crowd, and they will also go to those
-which have been long established. Then shall our professional men and
-women go forth in their thousands and ten thousands, and spread to lands
-and islands beyond the seas. Then shall our senators and representatives
-enter the halls of Congress at Washington, and every state legislature.
-Our surgeons and physicians shall then ride forth precisely the same as
-their white brothers duly armed with the very same diplomas, authorizing
-them to heal the sick, and alleviate the ailments of those that are
-afflicted, instead of wearing their lives away in the cane brakes, the
-cotton fields and the rice swamp of the South as slaves. They may labor
-all over the far-extended lands as freemen toiling for themselves and
-their families at useful trades, and laying up money against a rainy
-day. Then shall children go forth in their hundreds and thousands to be
-trained like others for the duties of life, and to become the ornaments
-of society. Then shall our afflicted sons and daughters sit no longer in
-the galleries of the churches of the land as so many 'goods and
-chattels" thrust away up into the corner, but walk forth in freedom to
-the house of the Lord on the Sabbath day--go forth in their thousands
-and tens of thousands to our most Holy Communion in all that liberty of
-soul and body wherein the Lord has made us all free. The time would fail
-for me to tell, and for you to listen to all the good things that will
-come with freedom, after every man, woman and child, now in slavery, are
-at liberty."
-
-When Mrs. Sutherland had done speaking as above, she resumed her seat
-amidst a scene of great enthusiasm. Indeed the whole audience was worked
-up to a pitch of great excitement. The glee club now advanced to the
-front, and gave us one of their best songs, which was most heartily
-enjoyed by every person present.
-
-The reverend chairman now rose to his feet, and thus addressed the
-immense assembly:
-
-"Ladies and Gentlemen:--Just think upon the glorious speech to which we
-have listened, and the unanswerable arguments of the beautiful and
-accomplished speaker! There are wonderful changes in store for this
-nation, and the end is not yet. I will now call upon Mrs. Thomas
-Lincoln, of Kentucky, to address the house. Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs.
-Lincoln."
-
-Although this was my first appearance in public, and though that mighty
-audience looked formidable enough to scare an African lion or royal
-Indian tiger, still my own mind was firmly made up to brook no failure,
-and I proceeded to speak as follows:
-
-"My good Christian friends of the North: I bless and magnify the Lord
-this famous night, not only because I am permitted to address you, but
-because I am even free. It is very true that in yonder great slave land
-my lines fell to me in pleasant places; but after all, though I figured
-as 'The Flower-Girl of Riverside Hall,' I was no more in the eyes of the
-'peculiar institution,' ridiculously so called, than a pampered and
-favored greyhound with a gold chain around his neck! (Loud laughter.)
-That golden chain marked me for a slave, although it was my privilege,
-upon grand occasions, to become an ornament to grace my owner's triumph
-among his visitors, just like any other fragile vase set upon a
-mantelpiece. (More laughter). Upon those grand occasions our masters
-used to bring out the finest wines, richest fruits and rarest delicacies
-of the whole earth. The land and the sea were ransacked to find dainties
-for the glorious lords and ladies of the South, to set before their
-guests far more than the lords and dukes and barons of Europe and Asia
-ever even attempted to display. At our grand banquets it was my duty to
-pour out the wine, and assist in a general way in the dining-room, as
-the necessity of the moment might require. Then nature has endowed me
-with a voice for music, and as I am fond of singing, I had to obey,
-whenever I was bid, by giving them some of our Southern songs to the
-accompaniment of the grand piano, and even play for the company whenever
-they wanted to dance. (Loud applause from the young people). But I am
-bound to confess that often in the midst of these grand pastimes, when I
-deemed it prudent to look pleasant, and even to smile sweetly for the
-purpose of concealing my real thought, I was longing and praying for
-freedom, and regarded myself as no more than that aforementioned chained
-greyhound among other greyhounds that were free. (Cheers from the
-audience). I could not forget that at that very hour there were good men
-and women of color, down in the slave quarter, dressed in little more
-than sackcloth, stretching their weary limbs for the night upon their
-miserable beds, after a miserable meal of coarse cornbread, and a
-swallow of tea or coffee, perfect dish water, besides other stuff not
-fit for a horse or a dog to feed on! In the slave quarter there lay the
-best of men and women, of whom this world is not worthy, and here we
-were in the ball-room, abandoned to the dance as if there were no
-suffering in the world, much less not many yards away from the place
-where all our revelry was going on. Was it wonder, then, as my fingers
-flew over the piano, that I internally prayed, 'O my Good Lord, set me
-free! Set me free! and take me away from all this shallow and hollow
-mockery!' I had a tremendous presentiment, which I could not keep down,
-that the Lord God Almighty would yet visit the South for all this, and
-give our great lords and masters, on some near future day, the field of
-battle whereon they could show off their talents, instead of robbing and
-murdering the oppressed African, and thus living at his expense. O my
-God, it was too much! (Great cheering).
-
-"I was still very young. It was only spring when I was seventeen, when
-the Bishop and his wife were invited to our house. They were to be our
-guests during a great religious gathering at Louisville. I felt a sudden
-inspiration to make a rush for liberty, now or perhaps never. Besides,
-slavery is so uncertain, and as it is usually the unexpected thing that
-happens on their estates and plantations, if you don't take time by the
-forelock when you can, you may never have so good a chance again. I will
-leave it to my kind and gallant Tom to tell you how we got away; because
-I think that was the luckiest day in my whole life--unless, indeed, I
-consider also the day that my own dear mother and I sailed from New
-Orleans on the Columbia. There are great days in the lives of
-individuals as well as in the lives of nations, and I feel a heavenly
-presentiment in my own heart and soul that a great war is impending upon
-this nation, and that Almighty God will send it to set His people free.
-We are the Lord's own people, and we pray to Him every day. He has
-promised, many a time, in His holy word, to hear our prayers, and He
-does hear our prayers, and there are thousands and millions of prayers
-sent up to heaven every day to the throne of mercy that God would set
-the captives free. The North and South between them, may pass 'Fugitive
-Slave Bills,' and plan and scheme to keep the curse of slavery going
-till the end of time, if they like; but at the same time this world
-belongs to the great Lord of heaven and earth, and He will hear all the
-prayers of the oppressed before much more time rolls over our heads, for
-He is sure to set our people free.
-
-"I have been studying what I can to help on the good cause of
-emancipation, abolitionism, or by whatsoever name you may call it--I
-mean in this campaign that is now raging and at fever heat all along the
-Northern states, and from ocean to ocean. I am willing to do all I can
-to help the cause of the oppressed and terribly down-trodden slave. I am
-willing to place my services at the command of the managing committee in
-these parts, and to speak, to play, and to sing, and do my best in every
-way for the good cause. (Loud applause all over the hall). Fred.
-Douglass, and William Lloyd Garrison, and Henry Ward Beecher, and many
-others of the 'big guns' will be coming around; and perhaps even Mrs.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe herself. I think she, at least, ought to pay us a
-visit, for if any free colored person in the South is detected with her
-'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in his possession, that person may be sent to prison
-for twelve months. Now I myself managed to read 'Uncle Tom,' even in
-slavery. So did my honored mother and husband--all here present before
-you--and Mr. Jackson, our owner, could have been fined so much apiece
-for us three, had the State of Kentucky been made aware of the fact!
-(Loud ironical cheers and great laughter by the whole house). In a
-campaign like this, we must all put our shoulders to the wheel, and give
-a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together; and each and every
-one of us must do all we can to bring the abominations of slavery to an
-end. 'There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we
-will.' Such are the words of Shakespeare. We also are rough-hewing the
-cause of freedom for the slave. The divinity of heaven will give the
-proper shape and finish to these ends of ours.
-
-"As I have myself already drunk so deeply of the fountain of liberty, I
-think it is my bounden duty to do all I can to help on that good cause
-that lies so near all our hearts. And yet I do not see that I can do
-much more, when I have done my best, than to aid in heaping more fuel
-upon the top of the fire now raging, and thus assist in firing the
-Northern heart. Other weak women, besides me, have worked wonders in
-forwarding the cause of freedom and of God. Several of the greatest
-heroines of history are mentioned in both the Old and New Testament. One
-of the very first who was mentioned is Miriam, who led forth the women
-with timbrels and with dances at the Red Sea, for she commanded the
-people 'to praise the Lord, because He had done gloriously; the horse
-and the rider He had cast into the sea.' Then we come to the case of the
-brave and valiant Deborah, the most conspicuous of all the heroines of
-the Bible, for she led the Jewish nation to the war, and placed herself
-at the head of her volunteers on the mountains of Israel. So long as
-freedom and liberty are held sacred in this world, so long shall the
-name of the victorious and intrepid Deborah be ever green. (Loud
-applause). Another famous heroine of history was Boadicea, the Queen of
-the Britons, who placed herself at the head of her army and fought with
-the Romans. Then we have the burning and shining example of Joan d'Arc,
-who led on the armies of France, and cleared that country of the English
-invaders. Nor must we forget the intrepidity and courage of Her Majesty
-Elizabeth, Queen of England, who placed herself at the head of her
-troops when her native isle was threatened with invasion by the Spanish
-Armada. Such women were--each one of them--worth a hundred thousand men,
-not so much for what they could do in themselves, but because they
-greatly assisted in firing the national heart, and urging on the hosts
-of men to war.
-
-"Now, I am not saying that I myself will make a Deborah, a Joan of Arc,
-or an Elizabeth; but there are already in this campaign several heroic
-American women, who are doing yeoman service on behalf of the
-down-trodden and oppressed African, and if they can do something in this
-good cause, so can I. (Loud shouts of 'Yes, yes! so you can! Hurrah for
-Mrs. Lincoln!') I am at least willing to do my best in talking, in
-singing and in striking the dulcet chords of music, and wherein I may
-happen to fall short, others will atone for my deficiencies. Let the
-work go on! Let us lay the axe to the roots of this deadly and devilish
-upas tree! Let slavery be shaken to its lowest foundations, and be
-driven into the Gulf of Mexico! Forward, ye brave! And even if war
-itself must come, let it come, and even we women will go to the field!"
-
-With the last exhortation, I resumed my seat, when the audience rose to
-their feet and cheered, and almost made me blush at the results of my
-own small efforts. When the excitement had abated, and the audience was
-in readiness to hear the next speaker, the Rev. Dr. Henderson arose once
-more and said:
-
-"Ladies and gentlemen:--After the eloquent and stirring address we have
-heard from the wife, we shall now look forward with much pleasure to an
-address from that noble and gallant husband who safely piloted both
-himself and her out of slavery, as we plainly see here before us
-to-night. I beg to introduce to you Mr. Thomas Lincoln!"
-
-Tom arose at once, and as he advanced towards the footlights, he pulled
-down his vest and cleared his throat in the masculine fashion, the
-audience in the meanwhile cheering loudly, after which he proceeded to
-speak as follows:
-
-"My right good Christian friends:--It is with no small pleasure that I
-appear before you to-night to give you some of my sentiments, veins and
-opinions on the coming war in this country. (Sensation). I firmly
-believe that a war is impending over us, as I believe that there is a
-God of vengeance and of justice. Look at the millions and billions of
-money that the Southern chivalry have piled up, and they are piling it
-up still, at the expense of the poor, oppressed and enslaved African!
-And shall a sinful nation indeed escape from blood-red crimes like
-these? I am neither a prophet by profession, nor the son of a prophet,
-but even a child can understand that the funeral bell of slavery will be
-tolled before long, and depend upon it, ye young men! both you and I
-will be called into the field, and we will all be needed to pull down
-that most abominable and 'peculiar institution!' (Loud applause).
-
-"Though neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, I affirm that a day
-is coming, and is now on the home stretch, indeed, when you young men
-and I will not be permitted to stay at home and dally with the apron
-strings of our mothers and sweethearts, but we will have to march to the
-field. We will then make it manifest what we men of Africa can dare and
-can do. I shall be quite willing to go for one, when the South, in her
-frantic anger, will secede; I am willing to do all I can for my own
-country, and if those who are soldiers themselves never come home, we,
-at least, will clear the great national gangway for coming generations,
-and the glories that are to follow! (Loud cheers).
-
-"I suppose that some of our friends on the other side of the fence will
-begin to tell us here that the colored man will not fight, and that
-there is neither pluck nor courage in him. We shall certainly be told a
-hundred thousand times that there is no fighting in him, and that he was
-never intended for anything but a docile slave! Such persons who say so
-have never read even the A B C of history; for colored men fought quite
-as well as white men on many a hard-fought field, both in the War of the
-Revolution, and in the War of 1812; and what we did once, and did well,
-we can do again, and do better, and with a better motive, too, because
-we will be fighting for our own complete emancipation, and to put an
-end, once for all, to slavery in the United States, and purge the nation
-of a great crime. (Loud applause throughout the hall).
-
-"I need not go back in history to prove the bravery of the African race,
-for this is a well-known fact, and the very school-books are full of it.
-The bravery of the slave is one of the main reasons why the
-slave-holders make such stringent laws in attempting to perpetuate their
-iniquitous system. They know our prowess, and the risks they would run
-in the case of a general rising, and therefore they exercise double
-caution in order to keep down even the slightest attempts at
-insurrection. But for all that, there is not the slightest doubt in my
-own mind that they will go out of the Union, as they have been promising
-us to do for the last fifty years, if they cannot get their own way! In
-all their plans, schemes and calculations, this slave-holding oligarchy
-have thrown the Almighty overboard, and every sacred right of the human
-race. They have treated the wronged and oppressed African as if he had
-neither rights nor feelings, and, indeed, as if he were not a human
-being at all. But there is a day coming, and it will soon be here, when
-the Great Creator of the entire human race will call an imperative halt
-to all this, and go into this war as we may, we will come out with four
-millions of people who will be redeemed from the yoke and curse of
-Southern bondage. (Loud cheers).
-
-"I did not intend to make a lengthy address. I only wished to point out
-that we are drifting into war, and my own willingness to lend a hand to
-liberate the oppressed slave."
-
-Tom now resumed his seat amidst great applause. The audience, though
-taken by surprise by his speech, were greatly delighted, because of his
-willingness to go to the field.
-
-The reverend chairman now called on the glee club to give us some more
-of their musical compositions and campaign songs. These were given with
-a hearty good will, so that the enthusiasm of the audience rose higher
-and higher. The newspaper reporters were also kept busy, and a good
-account of the proceedings of this very successful abolition meeting was
-found in several of the papers next morning, and very extensively read.
-Before we scattered for the night, the Rev. Doctor Henderson arose, and
-made the following closing remarks to the audience:
-
-"Ladies and gentlemen: We have all listened to a rare treat this night.
-Just think of it! The South calls these two ladies and this gentleman
-their 'goods and chattels,' and for the very life of me I do not see how
-a war can be avoided, and then we shall know what their so-called goods
-and chattels will do when the storm shall burst upon us in all its fury.
-No, no! I do not see how a war is to be avoided, for the passions of
-both the North and the South are being worked up in precisely the same
-way as is usual in quarrels between individuals, and no doubt but it
-will all end by coming to blows in a terrible conflict.
-
-"In the meantime it is our duty to keep agitating as never before. It is
-a perfect outrage on humanity to hold in bondage such refined persons as
-these three here present to-night. We must agitate this great question,
-night and day, till the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in
-his wings. I now call for a vote of thanks to Mrs. John B. Sutherland,
-and to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lincoln. Let three rousing cheers be given
-for them!"
-
-The audience rose to their feet, gave three cheers and a tiger, and the
-great demonstration came to an end.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-
-_The Negro's Complaint--John Brown's Raid--The Secession of the Southern
-States--Battle of Milliken's Bend--Battle at Fort Hudson--The Effect of
-the Emancipation Proclamation on this Nation and the Entire Christian
-World._
-
-As my indulgent readers would perhaps like to know the lines of "The
-Negro's Complaint," which were sung so beautifully by the campaign glee
-club that night at the great meeting at Buffalo, I will here insert
-them. They were written by the Honorable William Cowper, of England, and
-directed against British slavery in the West Indies, and the slave trade
-generally. They apply with such force and truth to that self-same
-blood-red crime as carried on by the United States that they are worthy
-of being committed to memory by every true lover of poetry in the
-English language throughout the world.
-
-    THE NEGRO'S COMPLAINT.
-
-    Forced from home and all its pleasures,
-      Africa's coast I left forlorn,
-    To increase a stranger's treasures
-      O'er the raging billows borne.
-    Men from England bought and sold me,
-      Paid my price in paltry gold;
-    But, though theirs they have enrolled me,
-      Minds are never to be sold.
-
-    Still in thought as free as ever,
-      What are England's rights? I ask;
-    Me from delights to sever,
-      Me to torture, me to task?
-    Fleecy locks and dark complexion
-      Cannot forfeit nature's claim;
-    Skins may differ, but affection
-      Dwells in white and black the same.
-
-    Why did all-creating nature
-      Make the plant for which we toil?
-    Sighs must fan it--tears must water,
-      Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
-    Hark! Ye masters, iron-hearted,
-      Lolling at your jovial boards--
-    Think how many backs have smarted
-      For the sweets your cane affords!
-
-    Hark! He answers. Wild tornadoes
-      Strewing yonder seas with wrecks,
-    Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
-      Are the voice with which he speaks;
-    He, foreseeing what vexations
-      Afric's sons should undergo,
-    Fixed their tyrant's habitations
-      Where his whirlwinds answer--No!
-
-    By our blood in Afric wasted,
-      Ere our necks received the chain,
-    By the miseries we have tasted
-      Crossing in your barks the main;
-    By our sufferings since ye brought us
-      To the man-degrading mart--
-    All, sustained by patience, taught us,
-      Only by a broken heart.
-
-    Count our nation brutes no longer,
-      Till some reason ye shall find
-    Worthier of regard, and stronger
-      Than the color of the kind;
-    Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings
-      Tarnish all your boasted powers,
-    Prove that ye have human feelings
-      Ere ye proudly question ours!
-
-
-Time passed on, and Tom and I, and Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland, still
-continued to occupy the same house. The Lord blessed the entire
-household, and none of us had ever cause to regret the steps we had
-taken and carried out with such speed. We enlisted heart and soul in the
-grand anti-slavery movement, and blew the bellows with all our might to
-help on the good cause of liberty and perfect freedom. The border
-ruffians in Kansas had been beaten back into the South, which was the
-first open fight between the two high contending parties. That put the
-angry South in no good humor. Like an ungovernable, high-strung virago,
-her temper was up, and she threatened secession, and dreamed of
-extending a new slave empire around the Gulf of Mexico. The
-abolitionists of the North were unyielding, and the two sections were
-drifting into war.
-
-In the midst of so much combustion and heated temper, it would have been
-remarkable, indeed, if there had been no "flame" that burst out here or
-there. In all impending struggles and revolutions there is always
-someone who voices the pent-up feelings of one party or the other, and
-sometimes of both. On the impulse of the moment, as it were by an act of
-inspiration, somebody steps out of the ranks, and becomes the leader on
-his side. The man who led the way on the part of the anti-slavery party,
-was the famous John Brown, who figured so largely in Kansas, and in 1859
-seized upon the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia,
-while he was leading on a handful of white and colored men for the
-purpose of effecting a general rising of the slaves throughout the
-South. But the Virginians came pouring down upon him and his little
-band. Some were killed and wounded; others were missing, and John Brown
-himself and a few of his followers were hung. Still, John Brown was in
-the right. He was simply an outgrowth of the times. He regarded the
-slaves as prisoners, whom it was the duty of any man to set at liberty.
-They or their forefathers, at least, had been taken captive in Africa,
-and it--that is, American slavery--was the crying scandal of the entire
-Christian world. John Brown was one of the abolitionists of the North,
-and they were responsible for his actions. But the South was alarmed all
-over its dark domain. From Mason and Dixon's Line to the Rio Grande the
-news of John Brown's raid flew like wildfire, and the violent temper of
-the South grew to a white heat. And all the world--both at home and
-abroad--remarked,
-
-"If one single spark like this can raise such a conflagration, what
-shall we have when the anti-slavery party shall set their foot into the
-whole 'business' on a grand scale? If one man at Harper's Ferry can
-effect such a disturbance, what will ensue when the great overshadowing
-North will arise in her might, and call for a settlement of the whole
-question in favor of the oppressed African?"
-
-The war, indeed, was now nearer than before. The South would listen to
-no compromise nor reason of any kind. The haughty Southern lords would
-brook no interference. The Northern intruders who touched her "peculiar
-institution" touched "the apple of her eye." And now for war!
-
-The war came at last, and South Carolina was the state that struck the
-first blow. Then one state seceded after another, and they set up the
-"Southern Confederacy," with slavery as its corner-stone. Then the
-wildest and most tremendous excitement spread over all the great North,
-and the interest reached even the ends of the earth. For the time being,
-so great was the national delirium that the great masses of the
-population seemed to have completely forgotten the glorious cause of
-abolitionism, the grand doings of the underground railroad, and even the
-eternal decree of the Most High God that one man should not own property
-in another. But all the same the deep and thoughtful minds of all
-thorough-going Christians all over the world could see that this war
-should not close till every slave was set free. It was Pharaoh and the
-captive Israelites over again, "Let my people go, that they may serve
-me."
-
-That which threw the great North into such a state of excitement and
-alarm was not the slave question at all. The people were concerned over
-the breaking up of this great united republic, because the establishment
-of the Southern Confederacy cut the nation in two, and took away from us
-the middle and lower Mississippi. If the hair is the glory of a woman,
-as Paul says, the Mississippi river is the glory of the United States.
-Uncle Sam, therefore, even yet did all he could to induce the seceded
-states to come home again, and assured them in every possible way that
-not a finger should be laid upon their slaves, but that they should keep
-them all! But the haughty South had made up her mind to set up
-house-keeping for herself, and she thought she could do so even if the
-worst came to the worst. She had been getting ready for secession for
-fifty years, and now the crisis had come.
-
-There did not appear to be the slightest idea on either side that more
-than four years would elapse before the dreadful business would be
-settled. A call was made by President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand
-men to serve for three months, but a far greater number offered
-themselves. There were thousands, if not millions, of people who
-believed that the small affair would be all over in a very little while,
-and nothing was talked of but marching to Richmond, and winding things
-up. Then the rebellious leaders would return to their duties, slavery
-would go on as before, and the Mississippi river would once more flow
-through our glorious republic--one and undivided, from the headwaters of
-the same to the Gulf of Mexico.
-
-It never seemed to enter the minds of the great masses of the people
-then that the South was as terribly in earnest as she certainly was, nor
-how well-trained she was and ready for the fray. The skill of her
-leaders, the intrepidity of her sons, and fighting upon her own soil,
-were lost sight of to a very great extent in the wild delirium that
-seized on the great Northern heart over the breaking up of the Union. It
-did not seem to strike the national mind at the time that this was a war
-sent by God for the extirpation of slavery, and as an answer to the
-prayers of the oppressed millions in the South for freedom, and for the
-treatment of human beings. It did not then occur to the minds of the
-North that a day would come after nearly two years' indecisive fighting,
-when military necessity would compel the Federal government to free the
-slave by Act of Congress, and call upon him "to come to the help of the
-Lord against the mighty," and Shakespeare says, "There is a divinity
-that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will." and so it was even
-now.
-
-
-[Illustration: _BATTLE OF MILLIKEN'S BEND._]
-
-
-I shall never forget that morning at Buffalo--it was in the month of
-June, 1863, when the letter-carrier brought me the first war letter from
-my gallant Tom. The date was not given, but it came from a place called
-Milliken's Bend, on the Lower Mississippi river, and a battle had been
-fought at that place, since called by the historians, "The Battle of
-Milliken's Bend." But I will here insert Tom's letter in its entirety,
-as there are some other things in it besides war and fighting.
-
-"MILLIKEN'S BEND, June, 1863.
-
-"My Dear Beulah:--No doubt but you have already received the letters I
-sent you from New Orleans, after that I myself and the rest of the
-Buffalonians had landed in the Crescent City. I send lots of warm love
-to the entire family, and be sure to keep our two daughters, Ella and
-Fannie, regularly at school. My best love to the church in a body. Tell
-them to pray for us.
-
-"I have great pleasure in informing you that we have here completely
-settled the question whether colored men will not fight in America as
-well as their ancestors did in Africa. On the night of the 6th of June,
-about three thousand Texans came to our fortifications, and lay around
-our five hundred colored soldiers, besides a hundred white ones. Those
-three thousand rebels lay prowling around our men like so many cats,
-only waiting for the dawn of the 7th of June to gobble us up like so
-many poor, helpless mice. About three o'clock they came on with an awful
-rush, shouting, 'No quarter for niggers and their officers!' They got
-into our works, and the way that men fell on both sides was dreadful. It
-was really awful the way my poor comrades were shot down, or killed with
-the bayonet, though at the same time we mowed them down like grass
-before the scythe. Those strong arms of ours that had made the South the
-rich land that it lately was, now laid its defenders even with the
-ground. There was hardly a single officer, either black or white, among
-us who was not either killed or wounded. How I escaped myself without a
-scratch is more than I can tell, where there were so very few who came
-out of the battle as they went in. To God be all the praise!
-
-"The gunboats Choctow and Lexington assisted us very much, for they kept
-throwing shells into the enemy, and made them fly in all directions, and
-even up into the air! The white men on our side--one hundred of
-them--also fought like lions. One division of the rebels hesitated about
-coming out of a redoubt they had got into their possession. They were
-not willing. But our brave black soldiers went in with a rush, and
-assisted them in making up their minds by taking the bayonet to them,
-and thrashing them with the butt ends of their guns, precisely like
-thrashing wheat! They reminded me of a lot of guilty cats when the dogs
-are on them. Having suffered the loss of hundreds of men, and been
-completely vanquished in the bargain, the rebels were forced to retreat,
-and this they did with as good a grace as they were able.
-
-"No doubt but the telegraph has already carried the news all over the
-Union how our six hundred intrepid soldiers beat three thousand rebels.
-This will settle, once for all, the insulting question, 'Will the black
-man fight?' It will also secure for us more civil treatment from white
-soldiers, both North and South, and remind them that the Great Creator
-himself, and all foreign nations, make no difference whatsoever on
-account of the color of the skin. I would like to know what 'Old Massa'
-thinks of things now.
-
-"I send my best love to all those who may enquire for me, and please
-write soon to your most affectionate husband,
-
-"Tuesday night, 9 o'clock.
-
-"THOMAS LINCOLN."
-
-War surely is a terrible thing at its best estate. Nations have often
-waged war for mere conquest and ambition, which was the greatest crime
-that ever could have been committed. But here was a war for freedom--the
-freedom of millions of slaves. It was for this freedom that we had
-prayed for the assistance of the Most High God, and troubled the
-country, labored and toiled in all possible ways. It was for this
-freedom that all the chivalrous Christianity of the nation had put forth
-all its efforts; and now at times, many people began to doubt whether
-all these efforts had not been put forth in vain, because for the first
-two years of the war, our arms really made such small progress compared
-with what we had expected. And yet, for the very life of me, I am to
-this very day unable to see how we could have done much more than we
-did; for though the Northern troops were as brave as men could be, we
-had a foe to contend with who was quite as brave as ourselves--a foe
-manned by officers as good as our own, and fighting upon their own soil,
-where they knew every foot of the ground. Thus the war dragged slowly
-along, and the close of the second year found us with very little
-progress made.
-
-We were not in despair, but the South yet retained all her strength, and
-was proud and defiant. They were also determined to fight on, and did
-fight on with a valor worthy of a better cause. But how could we expect
-more success than we had under the circumstances? So great was the
-prejudice against color that white men were even unwilling to fight side
-by side with our own people; and then Lincoln and his cabinet were all
-afraid of affronting the tender and delicate susceptibilities of the
-South by putting even their little finger on the heinous institution
-called "Domestic slavery." Verily, they were carrying their
-squeamishness to a most tremendous length when lives had to be wasted in
-thousands, because white men were too proud even to fight side by side
-with colored men, and because we were so very timid about offending our
-"separate brethren," that the Northern officers even sent back the
-refugees from our armies--sent them back into slavery! And they even
-allowed their life-long oppressors to come into the camps, look around
-for their slaves, identify and claim their property, and carry them home
-again before our very eyes! Was it any wonder, then, that we had so
-little success in this war which God himself had sent, chiefly that the
-slaves should be freed?
-
-But the spectacle of thousands and tens of thousands of men being mowed
-down like grass before the Southern scythes gradually changed all that.
-The South, indeed, had a comfortable time of it, sending all their sons
-to the war, whilst the black population were taking care of their
-families, working their fields, and even throwing up intrenchments, and
-making themselves useful in a thousand ways by command of their owners,
-and against the forces of the North! Not that the slaves wished to work
-in these ways for the South, but because our very armies were helping
-their masters to keep them in their present position, even by returning
-them to bondage whenever they tried to gain their freedom. The Southern
-lords knew all about our "tender feelings" for their own
-"property"--falsely so called--and they took advantage of it.
-
-We had nobody but ourselves to blame for this state of things. Our men
-were mown down in thousands because we had such tender regard for the
-feelings of the rebels, and there was not the slightest sign that things
-would ever get any better. We whipped the South to-day and they whipped
-us to-morrow. In the meantime the strong, able-bodied African tilled the
-fields of the South, when he might have been fighting for freedom and
-the Union.
-
-
-[Illustration: _BATTLE OF PORT HUDSON._]
-
-
-But to return to the year 1863. Some changes had been made in the
-rapidly-shifting scenes of the war. Tom had been removed from Milliken's
-Bend, and gone to Port Hudson, where a most terrible assault had been
-made on the rebel defences about the 23rd of May. But I will here let
-Tom speak for himself, because he wrote to me often, and my greatest
-pleasure was to sit down and send him all our domestic news.
-
-"PORT HUDSON, on the Mississippi, July, 1863.
-
-"My Dear Beulah:--I arrived at this place a few days ago, and have been
-out to see signs and marks of the recent siege. Everything seems to
-interest me, and war is indeed a terrible game. I have heard great and
-full accounts of the awful fighting down in this place, much of which I
-must reserve for your patient ears when I come, if God my life shall
-spare.
-
-"You could not find a white man in all the Mississippi Valley to-day who
-will tell you that colored men wont fight. I don't know where such an
-idea ever arose, because it was the strong arm and perseverance of the
-slave in raising crops all over Dixie that created most of the wealth we
-found in the South, and I look upon it as a wilful and malicious
-falsehood in white soldiers, North and South alike, affirming over and
-over again that colored men would not fight. General Grant and every
-high officer in the Union army have given us most unstinted praise, and
-have affirmed that we fight nobly.
-
-"The accounts of the terrible fighting done here almost surpass human
-belief. About the 23rd of May, the Northern armies invested this place,
-and made a most tremendous effort to carry it by storm. The rebels had a
-naturally strong position, and all the appliances of war at their
-command. They had batteries and masked batteries, mortars, and, in
-short, almost everything known for destruction and modern warfare. They
-had even felled trees in our path, and their very cannon balls mowed
-down trees three feet thick. The noise of their guns made more din and
-uproar than the loudest thunderstorm. Against those brave and terrible
-rebels white soldiers from the North and colored soldiers from Louisiana
-advanced again and again, but all of them failed, and they were mown
-down like grass before the scythe. O terrible, sanguinary war! It was
-horrible! The balls and other missiles flew through the air thicker than
-hailstones. Once more we terribly underrated the prowess of the South.
-All of us were shipped alike, though we fought like gods! Oh, my dear
-Beulah! This is the price the American nation is now paying for the
-crime of slavery! The South carried out the villainy, and the North
-winked at the whole devilish business, thus, in fact, helping the rebels
-to keep on our claims! Shall a guilty nation indeed escape for deeds
-like these? At all events, we proved one thing during that terrible
-assault in May, and the subsequent siege of Port Hudson, and that was
-that colored men are as much men as white men, red, brown, yellow or any
-other race that can be named. These things were all well known before by
-every man, woman and child, but then, 'None are so blind as those who
-don't want to see.' The cry now is, 'Yes, yes! Colored men will fight
-well.' It is some comfort to know all this, for now we can get a rest.
-
-"I send a deal of love to yourself, the children, to Mr. and Mrs.
-Sutherland, to the entire church on Vine street, and to all others. I
-get all your letters.
-
-"I am, my dear Beulah, your most loving
-
-"THOMAS LINCOLN."
-
-From the accounts contained in the two foregoing letters that I received
-from my dear husband, my kind readers will see that it was a public
-revelation made to the whole nation that the colored race not only made
-first-rate soldiers, but that they were sorely needed by Uncle Sam in
-the day of his distress. Lincoln's Proclamation on the first of January,
-1863, completely broke down the dam from one end of the country to the
-other and throughout the whole land. Now the patriotic governors and
-many others bestirred themselves in raising colored regiments, getting
-them drilled, and pushed to the front with rapidity, so that the tide of
-war everywhere began to turn in favor of the Northern arms, and things
-began to look as if the very God of Liberty Himself was smiling upon the
-nation. Up to the end of 1862 the North had been fighting for nothing
-more than the restoration of the Union, and surely this was a noble
-thing to fight for, and especially for the possession of the glorious
-Mississippi, flowing all the way from its remotest springs at its
-farthest away branches in Montana, some 4,400 miles from the ocean. It
-was indeed something to keep the great river and all the States one and
-undivided. But what about slavery? Was it not, if possible, a ten times
-greater sin to carry on slavery than for the Southern States to secede?
-And yet there were thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers, officers
-and citizens all over the land who made the most strenuous objections to
-striking one blow for freedom--the very cause for which the war had been
-sent! Who need wonder, indeed, that our arms had such small success for
-almost two years after the rebels seceded? The only thing that surprises
-me is that we had as much success as we did, but we were taught a
-lesson, and we learned it well at last.
-
-
-[Illustration: _JOHN BROWN._]
-
-
-It was not long before the fame of the colored soldiers of America was
-wafted over the whole world, and was everywhere received by all lovers
-of freedom with most hearty applause. All, excepting those who believed
-in keeping other people down, heard the news with the greatest of
-pleasure. Many of the aristocrats of England, France and elsewhere, who
-had made investments in Confederate bonds, and sympathized with the
-South from the beginning, had no joy when they learned how Uncle Sam had
-turned a new element of strength into the field; but the common people
-everywhere all the world over, who had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in all
-the principal languages of the earth, and opposed the recognition of the
-Southern Confederacy from the first on account of slavery, rejoiced to
-hear that the Great North had at last turned over a new leaf, and
-brought the heroic sons of Africa into the field. It was a military
-necessity, of course; the nation was forced to do it; but all the same
-it was a matter of justice, and the right thing to do. Now the entire
-Christian world took ten times more interest in the war than before.
-They had been praying and often working in the interest of the American
-slave; and now they were delighted to hear of the self-same slave
-marching bravely to the field, and assisting white men in knocking the
-fetters off the whole race. Now, indeed, the scales began to turn in
-favor of the North, along the whole line. Before the first of January,
-1863, it was as if there were eight pounds in the Northern scale, and
-eight pounds in the Southern scale, but now we throw in 200,000 colored
-men or more into the Northern scale, when the Southern end of the beam
-flies up as the lighter weight, and it becomes clear to the obtusest
-mind that the South is doomed, and domestic slavery with it also.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-
-_Great Service of the Colored Race--Heroic Colored Women--Attack on Fort
-Wagner, 18th July, 1863--The ex-Slaves go to School--The Freedman's
-Bureau--The Jubilee Minstrels--A Long Letter From Mr. Thomas Lincoln,
-Describing His Life in a New Orleans Hospital--The Mississippi River,
-and the Fight at Pleasant Grove in the Red River Expedition._
-
-As I stated in the last chapter, recruiting went merrily on, and colored
-men came up "to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against
-the mighty." The heavens now smiled upon the Northern arms, and "the sun
-of righteousness arose upon them with healing in his wings." It is
-glorious to think how willingly our people threw down the shovel and the
-hoe, and advanced to meet the Northern troops as they came within easy
-striking distance. Thousands and tens of thousands crossed the
-mountains, threaded the mountain passes, kept on their way day and night
-up the rivers and down the rivers till they beheld the Union armies
-encamped away in the valleys, and a few more willing, enthusiastic
-bounds, and they were free! It was most refreshing to read the letters
-from the white soldiers at the time, commending these colored men in
-every possible way. They took a perfect delight in relating the thousand
-and one acts of kindness and sympathy that colored men and women
-performed towards countless Union men in times of distress, disaster and
-danger; how they secreted them; how they fed them, gave them rest and
-shelter, and how faithfully and skilfully they guided the armies on
-their way, and even piloted the Union boats in safety up and down the
-rivers of the South. Never were fidelity and devotion more marked since
-the world began, and it was downright pleasant to read the letters from
-"the seat of war," and see how these good deeds of the African were
-appreciated by the Anglo-Saxons. "Skins may differ, but affection dwells
-in white and black the same," and although "Old Massa" and "Old Missus"
-did their best to keep Lincoln's proclamation from the knowledge of the
-slaves, somehow or other the truth became known; in fact, it seemed to
-be carried on the wings of the wind, and now all prayed more and more
-fervently that the Lord would send freedom.
-
-
-[Illustration: _FREDERICK DOUGLASS._]
-
-
-It would be a pleasure for me to relate the deeds of devotion recorded
-of our people in behalf of the cause of God and liberty. There are two
-acts, those of heroic women, that I must not omit. We have all heard of
-General John Morgan, the Kentucky guerilla chief, who led a raid into
-Ohio, and worked so much wanton mischief on Union people and the Union
-in the Southern cause. We caught and imprisoned him in Ohio, but he
-escaped, and took to his tricks again, and was more fleet, and harder to
-catch than a long-legged greyhound. At last he was located one night in
-a far-away town or village of the South, and the nearest Union troops
-lay about twenty miles away. This devoted colored woman lost not a
-moment of time, but steered for the distant camp, gave them the most
-particular information, so that they rose at once, and upon arriving at
-John Morgan's rendezvous, they woke him up, and once for all put an end
-to his dreadful raidings on the Unionists.
-
-
-[Illustration: _MISSISSIPPI RIVER STEAMER._]
-
-
-I must next mention the case of a colored woman in Georgia, when General
-Sherman came riding through the woods on his famous march from Atlanta
-to the Sea. This woman was a regular heroine--"a mother in Israel"--and
-one who would have made a second Deborah, with a host of men, women and
-children at her back, all of whom the war had set free. This woman
-advanced upon the path of the troops, and having introduced herself to
-General Sherman and his men, gave glory to God and to the Union armies,
-whom the God of Hosts had there and then sent forth. Her language was
-worthy of a Shakespeare. On that day when Deborah, and Miriam, and Joan
-of Arc, and all the other heroines of history shall be gathered together
-in the Palace of God, I feel certain that this colored Deborah, this
-"mother in Israel," will be among them when the Lord of Heaven and Earth
-makes up His jewels.
-
-Where all did so well, it would be in vain to single out any one
-regiment that distinguished itself more than another. At the same time,
-there were certain regiments that attracted a great deal of attention to
-themselves because they were the first ones to break the spell as to
-whether colored men would fight like white men, and thus render
-effective service in the war. And such men were the colored troops that
-had been well drilled and sent down from Massachusetts to South
-Carolina, and who lent a hand in the investment of Charleston. It was on
-the 18th of July, 1863, when a general bombardment of both land and sea
-forces at once made a high-handed attempt to carry Fort Wagner--a rebel
-fort which lay on the narrowest part of a mere strip of sandy land
-called Morris Island, washed by the ocean on one side, and approachable
-by low, swampy marshes in the rear. The entire morning and middle of the
-day had been spent in bombarding the place till at last the extemporized
-fort, composed of timber, and stone, and sand, seemed to have crumbled
-away; for, as the day wore away, the rebels ceased entirely to reply to
-the land and sea forces, and the Federal troops were under the
-impression that the place was abandoned altogether, or at least
-destroyed past all hope of remedy for the present. The Union forces
-clamored loudly for an advance upon the fort, and to occupy the place
-once for all. After some hesitation the commanders assented to their
-wishes, and it was decided to advance just as the darkness of the night
-was setting in on that long July day. Alas, alas! It was a fatal
-resolution, for the rebels had been busy all the afternoon and early
-night making swift preparations to give our men a terrible reception. By
-the time that darkness had fully set in, Fort Wagner was almost as good
-as ever, although it had such a terrible knocking about all the early
-hours of the day. The Southern engineers were so clever, and their men
-had wrought with such a will, that it needed the bravest of the brave to
-fight with them; but as far as that was concerned we were all about
-even-handed when we had a fair field. Four thousand men, therefore,
-advanced along the sands of Morris Island with the intention of
-investing and clearing out the fort of its defenders, if there were any
-of them there. The colored Massachusetts troops led the way, and so they
-all advanced along the sands--the white sands that had but lately been
-washed by the ocean. Everything was as still as a stone till they came
-to a ditch, when a fearful tempest of shot from the cannon and musket
-assailed them, and the assailants were mowed down like grass before the
-scythe. Still our troops bravely advanced across the ditch, climbed up
-the bank, and pushed forward right into the fort, slaughtering the
-gunners and clearing a path before them. But all this time our brave men
-were being mowed down in rows. Many jumped into the fort and had to
-surrender there, because, indeed, they could neither advance nor
-retreat, being caught in a perfect trap. Thus we lost about half our men
-in killed, wounded and prisoners, and had to retreat in the best way we
-were able. It was a dreadful defeat that the Union forces sustained; but
-the colored troops had the honor of leading all the rest, and the
-foolish idea that colored men would not fight received another complete
-quietus, and their bravery was published in all the papers from one end
-of the Union to the other.
-
-We now come to the glorious subject of education--that which lifts up
-any nation from the bottom, and places it among the kings and queens of
-the world. The colored men and women of the South before who could read
-and write, were like angel visits--few and far between. You might search
-the whole day long, and not find one who could sign his name. But the
-government records show that in the year 1870, only five years after the
-close of the war, taking the entire population of the United States in
-the aggregate, there were two-tenths, which is twenty per cent., who
-could read and write. Here, indeed, was one of the signs of the times
-with a vengeance! Surely the colored race must have a great natural
-thirst for knowledge. In the year 1880, that is, fifteen years after
-freedom came, three-tenths, which is thirty per cent. of the whole
-population, could read and write; and in 1890, or twenty-five years
-after the end of the war, forty-three of every hundred. In other words,
-forty-three per cent. of the colored population of the United States
-could read and write--being ten years and over of age. At that time that
-I am writing my book, that is, the year of grace, 1897, inasmuch as the
-increase is going bravely on from day to day, I have no hesitation in
-saying that fifty per cent., that is, one-half of the entire colored
-population of the United States, North and South included, and--as usual
-in such government statistics--ten years of age and over, are able to
-read and write at least, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who
-can do a hundred times more.
-
-Now, since Adam and Eve walked hand in hand on the enchanting grounds of
-Paradise, I would like to know where the people can be found who ever
-came out of such Cimmerian darkness, who ever progressed at such a rate
-as this? The present march of education among the colored race far
-surpasses the march of the whites since freedom came, and it still keeps
-ahead of them at the present time of writing. Indeed, in some parts of
-the fair and Sunny South, we are in lead our white brethren; and it is
-quite superfluous for me to say that whoever are in the lead in
-education are the more intelligent of the two, be they black or white.
-
-Behold the stupid-looking and ignorant hordes of Italians, Poles,
-Bohemians, Chinese and others who are dumped down in shiploads upon our
-shores! Even at home in their own lands they are very little more than
-dumb-driven cattle! How much more, then, must their stupidity appear in
-full blaze of daylight in a highly-intelligent nation like this! It is
-like comparing the feeble light of midnight under the stars alone with
-the full blaze of a day when the sun is shining at twelve at noon. Shall
-we of the colored race, who may now safely count on fifty per cent. of
-the entire population who can read and write compare ourselves with the
-immigrants like these, or even with Spaniard or Portuguese, Turks or
-Greeks, who have had the opportunities of acquiring education for
-hundreds of years, while we, who were set free only thirty-two years
-ago, have produced men and women who have stood in honor before
-presidents and kings, and proved that we are able to climb to the
-topmost rounds of the ladder that Almighty God Himself has set up? No,
-indeed. Men and brethren, we are not going to come down and compare
-ourselves with any such persons! That won't do at all!
-
-As fast as ever the Northern armies cleared the way, benevolent and
-devoted teachers sent down by the different churches followed, and
-imparted to those who had never had a chance before the elements of
-English education, teaching them to read, write and figure, and many
-other useful things besides that accompany civilization and
-enlightenment. The American Mission Association took the lead, but the
-different churches and societies sent down their full quotas, and those
-volunteer teachers did a splendid and most devoted work. And yet there
-was some risk to run in this business, now being tried for the first
-time, because the war was still going on, and sometimes the Southern
-arms regained the territory they had lost, which brought the teachers
-into danger on one hand, and the colored people on the other. It had
-always been the policy of the Southern law-makers to keep the slaves in
-darkness, and even the rank and file of the white people themselves were
-purposely kept in a condition little better than the slaves. The
-planters kept teachers in their own grand halls, or sent their sons and
-daughters away from home for education. It was made a crime for a slave
-to be found with a book in his possession, or for anybody to teach him,
-whether he was white or a free person of color. A white man taught even
-the celebrated Bishop Daniel E. Payne in a cellar at Charleston, S. C.,
-of which city the bishop was a native. In short, the laws of slavery
-warred upon nature, and even on God himself. The whole system was a
-system of murder, robbery and adultery. Every human right was broken
-down; but as the Northern armies cleared the way the teachers and their
-colored pupils rushed in at once.
-
-On the 3rd of March, 1865, Congress launched the Freedman's Bureau upon
-the country for the purpose of assisting the freedman in any and every
-way just as soon as they were set free from slavery, and required the
-help of the national government. The Freedman's Bureau took education
-under its fostering care, and did a good work during the few years that
-it lasted, 1865 to 1872. The devoted teachers from the North had even
-begun to follow the very armies themselves as early as the year 1862,
-and we find them then on the Lower Mississippi. The colored soldiers
-took to their lessons well, and owing to their great thirst for
-learning, they learned with an eagerness and rapidity that filled their
-willing teachers with the greatest surprise. And throughout the freed
-zones did not only young girls and boys thus drink in--yea, literally
-swallow up instruction, but smart men and women sixty and seventy years
-of age and over learned to write, read, spell and cipher with a gusto
-and an enthusiasm that was most inspiring!
-
-"Arise! Shine forth, for the light has come, and the glory of the Lord
-has risen upon thee!" Thus saith the Prophet, and it was now fulfilled.
-What a treat, to be sure, for men and women thus to learn to read the
-mighty word of God, many of them in their old age! Verily, the ways of
-the Lord are wonderful and past finding out! Much hardship was
-experienced at first in finding suitable buildings in which to teach the
-people, and many a church and school-house were burned to the ground
-both during the war and the first years that followed the entire
-collapse of the "peculiar institution," but that has not stopped the
-triumphal march of the education of the colored race, for who, indeed,
-could stop the waves of the ocean?
-
-It is indeed a joyous thing to look around us at this time and behold
-even now how high the sun has ascended in the heavens. If we have
-advanced so much in thirty-two years, how much farther shall we be in
-thirty-two more? Behold all the schools, colleges and places of learning
-of every name and nature thrown open in hundreds to our young people,
-both male and female! What a glorious array of splendid seminaries all
-over the great republic, besides hundreds belonging to the whites, to
-which we can obtain admission! It is true that there are others still
-barred against us on account of the prejudice still obtaining here and
-there owing to the color of the skin, but that will give way in due
-time, for there is nothing incapable of change but the Great Creator
-Himself.
-
-By way of illustrating the results of the great Civil War, let us look
-back a little over twenty years, when Fisk University, at Nashville,
-Tennessee, sent forth Miss Ella Shephard and the rest of the "Jubilee
-Minstrels" to astonish the North with what even those who had been in
-slavery could do, when once their God-given talents were brought to the
-front. For the benefit of Fisk University they sang an immense sum of
-money out of the country, and covered themselves with unfading glory for
-all coming time. And where would those poor girls have been if it had
-not been for their own fathers who assisted white men in the war to
-knock off the chains of slavery? Why, to be sure, instead of being the
-"Jubilee Minstrels" in the North, they would have been toiling among the
-cotton, the sugar-cane and the rice fields of the South, wearing their
-young lives away down there.
-
-
-[Illustration: _A SCENE ON THE JACKSON PLANTATION._]
-
-
-But the glories of the "Jubilee Singers" were by no means over. More
-money was still needed, and those devoted people again took to the road,
-and this time, with most laudable ambition; they even crossed the North
-Atlantic, and sang with the most abundant success before the crowned
-heads and grandees of Europe. These crowned heads and grandees knew full
-well that if it had not been for the war for freedom and the union, the
-singers would at this time have been in the cane, the cotton and the
-rice fields singing:
-
-    Away down in Egypt's land
-      We have gained the victory,
-    Away down in Egypt's land
-      We have gained the day!
-    Oh, children ain't you glad,
-      The sea gave away?
-
-    When Moses smote the waters
-      The children all passed over,--
-    O, glory, halleluia!
-      For we have gained the day!
-    Oh, children, ain't you glad,
-      That Moses smote the waters,--
-    Oh, children ain't you glad
-      The sea gave away?
-
-
-The Jubilee singers did sing the above song and many others before the
-rich and great, and the general population of the British Isles and
-continental Europe, but it was to let them hear what slaves used to sing
-before the war to wile away the time before Uncle Sam came down from the
-North to set them all free; in doing which he was assisted by 200,000
-colored men, or more. Such are the fruits of war!
-
-I here append a letter I received from Tom at New Orleans, whither he
-had been carried and placed in a hospital on account of a wound he had
-received in a skirmish with some of the rebel forces on the Lower
-Mississippi:
-
-"At the hospital, New Orleans, La., December, 1864.
-
-"My Dear Beulah:--
-
-"I dare say that you and the children are looking for a letter from me
-once more. I duly received your own nice, kind and most welcome letters,
-with all the sweet home news, and I can assure you that they did me an
-immense deal of good whilst being confined here with my wound. I am,
-however, doing very well indeed, and in a short time expect to be
-discharged and in the ranks once more. It is impossible for me to tell
-you of the kindness and attention of these doctors and nurses in this
-hospital, it is really most astonishing to see strangers so kind. We are
-all loud in the praises of these good people, who are taking the best
-care in the world of us when we are so far from home and from our loved
-ones. Nobody knows how much good there is in the world until he comes
-across good strangers like these. Of course there is always plenty of
-evil in it too; but it is at least a very great compensation to come
-across so much love and kindness among such strange people. We never
-looked for anything better than cuffs and blows!
-
-"Although I was not in the very best mood, as I was brought down to New
-Orleans to enjoy the sights all around me, still I was tremendously
-impressed with the majesty and immensity of the ever-glorious
-Mississippi. Well, to be sure,--to be sure! What a grand factor of our
-national greatness is the Mississippi! I don't wonder at yourself and
-Mrs. John B. Sutherland always making such a fuss over our glorious
-river. Indeed too much can never be spoken in its praise, and, above
-all,--of the great Creator who made it. I have seen plenty of the
-'Father of Waters' before on many a long day, as I went sweeping past
-the forts where I was located further up the river; but, as we came on,
-it received so many and such large rivers, into its swollen waters, till
-it was more like a sea than a river; and, although level and destitute
-of beautiful banks like the Ohio, it had ever an increasing majesty and
-grandeur about it that mightily impressed all who beheld it. I don't
-wonder at Uncle Sam fighting so hard for the restoration of the Union.
-Such a river as the Mississippi alone,--if there were no other,--is the
-very joy and glory of the United States. But I shall have more to tell
-you about these things at another time, and I hope to be able to do so
-by word of mouth when the war is over.
-
-"I very much regret to inform you that several of my wounded comrades
-have died since we were all brought into this hospital, though the most
-part of them, in common with myself, have recovered; and we now all
-desire to go back to war as soon as we are well.
-
-"I have had a good deal of conversation with a soldier who served in the
-Red river campaign under General Banks, and where the rebels numbered
-three to our one. In that campaign we were unsuccessful, for they
-defeated our forces day after day. We were about ten thousand in number,
-as we fled before such overwhelming odds. It was at this crisis that the
-black soldier proved himself such 'a very present help in the time of
-trouble.' If it had not been for Dickey's colored troops there would
-have been a regular slaughter of the Union forces at Pleasant Grove.
-These colored soldiers were attached to the first division of the 19th
-corps. Our army under General Banks had been beaten both days at Sabine,
-Cross Roads, below Mansfield, and they drove us for several hours before
-them towards Pleasant Grove. And yet the ardor and spirit of the
-combined Union forces under Banks and Franklin could not have been much
-higher. But for all that, it was quite evident that unless the rebels
-could be checked by the time we were pushed back to Pleasant Grove, all
-would be lost. So General Emory prepared for the coming crisis on the
-western edge of a wood, which had an open field before it that sloped
-down towards Mansfield. It was at this point that General Dwight formed
-a brigade of the colored troops right across the road in the face of the
-rebels, who came rushing and hurrahing on, driving our ten thousand men
-before them. They were charging at double quick time; but the black
-brigade reserved their fire till the exultant rebels were close at hand,
-when they all poured a deadly volley into them, arresting them at once,
-and covered the ground with their dead and wounded. Now a regular fight
-came on which lasted an hour and a half, and only ceased even then
-because darkness put an end to the terrible combat. The foe made one
-charge after another, and as he had plenty of men, he thought he would
-wear us out at last; but the black soldiers and General Emory's brigade
-successfully repulsed them every time, and thus saved the Union army
-from being destroyed. Nor was this the only time that our own troops met
-the rebels in the Red river campaign, and defied both them and their
-repeated threats of 'the black flag;' for they always said that they
-would not treat a black man like a white man if the former fell alive
-into their hands. They said they would treat him like a wild beast, and
-not like a human being at all! No doubt but that was done to keep our
-soldiers from fighting for freedom and the Union; but the threat most
-signally failed, because our brave men cared not a straw for their black
-flag; indeed the threats, and even the practices of the rebels in
-destroying some of our prisoners whom they took in the beginning
-contributed a great deal in bringing about the downfall of the rebel
-powers, at least up to the present time; and will no doubt contribute
-more and more till the last rebel lays down his arms. Although a war
-proclamation has been issued that we will shoot our rebel prisoners, if
-they kill any of our men, I am unable to say what general effect it has
-had so far. I only know that none of the men who have fallen alive into
-their hands have ever since been heard of, and I fear the worst. But of
-one thing I am sure, and that is, that the 'black soldiers' so far has
-done as good fighting as the 'white soldiers,' and he has either won or
-been defeated with the latter on many a hard fought field. He has had
-his full share in disaster and victory alike; and thus he will still
-assist in pulling down this terrible rebellion,--but I must lay down my
-pen. With much love to yourself and all, I am,
-
-"Your most affectionate,
-
-"THOMAS."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-
-_Tom's Letter From the Seat of War--The Pilgrim's Progress--Niagara
-Falls--Visit to Canada--Letters From Richmond Hill--Great War Interest
-in Canada--The Girl's Letter to Papa--Tom's Letter and Poem on the Great
-Fight With the Bloodhounds in South Carolina._
-
-I have always believed that it was because the Lord loved me that He
-gave me so good a husband, who, by the bye, is preserved to me yet, and
-for the same reason, that He allowed me to have my dear mother with me
-again. She has been the very joy of my life, and is with me still. I
-would have missed my gallant and devoted Tom in no small degree when he
-went away to the war among so many others of the brave and true, only he
-was so attentive about writing me letters during his absence. I have
-kept all those missives of his, and laid them carefully away, and I have
-always said they would make a good book if they were printed; and some
-day I may put them in book form.
-
-And Tom's numerous and well-written letters were not only a perpetual
-treat and joy to myself, but the two sweet girls, and Mr. and Mrs. John
-B. Sutherland, and a few select friends who came round the house seemed
-never to tire of reading his letters. He also wrote each of them a
-separate letter occasionally, but as a general thing, his long letters
-to myself had to serve for all.
-
-During all this time the girls were growing up finely, and every twelve
-months I had their photographs taken and sent to him to let him see how
-nicely they looked in their New Year's dresses. Tom sent up photographs
-of himself in his plain soldier's dress, and also in his officer's
-dress, after his promotion. Poor Tom! My eyes often filled with tears
-when his letters came, and I sat down with an anxious heart to read
-their contents. I knew, of course, that the children and I should be
-provided for, should Tom be numbered with the slain, but we all longed
-to see him, and prayed much to Almighty God that if it was His gracious
-will our Tom might come home to us once more from the war.
-
-
-[Illustration: _SCENES AT NIAGARA FALLS._]
-
-
-It was at this time that one Christmas my two daughters were cojointly
-presented with a large, splendid, and well-illustrated copy of "The
-Pilgrim's Progress"--a book that attracted them so much that they have
-been reading it ever since! This glorious book kindled up all the latent
-enthusiasm of their souls, and in their excitement over "Doubting
-Castle," "Vanity Fair," and a hundred other wonders, they even wrote
-letters to their father about that wonderful book and its author--the
-tinker and preacher of Bedford. Their youthful enthusiasm amused their
-father very much, and he wrote back to them at once to read all in the
-Pilgrim's Progress that they wanted. They used to take turns with the
-book; one would read for an hour at a time, and the other would listen.
-I have always looked back upon the coming of that book into my house as
-a real blessing.
-
-And still we always continued to attend the ordinances of our sweet
-little Church on Vine street--attended them on the Sabbath and during
-the week. The girls went to the Sunday School, and we adults assisted
-all that we could.
-
-As Niagara Falls were not more than twenty-two miles away, we all
-occasionally took a holiday and went down and spent the day there,
-crossing over to the Canadian shore by way of the Suspension Bridge,
-that we might stand on Table Rock and see the great "Horseshoe Fall."
-Well, really, the Falls of Niagara are a wonderful sight. Even our own
-smaller American Fall is a splendid sight, though rather diminutive
-compared with the great Horseshoe Fall on the Canadian side of the
-river. I can never understand how a mere puny man can stand before the
-great Creator's works here, and say, "There is no God."
-
-During the fall of 1864, I took my two daughters and went as far as
-Oxford county, Canada, to pay a visit to a dear family with whom I
-became acquainted in Buffalo. The weather was most delightful, and we
-enjoyed ourselves very much indeed during the month we remained on the
-farm. At that time I wrote the following letter to Tom, and will here
-introduce it, as it will speak for itself:
-
-"RICHMOND HILL, Oxford Co., Canada, Sept., 1864.
-
-"To Captain Thomas Lincoln,
-
-"My Dear Husband.--The children and I took the train at Buffalo and came
-here two weeks ago, to pay a long-promised visit to the Gibsons at
-'Richmond Hill' farm, which lies in the county of Oxford some ten or
-twelve miles from the nearest station on the railroad. We left Buffalo
-early in the morning, and thus had the whole day before us, and plenty
-of leisure to look at the highly cultivated country through which we
-passed. The country was truly delightful all the way to Ingersoll, were
-we got out of the train, and where one of the Gibsons met us with a
-buggy. We all got in, and the children and I were greatly pleased with
-the charming country all around us, the farms being in such a high state
-of cultivation. But it was not all farming land that we passed through,
-for our way in one place led us through the forest, where the squirrels
-were running in perfect freedom overhead in the branches, and we could
-hear the woodman's axe ringing both far and near and bringing down the
-tall trees. After we had come about ten miles, we saw 'Richmond Hill'
-high up on the rising ground on the far side of a very narrow valley,
-that ran down to the cypress swamp away on our right hand. So we issued
-out of the woods on the top of the hill we were now descending, made our
-way along the creek at the bottom for a little distance to the right,
-and then we opened a big country gate and made our way up through the
-fields to the farm house door. While the girls and I were looking around
-at the grand view presented on all hands to our astonished eyes, the
-front house door opened, and out came Mrs. Gibson and her two daughters,
-and as many of the sons as were at home at the time of our arrival. They
-helped us out of the buggy, kissed and embraced us most rapturously, and
-gave us a very warm, hearty and enthusiastic welcome. (My whole soul
-fairly grows warm when I think of that welcome among the good
-Canadians). So they brought us into their nice house, which reminded me
-of the 'Palace Beautiful' in the Pilgrim's Progress. I had a little room
-for myself on a wing of the house. They called my room the 'Guest
-Chamber,' and it was a snug room with a pretty name I am sure. The girls
-slept in another small room near my own. Our things were all brought
-into the house and well disposed of within reach, and we felt most
-thoroughly at home among a kind people whose loving ways filled me and
-the girls with surprise. Mr. Gibson himself came home during the day,
-and gave us a warm welcome to Richmond Hill, and we saw the whole family
-with the exception of two who were not at home at that time.
-
-"The friends and neighbors round about heard of our arrival and came to
-see us, and to invite me and the girls to pay them a visit as soon as
-ever we were able to do so. Indeed, had I known of the beauty and
-enchantment of this place and such a kind family, I would have been here
-long ago, never you fear!
-
-"This glorious visit to Richmond Hill, where we have already been for
-two weeks, seems to the girls and me the essence of all enchantment, and
-the very ground we tread upon seems to be perfectly enchanted ground.
-The weather is so fine, the Gibsons themselves are so refined and
-polished, and there is so much beauty all around us, that life itself
-seems to be one long day of joy. It is so delightful to climb the hill
-behind the house, and look across the deep and narrow valley below us to
-the primaeval forests through which we rode; then we can see the winding
-creek away to our right, and the evergreen cypress swamp away upon our
-left. After we have seen all that, there are still the farm houses and
-cottages lying all round about us on the hill tops, and we often turn
-into one of them and sit down for an hour after our walk.
-
-"The Gibsons are neither Secesh, nor semi-Unionists, nor even
-Copperheads! They are good Union people out and out, and they are for
-the restoration of the American Union. You would be thunderstruck if you
-were here and beheld the overwhelming interest that the Canadians take
-in the Civil War in the States. They are mostly Unionists, but some few
-would rather see the South win,--just the very same as they are in
-England and France. But we need not blame these few Canadians, nor go
-all the way across the North Atlantic to England, and Germany, and
-France, for all the Northern States are honeycombed with Democrats and
-semi-Unionists called 'Copperheads,' who are doing almost as much harm
-to our arms as the rebels themselves; because they sympathize with the
-South,--they desire them to retain their slaves, and would object to the
-colored man being made a freeman and a citizen. They have no heart for
-the Union with freedom.
-
-"We have little cause indeed to find fault with Southern sympathizers
-far, far away beyond the deep, blue seas, when they are swarming all
-over the North, and are found mixed up in every part of the
-Union,--East, West and South as well. There are tens of thousands of
-people, who, I firmly believe, would rather see the very Union itself
-broken up than that the curse of slavery should now come to an end! We
-here in Canada have nothing to do but look around us to see the proofs
-of all this. In these trying days, when Uncle Sam is compelled to resort
-to one draft after another draft, to fill up the depleted ranks of our
-armies, there are thousands and tens of thousands of men who have
-crossed over here into British America, and I have seen plenty of them
-with my own eyes. One day I met quite a fine young doctor from
-Maine,--quite a fine medical man, and a good looking fellow to boot, who
-addressed me in these words, "I was at home in Maine with my newly
-married wife when the draft came, and I was taken. I have no hatred
-against Southern men who never did me any harm, and considered I had no
-right to throw my young life away on Southern bullets. I had also other
-conscientious objections to the whole business, and did not consider
-their war any interest of mine! The Canadian frontier, therefore, being
-near at hand, it was my own privilege to do just as I pleased--'to use
-force' as well as they! So I crossed the Canadian border, and here I am
-in good health and safety! Upon that he drew a letter out of his inside
-vest pocket,--a letter just received from his wife, along with the
-photograph of her, which he showed me, and she looked most uncommonly
-pretty too.
-
-"One day the girls and I were walking along the high road when we met
-six men who had come over from the Northern States, and all over the
-length and breadth of Canada, they are everywhere, and indeed, the very
-woods seem to be full of them!
-
-"The first thing I do in the morning, and the last thing at night, is to
-pray to our Father in Heaven for you, my own dear Tom,--that he may take
-care of you; and, if it be his good will and pleasure, to bring you back
-safe and sound to us at home. I no longer wonder at some people being
-fond of travel. No wonder, for it has its charms and great ones too. It
-seems to me so very strange that the children and I,--in a few hours
-time, should be transported from the City of Buffalo to this romantic
-and almost ethereal home upon the hills of Western Canada, and then for
-me to turn around and think of you and the rest of the army battling
-away for freedom and union in the Fair South! We get the papers here
-every day. They are brought from the nearest post town which is three
-miles away, and then we all have such a scramble to hear the latest news
-from the seat of war, as they call it on their great headlines. It does
-not surprise me so much that we at home should make such an ado over the
-war news, but that these Canadians should also take so much interest as
-ourselves seems to me most astonishing indeed. It is just three miles
-from here to the post town, and one day we three went to spend the day
-with some relatives of the Gibsons. On an open space at the entrance to
-the town stood a large tent,--a kind of show called 'The War in the
-South.' We paid the showman five cents apiece and went in to see the
-pictures of the war set out on the canvas. We looked through the round,
-bull-eye glasses, and the general effect was to magnify the whole scene
-to a very great extent. I must confess that after all that I have read
-and heard, this peep-show, or whatever else you may call it, gave me a
-better idea of the field of war, and its far-spreading extent than all I
-have ever learned from other sources,--all put together.
-
-"As we stood and looked we could see the long, fertile, southern plains
-under the noon-day sun; the woods and forest lay around them like a
-fringe in the distance; so minute and life-like did the very trees and
-bushes appear that I could almost tell what species they belonged to.
-Other pictures, in which we were ten times more interested, showed us
-the northern and southern armies on the march with flags flying, or else
-they were encamped on the edge of a wood among the lofty trees. There
-were also scenes of war and a battle which looked really too dreadful,
-even to behold the pictures of them. At such times I felt quite inclined
-to shut my eyes on such awful scenes. 'If such is the mere picture,' I
-said to myself, 'what must the reality of actual war be.' When we had
-thoroughly satisfied ourselves with this famous little peep-show, we
-came out, considering that we had had a good five cents' worth,--I mean
-five cents a piece! And so we moved on to our friend's house, where we
-had a most uncommonly warm welcome, and where we spent the whole day,
-some other friends coming in to see us during our pleasant visit.
-
-"I must not forget to tell you that at the farm house at 'Richmond Hill'
-they have quite a fine piano; and, as my experience during the great
-Abolition campaign in the North made me quite an adept at speaking and
-singing in public, I have been able to entertain these good Gibsons and
-other Canadian friends with some of the music and songs I used to play
-and sing. Our girls also have dome very well on the piano, to be so
-young yet.
-
-"We all send our warmest love to you; and if I see any good reason for
-writing you again before we leave Richmond Hill, will send you another
-Canadian letter before our return home, and I remain, my dear Tom, ever
-your most affectionate wife,
-
-"BEULAH LINCOLN."
-
-When we had been a month at Richmond Hill, and were getting ready for
-our departure on the following day, the girls had a great desire to
-write their papa. So I furnished them with the writing materials, upon
-which they put their heads and thoughts together, and wrote the letter
-that follows:
-
-"RICHMOND HILL, October, 1864.
-
-"Our Dear Papa:--
-
-"With great pleasure we send you this letter, we your daughters, who
-love you. We are all quite well, and hope you are well also amidst the
-dangers and toils of the war. All the letters and other things that you
-sent us to Buffalo were forwarded to us to Richmond Hill, in Canada. We
-have read your letters over and over again with great interest, and the
-friends here have read some of them that told all about the military
-operations in the fields, and they were very well pleased with their
-contents, for the Gibsons are great union people too.
-
-"As the weather here has been most delightfully sunny, and we have been
-so much in the open air on these Canadian hills, both mama and our two
-selves have gotten quite fat, and also look as people do when they come
-from the bathing places on the sea shore. We also feel right good, all
-three of us, for we have had a grand time, and been so very kindly used.
-Thus our hearts and minds are content, and we are going home to Buffalo
-to-morrow filled with pleasure, like heavily laden bees going humming to
-their hives with plenty of sweet honey.
-
-"We have been to church in the town every Sunday since we came here. The
-Gibsons are Presbyterians, and so we went to the Presbyterian church,
-and indeed it is very beautiful. We stood up to pray instead of kneeling
-down as we do at Vine Street, in Buffalo, but Dr. Bell is a famous
-preacher.
-
-"As the buggy could not hold everybody, mamma rode both ways and we
-walked, and we never thought of getting tired.
-
-"The horse is an awful quiet one, something little 'Gentle Annie' of the
-song. We were not a bit afraid to drive on week days by our two selves,
-and bring the mail from the postoffice; and then we learned how to drive
-and manage a horse. But the Gibson horse would never make a war horse,
-he is not strong enough, and the cannons would frighten him too much.
-
-"We do not go to market here for fruit and vegetables. We just open the
-gates to the garden and orchard, and bring in all the potatoes, cabbage,
-turnips, pears, peaches, apples, and whatever else we may need. We have
-been very busy paring apples; and besides that we have a lot of fruit in
-jars that we are going to take home to Buffalo. The preserves will be
-nice in winter.
-
-"We met with a wonderful piece of good luck at Richmond Hill. The
-Gibsons have got an enormous copy of the Pilgrim's Progress,--as big as
-a family Bible, published in London, and all the pictures are quite
-different from those in our own. O, what grand times we had looking at
-all the pictures!
-
-"When night came on, we girls took our turn and read 'The War in the
-South' in the 'Daily Toronto Globe.' How our eyes did glisten as we read
-many parts of the news!
-
-"We will leave this house to-morrow after an early breakfast. One of the
-sons will drive us to Ingersoll railway station. We have now seen the
-whole family,--all the Gibsons. We never knew that there were such fine
-people in Canada. We are all so very glad that the Lord directed our
-young feet to this place.
-
-"We must now close our letter with much love from everybody, and we are,
-our dear papa, your most loving daughters,
-
-"---- and ---- Lincoln."
-
-We got home to Buffalo once more all right, but that grand visit made a
-very great impression upon our hearts and minds. I have attempted to
-place a few sketches of it before my kind and indulgent reader, but Oh,
-dear me! if I were to write down all that I could write about that
-famous visit it would fill up a whole book. Perhaps I may return to the
-subject again.
-
-Soon after our return to our happy and pleasant home in Buffalo, I
-received the following letter from Tom:
-
-"NEW ORLEANS, La., October, 1864.
-
-"Mrs. Beulah Lincoln,
-
-"My Dear Beulah:--Since I was promoted to the rank of captain, my duties
-have varied a good deal more at different times than they did when I was
-a private in the ranks. I have lately been away in the interior of this
-State, but here I am back to the Crescent City once more, and ever
-trying to attend most faithfully to my duties. I tell you, my dear
-Beulah, it takes every one of us to do our very best,--with a long pull,
-and a strong pull, and a pull altogether,--to pull down this terrible
-and powerful rebellion. People can think, and talk, and even write all
-they please; but I am firmly convinced that had Abraham Lincoln not
-issued his famous emancipation proclamation on the 1st of January, 1863,
-the war would go on for twenty years, and perhaps we would have to
-compromise with the rebels even then. And then they are such fighters!
-Why, they are worse than tigers! However that may be, I know one
-thing,--since the issuing of that proclamation the rebellion has been
-cut down in territory on all sides; and, as we have got hold of the
-rebel ports, one by one, the blockade runners have been cut off by sea
-to that extent. Thus we have cut off their supplies from foreign
-nations; and right here I may notice that, as to the millions of silver
-and gold that the South has piled and heaped from the toils and labors
-of the oppressed slaves,--of all that ill-gotten coin, there is perhaps
-not one dollar of it left now in the entire South. It has all gone to
-buy the munition of war in Europe; and yet the cause for which the South
-has expended it will all be lost!
-
-"The rebellion is going down, and will come to an end by and by. I
-suppose there are now about 200,000 colored troops in the field, many of
-whom used to raise the crops for 'old Massa.' Now white men must stay at
-home and raise the crops, and look after their own families into the
-bargain, and all that is so much more cut off from their resources.
-
-"I used to be of the opinion that after all the lickings we have given
-them, and seeing that they had no prospect but ultimate defeat before
-their eyes, they would come to terms and lay down their arms. But
-no!--nothing of the sort indeed! They have still their pride left, and
-that is something!--I don't think we will ever conquer them; but we will
-just wear them away, one by one, till there is not another rebel left.
-The armies of the nations of history have usually laid down their arms
-when they saw that the struggle was quite hopeless; but so long as there
-is even one Southern rebel left who can stand on his feet and hold up a
-flag, I believe they will say that the South is still independent and
-free! We will never conquer them; we shall have to wear them out!
-
-"We here at the seat of war in the South are splendidly supplied with an
-abundance of newspapers, magazines, and I know not what besides. Some
-are illustrated with all sorts of pictures, and some are not
-illustrated; and they appear to be sent to us poor fellows by all sorts
-of good people from all the four winds of heaven. In one of these latest
-magazines there is a very vivid representation of a terrible fight that
-the First South Carolina Colored Regiment had with bloodhounds at
-Pocataligo Bridge, on the 23rd of October, 1862. The rebels came
-streaming on through the woods, with horse, foot and dragoons, and also
-the bloodhounds. Our own brave men advanced boldly through among the
-trees, and attacked dog, horse and man in a terrible hurry. The hounds
-especially dashed against our men with great fierceness, but they were
-shot down and bayoneted quicker than it takes me to tell the tale with
-pen and ink. Then the gallant troops held them up aloft for joy on the
-points of their bayonets and laughed. The dogs looked just like meat on
-the point of a fork. I have turned the entire scene into a little poem
-of my own. Here it is:
-
-    "We met the bloodhounds at the bridge,
-      They ran with all their might;
-    Their open months cried bow, wow, wow!
-      It was a glorious sight.
-    We ran our bayonets through their backs,
-      We shot them with the gun;
-    It was all over with the dogs,
-      And 'twas most glorious fun!
-
-    "In former days those brutes were used
-      To hunt the flying slave;
-    They tracked them through their dismal swamps,
-      And little quarter gave;
-    But when they tried the game of war
-      We knocked them on the head,
-    We shot them quick, and ran them through,
-      Until every hound was dead!
-
-    "Thus perished those bad dogs at once,
-      We tossed them high for fun;
-    We held them on our bayonet tops,
-      And finished the last one;
-    Which was a flitting end for them,
-      The brutes shall bark no more,
-    Nor hunt the flying fugitive
-      On Carolina's shore!
-
-    "But slavery there has lost the day,
-      They need bloodhounds no more;
-    All men and women now are free
-      On Carolina's shore;
-    The white man now will learn to work
-      Like other men I trow,
-    Nor raise the bloodhounds for the chase,
-      Big brutes that cry bow, wow!
-
-"But I must lay down the pen, or else I am sure you will begin to get
-tired of my long letter. I was very greatly interested, indeed, in your
-glorious visit to Canada. I would like to go there myself. Perhaps we
-will all visit them together some future day. With much warm love to
-yourself, the girls, and all the rest. I am as ever,
-
-"Your most loving husband,
-
-"THOMAS LINCOLN."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-
-_The Fight at Marion, Tennessee--The Battle of Nashville--Success of the
-Northern Armies--Massacre at Fort Pillow--The Rebels Refuse to Exchange
-Colored Soldiers--Our Defeat at Olustee--Eighty Thousand Northern
-Prisoners Perishing in Southern Prisons--The Mine at Petersburg--The
-Wealth of the South--A Soldier's Song._
-
-When we consider that there were 200,000 or more colored men in the
-field, and that they were engaged in fights, large and small, somewhere
-or other every day all over the far-spreading South, where all did so
-well and received the praises of the brave and true, it seems to me
-ridiculous at this time of day to look back and select particular
-actions wherein they distinguished themselves. But I am not aware that I
-can do any better than many worthy writers have done before me. There
-was one circumstance, however, or rather course of similar circumstances
-that struck those of us at home who closely followed the war as detailed
-by private letters and dispatches in the public newspapers, which was
-that on many memorable occasions the colored regiments saved the
-defeated and flying white troops from complete destruction. And white
-men were thankful enough to be saved by our men, and who could blame
-them? They were both in the field to assist one another in every
-possible way. I am not claiming more for the colored troops than belongs
-to them; but let them have their rights. No just man will give them
-less.
-
-It was in the beginning of December, 1864, that a regular battle took
-place near Marion, Tennessee, for the destruction of the Marion Salt
-Works. The battle commenced in the morning, and fluctuated backwards and
-forwards the greater part of the day. General Stoneman, who commanded
-the Federals, at last found himself badly beaten by the Confederates,
-under General Breckenridge. The national troops were in a desperate
-condition, and nothing but destruction stared them in the face. There
-was no time to be lost. The fate of the Northern army was trembling in
-the scales. General Stoneman at once ordered up the black troops, whom
-he divided into three columns. He placed General Burbridge at the head
-of one column, gave another to Col. Wade, and the third to General
-Brisbin.
-
-Colonel Wade led the right column, General Burbridge the left, and
-General Brisbin the centre. Wade got off first, and sailed into the
-rebels in gallant style. Burbridge piled his overcoat on the ground,
-drew his sword, and led his column forward like lions. Most of the
-officers and all the men were on foot. Wade's horse was soon shot, after
-which he led his men on foot, and they were the first to strike the
-Confederate line, who fired time after time, but Wade's column advanced
-rapidly for a hand-to-hand fight with the rebels. They went through the
-Confederate lines like an iron wedge, when the enemy broke, turned and
-ran. Burbridge hit with all his might on the left, and Brisbin's men in
-the centre also covered themselves with glory. Men never did better in
-this world. When their guns were empty, they clubbed their foes with the
-butt ends, many of the latter jumping fully fifteen feet down the
-opposite side of the hill to get out of the way of our infuriated men!
-The night was now coming on! Sauve qui peut! The rebels fled in the
-darkness, and ultimately took the North Carolina road, fleeing over the
-mountains. Thus ended the grand struggle for the salt works at Marion,
-Tennessee. Our troops now advanced, nor stopped till their destruction
-was complete.
-
-We all know that it must go very hard, indeed, with any people when they
-have got no salt. Poor things! What could they do without salt? So these
-coveted salt works at Marion were destroyed by the Union army, but not
-till the army had been first rescued from destruction by the colored
-troops who were attached to the service there.
-
-I don't know how it happened, but somehow or other the Northern generals
-had a great deal of confidence in colored men, whom they often put
-aside, and held in reserve in case of the direst necessity in the end,
-and when the worst might come to the worst. It was then that our
-faithful fellows were called forwards to save the armies, and they saved
-them, too, standing like walls of adamant between the white Unionists
-and their terrible foes. Our brave boys often did as well elsewhere as
-they did at Marion.
-
-It used to be the grand hue and cry in the beginning of the war that if
-colored men were enlisted into the armies of the Union, they would not
-fight like their white brothers! Even we ladies, who surely were never
-intended to fight in the ranks--we ladies living far away up in the
-North at Buffalo, used to laugh at the whole thing as a joke, for
-certainly everybody knew better. But that miserable parrot cry ceased
-after a while, and was no more heard of.
-
-Another grievance in the beginning of the enlistment of colored troops
-was to offer them smaller pay than white men. Some of our regiments
-absolutely refused to take less; others took what was offered. But as a
-general thing, between Congress and the States themselves, all things
-were put right at last, and justice was done by making things about
-even. But whether right or wrong the troops never refused to do their
-duty. It certainly was a shameful and shabby affair to offer them less,
-because many of them certainly were superior to their white brothers in
-the field. The color of the skin was a poor, miserable reason for giving
-them less.
-
-General T. J. Morgan gives a long and brilliant account of his
-connection with several colored regiments in the Department of
-Cumberland. He is also very jokey, and furnished us with a great many
-amusing anecdotes, which he loves to relate. He gives us some very good
-sketches of the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee, which occupied two days,
-in the middle of December, 1864. A thaw had set in; the ice and cold had
-given way, and General George T. Thomas now took advantage of the
-opportunity that presented itself to compel the rebel General Hood to
-raise the siege of Nashville. It was decided that General Morgan and his
-colored regiments should begin the attack on the Union left as soon as
-they could see their way in the dawn of that December morning. After an
-early breakfast, Morgan and his men advanced upon the rebel right with
-unbounded enthusiasm, and struck it with all their might. Their attacks
-were simply irresistible, and although the Southerners fought with their
-accustomed stubbornness and bravery they had to give way. General Hood
-was under the impression that this attack upon his left was to be the
-grand attack of the day's battle, but it was a feint to draw off his men
-from his right, where General Thomas struck him with awful force,
-doubled him up, and forced the whole rebel army, right, left and centre,
-to retreat for the space of two miles. Thus the first day's battle
-(which the colored troops began) was a complete success along the whole
-line, although we lost many a brave man. General Hood made haste to
-fortify himself, and threw up intrenchments on his line of battle--in
-short, he did everything that a prudent general upon the defensive could
-do. But the white and colored troops followed up their success by
-attacking his forces with unwonted vigor and enthusiasm on the morning
-of the second day. The Southerners not being gods, nor made even of
-iron, now turned and fled. A general pursuit of the rebels at once
-began; colored and white alike pressed on like hounds behind the hares.
-We followed them all the way to Franklin, Tennessee, followed them day
-and night, and traversed hundreds of miles, with mud and rains. The
-roads were in a dreadful condition. Many of our brave men lost their
-shoes in the deep and sticky mud, but still kept on, though their feet
-were cold, and bled into the bargain. At night they would take down
-fence-rails and such like to make fires to keep themselves warm. General
-Hood fled away, and returned no more. The Confederacy was now beginning
-to shake in every limb of its body. The North determined to hold on.
-Thus our own 200,000 colored men contributed to the grand result. As the
-songs of the day said, "The colored troops fought bravely!"
-
-
-[Illustration: _COTTON PICKING._]
-
-
-About the 20th of April, 1864, after I had given the children their
-breakfast, and sent them to school, the letter-carrier came up the steps
-with another missive from my own dear Tom, and just as I had opened it
-to begin to read it, who came into the room but dear mother! So to work
-we went and read the letter together:
-
-"NEW ORLEANS, April, 1864.
-
-"Mrs. Beulah Lincoln,
-
-"My Dear Beulah:--With great pleasure I sit down to answer all the
-delightful letters I have received from yourself and the girls. Your
-letters have been a very great joy to me indeed all the time I have been
-in the hospital. They have actually helped me to mend by keeping up my
-spirits! At least that is what the doctors and nurses say, who have read
-some of your letters, and they liked them so much. They were greatly
-delighted over your letters on your trip to Canada! If it had not been
-for my wound, my residence at this beautiful hospital in the Sunny South
-would have been almost as great a treat to me as the month you and the
-girls spent at Richmond Hill. Because here comes neither frost nor snow,
-and the sun is always bright and genial, and the flowers scent the air
-all the year round, and the winds come through the open windows just
-laden with their fragrance. But, thank God, I shall soon be well now,
-and then I will go back to the war if it is not all over by the time I
-receive my discharge from this good hospital. If the war is not over
-then, I will go back to the field; but, if it is all over, then I am
-likely to get my discharge from the army and come home. I have taken
-'notes' of all the active operations in which I was engaged in the field
-up to the time I was wounded; and I think I will write and publish a
-book when I come home! All the events, let things be going as they may,
-I am sure that they are going ten times better now that our glorious
-Grant has got the chief command over all the armies in the field
-throughout the far-extended seat of war in the South. Before he took
-command even a child could see how our own Northern generals and
-colonels themselves wrangled, and were jealous of one another, and
-carried on. It always appeared to me that before Grant took command they
-wasted as much strength and national resources as the rebels themselves
-did! Too many cooks spoil the broth; and they also resembled a balky
-team of cross-grained mules pulling, kicking and flinging against one
-another! Indeed they had a great deal to learn, and that was how to
-agree. But Grant put them all to rights with a few shuffles of national
-'cards.' He made all things work aright, and those who were too anxious
-to be bosses, he either set off on one side by themselves, or else sent
-them home about their business. In this respect the rebels had been far
-wiser than we were. They had, of course, their quarrels and
-disagreements also, but never to the same extent as ourselves. But Grant
-ended all that, and I observe that secession has been ailing very much
-ever since!
-
-"It will be old news to you to speak in this letter about the late
-massacre of white and colored officers and soldiers at Fort Pillow,
-where General Forrest and his men murdered hundreds of our own brave
-fellows in cold blood. I understand that although that massacre occurred
-only a few days ago, so to speak, that the war-cry 'Remember Fort
-Pillow!' has already been made in quite a number of the most recent
-engagements between colored troops and rebels on the seat of war. The
-wholesale murder of our own men and officers at Fort Pillow is the
-entire conversation throughout the hospital, the city of New Orleans and
-the entire South. Surely that murder was winked at by the rebel
-government at Richmond. From the very first day when a rebel was shot
-dead by a former servant (?) all the rebels of the South together have
-been more faint at heart than if they had got the leprosy! There has
-been a constant attempt from the first to treat colored troops not as
-soldiers under the United States Government, but as perfect outlaws or
-even as wild animals themselves. A certain kind of shudder, a horror,--a
-something that no man can describe--seems to have taken possession of
-the rebel breast at the very idea of letting loose their former slaves
-against their masters! They think that this is awful indeed, and hold up
-their hands in holy horror. And this horror of theirs holds good not
-only with regard to the colored troops themselves, but it is even more
-bitter if possible when directed against the white officers who trained
-them in the art of war, and who led them on the battle-field. It is true
-that we have officers chosen from among ourselves, but then we are all
-one army, and we must go shares hand in hand with the rest in the
-general conflict.
-
-"It was not only a great crime in General Forrest and his rebels
-murdering hundreds of Union men at Fort Pillow, but it was the greatest
-blunder they have yet committed as they will themselves find out at
-once. Instead of making over 200,000 men afraid of them, or deterring
-them from the battle entirely, we shall only go into battle ten times
-more eagerly than before, and do fighting ten times more valiant than
-ever. A shudder has already run over the entire North that will do more
-to unite the whole Union than if we had gained one of the greatest
-victories of war. The Southern policy from Jeff. Davis downwards is to
-ignore us completely as men, and to treat us as 'goods and chattels'
-still. Jeff. even issued a proclamation against Benjamin F. Butler, at
-New Orleans, treating him as an outlaw for organizing regiments of
-colored troops, or, in fact, for pressing their former slaves into the
-war in any shape and form. At the same time, they themselves have made
-use of their slaves to throw up breastworks, and to do all kinds of
-labor, almost from the hour when they themselves at first rebelled.
-Their theory is that they have a perfect right to use their slaves to
-fight against the Union, and we, who own the whole nation must not
-indeed even touch them with our little fingers! This will never do,
-because it is a game that two of us at least cannot play at.
-
-"It will never be known until the great Day of Judgment what became of
-all the colored soldiers who fell into the hands of the rebels. It is
-true that the rebel authorities directed them to be handed over to the
-States to which they belonged to be dealt with by the civil laws of
-those States, but even this is a subject upon which I can obtain no
-information whatever. I can only say that their path is unknown, and
-they have never been seen alive after their capture. Of other things we
-are more certain. The Southern soldiers have been seen killing their
-colored prisoners on the battle-field,--killing them in hospitals, and
-in many ways awarding to them the treatment we would give to any wild
-animal that we shot at a hunt. From the very first the rebels at
-Richmond have refused to exchange colored prisoners like white prisoners
-of war. They have never even exchanged a single man! There is an old
-saying that those whom the gods intend to destroy, they first make mad,
-that is insane. We do not thank the rebel crew for attempting to treat
-us as outlaws and wild beasts, but we will do one thing for them for all
-this,--we will now assist in pulling down their Confederacy far faster
-than we have done before.
-
-"As to the murder at Fort Pillow, the whole thing was, of course, a put
-up job. After fighting all the morning, and finding ten times more
-trouble to get into the fort than they ever expected, at 1 P. M. they
-sent in a flag of truce. But whilst they pretended to be parleying round
-that flag of truce, the rebels rapidly and quietly pushed their men up
-on the sides of the fort, which was contrary to the laws of war, and
-then breaking off the truce made a sudden rush into the fort and took
-it. Then we surrendered, but the rebels would not receive our surrender,
-and their massacre began. They shot down and killed our officers and men
-in every possible way after they had given up their weapons of war.
-General Forrest and other rebel commanders were there and allowed the
-carnage to go on that afternoon and next morning. The rebels took our
-men, nailed some of them to the floors of old wooden buildings to which
-they next set fire, and thus burned them while yet alive. Then they
-called out others, one by one, and shot them as fast as they appeared.
-One of the principal white officers was murdered on the road as the
-rebels were marching away from the fort,--at least he never came through
-alive. No doubt that Congress will appoint a commission of inquiry at
-once, and make a complete examination of the whole affair, and the
-entire truth will be established from the mouths of those white and
-black soldiers who escaped. In the meantime, we have facts enough at
-hand to put all the above beyond the shadow of a doubt. It was horrible.
-
-"My dear Beulah, I had much more to write to you about, but the doctors
-will be here in a quarter of an hour, and as I wish you to receive my
-letter without delay, I will now draw it to a hurried end, and leave the
-balance for my next epistle. In the meantime, my dear Beulah, keep the
-girls steady at school, for after good religion, I think that good
-education (put to good use) is the grandest ornament in the world, and
-in a woman I think it looks splendid. Also give all my love to Mr. and
-Mrs. John B. Sutherland, and give them a reading of this letter--and let
-our children read it too, by all means. I just feel, my dear, as if I
-could go on writing to you for a month,--you are such a comfort! But,
-good-by, God bless you! Ta-ta!
-
-"Your thrice loving
-
-"TOM."
-
-My indulgent and kind readers, I would be glad if I could draw down the
-veil upon the disasters and defeats we met with from the hands of the
-rebels whilst our brave men were battling for freedom, and the reunion
-of all the States. But, alas, alas! that would never do, and I must tell
-the whole truth on both sides. We had our victories in plenty, and there
-was a general caving-in of Secessia going on continually, but O dear me!
-what drawbacks and disasters there are for the historian to tell! The
-whole nation was still smarting from our signal defeat at Olustee, Fla.,
-when the butchery at Fort Pillow fell upon us like a thunderstorm in
-summer. I can't tell which was the worst in its way--our complete
-defeat, our flight and almost total annihilation at Olustee, or the
-barbarous murders at Fort Pillow. Our defeat at Olustee took place on
-the 20th of February, 1864. We must, in the first place, thank our
-General Gillmore for disobeying orders, and leading his black and white
-troops into that perfect trap which the rebels had prepared for us among
-the forest trees at Olustee. They had their masked batteries, and all
-their perfect preparations of war completely concealed from us till we
-were right inside the very trap itself, and then General Gillmore,
-instead of drawing back his forces and forming them into a regular line
-of battle, wildly rushed one regiment after another into the powerful
-rebel position that lay concealed between two swamps, where our poor
-fellows were just mown down like grass before the scythe. When eight
-hundred colored soldiers and six hundred white ones had thus been placed
-hors de combat, we turned and fled for Jacksonville, and all along the
-way the rebels followed up our retreat, and all the fugitives alike
-shared the disasters of a defeat, which was most complete in every part.
-The exultation at the South, of course, was as great as our depression
-of spirits at the North, for it was another Braddock's defeat over
-again; but then war is as much of a game as a game of cards, or a game
-at the checker-board. Thus one was in joy whilst the other was in grief;
-in the same way the dark night follows the bright day, and sunshine
-gives way to shadow. It is the self-same with the individual as with the
-nation. Which one of us has not had a grand day of triumph, as well as
-his night of misfortune and distress? What proportion our defeats bore
-to our victories I am at this time unable to say; but I know they were a
-very high percentage of the whole, as we found out to our cost. It is
-not my intention to open up the whole question, but there is at least
-one horror that I must mention besides actual conflict on the
-battle-field, which is, that the nation lost about 80,000 men that were
-starved to death (I might almost say) or perished through misusage and
-neglect, and the want of all comforts in the Southern prisons, at
-Richmond, Andersonville and elsewhere. Whilst we were fattening their
-men in our Northern cities, and exchanging them as prisoners of war, so
-they might take the field against us once more, our poor fellows, who
-were merely skin and bone, were returned to us only to remain mental and
-bodily wrecks on our hands the rest of their days. Few of them, indeed,
-were ever found fit to go back to the field again. Thus 80,000 men, some
-at least of whom were colored, died in the South from want of sufficient
-food, from cold in the winters, and almost every other conceivable and
-bad reason, such as the want of medicine, proper nursing and attention
-during sickness, and so forth. No wonder, then, that our people used to
-associate the murders at Fort Pillow and the deaths in the Southern
-prisons together.
-
-We also met with a great defeat at the explosion of the mine at
-Petersburg, on the 30th of July, 1864. That turned out one of the
-greatest blunders and most bungled affairs of the whole war. It was
-decided that the colored troops should lead the charge into Petersburg
-after the explosion had cleared the way for the advance and attack. Then
-a general, who ranked higher, in a spirit of jealousy countermanded the
-first and best arrangements, and ordered his white troops to lead the
-advance. Then the mine itself did not explode until some hours after the
-appointed time. When the explosion came the advance and attack were so
-bungled that the whole affair turned out a complete failure. The
-attacking troops were also caught inside the crater in a perfect trap,
-and the colored troops who were sent in to their aid, fared no better.
-In fact, at last there was neither advance nor retreat for any one, and
-things were even worse than at Olustee, and all had to surrender in a
-body, prisoners of war. Thus all our labors were thrown away at
-Petersburg on that fatal morning, through jealousy and every kind of
-bungling and mismanagement. General Grant has recorded it in his life,
-that if the first arrangements had been carried out, they would no doubt
-have succeeded in capturing the city.
-
-But such are jealousy and ignorance! These were the two grand causes of
-the disaster of the Union armies during the first half of the war, and
-all these misfortunes happened in the face of an ever-watchful and
-desperate enemy, who had staked everything on the issue--life, fortune
-and all--an enemy fighting with all his might for the institution of
-slavery, and for the control of his own land and government without
-interference from Uncle Sam. But so it has ever been with all wars that
-the historian has ever recorded. Nations have their dark days as well as
-their bright ones. And if we had great and crowning victories, we also
-had our defeats and dark days.
-
-Before my dear Tom got wounded, and was taken to the hospital at New
-Orleans, I received a letter from him describing a march his regiment
-had down the banks of a beautiful river in Mississippi, after which they
-came upon the boundaries of one of those grand mansions that I alluded
-to before as almost excelling the princely palaces of the grandees of
-Europe. We used to think Riverside Hall something (continues my dear
-letter-writer), but Riverside Hall was nothing to Belmont, as this place
-was called. The family had all left, and there was nobody in and about
-the princely place. No wonder that the slave-holder had grown rich! With
-a thousand people to work for them for nothing, and themselves pocketing
-the entire proceeds of their labors and toils, all they had to do was to
-bank their money, and lay it out in eating and drinking and riotous
-living, as the Bible tells us. No wonder that they had pleasant trees
-and shrubbery, and fine streams gliding through the park here, the
-smooth lawns reminding one of the garden of Eden before the fall of our
-first parents. No wonder that they had grand statuary all along their
-graveled walks, along which fine carriages and lordly companies on foot
-glided along their sunny way in the palmy days of slavery, now departed
-to return nevermore! In the Sunny South this day, we marched down the
-banks of one of the sweetest rivers I have seen in the State of
-Mississippi. I have written a few verses on the subject; written them on
-a marble table in the interior of splendid Belmont, a mansion, which for
-glory and for beauty, it would dazzle your eyes to look upon. Here are
-the lines I composed:
-
-    UPON THE SOUTHERN RIVER!
-
-    Across the bridge we made our way,
-      The dancing waves sang loud and gay,
-    And warm and bright the sunbeams lay,
-      Upon the Southern River!
-
-    And countless birds sang in the trees,
-      Our banners fluttered in the breeze,
-    All eyes were charmed midst scenes like these,
-      All down the Southern River!
-
-    Our hearts were light, our bands did play
-      Upon that glorious sunny day.
-    ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
-      Beside the southern river!
-
-    "The Sunny South!--The Sunny South!"
-      These words were ever in each mouth,
-    Suggesting things of love and youth
-      Along the Southern River.
-
-    And still we marched, and laughed and sang
-      And down the flowery banks we sprang,
-    The wild woods with the echoes rang
-      All down the Southern River!
-
-    Until we came to "Belmont" grand,--
-      The finest mansion in the land,
-    That on the rising ground does stand
-      Beside the Southern River!
-
-
-Thus my Tom wrote about the Southern river and the Sunny South. After
-this I never wondered more why the slave-holders fought so hard to gain
-their independence. No wonder, when they fought for "Belmont," etc.!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-
-_The Colored Men of Iowa--Hard Fight Near White River--The Men of
-Kansas--Enthusiasm for the War--Fight at Butler--Battle of Cabin
-Creek--Battle of Honey Springs--The Battle of Poison Springs--Battle at
-the Sabine River--Battle of Boykin's Mill with Poem--Incidents of the
-War._
-
-I have said nothing yet about the far western frontier, and the
-enlistments that took place far away between the Mississippi river and
-the Rocky Mountains. There were not many colored people in those States
-and territories at that time, but the few who were there acted with the
-greatest enthusiasm, and came joyously up to the rescue of the Union and
-liberty. Although all colored men were free in those parts, they most
-willingly laid down the plough and other implements of husbandry, left
-their sweethearts, their wives and families, and all that they held
-dearest, with wonderful zeal and alacrity, and marched to the field even
-with the utmost joy, "to help of the Lord against the mighty." Of course
-the Western frontier was not the only part of the Union where such
-devotion for the Union and liberty was shown. It was the very same
-everywhere. Even in the old slave States, when the recruiting sergeants
-came along, and asked the slaves if they would like to go to the war and
-fight for Uncle Sam, to a man they answered yes. Thus the recruiting
-went rapidly on wherever colored volunteers could be found. Poor Uncle
-Sam was in great need of men, and these brave recruits were gathered
-together at places appointed for drill, in all the various branches of
-the art of war, and they learned with great willingness and with great
-rapidity also. With so much enthusiasm and fire, is it any wonder that
-colored troops did so well in the war, and with their strong, brawny,
-willing arms so mightily helped to knock down the South? It is no wonder
-at all!
-
-Yes, poor Uncle Sam was in great need of assistance about the time of
-Lincoln's proclamation of freedom, for these terrible and clever rebels
-had not only destroyed our white troops by tens of thousands, but they
-had at the same time thinned out some thousands of the black soldiers
-also. Lincoln kept calling for more troops, for a very great many more,
-indeed, and black and white men came up to the national call like
-heroes.
-
-It was not until August, 1863, when the men of Iowa arose, hurried
-through their drill, and marched to the front. They gathered at first at
-St. Louis, where Mrs. I. N. Triplet presented one of the regiments with
-a beautiful silk national flag, on behalf of the ladies of Iowa, and of
-the city of Muscatine. That beautiful flag was carried all through the
-war, and was brought home again to Iowa, in the midst of great
-congratulations.
-
-In January, 1864, this regiment was ordered to report to Helena,
-Arkansas, and lent a hand in a number of small engagements, where they
-took numbers of prisoners. But the most serious fight in which they were
-engaged took place in the following July, near the White river, where
-they attacked a force of the rebels twice as numerous as themselves.
-This fight was most desperate, though the rebels lost three men to our
-one. Most of our own officers were killed or wounded; night was coming
-on apace, and still we held out--yea! fought like lions hour after hour.
-At last a body of white Union soldiers coming to our aid, burst through
-the rebel ranks with loud cheering, and our poor fellows, who were so
-hard pressed, cheered loudly in return. Still the arrival of these
-re-enforcements did not turn the battle into a Union victory, but they
-enabled us to retreat from the field in good order. Later on in the day,
-more colored re-enforcements from Helena arrived, but too late to make
-any changes in the situation. It was well for us, however, to save all
-the men we could, because the rebel soldiers and the rebel population on
-these western States and territories seldom missed an opportunity to
-murder every colored soldier who fell alive into their hands. Still we
-cared nothing for their "black flag," but fought ten times harder than
-before, and thus we helped on the downfall of slavery!
-
-The State of Kansas was the very first State in the entire Union to make
-a commencement in recruiting and drilling regiments of colored men to
-put down the great rebellion. Kansas was only admitted into the Union as
-a free State on the 29th of January, 1861. It was her admission as such
-that transferred the slave-holder's rebellion from Kansas to South
-Carolina, and the other seceding States. In other words, the rebellion
-began in Kansas, and the scene was simply shifted upon Lincoln's
-election. But the Republican men of Kansas arose with unbounded alacrity
-and enthusiasm, and in a short time had 20,000 men in the field, some of
-whom were regiments of colored men, who did yeoman's service in the
-West. And not only in Kansas, but in every other section of the Union,
-colored men showed a great deal of principle in the way in which they
-came up to the rescue of the nation; came up with horse, foot and
-artillery! As Deborah says in her song of victory (Judges, 5 chapter,
-verse 18): "Zabulun and Naphtali were a people that jeopardized their
-lives unto the death in the high place of the field." The first fight in
-which the colored troops of Kansas were engaged took place near Butler.
-There were about two hundred and twenty-five men in all, and they were
-attacked by about five hundred Confederates. This is supposed to have
-been the very first engagement in the war between colored soldiers and
-the rebels, and the rebels were defeated with considerable loss. The
-date of the engagement was the 28th of October, 1862. The next morning a
-few recruits came up and joined their comrades in the pursuit of the
-secessionists, but failed to overtake them. The work of recruiting,
-drilling and disciplining the regiments still went on, till at last they
-were so efficient in the various arms of the service that they were
-second to none. Soon after this a foraging party of forty-five of our
-men were attacked by three hundred Confederates, and half of them killed
-or captured in a short time.
-
-This regiment, which was lead by the gallant Colonel Williams, remained
-in camp at Baxter Springs till the 27th of June, 1863, when it marched
-for Fort Gibson, in connection with a large supply train from Fort Scott
-en route to the former place. The Colonel was led to believe that they
-would be attacked in the neighborhood of Cabin Creek. He made haste, and
-gathered all his men together, about eight hundred in all. Upon arriving
-at Cabin Creek the rebels in great force under General Cooper met him
-there, but our men were unable to cross the stream on account of a
-shower of rain, which had swollen its waters too high for infantry to
-get over. When the morning came, by the aid of those who had come up in
-the night, the whole effective force was now raised to 1,200 men, which
-embraced some cavalry, a few Indians, and four pieces of artillery.
-Being well lead on by their officers, these 1,200 men made a most heroic
-attack on the vastly-superior rebel force, and after two hours' hard
-fighting, vanquished them completely, killing and wounding one hundred
-men, and taking eight prisoners. We had eight killed and twenty-five
-wounded on our side. The road was now open, and our men proceeded with
-the train to Fort Gibson, where they arrived on the 5th of July, 1863.
-
-It was on the morning of the 17th of July when our small force under
-command of General Blunt, left Fort Gibson, and moved upon the enemy,
-6,000 strong, who were commanded by General Cooper. We found the latter
-encamped at Honey Springs, twenty miles south of Fort Gibson. After a
-desperate combat of two hours, the rebels were totally defeated with a
-loss of four hundred men killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners.
-After this the Kansas City troops returned to Fort Gibson, where they
-remained till September, when they moved out again against General
-Cooper and his forces, who fled at their approach. We followed them for
-one hundred miles, but as they still continued to keep ahead of us, we
-returned and encamped at Fort Davis, a former Confederate fort on the
-Arkansas River.
-
-The troops marched and counter-marched till the month of March, 1864,
-when they joined Union General Steele's forces, and marched against the
-enemy, who were posted on the west side of Prairie d'Ane, within
-twenty-five miles of Washington. As we came up, the enemy fled before
-us, and we occupied their works without having to fight for them!
-Indeed, a good deal of the warfare on the western frontier was nothing
-but marching and counter-marching; coming to blows now and then, in
-which we were mainly successful, for the rebels often preferred to fly
-before us!
-
-It was curious to note at the time how what appeared to be very
-frivolous circumstances led to pitched battles and the most serious
-results. Letters from newspaper correspondents, and private letters as
-well, made this quite clear. Private letters to friends were often more
-clear and explicit than the more general and profuse war correspondence.
-
-
-[Illustration: _A RELIC OF SLAVERY DAYS_]
-
-
-Col. Williams informs us that he arrived at Camden on the 16th of April,
-1864, but on the following day, the 17th, started with five hundred men
-of the First Colorado, two hundred cavalry detailed from the Second,
-Sixth and Fourteenth Kansas regiments, and one section of the Second
-Indiana Battery, with a train for the purpose of loading forage and
-provisions at a point twenty miles west of Camden, on the Washington
-road. On the 17th he reached the place, and succeeded in loading about
-two-thirds of his train, which consisted of two hundred wagons; the rest
-of the wagons were loaded next morning as they passed along. At a point
-fourteen miles west of Camden, the advance encountered a small force of
-the enemy, who retreated down the road after some slight skirmishing,
-but did in such a manner as to convince the Colonel that it was a mere
-feint to cover other movements, or else to draw his command into ambush,
-as had already been done at Olustee, in Florida. The troops advanced
-with caution for about a mile and a-half to a place called Poison
-Springs, and here they came upon the skirmish lines of the enemy in a
-thickly-timbered region. Our troops drove in their skirmish lines, and
-discovered that the rebels were there in force. Indeed it was
-ascertained afterwards that there were about ten thousand of them, and
-their intention seemed to have been to eat us all up alive! To me it is
-a most astonishing thing to even think that our small force, not more
-than 1,000 men, should venture to contest a "field" of 10,000 rebels;
-but so it was, not only at the battle of Poison Springs, but such
-attacks were made again and again over the entire seat of war. Surely
-the colored troops must have had the hearts of lions, and a most
-tremendous amount of self-confidence even to look in the face of such
-odds!
-
-The enemy, with ten pieces of artillery, now opened the fight, six in
-front and four on the right flank. (They had twelve cannon altogether,
-but commenced the engagement with ten). We had to fight hard, yes, most
-desperately, and lost many a brave man, either killed or wounded. Col.
-Williams still fought on and on, making the best disposition possible of
-his little force. We were only able to use two of our light cannon at
-any one time, on account of the difficult nature of the thickly-timbered
-land. The Colonel was ever hoping that re-enforcements would come up to
-his aid from Camden, and relieve the train loaded of two hundred wagons,
-and save our little army, but no relief ever came. Thus the battle went
-on from 10 A. M. till 2 P. M., during which the rebels made one charge
-after another, but were always repulsed after the most desperate
-fighting. The loud roaring and yelling of the rebels at Poison Springs
-even exceeded the noise of the fire-arms used upon that occasion. We had
-ninety-two killed, ninety-seven wounded, and one hundred and six
-missing--in all two hundred and ninety-five. The enemy probably lost
-more than we did. As no re-enforcements arrived by 2 P.M., it was
-decided to abandon our entire train, and work our way through the woods
-as best we could to Camden, where those who remained arrived at 11 P.M.
-on the day of the battle. Col. Williams named this tremendous fight the
-Battle of Poison Springs, from a spring of that name in the
-neighborhood. This was one of the very hardest fights of all that took
-place in the West. No one but a fool would now ask the ridiculous
-question, "Will colored men fight?"--because here we see a force of a
-thousand colored men or less fighting most desperately for four hours
-with ten times their own numbers. This was as good as the 10,000 Greeks
-under Miltiades, at Marathon. The Greeks did not one whit better than
-our troops at Poison Springs.
-
-But the success of the troops already raised in Kansas fired the hearts
-of other devoted men to lend a hand in the battle for the Union and
-liberty. In June, 1863, another regiment was organized at Fort Scott,
-and the regimental organization of the same was completed at Fort Smith,
-Arkansas. The regiment went into camp on the Poteau river, about two
-miles south of Fort Smith. The work of drill and discipline was here
-carried on till the regiment was in splendid condition for the field.
-
-On the 24th of March, 1864, the regiment left Fort Smith, and set out on
-the Camden expedition, forming a part of Col. Williams' brigade of
-General Thayer's division. This division united with that under
-Major-General Steele on the Little Missouri river, after which they all
-moved on together against the rebels in the direction of the Red river.
-
-The rebels under Generals Price, Smith and Taylor having defeated Union
-General Banks at the Red river, Major-General Steele retreated eastward
-to Camden, a distance of about sixty miles. During the retreat the
-regiment had several skirmishes with the enemy, and quite distinguished
-themselves.
-
-On the 29th of April, 1864, the rebel cavalry came up with the rear of
-the Union forces at the Saline river, and skirmishing continued until
-night came on. A pontoon bridge had been flung over the river, and all
-the Union soldiers had already crossed except some artillery and two
-brigades of infantry, which included the Second Kansas Colored Regiment.
-We had six regiments in all on our side. The rebels came close up to our
-forces, and waited for the dawn of day to begin the battle. Union
-General Rice, of Iowa, formed his brigade in the centre; the Twelfth
-Kansas Infantry, under General Hayes, was on the left, and the Second
-Kansas Colored Regiment, under Colonel Crawford, was on the right. There
-were also two pieces of artillery on the Union side.
-
-As soon as it was light enough, the opposing forces drew nearer one
-another, and the battle commenced in dead earnest. The crash of musketry
-was terrific. The rebels strove again and again to break through our
-thin lines, but the Union forces stood their ground with firmness,
-repelling every onset of the rebels till re-enforcements came back over
-the pontoon bridge to our aid. The rebels, who had in vain attempted for
-three long hours to break down the colored men of Kansas, next brought a
-battery of artillery to bear upon them, and opened fire. When Col.
-Crawford saw this, he ordered the brave young men to charge upon the
-guns with the bayonet, and led the charge himself. All the gun-carriage
-horses were killed but two; the gunners were killed, wounded or had
-fled; the intrepid and heroic Kansas colored boys took possession of the
-rebel battery, and brought them over to our side! Truly, this was a
-brave deed! (Zabulun and Naphtali were a people who jeopardized their
-lives unto the death upon the high places of the field). When the Second
-Kansas returned with the rebel guns, the officers and men, in the midst
-of the battle, gave them a glorious salute, waving their swords in the
-air, and tossing up their caps on the points of their bayonets, whilst
-our devoted braves smiled with pleasure. After this successful capture
-of the guns, the Second Kansas was moved into the centre of the line; a
-charge by the entire Union forces was made along the whole line, and now
-the rebels everywhere gave away, and the victory was complete. The
-Second Kansas was the first to begin the battle, and they were the last
-to leave the field.
-
-Thus the war went along the Western frontier. There were no great
-battles, as was the case in the East. But here was plenty to do for all
-that, and it was done well. There were at times great hardships to
-endure--long, weary marches, cold, and the want of all things; but such
-is the life of the soldier, and such is war. We must take the rough with
-the smooth. Upon the whole, the Western men fought bravely and
-successfully, and mightily helped to pull down the rebellion.
-
-The present generation have very little idea of the excitement that
-prevailed all over the country during the long war. Where all our
-regiments did so well--indeed, covered themselves with honor--it would
-be ridiculous to make any distinction, and place one before another. But
-I may at least make a selection at random, and single out the 54th
-Regiment of Massachusetts, in March, 1863, who fought with unsurpassed
-valor until the close of the war--yea, after the close of the war! I
-followed the career of that devoted regiment as if I had been one of the
-brave fellows! Well, how they did fight, to be sure! They fought at
-James Island, at Fort Wagner, at Olustee, at Honey Hill, and at Boykin's
-Mill, after the war was over, because they had not heard that Lee had
-surrendered!
-
-This Boykin's Mill was a few miles from Camden, South Carolina. The
-Fifty-fourth Regiment had fought every step of the way from Georgetown
-to Camden, and the rebels made a last desperate, but unsuccessful stand
-at Boykin's Mill. It was a splendid place for the defense, as there was
-no other way of approaching it except by a narrow embankment about two
-hundred yards long, where only one man could walk at a time. The rebels
-had torn up the planks of the bridge over the mill-race, thus compelling
-the men of the Fifty-fourth to cross over on the timbers and cross-ties,
-and all this under a fatal fire of musketry, which swept the embankment
-and the bridge, and made it little better than a "forlorn hope" to pass
-over. But the Fifty-fourth did not falter. They had fought at Olustee
-and Fort Wagner, so they charged over the dreadful way in single file.
-The first men to advance were all shot down, but the rest of their
-comrades advanced over their prostrate bodies, till the enemy became so
-panic-stricken at the sight that they gave up the fight, abandoned their
-position at the mill, and fled. There seems to have been a poet in the
-regiment--Mr. Henry A. Monroe, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who was
-the drummer-boy of Company C, of the Fifty-Fourth. He thus describes the
-fight at Boykin's Mill:
-
-    One wailing bugle note--then at the break of day,
-    With martial step and gay the army takes the way
-      From Camden Town.
-
-    There lay along the path, defending native land,
-    A daring, desperate band entrenched on either hand
-      In ambuscade.
-
-    A low and dark ravine beneath a rugged hill,
-    Where stood the Boykin Mill spanning the creek, whose rill
-      Flows dark and deep.
-
-    Only a narrow bank where one can scarcely tread;
-    Thick branches meet o'erhead; across the mill-pond's bed
-      A bridge up-torn.
-
-    One single sharp report:--A hundred muskets peal,--
-    A wild triumphant yell, as back the army fell
-      Stunned, bleeding, faint.
-
-    As when some mighty rock, obstructs the torrent's course;
-    After the moment's pause, 'twill rush with greater force,
-      Resistless on.
-
-    A moment's pause, and then our leader from his post,
-    Viewing the stricken host, cried, "Comrades!--all is lost
-      If now we fail!"
-
-    Forming in single file, they gaze with bated breath;
-    Around,--before,--beneath,--on every hand, stern death
-      His visage showed.
-
-    "Forward!"--They quickly spring with leveled bayonet;
-    Each eye is firmly set upon that pathway, wet
-      With crimson gore.
-
-    That Balaklava dash!--Right through the leaden hail,
-    O'er dyke and timbers frail, with heart that never fail
-      They boldly charge.
-
-    Facing the scathing fire without a halt or break,
-    Save when with moan or shriek in the blood-mingled creek
-      The wounded fall.
-
-    What could resist that charge?--Above the battle's roar
-    There swells a deafening cheer, telling to far and near,
-      The Mill is won!
-
-
-Anecdotes of deeds of bravery and devotion kept cropping up all through
-the war. During the early part of the war on the Lower Mississippi, a
-former slave assisted in bringing in a lot of prisoners, and he himself
-actually drove his former owner before him into the Union camp! "Old
-Master" assumed bullying airs to induce him to let him escape, but the
-soldier pointed his gun at him repeatedly, saying, "Go on, sir, or I'll
-shoot!" So he brought him into the camp, all radiant with smiles, and
-who can blame him for smiling at such a time as this?
-
-At Marion, Tennessee, there were many incidents of personal bravery, of
-which this was one. A colored soldier had got a tree stump close to the
-rebel line, and in spite of all efforts to dislodge him, he still stuck
-to his post, and picked off their men. The rebels charged on the stump,
-but when the Union line saw the movement they concentrated their fire on
-the advancing men, and drove them back. Then there followed long and
-loud cheering for that brave and lonely soldier, who still stuck to his
-stump and kept firing away with a regularity that was truly wonderful.
-The stump was riddled with bullets, but he still stuck to it, although
-at times he was nearer to the rebel lines than to the Union ones.
-
-A great many war incidents were recorded in the annals of the fighting
-in Mississippi between Union General Sturgis and the rebels there under
-General Forrest. Here are a few of them. A corporal in one of the
-colored regiments was ordered to surrender. He allowed his would-be
-captor to come up close to him, when he struck him down with the butt
-end of his gun. Whilst the regiment was fighting in a ditch, and the
-order came to retreat, the color-bearer threw out the flag, intending to
-jump out and get it, but the rebels made a rush for it, and in the
-struggle one of our men knocked down with his gun the rebel who had the
-flag, and caught it and ran. A rebel, with an oath, ordered one of our
-men to surrender. He thought the rebel's gun was loaded, and dropped his
-own gun; but when he saw his enemy commence loading, our colored soldier
-made a sudden spring for his own gun, and struck the rebel dead. One of
-our captains was surrounded by about a dozen of the enemy, when he was
-seen by one of our own men, who called several of his companions to his
-side, when they rushed forward together and fired, killed several of the
-rebels, and rescued their captain at once. A rebel came up to one of our
-men, and said, "Come, my good fellow; go with me, and wait on me." In a
-second our Union soldier shot his would-be master dead. Once when our
-men made a charge on the enemy they rushed forward with the cry,
-"Remember Fort Pillow!" when the rebels called back to them and said,
-"Lee's men killed no prisoners!" One of our men in a charge threw his
-antagonist to the ground, and pinned him fast there, but when he tried
-to withdraw his bayonet it came off the gun, and as he was very busy
-just at that time, he left it behind him, still transfixed to the
-ground. Another soldier killed a rebel by striking him with the butt end
-of his gun; the gun broke, and as he was unwilling to stop his work just
-then, he kept on loading, and fired three times before he could get a
-better gun. The first time, as he was not very cautious, the rebound of
-his gun cut his lip badly. When the troops were in the ditch, three
-rebels came upon one man and ordered him to surrender. But as his gun
-was loaded he shot one of them and bayoneted the other; but forgetting
-in his haste that he could bayonet the third he turned the butt end of
-his gun and knocked him down. (The above are a few incidents culled from
-the annals of the fighting done by our men in Northern Mississippi.)
-
-A great many good stories have been related in connection with the Army
-of the Cumberland. Here is one that refers to an incident when that army
-was in Tennessee. Early one morning, as a company of white soldiers were
-about to resume their march, a Kentucky lieutenant rode up to the
-commanding officer, saluted, and said he had some runaway slaves under
-his charge, whom he had arrested for the purpose of sending them back to
-their masters; but as he had been ordered away from there just then, he
-turned them over to this officer in command. (At that time rewards could
-be claimed for returning fugitive slaves to their masters). So the
-officer took charge of them, and purposely assuming a stern air and
-manner, which he did not feel at all, he said:
-
-"Where are you going?"
-
-"Going to the Yankee army."
-
-"What for?"
-
-"We want to be free."
-
-"All right; you are free now; go where you wish!"
-
-And their warm thanks gave great joy to the officer.
-
-The same officer relates another incident for the purpose of showing the
-humor of the colored soldier. A spent ball had struck one of our men on
-the side of the head, passed under the scalp, and making nearly a
-circuit of the skull, came out on the other side. His comrades merrily
-declared, when the ball struck him it sang out, "Too thick!" and then
-merrily passed on.
-
-Here is another incident that happened, which I think is very diverting,
-even amidst the horrors of war. An officer was riding at the head of his
-column, and the men were swinging along "arms at will," when they spied
-General George H. Thomas and his staff approaching. Without orders, at
-once they brought their arms to "right shoulder shift," took the step,
-and striking up their favorite tune of "John Brown," whistled it with
-most admirable effect while they were passing the general, who was
-greatly amused and pleased at the incident.
-
-There was a private soldier who during an engagement had taken his
-position up a tree as a sharpshooter, when he had his right arm broken
-by a ball. The captain called out to him, "You had better come down from
-there, go to the rear, and find the surgeon."
-
-"Oh, no, Captain," he replied; "I can fire with my left arm!"
-
-And so he did.
-
-When General Thomas rode over the field, after the battle of Nashville,
-and saw the bodies of colored men side by side with the foremost of
-white men, and upon the very ramparts and works of the Confederates, he
-turned to his staff and said:
-
-"Gentlemen, the question is settled; Negroes will fight!"
-
-And thus I might go on, adding incident to incident, and that without
-end. Where a war was being carried on all the way from the Potomac to
-the Rio Grande, it must needs have been that thousands of such incidents
-were taking place every day.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-
-_Mrs. Beulah Lincoln and the Girls Leave Buffalo for New Orleans--The
-Journey to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Ohio--Voyage Down the Ohio
-to the Mississippi--Arrival at New Orleans--Met by Old Friends at the
-Landing--Meeting With Tom at the Hospital--The Newspaper Reports._
-
-Weeks and months had passed away, during which my gallant Tom had
-written incessantly from the hospital at New Orleans, and the two girls
-and myself had answered him. It was now the winter of 1864, and Tom was
-not yet well enough to get his discharge from the hospital, much less to
-take the field. I was beginning to tire of writing letters, and things
-called for a change of scene and fresh air. Besides, another stern
-winter was setting in, and I thought I might get along better in another
-climate. So I got the girls ready, and we boarded the train for
-Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. It was wonderful to see and
-feel how warmer the weather became as we got further South. The icy
-fetters of winter relaxed their hold as we advanced, and we were quite
-delighted with the hills and forests of the beautiful State of Ohio all
-the way to Cincinnati. Here we travelled over a great part of the city,
-and called at the parsonage of the A. M. E. Church, and visited the A.
-M. E. Church itself, where Tom and I were so happily married upon the
-evening the self-same day when we took our departure from Riverside
-Hall, near Louisville, Kentucky.
-
-Having seen a few of our dear friends here--friends whose acquaintance
-we had made at the time of our marriage--the girls and I, escorted by
-some of those beloved acquaintances, moved down to the "Public Landing,"
-where we boarded the "Natchez" for New Orleans. We took a fond leave of
-those dear souls, and got on board, and soon felt quite happy in our
-nice and cosy stateroom, which the girls thought the most delightful
-little home they had ever been in. At 4 P. M., whilst the bright and
-dazzling sun was still some distance above the horizon, and after all
-the loud racket and wild confusion of the embarkation were over, the
-last whistle was blown, they drew in the gang-planks, and we pushed out
-into the river Ohio.
-
-Our hearts felt as light as feathers as the "Natchez" ploughed out into
-mid-stream, a thousand branches up above, swollen with the recent rains,
-having filled up the mighty and splendid Ohio from bank to bank, so that
-we seemed to be floating down a grand, heaving, fresh-water sea! Now,
-indeed, did we enjoy new life with a vim. I told the girls how the first
-French owners and explorers named the Ohio "La Belle Riviere," that is,
-"The Beautiful River," and it is the beautiful river, still. Our eyes
-were quite enchanted with the endless hills on both sides, all clothed
-with primeval forests up to their summits, and coming down to the
-water's edge. The girls were quite transported with the beautiful,
-endless turns and windings, and seemed to get no rest for the thousands
-of boats and barges, and floating things of every shape and size,
-rushing up and down the river day and night, whistling and screaming,
-and that without end. It was a perfect delight for me to be once more on
-this river, for nature is always fresh, fair and enchanting, but for my
-two daughters the whole scene was nothing but a succession of unending
-delights. Their feet and eyes had no rest, and their tongues were never
-still. It was more than I could do to answer all their questions. I was
-quite delighted to see how the girls and several other nice children on
-the boat became acquainted, and learned to love one another. And this
-acquaintanceship and love seemed to grow upon them all from day to day
-as we advanced farther south. Indeed, children are great people, and
-they will have ways of their own. And on, on, still flew "The Natchez,"
-whilst our glorious river increased with innumerable branches from the
-right and left, till we reached the lower end of Kentucky, where the
-lands were more flat and uninteresting. We made a call here or there,
-and rushed down the stream again, until at last our glorious Ohio was
-swallowed up in the Mississippi, "The Father of Waters."
-
-
-[Illustration: _MR. JACKSON._]
-
-
-I don't know how it is! I suppose it is because I am a sensitive woman;
-but our arrival in the Mississippi river seemed to put a new soul into
-me that I am altogether unable to define. Like the far-travelled Queen
-of Sheba, there seemed no more spirit left within me. My first and
-grandest sensation arose, no doubt, from the fact that the reunion
-between my well-beloved Tom and me was almost an accomplished fact,
-because we were now both on the same river, and the rapid "Natchez,"
-assisted by the mighty forces of the great rushing river, would soon
-bring us face to face, after several years of separation, which looked
-to me like half a lifetime already. Then there was the mighty "Father of
-Waters" himself, always majestic, solemn and grand, bearing your boat
-along upon his mighty bosom, like a perfect fly! And then we seemed to
-live our lives over again in our dear children, and the two thoughtful,
-contemplative girls were filled with a wonder that seemed to strike them
-dumb. It was a truly wondrous sight, especially for those passengers who
-had never been on the mighty "Father of Waters" before, nor even seen
-his rushing waters. Oh, the Mississippi, the Mississippi! How I thought
-and thought, and thought again how my dear Tom had battled on for many a
-day against the powerful rebel forts on this very river, to clear Uncle
-Sam's way from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico! It brought the
-tears to my eyes when I thought how my own tender husband had fought and
-bled on this very stream that the Union, one and all re-united, might be
-restored to the nation at large; how Tom had fought and bled, and almost
-died that the shackles might be knocked off the suffering slave, and
-freedom reign all over the land, from the Lakes to the Gulf.
-
-Thus I stood for many a long hour in my usual feeling, womanish,
-sentimental way, watching the gathering and thundering waters, over
-which the swift and beautiful "Natchez," the floating palace of the
-Mississippi, hurried and bowled along like a thing of life. And as we
-swept on past Vicksburg and other places that had long ago surrendered
-to the Union armies, I thought of Lincoln's famous words (President
-Lincoln's): "The Mississippi, the 'Father of Waters' flows once more
-annexed to the sea!"
-
-And in this way the joyous days and nights passed away on the rapid
-"Natchez," whilst the passengers spent the time in any way they pleased,
-reading, talking and sleeping by day, and dancing, courting and lolling
-away the evening hours, or looking lazily at the rushing waters of the
-great river. Attracted by the hilarity in the saloon, my girls spent
-some time flirting and waltzing around with the other children on the
-boat, nice, harmless playmates, whom I mentioned before. Indeed, the
-girls were quite fortunate in having such nice girl companions, for of
-all the curses on the face of the earth, I think bad company is about
-the worst of all!
-
-Somehow or other this voyage down the Mississippi and Ohio seemed food
-for my health. The complete want of domestic cares, the fresh air on the
-open deck, the happiness of the two children, and all my delightful
-surroundings, made me fat and rosy, and the girls, also. Indeed, we were
-complimented on our appearance before we left the boat. The rapid
-"Natchez" flew along in, and in due course the "Crescent City," as New
-Orleans is called, arose upon our view, and thrilled us with the utmost
-delight.
-
-We drew up to the land-place in due time, and now followed one of those
-wild, exciting scenes that usually take place when we come to the end of
-a grand journey and anticipate grand things in the immediate future. No
-sooner had the gang-planks been thrown out, but the usual rush for the
-shore, and the usual rush on board, took place at once. Cabs, carriages
-and porters, all were on hand. As I had taken the precaution to
-communicate with those dear friends at whose house I lodged when I
-rescued my own dear mother, Mrs. John B. Sutherland, from slavery, there
-were two of the self-same sweet ladies awaiting us on the wharf, and
-signalling to us before we even came up to it, whilst myself and the
-girls waved our handkerchiefs to them in reply. But when the gang-planks
-were flung down between us and the shore, the dear souls rushed on
-board, and a scene of wild embracing, kissing, tears and laughter
-followed, that it would be quite vain for me to describe. In that brief
-and joyous meeting on the deck of the "Natchez," we all experienced a
-lifetime of bliss. With a terrible vim, indeed, did we all realize the
-truth of the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, wherein the great
-apostle of the Gentiles dilates so eloquently on love (not charity).
-Well, the girls and I got all our traps together, called for a cab, when
-we all got in, and drove for my cosy old quarters. Although I had only
-spent a week with that dear family on my last visit, the attachment that
-had grown up between us was truly wonderful. I had heard from them
-several times, and they never, never forgot my dear mother and me. When
-we all reached the never-to-be-forgotten house with the cab, we received
-another ovation at the door from those who had remained at home. The
-grand welcome put the girls and me into the very best humor. After we
-had heard and told each other's news, the girls and myself walked forth
-to meet dear husband and father at the hospital. Our impatience was so
-great, mine at least was, that we did not seem able to live out this day
-unless we met with Capt. Thomas Lincoln, of the Union Army, in the
-South. We soon reached the hospital, where we were received with all
-that politeness, tenderness and humanity that are so characteristic of
-doctors and nurses. I told them at once who we were, and they were very
-greatly astonished and delighted, indeed, to think that we had thus
-purposely travelled all the way from one extreme end of the United
-States to the other on a pilgrimage of love and devotion for husband and
-father. As I told them that Tom knew nothing about our coming, I asked
-them to take us into a parlor, and simply to announce to my husband that
-some friends had called to see him. Our attendants smiled with pleasure
-at the proposal, and led us into one of the parlors of this beautiful
-hospital, and we had not long to wait till we heard a heavy man
-coming--clank, clank, clanking along on one crutch. (He sent me word
-that at first he used two, but now he only required one of them). When
-Tom came to the door, we three advanced to meet him, and now followed a
-wild scene of tears, laughter, embracing and joy, which my dear readers
-will understand far better than I am able to describe. The wild,
-heaving, rushing waters of the Mississippi were as nothing to this. Oh,
-sweet is the pleasure after pain! We seemed to live a whole lifetime of
-joy of the most Elysian bliss whilst seated in that
-never-to-be-forgotten parlor. Thus hour after hour passed away, till it
-was dinner time, but on this occasion, Tom's dinner and ours were served
-up in this parlor.
-
-By this time the news had been well spread throughout the hospital, and
-even into the city of New Orleans, that the children and I had come to
-see Tom. And no sooner had we got through with our dinner when the tide
-of visitors began--doctors, nurses, with their lady and gentlemen
-friends from all quarters, besides almost all the officials on the
-premises, at least those who could get away from their duties, to come
-and shake hands and speak a kind word to us three pilgrim travelers to
-their own hospital. No doubt but a good deal of this interest arose from
-the high favor in which Captain Thomas Lincoln had been held from the
-first, and that in turn was greatly due to his well-known bravery on the
-field of battle and of fame. Then Tom is of a tall, commanding, splendid
-personage, and a perfect magnet among all comers.
-
-We had intended to spend the afternoon in our own way, but circumstances
-alter cases, and the afternoon wore away with nothing at all but one
-round of introductions after another round, till at last the first
-crowds began to die off as tea time drew near; and as the authorities at
-the hospital were very kind, indeed, and as we were still in that
-self-same parlor where we had spent the day, as an additional favor to
-us four our tea was served up in the same place where we had had our
-dinner. And so we all sat down, our hearts overflowing with joy--joy
-that found vent even in tears, and filled our eyes, out of gratitude to
-that good God who had thus allowed us all to meet again, "for His mercy
-endureth forever." One of the girls having said grace before meal, we
-all fell to, and had a most glorious repast of the very best that the
-hospital and the city of New Orleans could produce.
-
-As good news flies fast in a strange place, especially where a good
-cause is under way, we had no sooner got through with our most capital
-tea than the newspaper reporters began to arrive. And those reporters
-were the politest gentlemen I ever saw in my life, for they treated us
-with as much kindly interest as if we had all been acquainted for the
-last twenty years. Tom and I asked them to be seated whilst we had a
-brief consultation between ourselves aside. This consultation was about
-my own coming to New Orleans at a former time, and releasing my own dear
-mother from slavery. But as the bottom had already been knocked out of
-the peculiar institution, as it was playfully called, and what remained
-of it would soon pass away, we did not consider that there was any risk
-to run, and decide to tell the whole truth, and give all the facts of
-the case to the reporters, leaving it to their own discretion to say and
-do anything that they pleased, themselves. So the reporting gentlemen
-took their seats, got out their note-books, and went to work, writing
-down our depositions, one and all, first and last, asking us questions
-which we answered with the greatest pleasure. There was a good deal of
-amusement in the parlor that evening over the reporting business, I
-suspect arising out of the slavery question, and the whole of us being a
-lot of "runaways"!
-
-In the meantime, when all had left, the girls and myself were completely
-worn out both in mind and body, with travel, fatigue and excitement. Tom
-saw us to the gate where we all took leave for the night, after which we
-steered for our cosy lodgings, and all got to bed as rapidly as
-possible, for we were as tired and worn out as soldiers after a
-hard-fought field!
-
-The children and I had a grand, long sleep, and came down late to
-breakfast. There had been showers of warm rain in the early morning, and
-the breezes that blew over New Orleans were as well perfumed with the
-odor of Southern flowers and vegetation as ever lady's boudoir was with
-the perfumes and colognes. Fresh-cut flowers in vases stood on the
-dining-room table, and there were plenty of the fresh fruits of the
-Sunny South, which the family had brought in from the market in the
-early morning. The girls seemed quite at sea amid so many tropical
-pleasures, and my first-born exclaimed, as she looked around and viewed
-the plants, and flowers, and shrubbery in every direction, both in the
-house and out of it,
-
-"My goodness, mamma; the people have good times down here in Dixie. Papa
-has a grand time in that fine hospital, reading the latest news from the
-front, and scenting the perfumery wafted from 10,000 flowers and shrubs!
-I just envy him so much happiness."
-
-"Yes," said the younger child, "and he is here all the time."
-
-To which her elder sister rejoined,
-
-"Oh, my dear sister, I wish that mamma and papa would stay here
-altogether, and not go back to Buffalo!"
-
-"What?" said I, in great surprise, "don't you know that there are 10,000
-serpents among the grasses and shrubs out in the woods? Don't you want
-to go back to our sweet little church on Vine street, in Buffalo? And
-don't you want to visit the Gibsons, at Richmond Hill, once more?"
-
-"Oh, yes, mamma," she replied, "I want to go back to class to the church
-on Vine street, Buffalo, and I want to dig up potatoes, and pull down
-apples and peaches at Richmond Hill, where those good Gibsons live, in
-Western Canada."
-
-"But," resumed my oldest daughter, "you say, mamma, that there are
-10,000 serpents in this part of the Sunny South; is that so?"
-
-"Yes," I replied, whilst I cut another orange in two, "there are more
-than 10,000, I suppose; but take all the hundreds of species in the
-world, there is not one species in a hundred that is poisonous at all;
-and they will seldom or never sting anybody, if one does not go in their
-way, or trample on them in the woods. They generally get out of the way.
-But tell me, my dear, what makes you so fond of the South?"
-
-"Indeed, mamma, I can hardly tell, unless it be that there is such a
-sweet and delicious feeling about all our surroundings here. Why, the
-very winds themselves seem to be fond of blowing about in this place."
-
-"Yes," put in the younger; "the very winds are fond of blowing about in
-this place."
-
-These latter remarks were heard by some of the family and guests, and we
-all raised a loud laugh, whilst the youngest added:
-
-"Sister, please pass me another of those small, sweet oranges! I don't
-see for the very life of me why we could not live in the State of
-Louisiana. And then, mamma says the snakes are not very dangerous, and
-we could be careful, and look out for them."
-
-"Oh, yes," rejoined her sister; "we could be careful, and look out for
-them. And would not the good Lord Himself protect us against them?"
-
-"No doubt he would," remarked the other, "if Christianity can protect us
-against serpents about New Orleans."
-
-By this time we were in a great state of merriment over the two girls,
-and rose from the breakfast table as if we had been leaving a successful
-entertainment, and walked out to see the garden.
-
-After we had made the rounds of the garden, and regaled our senses with
-all that was most delicious in the Sunny South, we came back to the
-house, when a member of this good family placed before us on the
-sitting-room table, one of the New Orleans morning papers, which
-contained the following article. I think the good reporter who wrote
-this most grandiloquent article on myself, family and connections must
-either have been drinking too much wine, or else he is on the point of
-getting married! I can account for such high praise in no other way. But
-let us hear what he has got to say:
-
-"ARRIVAL OF MRS. THOMAS LINCOLN AND HER TWO DAUGHTERS.
-
-"It is an old and true saying 'that wonders never cease,' and again we
-are reminded of the words used by Paul against his enemies,--'Those who
-have turned the world up-side down have come hither also!' We Southern
-people, after this, need wonder no longer at the terrible war that the
-mighty North has brought about our ears! There arrived in the port of
-New Orleans yesterday, the wife and two daughters of Capt. Thos.
-Lincoln, an inmate of one of our hospitals, a captain of colored troops,
-promoted on the battle-field for bravery. Mrs. Lincoln is a perfect
-paragon among ladies, and seem to possess every accomplishment under the
-sun,--both mind and body. She is only twenty-seven years of age, and
-brought her children, two well-grown girls--along with her, having
-traveled by rail from Buffalo, New York, and from thence came on the
-'Natchez,' down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. Their arrival
-was a great surprise to Captain Lincoln, and all the high authorities at
-the hospital; and a tremendous, warm welcome was what they all received
-from all whom they met. We ourselves heard of their arrival, hurried up
-to the hospital, met Captain Lincoln's wife and daughters in one of the
-parlors there, and were very much impressed indeed by this entire happy
-family, who appeared to us 'as fine as silk.' We found all four brimful
-of talk and intelligence; Mrs. Lincoln and the girls being expert hands
-on the piano, whilst the girls have evidently had splendid opportunities
-of getting a first-class training in every way. Indeed the intelligence
-of the great North has not yet been told by one half!
-
-"We remember reading in the public papers, some nine or ten years ago,
-that this self-same Capt. Thos. Lincoln and Miss Beulah Jackson, now
-Mrs. Lincoln, made their escape from Riverside Hall, Kentucky, and were
-married on the evening of the same day at Cincinnati, Ohio. Tom Lincoln,
-as he used to be called, was general manager at the old baronial
-residence, and Beulah went by the facetious name of 'The Flower Girl of
-Riverside Hall,' and Beulah is 'Flower Girl' still.
-
-"Mrs. Lincoln and the girls are very comfortably lodged at the house of
-some old friends where, according to present appearances, they will
-spend the winter,--a solace and a comfort to the brave husband and
-father, who is slowly recovering from the wounds he received on the
-banks of the Mississippi whilst heroically contending with the enemy up
-the river. The happiness of this now re-united family, and under such
-romantic circumstances, taught us that the age of chivalry has not yet
-gone by.
-
-"We are all aware that this war sent by God himself for the downfall of
-slavery, was begun in Kansas, transferred to South Carolina, and then
-spread over almost all the Southern States. It was the abolitionism of
-the North aided by the anger and high-strung temper of the South that
-blew up the flames of war, and brought on the present state of things
-that we now see! And there were not only men in the great abolition
-campaign, but a few intrepid women also, who traveled the Northern
-States, attended great meetings, where they played, and sang, and even
-made most eloquent addresses to fire the great northern heart, and thus
-these talented and warring women, these Deborahs of the great North,
-were a mighty factor in blowing up the raging fires of abolitionism, and
-driving the nation into war.
-
-"Mrs. Thomas Lincoln herself was one of those moving spirits, and her
-great natural intelligence, splendid training, and good looks helped to
-put wind in her sails, and to stir up the war spirit of the dominant
-North in every kind of way possible.
-
-"As slavery is almost dead and gone,--and what remains cannot exist much
-longer, we must accept the entire situation with as good a grace as we
-can! It can do no harm now to let the cat out of the bag and tell the
-whole truth! We have shown that not only is Capt. Thos. Lincoln a brave
-man, but his affectionate and beautiful wife is brave also; and she
-proved it about ten years ago, when she was only some seventeen years of
-age, and came to this very city of New Orleans, and 'stole away' her own
-handsome and accomplished mother out of one of the grandest houses here,
-marched on board the New York steamer with her, and conveyed her to
-Buffalo, New York, by way of Havana and New York City. Surely that was a
-great feat for a mere seventeen-year-old married woman, or 'big' school
-girl if you prefer it,--to perform,--that is travelling all the way by
-rail to Cincinnati, then down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and then
-braving the dangers of the Gulf of Mexico and the stormy North Atlantic
-and all this to have her own beloved mother under the self-same roof
-with herself--and she succeeded in the bargain! We are informed that her
-mother,--formerly called Harriet Jackson, was married some eight or nine
-years ago to Mr. John B. Sutherland, of Buffalo, N. Y. Under all these
-altered circumstances we think that the right thing to do now, is to
-accept of the changed situation with all the grace that we can,--turn
-over a new leaf, and do all for our former slaves, but now our freed
-brothers and sisters that lies in our power. It is clearly the will of
-God that men should be free. It will never do to talk about 'goods and
-chattels' any longer. If Tom Lincoln and Beulah Jackson had not left
-Riverside Hall in Kentucky, it is quite clear that had it not been for
-God and Northern Liberty, we would never have seen such a splendid
-development of things, as we now behold at the hospital which we have
-just visited, that is,--a brave and well-trained soldier from the
-battle-field and a mother and two daughters that possess all the gifts
-and the graces that can ever be claimed by the mistress of the 'White
-House,' at Washington, and the queens and ladies of rank of Europe.
-
-"With all our hearts we welcome our visitors to the Crescent City of New
-Orleans, and desire to make a good impression on their hearts and minds,
-trusting that their stay among us will be very pleasant indeed; and may
-they ever be much in love with the Sunny South."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-
-_Grand Demonstration at the Military Hospital--Music and Speeches--The
-Armies Reviewed by President Lincoln--The War in Virginia--Fight at New
-Market Heights--Fall of Petersburg and Richmond--Flight of the
-Rebels--Their Surrender at Appomattox Court House--Rejoicing Over the
-Good News--The Lincoln Family Leave New Orleans, and Arrive Home at
-Buffalo._
-
-
-[Illustration: _HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED._]
-
-
-As the hospital where my husband was staying was at this time one of the
-greatest attractions of New Orleans, the authorities determined to make
-the most of our arrival there, and in short get up a demonstration in
-force in honor of the colored soldier and the glorious deeds he had done
-on the far-extended battle-field, all the way from the Potomac to the
-Rio Grande; and it was decided that some high military general should be
-asked to take the chair at this great meeting in the largest hall at the
-hospital. As the newspaper reporters were once more on hand in force, it
-will be unnecessary for me to say any more about this grand
-demonstration, only I may say that men have a peculiar love for
-flattering the fair sex, and I think that newspaper reporters, at least
-those in the Sunny South, lead all the rest of the flatterers. I will
-here insert a copy from the article of the same paper that contained the
-glowing account of our arrival at New Orleans:
-
-"GRAND DEMONSTRATION AT THE MILITARY HOSPITAL--MRS. BEULAH LINCOLN ON
-THE COLORED SOLDIER.
-
-"It will be a long time before the citizens of New Orleans and Louisiana
-will forget the mighty gathering that took place last night at the
-Military Hospital, where the commanding general took the chair, and
-nobly presided for two hours over a mixed multitude of all races and
-professions, to be entertained by Capt. Thos. Lincoln, Mrs. Beulah
-Lincoln and their two daughters, all of whom are by this time well-known
-to the people of Louisiana. The colored soldiers, officers, and general
-population were out in force, and between them and the white portion of
-the audience, standing room at last was a premium, and hundreds were
-turned away for want of room in the hall.
-
-"All things being now in readiness, the chairman called the meeting to
-order by saying,--'Ladies and Gentlemen! We are assembled here to-night
-for an evening's entertainment from the Lincoln Family of Buffalo, and
-we may also consider this a public reception of the same family. And
-inasmuch as Mrs. Lincoln is a splendid hand on the piano, and a 'number
-one' singer in the bargain, and as I had the pleasure of hearing her
-myself, only the other day, going through the 'Mocking Bird' at a rate
-and in a way such as I have never heard--no, never, elsewhere--I will
-ask this accomplished lady to give us 'The Mocking Bird,' and sing to
-her own accompaniment at the same time.'
-
-"When Mrs. Lincoln arose and advanced to the grand piano on the stage in
-front of the audience, a most tremendous outburst of applause arose from
-the audience, and almost brought down the roof. But our plucky and
-accomplished musician struck in without stint, and such a 'Mocking Bird'
-came forth from her lungs and off the chords of the piano as has not
-been heard for many a long day on the lower Mississippi. The attention
-was such as could be felt, and when she got through with the
-performance, the applause was simply indescribable. An encore was
-immediately called for with such vigor that the fair player was forced
-to comply, and with grand spirit and vim she gave us 'We Are Coming
-Father Abraham, Six Hundred Thousand More.' This really is a grand
-story, to which Mrs. Lincoln's clever hands and powerful, sweet voice
-did ample justice. Another encore was called for, but the gallant
-chairman interfered by rising and saying, 'We now call upon Captain
-Thos. Lincoln for a few remarks. Let us all give our most earnest
-attention to Captain Tom.'
-
-"When the applause that had greeted his appearance had somewhat died
-down, Captain Lincoln went on to say, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, such a
-night as this makes up for all I have suffered in the cause of the Union
-and Freedom. When I first entered the army to assist in putting down the
-rebellion, I came down to the State of Louisiana and did my level best
-against the enemy along the lower Mississippi. While we in Louisiana and
-the colored troops in South Carolina under General Hunter, proved from
-our first blows that we could and would fight, the President and his
-Cabinet were deterred by many prejudiced men in the north and in the
-very army itself from enlisting colored men. A portion of the northern
-press were forever thundering against the enlistment of colored men, on
-account of the prejudice against the color of the skin, or at least
-against the inheritance of a few drops of African blood. They were
-envious and jealous lest the descendant of African parentage should fall
-side by side with the fair-skinned Caucasian, should die and be buried
-with him, or if he survived the shock of war, should receive the
-self-same honors as his Anglo-Saxon brother. Of course the white man of
-the north knew that we could fight quite as well as himself. Why not?
-But he was afraid of our proving that our claims to manhood were as good
-as anything he could claim for himself; and therefore he felt unwilling
-to give us a chance. Then again, not only did the slave-holders of the
-south desire the continuation of slavery, but there was an 'immense
-mixed multitude' of their sympathizers north of Mason and Dixon's Line,
-who took the same view of the situation, and who foresaw that, once the
-colored race marched to the field, slavery would come to an end. This
-opposition was rampant in the Union Army and throughout the north till
-the Southrons had given us dozens, if not hundreds of lickings on many a
-hard fought field, and the winter of 1862 saw the entire nation in a
-fearful state of depression. What was to be done?--The answer was at
-hand!--As a matter of immediate military necessity call the colored men
-into the field,--free them,--and end the war! Then drilling of colored
-men began at once, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and from
-the Great Lakes to the Ohio and Missouri rivers, and now I believe that
-we have some two hundred thousand colored men in the field and in the
-fleets together. Neither have we fought for pay nor from any other
-personal selfish motive; we have fought for the salvation of Uncle Sam
-and the freedom of the slave at one and the same time. We have not
-fought for ourselves alone, we have fought for others, and all the
-commanding generals have ever given us a good word, and never a bad one.
-They have uniformly praised our men with a good grace, and praised them
-without stint. Now the south is steadily going down, down, down. All
-they have left is a small section in the northeastern part of the
-confederacy, and they cannot hold out much longer. Still like rats, they
-will fight as long as there is one man left standing on his feet. I am
-afraid we shall have to kill every one of them for they are a
-stiff-necked and rebellious generation, and they will never surrender
-whilst they have a man in front who can carry a flag.
-
-"'I ought to be in Virginia now myself, where so many of my friends and
-compatriots, under Grant, are wearing out the rebellion to a nonentity.
-I would like to be there, and would soon show the rebels and rebel
-sympathizers again whether I will fight or not. But I am not entirely
-recovered, even now, from the wounds I received up the river, and here I
-will remain until I am cured.'
-
-"Captain Lincoln having thus spoken resumed his seat amidst a perfect
-storm of applause all over the hall.
-
-"The gallant chairman once more arose and said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen.
-It is now my extreme pleasure to bring under your kind notice the two
-accomplished young daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, two of the
-sweetest girls that I ever met with in all my life. They are regular
-attendants of a Christian Church at Buffalo, and have also received a
-first class musical education in the north. They will now treat us all
-to a fine duet on the grand piano.'
-
-"When the commanding general had thus spoken, these two elegant girls
-advanced to the piano, took their seats, and commenced a duet which gave
-a world of pleasure to all assembled in the hall, both soldiers and
-citizens alike, and where and how these girls had got so much training
-and perfected musical education was a wonder to many. Be that as it may,
-the girls were not at all daunted, and played as quietly and collected
-as if they had been in a private parlor at home. When the girls had got
-through their lively and enthusiastic duet, the applause that followed
-was so great and continued that they were obliged to comply with the
-demand for an encore, which they accordingly gave, and which was, if
-possible, better than the one before it, and was rewarded with another
-tremendous round of applause.
-
-"The chairman arose again and said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we have all
-listened with extreme pleasure to the two duets played by these two
-children. We will now call upon Mrs. Thos. Lincoln to address the house.
-She did splendid service during the Abolition Campaign that led on to
-the election of Abraham Lincoln; and thousands, who are now free, have
-already risen up and called her blessed. But we will now have the
-pleasure of hearing the lady herself.'
-
-"Mrs. Lincoln on coming forward was met with a splendid reception from
-the audience, who even rose to their feet and cheered loudly. It was a
-glorious sight to see the meeting at this time, the handsome lady
-waiting on the stage, and soldiers and citizens like to go frantic with
-joy, as well indeed they might. When order had been evolved out of
-chaos, Mrs. Lincoln proceeded as follows:
-
-"'Gallant General, Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems to me that this must
-be the happiest day of my life, thus to stand before an audience in the
-famous Crescent City in company with my dear husband and daughters. Most
-assuredly this is the red letter day of my life, if I ever had one, to
-address both soldiers and citizens at New Orleans.
-
-"'And yet I am quite overwhelmed when I contrast the little I was
-permitted to do in the Abolition Campaign before the war with what many
-a brave man,--yes, hundreds of thousands of men have done since, and are
-doing now, both by day and by night. I feel quite overcome when I think
-even of these brave men all around me here, and remember the easy times
-by comparison, that we Abolitionists had as we travelled the Northern
-States, and were not always well received. Yes, small and puny was our
-work compared with that of the black and white heroes who have often met
-a most determined and even desperate foe, on many a hard fought field.
-The hearts of us poor women in the North have often bled as we all these
-years at home lay secure and safe, whilst our loved ones were fighting
-like giants against the enemies of human liberty, and mankind also. The
-bravest of the brave were in the field. White and black all fought alike
-well. They were the flower of all the men of the north. They were
-swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions.
-
-"'The war, no doubt, is now drawing to a close. The host of slavery is
-in their last ditch, even at Richmond in Virginia, where blacks and
-whites will have to finish them between them. And when this cruel war is
-all over, and those who remain alive return home again, then the country
-will begin to teem with chronicles and histories of the great rebellion.
-But will one hundredth part of the truth ever be told? I don't think it
-ever will; because it will never be known, and who can write the history
-of that which we don't know? Such and such things could be related, but
-there is no one to record them.
-
-"'It is very true that we may catch a glimpse of things here and there,
-but for one item that is recorded, there will be a thousand lost. There
-are the marches, and the counter-marches, the snow, the rain, and the
-hail of winter; the heats and droughts of summer; weakness and sickness
-arising from the want of all things, hunger and fatigue. O, there is
-none but the Lord from heaven Himself who can ever know all that our
-brave fellows have endured before they breathed their precious lives
-away in the service of their country. Just consider for a moment how
-their decaying bodies have been found weeks and months afterwards in the
-deep ravines, at the bottom of swamps and rivers, in the wild tangled
-thickets of the forest, upon every highway, and under every green tree.
-Here a poor wounded fellow wandering away by himself and perishing all
-alone in a strange land far from home and his native state, who knows
-all about the end of that man; and who shall write his heroism and the
-suffering he endured before the Lord put an end to his pains, and took
-him home to heaven to Himself? Alas, alas! There is no one to tell us
-how he suffered, fought and died. We only know that he marched forth to
-the field, in health and strength and vigorous life, and did his part in
-pulling down this terrible rebellion, a wicked rebellion indeed, built
-upon the broken laws of human nature, an outrage upon humanity, and a
-sin against God. But those gallant heroes who have fallen in the war
-often said, that it was simply their part to do their duty, and, if they
-fell, their wives and children would at least be free, and not forgotten
-by a grateful and Christian government. (They shall not be forgotten).
-When I look around me, and see the great advance along the whole line
-already in the way of human liberty, the results are perfectly grand and
-most inspiring. With the exception of a small section of the
-Confederacy, it may be truthfully stated that the armies of the Union
-have already freed all the slaves. From the Potomac to the Rio Grande
-one grand song of liberty has been sung by the emancipated race. Was
-there ever such a shout of joy heard since the Israelites escaped from
-Egyptian slavery, when Pharaoh and all his host perished in the Red Sea?
-Who would ever have imagined that in our own day history would thus have
-repeated itself? But it has done so all the same; and for the self-same
-reason our own poor, oppressed people have raised one universal shout to
-Heaven, and sung all along the whole line, 'I will sing unto the Lord,
-for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown
-into the sea.' O, my brother! ye brave soldiers of the army of the
-Union, ye have deserved well of your God and of your country, and your
-honors will never fade while sun and moon endure. White and black
-soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, have marched to the field; they have
-overthrown their terrible foe, and they have cleared the way for the
-education, the Christianization, and grand enlightenment and
-intelligence of an emancipated race. Our sufferings have been great. The
-whole nation has suffered, but the sacrifice has not been made in vain,
-for generations unborn shall arise and call you blessed. Your labors,
-toils and sufferings will neither be lost nor forgotten. The entire
-emancipated race will bless you while life and time shall last; your
-names shall be inscribed upon the roll of fame, and all generations
-shall conspire to call you blessed. 'Be thou faithful unto death, and
-_I_ will give you a crown of life.' 'Enter ye into the joy of your
-Lord.'
-
-"'Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much indeed for
-your kind attention to my few remarks.'
-
-"When Mrs. Lincoln had thus spoken, she resumed her seat amidst a loud
-and long-continued storm of applause. The gallant chairman then called
-for 'three cheers and a tiger,' for the Lincoln family, which were given
-with a terrible vim, when the meeting broke up, and we all scattered for
-our separate homes. But a grander demonstration was never gotten up in
-the city of New Orleans."
-
-The last grand struggle of war was in Virginia, where General Grant
-gathered together many of the veterans who had fought in the South and
-Southwest, including 20,000 colored troops, one-half, at least, of whom
-were veterans, and there were also many powerful, enthusiastic recruits
-who desired nothing better than an opportunity to assist in knocking
-down the Confederacy! A goodly number of those brave young fellows had
-been enlisted in Maryland. It is quite amusing to recall the letters and
-chronicles of the times when the recruiting officers landed from their
-vessels on the shores of the Chesapeake, marched up to the
-slave-holder's estates, called for all the male slaves to be brought
-before them, when they picked out the strongest and the best, asked them
-if they were willing to fight for freedom and the Union, and always
-receiving the joyful answer, "Yes, master, I am willing," laid down
-their tools there and then, and marched on board the Union vessels with
-great delight. It was in vain that their rebel masters and mistresses
-pointed out their need of their slaves, to gather in their harvest,
-which was then about ripe (1863), or that the officers took their
-able-bodied "servants," who left their teams right there on the
-highways, the heads of the horses being turned round in the direction of
-the plantation. The rebel masters and mistresses were simply referred to
-Washington for redress--if any could be got there! "You must apply to
-the Secretary of War; we are merely acting under orders from the head of
-the department." In the meantime the delighted slaves marched on board,
-and were taken to the camp appointed for drilling, and thus many a
-splendid soldier was recruited who mightily helped to pull down the
-"Confederate States."
-
-
-[Illustration: _EMANCIPATION STATUE BOSTON, MASS._]
-
-
-The children and I spent a delightful time, as I remember well, on the
-26th of April, 1864, reading the glorious accounts in the papers of the
-grand march, the day before, past the White House at Washington, of the
-mighty army destined for the conquest of Virginia, and the destruction
-of the entire slave-holders' rebellion. That never-to-be-forgotten
-show-day was indeed one of the red-letter days for the army of the
-Union, among whom were thousands of colored soldiers who marched gaily
-past, and hurrahed lustily for "Father Abraham," who was smiling down
-upon them from the balcony of the White House. Although they were not
-yet declared American citizens, still these brave young men were going
-to fight for the star-spangled banner. They had often heard the name of
-Abraham Lincoln, but this was the first time they ever saw him, and they
-swung their caps around their heads, clapped their hands, and shouted
-aloud for joy, "Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for Mr. Lincoln! Three cheers for
-the President!" Long and loud were the rejoicings, as regiment after
-regiment marched past; powerful, enthusiastic men, who were once slaves,
-but now freemen, with steady step and even ranks moved in splendid order
-down the street past the White House on their venturesome way to the
-seat of war. The President had never seen a general review of colored
-troops before, but he was greatly pleased, indeed, and heartily
-acknowledged their enthusiastic shouts by bowing and waving his hand to
-them, and making himself agreeable and pleasant to them, as they marched
-past.
-
-Thus the whole army under review passed on, crossed "yon long bridge"
-over the Potomac river, and entered the State of Virginia. Poor, brave
-fellows! Many of them never returned alive, but they were the bravest of
-the brave, and performed their glorious mission.
-
-The grand march was past at Washington. It was like the ball and dance
-before the battle of Waterloo, when the British and allied armies had
-that glorious night's revelry before they marched to the field to meet
-the French under Napoleon. And so some 20,000 men of African descent met
-on the soil of Virginia to contend with Lee and his Confederate
-veterans. It would require a whole volume to itself to relate all the
-marching and counter-marching of the next twelve months; the battles in
-the woods, the advancing and retreating, and the fighting at the fords
-of the rivers of Virginia. General Grant, poor fellow, lost many brave
-men, for the rebels were bold and courageous; they were on their own
-soil, and, worst of all, were fighting for slavery. The evolutions of
-the contending hosts these last twelve months of the war, remind me
-somewhat of a great "circus," where the horse and their riders fly along
-in one unending whirl, whilst Grant seemed to stand in the middle of the
-circus, and direct the evolutions of both riders and steeds. The colored
-troops came in for their full share of the work, bravely performed their
-duties every time, but, alas! there was many a brave man who was laid
-under the sod! Yes, it would take a whole volume to recount all the
-deeds that our brave brothers did, marching and fighting month in and
-month out, in summer's heat and winter's cold. It was in the end of
-September, 1864, that General Butler, at the head of a strong force of
-colored troops, carried the New Market Heights, and utterly defeated the
-rebels. Our loss was considerable, but our own men were completely
-successful. Many other instances of devotion and bravery might be given;
-but it would be nothing but an endless task. General Grant and all the
-other commanders had nothing but good words for our heroic brothers.
-
-It was now the beginning of April, 1865. The bottom had almost been
-knocked out of the Confederacy by Sherman's march from Atlanta to the
-sea. General Lee and his determined rebel crew still held out at
-Richmond, but Grant and the Union armies were thinning them down and
-wearing them out. Then came the fall of Petersburg, the key to Richmond,
-and then followed the retreat of the rebels from Richmond itself. The
-intention of Lee and the rest of the Confederates was to betake
-themselves to the mountains, and there carry on a guerrilla warfare as
-long as they had a man left to carry the rebel flag and shoot a gun. But
-this was not allowed. Swift-footed white and black troops followed them
-up with unrelenting vigor day and night; with horsemen and footmen we
-hurried after them, and at last got right in front of them, and
-outflanked them also at Appomattox Court House. The Confederates had
-been without food for three days and nights, and all things were coming
-to an end. Lee soon discovered that he could not break through the Union
-forces, under Grant, Meade and Sheridan. At one and the same time, he
-therefore dispatched fleet couriers to each one of the three Union
-generals to cease fighting, and stating that he would surrender himself
-and his army prisoners of war. Generals Grant and Lee accordingly met,
-when the surrender was made; and when the rebel forces in other parts of
-the South heard of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, they
-also laid down their arms. Thus the South was conquered, and slavery was
-destroyed. The shackles were knocked off 4,000,000 of our own beloved
-race, the Union was restored, and, as Lincoln said, "The Mississippi,
-Father of Waters, flowed once more unvexed to the sea!" Glory to God!
-
-I shall never forget the excitement when the news arrived at New Orleans
-that Lee had surrendered. Among the rebel sympathizers it was a time of
-great depression, indeed; but among all Union people, and the entire
-colored race, most of all, it was truly a time of such rejoicing as only
-occurs once in a lifetime. People embraced and even kissed one another
-who had never met before; they shed tears of joy, sang, shouted, and
-gave glory to God. It was a perfect carnival both day and night. To the
-colored race, at least, it brought the deepest and most sincere joy, and
-all felt that the war had not been waged in vain, nor so many valuable
-lives sacrificed for nothing. In many parts of the Union the people met
-together in halls and churches for the purpose of giving praise and
-glory to God; and there was general rejoicing over the triumph of the
-armies of the Union. Thousands--I might say millions--never went to bed.
-That night was like the night when the Israelites came out of Egypt. It
-was the passage of the Red Sea over again. "Sing unto the Lord, for He
-hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into
-the Sea! Praise ye the Lord!"
-
-The war also vindicated and proved the complete manhood of the colored
-race before the entire world. At least 200,000 of the flower of our
-youth had fought most manfully to save the very life of the nation; in
-fact, the late slave had earned his own freedom, and therefore had at
-least as much reason to thank his own powerful right arm as to Uncle Sam
-himself and the armies of the Union.
-
-It now gives me great pleasure to inform the kind reader that Tom was
-now completely recovered from the effects of the wounds he had received
-up the river. It was now the month of June, 1865, and we were all
-longing to see our dear friends at Buffalo, and they also were anxious
-to see us. As Tom and the girls had never seen the Gulf of Mexico, nor
-the Atlantic Ocean, we thought it would afford us a pleasant variety in
-the line of travel to return home by Havana and New York City. So we all
-took a tender leave of our dear friends at the hospital, and throughout
-the city, many of whom came down to the New York boat to give us the
-last sweet tokens of affection and see us off. As upon the former
-occasion, when Mrs. Sutherland and I came this way, we had splendid
-weather all the way to Havana, where we all landed and had a pleasant
-walk through the city of the capital of Cuba. It is wonderful what a
-good idea a person can get of a strange place, even in a few hours.
-
-We got up steam once more, passed through among the Bahama Islands, and
-made a call for a few hours at the beautiful little city of Nassau, on
-the Island of New Providence. This belongs to the English, and is the
-most spicy and perfect place in all the West India Islands. Got up steam
-again, and passed Cape Hatteras in safety, and in due time landed at New
-York, after which we took the train for Buffalo, where we arrived after
-a long and weary ride on the cars; and Mr. and Mrs. John B. Sutherland
-and several other dear friends gave us a very warm welcome when they met
-us at the depot, and took us all to our own home.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-
-_Receptions at Buffalo--The Lincoln's and Sutherland's Visit to
-Canada--Their Grand Reception There--Our Sacrifices for the Union and
-Freedom--The Difficulties of Reconstruction--Good Work of the Freedman's
-Bureau--Universal Rejoicing of all the Redeemed Race--The Colored People
-Settling Down to Hard Work throughout the South._
-
-The long and terrible Civil War was all over at last, and by the grace
-of God we had got our Tom home to Buffalo once more, all safe and sound.
-Our sea voyage from New Orleans to New York did us all an immense lot of
-good, and seemed to brighten us all up in a wonderful degree. It was at
-least a grand event in the lives of the girls, and is not forgotten even
-now.
-
-By way of returning thanks and giving glory to God for the victorious
-end of the war, a regular reception was given to us one night at the A.
-M. E. Church on Vine street, when every member was present, and there
-was such a time of rejoicing and general jollification as I thought had
-never been exceeded since the world began. We were also called upon for
-short speeches; hymns of praise and triumph were sung, and, indeed,
-there was a high time generally. "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is
-good, for His mercy endureth forever!"
-
-For the space of a whole month thereafter we just spent the whole time
-receiving friends at our house, and entertaining them, and going out and
-being entertained by them in turn. It was just one round of the purest
-pleasure, in which there was neither danger nor alloy. Tom had to do an
-infinite deal of talking, relating his wars and battles in the Sunny
-South, and the girls and I supplemented the same by giving our
-experiences of the Rivers Ohio and Mississippi, and the grand sea voyage
-all the way from New Orleans to New York. People were greatly taken with
-the two girls, as they were just as bright as two buttons.
-
-After all this turmoil was over, we all sighed for some fresh air in the
-country, and new scenes altogether. The glorious Gibsons of Canada had
-been writing incessantly ever since we spent that never-to-be-forgotten
-month at Richmond Hill, and had most urgently insisted upon us three
-coming back the second time after Tom's return to Buffalo--and for us to
-bring Tom along with us. And Tom himself was not only willing but he was
-most anxious to go, for the tongues of our children had been going
-ding-dong hammer and tongs, about the glories of Richmond Hill and
-Western Canada. And when it was at last decided that we would take the
-road, and the day of our departure from Buffalo had been set, nothing
-would satisfy our anxious children but that they should write a conjoint
-letter to the Gibsons about our coming to Canada. And this they did in
-their own way, and with such an incredible amount of enthusiasm that the
-good Gibsons have been laughing over it ever since.
-
-So we got already for our journey in the beginning of August, 1865, and
-when we were about to start for the railway station, what was our
-surprise when Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland, in travelling costume, marched
-back into the parlor, and said that they also were bound along with us
-to Richmond Hill and the Canadas! We were as much knocked down by this
-piece of information as if we had been prostrated on the battle-field by
-a discharge of grapeshot. We four all gave a loud shout for joy, made a
-general rush for them, and such a scene of embracing, kissing and
-congratulation followed as certainly can never be described by the pen.
-This unexpected turn of affairs put new courage into us all, and served
-its purpose as well as a tremendous victory over the enemy. The girls
-shouted, "Come on, father! Come on, mother! Grandpa, come on! Come on,
-grandma! There's a good time coming, and no mistake this time." The
-children set us all laughing. But business is business, and so we got
-our trunks into a conveyance, and all the presents intended for the good
-folk at Richmond Hill, and the conveyance rolled on to the railroad
-station, while we six happy travelers proceeded after it on foot.
-
-
-[Illustration: _HAULING COTTON TO THE GIN._]
-
-
-We all reached the station in due time, and being in a very hilarious
-mood, the weather being so fine, and with such pleasing prospects before
-us, we were taken for a wedding party, and no wonder! We got into the
-train, and soon was off for Canada. Having at length crossed over the
-Niagara river, we were fairly launched upon Canadian soil. All hearts
-were light, all eyes were bright, and nature's face was fair and gay.
-Our ride from the river to the railway station at Ingersoll was indeed
-perfectly delightful, and we had nothing to do by the way but sit back
-in our seats and admire the beautiful and well-cultivated country. As
-the girls and I had been here two years ago, it was not such a wonder to
-us, but the beautiful hills and dales of this land of refuge, to our
-oppressed people in days gone by, were a perfect inspiration, a wonder
-and a delight to the rest. In due course of time we arrived at the
-station at Ingersoll, where we were met by a conveyance from Richmond
-Hill; but as there were six of us in all, more than they, or even than
-some of our ownselves, had expected, we could not all get in, and Tom
-got another conveyance and divided the company in two. When we had
-almost completed our journey, the Gibsons at Richmond Hill saw us coming
-over the top of the last hill, as we issued out among the trees, upon
-which the entire family, dogs, cats and all, were seen leaving the
-house, and going down the field for the purpose of meeting our cavalcade
-at the gate that opened into the high-road. We cautiously descended the
-last hill, moved down the road that leads to the Cedar Swamp, and met
-these good Gibsons at the gate. I have said hundreds of times since that
-the warm welcome they gave us put me in mind of heaven, and it seemed to
-me at the time worth going all the way to Richmond Hill to receive!
-
-We all steered up the field road on foot, and when we came to Richmond
-Hill, and looked around us upon the country far and wide, we were all
-perfectly enchanted with the view, and one and all of us exclaimed,
-"What a beautiful land! Fair as the Garden of Eden before the Lord!
-Beautiful as Tirzah!" Then we all went into the house, where we disposed
-of our trunks, and all the rest of our things, after which we sat down
-and talked, and felt thoroughly at home. Indeed, there was a home
-feeling about the place that was irresistible. With true Canadian
-kindness refreshments were immediately placed before the young man who
-drove the hired conveyance, and after he had helped himself to his
-heart's content, he took his departure for Ingersoll, where I doubt not
-he arrived safely in a short time.
-
-A good supply of bread and cheese and milk were set upon the table, and
-each of us took a snack only, because the afternoon was now wearing on
-apace, and supper would be ready in a couple of hours. In the meantime,
-we all put on our hats and bonnets, and accompanied by several members
-of the family, we took a walk up to the top of the range of hills that
-ran away above the house, from whence we could see the sloping lands and
-dales that lay away beyond them; and, indeed, we had a most complete
-view of the whole country as far as the eye could reach. There was
-something perfectly sublime in the scenery that lay all around us, far
-and wide. How we did admire the fair-faced forest land, where the
-streams rolled away for Lake Erie, winding round, and round, and round;
-and the forests grew on both sides all down their banks, and the rest of
-the country was under a course of careful, splendid cultivation.
-
-We were so much taken with the glorious views of fair and fertile Canada
-that we felt in no hurry to return, but sat down on the hill-top, like a
-lot of birds of passage resting after a long flight, and inhaled the
-very inspiration of the joyous scene. But at last time was called for,
-and we all steered back to the house, where we found Doctor and Mrs.
-McKenzie, of the Presbyterian Church, to which the Gibsons go, in the
-little country town three miles off. The McKenzies live in a beautiful
-mansion among the trees on the hill-top opposite Richmond Hill. (We left
-the mansion on our right hand before we descended the last hill). They
-had heard that we six had come, and in our absence had arrived to pay us
-a visit. Dr. McKenzie and wife are excellent company; they are highly
-intelligent, and come from the highlands of Scotland. We had attended
-his church in the town upon our last visit in the autumn of 1863.
-
-Supper was now ready, and we all sat down around the jovial board, which
-was fairly groaning under an enormous weight of good things. Dr.
-McKenzie said grace; Mary and Margaret Gibson acted as waiters, and we
-had one of the best suppers that were ever served up even in hospitable
-Canada. After that we resolved ourselves into a sort of open parliament,
-and the night drove on with fun and conversation. One after another of
-the neighbors continued to arrive, and the enthusiasm of the night went
-on, grew and still increased. The piano was also brought into full play,
-and the girls and some of the rest of us played and sang, and a better
-time had never been heard along the sides of those peaceful and lovely
-hills. I am sure it was for all a time of extraordinary enjoyment.
-
-During a lull in the proceedings of the night, Dr. McKenzie stated that
-it would be a great gratification to himself and wife, and to all their
-friends over these hills if a night's entertainment were given in the
-hall at the post-town, three miles off; and we could order the
-proceedings of the night in any varied way that we pleased. We informed
-the learned doctor that we would leave the matter entirely in his own
-hands, and whenever he called us up we would answer to the summons, and
-do our very best to please every man, woman or child who favored us with
-their presence.
-
-In due course the grand entertainment came off, and what with songs,
-music and speeches it was declared to be one of the very best and most
-enthusiastic gatherings in all the chronicles of Canada.
-
-We spent one whole month at Richmond Hill, the month of August, 1865. We
-walked the hills and dales, far and near, as on the occasion of our
-former visit we spent many a pleasant day at the homes of the dear
-Canadians, who never knew how to be kind enough, and a great many came
-even a long way to see us. We walked along the hill-tops, and sat down
-besides the purling streams in the forests, and read under the shade of
-the tall trees. Once more the two girls overhauled that grand edition of
-the "Pilgrim's Progress," and Tom was also taken immensely with the
-pictures.
-
-But all things come to an end. We had a most glorious time among these
-good Canadians; we all felt greatly benefited by our visit to Richmond
-Hill, and Tom declared that he felt at least as well as he did before he
-went away to the war. So we gave the Gibsons a general invitation to
-come and visit us at our home in Buffalo whenever they got ready to do
-so. We took a fond leave of them at Richmond Hill, and some of them
-accompanied us to the railway station at Ingersoll, where we took the 10
-o'clock train for Buffalo, and arrived there safe and sound the same
-afternoon.
-
-The condition of the South after the rebel armies surrendered reminds me
-of the havoc wrought when a forest of great tall trees is swept down by
-a strong and mighty wind, and all the forest monarchs are flat on the
-ground. Their mighty roots are exposed to the gaze of every passer-by;
-an enormous quantity of earth is torn up by the terrible wrench that has
-taken place; and the great branches are broken and jumbled together with
-the great crash of the now prostrate and ruined forest. Such was the
-state of the South after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, in
-Virginia. He had, indeed, no great army to surrender, and what little
-armies remained to the rebellion elsewhere were but of small account,
-and promptly laid down their arms at last.
-
-Whilst the South fought with a valor that was worthy of a better cause,
-and her slave-holders and followers actually laid down their lives in
-thousands and ten thousands for their darling "independence" and
-slavery, I am never able to think without regret of the dreadful
-sacrifice of human lives and treasure that we of the North were forced
-to make to restore the Union to its former state, and to secure the
-freedom of the last slave in all the land. Never since this world began
-did a defiant, haughty and valiant race of rebels so long and so
-successfully resist--I might almost say the wealth, the resources, and
-the physical strength of half the world. It was the "strong man armed,"
-and in his own house, fighting there with all his might and main. And
-how did we knock down the house and kill him? Alas, alas! we had to
-sacrifice whole legions of our well-beloved, both white and black, that
-the Union and liberty might be where they are at the present day.
-
-I have just above compared the condition of the South at the close of
-the war to that of a forest of mighty trees, all suddenly dashed to the
-earth by the force of overwhelming and irresistible winds--even the
-terrible winds that are swept upon the land from the wild and stormy
-ocean that breaks upon our shores. The question next was how were we to
-clear this forest land; remove all the trees with their great upturned
-roots; fill up the great cavities--in a word, "clear the land," and
-worst of all, restore the forest? What Abraham Lincoln might have done
-if he had lived--he and his cabinet between them--I am unable to say. A
-great many people are of the opinion that had Lincoln lived things would
-have gone ten times better with Reconstruction than they did. That may
-have been so, but the wish was father to the thought, and it has always
-been my opinion that there would have been a bad time of it for years
-and years to come, as there was without the great war President. Poor
-fellow! Because ever during his lifetime, and when the war was going on,
-there were many times when Lincoln himself confessed that he was almost
-at his wit's end, and did not know what to do for the best. With the
-Southerners going home, sullen, angry and defeated, and four millions of
-slaves redeemed from the curse of the "peculiar institution," for the
-very life of me I am unable to see that any one with much less wisdom
-than that which is divine, could ever had at once brought order out of
-chaos in a day, or even in a year. Even with the assistance of 10,000
-giants, it must have taken time to clear away that fallen forest, fill
-up the awful gaps, and put a new forest in the place of the one that had
-been knocked down!
-
-In order to make a beginning at Reconstruction it was decided to place
-the late rebellious States under military governors, who acted in
-concert with the Bureau for Freedmen, Refugees and Abandoned Lands. This
-"Freedman's Bureau," as it was briefly called, was wisely established in
-the spring of 1865 for the purpose of assisting in every possible way
-those 4,000,000 of the African race whom the war had made free and
-turned loose on the country. Of course they must not be permitted to
-starve, and the Government at Washington wisely established the bureau
-to assist them in tiding over the crisis. Richmond and the Confederacy
-had not fallen yet, but the grand crash was at hand, and all things were
-in readiness for the mighty changes that were at the door of the nation.
-
-But the freedmen were not the only people who had to be provided for.
-There was a host of white people--all sorts of refugees--who had also
-been rendered homeless and entirely destitute, who were in precisely the
-same condition as the recent slaves of African descent. These had to be
-looked after the same as the rest of the people, and all had to be
-clothed and fed, and encouraged to go to work at once, besides sending
-their children to public schools that were to be established all over
-the States lately in rebellion. Besides all these, courts of law were
-set a-going to try ordinary cases throughout the new military districts
-everywhere. And for the purpose of farming, it was decided to take the
-lands that had been abandoned by the rebels during the war, or
-confiscated by the government, and portion out the same to freedman and
-refugees, not giving more than forty acres to each, and that upon the
-easiest terms, for the space of three years, with the right of purchase
-afterwards, if the tenants wished to buy, when the easiest terms again
-would be granted. But right here I have something of a most unusual
-pleasant nature to relate. My indulgent reader, my book would come far
-short of the mark without it!
-
-The war that had lasted about four years and a half was now all over and
-gone. The last rebel had been forced to lay down his arms, and slavery,
-that had existed under the most aggravated form for about two hundred
-and fifty years, had been swept from the land, and there remained not
-the shadow of a doubt that every colored man, woman and child were
-entirely free. Then, like the Jews of old, after the drowning of Pharaoh
-and his rebel army in the Red sea, there arose a loud and long-continued
-song of joy from the hearts of all the 4,000,000 of freed people all
-over Secessia--from Mason and Dixon's line to the Rio Grande river; and
-from the wild Atlantic waves to the State of Missouri in the far west.
-For some time after the close of the war, throughout the entire South,
-the entire colored race could think of little else but rejoicing,
-singing and dancing for joy. And I would think it a very strange thing
-if the redeemed race had not so abandoned themselves to such joy and
-rejoicing for a time at least. It was the natural song of the captive,
-suddenly and unexpectedly released from his prison. Joy, joy, joy! Oh,
-nothing but joy! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed
-gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." For
-two hundred and fifty years the poor, dear, oppressed people of God had
-been under the lash of the task-master; but now they were free as the
-masters themselves! This was right, perfectly right, and accounts for
-all their joy, their songs and rejoicing all over the lately
-far-extended battle-field. "Oh, praise ye the Lord, for He is good: for
-His mercy endureth forever!"
-
-When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who
-had been elected vice-president, became in turn the President of the
-United States. This man had been brought up in the South, and when
-Reconstruction came, all his Southern sympathies floated up to the
-surface. He entered into a direct quarrel with the houses of Congress,
-and vetoed almost every bill that ever came before him. But in all such
-cases, Congress passed his vetoes over his head, and they were of no
-effect. At last he was impeached and tried for his cross-grained,
-contrary measures, but escaped conviction by the smallest majority. But
-all the same he was one of the most destructive rebels that we had.
-
-In the meantime Reconstruction went on in the late rebellious States in
-the best way that Congress knew how to do it, which was not much at the
-best. A race of men swept down from the North with their carpet-bags in
-their hands in search of fortune, who were nick-named carpet-baggers;
-then there were the middle class whites of the South, who were
-nick-named the scalawags, who assisted the carpet-baggers in ruling the
-South, all of whom, however, were under the eyes of the military
-generals, each of whom was placed in command of one of the States, and
-these generals in turn worked hand in hand along with an assistant
-commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau, Major-General O. O. Howard, at
-Washington, being the chief commissioner, and one of the best men that
-ever lived.
-
-Immediately after the close of the war, many of the more pronounced
-rebels retired abroad, where they found employment in foreign armies, or
-more peaceful occupations. They had no heart for any further rule under
-the flag of Uncle Sam, which now, indeed, floated freely over all races
-of people from the Lakes to the Gulf. For such arch-rebels the Sunny
-South was a home no more. But many of the late rebel leaders preferred
-to stay at home and take their chance, hoping for mercy and pardon from
-the Northern government, which they had so terribly outraged. As a
-general thing they were cross-vexed and sullen, and had no heart
-whatever for the reconstruction of the Southern states, which was
-entirely conducted by legislatures, composed of loyal Southerners and
-colored men, all of whom were duly elected. These colored men were in
-all the lower houses of legislature, while in some of the States they
-were also in the Senate, and in a few of the States they filled the
-office of deputy-governor. The heads and leaders of the late rebellion
-showed no disposition to lend a hand; they allowed the military and
-civil administrators to take their own way, assisted as the latter were
-by the colored senators and representatives in the State legislature,
-carpet-baggers and scalawags.
-
-Whilst no doubt all of the above were doing the best they knew how, the
-entire race of 4,000,000 of freedmen had recovered from their dance of
-new and glorious liberty; had opened their eyes to the stern realities
-of the changed situation, and settled down to steady work all over the
-land. Many of them crowded into the towns, cities and villages, while a
-host of others went to work over all the plantations and farms--some
-working on shares with their former masters, whilst others farmed their
-own lands, and did wonderfully. Many a brave old "prophecy" had been
-uttered that the descendants of Africans were unfit for the pursuits of
-freedom, and that the whole freed race would fall to pieces like a ship
-on the sands; but the race went steadily to work, and with some aid from
-the Freedman's Bureau, they prospered from the very beginning. In short,
-the people now fairly began to see the beauties of personal liberty, and
-they had a mind to work. The American Government, however, never did a
-better thing than to establish that bureau, without the aid of which
-entire legions of colored and white people must inevitably have
-perished.
-
-All things, however, did not work satisfactorily, and under the crooked
-circumstances perhaps that was more than was to be expected. Throughout
-the entire South the system of working on shares was not in favor of the
-redeemed race in many cases. The white man had got a notion in his head
-that he had been cheated out of his rights, and that somehow or other,
-the former slave still of right belonged to him. Some of them therefore
-thought themselves privileged in beating the freedman out of the fruits
-of their toil in every possible way. If such white men were thus
-aggrieved over the new order of things, their wives were worse, and
-could find no one to comfort them! The slave was now, at least, as free
-as themselves, and there was no power in the land to force him back to
-his former condition. So they took their spite out of him by cheating
-him on the division of the crops, and he was obliged either to stay on
-the lands and be imposed upon, or leave at a loss. The public papers
-were full of the freedman's complaints at the time. One way of
-defrauding him who did all the hard work was to open a general store for
-the sale of all kinds of groceries and other needful things. The
-accounts were cooked and managed in a way to suit the bosses, and almost
-everything was charged for far above the general prices of the country.
-Thus, when the day of settlement came, the laborer usually found himself
-from $50 to $200 in debt, owing to the system of thieving practiced on
-him by his betrayer. The Southern people generally were sullen, and
-almost inconsolable under the new order of things, and they refused to
-be comforted for a long time. Indeed, some of them are not comforted
-yet, and never will be. Andrew Johnson, the President, did much harm in
-contending for the rebels in every way in his power. In fact, he went
-right over to them, and even obstructed Reconstruction itself in every
-way that he could.
-
-This sullenness on the part of the Southerners at last found vent in the
-organization of a secret and murderous conspiracy called the
-Ku-Klux-Klan--whoever was guilty of inventing such an ugly name! This
-Ku-Klux-Klan reached for their shot-guns, and went forth by night, and
-shot down the carpet-baggers and their like, like crows. This was soon
-after the first election of President Grant, an election, by the by, in
-which the rebels took no part, but they now determined to spoil that
-which they were unwilling to mend. These wicked Ku-Klux sought to
-obstruct the courts of justice, harass and trouble the colored people in
-every possible way, and cripple the local governments. The terror that
-spread all over the South at the time was perfectly dreadful. People
-were shot down everywhere, colored churches and school-houses were
-burned to the ground in the night, and the work of revenge and
-destruction went on night and day. It seemed as if the late rebel
-soldiers, who had been beaten in the field by the North, were once more
-trying to raise a rebellion in a new form. The writ of habeas corpus was
-suspended for a time, and Uncle Sam put his heavy foot down upon the
-whole matter. The powers of the day went forth; arrests were made; the
-trials and convictions of many of those bad men were secured, and some
-of the penitentiaries were filled with the enemies of law and order.
-Then for a time, at least, followed a pause in the obstructing work of
-the reconstruction of the late rebellious States, and the governments by
-colored legislators, scalawags and carpet-baggers went on as before. How
-much better it would have been if all parties, both white and black, had
-been harmonious and agreeable after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court
-House! But instead of that the defeated rebel went home, nursed his
-wrath to keep it warm. Robbing and stealing from the injured freedmen
-followed, and then he went out working mischief after dark with the aid
-of his shot-gun.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-
-_Reconstruction in the South--Great Progress in Education--The Fifteenth
-Amendment--Message of President Grant--Certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish
-Regarding the Same--Great Joy Over Amendment--It Goes to Work._
-
-General Grant had been elected President of the United States in 1868
-for his first term of office. In 1872 he carried the Southern States
-once more. He met with but little opposition in the South. Colored
-lieutenant-governors were elected in Louisiana, Mississippi and South
-Carolina, in which three States the colored population is far greater
-than the white. The States of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana,
-Mississippi and South Carolina had colored men in their Houses of
-Representatives, and Mississippi had them also in her Senate House. Many
-of the most important offices in the Southern States were held by men of
-color. But by the year 1875 the white leaders in the Republican party
-had become intimidated by the Ku-Klux-Klan, and were quite driven out or
-destroyed by that deadly shot-gun. Thus the colored men in the
-legislatures were abandoned to their fate, and the presence of the
-United States Army became necessary to support them at elections, whilst
-they held office, and carried on the State governments. The whole South
-was in a bad way, and things had gone on from bad to worse. The sullen
-and stubborn leaders of the late rebellion had refused to lend a hand in
-building up the State governments once more, which they had torn down,
-and the Northern government of the whole nation had committed the
-reconstruction of the late rebel States to hands as yet far too feeble
-at such a time, and that was, namely, to colored men, many of whom had
-little experience before with carpet-baggers and scalawags. At the same
-time there did not seem to be any others who could be trusted by the
-national government to carry on the business of the Southern States.
-Even colored men, carpet-baggers and scalawags were either heartily or
-formally Republicans, and could be trusted by the Washington authorities
-in acting loyally and faithfully in the discharge of their duties at
-least. I am unable to see how the Washington government can be much
-blamed for committing the care of the Southern States to hands so
-feeble, so long as there did not seem to be anybody else to rule, and
-the late rebels themselves were still in too sullen a mood to lend a
-hand in the governments.
-
-
-[Illustration: _FIRST READING EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION._]
-
-
-But during all these unhappy years that followed the close of the war
-there was one thing that did not miscarry, and that was the great march
-of the emancipated slaves on the road to progress, and everything that
-tends to elevate and ennoble a nation. The fostering national
-government, the churches of the North, and all that which was best in
-this great republic, were straining themselves to the very utmost to
-lift up the entire redeemed race by affording them the best education
-that they could possibly bestow. Teachers still flocked down from the
-North in great numbers, all kinds of schools were opened, and institutes
-and colleges were set on float for the benefit of the boys and girls,
-and young men and young women, who wished to attend them. There was no
-branch of education that was not supplied to the white race that was not
-also supplied to the colored. And not only did children and youths
-attend those schools, but even men and women; parents and grandparents
-in thousands took up their spelling-books and first readers, and went to
-work with a hearty good will, and learned to read, write and spell with
-great rapidity. The progress that the emancipated race made in the line
-of education was perfectly marvelous, and astonished the whole nation.
-Even old preachers, who had been preaching the gospel for fifty years,
-went to work and learned how to read the Bible; they learned how to
-write letters and work arithmetic for the first time in their lives. It
-had been charged often enough that the colored race were unfitted by
-nature to learn this, that and other things. The studied policy of the
-slave-holders was, not to give them a chance, and then to tell a willful
-falsehood. But now that all were free, they rushed in at once, and
-showed the whole world that they were as capable of learning as any
-other race under the sun. Nay, more! They even crossed the oceans, and
-were recognized by all the nations on the face of the earth!
-
-Nor did the people only learn how to read, write and work arithmetic,
-but all kinds of industrial schools were started throughout the South;
-first in one place, then in another, so that the young men learned
-different trades, and thus qualified themselves to learn a living in
-coming years. And they not only learned, but they learned well, were
-ambitious to excel, took naturally to it, and earned the good will and
-praise of their teachers. In short, after the war was over, the South
-was both cursed and blessed by a race of "volunteers," who came down
-from the North, and whose mission was to take advantage of the new state
-of things. The curse came in with those carpet-baggers, who came to take
-all they could get, and hold on as long as ever they could. It is true
-that they were not all bad, for indeed they ran all the way from good to
-middling. But they have generally been looked upon as a set of rapacious
-men, who came down to help themselves first, last and all the time; and
-when all was done, if anybody else could be benefitted by them, so much
-the better!
-
-But with the teachers things were altogether different. They can in no
-sense be compared with the carpet-baggers, for they were a perfect
-blessing--all of them, or nearly all, being "volunteers" for the South,
-and for the benefit of freedmen, and for them alone. They were sent
-forth, as I have stated before, by the churches and societies of the
-North, and the national government encouraged them and their efforts in
-every possible way. And not only were public schools set on foot all
-over the land, but there were a great many who opened private schools,
-and thus the work went merrily on. And the walls of the new educational
-structure began to rise rapidly on all sides, "for the people had a mind
-to work," and, as the ancient Romans said, "Labor conquers all things."
-
-
-[Illustration: _DE SOTO DISCOVERING MISSISSIPPI RIVER._]
-
-
-And even to the very day and time whilst I am now writing, I have great
-pleasure in informing my kind reader that the work goes on, and still
-goes on well. Beginning gradually at the close of the war, nay, I might
-almost say, in some places before the close of the war--schools and
-colleges for all studies were set on foot, either South or North, some
-for the training of young colored men and women, who were destined to
-become teachers of their own race throughout the land; some were
-institutes or colleges for the study of law, medicine, music, elocution
-and a variety of other subjects. And the work still continues and
-extends in all directions, and promises to unfold itself more and more
-as the years go by. At the present time there are many beautiful private
-schools and seminaries in many parts of the South where young colored
-ladies exclusively are sent to be educated, and they are splendidly
-educated, too. And inasmuch as the colored race are born to excel in
-music, many of them have come to the front, and in the departments of
-music and song they have shone brightly in the nation, and in distant
-lands also, where they have no prejudice to contend with. But though the
-color line has by no means been wiped out yet, even in the Northern
-States, it must in all fairness be stated that colored youths and
-maidens are freely permitted to pursue their studies in almost all the
-schools and colleges of the land; and it is only where race prejudice
-exists, and the last dregs thereof prevail, that the children of African
-descent are barred from entering. But time changes all things; God alone
-cannot be changed--new generations will arise who will entirely sweep
-the evil past away!
-
-The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution had been
-passed, securing the race in their personal and civil rights as freemen
-before the common law of the United States; but as yet colored men could
-not vote, and the Republican party, as a just and defensive measure,
-considered that it would be well to arm those who had formerly been
-slaves with all the rights of citizens, even as others. This brought up
-the question of a new amendment to the Constitution. It was to be a new
-dress in which the new citizens were to be clothed before the work was
-complete. There was opposition enough to this in some quarters; of
-course, it never was once intended to ask such men as Jefferson Davis
-and Robert E. Lee for their consent. Even if many of the colored men
-were uneducated, they were as good, if not better, than a wicked and
-intelligent rebel. The rebels (as they were still commonly called),
-would rather pull the national government down to the ground than
-restore it, but the entire ransomed race desired to build it up.
-Politically, and also from a sense of gratitude for their freedom, they
-belonged to the Republican party, and therefore they were perfectly
-right in siding with the Republicans on every and all occasions.
-Besides, the right for colored men to vote was bound to come forward
-sometime or other, and it might just as well come now as hereafter.
-Ignorance on their part was much better than the studied opposition on
-the part of the rebels. And I doubt very much whether the most
-illiterate colored man did not know more about the American Constitution
-than those ignorant hordes of Europeans who are almost weekly dumped
-down on our shores, who neither know nor care anything about our
-Constitution, and who never even heard of the name of George Washington.
-If this was not so serious a matter, I could almost laugh at the thought
-of the ignorance of those foreigners.
-
-Besides, if colored men were in many cases unfit for the franchise, it
-was no bad thing to give it them at once anyhow, because it would
-stimulate the nation at large to push their complete education along,
-and the race themselves would now have a far more powerful motive to
-acquire knowledge than they had ever had before. Therefore, there was a
-very great deal of interest taken by the nation at large in the passage
-of the new amendment to the Constitution that was destined to place
-black men upon the self-same footing with white men. The white
-Republicans also considered that they were indebted to colored soldiers
-for the restoration of the Union to the tune of at least 200,000 brave,
-heroic men, and that they owed them the right to vote.
-
-The necessary three-fourths of all the States of the Union having voted
-in their legislatures in favor of the passage of the new amendment to
-the Constitution, President Grant deemed the new measure of such vast
-importance that he went out of the usual mode adopted upon such
-occasions, and addressed the following special message on the subject to
-Congress, for the purpose of still further enhancing its importance in
-the eyes of the Senate and House of Representatives, and, in short, of
-the whole American people:
-
-"SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT GRANT ON THE RATIFICATION OF THE FIFTEENTH
-AMENDMENT.
-
-"To the Senate and House of Representatives:
-
-"It is unusual to notify the two houses of Congress, by message, of the
-promulgation by proclamation of the Secretary of State of the
-ratification of a Constitutional Amendment. In view, however, of the
-vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution this day
-declared a part of the revered instrument, I deem a departure from the
-usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once four millions of
-people voters, who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in
-the land not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so
-(with the assertion that, at the time of the Declaration of
-Independence, the opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized
-portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as
-politics, that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to
-respect) is indeed a measure of grander importance than any other one
-act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the
-present day.
-
-"Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the
-people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and
-industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly-enfranchised
-race to the importance of their new privilege. To the race more favored
-heretofore by our laws, I would say, withhold no legal privilege of
-advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly
-believed that a republican government could not endure without
-intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The
-'Father of his country,' in his farewell address, uses this language,
-'Promote, then, as a matter of primary importance, institutions for the
-general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the
-government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
-opinion should be enlightened.' In his first annual message to Congress,
-the same views are forcibly presented, and are again urged in his eighth
-message.
-
-"I repeat that the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
-Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the
-most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.
-The change will be beneficial in proportion to the need that is given to
-the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were
-important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more
-now with a population of forty millions, and increasing in rapid ratio.
-
-"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their
-Constitutional power to promote and encourage popular education
-throughout the country; and upon the people everywhere to see to it that
-all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity
-to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the government a
-blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits
-contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.
-
-"Executive Mansion, March 30, 1870.
-
-"U. S. GRANT."
-
-On account of the vast importance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
-Constitution, and its direct bearing upon the elevation of the colored
-race, and the immediate amelioration of their condition, I will here
-append the certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish respecting ratification of
-the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, March 30, 1870:
-
-"Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States.
-
-"To all to whom these presents may come, greeting,
-
-"Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th
-day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in the words and
-figures following, to wit:
-
-"A resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United
-States.
-
-"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
-States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses
-concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislature,
-shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely,
-
-"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
-be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account
-of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
-
-"Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
-appropriate legislation.
-
-"And, Further, that it appears, from official documents on file in this
-department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
-proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the
-States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin,
-Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas,
-Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire,
-Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa,
-Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas, in all,
-twenty-nine States.
-
-"And, Further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the
-said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of the whole number of
-States in the United States.
-
-"And, Further, that it appears, from an official document on file in
-this department, that the legislature of the State of New York has since
-passed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said ratification of the
-said amendment, which had been made by the legislature of that State,
-and of which official notice had been filed in the department.
-
-"And, Further, that it appears from an official document on file in this
-department, that the legislature of Georgia has by resolution ratified
-the said proposed amendment.
-
-"Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State
-of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the Second Section
-of the Act of Congress, approved the 20th day of April, 1818, entitled,
-An act to provide for the publication of the Laws of the United States,
-and for other purposes, do hereby certify that the amendment aforesaid
-has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the
-Constitution of the United States.
-
-"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal
-of the Department of State to be affixed.
-
-"Done at the City of Washington, this 20th day of March, in the year of
-our Lord, eighteen hundred and seventy; and of the Independence of the
-United States the ninety-fourth.
-
-    "SEAL.
-
-"HAMILTON FISH."
-
-Thus, as will be seen above, the ever-glorious Fifteenth Amendment
-became a part of the American Constitution, and the same was made known
-to the remotest bounds of the Republic.
-
-"Arise, shine forth, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord
-has risen upon thee!" Such is the language of Holy Scripture, and it
-expresses well the sudden outburst of the joy that filled the hearts of
-the entire colored race when the Fifteenth Amendment became the law of
-the land. Then, indeed, did the colored soldier feel that he had a
-country, and that he had not fought and bled in vain for the cause of
-freedom and the Union! Then did all colored men and women feel, indeed,
-that they were men and women among other full-fledged citizens of the
-United States! Then did they feel, in the celebrated words of Robert
-Burns, the Scotch poet, that "An honest man, though e'er so poor, is
-king of men for all that!" If the Emancipation Proclamation called forth
-a tremendous flood of thankfulness and gratitude, if even the fall of
-Richmond and the freeing of the last slave called for shouts of joy and
-rejoicing, much more--yea, ten times more--did the publication of the
-Fifteenth Amendment exercise the entire redeemed race from the very
-bottom of their hearts! Their forefathers had been stolen away from
-Africa; they had been brought here. This was their home, such as it was.
-They had no other country but the United States. Now, the new amendment
-to the Constitution had put the right to vote into their hands, the same
-as others--just the same as others, and they most loyally sent up a
-shout of joy that reached from Maine to the Rio Grande river, and that
-shout arose to Heaven and entered into the ears of the celestials.
-
-Where, now, was the doctrine, indeed, "That the descendants of the
-African race had no rights that a white man was bound to respect?" Who
-ever gave "the white man" the right to use such language, unless it was
-wickedly presumed by his own presumptuous and lying arrogance? The white
-race only compose a small portion of the human race. According to
-tradition, Adam was as brown as a bun; and certainly our Lord and
-Saviour Jesus Christ must have been a very dark-complexioned man? Does
-anybody mean to say that Adam and the Lord Jesus had no right to be
-respected because they were as brown as a bun in complexion? Like the
-so-called "divine right of kings," such language was nothing but a
-wilful and deliberate falsehood, for the entire race of man have rights
-to be respected--the one as much as the other. How passeth away the
-glory of this world! Behold your millions of people gloriously set free,
-and after a long and fearful war pronounced full-fledged citizens, even
-as others! If the ransomed race formerly rejoiced when they felt their
-bodily chains fall off, much more did they rejoice when they were
-invested with the same rights as the rest of the American nation, and
-could vote like the freemen that they were! It is true that in the sight
-of God and all justice (both divine and human) they were always men,
-they had always rights that other men were bound to respect, but now we
-had the full confession of those rights from all the rest of our own
-compatriots, who fully and freely admitted, that all their rights were
-ours also and justice, though long delayed, was done at last!
-
-The colored people were now in full possession of their political rights
-for the first time, and many new things happened that passed for a great
-wonder in the history of the nation. Hiram B. Revels took his seat as
-United States Senator for Mississippi on the 25th of February, 1870. It
-was from the self-same State that Jefferson Davis hailed, for he was
-Senator for Mississippi until he resigned his seat and went out with the
-rest of the rebels. Nine brief years had passed away; for four and a
-half years the civil war had raged; the curse of slavery had disappeared
-from the land, and now came Hiram B. Revels from Mississippi, from which
-the head of the Southern Confederacy had come in former days! Most
-assuredly this was the Lord's work, and it was wondrous in our eyes!
-
-It was just one year from the day and hour when Senator Revels took his
-seat in the United States Senate that Jefferson F. Long, also a colored
-man, was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives from the
-State of Georgia--the State of Alexander H. Stephens, who had been
-vice-president of the late Confederate States! It was that same Stephens
-who had put forth the idea in a speech of his own immediately after he
-was made vice-president, that slavery should be the corner-stone of the
-new government of Secessia!
-
-Then the United States Government sent E. D. Bassett, a colored man from
-Pennsylvania, as Minister-Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of
-Hayti, in the West Indies. This was carrying things on at quite a lively
-rate, indeed. Nor was this all. President Grant then turned around, and
-sent J. Milton Turner, a colored man from Missouri, as Minister-Resident
-and Consul-General to the Republic of Liberia, in Western Africa. It is
-true that Hayti and Liberia are not nations of the first rank in power
-and population, but they are at least as respectable as any, and the
-time must yet come when ambassadors of the colored race will be
-appointed to the first nations on earth. President Grant was at least
-making a good beginning, and as he had been a soldier, like the lion, he
-had nothing to fear!
-
-About this time Frederick Douglass had been made a Presidential Elector
-for the great Empire State of New York, and he helped to cast the vote
-for that State for General Grant upon his election for the second term,
-in 1872. Times were indeed mightily changed with Frederick Douglass
-since he was a young man, and fled away from Baltimore in the disguise
-of a sailor, passing through New York City, which was then almost as
-much opposed to freedom of the slaves as the State of Georgia.
-
-Well does the English poet say, "Slavery there has lost the day!" The
-ballot was now in the hands of the colored man as well as others. He had
-tilled the fertile soil of the United States for two hundred and fifty
-years; he had now lent a vigorous hand in three wars, and had completely
-won his right and title to full-fledged citizenship, with all the honors
-and powers that it carries with it. All Abolitionists and true-hearted
-Republicans rejoiced at the spectacle, whilst the late arch-rebels and
-others of that ilk were depressed at the changes!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-
-_Joyful Demonstrations Over the Fifteenth Amendment--Processions in all
-the Cities of the Land--Departure for Louisville, Ky.--The Journey
-Thither--The River Ohio--Great Celebration--The Week at Louisville--The
-Return to Buffalo._
-
-My dear, kind reader, as I have already indicated, the eventful year of
-1870 had come, and the Fifteenth Amendment had become the law of the
-land. From Maine to Texas, from the wild Atlantic waves to the Coast of
-the Pacific Ocean, the entire colored race abandoned themselves to the
-most unbounded demonstration of joy and delight. I never saw the tide of
-delight running so high either before or since, as upon this most august
-occasion. Great mass-meetings, immense processions, music, dancing,
-religious meetings for sacred song, prayer and praise were the order of
-the night and of the day. Indeed, there was no outward form of joy and
-rejoicing that can either be conceived or described, that was not
-observed upon this glorious occasion. We read in the Book of Esther
-about the joy of the whole Jewish nation, when they were all saved by
-the Lord from the wicked plots and schemes of the evil-minded Haman--the
-Jew's enemy. So great, indeed, was the impression produced upon the
-heart of God's ancient people that the feast of Purim is still kept up
-in commemoration of that terrible crisis through which all Israel had to
-pass. We ourselves--the colored race in America--had had our experiences
-in times past, as bad or worse than the Israelites of old. It was now
-five full years since the close of the war; we had had five years of
-national freedom; slavery here had lost the day; we could now vote like
-any other race, and therefore the free exercise of the self-same power
-was placed in our hands; the spring of 1870 was come, when the entire
-colored race abandoned themselves to singing, dancing and rejoicing in
-all ways in general; and, indeed, they had good cause and the right to
-rejoice, for they had waited a long time for it, and their patience had
-been sorely tried. Justice was long in coming, but it came at last.
-
-In all the larger towns and cities of the United States, both North and
-South, immense processions were organized and carried out in the
-greatest and grandest perfection. It struck me as a truly wonderful
-thing at the time that the Democratic and rebel element that were so
-rank and strong even in former days in the North did not take mortal
-offense at such out-and-out demonstrations, carried out with such a high
-hand before the noon-day sun!
-
-But our people were discreet, and neither said nor did anything
-purposely to cause any reasonable person to take offense. Of course,
-they stood upon their rights, and they claimed their rights of way as
-much as others, but all the same their lawful demonstration of joy and
-rejoicing went with a most tremendous swing, and nothing was done by
-anybody to mar the exultation of the grand occasion. So far as the
-Republicans were concerned, and all the brave old Abolition school, and
-every one of that ilk, they were well pleased to see the happy
-consummation of all their labors and toils.
-
-I do not wonder so much that this tremendous colored demonstration
-passed off without opposition in the North, but what was really
-surprising was that the processions and other demonstrations of joy in
-the cities of the South, in honor of the Fifteenth Amendment, should not
-have brought on opposition, conflicts and riots. In brief, the entire
-white race, over all the land, submitted to the inevitable; they
-submitted to the results of the war. Their consciences at least bore
-witness that neither race nor color, nor previous condition make men nor
-unmake them; that one man is as much of a man as another in a general
-sense, and that the colored race had fought for their equal rights, and
-deserved them, and all seemed now willing to live in peace.
-
-As we heard that a very great demonstration was to be made at
-Louisville, Ky., in honor of the Fifteenth Amendment, and as my beloved
-mother, Tom and myself had been longing for a long time past for a sight
-of the dear old place upon the Kentucky shore, where we had all been
-born and brought up, we determined to take the girls and go along to the
-celebration, and Mr. Sutherland also consented to accompany us. He had
-never been in Kentucky, and so anticipated that it would be a great
-treat to him.
-
-It was a fine morning in the spring when we took the road for the
-railway station, and soon we found ourselves all seated in the train.
-Mr. Sutherland and the girls were in a great way about going to
-Kentucky, and the girls had so long desired to see it once more. Ever
-since they awoke in the morning they had been humming and singing "The
-Old Kentucky Shore!" Nay, they even played it on the piano, and sang to
-their own accompaniments. Thus the whole house was ringing that early
-morning with the sounds of music. But to those of us who were older the
-children's hilarity, music and song brought other thoughts, for we were
-no longer children. Many dear old slave ditties had been sung about
-Kentucky, which was a slave State, as the dear reader knows very well.
-Thousands of fugitives had escaped over the river Ohio, which bounds all
-her northern line. Indeed, runaway slaves from States further south
-usually made for this river, and made their escapes into the free States
-of the North. Even my own dear Tom and I had made our escape over this
-river, and my own dear mother had been carried down and over its waters
-on her way to the Sunny South.
-
-
-[Illustration: _IN DANGER OF THE OVERSEER'S LASH._]
-
-
-Thus our feelings that morning were rather conflicting. Mr. Sutherland
-and the girls seemed best off, for there were no dark shadows in the
-immediate past to cloud their brows, like mother, Tom and myself. But
-all clouds passed away sooner or later, and we happily forgot our
-old-time experiences in the pleasantness of the new day, the bright and
-warming sunlight, and even the joyous surroundings that were all around
-about us on our happy way. The girls having bought a couple of bright
-new picture books from the book-stand at the depot while we were
-securing our tickets, all things were now in readiness for our
-departure. We took our seats in a very contented and flowery state of
-mind at last, and our brave iron horse set out for the open road along
-the shores of Lake Erie, and soon we had left the city of Buffalo behind
-us. The dark shadows of the early morning had indeed departed
-altogether, and our eyes and thoughts were fixed upon the beautiful
-country as we flew past, and on the shining waters of Lake Erie, till we
-came to Cleveland, Ohio. Here we left the lake, and switched away
-towards the southwest of Columbus, the capital of this State. The rest
-of us had been over this ground before, as the dear reader will
-remember; but all was new ground to mother and Mr. Sutherland, who now
-greatly admired the beauties of the State of Ohio, adorned in all the
-charms of spring, and with all its fine woods and forests arrayed in
-their new mantle of green, that set off the beauties of the hills and
-dales in great perfection. And whatever our thoughts and feelings might
-otherwise have been, on one point we were all united--we were going back
-to our dear old Kentucky shore, and the city of Louisville, to behold
-the glorious celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment to the American
-Constitution, and to such an outpouring of the colored race as had never
-been seen in Kentucky. That, indeed, made our hearts light; that was joy
-enough for all.
-
-In due time we reached Columbus, the capital of the State, as nice a
-little country city as ever I saw. Here a small contingent of our own
-beloved people came on board the train for Cincinnati and Louisville.
-They were in a state of high excitement over the forthcoming events.
-Some of them, no doubt, had fled away from the curse and chains of
-slavery in Kentucky, and more remote States; but now they could return
-without fear. "Slavery there had lost the day!"
-
-Continuing our journey, we all reached Cincinnati in safety, a fine
-city, of which Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland often heard, but had never seen;
-and they were quite captivated with its beauty, reposing so sweetly on
-the hills that line the northern banks of the "beautiful river," as the
-French discoverers delighted to call it. With what wonder and delight
-did Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland behold the beautiful hills and dells of
-Kentucky, just across the mighty stream! Mrs. Sutherland had of course
-seen the Ohio at Riverside, and all the way down to the Mississippi, but
-it was the first time her husband had seen the beautiful river of the
-Frenchmen, or even slave land, and it produced in his mind mingled
-feelings of pain and pleasure to behold it, for though born free
-himself, his forefathers had fled across the Ohio river as they made
-their escape from the South.
-
-We decided to spend a night at sweet Cincinnati, where we paid a visit
-to A. M. E. Church parsonage, where my beloved Tom and I put up when we
-were married at the church there, and what was our surprise and joy to
-find the very same family there, the self-same reverend gentleman having
-been called back for a second time. What kissing, embracing and joy
-there was between the two families upon this happy, happy reunion!
-Heaven alone can tell, my dear reader, how very much good this meeting
-did us all. My goodness! this poor pen of mine is altogether unequal to
-the task. It was indeed a heavenly union!
-
-There being a class that night at the dear, dear church, after tea, we
-all went along with the pastor and his family and had a glorious time,
-where we praised the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth
-forever. Many old friends remembered us still, and gave us a warm
-welcome. O Christianity! Christianity! What joys has this world like
-them?
-
-After this grand meeting was over, we all made our way to the private
-quarters, which we had engaged for the night, and where we had a most
-refreshing sleep. We were all quite amused with the girls, for they were
-worse than wild birds for sheer delight. The fine weather and the great
-events in the immediate future were mighty stimulants. Indeed the whole
-of us were completely carried away by our feelings, and we ran the city
-and suburbs of Cincinnati in all directions, our private boarding-house
-being our rendezvous at three o'clock in the afternoon, so that we could
-all start together for the boat that was to leave an hour or two later
-for Louisville.
-
-It is a remarkable thing how rapidly some people become acquainted. By
-the time we had spent some twenty-four hours with the kind people at the
-boarding-house, we were almost as fond of one another as if we had been
-brought up together. Some of them even accompanied us to the Public
-Landing, where we were to embark for Louisville. I don't know what the
-neighbors along the street thought of us, for we were more excited and
-exultant and louder than a lot of barn-yard fowl, with laughing and one
-thing and another! Well, it was a time for laughing, I think, and after
-two hundred and fifty years of slavery, I also think we had a right to
-laugh, and to laugh with all our might and main!
-
-At last we reached the Public Landing, marched on board, secured our
-cabins, and settled ourselves down for our passage to Louisville,
-greatly admiring the scenery and traffic of "The Beautiful River."
-
-A great many passengers came on board at Cincinnati, all bound for the
-great celebration. All eyes were bright with animation, and high-beating
-hope swelled in every human heart. The rush to the colossal exhibition
-at Louisville reminded me of the tides of people on the grand march to
-see a circus; but this was a circus of a most unusual kind. From the
-grand reports that had been circulated all over the country for weeks,
-we all expected a high old time, we expected the colored race and their
-friends at Louisville to make a mighty effort to place a great show
-before the whole State, and also expected to swell the mighty chorus and
-throng by our own presence. Many persons on board had never been back to
-Louisville since they took French leave of the same place; whilst others
-had numerous friends and relations whom they greatly desired to see. But
-all wished to behold the old Kentucky shore again, for who does not love
-the scenes of their youth?
-
-We were now fairly launched out upon the great river. The sweet spring
-winds blew over us, and seemed to accompany and cheer us upon our way.
-At such times the imagination gives play to all sorts of sweet things,
-and the very surges of the Ohio river seemed to rejoice as they bore us
-along on their downward course to the Mississippi and the Gulf States.
-The sun went down, and the moon arose upon the fleeting scene. The night
-was now upon us, and all the hills and dells that lined both sides of
-the beautiful river enchanted the eyes and hearts of all beholders. A
-sweet peace stole into our hearts that came down from heaven.
-
-With what interest did we view the little wooden cabins that lay along
-the shores of the river on the Kentucky side, and along the slopes of
-her hills! What tales of grief and joy those dear little homes could
-have told if they had been able to speak. My two dear children were awed
-into silence as they looked upon the passing scenes, for they had both
-read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and many other plaintive books besides; and
-heard from us and from others a thousand tales of slavery in days gone
-by. Many eyes besides our own were wet with tears of love, sorrow and
-emotion, as we viewed those little cabin homes, and saw the lights that
-night on the "Old Kentucky Shore" of the poet, and in our hearts we
-thanked the Lord that slavery here had indeed passed away forever. It
-has been often a wonder to me that the Lord allowed the curse to
-continue so long; but then He knows what is for the best, and I am
-always willing to take things on trust that I cannot understand. "The
-Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them
-who put their trust in Him." How true, how very true, indeed!
-
-We called at no place on our way, but at the beautiful little city of
-Madison, Indiana, that lies so sweet-looking in the edge of the Ohio
-river. Quite a goodly number of our own beloved people came on board
-here, whom we rejoiced to see. It was the same old, old story that I
-have told before. They were going to Louisville to swell the mighty
-throng, and help sing the songs of the ransomed of the Lord during the
-forthcoming celebration at that city.
-
-After we left Madison, we all retired to bed for the night, and we were
-not long in falling into a sound sleep. The night passed away, on flew
-the waves of the beautiful river with our fleet boat on their bosom,
-rushing on for the general rendezvous, and about four o'clock in the
-morning our gallant craft tied up at the landing-place at Louisville,
-the metropolis of Kentucky.
-
-All up once more, and in good time! We were careful this morning to give
-ourselves a thorough, good washing, and lay in a solid, substantial
-breakfast in preparation for the events of the coming day. All on board,
-bent on the same happy journey as ourselves, were in a high key of
-excitement. Indeed we could snuff excitement in the very air before we
-left the boat. But at last we got away, and came up the bank from the
-beautiful river, and entered the city before seven o'clock, where we
-found the whole place astir with great numbers of excited people,
-rushing and sweeping along in all directions--men on horseback riding
-rapidly up and down the streets; great crowds of men, women and children
-arriving by rail from different parts of the State, while men in
-uniforms, bands of music, with the town boys and girls scurrying along
-in all directions like the wild waves of the sea; flags, banners,
-streamers and ribands seen fluttering in the breeze in all
-directions--such was our introduction to Louisville, when we came up
-from the river, and looked up and down Market, Jefferson and Green
-streets, and made our early way to a place on Walnut street, where we
-had arranged previously by letter to take up our quarters for the week
-that we were to spend in the city. Here our dear old acquaintances of
-ante bellum days received us gladly. We were all much altered now, had
-grown older, were married and had children of our own; were now free,
-whereas formerly we were called "goods and chattels" in defiance of the
-truth of the Eternal Jehovah that we had all the same rights as others,
-but for the time being were held down by sheer physical force.
-
-So much talk about a "Fifteenth Amendment" we had never heard in our
-lives, and it made us laugh to hear even the little children lisp "The
-Fifteenth Amendment!" Poor, dear little things! Theirs was a happy lot.
-They were all free, and had not come up by the rough side of the
-mountain like their oppressed parents. The glorious weather was
-immensely in our favor. We blessed God for that, and we blessed Him for
-all things. The sun was shining in all his beauty; the mocking-birds
-sang in the parks, and the light winds blew over the fair and
-garden-like city on the Ohio. Thousands upon thousands of people still
-continued to arrive upon boats that came up and down the river, by the
-ferry-boats, and on all the heavily-laden incoming trains that arrived
-thick and fast. Even the old inhabitant was astonished at the tremendous
-crowds that at last packed all the main streets along which the
-procession was to pass, because we were now getting well into line, just
-as is done at a Presidential inauguration at Washington. Uniformed
-riders and fast messengers, ex-soldiers dressed in Uncle Sam's
-conventional blue, the fair sex as thick as the leaves of the forest,
-boys in the trees, all the windows full of sight-seers, and men and boys
-on the roofs of the houses--well, indeed, might the oldest inhabitant
-ask where all the people came from! Nobody could have given a complete
-answer to that question, for there were tens of thousands of people here
-this day who had never been to Louisville before. All had heard of
-Louisville, the beautiful metropolis of the State, but they were slaves
-then, and had no hope of ever beholding its beauties; but God is
-good--here came the war, here came victory and freedom, here came new
-laws and the Fifteenth Amendment, and here came they themselves at last
-to help on the good cause with loud shouts of joy.
-
-Flags fluttered from thousands of windows, and the indications of joy
-were universal. And not only did the colored, but the white population
-packed the streets in thousands and tens of thousands; the crowds were
-good-humored to the last degree, and there was nothing but joy and
-rejoicing on every side all day long.
-
-The outriders now began to move in advance of the procession; the first
-men in line followed next with a band of music, and these again were
-followed by a tasteful and beautiful float that promised mighty things
-in the rear! Bands of music at intervals, all the different societies,
-another wonderful and beautiful float came sailing on laden with
-rejoicing citizens, young and old, and a thousand other strange and
-wonderful features and devices of the triumphal march called forth loud
-shouts of joy, great outbursts of laughter and general applause. A
-beautiful colored maiden of sixteen or seventeen summers, named Miss
-Laura Claggett, stood up in a chariot during the entire procession, and
-she made a splendid living representation of the "Goddess of Liberty."
-It was said of her, as of the beauty of ancient Tyre, "Thou hast made
-thy beauty perfect." The interest that we all took in the long, splendid
-and varied procession was most intense. So much pains had been taken
-with all the necessary preparations that every part of it was complete,
-and the warmest approbation was bestowed upon all the preliminary
-arrangements, and the way in which they were carried out. Here was a
-true object lesson, indeed, that we were as fit for the highest
-civilization as the whites. This was freely admitted on all hands, with
-the exception, of course, of those blind persons who did not wish to
-see. We find them everywhere, and the best thing to do is simply to
-ignore them altogether. It was wonderful, thrice wonderful, to look
-around, and see the people who had come from the remotest parts of the
-State to see Louisville and the great celebration. It was most pathetic
-to look at some of them--bent down in some cases with hard work, labor
-and toil of half a century. There was a feeling of unutterable
-thankfulness that was apparent to all observers--thankfulness that they
-could yet enjoy a few years of freedom before they went home to be with
-the Lord, and thankfulness that their children should be free for all
-coming time. "No more auction blocks for me!" was the sentiment.
-
-Thus the whole glorious procession marched and counter-marched over the
-principal streets of the beautiful garden-like city of Louisville, and
-at last broke up and scattered like all other famous processions of the
-kind, whether at Washington or anywhere else. The whole city press were
-loud in their praises of the universal good conduct and splendid
-management of the new citizens, and of course the Republican organ
-brought out the whole truth flat-footed, and cast all its glories to the
-breeze without stint. It was a downright triumph in the interest of law
-and order, for the police authorities had little or nothing to do. The
-pastors of all the churches, and other leaders, had impressed it upon
-the hearts and minds of all the people to be good, and to act as
-citizens, and give the enemy no just reason to throw stones. For my own
-part, though I had by this time seen a hundred processions, at least, in
-my time, I am bound to confess that the procession and day's doings at
-Louisville were as good as the best in regard to law and order, and I
-understand that other cities behaved quite as well as they did in
-Kentucky, throughout the Union.
-
-For a week or so the entire colored population at Louisville were en
-fete, and a high old time of it they did have, indeed. It was a perfect
-carnival--a general jollification along the whole line. Music and
-dancing, and grand tea parties, both in public and private, were all the
-go, and as our presence in town was soon well known, we were invited to
-lend a hand in the general festivities along with others. There was a
-good time all over the metropolis of Kentucky, and don't you forget it.
-
-There is a poem that says in one place, "Joy's image may vanish, and
-griefs die away; but the scenes of our youth are recorded for
-aye,"--which leads me on to say that Tom, mother and myself had a great
-and yearning desire to revisit all those dear scenes and places round
-about the beautiful river that had been so deeply stamped into our
-hearts and memories in the glorious, youthful spring-time of life. Mr.
-Sutherland had no such longing to satisfy, and the two girls were not
-then born. The latter three, indeed, were born at Buffalo, on the
-Niagara river, in the great Empire State of New York. So Tom, mother and
-myself made calls on all those dear, dear friends of our earliest days
-who still remained alive, or still dwelt in Louisville. But many changes
-had taken place. Some had grown old and almost past recognition; the
-children of others received us kindly, for their parents were gone to a
-better land, and there were other changes all around, too numerous to
-mention. With the exception of God Himself, and the course of nature,
-all things seemed to be altered, and it was a source of thankfulness to
-us all that something remained that could not be shaken.
-
-When we had thus ransacked the whole city in search of old friends (Mr.
-Sutherland and the girls coming bravely along with us), we crossed the
-river to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where we made two or three calls, and
-then went down to New Albany, on the Indiana side, where we had grand
-welcomes from all whom we knew there. It was really astonishing to
-behold our mutual joy, and to tell our true tales of joys and sorrows,
-and hear theirs in return. Praise ye the Lord!
-
-We now hired a boat, and had a glorious sail up the Ohio, and showed Mr.
-Sutherland and the children all the old familiar places up the stream
-where we had formerly been. Then we went down the river, passed through
-the canal at Portland, below the city, and came out upon the Ohio once
-more. There were six of us in the boat besides the two rowers. We had
-taken the precaution to borrow a variety of loud-sounding musical
-instruments; we kept close to the Kentucky side of the Ohio, and when we
-drew near to the place of our birth, that is, Riverside Hall, we struck
-up "The Old Kentucky Shore," which we both played and sang with
-tremendous force, raising more excitement than the Salvation Army! This
-brought out Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, and all the old retainers who chose to
-remain after the fall of slavery. There were new faces there, also. My
-father recognized us at once, and invited us in to receive the
-hospitalities of the house. Here we remained all day, saw everything
-once more, and returned to Louisville at set of sun. But we afterwards
-returned to Riverside, and spent another whole day in perfect love and
-harmony. It was a sweet time.
-
-We were now all far, far more than satisfied. All things had gone well
-with us, and we returned home to Buffalo more thankful and gladsome than
-ever. Oh, what shall we render unto the Lord for all his goodness!
-Because His mercy endureth forever!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-
-_The Great Commercial Panic of 1873--Collapse of the Republican
-Government of the South--The Rebel Shot-Gun--The Force Bill--Rebellion
-at New Orleans--Dangerous State of the Whole Country--Election of
-President Hayes--Presumption of the Late Secessionists--Speech of
-Congressman Foster, in Ohio--The Solid North Against the Solid
-South--The Election of James A. Garfield--For the Sake of Peace._
-
-As I have indicated at the close of the last chapter, we all got home to
-Buffalo in perfect safety, and settled down once more to the duties of
-life. In the meantime we continued to watch the course of reconstruction
-in the South, which was run by the Republicans with but very few
-exceptions. We all seemed to think that things had settled down all
-right in those States. White and colored Republicans were mixed up
-pretty fairly in the Governments, and in all the different departments.
-There were about a dozen colored Congressmen at Washington, and numbers
-were also employed abroad in the consular and diplomatic service of the
-United States. All things appeared to have settled down in quietness and
-peace, but it was only to lull that which comes before the tempest, for
-the elements in Secessia were only awaiting a favorable opportunity to
-strike their favorable blow.
-
-Up to the year 1872 (as I still remember well) this entire nation seemed
-to be running a course of unprecedented and joyful prosperity. Everybody
-was working, there seemed to be plenty of money in the country, and
-glorious good times, and immediately prospective wealth were the order
-of the day everywhere. Alas, alas! It was nothing but the inflation of a
-big balloon. In 1873 came a universal crash, and the balloon collapsed
-entirely! There was nothing but consternation over the whole nation, and
-the Northern States ceased for a time to keep their watchful eyes upon
-the reconstruction of the South, in order to attend to the dreadful
-troubles at home, caused by the complete collapse in trade. This was the
-opportunity for which the late open rebels had been waiting. They
-determined at once to take advantage of the sudden panic. The
-Ku-Klux-Klan now came to the front (of whom I have made mention before).
-They seized the shot-gun, and wrote on their banners, "We must carry
-these States peaceably if we can; forcibly, if we must." Their first
-efforts were directed against the white Republican leaders, who melted
-away like new fallen snow before a warm sun. Their next effort was
-directed against the most intelligent and influential colored leaders,
-to whom they denied employment in almost every possible case. In a short
-time there were not many Republican leaders left, either white or
-colored, and the rank and file of the party could not then do much.
-Congress passed next an act empowering President Grant to use the army
-to suppress their domestic violence, and prevent bloodshed; also to
-protect colored voters in the constitutional exercise of the rights
-conferred upon them by the Fifteenth Amendment. But the South were up on
-their feet again, and offered the most determined opposition to the
-right and proper use of the national army. Like a high-strung, violent
-termagant, the lately-defeated rebels now clamored for the ruling of
-their own States in their own way, to the complete exclusion of the
-lawful rights of all others. In her anxiety and desperation to have her
-own way, "Miss Dixie" appealed to the sympathies of the Northern people,
-and, indeed, she was pretty successful in her unjust appeal, because she
-was aided by the "Copperheads" (Democrats) of the North, by many of the
-Northern papers, and even by the more luke-warm among the Republicans
-themselves. The ex-rebels clamored for what they called "a white man's
-government," though the Union was no more a white man's government than
-a black man's. Indeed, if this country belongs to anybody, it belongs to
-the Indians, from whom the wicked Spaniards and other European robbers
-first stole the lands away, and murdered the people.
-
-
-[Illustration: _JAMES A. GARFIELD._]
-
-
-The bill that was introduced into Congress to enforce order in the South
-was nick-named the "Force Bill," and it was not such a bad name, after
-all, because nothing but force seemed of any service in making Southern
-States do right. Things came to their worst in 1874, when the city of
-New Orleans was in a state of siege, the streets blockaded with State
-troops and White Line leagues, and an open battle was fought between the
-two conflicting parties. The rebels overthrew the Republican State
-government, and a new government was set up by physical force in its
-stead. But President Grant sent troops to New Orleans, and the lawful
-government was restored. State elections followed in the North in the
-States of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and
-Massachusetts, which resulted in the defeat of the Republican ticket and
-the triumph of the Democrats. In their short-sighted way, the Bourbon
-Democrats of the South gave way to great exultation and joy, and behaved
-in the most cruel and shameful way to the white and colored Republicans
-in Secessia.
-
-Nor did the mischief end there, for in their mistaken sympathy, many of
-the Northern legislatures passed resolutions condemning President Grant
-for sending troops into the South, although he only did so in the
-discharge of his most legitimate duty, and in accordance with the law.
-These movements caused the next Congress, which was the Forty-fourth, to
-be organized by the Democrats, when the very cabinet ministers
-themselves were divided upon the policy to be pursued towards the South,
-one half pulling one way, and the other half pulling the other way. To
-help on the bad cause still further, although a majority of colored
-people exists in Mississippi, and that State ought to have gone
-Republican, still the shot-gun policy of the rebels carried that State
-before them, and the Republican Government ceased to exist.
-
-
-[Illustration: _RUTHERFORD B. HAYES._]
-
-
-The country was truly in a dangerous condition; a portion of the
-Northern population were in favor of General Grant and his policy, and
-the rest were in favor of a change in the South. A house divided against
-itself will not stand: at least, it will not stand long. Men even
-deserted the grand Republican party, not for any ill it had done, but
-simply because others deserted it. It was even charged against the Grant
-administration that it was responsible for the ruin of the Republican
-government in the Southern States, and even for the great business
-disasters that had overtaken the whole country, North and South. It is
-easy to find a stick to beat a dog. Such puerile charges remind me
-rather of the tricks of children than actions of men. All those charges
-were entirely false, and the Democrats, both North and South, must have
-known it themselves. We still remember well the mischief that President
-Andrew Johnson did in his great sympathy for the rebels after they had
-laid down their arms, and how the Southern States had been ruled by
-hands far too weak for the task; that is, by colored men, formerly
-unaccustomed to politics, by scalawags and carpet-baggers. The cleverest
-of the rebels refused to lend a hand in the work of Reconstruction, and
-sat sullenly at home nursing their wrath to keep it warm. They never
-moved a hand in the work of building up their own country, till they
-moved as the Ku-Klux-Klan, reached for the shot-gun, and murdered those
-who ruled the Southern States. The rebel legislatures were now made up
-of those very men whom the North had put down in the war. They thronged
-the State halls and corridors, dressed in the very same robes that they
-had worn on the battle-field when we were fighting for the Union and
-freedom: and they were as rebellious in heart as before!
-
-There was one great man in the Republican party who might have done a
-great deal for the colored people of the South, if he had tried, but he
-did not try; nay, he himself wanted to be President, and did not wish to
-hurt himself when his own selfish interests were at stake. This man was
-the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine. He opposed the Force Bill, and lost
-no opportunity of opposing President Grant's administration whenever the
-latter wished to do anything against the late rebels, and in favor of
-the people. But Mr. Blaine never became President, and it served him
-right, for he might have proved a bad one, as Andrew Johnson did.
-
-General Rutherford B. Hayes was Governor of Ohio, and in 1876 the
-Republican party gave him the nomination for the Presidency. The
-convention met at Cincinnati. The Democrats ran Samuel Jones Tilden as
-their candidate. By the aid of the shot-gun the South had suppressed the
-Republican legislatures of the States lately in rebellion, and having
-gained an inch they went boldly on with the intention of taking a yard.
-They certainly did expect to carry things their own way, especially if
-Mr. Tilden could be elected, which appeared very likely at the time.
-Though really done by means of the shot-gun in several Southern States,
-it was still pretended that those States had been carried for Tilden and
-the Democrats, which was a most unblushing falsehood on the very face of
-it, for although returning officers came up as bold as rats from those
-very States that had gone Democratic by the aid of the shot-gun, and put
-in their claims, every child in the land, both North and South, knew
-where the truth lay. A long wrangle followed over the counting of the
-electoral votes, and as several Southern States had been carried
-unlawfully, they were flung out, and General Rutherford B. Hayes was
-declared duly elected President of the United States, and took his seat
-on the Fourth of March, 1877. Now arose a wild cry about injustice from
-all the Democrats of the land that what they called "a great steal" had
-been done. The rebel South (that cared for no rights but the right of
-their murderous shot-guns) was exasperated to the last degree. In fact
-they were ready to fight for what they considered their rights, that is
-the right to do as they pleased. They had hoped that with the
-restoration of the Democratic government at that time they would be able
-to collect their rebel war claims of the National Treasury at
-Washington, and even get the price of their lost slaves from the same
-source. They considered that they had a perfect right to all such
-claims, and that the very rebel soldiers wounded in the war ought to
-receive pensions the same as those who fought against them for the Union
-and for freedom. When colored girls called upon those old rebel ladies
-of Secessia at this time, asking for employment, those female rebels
-replied, "Oh, we will hire you from your masters or mistresses," thus
-clearly indicating that they fully expected the restoration of slavery
-itself!
-
-So the Democrats of the North, and the Bourbon Democrats of the South
-settled down in a sullen mood to four years more of Republican rule. It
-was nothing but right and proper that they should be disappointed of
-their prey. Even St. Paul, in the New Testament, tells us that no man is
-entitled to the prize unless he contends lawfully. Of course, the South
-neither cared for the opinion of St. Paul, lawful contention, nor
-anything else of the same kind. So long as they could carry the
-elections by the shot-gun it was all right, and good enough for them.
-
-The South was still discontented and sullen. They had, indeed, knocked
-down the Republican governments of her several States, but though
-allowed to govern was not allowed all war claims on the treasury at
-Washington, and there was not one single ray of hope for the restoration
-of slavery. None, none whatever! That was settled for all time. "Dixie"
-sat down like a sulky, sullen woman by her own hearthstone, and refused
-to be comforted. While she was in sorrow, others were in joy. Uncle Sam,
-like a kind and tender husband, next tried the gentler arts of pacifying
-and pleasing his termagant wife--the wife who in former days, yea, even
-for fifty years, had always threatened to go out of the Union unless she
-could have her own way! So an ex-Major-General of the late Confederate
-army was called into the cabinet of President Hayes, and was given a
-portfolio for the purpose of trying what he could do to better the
-condition of the South. Then General Longstreet, also a leader in the
-army of the rebellion, was made postmaster at Gainesville, in Georgia,
-and was afterwards sent as minister to Turkey. Colonel Mosby, the famous
-Confederate guerilla, was sent to China, and Colonel Fitzsimmons was
-made marshal of Georgia. The South nevertheless did not show any signs
-of real improvement. They stuck together, however, in a certain fashion,
-like solid rocks of ice, all congealed and frozen tight and hard
-together into one lump, and became known as the "Solid South." They
-showed the greatest repugnance to the scalawags and carpet-baggers, and
-all white Republicans generally, who were intimidated, persecuted and
-driven out of all participation in the reconstruction of the States.
-Black Republicans were allowed to vote, but the Democrats of Secessia
-took the counting of the votes into their own hands, and secured the
-offices, all the same! At this time President Hayes was under the
-influence of Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, and Wade Hampton, of
-South Carolina. President Hayes expected much, but received nothing in
-return. The more kindness and consideration he showed them the more
-arrogant and ungrateful they became. The Southern leaders in Congress
-even tried to deprive the President of his Constitutional veto--tried to
-starve the army, and even to protract the session of Congress. The North
-was indeed holding out the olive branch of peace to the late rebel
-States, and these States were trampling the kindness of the North
-beneath their feet. Southern insolence went on, grew and increased.
-There were loyal Republican men at Washington, who could have assisted
-the President to steer the ship of state better than he did; but
-President Hayes did not seem to care for their advice; he preferred to
-shut himself up altogether in his own abilities, and left his real
-well-wishers and friends on the outside. There was evidently no such
-thing as satisfying the demands of the South. With unthankfulness she
-took all that was given and demanded more, and never as much as said
-"Thank you!" She considered that she had done right to secede, and was
-only sorry that she had not succeeded with her rebellion. President
-Hayes refused to surrender his veto power to those arrogant and
-secessionist Congressmen at Washington. At last he saw clearly that the
-South was not capable of appreciating his kindness as she ought, and
-that all his good intentions had been flung away. He now decided to
-change front, being worn out with so much arrogance and ingratitude.
-Dealing out kindness to a gang of ex-rebel officers, who had once owned
-and whipped their slaves, was found to be very irksome work. The entire
-Republican party were now firmly and solidly united against the South.
-The Cabinet, which was a splendid one, became more and more unanimous
-than before; the administration was without fault, and other good things
-that followed in their train did wonders for the Republican party all
-over the land. Among these was the resumption of specie payment--a
-source of delight to the nation. Thus, at last we see the Republican
-ranks of the North were firmly united. They saw clearly that the
-arrogance of the South was simply unlimited, and that nothing short of
-the state of things before the war would satisfy her, unless, indeed, it
-was the complete extension of her darling slavery from the Gulf of
-Mexico to all the Northern States of the Union along the Canadian
-border.
-
-There was one man in this country at the time who clearly saw what the
-country needed next to tide her over the present state of things. This
-clear-sighted man was the Hon. Charles Foster, Congressman from Ohio.
-Mr. Foster returned home to Ohio from Washington in the summer of 1878.
-He had been watching with eagle eyes the follies of President Hayes in
-the vain attempt he made to pacify the South by love and kindness. He
-had watched the governments of the Northern States slipping away from
-their allegiance to the Republican party one after another, and, indeed,
-he took in the whole situation, and saw what was needed to steer the
-ship of state through the right channel in safety. Mr. Foster saw that
-the South had been thoroughly disloyal in every respect; they had acted
-with treason to the Union; they had not shown the least desire to
-protect the new citizens, the colored voters at the polls, but in fact
-had purposely murdered them with the shot-gun; they had shown the whole
-nation that they were bent on rebellion, and nothing else.
-
-On the first of August, 1878, Mr. Foster made a great and famous speech
-at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, when he raised a battle-cry that thrilled the
-entire North, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, "A Solid North Against a
-Solid South!" This speech was published in all the papers of the land,
-and was kept up till it elected Garfield, in 1880. On account of its
-immense influence during these two years, I will here reproduce it. Such
-a battle-cry as this should be committed to memory.
-
-Mr. Foster proceeded to say:
-
-"I happened to be one who thought and believed that the President's
-southern policy, as far as it related to the use of the troops for the
-support of State Governments, was right. I sustained it upon the ground
-of high principle,--nevertheless it could have been sustained on the
-ground of necessity. The President has extended to the people of the
-south the hand of conciliation and friendship. He has shown a desire,
-probably contrary to the wishes of the great mass of his party, to bring
-about by the means of conciliation, better relations between the north
-and the south. In doing this he has alienated from him the great mass of
-the leading and influential republicans of the country. He has lost
-their sympathy, and to a great degree their support. What has he
-received in return for the measure of conciliation and kindness? How
-have these measures been received by the south? What advance can we
-discover in them of the recognition of the guarantees of the rights of
-the colored men under the Constitutional Amendments? We see Jeff. Davis
-making speeches as treasonable as those of 1861, and these speeches
-endorsed and applauded by a great portion of their press and people! We
-see also the declaration of Mr. Singleton, of Mississippi, in answer to
-a question of mine on the floor of the house, declaring that this
-paramount allegiance in peace and war was due to his State! No gentlemen
-from the south, or even of the democratic party has taken issue with
-him.
-
-"We see also, all over the south, a disposition to resist the execution
-of the United States laws, especially in the matter of collection of
-internal revenue. To-day there are four United States officers under
-arrest by the authorities of the State of South Carolina, in jail and
-bail refused, for an alleged crime in their State, while in fact these
-officers were discharging their duty in executing the laws of the United
-States, in that State. Their State courts and their officers refused to
-obey the writs of the United States courts in the surrender of these
-United States authorities. No former act of this treasonable state shows
-a more defiant attitude towards the United States Government, or a
-greater disposition to trample on its authority. I trust the
-administration will in this case, assert, in the most vigorous manner
-possible, the authority of the United States Government for the rescue
-and protection of these officers. I have no bloody shirt to wave. If
-there is one man in this country more than another, who desires peace
-and quiet between the sections, I believe I am that man. Gentlemen may
-philosophize over this question until they are gray, but you cannot
-escape the discussion of this question so long as the Solid South
-menaces the peace of the country. A solid democratic south means the
-control of the country by the spirit and the men who sought its
-destruction.
-
-"My own opinion is that there can be no peace. This question will not
-down until the menace of the Solid South is withdrawn. I had hoped that
-the policy of President Hayes would lead to the assertion, by a very
-considerable portion of the South, of their antagonism to Bourbon
-Democracy. I confess to a degree of disappointment in this, though I
-think I see signs of a breaking up of the Solid South in the independent
-movements that seem to be gaining a foothold in all sections of that
-country. But the effective way to aid these independent movements; this
-breaking up of all the Solid South, is for the North to present itself
-united against the Solid South. A Solid South under the control of the
-Democratic party means the control of the party by this element. It
-means the repeal of the Constitutional Amendments, if not in form, in
-spirit. It means the payment of hundreds of rebel claims. It means the
-payment of pensions to rebel soldiers. It means the payment for slaves
-lost in the rebellion. It means the abrogation of that provision of the
-Constitution which declares that the citizens of one State shall have
-all the rights, privileges and immunities of the citizens of other
-States.
-
-"If my Democratic friends who seem to be anxious to bring about peace
-and quiet between the sections are sincere, and desire to make their
-expressions effective, they should act with that party which presents a
-solid front, a united North so long as we are menaced with the Solid
-South.
-
-"If it could be understood in the South that they are to be met with a
-Solid North, I do not believe that the Solid South would exist in that
-condition a single year. They retain this position because they believe
-they can have the support of a fragment of the North; and thus with this
-fragment rule and control the country. I would have no fear of the
-control of the country by the Democratic party, if it were made up of
-something like equal proportions from all sections of the country. I
-discuss this question first, because I believe it is the most important
-question at issue in the pending canvass. I repeat, that it is the
-imperative duty of the North to meet the Solid South with a united
-front!"
-
-The above little speech thrilled the North, and put new life into the
-Republican party. It was a regular battle-cry; it was passed along the
-line from city to city, and from State to State. It gave Mr. Foster the
-nomination for Governor of Ohio, and whereas the Democrats had
-possession of the State by a majority of 23,000, he reversed the whole
-question by a Republican majority of 17,000, and redeemed the State of
-Ohio to the Republican party. The rising tide of enthusiasm swept the
-whole country. That famous little speech was printed and set forth by
-all the papers of the land. Editorials were written on the subject, and
-orators all over the land took Mr. Foster's speech at Upper Sandusky as
-a text from which to preach their sermons. The whole country was aroused
-over the treasonable designs and aims of the South. Her intentions were
-to come as near back to slavery as ever she could get, or rather as near
-as ever she dared to come, once more. But now the North was on her
-guard, and presented a solid Republican front against the Solid South,
-and in the course of two years more returned James A. Garfield as
-President of the United States.
-
-You must have observed, my dear reader, in the last few pages, how the
-former secessionists arose in the South, and tore down the negro, or
-Republican, governments that ruled in the days of Reconstruction. You
-have seen the arrogance and insolence of the rebel brigadier-generals
-who vaulted into their places, and even came to Congress at Washington,
-and attempted to tie the hands of President Hayes by depriving him of
-the right to veto. You have seen how these self-same rebels next began
-to talk about pensioning the very soldiers who broke up the Union for a
-time, or at least prevented the free course of law in the Southern
-States, and they next built their hopes on the payment of their own
-war-claims and the price of their slaves out of the United States
-Treasury at Washington. You have seen how all the above, and far more,
-welded all the Northern States into what was termed "the Solid North,"
-and rolled back the great Southern waves of presumption and insolence,
-saying to the sea, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no further; and here
-shall thy proud waves be stayed!" Having said and done so much, and
-having awakened the Southern States to their proper senses, a person
-would have thought that colored men would have been restored to the
-government of these States, at least in cases where the colored men were
-clever men, and therefore well qualified to rule. But the aforementioned
-Negro, or Republican, governments of the late rebel States were not
-restored, though we had established the "Solid North," and returned
-James A. Garfield to the White House as the head of the great republic.
-
-For the time being, therefore, and for the sake of peace, the North has
-not yet seen fit to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, so as to compel the
-South to make room for the rightful share of colored men in the
-governments of the South. If this were France or England, colored men
-would to-day be sitting side by side with white men, and ruling the
-country together. But the South was like a termagant, fighting wife, who
-shook her fists in her husband's face, and exclaimed, "Look ye here Sam!
-This is a white man's government and I will rule it myself, or not rule
-at all; for these colored men shall not divide the power with me!" Then
-Uncle Sam, poor fellow, gave way, for a time, for the sake of peace, and
-ever since colored men in the South have kept away from this hateful
-contention with the white man there. It may have been for the best for
-the present, till we are more highly educated, and so more fitted and
-qualified to rule. In the meantime we are gathering knowledge like sands
-of the sea, and qualifying ourselves to hold any office on the face of
-the earth. Those rebels are rapidly passing away who sold "their own
-flesh and blood" on the auction blocks, and who fought for slavery on
-many a well-contested field, and at last were subdued by physical force.
-They are passing away, and more intelligent and enlightened children are
-taking their places. And we are growing more and more intelligent every
-day of the year, and the time must come, and come soon, when we will get
-all the rights that belong to us, and one of this is the right for
-colored men to rule the entire Union, North, East, South and West, along
-with all other men. And, my dear reader, as sure as there is a God in
-heaven, so sure is it that we shall yet get all that belongs to us, and
-right and justice shall prevail and flourish from the Lakes to the Gulf!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-
-_The Exodus of Colored People From the South to Kansas--Causes That Led
-to it--The Plantation Credit System--Reign of Terror in Louisiana and
-Other States--Trials on the Way to Kansas--Splendid Welcome by the State
-of Kansas--Good Beginning of the Pilgrims--"God Helps Those Who Help
-Themselves!"_
-
-No doubt my indulgent reader has often heard of the exodus of many
-thousands of colored people from the Southern States to the generous and
-hospitable State of Kansas. This was a truly remarkable movement, and
-began in the early spring of 1879. I have already pointed out some of
-the shameful causes that led to that exodus that drew the eyes of the
-whole nation, and elicited the most profound sympathy from all Christian
-and philanthropic people all over the North, and even in England. To
-trace this deplorable state of affairs to their foundation head, I need
-only allude to what was called at the time "The Plantation Credit
-System," when colored people worked on shares with the white owners of
-the land, and the latter kept stores of all kinds of provisions and
-clothing, and swindled the hard-working colored man out of the rightful
-share of the profits. The latter were always overcharged for their
-goods, and could never get a clear settlement. This system of robbery
-and swindling gave the laborer no chance, and made him sigh for a land
-of freedom.
-
-That was bad enough, but there was something worse that began to show
-itself, even before those days when the Ku-Klux-Klan became regularly
-organized for the expulsion of the Republican governments in the South,
-and that was a gradual and general adoption of the shot-gun policy, to
-make colored men understand that the whites were still lords and
-masters, and colored people must serve and obey, as they used to do
-before the war. This shook the confidence of the latter in the general
-government of the nation, for if great Uncle Sam could afford them no
-better protection than that, things might as well have remained as they
-were, and all their boasted freedom was of very little use to them, or
-no account at all.
-
-In 1868 General Grant ran for President on the Republican ticket--Grant
-and Colfax--whilst Seymour and Blair were the nominees on the Democratic
-ticket. Although the rebel element had always been too rampant in the
-State of Louisiana, they grew ten times more as the day for the election
-for President drew near. It was particularly desired by the Democrats of
-the South to carry Louisiana for Seymour and Blair. The plan they
-adopted was the wholesale use of the shot-gun in the different
-"parishes" (or counties) of the State. The rebels began their work of
-murder, terror and intimidation in good time before the election day in
-November. Wherever the Republican votes were likely to be heaviest,
-there a great effort was made to kill, maim and scatter all those white
-and colored men who would be likely to vote for Grant and Colfax. These
-Southern thugs in Louisiana and other States of the South put in their
-fell work mostly after dark, killing, burning and destroying in every
-possible way. It soon became well understood that the rebels were aiming
-at the coming election; and for a fact, when election day came there
-were very, very few men in the different parishes of Louisiana that
-voted the Republican ticket, because they were afraid of their lives;
-and who need wonder if they stayed away from the polls when the United
-States Government afforded them no protection in casting their votes?
-All things had gone finely during the years of the Republican
-governments in the Southern States, when men owned their own land, and
-there was no one to trouble them, or to make them afraid; but these
-reconstruction governments were now tottering to their fall; the white
-man demanded the government, and the law, too, and evil days were in
-store for the colored race in the South.
-
-The following lines from the pen of General P. H. Sheridan will help to
-explain the cause of the exodus. He was then in command at New Orleans,
-and writes under the date of January 10th, 1875:
-
-"Since the year 1866 nearly 3,500 persons, a great majority of whom were
-colored men, have been killed and wounded in the State. In 1868 the
-official record shows that 1,884 were killed and wounded. From 1868 to
-the present time, no official investigation has been made, and in the
-civil authorities in all but a few cases have been unable to arrest,
-convict or punish the perpetrators. Consequently there are no correct
-records to be consulted for information. There is ample evidence,
-however, to show that more than 1,200 persons have been killed and
-wounded during this time on account of their political sentiments.
-Frightful massacres have occurred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo,
-Catahoula, St. Bernard, Grant and Orleans."
-
-After this, General Sheridan went on to enumerate the murders committed
-on account of their Republican sentiments in the various parishes of
-Louisiana, and says:
-
-"Human life in this State is held so cheaply that when men are killed on
-account of political opinions, the murderers are regarded rather as
-heroes than as criminals in the localities where they reside."
-
-The man who writes the above is no ordinary correspondent. The writer is
-the famous soldier, P. H. Sheridan, and he is merely sending in his
-report as military commander in the State. And whole volumes of other
-testimony have been taken, as exactly as was done in the case of the
-massacre of Fort Pillow, which confirm in every respect the words of
-General Sheridan.
-
-The documents in which these political murders have been recorded show
-that a perfect reign of terror existed all over the State in 1867, the
-year before the Presidential election. In the parish of St. Landry there
-was a massacre of colored people that began on the 28th of September in
-the following year, 1868, and lasted from three to six days, and during
-that time between three hundred and four hundred were killed. Thirteen
-captains were taken from the jail and shot, and a pile of twenty-five
-dead bodies were found burned in the woods. And what was the Democratic
-result in this parish of St. Landry? The registered Republican majority
-of 1,071 was completely wiped out, and when the general election for
-President came on a few weeks later, not a single vote was cast for
-Grant and Colfax, whilst Seymour and Blair received 4,787. What a
-spectacle was this for the whole civilized world to look upon only three
-years and a half after the fall of the Confederacy! All those murders
-were committed right here in free America!
-
-In the parish of Bossier, there was just such another massacre between
-the 20th and 30th of September, 1868, and which lasted from three to
-four days, and during that time two hundred colored people were killed.
-The official register for Bossier parish for the year 1868 shows that
-the Republican voters numbered 1,938. But when the Presidential election
-came on, only one vote was cast! Such was the result of the shot-gun
-policy in Bossier parish.
-
-During the month of October, 1868, the month before the election, over
-forty colored people were killed in the parish of Caddo. The Republican
-register shows that there were 2,894 votes, and yet when the election
-came on there was only one such vote cast out of all that number. And
-the same things happened all over the State.
-
-During the months of September, October and November, the number of
-murders, maimings and whippings that took place for political reasons
-were a thousand. The names of Republican voters in twenty-eight parishes
-amounted to 47,923; but when the Presidential election came on a few
-weeks later, only 5,360 votes were cast for Grant and Colfax, whilst the
-Democratic gain, from the shot-gun policy, amounted to 42,563.
-
-In nine of the parishes, where most of the murder and violence was
-carried on, only nineteen votes were cast for Gen. Grant, though there
-were 11,604 names on the Republican register. In other seven parishes
-where there were 7,253 names on the register, not one vote was cast for
-the Republican nominees at the subsequent election in November.
-
-In the years that followed 1868, when political lawlessness was held in
-check, these same Republican parishes cast from 33,000 to 37,000 votes,
-which proved that terrorism was the rebel policy of 1868.
-
-Thus things went on from 1868 to 1876, when the Democracy of Louisiana
-desired to carry the State for Tilden and Hendricks. The candidates for
-Republican President and Vice-President were Hayes and Wheeler; and
-everybody knew that colored men would not vote the Democratic ticket.
-The same murderous policy was again adopted as in 1868, and the results
-were much the same. On election day, in November, 1876, there were in
-Louisiana 92,996 registered white voters, and 115,310 colored voters,
-giving a majority of 22,314 votes that should have been cast for Hayes.
-It would be quite unnecessary to quote the "returns" from the different
-parishes of Louisiana. It would only be a repetition of 1868 over again.
-And after all was done it did not profit the Southern Democrats any, for
-it was proven that they had carried the parishes by violence; and
-therefore the parishes were not counted in the returns.
-
-And Louisiana was not the only State where the thugs attempted to
-suppress voting by violence amongst the colored men. It was the
-self-same policy everywhere throughout the South, and as a rule colored
-men kept away from the polls, in fear of their lives.
-
-Now, my dear reader, I have placed before you the reasons that led our
-oppressed people to rise up in the early spring of 1879, and search out
-for themselves new homes, where they could dwell in safety, and where
-they would not be robbed, oppressed and burned out, and even murdered on
-account of their political opinions. Colored men could never be expected
-to vote the Democratic ticket. Besides, were they not free? And had they
-not the right to vote as they pleased, even as others had? They never
-dreamed of terrorizing the whites because they would not vote the
-Republican ticket. It was a most remarkable thing that President Grant,
-the great war general, who had conquered the South, was unable to devise
-ways and means to protect the lives of colored men on election days. So
-far as I have ever heard there was not even a semblance of protection
-anywhere in those States where it was desired to carry the same for the
-Democratic nominees. Thus colored men were left unprotected in all their
-natural rights by the very Government itself that had passed the
-Constitutional Amendments. In fact they were left like sheep in the
-midst of wolves. They had been swindled and cheated in every way, as I
-have already shown. The Government now failed to protect their very
-lives, and therefore they began to turn their eyes to other regions
-where they could at least worship God, and sleep in their beds in
-safety. The shot-gun policy was now beginning to recoil on itself, for
-who can till the soil of the South like colored men?
-
-The State of Kansas possessed many attractions for our oppressed and
-wronged people. All had often heard of the long struggle there between
-the border ruffians from the South, and the free soil men of the North,
-as to whether Kansas should be enslaved or free; and how at last it had
-been won by the Abolitionists as a free State. All had heard how the
-immortal John Brown (of glorious memory) had warred and fought in Kansas
-for the liberty of all people, and how in 1861 the struggle between
-slavery and liberty had been transferred from the soil of Kansas to the
-rebel lands of South Carolina. Thus Kansas had a name that charmed all
-hearts, and letters that were written at the time by those colored
-families already settled down there and flourishing, like the green
-bay-tree, among a good and just white population, gave glorious accounts
-of the new State in the West, and invited all others to come and settle
-down on its fertile lands who wished for peaceful homes.
-
-One thing was clear--colored people could not afford to remain in the
-old rebel States of the South, where there was no safety for their
-lives, and where even the national government appeared unable to protect
-them. Indeed, something must be done soon.
-
-Here are a few questions and answers that will speak for themselves:
-
-"Now, Uncle Joe, what did you come for?"
-
-"Oh, Lawd, Missus, I follows my two boys and the old woman; and then,
-'pears like I wants a taste of votin' before I dies, an' the ole man
-done wants no swamps to wade in afore he votes, 'kase he must be
-Republican, ye see!"
-
-"Well, Aunty, give us the sympathetic side of the story, or tell us what
-you think of leaving your old home."
-
-"I done have no home, nohow, if they shoots my ole man an' the boys, an'
-gives me no money for de washing."
-
-A bright woman of twenty-five years of age was asked her condition, when
-she answered,
-
-"I hadn't much real trouble yet, like some of my neighbors who lost
-everything. We had a lot, an' a little house, an' some stock on the
-place. We sold all out, 'kase we didn't dare to stay when votin' time
-came again. Some neighbors better off than we had been all broken up by
-a pack of night-riders, all in white, who scared everybody to death, ran
-the men off the swamps before elections, ran the stock off, an' set fire
-to their places. A poor woman might as well be killed, and done with
-it."
-
-Whoever read anything more pathetic than the above? Who can wonder any
-longer that a regular panic seized upon the people in certain sections
-on the South to go forth unto a land they knew not, where they could
-live in peace and safety among a better race of men? The number of
-persecuted pilgrims, those seeking a home in Kansas, is variously given
-at between forty and sixty thousand men, women and children. When the
-army of the Israelites left Egypt, they were well supplied, for they had
-been instructed to ask of the Egyptians anything they wanted; but these
-40,000 or 60,000 people departed in most cases with absolutely nothing
-but the clothes they stood in, and they were often poorly clad, often
-hungry and exhausted, and in need of all things. Some, indeed, had teams
-of oxen that brought on all their earthly possessions, dragging their
-weary length along day after day, and week after week, and straining
-their longing eyes towards the fields of Kansas and liberty. Some of
-these pilgrims that came no further than from Texas were actually nine
-weeks on the road! Poor, dear creatures! How sweet to them must have
-been the hopes and anticipations of a peaceful home, when they were
-willing to make such tremendous sacrifices that they might cross over
-into the fair and fertile fields of Kansas! "Sweet fields beyond the
-swelling flood stood dressed in living green; so to the Jews old Canaan
-stood, while Jordan rolled between."
-
-A great deal was written at that time, a great deal has been written
-since then, and a great deal will still be written about the sufferings
-of those poor, dear pilgrims; but the whole truth of what they really
-did suffer on the way, with all the hardships that confronted them in
-the days of their distress will never, never be told. Indeed, it cannot;
-it is impossible. One thing we all know--the colored race is
-preeminently a religious race. They will worship God. The germs of
-immortality are safe within the bosoms of all thinking men and women
-among them. They were always faithful to their God, even in the darkest
-days of slavery. Like Paul, they could say, "I can do all things through
-Christ, Who strengthens me." Indeed it is most marvelous what any of us
-may do, and can do, when we are put upon our muscle. The world has often
-been astonished at deeds performed by puny women, and even mere boys and
-girls. But such need hardly have been the case, for none can tell what
-they can do themselves until they are tried, and the grand resolutions
-of the soul arise like a hurricane to meet terrors and trials of the
-situation. There are always heroes and heroines in the world, ready when
-called for.
-
-But although the grand and high-soaring resolutions of heart and soul
-worked wonders--I had almost said miracles--among the pilgrims of this
-exodus; still, none of us are made of iron, and the strain proved too
-much for the bodies of some of those devoted people, for they died soon
-after reaching the Canaan of their hopes: they died in the consecrated
-soil of Kansas, and the angels of heaven came down and carried them
-home. A result like this was to be expected, and the only wonder is that
-more of them did not perish, even while they were on the way. The Lord
-knows those that are His; we shall meet them in heaven!
-
-There was no time to be lost. News travels fast in the days of electric
-telegraph, and even of railroads and steamboats. The news of the tide of
-the exodus from the murderous sections of the Sunny South was swiftly
-wafted all over the land, and even crossed the broad Atlantic to mother
-England. Swift as the fleet winds, Christians and philanthropists were
-on their feet at once, and a relief association was organized. "They
-give twice who give quickly." A dear Quaker lady named Mrs. Comstock
-(whose name is written in the Book of Life) immediately put herself at
-the head of affairs, and aided by "The Kansas Freedman's Relief
-Association," she was just the right and proper person to manage the
-raising of money, clothing and relief in every shape and form. The name
-of Governor St. John, of Kansas, must be associated with this glorious
-work of swiftly relieving the pilgrims in the day of their distress. He
-will ever stand before the world as a Christian and a gentleman for his
-willing help at this time. We too often hear people speaking of "this
-bad world," but this world contains millions of friends--all ready for
-the day of trial!
-
-The pilgrims from the South were not long in turning round after they
-reached the friendly and welcoming lands of Kansas. They felt safe now,
-and had no more to fear. They soon became self-sustaining, because they
-were willing, and had a mind to work. All their past sorrows were now
-happily forgotten; they took hold, and were most enthusiastic,
-industrious and frugal. The relief association at first gave them a
-supply of stoves, teams and seeds. In a little over a year about $40,000
-were used, and 500,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, and so forth. "Old
-England" sent 50,000 pounds of goods, and $8,000 in money, which chiefly
-came from Mrs. Comstock's friends in "the tight little island" beyond
-the seas, who had known her there by her good works. Much of the
-remainder had come in small sums, and from the Christian women of
-America. The most noble and loyal Quakers furnished one-third. The State
-of Ohio gave more than any other State. The funds of the State of Kansas
-were not drawn upon.
-
-The freedman at once set to work, and during the first year entered upon
-the cultivation of 20,000 acres of land, and they ploughed and fitted
-3,000 acres for grain-growing. They also built 300 cabins and dugouts,
-and amassed $30,000 in money. We have heard of one Henry Carter, a
-colored man of Tennessee, who set out from Topeka in 1878, and made his
-way on foot for Dunlap, which was sixty-five miles away; he carried his
-own tools, whilst his plucky wife carried their bed clothes. In 1880 he
-had forty acres of land cleared, and had made the first payment for the
-same. He earned that money by working on sheep ranches, and making
-himself generally useful. He built for himself and wife a good stone
-cottage, sixteen feet by ten, and then owned a horse, a cow and other
-things besides. Not only did the white people assist the pilgrims, as
-good friends and neighbors, far and wide, over all the broad lands of
-Kansas, but colored families pulled and hauled together, lent and
-borrowed, and most willingly assisted one another in every conceivable
-way. "Good Samaritans" sprang up in all directions, thicker than the
-grass of the field. These blessed eyes of mine, dear reader, were
-privileged to look upon many letters at the time, giving lovely accounts
-of the way, the doings and sayings of the good folks of Kansas. With
-what warmth of feeling did they praise all their neighbors, colored and
-white alike, and pressed upon all "to come out!" There were, of course,
-many who arrived at first at Topeka, and other large towns, in a sadly
-destitute condition, needing clothing, food, medicine and all things.
-But they were at once assisted upon their feet--they turned round at
-once like swift winds, and all were soon most industriously at work.
-None were ever arrested for stealing, and very few were found drunk. All
-at once "made tracks," as we say, for the Church of God, and the bible
-and the school-house. The colored children were at once admitted into
-the public schools, as the color of the skin was too paltry a matter to
-be noticed by the great-minded people of the State of Kansas. Industrial
-schools were also set going for all those who needed such institutions.
-May God forever bless the State of Kansas for her unsurpassed humanity
-and hospitality to our oppressed people in the days of their distress!
-This is a most uncommonly prosperous and well-to-do State. The Lord has
-smiled upon them, and remembered all their loving ways.
-
-John M. Brown, Esq., was the general superintendent of the Freedman's
-Relief Association, and in February, 1880, he read a very interesting
-report before the Association, of which the following is an extract:
-
-"The great exodus of colored people from the South began about the first
-of February, 1879. By the first of April, 1,300 refugees had gathered
-around Wyandotte, Kansas. Many of them were in a suffering condition. It
-was then that the Kansas Relief Association came into existence, for the
-purpose of helping the most needy among the refugees from the Southern
-States. Up to date, about 60,000 refugees have come to the State of
-Kansas to live. Nearly 40,000 of them were in a destitute condition when
-they arrived, and have been helped by our association. We have received
-to date $68,000 for the relief of the refugees. About 5,000 of those who
-have come to Kansas have gone to other States to live, leaving about
-55,000 yet in Kansas. About 30,000 of that number have settled in the
-country, some of those on lands of their own or rented lands; others
-have hired out to the farmers, leaving about 25,000 in and around the
-different cities and towns of Kansas. There has been great suffering
-among those remaining in and near the cities and towns this winter. It
-has been so cold that they could not find employment; and if they did,
-they had to work for very low wages; because so many of them were
-looking for work that they were in each other's way.
-
-"Most of those about the cities and towns are with large families,
-widows, and very old people. The farmers want only able-bodied men for
-their work, and it is very hard for men with large families to get homes
-among the farmers. Kansas is a new State, and most farmers have small
-houses, and they cannot take large families to live with them. So when
-the farmers call for help, they usually call for a man and his wife
-only, or for a single man or woman.
-
-"Now in order that men with large families may become owners of land,
-and be able to support their families, the Kansas Freedman's Relief
-Association, if they can secure the means, will purchase cheap lands
-which can be bought at from $3 to $5 per acre, on long time, by making a
-small payment in cash. They will settle the refuges on these lands,
-letting each family have from 20 to 40 acres, and not settling more than
-sixteen families in any one neighborhood, so that they can easily obtain
-work from the farmers in that section or near by. I do not think it best
-to settle too many of them in any one place, because it will make it
-hard for them to find employment.
-
-"If our Association can help them to build a small house, and have five
-acres of their land broken, the women and children can cultivate the
-five acres and make enough to support their families, while the men are
-out at work by the day to meet the payments on their land when they
-become due. In this way many families can be helped to homes of their
-own, where they can become self-sustaining, educate their children, and
-be useful citizens to the State of Kansas.
-
-"Money spent in this way will be much more profitable to them than so
-much old clothing and provisions. They will no longer be objects of
-charity, or a burden to benevolent people."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-
-_Continuation of the Exodus to Kansas--Complete Success of That Grand
-Movement--Similar Governments Elsewhere--Resolution of the Hon. D. W.
-Voorhees in Congress--A Perfect Farce In Itself--The Story of the
-Exodus--Its End._
-
-We are not to suppose, my dear reader, that the coming of so many
-colored people to Kansas was in the beginning cordially agreed to by
-every white citizen of that State. Indeed, the exodus of these poor
-pilgrims and refugees to their consecrated soil was at first met with
-the most determined and violent opposition by many. But the new
-immigrants were usually so active, sincere and clever in all their
-movements that they at once disarmed all opposition, and the white
-residents at once grounded the arms of their rebellion. With few
-exceptions, everybody was well pleased with the new-comers, and they
-were made thrice welcome to the soil of Kansas. Behold the hand of God
-in all this! St. Paul advises us to be hospitable and entertain
-strangers, "for some have thereby entertained angels unawares," he
-continues to say. Indeed, I know of no better way to draw down the
-abundant blessings of high heaven upon our heads than by relieving
-really worthy and deserving people in the day of their distress. Our
-Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself pronounced a splendid eulogy upon
-those who relieved the hungry, thirsty, the sick and the prisoners, and
-He winds up his glorious sermon by saying, "Inasmuch as ye have done it
-unto the least of these, my disciples, ye have done it unto Me; enter ye
-into the joy of your Lord!" If ever Christ's words were carried out to
-the very fullest extent, they were carried out by the welcome reception
-of our pilgrim host to the soil of Kansas. The Lord has a long memory
-for a kind act, and He has not been unmindful to shower His blessings on
-this flourishing State.
-
-But after all, the season of agony, doubts and fears was but of short
-duration. By the year 1881, at the very latest, the regular tide of the
-refugees had discontinued to flow, the work of the "Kansas Freedmen's
-Relief Association" had entirely and successfully completed its work and
-disbanded itself, as the Union soldiers did when the Civil War was over.
-How glorious is all this now to sit down and think of! "As one door
-shuts, another opens." Very good, indeed. Let us thank God that the
-world is so big and roomy; and if we have plenty of enemies here, we
-have plenty of friends also. It was so in the old-time bible days, for
-in that blessed book we read how hosts of people, and even individuals,
-rose up, and departed in millions, in thousands and hundreds, and even
-in single cases, and went away from among "devils," that they might
-dwell in peace among better people. Thus history has simply repeated
-itself over and over again, and the exodus of colored people from the
-South is perhaps the most recent example of that oft-repeated affair.
-And it is safe to say, when we consider the natural badness of the human
-race, that other exoduses elsewhere will follow. It may not be in this
-country, but it will be somewhere.
-
-There is an old but true saying that "None are so blind as those who
-don't want to see," which leads me on to say that the Hon. D. W.
-Voorhees, United States Senator from Indiana, must either have been most
-dreadfully blind to the truth, or else he must have been in a very
-childish humor, when he introduced his famous resolution into the Senate
-at Washington for the investigation of "The causes of the migration of
-the colored people from the Southern to the Northern States." Now, since
-this world began, dear reader, when did any one of us ever hear of such
-a farce as this? To institute a national inquiry of the causes of the
-exodus of entire legions of men, women and children, when Mr. Voorhees
-and the whole population of the United States knew all about things
-before he ever asked the question? That inquiry cost the government
-thousands of dollars--flung away upon what every man, woman and child
-knew already! Verily, this was the greatest national farce ever heard of
-from the creation of the world down to the present time of writing!
-
-While this inquiry was going on, money and clothing were sent to the
-State of Kansas by every train; and the refugees were rapidly scattered
-all over the different counties as fast as the relief association could
-secure homes for them.
-
-
-[Illustration: _CHAS. SUMNER._]
-
-
-The "Chicago Inter-Ocean" newspaper sent a special correspondent to
-Topeka, to report on the state of things in Kansas, in connection with
-the pilgrims from the Sunny South. This faithful man made the following
-report, which is so very interesting that I will copy it in full:
-
-"TOPEKA, KANSAS, April 9th.
-
-"During the last few days I have in obedience to your request been
-taking notice of the exodus as it may be studied here at the
-headquarters for relief among the refugees in Kansas. This is the third
-visit your correspondent has made to the 'promised land' of the dusky
-hosts, who fleeing from persecution and wrongs, have swarmed within its
-borders to the number of 25,000. In a letter written here in December
-last the number then within the State was estimated about 15,000, and
-since that date at least 12,000 more have come. In the 'barracks' to-day
-I found what seemed to be the same one hundred who crowded about the
-stove that cold December day; but they were not the same of course, but
-their places have been filled many times since with other hundreds, who
-have found their first welcome to Kansas in the rest, food and warmth,
-which the charity of the North has provided here. So efficient have the
-plan of relief and the machinery of distribution been made, that of the
-thousands who have passed through here, none have remained as a burden
-of expense to the Association more than four or five days before places
-were found where their own labor could furnish them support. 'If that
-pure statesman of Indiana, (Mr. Voorhees) whose great heart was so
-filled with solicitude for the welfare of his colored brethren, that he
-asked Congress to appropriate thousands of dollars to ascertain why they
-moved from one State to another will come here,--he will be rewarded
-with such a flood of light on the question as could never penetrate the
-recesses of his committee-room in Washington. He need hardly propound an
-inquiry; he had, indeed, best not let his great presence be known,--for
-in the presence of 'Democracy' the negro has learned to keep silence.
-But in search of the truth, let him go to the file of over 3,000 letters
-in the Governor's office from negroes in the South, and read in them the
-homely but truthful tales of suffering, oppression and wrongs. Let him
-note how real is their complaint, but how modest the boon they ask; for,
-in different words,--sometimes in quaint and often in awkward phrases,
-the questions are always the same,--'Can we be free? Can we have work?
-And can we have our rights in Kansas?' Let him go next to the
-'barracks,' and watch the tired, ragged, hungry, scared-looking negroes
-as they come by the dozens on every train. If he is not prompted by
-shame, then from caution necessary to the success of his errand, let him
-here conceal the fact that he is a 'Democrat;' for these half-famished
-and terrified negroes have been fleeing from Democrats in the South, and
-in their ignorance they may not be able to comprehend the nice
-distinction between a northern and a southern Democrat. If he will be
-content simply to listen as they talk among themselves, he will soon
-learn much that the laborious cross-examination of witnesses has failed
-to teach him. He may take note of the fact that fleeing from robbery,
-oppression and murder, they come only with the plea for work and justice
-while they work. He may see reason to criticise what has generally been
-deemed by Southern Democrats, at least, unreasonable folly in a negro
-which prompts husband and wife to go only where they can go together;
-but he will find nothing to cause him to doubt the sincerity and good
-faith with which the negro grapples with the problem of his new life
-here. If he would learn more of this strength of resolution, and the
-patience which they have brought to search for a home in a free land,
-let him inquire concerning the lives of those refugees in Kansas. It may
-seem of significance, and worthy of approving note to him, that as
-laborers they have been faithful and industrious; that in no single case
-have they come back asking aid of the relief association, nor become
-burdens in any way upon corporate or public charities; that as citizens
-they are sober and law-abiding to such a degree that he would hardly be
-able to discover a single case of crime among them; and, finally, that
-in those instances where they were able to purchase a little land and
-stock, they have made as good progress towards the acquirement of homes
-and property, as have the average, poor, white, immigrant to the State.
-He will first learn then, from the refugees themselves, something of the
-desperate nature of the causes that drove them from the South; and
-secondly, from their lives here, with what thrift, patience and
-determination they have met the difficulties which they have encountered
-in their efforts to gain a foothold, and as men among men in the land of
-equal rights.
-
-"From the Hon. William Reynolds, president of the Auxiliary Relief
-Association, at Parsons, I learn that the negroes who have come into the
-southern part of the State, mostly from Texas, are all either settled on
-small tracts of land, or employed as laborers at from $8 to $10 per
-month, and are all doing well. Mr. Reynolds' testimony to this effect
-was positive and unqualified. To assist these refugees in Southern
-Kansas,--over 3,000 in all,--only $575 has been expended.
-
-"From Judge R. W. Dawson (who was the secretary of the association under
-the old management, and during the early months of the movement one year
-ago, when 6,000 refugees were distributed throughout the State and
-provided with homes at a cost of $5,000) I learned much of interest
-concerning the welfare and progress of this advance guard of the great
-exodus. Judge Dawson, although not now connected with the relief work,
-feels, of course, a great interest in the welfare of those to whose
-assistance he contributed much, and loses no opportunity for observation
-of their condition while traveling over the State. He says he knows of
-no case where one has come back to the Association for aid; and that as
-laborers and citizens their conduct has been such as to win the approval
-of all classes. Four colonies have been established. State lands were
-bought by the Association, and given to the colonies with the
-understanding that to secure their title they must make the second and
-third payments on the land purchased on the one-third cash and
-two-thirds time payment plan. Two of the newest of these colonies are
-still receiving aid from the Association, but the others are
-self-sustaining, and will be able, it is thought, to make small purchase
-payments on the land as they become due.
-
-"If our inquiring statesman is interested in observing in what spirit
-these refugees receive the aid which has made existence possible during
-the cold weather months, he may be profited by spending a few days about
-the city of Topeka. There are in Topeka alone over 3,000 refugees, and
-nearly all of them (paupers when they come) have found means in some way
-to make a living. In many cases it is a precarious subsistence that is
-gained, and in not a few cases among late arrivals he would find
-evidence of want and destitution; but compared with this, he cannot but
-be struck with the small number of applicants to the Relief Association
-for aid. Only 213 rations were issued outside the barracks last week to
-the 3,000 refugees who came here only a few months since without money,
-and frequently without clothing, to undertake what seemed, under the
-circumstances, the desperate purpose of making a living.
-
-"The dangers and difficulties which beset the refugees' departure from a
-land, where even the right to emigrate is denied him, are great. He may
-learn, that is, Mr. Voorhees, however, from copies of letters over 1,000
-in the Governor's office, that Governor St. John has never, in reply to
-their appeals, failed to warn them of the difficulties that would beset
-their way here, and has never extended them promise of other assistance
-than that implied in the equal rights which are guaranteed to every
-citizen of Kansas. Further than this, however surprising it may be to
-Mr. Voorhees' theory of the causes of the exodus, it is nevertheless a
-fact that this very Association, which is charged with encouraging the
-exodus, has sent the Rev. W. O. Lynch, a colored man, to the South to
-warn the colored people that they must not come here expecting to be
-fed, or to find homes ready, and to do all in his power to dissuade them
-from coming at all. Still, they come, and why they come the country had
-determined long in advance of Mr. Voorhees' report.
-
-"While we have Mr. Voorhees here, we would like to have him glance at a
-State document to be found upon Governor St. John's table, which bears
-the great seal and signature of Governor O. M. Roberts, of the State of
-Texas. It is a requisition by the Governor of Texas upon the Governor of
-Kansas for the body of one Peter Womack, a colored man, who was indicted
-by the Grand Jury of Grimes county, at the last November term, for the
-felony of fraudulently disposing of ten bushels of corn. From further
-particulars we learn that this Peter Womack gave a mortgage early in the
-spring of 1879 upon his crop just planted, to cover a debt of twenty
-dollars due the firm of Wilson & Howell. When Womack came to gather his
-crop, he yields to the importunities of another white creditor ten
-bushels of corn to be applied upon the debt. About this time this Peter
-Womack becomes influential in inducing a number of his colored neighbors
-in Grimes county to emigrate to Kansas. Undeterred by threats, and
-despite the bulldozing methods employed to cause him to remain a
-'citizen' of Texas, Womack, with others, sick of a condition of
-'citizenship' which is nothing less than hopeless peonage, leaves stock
-and crop behind to seek a home in Kansas. His acts inciting the movement
-of those black serfs are not forgotten, however, by the white chivalry
-of Grimes county. The evidence of this surrender on a debt of ten
-bushels of corn, mortgaged for another debt, is hunted up, presented to
-the Grand Jury of Grimes county, he is promptly indicted for a felony,
-and the great State of Texas rises in her majesty and demands a
-surrender of his body! The demand is in accordance with law,
-undoubtedly--Texas law--but if Texas would occasionally punish one of
-the white murderers who do not think it necessary to leave her borders,
-this pursuit of a Negro for selling ten bushels of corn from a mortgaged
-crop would seem a more imposing exhibition of the power of the
-commonwealth to enforce its laws."
-
-The above extracts from the Chicago Inter-Ocean of the 15th of April,
-1880, were clearly written by a humane and Christian gentleman, whose
-sole aim was to tell the truth.
-
-
-[Illustration: _WM. LLOYD GARRISON._]
-
-
-Will my kind reader now permit me to sum up, in a few sentences, the
-results of this wonderful exodus? The departure of so many thousands of
-colored people from the different States of the Sunny South to Kansas
-and many other Northern States informed the whole world that the South
-was nothing but a land of thugs and common cut-throats and murderers.
-The exodus informed the world that 'Secessia' was no place for them to
-emigrate into, where even life and limb were unsafe. It represented the
-Southerners as a vindictive, barbarous and most uncivilized people; as a
-people, in short, who were unfitted to carry on the laws of their States
-in a civilized nation. It repelled the Christian world from them,
-instead of drawing them to them in love and friendship. The exodus, in
-short, gave the South a 'black eye,' to use a familiar expression common
-among pugilists, and afforded most abundant proof that the war had been
-a just and righteous one, as waged against so wicked and demoralized a
-race of men--men unfitted for civil government. Even the 'laughable
-farce' of Mr. Voorhees' Congressional inquiry into the causes of the
-exodus informed the whole world of the murderous state of mind of the
-Southern white people, who were unable to contemplate the sight of a
-colored man voting the Republican ticket of freedom without the wish of
-taking his life--the life of his neighbor citizen who had even a better
-right to vote than himself; for the colored man had certainly never been
-a traitor to his country, as these self-same murderous Southerners had
-been.
-
-We are all perfectly well aware that colored men could get on better
-without the white man, than the white man could without him. The climate
-of the South, and especially of the far South, is warm, and men of
-African descent are naturally better able to stand against the rays of
-the hot sun than the Caucasian race. It was for this express reason that
-the slave trade and slavery were so long carried on with such vigor and
-persistency, because the African was well qualified to work among the
-canebrakes, the cotton fields and the rice swamps of the Southern
-States.
-
-The African was found to be strong-bodied, and through and by means of
-his diligent labor the cities and lands of the South had been built up
-and tilled respectively. The "poor white trash," as Caucasian laborers
-were termed, were not so well qualified to toil under a semi-tropical
-sky, and extract the wealth from the soil in the same degree. No part of
-the United States was so rich when the war began as these States. They
-had amassed an immense horde of silver and of gold by means of the
-labors of the slaves; although all that precious metal was thrown away
-upon cannon and gunpowder, and all other necessaries of war, and the
-cause for which they fought was lost after all. Still, the fact remains
-that the South had to a great extent been built up by the labor of the
-hardy and diligent African, who was so very useful and valuable that
-"Secessia" struggled on for four long years to retain the colored race
-in slavery, and even to make slavery itself the chief corner-stone of
-the Southern Confederacy. But crime could not be allowed to go
-unpunished, and the oppressed African was entitled to his liberty and
-his rights.
-
-With the tramp, tramp, tramp of so many refugees from the Southern
-States upon their pilgrim way to Kansas and other Northern States, the
-leading white men of the country that they left behind at last began to
-open their eyes to the mischief which they and their minions had already
-done, and they saw that they had lost the confidence of the colored
-race. As from forty to sixty thousand men, women and children had gone
-to Kansas alone, and immense numbers had emigrated to other Northern
-States, both far and near, the leading men in the deserted sections now
-began to wonder to what extent this thing would grow. They saw that if
-things went on at this rate the Southern States would become
-depopulated, or at least as destitute of inhabitants as they were upon
-the landing of Columbus. Something must be done to stop at once this
-great rush of wronged and oppressed men for other States, where they
-could live in safety and freedom; and not only must the shot-gun policy
-of the Southerners be brought to an end, but that system of cheating and
-robbery, also, whereby white men had beat the colored ones out of their
-full share of the crops, on the plantations, and defrauded them in every
-way under the so-called "Credit System." It was most unmanly, cowardly,
-and even shameful to the last degree, for wise and intelligent white men
-to thus rob and plunder the oppressed and uneducated African. Such a
-devilish policy was simply adding insult to injury. Never was a more
-savage thing done through the wickedness of the human race since the
-creation. It now became the policy of all thinking ex-rebels to put on
-their thinking caps, and study a better system than such sheer
-dishonesty.
-
-The leading white men of the South, therefore, now went to work to
-reverse the system that had driven so many of the colored people out of
-the land, and to do every possible thing to regain their confidence,
-because there was no one who could fill the empty places, and do the
-needful work.
-
-And not only was it now necessary to gain the confidence of the colored
-man, but even to regain the confidence of white men who had any
-intention of going South and settling down in that part of the country.
-There were many men of capital, besides thousands of accomplished
-artisans, who could both enrich themselves and the Southern States by
-going and settling down there, but who were now justly alarmed, when
-they saw whole hosts of orderly and industrious people of color moving
-away from these self-same States on account of robbers and murders by
-the very same men among whom they had been planning to go and settle
-down, to labor and toil, and there to end their days. It was perfectly
-clear to the most obtuse Southern mind that no Northern man would ever
-go South and invest his capital where those who ran his mills and
-cultivated his plantations were liable to be brought down by the
-shot-gun of the old soldiers of Lee and Jackson, because they voted the
-Republican ticket--if they even dared to go to the polls at all on
-election day! This was as bad, or worse, than despotic Russia or Turkey;
-and therefore Southern men wisely decided to reverse the policy they had
-adopted towards the colored population, for they now saw that if they
-did not do so, no capitalists or artisans would ever come South, but
-remain at home or go elsewhere.
-
-On the other hand the exodus was a benefit to the colored race; at
-least, to a portion of them. Those who emigrated from the Southern
-States found an abundant entrance, and a warm welcome to the fertile
-lands of Kansas and other Northern cities and Western States, where
-there was plenty of land calling for nothing so much as cultivation, and
-where the oppressed pilgrims and refugees built up for themselves
-comfortable homes, and they and their children are there to this day. In
-Kansas and the other States whither they emigrated, the spirit of
-freedom and justice prevailed, and every man could abide under his own
-vine and fig tree without having any midnight thugs about to make him
-afraid. And those who remained behind were also benefited by the exodus,
-because there was now more room for those who were left there; and
-inasmuch as the white leaders of the South had decided upon possessing a
-wiser and more Christian policy, the prospect of good treatment in every
-respect was far brighter than ever; they need not emigrate to the North
-and West, as their brethren had done, but could remain at home in
-safety.
-
-Thus, my dear reader, I have related to you the story of the exodus of
-our people to Kansas and other States, as it passed before our eyes
-about the years 1879 and 1880, as I very well remember. It was a
-wonderful object lesson set before the whole nation, and an outgrowth of
-slavery, and the war, and the violent passions of the vanquished. But
-good has come out of evil. The poor, oppressed pilgrim refugees were not
-forsaken in the days of their distress, for they were tenderly cared for
-by the most loving of mankind, and underneath them were the everlasting
-arms of the merciful God.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-
-_My Daughters' Weddings--Departure for England for the Honeymoon--The
-Voyage--Letter to the Rev. Mr. Carroll--The City of Liverpool--England,
-Wales, Scotland, Ireland--Return Home to America--Benefits of Travel._
-
-This chapter will introduce the kind reader to my life and times in the
-eventful year 1876--eventful in the history of my own family, because my
-two dear daughters had now almost reached their twentieth year, were,
-therefore, come to the age when the fair sex turn their hearts to the
-thoughts of love, courtship and marriage; and, in short, my dear
-children were engaged to be married in the month of May, in the spring
-of the year 1876. The bridegrooms were both Christian, industrious and
-highly-respectable young men, and such as we knew would promote the
-happiness of the two dear girls as well as their own. All four
-candidates for matrimony were well matched in every way, having been
-brought up in schools and colleges where the most select members of the
-Anglo-Saxon race themselves have received their polish. Indeed, freedom
-and all the advantages that flow from a brilliant education, have
-polished our young men and maidens, until now they are as smooth as a
-mirror, and you can see your face in that mirror as well as the best
-looking-glass! Thus these young people had been trained and polished
-till training and polishing could not be carried much further; because
-they had had all the advantages that money and talent could give; they
-shone in the best society, and no company of refined young Christian
-people was considered perfect unless they were invited, enhancing the
-happiness of all by their presence. But the best thing of all was the
-pure, unadulterated Christianity that grew and flourished like the green
-bay-tree in every heart. My own dear husband and I were most profoundly
-thankful to see our dear children so well inclined by grace and training
-to every good thought and deed; and no less so to see, in their
-prospective husbands men who could encourage such dispositions instead
-of being obstacles in their way, like so many others.
-
-The main points being secured, we gave our willing consent to the
-marriage and it was thought best to have them both together. Accordingly
-the double wedding came off the first Wednesday night of the merry month
-of May, and the A. M. E. Church on Vine street was packed to its utmost
-capacity. All the particulars of dress, bonnets, bouquets, etc., with
-all the latest improvements down to the eventful year, 1876, were duly
-noted by the reporter who was present, and who wrote a flourishing
-account of the weddings, which came out in the paper next morning. After
-the ceremony at the church was over, we all adjourned to our own house,
-where a reception was held and continued until a late hour. As my two
-dear girls (as I always call them) stood before the altar, I could not
-but reflect what their fate might have been had it not been for the
-Providence of God, and for the fact that their parents managed to get
-away from slavery, and gave them a good Christian education in a free
-State of the North. Verily, the present generation of colored men and
-maidens have something to be thankful for to that good Lord who sent the
-war, destroyed slavery, and opened the doors for them to enter in, and
-enjoy all the privileges that the white race possesses.
-
-It is quite unnecessary for me to say that marriage is one of the
-greatest events in human life, and that their marriage gave each one of
-these four young people the most abundant joy. To still further enhance
-the happiness of the young people it was decided that they should spend
-their honeymoon upon the ocean, and in the British Isles, where some of
-our ancestors had come from; and my husband and myself decided to go
-with them for company, and have a good time generally. So all
-preparations were made for our departure to pay this delightful visit to
-John Bull and his Island, which made all feel as gay as birds.
-
-Thursday morning came on apace--the day after their marriage--and we
-were all in a great bustle and high excitement over our departure for
-Old England, as it is called. Our trunks were packed, and all things
-made ready for the journey and voyage before us. We understood that dear
-mother and her devoted husband, Mr. Sutherland, were not going with us;
-at least they had said nothing about doing so to the rest of us--I dare
-say they intended to take us by surprise. And it was a surprise, indeed!
-Because when we were almost ready to walk down the street to the railway
-station, who came in smiling all over, but Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland! We
-were so much surprised that we all set up a loud shout of joy; and the
-more especially as they seemed to enjoy the fun as much as any of us. It
-was a lively time that followed the next ten minutes, and we held quite
-a jubilee on the subject. The minister of the church and his good lady
-had come up to see us off, and a few other friends of the "inner circle"
-of our acquaintances; and all things being now ready, we walked down the
-street to the railway station, where we found all bustle and confusion.
-But at last we secured our tickets, took a tender leave of our dear
-friends on the platform, and having taken our seats we steamed away for
-New York, where we were to take the boat for Liverpool, England. We shed
-no tears on this occasion, because we all had to come back again in a
-few months. There was nothing but delightful novelty and unexpected joy
-before us, and therefore there was nothing for any of us to cry about
-upon the present occasion.
-
-The following letter which I wrote after our landing at Liverpool will
-explain itself to the reader:
-
-"LIVERPOOL, ENG., May, 1876.
-
-"Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Carroll,
-
-"My Dear Friends:--I am quite delighted to inform you that we have
-crossed the broad Atlantic in perfect safety, and yesterday we landed at
-the great seaport of Liverpool, where nothing seems to be talked about
-but shipping and ships. We are all in splendid health and gay spirits,
-and it is quite a pleasing change for us to be in a land where color is
-unknown. We all send our best love to you both, to all your family, and
-to our dear church on Vine street, where we hope to find ourselves again
-in a few months, among the dear brothers and sisters there.
-
-"We had quite a pleasant journey on the train all the way to New York,
-where we arrived on scheduled time, and found our way to the private
-hotel, where all things were in readiness for our reception. We spent a
-portion of two days in walking about, and enjoying the sights of the
-city, but the time rapidly rolled around for our embarkation, and we
-went on board the 'Sarmatian,' which is truly a splendid liner--indeed,
-one of the finest boats on the North Atlantic. The 'Sarmatian' is a
-British vessel, and strange as it may appear so soon, the feeling was so
-sweet and home-like upon this foreign ship that I could not but notice
-it. Officers and sailors who have been reared in a land where prejudice
-is unknown, are in no way interested about such paltry things as the
-color of the skin. Seated upon this noble British ship, I felt even now
-as if I were already in England!
-
-"Indeed, we would all have quite forgotten that there was any such thing
-as prejudice in any part of the world had we not been reminded of it on
-board by the presence of a few Americans. But even they, on board a
-British ship, were obliged to keep their personal feelings well covered
-up; and here I may say, when we are abroad and traveling the wide, wide
-world, you meet with nobody who objects to the color of your skin, but
-somebody from some port of the United States! But even American
-prejudice must die out, for all wickedness is subject to change, and God
-Himself alone changeth never.
-
-
-[Illustration: _FRED'K DOUGLASS, ROCHESTER, N. Y._]
-
-
-"In glorious May weather, and in the presence of a tremendous concourse
-of people, who had come down to the water's edge to see us off, we
-backed out into the North river at New York. The immense mixed multitude
-standing on the pier had sent up one tremendous cheer after another,
-waved their hats and handkerchiefs, and gave us a general grand
-hurrahing time. We replied in like manner as we came slowly away at
-first, accompanied by two or three tug-boats, that ventured out some
-distance to grace our departure. No doubt the passengers on board of
-them had friends and relatives on the Sarmatian.
-
-"We settled down at once, and made ourselves at home in good earnest. We
-were quite at home in our sweet, cozy little cabins, and the officers
-and attendants were all that could be desired. We walked about the deck,
-sat down to read or talk, and became acquainted with some of the most
-delightful people on the face of the earth--most of them on errands of
-pleasure, like ourselves. All were in high spirits, and anxious to visit
-different parts of Europe--the British Isles, Germany, etc.
-
-"We carried on much the same at sea as we do home on shore. I spent most
-of my own time in conversation with our own party and other passengers,
-with reading new books, and with watching the play of the wild waves of
-the deep. Some slept a great deal of the voyage away, and others were
-busy courting, and that continually. I am informed that an immense
-number of marriages result from crossing the ocean every year. They get
-acquainted on shipboard, and marry after they come to land. The very
-seamen seem to be smitten by Cupid with a great love for the fair sex.
-'Jack Tar' finds many a fair sweetheart on shipboard. Here at Liverpool
-you can soon see 10,000 of them walking about. A stranger in this mighty
-'Modern Tyre' would be led to fancy that there was nothing in the world
-but sailors, ships and shipping. And who need wonder at it in the first
-port of the whole world, with that 'Great Landing Stage' at the entrance
-to the Mersey--upwards of twenty miles of dock along the right bank of
-the river, and ten thousand masts (10,000) hailing from every continent,
-and all the islands of the Ocean!
-
-"When you come to sea blessed with splendid health, and strength, and
-vigorous life, with high-beating hope, and all things before your
-imagination of the seven colors of the rainbow; when 'all hearts are
-light, all eyes are bright, and nature's face is gay'--then, indeed, you
-are going to have a first-class time upon the rolling deep in the merry
-month of May. Life on the ocean wave has really ten times more charms
-than I am able to define. You must come to sea yourself to experience
-it, for it is indeed far too much for my pen.
-
-"The sea! the sea! The broad, blue sea! What a glorious thing it is to
-look away as far as ever the eye can reach, and behold nothing but the
-big, blue waves of the North Atlantic heaving up and down, while our
-bold and plucky steamboat rushes fearlessly over those watery hills, and
-the bright and beautiful sun pours his warm rays down upon the rolling
-deep, and a fascinating and bewitching feeling floods upon your own
-heart, and there begets a feeling of enthusiasm that no language can
-describe!
-
-"The porpoise is a lively fish, often seen from the deck of an Atlantic
-steamboat, and we saw plenty of them rushing through the waves like
-winged lightning. It was indeed a fine sight; but the best companions we
-had all the way to the British Isles were the bold, brave sea-gulls,
-that left the coast of America with us, and came all the way to
-Liverpool. The sea-gull acts more like a human being than anything else
-to which I can describe him; cavorting about all over the main, and then
-coming down almost to the deck itself, to let you know that he is there,
-and trying to make you feel at home on the ocean.
-
-"There seemed to be no end of sweet, peaceful enjoyment; the weather
-continued so fine all the way across the sea, our health was so good,
-and we had such pleasant companions on all sides around, and nothing
-happened to the ship to mar the general joy. It was, indeed, a downright
-holiday, most thoroughly enjoyed by us all.
-
-"The Sabbath-day came around, and there were two church services in the
-Grand Saloon. We all went both times, which proved, as I thought at the
-time, the greatest treat in our whole life. The singing, the prayers,
-the sermons, and everything else combined to form a novelty that I am
-again quite at a loss to explain.
-
-"And yet there were many on board who never went to a church service at
-sea, although it was the very joy of our lives, and a treat that turned
-our gallant ship into a floating heaven on the deep. It is just the same
-on shore. There are people who live next door to the church who never
-enter its portals once in their lives.
-
-"We spent a good deal of time watching for vessels on the ocean, and saw
-plenty of them. We passed quite close to several, and spoke to a few.
-Some of them came so near that we saw everything on deck, and that was
-something when far from home.
-
-"What a glorious sight it was to behold the red, red sun rising out of
-the waves in the East every morning, like a great, big, round, red
-cheese, and again to watch him at night going down in all his glory in
-the West, like a red and fiery wheel, flooding all the main with the
-splendor of his glory, as he sank down into his water bed! We used to
-stand on the open deck, and watch the 'glorious god of day' sink, sink,
-sinking, till at last he quite disappeared from view. Then the
-fair-faced silver moon, fair Luna, Queen of Night, arose in the East,
-and flooded all the ocean with her silver shining that was laid so
-entrancingly upon the rolling waves, whilst the thousand stars came out
-in ones, and twos, and hundreds, and bestudded all the skies. Thus again
-we would gather out upon the deck at night, and watch the starry
-heavens, and the moon, and listen to the wild waves of the North
-Atlantic rolling away, far and near; and when night came on, we found
-ourselves pretty well worn out after another long and busy day. But we
-slept well, as indeed we well might, for the good Lord and the sailors
-were ever taking good care of us all and the brave Sarmatian was
-battling her rapid way cross the North Atlantic.
-
-"As I used to stand and muse upon the deck, it often occurred to my mind
-how all the ancestors of the colored race in America had been borne over
-the waves of the self-same North Atlantic over which we were now
-sailing, though farther to the South. Over these waves, also, the great
-Fred. Douglass had passed several times on his journeys to and from the
-British Isles; for he is one of the great pillars of history, and has
-filled the whole world with his fame. His renown is bright all over the
-earth!
-
-"Thus time passed on, day and night, and we all enjoyed ourselves to the
-top of our bent; at the grand piano in the saloon, watching the play of
-the wild waves of the rolling deep, etc., etc. The excitement in every
-bosom began to rise as we drew near to the land, and when the old head
-of Kinsale rose from the main in the southwest of Ireland, there was
-truly a most tremendous flurry in every heart. And as the Sarmatian
-passed rapidly along, one lofty, frowning headland after another rose
-from the waves, reminding one of grand lofty church steeples placed at
-intervals here and there; then the bold, precipitous coasts ran far away
-back into some estuary or firth, at the head of which a river came
-pouring down from the interior of the land. A heavy summer shower of
-rain came up all of a sudden, after which the sun burst out with
-indescribable splendor, and a mighty rainbow stood over the entire
-convex of heaven, with its great feet like elephant's legs, deep down in
-the ocean. Our American sea-gulls came bravely on, and in Irish waters
-were met by Irish sea-gulls, and countless wild sea-mews.
-
-"The excitement that began when we passed the Old Head at Kinsale did
-not subside. It went on, grew and increased hour after hour, as we
-called at Queenstown, and then moved on to Liverpool. Nothing was now
-thought of nor talked about but John Bull and his Island--Britannia, the
-Pride of the Ocean, the home of the brave and the free! We noticed that
-we were no longer upon the big, blue waves of the North Atlantic, but
-ploughing our rapid way across the shallower green seas of the British
-Isles--quite a pleasant change in its way, after so much blue, because
-nature's green is a beautiful color.
-
-"It was time for us to go to bed, as we approached St. George's Channel,
-that divides Ireland from Wales; but we were all up and fresh, and
-bright as buttons in the morning, when Holyhead, the Isle of Anglesea,
-and the bold mountains of North Wales arose almost perpendicular out of
-the Irish Sea, and dipped their feet, deep, deep into the waves.
-
-"The excitement on board now among us all was simply dreadful! We were
-so near home, and yet not quite there! Hundreds of ships in all
-directions were moving about over all the sea; and no wonder, because we
-were close to the doors of one of the most famous queen seaports that
-this world has ever seen. At last we came up in front of the City of
-Liverpool, and having a tremendous traffic in full view, and here we had
-to lie till two o'clock in the afternoon, when the tide would be full,
-and we could cross the bar of the Mersey. We crossed the bar in due
-time, and got into that famous river, came up to the Great Landing Stage
-where we landed in great excitement, for here at last was John Bull and
-his Island!
-
-"Having landed and passed the custom-house officers, we procured cabs
-and drove to our appointed quarters in the city, where we received a
-most hearty welcome upon our arrival, and were ushered into our rooms,
-and we never felt more thoroughly at home in our lives. The good people
-seemed determined to make us feel all right, and to make a good
-impression on the Americans. The English tea time, 5 P. M., drew nigh,
-and we had toast and tea, with jams, etc., in the regular English
-fashion. It was delightful to have all things so nice in a foreign way.
-The fire was also delightful in the open grate, and that also looked
-most cheerful. Pictures of Queen Victoria and the royal family hung from
-the walls, and battle scenes by land and sea, and landscape pictures
-powerfully reminded us that we were now under the British flag, and in
-another part of the world.
-
-"After tea, we walked out to view the city, the river, the mighty
-traffic of this modern Tyre, and 10,000 seamen talking far more
-languages than we knew anything about. Thus several days and nights
-passed away, and we found the people one of the most delightful in the
-world--frank, free, open-hearted and generous and hospitable to a fault.
-I am told that there is not a heartier people on the face of the earth
-than the half million inhabitants of Liverpool, and so far as my
-experience goes that is quite true. We accepted several invitations, and
-had glorious times among these people; we ran the whole town and saw
-many places of great interest and beauty. But from fifteen to twenty
-miles of dock, the busy river and the Great Landing Stage almost took
-our breath away. It is worth crossing the Atlantic to see the far-famed
-city of Liverpool!
-
-"Everybody saw and knew that we had a wedding party along with us, and,
-indeed, my two daughters and their husbands were just like so many birds
-set free, when once they got ashore. Like the spirited singing birds of
-the British Isles, there was no end to their hilarity; and it was
-delightful to see them. Our entire party were very favorably impressed
-with all that we both heard and saw, and everybody was so very polite to
-us, and agreeable in all their ways. We now began to make excursions to
-see some of the fine sights of 'Old England,' and some of the grand
-castles and palaces of fame and renown. What seemed to impress us all
-most was the smooth, lawn-like appearance of the whole fair-faced
-country, which is the most polished upon the face of the earth.
-Beautiful England, indeed, reminds me of a well-cultivated garden, and
-it looks like a great garden, and nothing else. The houses and grounds
-of some of the nobility are flung open for the inspection of foreign
-visitors, and truly they are a delight to behold, with all their flower
-gardens, conservatories of plants, playing fountains, and other
-attractions too numerous to mention. Go where we might, nothing seemed
-more gratifying to our feelings than the polite attention and fine
-manners of all those with whom we came in contact. The sights and scenes
-round about us, and so much to charm the senses in a foreign land, in
-the delightful month of May, delighted us to the core, and made us think
-of the Garden of Eden, and the fabled, golden regions of the blessed.
-The stately homes of England--how beautiful they stand!--amidst the
-tall, ancestral trees, o'er all the pleasant land! Such is England, that
-has been polished for 1,000 years, till polishing can do no more!
-
-"All the world has heard of 'Beautiful Wales,' and we determined to pass
-a few weeks among her enchanting scenery. We visited the Vale of
-Llangollen, the Vale of Clwyd, the Vale of Conway, saw Bettws-y-Coed,
-the Pass of Llanberis, and, indeed, the best things in all North Wales,
-including lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and glorious romance without end.
-The warm-hearted, impulsive Welsh people almost carried us all off our
-feet with their unbounded enthusiasm, and the tremendous warmth of their
-welcome. They are the greatest singers in the world. Indeed, all Wales
-is one sea of song, and they sing well, and they even dearly love to
-sing. They are a God-fearing race, and we never heard a Welshman
-swear--no, not even once. Here was something for our young people to
-learn, for it was so sweet to hear the name of the Lord mentioned only
-in terms of praise. Wales always reminded our entire party of the
-'Delectable Mountains' of the Pilgrim's Progress, for the Welsh
-mountains were delightful to us.
-
-"After we got through with all we cared about seeing in 'Beautiful
-Wales,' and among its warm-hearted people, we next moved away to the
-North to become somewhat acquainted with what is truly called 'Bonnie
-Scotland.' We passed around the highlands and the islands of that
-romantic country, and beheld the famous lakes and the lofty mountains,
-her deep waterfalls and historic straits and glens. We visited the land
-of Burns, in the South, or Lowlands, saw Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the
-home of Sir Walter Scott, on the Lower Tweed. Of a truth, Scotland is a
-beautiful, enchanting and enchanted land, and her warm-hearted,
-enthusiastic people stamp their impress on the hearts of all those who
-visit them, for all coming time.
-
-We found the whole of the British Isles overrun with tourists in the
-summer time; but few failed to see Scotland, which has filled the whole
-world with its fame. There is something so peculiarly romantic about the
-'Scotch Borders,' that our heads were almost turned, and where all the
-land seemed to be enchanted ground. Sweet Moffat and its grand
-surroundings can never be forgotten, nor the impression that they made
-on all our hearts. We also descended the beautiful Esk river, from
-Langholm, till we came to headwaters upon Eskdalemoor, where the
-intelligent and hospitable people are mostly shepherds, and, like all
-the rest of the Scotch, most exemplary in their attendance at church.
-The parish minister is the Rev. John C. Dick, and we were royally
-entertained by him to tea at the manse, and we had a good time
-generally.
-
-"After leaving Scotland, we made our way over to Ireland, saw Belfast,
-Dublin, Cork, the Lakes of Killarney, and, indeed, the best of all that
-was to be seen in the Emerald Isle. I don't know whether a people can be
-too enthusiastic and warm-hearted, but if they can, these are the Irish
-at home.
-
-"My good friend and brother, I began this long letter upon landing at
-Liverpool, in May. It is now September, 1876. We have all come back to
-Liverpool--to our first quarters here. We have had a glorious time
-roving over the British Isles these four eventful months. We intend to
-embark to-morrow on the 'Scotia' for New York. I intend to keep a
-journal on our voyage, and yourself and lady shall have a reading of it
-at once. We are all quite well, and, indeed, the trans-Atlantic trip has
-had the most salutary influence upon the health of our entire party. My
-next greatest desire is to return home to Buffalo, and we all hope to
-visit the British Isles at some future day, if God our lives shall
-spare. With our united love to yourself, lady and all other friends, I
-am yours in all Christian affection.
-
-"BEULAH LINCOLN."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-
-_Eminent Colored Men and Women--Bishop Daniel E. Payne--Frederick
-Douglass--His Life and Times--Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper--Miss Louise de
-Mortie._
-
-One of the hardest things in the world is to keep down a man who is
-determined to rise. He comes up like a plant of spontaneous growth, and
-the more we try to keep him down, the more he will persevere in his
-determination to stand upon his own feet like other men. This was often
-shown in the days before the war, when the bold, intrepid slave, who
-clearly saw that the whole system was wrong, made up his mind at least
-to be free, and the next thing we hear of him is a daring and successful
-attempt to shake off the chains of slavery, through his successful
-escape to the free States of the North, or to Canada, or even to Europe.
-
-But this determined spirit to at least be free, did not confine itself
-merely to such adventurous and successful escapes, but assumed the form
-of acquiring an education also; and no better illustration of this can
-be given than that of the late Bishop Daniel E. Payne, of the A. M. E.
-Church, who was born in South Carolina, in the year 1811. The heinous
-system of slavery in that rebellious State treated as a crime the
-teaching of any slave or free colored person whatsoever. But Daniel E.
-Payne had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and in order to flank
-the evil system that then prevailed, and to gain that knowledge to which
-he was as much entitled as the President of the United States himself,
-he procured the assistance of a friendly white man, who taught him in a
-cellar, where neither friend nor foe could see what they were doing.
-Daniel was an apt and clever student, and above all things, as the Bible
-says, "He had a mind to work," and an enthusiastic mind at that. It did
-not take this young hero long to take in the entire situation regarding
-slave lands and slavery when once his mind had begun to expand. Like
-Moses and many other famous leaders, the Lord had work for him to do,
-and he was preparing him for it at this time.
-
-Young Payne saw that South Carolina was no place for him, and that the
-first duty he owed to himself was to get away as best he could, to the
-Northern States, where he could enjoy his own manly and manful rights.
-As fortune favors the brave, he succeeded in making his escape, and his
-freedom being now secure, he made all due haste to become that eminent
-scholar, who was destined by the will of God, to become a leader and an
-instructor of his people. He connected himself with the A. M. E. Church,
-and through and by means of that powerful body he did mighty things for
-the education of his own people, both before the war and after it. He
-has justly been called "The Apostle of Education," and what the great
-Fred. Douglass was in the political world, Daniel E. Payne was in the
-educational and intellectual world. Such a man as Bishop Payne should be
-revered as a philanthropist for all coming time. The colored race will
-never be able to say that they are out of his debt. At last he was made
-a bishop of his own church, and became the head of Wilberforce
-University, in Ohio--a glorious institution that had made itself felt by
-its influence over all this nation. Bishop Payne was sent to Europe for
-a time in the interest of his church, and his high qualities were
-everywhere honored by the Christian and scholars across the Atlantic.
-
-Thus we see in Daniel Payne a diamond in the rough, in the slave State
-of South Carolina, but by the predetermined will of God, brought to the
-free North and polished, as it were, by the hand of the jeweler. We see
-all the work that the great Creator had given him to do, and how well he
-did it, too. And what we have said of Payne could as well be said of
-thousands of others--men in whom the spirit of right and ambition
-dwells; men who ever forge to the front: men whom God helps, because He
-sees that they are also willing to help themselves.
-
-
-[Illustration: _SOUTHERN CHIVALRY--ARGUMENT VERSUS CLUB'S._]
-
-
-We next come to the far-famed and highly-celebrated Frederick Douglass,
-renowned over all the earth wherever honest worth is appreciated and
-valued by the civilized sons and daughters of Adam. The name of "Fred.
-Douglass," as he is affectionately called, stands out in alto-relief
-with that of John Bunyan, George Washington, and some few others who
-carry fame and goodness with them at one and the same time. Nobody seems
-to be jealous of them nor envy them, for their fame is far beyond the
-reach of jealousy or envy. It would be a difficult thing to find a
-village, valley or an isle of any ocean on the face of the globe where
-the familiar endearing name of Fred. Douglass has not been heard. The
-children growing up at their mothers' knees have learned to lisp it as a
-name to be revered; and when they grow up to man's estate, nothing will
-content them until they have read the life of the famous Fred. Douglass.
-
-The opinion, or rather the belief, has prevailed in America that Fred.
-Douglass was the son of a white father and colored mother, and that
-white father has been supposed to have been his owner. But in the
-history of his own life and times, published a few years ago, Douglass
-positively affirms that both his parents were colored, and for my own
-part I believe that to be the truth. As men like Fred. Douglass are very
-few and far between, the wish among many of the anti-slavery school, at
-least, seems to have been father to the thought that so clever a man
-could never have been the offspring of colored parents, but that his
-father, at least, must have been white. Not so, by any means! Fred.
-himself makes it quite plain that his father and mother were both
-colored, and he tells us all about it in his usual modest way.
-
-Fred. Douglass was born in the region called Tuckahoe Neck, in Talbot
-county, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the year 1817. There is
-something unusually sad and plaintive about the way in which the poor
-child was separated from his own father and mother, and how he came up
-on the rough side of the mountain of slavery. The poor lad was subjected
-not only to the purest barbarities, but had to undergo treatment that
-may be called sheer cowardice on the part of his tormentors. Well might
-the Prophet exclaim, "How long, O Lord, how long?" Whilst he was a boy,
-growing up at Baltimore, his mistress kindly taught him his letters, and
-went some way in giving him further instructions, till at last his
-master advised her to stop teaching him, as such things and slavery did
-not work well together. No, indeed! They did not work well together,
-especially in the heart and soul of a boy like Fred., who already began
-to look into the workings of the curse of slavery. To stop Fred. from
-learning was now impossible. One might as well dam up a mountain rill
-with one's hands--it would simply flow over the top of them, or round
-about them. Nature will have her way, and the great Creator had
-implanted the germ of liberty in the boy's heart, whose growth was not
-to be kept down. After many ups and downs on the Eastern and Western
-Shores of Maryland, when our hero had arrived at about the age of
-twenty-one, in the year 1838, he resolved to make a bold stroke for
-liberty; and accordingly, being dressed up like a sailor, he took the
-train at Baltimore for Philadelphia, luckily escaping detection, and
-having successfully run the gauntlet by the way, he landed upon the
-platform of the Quaker City all right. But he did not consider himself
-safe even here; so he left Philadelphia, still dressed in his sailor's
-suit, and came on to the city of New York.
-
-"Arise! Shine forth; for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord
-has risen upon thee!" Thus said the Prophet, and Fred. Douglass, in his
-last book--the history of his life and times--almost sets up a perfect
-yell of delight at having escaped from the horrors of slavery and being
-a free man. The few days he spent in New York City among the friends of
-the free must have been a perfect spring-time of life to him--free,
-free, free, as the wild waves of the deep! Free to go where he pleased,
-and to read and study what he liked. Our glorious youthful Fred.--this
-splendid, well-built, stout-bodied young man of twenty-one, did a very
-sensible thing whilst in New York. He had a lady-love at Baltimore, a
-free young woman of color named Anna: but before he moved a step further
-he sent for her to come on to New York City. So to New York she came,
-and here the interesting young couple were married. This, indeed, was a
-very lively stroke of business on the part of Frederick, but he was now
-at the golden age of twenty-one; it was best for him to marry now,
-because it would give him something to live and toil for, and also "give
-ballast to his ship of life." The Great Creator and his daughter
-"Nature" made no mistakes. My own marriage with my own beloved Tom has
-been no failure. We have never repented of it, either of us. We could
-have done no better. And so it was with Fred. Douglass and his beloved
-Anna, from Baltimore. There never was a more manly bridegroom than he.
-Above all things he was a Christian and a gentleman, in the very essence
-of his nature; a man of lofty honor and principle, and with such a man
-as that a young woman is forever in safety.
-
-All this time, 1838, the Abolitionists were under full swing, led on by
-William Lloyd Garrison, of Massachusetts, and backed up by all those who
-beheld the dawn of freedom on the Eastern horizon. Garrison's paper,
-"The Liberator," sent forth its blasts all over the Northern States; but
-the North at that time abode in thick darkness as to the rights of
-colored men to freedom on the self-same footing with themselves. And not
-only did thick darkness cover the land, but entire legions and hosts of
-the people were almost as much prejudiced upon the slave question as the
-slave-holders of the South. They had no more idea of the grand,
-self-elevating capabilities of the colored race than the child that was
-unborn; and the ignorant masses of white people were certainly unwilling
-to give them a chance. And our poor, dear Fred., now a married man, had
-just to stand his chances, and run his risks with the rest, while the
-untutored North was in such a crude and chaotic state. Therefore, on
-account of the presence of so much ignorance and prejudice against men
-of color in New York City, the friends of freedom considered it unsafe
-for Frederick Douglass to remain there any longer, and advised him to
-move on to New Bedford, in Massachusetts, where he would at least be out
-of danger. We can never forget the honored name of Mr. David Ruggles, a
-colored gentleman of New York City, in connection with these events. It
-was he who mainly took charge of our hero and his wife in New York City,
-and sent them on to New Bedford. And when they arrived in New Bedford,
-they were met by one Mr. Nathan Johnson, a very intelligent and
-industrious colored man, a warm friend of theirs, who advanced them a
-sum of money to redeem their baggage, which was held for fare. He
-advised Fred. to drop the name of Fred. Lloyd, and to call himself
-"Fred. Douglass," as he (Nathan Johnson) had lately been reading of
-Douglass, in Sir Walter Scott's novels, relating to Scotland and the
-Scotch.
-
-Being now in possession of his freedom, having a sweet young wife and a
-home of his own, he had something to live for! Douglass had learned the
-trade of the ship-builder, at Baltimore, but was unable to work at that
-trade at New Bedford, on account of the prejudices of the white workmen
-there against color, for had he taken his tools in among them and gone
-to work, they would all at once have stopped work and left the yard.
-Such was the character of even Northern men in the year 1838, but
-Douglass was not the man to flinch. He was strong, hardy and handy at
-almost everything. If he could not do one thing he could do another; and
-therefore he picked up a living at anything that presented itself to
-him.
-
-The whole colored race are preeminently inquiring, and possess a thirst
-and love for knowledge in the very highest degree. Fred. Douglass was a
-splendid specimen of this noble trait of character. Being now his own
-master, he literally devoured knowledge, and his splendid intellect
-expanded, flourished and grew on apace like the growth of vegetation in
-the tropics. He was no longer watched, or almost murdered, if he was
-found with a book in his hand! He was no longer the so-called "property"
-of a fellow calling himself his "owner," who robbed him of his week's
-wages, and then pretended to make him a present of a quarter of his own
-money to treat himself with! Oh, dear me, no! No more of that for him!
-When this brave young man, this hero of twenty-one had done his day's
-work, he came home to his beloved Anna at his cosy home in New Bedford,
-and after he had his supper, the way was clear for a grand time reading
-"The Liberator," which William Lloyd Garrison sent out every week, and
-that fired the warm, receptive mind and heart of young Fred., so that
-his fame as a brilliant conversationalist and a well-read man, spread
-rapidly throughout the town. He had been often listened to as an
-exhorter and unusually fervid speaker at the colored Methodist Church in
-the town, and all men with sharp eyes perceived that another star had
-risen in the intellectual heavens, and that some circumstance or other
-would bring him to the front some day. And it came to pass as they had
-prophesied!
-
-In New Bedford Mr. Douglass had attended several meetings in defence of
-the poor, oppressed slave; and there he had heard the most unmitigated
-denunciation of the whole infamous system of slavery. The eloquent,
-burning language of the speakers went home to his heart. In the summer
-of 1841, when Douglass was twenty-four years old, an anti-slavery
-convention was to be held at Nantucket, Massachusetts, a place not far
-from New Bedford, and the convention would be under the management of
-the famous William Lloyd Garrison, whose weekly paper, "The Liberator,"
-Douglass had been devouring week by week with such unwonted avidity. He
-determined to take a little respite from his hard work in the brass
-foundry, and attend this gathering of anti-slavery people. There was a
-great assemblage of people at Nantucket. The fires of enthusiasm on
-behalf of the oppressed slave burned hot and high. In the midst of the
-vast audience here assembled, there was one Mr. Wm. C. Coffin, who had
-heard the eloquent and burning words of Frederick Douglass as he
-harangued the little audiences of the colored Methodist Church in New
-Bedford. Mr. Coffin sought out our unknown hero, and gave him such a
-vigorous invitation to speak that his hesitancy, and bashfulness, and
-backwardness were all entirely overcome, and Fred. Douglass, nothing
-daunted, now mounted the platform, and made such an oration as filled
-every thinking man and woman with astonishment. His simple, burning tale
-of his own wrongs and experiences completely swept his audience away,
-and like the Queen of Sheba, there seemed to be no more spirit left in
-them. Fred. Douglass had come to stay!
-
-The name and fame of Fred. Douglass arose like a brilliant and new star
-in the heavens. He began to travel and lecture in different parts of the
-New England States, and paid visits to other sections of the North. His
-noble presence and splendid eloquence drew the eyes and ears of the
-whole country. His great name crossed the Atlantic, and spread
-throughout the British Isles. His powerful pen, in the columns of "The
-Liberator," and elsewhere, added still further to his fame. Everybody
-who hated and detested slavery desired to see him and to hear him speak.
-He was a power in the anti-slavery party, and he himself laid the axe
-most willingly with all his might and main. The question arose, "If one
-colored man can do so much, what can the whole race do, if they were set
-at liberty?" On account of the rising excitement all over the land on
-the slavery question, in the year 1845, the friends of Mr. Douglass sent
-him to England. In crossing the North Atlantic the passengers called
-upon him to make a speech on the question of slavery, and he complied.
-There were several gentlemen on board who most violently objected to any
-such attacks on their holy (!) institution of slavery; but the captain
-was master of his own vessel, and put down that Southern mutiny with a
-strong hand. These pro-slavery gentlemen tried to justify their conduct
-afterwards in the London papers; but John Bull would not hear them, and
-it was simply a splendid advertisement for the fair name and fame of Mr.
-Douglass.
-
-For two years he travelled the British Isles, speaking upon the subject
-of American slavery. He was received well everywhere, and the fine
-spreading plains of Old England, the beautiful valleys of Wales, the
-green fields of Ireland, and the bold mountains of Scotland, all rang
-with the illustrious name of Fred. Douglass.
-
-Such a man as he was did not belong to the colored race alone, and to
-the United States; he belonged to the whole world, and to all races.
-Such men can never be appropriated by one people, but they are, indeed,
-the common property of all. Douglass returned home, and founded a paper
-called "The North Star." He moved to Rochester, N. Y., and there he and
-his family took up their abode. The glorious work for the destruction of
-slavery went on, grew and increased, and at last brought on the war of
-secession, and freedom likewise for the entire enslaved race. Mr.
-Douglass then removed to Washington, and was honored with high offices
-in the services of his native country. He had the misfortune of losing
-his darling Anna, though after five years he married again, and went on
-a wedding tour to Europe and the East, this being his third voyage
-across the ocean. He died at Washington in February, 1895, at the age of
-seventy-eight--no very great age, but then he had done the work of ten
-men, and that wears human life rapidly away.
-
-Thousands of eminent men have arisen from the ranks of the colored race
-since 1865, and thousands are now upon their feet also. Their names have
-reached the ends of the earth. But Fred. Douglass was early in the
-field, and he was a very, very bright particular star. Like John Bunyan,
-George Washington, and some few others, he shines for all time, and for
-the entire human race. He did a mighty work for God and humanity. Of all
-those illustrious men who have been born of women, there has never
-arisen a greater man, in all the annals of time, than our congenial
-friend and brother, Fred. Douglass.
-
-My dear reader, I have given but short sketches of two eminent colored
-men who elevated themselves head and shoulder above their fellows, for
-the purpose of showing what the race can do. And I could go on to any
-length in the same strain, and pick out and describe other eminent men
-whose fame has reached the ends of the earth, though not in the same
-degree, as Fred. Douglass. But I need not dwell further here in showing
-what we can do, especially now that we are set free. Though the whole
-world freely admits that we have done well, and very well, still, we are
-only now at the threshold of our advancement, for it is only thirty odd
-years since the close of the war. But in that short time we have beaten
-every other race in the way of progress, and the sun is only yet one
-hour above the horizon. By and by we shall have the full noon-day.
-
-I have mentioned Fred. Douglass and Daniel E. Payne, and it is only just
-that a couple of other representative women should be singled out, to
-show what our women can do. We have had no bright, particular star among
-the gentler sex, like Fred. Douglass among men; but still the colored
-race, like other peoples, can certainly boast of a splendid galaxy of
-eminent and clever women, who only lacked better education and wider and
-greater opportunities to shine more than they did. The women have so far
-not had the same chances as the men, but they are getting them now, and
-they are coming to the front one by one--coming out, one here and
-another there, like the bright stars of the night. High-schools and
-colleges of all kinds are now thrown open for our daughters, and
-wherever there are genius and ability they will forge to the front, and
-make themselves known.
-
-Contemporaneous with Bishop Daniel E. Payne and Fred. Douglass we
-mention the name of Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, who was born in
-Baltimore, Md., in the year 1825. Her home for many years has been the
-Queen City of Philadelphia. Mrs. Harper is a noble woman among women,
-and impresses all comers with her unusual natural sweetness, and
-graceful, lady-like ways. There is a deal of magnetism about her that
-attracts all those who hear her sweet, well-trained voice, and that
-draws us towards her by the comeliness of her graceful presence. We have
-all heard of "a bundle of love," but Mrs. Frances Harper is a bundle of
-natural and cultivated intellect, and of refined and polished manners.
-Her sweetness draws us to her, like the charming and fragrant rose in
-the flower garden. Born during the reign of slavery, when days were dark
-and friends were few, she did not have a right and proper opportunity of
-getting an early education, as the young ladies are getting to-day. But
-all the same, the great Creator gave her talents, and she has had a
-thirst for knowledge and a mind to work. This, indeed, is half the
-battle, and sometimes much more than half. Mrs. Harper applied herself
-most vigorously to study as she was growing up in her teens, and by the
-time she had come to woman's estate she was well educated. (Thus we see
-that nobody need despair of becoming well educated, for we can all learn
-if we only have pluck and ambition, and patience and perseverance with
-them to forge to the front, like the lady in question). This eminent
-woman soon became widely known for her brilliant talents, and all her
-sweet, lady-like graces, and admonished all Abolitionists and
-anti-slavery people what our race could do if they were once freed from
-their shackles!
-
-Mrs. Harper possessed a great natural fondness for poetry, which she
-proceeded early to cultivate, so that she had become well-known for her
-sweet effusions in that line, and they have been published far and wide
-throughout the world, and prove that we have "birds of song" among us as
-well as others. She has written some pieces possessing much merit. She
-has a great natural facility for writing, and reminds me of a clause in
-Deborah's song of triumph in the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges,
-"Out of Zabulun came down those who handle the pen of the writer." For a
-facile, easy pen, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper is a perfect Zabulunite, for
-she has shown that she also can handle the pen of the writer.
-
-This gifted lady has also been a bright and shining light on the lecture
-platform, and, indeed, has appeared on many of the leading platforms of
-the nation, and crowned herself with honor and glory. She has proved to
-the whole world that a woman can do mighty deeds as well as man. There
-was a dark and doleful time in this world's history when a woman was
-regarded as little more than a mere serf, for man's will and pleasure
-everywhere. But those dark ages have passed away, and women have
-advanced to the front line, and taken their rightful places in the
-world. Mrs. Harper is a living proof of this nobility among women, and
-she has done yeoman service in trying to elevate her sisters of the
-colored race. Her splendid services will never be forgotten by either
-this generation or the generations to come. "Well done, good and
-faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"
-
-Louise de Mortie, of Norfolk, Va., was born of free parents in that
-place in the year 1833. As she was not allowed to receive an education
-at the home of her youth, she decided to go to Boston, where she could
-get one. It was in the year 1853 that she took up her residence in that
-city, when she was twenty years of age, with life and all its
-opportunities before her in a free State. At once she took a vigorous
-hold, and availed herself of all favoring opportunities that presented
-themselves. She was a young maiden of great personal beauty, and
-possessed a sweet disposition and a most remarkably good memory. She
-took very high standing as a pupil in the schools and seminaries of
-Boston, and made a whole host of friends, won over by her graces and
-accomplishments.
-
-In 1862 she came out as a public reader, and shone like a very brilliant
-star. She showed that she was a perfect elocutionist by birth, and had
-been polished like a rich jewel. Her natural beauty and personal graces,
-engaging manners and richly-toned voice, drew the eyes of the whole
-country. Just as she had come to be well-known, she heard of the great
-destitution among the colored orphans at New Orleans at the close of the
-war. Hither she hastened, and in 1867 raised funds to build an asylum
-for the colored people of that city. This she did in her spirit of
-Christian love, and she won the hearts of all those who beheld her, like
-another angel of mercy, at her good works. But the yellow fever struck
-her down on the 10th of October of the above year, 1867, when she said
-so touchingly, "I belong to God, our Father," and then expired. Thus was
-this brave young woman cut off in her thirty-fourth year. But she lived
-long enough to show to others a brilliant example that will never be
-forgotten.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-
-_Our First Great Men and Women--New Lights to the Front--Our Own Humble
-Beginning in 1865--Cleanliness and Industry--Music and Song--Immense
-Progress in Education, and a Mighty Advance Along the Whole Line--The
-Rapid Increase of Wealth--The Crime of Lynching--The Church and
-Sunday-School--The Colored Man's Right to Vote, and to Rule the Nation._
-
-Though I have only sketched the lives of two most eminent members of
-color, and two famous women of the same race, I must confess that I feel
-greatly tempted to go on with the subject, and speak of many others,
-some of whom have gone to their reward, and others remain alive unto the
-present day. At first sight the general reader might imagine that those
-first bright stars that shone in our intellectual firmament were
-brighter than the talented men and women whom we can see at this day and
-hour, walking up and down our streets, and shining like suns in their
-different professions, doing splendid service in elevating the colored
-race in America. We had Fred. Douglass, Bishop Payne, Mrs. Frances Ellen
-Harper, and some other bright, particular stars, who shone with
-apparently unusual brilliancy some fifty or sixty years ago, and they
-have been set down for the seven wonders of the world (Fred. Douglass,
-at least, was a genuine wonder for all time). But while we are inclined
-to look upon these worthies as towering geniuses, and most extraordinary
-lights in the heavens in but recently bye-gone days, we forget that the
-thick darkness that surrounded them went a long way in making their
-brilliance and splendor appear far brighter than they really were. This
-is quite true of all races, and is no detraction whatever from the real
-merits that were justly their own. I am safe in saying that 10,000
-clever colored men and women, representing all the different arts and
-professions, could be picked out at this day, who would have passed for
-stars of the first magnitude, had they made their appearance upon the
-stage of time some fifty or sixty years ago. To shine to the same extent
-of brilliancy and glory nowadays would indeed be a very difficult
-matter, when the whole United States is flooded with a great tide of
-knowledge that was never known before.
-
-In these happy days of ours knowledge covers the land, as the waters
-cover the seas. It is perfectly laughable for me now to look back and
-remember the taunting expressions that were flung upon our dear people,
-saying that we had no originality, and that we could never rise above
-being mere imitators of the white man! In those days our people were in
-slavery, and had no opportunities of showing what they were capable of
-doing. But now we are free, and we can all go to school, and education
-can polish us like other races, in the same way as we polish the block
-of marble, and cut out the precious jewels of all descriptions. If we
-leave a diamond in its rude, rough state, like the colored race in the
-dark days of slavery, that diamond will continue to be rude and rough
-still; but place the precious stone in the hand of the jeweler, and we
-shall soon behold a bright and shining precious stone, indeed. It was
-not only cruel, but it was cowardly to taunt a whole race of people with
-incapacity and lack of talent, when our enemies had our hands tied, and
-were unwilling to give us a chance. But by the grace of God, and the
-blood of the Americans, both white and black, we are now all free, and
-thousands upon thousands of our dear people have acquired splendid
-educations, in all the different professions and walks of life, and they
-have proved to the whole world, both men and women, that there is talent
-and genius among our sons and daughters who have forged to the front,
-who are self-made men and women, indeed--men and women who have risen
-from the ranks, just the same as officers and commanders start up from
-the ranks in the time of war.
-
-My dear reader, we are often told that poverty is no disgrace, but that
-it is very inconvenient. Which is all true, indeed, too true; and what
-is still worse, it often cannot be helped. In days not so long since
-gone by, we used to be taunted with poverty, but if we had no
-possessions of our own in the days of slavery, we at least, like the
-apostle Paul, made others rich, and it was our oppressed people who
-built up the Sunny South--the richest section of the United States
-before the war. If we had had all the wealth that was thus stolen away
-from us and given to those who led on the great rebellion, we would
-never had been turned loose with nothing in our hands in 1865, and to
-begin life anew at the lowermost round of the ladder of prosperity. It
-is very true that even in the days of slavery there were colored men
-scattered over all the free States of the Union, many of whom had
-amassed vast sums of money, and who were invariably treated with great
-respect and honor by white people because they were rich. So long as
-they had plenty of money it was all right, and there was nothing either
-thought or said about the color of their skin. But if the whole race of
-colored people in the South were turned loose with nothing in 1865, they
-have at least made in the aggregate immense sums of money since then,
-and devoted it all to those noble purposes whereby the entire race has
-been raised up and elevated in the scale of nations. Above all other
-causes, religion and education have been thus spread all over the land,
-the money being supplied by a willing people, whose good natural
-inclination to give has never been surpassed, and very seldom equalled
-by any race under the sun. Immense sums of money have been put away in
-savings banks, and property in land is a noble feature of the wisdom of
-our people in the South.
-
-Take the more than 8,000,000 colored people all over the Union, and
-behold what a vast number own their own houses, and have money to their
-credit stored up in banks against a rainy day. And then see the comfort,
-cleanliness and order to be observed everywhere in an untold number of
-dwellings. The colored race are unusually fond of cleanliness and order
-in their nice and cosy snug homes, when they can get them; and take the
-United Stages all over to-day, it is most astonishing to behold such a
-number of beautiful and comfortable homes as there are. I think, dear
-reader, that our own people taken as a whole, have been both industrious
-and thrifty since the close of the war, and, as the Bible tells us, they
-have succeeded in building up the walls of Jerusalem, because they have
-had a mind to work. Wherever there is a will there is a way. It is all
-very true that some among us are extravagant, lazy, shiftless, but that
-is quite true of the white race, too, only I think more so, and we never
-condemn a whole race for the faults of a few.
-
-
-[Illustration: _STATUE OF LIBERTY._]
-
-
-Let us then judge fairly, and award to the colored race what belongs to
-them by right. As in the days of slavery, so at the present day it is
-the colored man who still extracts the wealth from the soil of the
-South, partly for himself, and partly for the white man. He can stand
-the heat of the sun far better than the white tiller of the soil, and it
-seems that the rich white man would rather have him than the other. In
-the days of slavery we had to do the best we could. We had no Vanderbilt
-palaces to live in then. But now we have at least lots of comforts--nice
-furniture, carpets, pictures hanging from our walls, whole libraries on
-our book-shelves, and hundreds of other things too numerous to mention.
-
-
-[Illustration: _GRANT'S TOMB._]
-
-
-Music and song are more or less bound up with the history of every
-nation of which we have ever heard or read. Away back in the dark night
-of slavery in America, the slaves in the field used to sing their
-mournful, plaintive, yet musical ditties to lighten their heavy labors,
-and cheer up their hearts. These ditties were songs and prayers at one
-and the same time. In the day of his distress, the African never forgot
-the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and we know quite well that
-many of our own people confidently expected that day of happy
-deliverance that came at last to all. Therefore they sang praises unto
-the Lord, God of Israel, and, like the Psalmist, they prayed and sang at
-the same time; and we have it plainly on record that they had powerful
-lungs and most wonderfully rich voices, showing in advance what great
-and famous singers they would become if their musical talents were only
-fully developed like others. I have already spoken of the "Jubilee
-Minstrels," who were mostly born in slavery, many of whom indeed "came
-up by the rough side of the mountain," and yet who possessed such a
-wealth of music and song within themselves that they surprised the whole
-country, and even crossed the North Atlantic, and rendered themselves
-illustrious for all coming time by performing and singing before Queen
-Victoria, the grandees and general population of the British Isles, and
-some of the royal families, and magnates and peoples of continental
-Europe. This was honor, indeed, with a vengeance! Old England and all
-the rest cared nothing for the color of the skin. They all at once set
-their seals upon the wonderful talents of the colored race in the
-musical line, and there was rejoicing among Freedom's friends over all
-the earth.
-
-The time would fail to mention the names of all those eminent singers
-who have made themselves illustrious in these latter years in this
-country, and not in this country alone, but they have crossed the wide
-oceans in ships, and sung before the admiring audiences of many a
-foreign land. But among all these great singers of our race who have
-thus distinguished themselves, I will simply mention the name of Miss
-Flora Batson, who has justly been called the "Jenny Lind of America,"
-and she can sing, indeed, before any audience in this nation--a
-veritable nightingale and queen of song. But leaving her and a whole
-host of other warblers on one side, there is a grandeur in singing of
-our church members and congregations on the Sabbath-day that has become
-the standing wonder of the country; and it is my own deliberate opinion,
-and the openly-confessed opinion of many of the white race, that for
-music and song, at least, we have no equals in the United States.
-
-I think we may safely claim that not only can we play and sing, but we
-can play and sing well, there arising from the great congregation a
-grand volume of music and song that reminds me of the "voice of many
-waters," mentioned in the Revelations--a volume of song rising from
-powerful lungs, and helped on by the warm feelings and enthusiasm of the
-race. And as our oppressed forefathers whiled away the long hours in the
-field, and lightened their labors by singing, so our people nowadays
-bring home the latest new hymn or fine anthem of praise, and sing them
-at home to brighten up their domestic cares, and find a vent for that
-joyous nature and devotional enthusiasm for which the colored race are
-famed over all the earth.
-
-The greatest blot at the present time upon the fair fame and name of the
-internal and domestic doings of the United States, as it appears to me,
-is lynching. And this lynching is not confined to any particular race,
-or any particular crime, but we find, to a greater or less degree, all
-over the land, from the Lakes to the Gulf, a mob spirit among the people
-to take the law into their own hands, whenever any flagrant breach of
-law occurs, and hang their victim on the nearest tree. The mob is
-unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the regularly constituted
-authorities, and proceeds to murder the supposed criminal in its own
-way. I say supposed criminal, because the man they are hunting after is
-often not the right man at all; an innocent man is put to death, and the
-guilty man escapes. It has also been proven beyond the shadow of a
-doubt, because we have "all seen the records of the same in the public
-papers at the time, that white men have been in the habit of blackening
-their faces when about to commit some heinous offence, and thus try to
-produce the impression that the guilty party was a colored man, and not
-a white man at all! Cases have thus occurred where innocent colored men
-have been lynched, and the real criminals made their escape by simply
-discoloring their faces. There is hardly a week passes but we find the
-hurrying mobs themselves discovering their own mistakes, sometimes in
-time to prevent the execution, but at other times too late. It is very
-true that on many occasions the really guilty party is taken, confesses
-his crime, and is duly executed by the wild and unruly mob of lynchers.
-
-The chief fault, as it appears to my mind, is a lack of firmness on the
-part of the States, and I might also add of the central government at
-Washington. It is a perfect scandal to a duly constituted government to
-say that they are not able to carry out the law, or let the law take its
-course. Who would believe for a moment that England or Russia would
-allow any and every wild mob to take their victims out of the hands of
-the police, and, in fact, administer the law for them? Such a test of
-home authority would never run on for twenty-four hours in any foreign
-civilized land. If the Governors and the authorities would show a proper
-amount of firmness, and the central government at Washington would
-tighten up the screws a little all these lynchings would come to an end,
-and such a thing would be heard of no more. With regard to the Southern
-States, at least, where lynchings have been more common, the taunting
-question has been asked by foreign nations, "Are the Southern States fit
-for civilization, and ought they to be depended on to govern
-themselves?" Well, I think they are fit for self-government, but the
-screws ought to be tightened up considerably, and I think the sooner the
-better. If I had any power to advise the Houses at Washington, I would
-advise them to take the scandal of lynching by the wild mobs into their
-own hands, and put a stop to it in their own way. And let Congress see
-that all races and crimes are treated alike, and let the duly
-constituted authorities of the States administer the laws for which they
-are appointed and paid. Lynching is not only a breach of the law, but it
-is murder itself, and a horrible system of crime and public disorder
-that have brought this most shameful nation into great disrepute. Let us
-hope and pray that something may be done very soon to bring this
-national scandal to an end; and let public murder by infuriated mobs
-come to an end, and be heard of no more.
-
-In the books which Fred. Douglass wrote of his life and times he always
-mentions the miserable and doleful processions of slaves who were
-driven, during the darkness of the night, from the pens into which they
-had been gathered in Baltimore to the vessels which were to sail with
-them to Georgia and other scenes of toil and exhaustion in the
-far-distant South. Alas, alas! The Sunny South had no joys for them, and
-as they passed through the streets of Baltimore, during the night, they
-wailed and lamented their hard fate. This leads me on to reflect, my
-dear reader, upon the gloriously-altered state of affairs that freedom
-has brought around, and which we can see all around about us at the
-present day. One of the grandest sights that delights our eyes now is
-the great array of Sunday-Schools in every State and county of the
-United States. I have always called the Sunday-School "the children's
-church," and it is the children's church, indeed, and a glorious church
-at that, too. Far and wide, spread over all this broad land, running all
-along the way from the wild Atlantic to the mild Pacific, and from the
-Lakes to the Gulf, young, well-dressed boys and girls in thousands and
-tens of thousands may be seen wending their happy way to their own
-dearly beloved "Children's Church"--I mean their Sunday-School. The
-great and powerful wide-spread Methodist, Baptist and other grand
-churches, organized and carried on by the colored race to the utmost
-limits of the American Union, deserve the utmost praise for pains and
-labors they have been at to make such splendid provision for the rising
-generation of boys and girls, who thus go forth upon the Sabbath-day to
-worship the Lord in their own youthful, sweet and attractive way, well
-taught by devoted men and women, who rear their tender vines, and watch
-over them, and tend them well, as the careful and skilful gardener tends
-and ripens his precious plants in the hot-house.
-
-What a glorious change for the better, my dear reader, has come over
-this Federal Union of ours in our own day! Well did the Jubilee
-Minstrels sing before the royal family of England, "No more Auction
-Blocks for Me!" For at the present day, instead of auction blocks and
-wronged and oppressed slaves being conveyed (in a fugitive way, under
-cover of the darkness of the night) from their pens to the ships,
-wailing and lamenting their sad fate, in the self-same city of
-Baltimore, at the present time thousands and tens of thousands of
-children, and men and women, wend their peaceful way to Sunday-school
-and church, walking the streets of the city in love and peace, on their
-pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. And yet if anybody
-had told the slave-holder only fifty years ago that his darling
-"peculiar institution" was on its last legs, he would probably there and
-then have caused us to be lynched for our rashness of speech! As I have
-mentioned already in this book, preachers in the South in those days had
-even the audacity to preach sermons in the defence of slavery, and they
-were so bold as to select for their text: "This" (meaning slavery) "is
-the Lord's doings; and it is wonderful in our eyes." Very wonderful,
-indeed, I should say. And the war for the extinction of slavery was the
-Lord's doing, too, I suppose! And it also was wonderful in our eyes,
-indeed! If those miserable slave-traders were to rise from their graves
-to-day; were to hear colored minstrels singing in the courts of Europe,
-"No More Auction Blocks for Me!" and then were to see millions of
-colored children, youths and maidens wending their way to the happy
-Sunday-schools on the day of rest--even they also would be compelled to
-admire the great changes for the better, and to exclaim in a different
-sense, "Truly these are the Lord's doings, and they are wonderful in our
-eyes!"
-
-It has always been a matter of personal interest and importance for men
-to take a hand in voting and the ruling of their native State. Universal
-history shows us plainly that this has always been the case, unless,
-indeed, the nation was a monarchy, and therefore subject to the
-unlimited will and pleasure of one man as despot in chief, and those who
-served under him, and did as they were commanded. But in those lands
-where freedom ruled in the days of old, and all countries to-day where
-constitutional government prevails, men have always voted in one form or
-another, and they still lend a hand at elections, and this without
-regard to race, color or any such thing. Neither has there ever been any
-friction or trouble in legislative assemblies, and there is none now in
-foreign nations, where men of different races, colors, and even creeds,
-take their seats side by side, and proceed to work together for the good
-of all the citizens. We all know how it was in the South in the early
-years of Reconstruction after the close of the war, when the State
-legislatures were composed of white and colored men, who ruled the
-States together. We thought at the time that this thing would go on and
-that all parties had settled down in peace and harmony, for every man to
-vote as he pleased, and to send such men, black or white, to represent
-them in their legislatures, as were returned by the largest number of
-voters at the elections, conducted according to the constitution of the
-nation. But the white man of the South had almost always been accustomed
-to his own selfish, despotic way and sway in the days of slavery. The
-South had not only the rule of colored men, but even over white men in
-the halls of Congress! Unless that section of the Union could have her
-own dictatorial way there was no peace whatever in the House!
-
-The North therefore felt herself often obliged to give way, which
-encouraged the South to take a mile the next time when we gave her an
-ell.
-
-I have shown the reader of these pages how the Ku-Klux-Klan arose; how
-the new shot-gun policy brought the Republican governments of Secessia
-to an end, and how the very amendments to the Constitution, including
-the bare privilege of casting one's own vote, were all brought to an
-end--nay, more than that--the reader knows by this time how an immense
-number of colored men, women and children tore up stakes, and left the
-States of the South where they were born, and sought new homes in
-Northern and Western States, where the shot-gun policy of the late
-rebels did not prevail!
-
-But where are representatives in Congress to-day, and where are the
-colored Senators and others in the legislative halls of the Southern
-States? For the present they have been wiped out, and so far Uncle Sam
-has given way, and backed down once more to the violent South for the
-sake of keeping peace in the house. It may be argued that coming but
-recently out of slavery, as we did, we were unfitted for the full
-privilege of freemen and voters. Perhaps there is some reason in that
-view of the question. As a nation we certainly could not be expected to
-be college-bred in 1865. But that is over thirty years ago, and both we
-ourselves and our children have been to almost all the schools,
-seminaries and colleges in the land since then. If we were ignorant in
-1865, sure we cannot as a race be called ignorant now. In my own
-opinion, I think it is about time that the last three amendments to the
-Constitution were now carried out to the fullest extent, and that we
-should be no longer contented merely to vote for the white man, but vote
-for colored men, too, who run for office.
-
-As the South has been so violent over the matter of ruling her own
-States to the exclusion of the colored man, the grand hue and cry among
-some of our own people has been raised, "Let politics alone, and attend
-to your own business, and let the white man rule!" So far as I can see
-there is neither sense nor justice in such a cry as that. If the white
-man has a right to vote, so has the colored man. To stuff the
-ballot-boxes with manufactured votes, or to throw out those that colored
-men have voted, is simply breaking the law, and the central government
-should punish it as such. If an ambitious young colored man desires to
-represent his country in the field of politics, it stands neither in law
-nor reason for any white man to presume to stop him. If he be a man of
-great talent, like Frederick Douglass, or John M. Langston, or Blanche
-K. Bruce, that is just so much more the reason why he should go to
-Congress, or represent his own country and State at home. The colored
-man must receive every fair play at the elections: his vote must not be
-tampered with any more than the white man's vote. By all means let him
-have his vote, for he will never be satisfied with anything less. Let
-every infringement of the law be pushed to the utmost extent; let a few
-examples be made, and tampering with other men's votes will come to an
-end. For the very life of me I can see no reason why colored men should
-abstain from politics any more than white men. There is no reason why
-they should do so if they wish to enter into political life. We can also
-attend to other business at home, like the rest of the population. To
-discharge our duties at the polls, indeed, is one of the very first
-duties of every citizen, and we have a perfect right to vote under the
-law of the land.
-
-Every now and then some surviving rebel in South Carolina, or some other
-of the late seceded States, takes upon himself to raise the old
-parrot-cry, "This is a white man's government! Colored men shall not
-rule with us!" If the national government did its full duty, it would
-arrest such a man as this for trying to teach the rising generation
-falsehoods, and for disturbing the minds of the lieges. This is not a
-white man's country, nor a black man's country, nor a red man's
-country--but it belongs to all alike. We have only to go back four
-hundred years, when this country belonged to the Indians, and if it
-belongs by right to anybody at all, it belongs to them. But Spaniards,
-Frenchmen, Englishmen and others came over the sea, they murdered or
-drove back the Indians, and stole away their lands. Then the self-same
-Europeans went to Africa, and killed and kidnapped the nations, and by
-physical force brought our ancestors here--and here we are at the
-present day. The war of revolution came; the colonists secured their own
-freedom, but they did not set their own slaves free. They complained
-that they were in subjection under the king of England, but they winked
-at the thraldom of our ancestors, and left us to languish in chains and
-slavery till the Lord sent the Civil War, and made us all free, while
-the three amendments to the Constitution put us on the self-same footing
-with white citizens, and here we are in our own country, part and parcel
-of the entire American population. This country, then, either belongs to
-the Lord from heaven, or it is the property of the North American
-Indian, or else it has become, in some way or other, the property of the
-whole of us. We had better not examine into our rights too closely, for
-we cannot go back more than four hundred years to establish our claims,
-and four hundred years will not go for much, especially with the
-owner--the Lord of Heaven.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-
-_A General Review of the Writer's Entire Life and Work, and an
-Optimistic View of the Whole Subject, With Reflections and Observations
-and Forecasts of the Near Future._
-
-When I left the place where I was born, in the year 1855, and made my
-lucky escape to a land of freedom, in company with my fiancee, Thomas
-Lincoln, I had no idea whatever of the future that lay before us, and of
-all the pleasant ways by which the Lord would lead us. It was well for
-both my darling Tom and me that we were the children of religious
-mothers, who taught us from our earliest infancy to love the Lord at all
-times, and to put our entire trust and confidence in Him. Tom and I had
-been accustomed to a delightful home at Riverside Hall, on the banks of
-the Ohio, and we knew nothing about the evils of slavery, like millions
-of others.
-
-In the midst of such pleasant surroundings on the banks of the
-"Beautiful River," it seemed easy enough for us at the time to love the
-Lord and put our trust in Him; but whilst the great Creator was working
-out his sure decrees, we considered ourselves perfectly justified in
-taking the law into our own hands, and whereas we could not get our
-rights by fair means, to take them by foul. It has been well for Tom and
-me that we acted as we did; and the blessings thus vouchsafed to us in
-that way have descended to our dear children in a full state of freedom.
-But while we had little risks to run compared to many refugees, there
-were millions left behind us who could not get along. For what could
-frail and feeble women do surrounded as they were by every device and
-scheme that slavery and Satan could invent to keep their hold on what
-they presumptuously called their "property?" Thus our distressed
-brothers and sisters were obliged to wait for the coming of the Lord,
-and the wisest among them knew that His coming could not be long
-delayed, because the signs of the times pointed to a speedy deliverance,
-and a child could almost hear the loud and heavy rumblings in the
-heavens.
-
-But, my dear reader, the "Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to
-perform." We fondly expected and hoped to see freedom in our own
-day--"some sweet day"--but our minds were little prepared for its coming
-so soon. We heard the rumblings of the storm, indeed, but there had been
-other storms before, and they had blown over, and why should not this
-one go the same as they? That is the way that we poor, limited, erring
-human beings are likely to go aside and miss the mark. We judged of the
-rising storm of 1860 that it would be like those that had gone before
-it, but there was not a single being on the face of the earth who ever
-dreamed that we were at last drifting into a mighty war, that was to
-continue for over four years, and would sweep away slavery and all its
-belongings, as the mighty tides of the ocean wash away the foot-prints
-on the sands. It became clear as time and war went on, that the Almighty
-Ruler of the Universe had risen up to strike the earth, and that He
-would not smite a second blow, but finish things up now. He says in His
-sacred word that He will hear our prayers; our oppressed people had been
-crying to Him for many years, "How long, O Lord, how long!" The prayers
-of the distressed, their tears and cries, had been heard; they had all
-been duly chronicled in heaven; the day for settlement with the
-slave-holders had now fully come, and one of those mighty changes that
-have followed each other these last forty years with such rapidity was
-now at the door. Like the prompt railroad train, or, better still, the
-tide of the sea, the Lord of Heaven and Earth was ready and armed from
-head to foot; freedom was at the door, indeed and in truth, and the
-doors must be opened that captives should go free!
-
-
-[Illustration: _DICKENS' OLD CURIOSITY SHOP._]
-
-
-"What hath not God wrought?" Those more than four decisive years, so
-heavy with fate and destiny, looked long, very long, in passing, but ah!
-they brought changes to the entire colored race, both collectively and
-individually; and as slavery had grown more and more even down to the
-very year when the war began, so was the joy all the greater when it was
-all over, and bright shining freedom came suddenly at last. There was
-joy and rejoicing all over the United States at the result; dancing and
-singing from the Potomac to the Rio Grande in particular. So much for
-the whole race taken collectively. To us individually as a family, that
-mighty upheaval, the war, brought great and varied experiences--both
-sorrows and joy. When the first rush of wild enthusiasm against the
-rebellion was over, we all found out that we had to settle down to hard
-work, and four full years of war and fighting were before us. Thus the
-children and I saw Tom leave for the seat of war, and after many a
-hard-fought field, Tom was wounded so badly that he lay for a long time
-at New Orleans. We had done an immense quantity of correspondence by
-this time, but more changes wrought through and by the war were at hand.
-The whole American nation was undergoing changes, and so were we! The
-children and I longed with all our hearts to see husband and father once
-more. He was not yet well enough to travel to Buffalo; indeed, the
-military authorities forbade it, and so we three determined to tear up
-stakes at Buffalo for a time, and make a sudden and unexpected march on
-the city of New Orleans. This was not my first visit to the Crescent
-City of the Sunny South. As my dear reader is already well aware, I went
-there about the year 1856, and rescued my dear mother from slavery,
-which I consider one of the very best things that ever I did in this
-world! This journey to New Orleans was a most glorious experience, for
-the girls in particular, and they are even talking of it now. When we
-were in the Lower Mississippi, we had a good time to look about us and
-see what a mighty work the sword of the North had already done for that
-section of the Union. The colored people were all free, and thousands
-were flocking to schools just newly set up, and learning as people had
-never learned before. The rebels, and all those that sympathized with
-them, used to say that if the slaves were set free, they would turn in
-and massacre their former owners, and become regular heathens and
-savages. This was, of course, nothing but a silly parrot-cry that nobody
-seriously believed, as no colored man had any other intention than to
-become a peaceable citizen. But during our delightful residence in the
-Sunny South we saw those who had been slaves in that section all working
-away upon the lands, and in the towns and cities, in perfect freedom,
-and their lives were both orderly and exemplary. But what surprised us
-most was to see them going to work with first readers, spelling books,
-slates and pencils, and all the other appliances of education, and
-gathering knowledge like the sands of the sea. This, indeed, augured
-well for the future--to see people even seventy and eighty years of age
-learning to read, write and figure like the rest! Here was a field of
-bright promise for the near future. Here was a race of people, just set
-free, grasping at the lowermost round of the ladder of education, and
-ambitious to mount higher every day.
-
-
-[Illustration: _TOWER OF LONDON._]
-
-
-Behold, indeed, the mighty changes that the Lord has brought about in
-this dear land of ours! We have already lived long enough not only to
-see all the captives set free, but a second generation, fifty per cent.
-of whom are armed, from head to foot, so to speak, with education. We
-have already brilliant men and women competent to shine like stars, in
-all the different walks and departments of life, which my two girls and
-I saw such abundant promise when we went to Louisiana. In due course of
-time Tom was pronounced completely cured, was discharged from the
-hospital, and our two precious children and we took our homeward journey
-by way of the Gulf of Mexico, the city of Havana, in Cuba, West Indies
-and the Atlantic Ocean to New York, after which we took the train for
-Buffalo, where we all arrived safe and sound in due time, and had such a
-welcome home as is still green in our memories. This sea voyage and land
-journey were delightful experiences in the young lives of our two
-daughters, and showed them what a great, varied, and beautiful world the
-great Creator had made. We thanked Him with full and grateful hearts for
-having laid our lines in such pleasant places, and giving us this sweet
-home of ours at Buffalo, where we have resided in peace, pleasure and
-plenty. Lo! these many years! and we are at Buffalo, still. It is a
-great comfort to our hearts and minds to think that the entire colored
-race are no longer compelled to reside, to dwell, and sleep where they
-are bidden, as in the bad old times of slavery; but that here again a
-mighty change for the better has come over all our people, inasmuch as
-many of them nowadays have comfortable and pleasant homes of their own,
-where beautiful furniture and musical instruments can be seen--yes, even
-fine pianos, along which the supple fingers of the rising generation can
-fly with the best! I bless and praise the goodness of the Lord for all
-these changes for the better. Instead of operating on the fiddle and the
-banjo, our clever musical sons and daughters can sing lovely
-accompaniments to the piano and the organ. The race is full of music,
-and their fame has reached the ends of the earth. Our churches and other
-institutions have a great name for sacred music and song, and I have
-heard good judges among the white population declare that there are no
-such singers as the colored race in the United States. We may at least
-congratulate ourselves that the entire press of the United States and
-the British Isles have completely endorsed the above sentiments of my
-own, and therefore I do not think that any conscientious man will
-dispute them. It is an old and a true saying that variety is the spice
-of life, and the beauties of the different races of people appear to the
-greatest advantage where their separate traits of character most differ
-from one another. Music and song, indeed, are quite a distinguished
-feature in the colored race, and there again we have seen mighty changes
-wrought out through and by our freedom, and again I thank the goodness
-of the Lord for even such changes as these.
-
-And yet we are only at the beginning of our improvements, associated as
-we also are with the white race of the United States--one of the most
-talented and ingenious peoples that the world has ever seen! It is well
-for us in a way that we are so associated, because our progress in these
-past years, and at the present time, is all the greater on that account.
-And yet when we consider that it is only yesterday, as it were, that all
-our people were set free, that our unbroken progress is still going on
-along the whole line, and that our progress will continue to be more
-marked in the future as the years gone by, who can tell to what glorious
-heights of elevation our people shall attain, even within the next
-twenty or twenty-five years? Because in our own day and generation, all
-the arts and sciences seem to be coming to the front; learning,
-education and inventions are farther and farther advanced day by day,
-and every kind of improvement grows and flourishes like the green
-bay-tree. Progress indeed must be made; things will not go backwards,
-but must go forward, onward and upward. Such is the inevitable fate of
-the colored race. With so very much accomplished already; with fifty per
-cent. of our entire people throughout the whole Union who can read and
-write and work arithmetic, we may well wonder at the advancement still
-in store for our race, when education shall cover the whole land, as the
-waters cover the sea; when the remaining fifty per cent., who are still
-destitute of education, are brought into the fold, as it were, and an
-ignorant colored man or woman will be difficult to find in our nation.
-
-The unparalleled progress that we have made reminds me of the progress
-of a great river. Take for example the Mississippi. How small it is when
-it issues from Lake Itasca, away up at its headwaters in Minnesota. It
-is of truth very small indeed, when it begins its journey to the sea.
-But the river advances boldly upon its long way, and keeps on and on,
-and still on, while every now and then a branch comes flowing in, now on
-the right hand, now on the left, sometimes nothing but a small rivulet,
-then a large and swelling stream. Thus the Mississippi still keeps
-advancing on mile after mile on its journey, till the great Ohio swells
-its waters, and then the greater Missouri comes rolling down from the
-Rocky Mountains, and now the Mississippi is growing large, indeed--yes,
-very large. And here comes the Arkansas and the Red River, with many
-smaller streams from the east, and thus the mighty Mississippi, that
-began so small in Lake Itasca, has now reached the Crescent City, and
-whole fleets of ships can float upon its bosom before its great and
-swelling waters reach the Gulf of Mexico. And thus it is with the
-advancement that has already been made by the colored race along the
-whole line. We began, indeed, very small in the year 1865, when the war
-closed, and the appliances of education and improvement were put into
-our hands. But here is the year 1902, and, like the Mississippi river,
-we have advanced far, very far upon our way; and yet we have by no means
-attained the goal of our expectations, by any means, but great changes
-are under way, and we are still advancing.
-
-Many travelers have left it on record how they turned round upon the
-ever-ascending mountain way to mark progress, and see how far they had
-come. Then with fresh resolution they again turned their faces to the
-road that still lay before and above them, and that with renewed
-interest and courage. I don't know how it may be with anybody else, but
-as I am now about sixty years of age, I am at times given to look back,
-and to muse not only over all the way the Lord has led me, but also how
-He has led the entire race in my own days. The rising generation knows
-little of the thoughts and feelings, and the sufferings of their fathers
-and mothers on their way to freedom, and the present happy condition of
-things. But I am like that mountain traveller of whom I have just
-spoken, and I sit at times and muse and muse upon the tremendous
-excitement all over the North on the slavery question, and how the
-Abolitionists demanded freedom, and the South would not listen to any
-such thing. Then my mind runs back to Fred. Douglass, Henry Ward
-Beecher, and all those heroes and heroines who fought the good cause of
-liberty, and were faithful unto the end. We were in for a great and
-stirring time.
-
-Little does the present generation know of the times we went through in
-the years immediately before the war, when I used to travel over the
-States of the North, assisting in the lecturing and agitation against
-slavery. It is a very great gratification to me nowadays to look back
-and think of all the wonders of that most wonderful and lengthened
-campaign when William Lloyd Garrison, and all the other "big guns" were
-thundering away, and the discharge of their mighty artillery shook all
-the land, even to the Gulf of Mexico! I am not so strong and supple in
-body now as I was in those glorious, Halcyon days; but I praise and
-bless the Lord that I was then endowed with health, and strength, and
-vigorous life to lay on the axe of liberty, and to help bring down that
-foul and deadly upas tree called "Slavery," that was the curse of the
-whole land--the public disgrace of the United States. Since then I have
-contributed many articles to the papers and magazines of the day to help
-my own people to rise up and start upon their feet; but there is nothing
-that I ever did that left so much pleasure upon my memory as the
-campaign wherein I played, sang and lectured against slavery in the
-South. Well, to be sure, how the surging crowds did come! It was a
-wonderful time that we had. The excitement was also most exhilarating.
-But above all, those mighty changes were on the road, that we see around
-us to-day. The Lord has done great things for us already, and still we
-can say that there is a good time coming!
-
-Upon the whole my life has been a happy one--at least, as happy as could
-be expected in this shady world of ours, where ever-changing clouds and
-sunshine chase each other all through our pilgrim journey to our home in
-heaven. I have tried to make the best of things, and to consign myself
-to the Lord's will as nearly as my infirmities will let me. Mercy and
-goodness have followed me all the days of my life, and I have been most
-abundantly blessed by the Lord above all that I could either ask or
-think. My dear reader will no doubt think that I am in a very
-contemplative frame of mind at the present time, thus looking back and
-musing upon the active years of my past life. No doubt the greater part
-of life's long day has gone by, and the evening and night are coming on.
-But in my time I have learned to trust in God, to lay hold upon eternal
-life, to keep hope alive in my heart for all times for myself and all my
-people, not only my immediate family, but the entire colored race.
-
-I am therefore able to look forward with calmness, and even joy, to the
-time when the great Lord will take me home to Himself. But still, as the
-evening and shadows of life are coming on, I will converse with my own
-family and friends upon the stirring events of the past years, and keep
-musing upon them, also. If variety is the spice of life, I am sure I
-have had plenty of it for my own part. I can never complain of the want
-of variety. And it has been a downright blessing to me, too; for it has
-added to my knowledge and blessing in every way. My travels and varied
-experiences have brought me into contact with strange and interesting
-peoples, and countless individuals, worth far more than their weight in
-gold. My many delightful journeys to the dearly beloved friends in
-Canada, and their return visits to me, have been like glorious rainbows
-that spanned the heavens of my happiness on earth. Then there is the
-permanent love and friendship of the many brave and true hearts that
-have thrown light and pleasure upon my path all along the line--good and
-faithful friends who assisted in pulling down the powers of slavery, and
-who now rejoice, in common with myself, that the mighty work was done at
-last, and that all our grand destiny is still before us. Thank God for
-this splendid prospect before us! It has been the joy of my life to see
-the improvements introduced into the American Constitution in our favor,
-and the celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment all over the land,
-including the one we took a part in at Louisville, Kentucky, was a
-series of brilliant events that can never be forgotten.
-
-As I am by nature a great lover of the ocean, I have made two voyages
-from New Orleans to New York, and have even crossed the great Atlantic,
-and visited the British Isles upon the happy occasion when my daughters
-were married. But above all things, I have had the pleasure of seeing
-the entire colored race set free; have seen them make incredible
-advances in every walk and department of life, and the promise is held
-out that they will still go on in the path of progress. We must still
-trust in God and ourselves, and march forward!
-
-And now, my dear reader, wishing for you all that is good, health and
-prosperity, I am
-
-Yours most sincerely,
-
-    BEULAH LINCOLN.
-
-
-[Illustration: __FINIS.__]
-
-
-
-
-THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR--I.
-
-
-Indulgent reader, I had grown accustomed to think that I should now live
-and die, and never see any more war, either foreign or domestic, on the
-part of the United States. All things were running smoothly on the part
-of our nation, and there hardly appeared the most distant cloud in our
-peaceful-looking skies. But, as Robert Burns, the famous Scotch poet,
-most truthfully says, "The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft
-aglee, and leave us nought but grief and pain for promised joy." In the
-month of February, 1895, the oppressed and robbed people of Cuba once
-more raised the standard of rebellion against Spain, and entered upon
-another struggle with the mother country. The tyrant Spain had broken
-all the promises she had made at the close of the Ten Years' Cuban War,
-in 1878, and thus it came to pass, after an useless truce of seventeen
-years, that the Cuban leaders once more decided to raise the standard of
-rebellion against the tyrant, considering it better to die in a war for
-freedom than to sit down any longer in a state of endless oppression.
-
-
-[Illustration: _GEN. ANTONIO MACEO._]
-
-
-As our own nation had had a fearful war with England, in the days of
-George Washington--a war that lasted over seven years--all citizens of
-the United States felt a great deal of sympathy for the Cuban leaders,
-and for all the Cuban people--"a people who now devoted their lives unto
-death on the high places of the field"--and myself, my own family, and
-all my beloved race, felt very, very deeply for them.
-
-And not only did the people of the United States, but all lovers of
-freedom throughout the world felt the greatest sympathy for the Cubans.
-Thus long, weary months came and went, and poor, proud, decrepit old
-Spain, in her antiquated way, continued to borrow many millions of money
-at home and abroad, till at last "Pobre Espagna" (poor Spain) was hardly
-able to pay the mere interest upon the money she had borrowed, let alone
-the principal. The patriotic Cubans fought long, well and nobly; so did
-the Spaniards, but no real advantage was ever gained upon either side,
-because the Cubans had neither seaport nor fleet, and were never able to
-get the Spaniards out of their ancient and powerful fortifications,
-whilst the Spaniards were never able to beat the Cubans off the field,
-get them out of their strongholds among the mountains, and their
-inaccessible retreats amidst their grand, primeval forests.
-
-The Cubans of the United States, assisted by many of our own people,
-gathered money, and loaded filibustering vessels that ran the feeble
-Spanish blockade off the island, and safely landed an untold number of
-cargoes of arms and ammunition for the struggling patriots, while our
-own national feeling against Spain still increased as the days went by.
-It is very true that the Government of the United States did all that it
-was able to preserve neutrality, and to keep the peace with Spain--nay,
-more than that--we were at last obliged even to police the seas around
-the Southern States to prevent those blockade-runners from slipping away
-from our parts with their loads of arms and ammunition for that devoted
-island, and we were hardly able to stop them when we had done our best.
-Thus we were put to endless trouble to watch the seas for a foreign and
-cruel country, and that country was always laying complaints at our
-doors because we could watch no better!
-
-
-[Illustration: _THE DEFENSE OF SANTIAGO._]
-
-
-When Campos was Captain-General of Cuba, the war for independence in
-that unhappy island was conducted with some regard to decency and
-civilized ways; but the Spanish arms made no progress, and the mother
-country sent over the cruel General Weyler, usually called "The
-Butcher," and gave him a free hand in putting down the islanders in any
-way he saw fit. The mind of this bad man seems to have been imbued with
-all the old Spanish cruelties of the dark ages, and all that tiger-like
-love for cruelty and bloodshed for which Spain and the Spaniards have
-always been so notorious. The readers of the public press are no doubt
-well aware already of the treacherous acts, cruelties and medieval deeds
-of barbarism to which that monster and his soldiers resorted for the
-purpose of suppressing the Cuban rebellion. The worst of them all was
-his gathering the country people into seacoast towns and cities--mainly
-women, children and old men--where they subsequently died by tens of
-thousands; and thus the poor, oppressed Cuban nation was weakened at
-last to the number of at least 200,000, if not more; and by such
-cold-blooded deeds, and others on a smaller scale, quite as cruel, did
-that black-hearted Spanish butcher wear down the population of Cuba. He
-made war upon nature, and shocked the moral sense of the whole world.
-And yet, this Weyler had the entire approval of the mother country while
-he thus caused the non-combatant part of the Cubans to perish, when they
-had the unblushing impudence to carry on the barbarities of the dark
-ages all over the Island of Cuba, and right before our front door! The
-false and wilfully-lying messages that even this butcher sent home to
-Spain from day to day about victories that he had gained over the
-insurgents were usually contradicted by the American, and other foreign
-presses next day. Weyler excelled in nothing but writing false
-dispatches, while the hatred against him increased, both in Congress,
-and all over the United States. So great, indeed, was the outcry against
-the Spaniards, that the proud and scornful Dons kept sending more and
-more soldiers over the Atlantic, to give us to understand by that, that
-if we Americans dared to interfere between her and what she called "The
-Ever-Faithful Isle," she would there fight Uncle Sam to the death, and
-never surrender Cuba!
-
-Captain-General Weyler's want of success, his cruelties and countless
-false reports were at last so revolting to the feelings of Uncle Sam
-that Spain decided to withdraw her faithful butcher, and send another
-Captain-General over, and his name was General Blanco. He was admonished
-to bring the Cuban leaders and the Cubans to terms by wiles, bribes and
-flattery; but the patriotic Cubans refused to swallow any such baits,
-and war went on the same as before--all our trade with Cuba being now
-destroyed, almost the whole island being reduced to the condition of a
-wilderness, while the silence of the grave seemed supreme everywhere.
-Spain continued to make more and more fresh promises from month to
-month, both to ourselves and to the Cubans--promises made in deceit and
-craft, which she never meant to fulfill.
-
-It is calculated that at one time there were two hundred thousand
-Spanish soldiers in Cuba, when the Cuban troops became so numerous that
-they even threatened Havana, and whipped the Spanish outposts in the
-suburbs of the stronghold. Affairs at last became so unsafe and
-threatening for the numerous American colonists in Havana, and
-throughout Cuba, that the United States battleship "Maine" was sent to
-the island, by way of protection, and she was duly anchored by the
-direction of the port authorities, in a certain specified position
-within the harbor of Havana.
-
-Alas, alas! we little knew what we were doing! And yet, for the very
-life of me, I cannot but see that the hand of Providence was in some way
-or other connected with the anchoring of the Maine in the harbor of
-Havana. It is true that we might at some time or other have interfered
-in the Island, and there put an end to the medieval and murderous
-practices of "Old Spain," carried on at our front door here in the end
-of the nineteenth century; but war, in its best state, is a serious
-business, and Spain might have succeeded for a long time in gulling us
-with fair-faced promises she never meant to fulfill. In the pride of her
-heart she regarded the poor Cuban patriots as nothing but a gang of
-rebels, who, had they laid down their arms at her request, would have
-been treated as so many footballs--as deserving less consideration than
-mere dogs and cats. Thus it appears to me very doubtful whether we would
-have embarked upon a war with that proud, haughty and impoverished
-nation, that loves to talk of her former grandeur, four hundred years
-ago. But the Spaniards viewed the coming of the Maine to Havana with
-hatred and disgust. Whispers in high places in the Cuban capital
-declared that she should be destroyed, and so in fact she was, for on
-Tuesday night, the 15th of February, 1898, the Spaniards blew her up
-with torpedoes planted underneath her in the water.
-
-This destruction of a splendid American battleship, with the
-accompanying loss of 266 lives, brought much comfort and joy to the
-cruel Spanish heart; for the head gentlemen of Spain at Havana were
-known to laugh and be jolly, and to drink champagne wine over the
-destruction of our devoted vessel! But with us it was otherwise. We were
-overwhelmed with the most profound sorrow and grief. Every man, woman
-and child in all Uncle Sam's far-spreading Union was bowed down under
-this sudden blow that supplied so much comfort to the heart of the
-Spaniard. He looked upon us as his enemy because of our own sympathy for
-the Cubans; and so that ship was another "enemy" out of his way. His
-mirth did not prevent our national grief over the sudden murder of our
-266 men, and the loss of the poor ship, so we sat down and cried real,
-sincere tears, while the naval commission were in session at Key West
-over the cause of the destruction of the unfortunate vessel. The finding
-of the court of inquiry was that the vessel was not blown up from within
-(as the Spaniards pretended), but was blown up from without, and that by
-the hands of the Spaniards, and done on purpose by them.
-
-Then we wiped our tears away, and every man, woman and understanding
-child, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf,
-arose and took an oath that that cruel and bloody nation of Spaniards
-should leave this hemisphere, bag and baggage, and that we should make
-them! Then the shout, "Remember the Maine!" was heard all over the land.
-Congress demanded Spain's withdrawal from American waters; or else that
-war should be levied on her forthwith. Now did the regent mother country
-send letters to all the magnates of Europe, begging them to intercede,
-and make peace between the Americans and Spaniards. But from all
-quarters came the same reply, "You and the Americans help yourselves;
-this is not our war. Hold the Ever-faithful Isle--if you are able!"
-
-While the war clouds were gathering the Spaniards still ran around
-Europe, praying and screeching for help. Uncle Sam went swiftly to work
-laid down fifty million dollars instantly, and quickly bought up a
-number of newly-built and powerful men-of-war from foreign
-nations--bought and hired swift and powerful merchant vessels, and
-swiftly clad them round their sides and all over their decks with
-steel-mail, so that they might boldly plough the waves, and do as useful
-service as the very best of iron-clads of effete Old Spain. Uncle Sam
-made two swift calls for troops, and almost every white and colored man
-replied, "We come, we come!" So terrible, indeed, was the impression
-produced by the loss of our poor ship, and the murder of 266 men at
-Havana, that almost every colored and white man in this nation seemed
-even to sigh and thirst to go and fight with Spain! Women by thousands
-and tens of thousands offered themselves as nurses, and to be used in
-any way that the Government pleased. Our colored men, once slaves, or
-the children of slaves, but now loyal freemen, came forward almost to a
-man, and with quite as much patriotism as their white brethren, at
-least, offered themselves as ready, quite ready to march to the war.
-Uncle Sam's great difficulty lay in his having too many offers on his
-hands, so he picked and chose, and did his best. The fleet, of course,
-encountered a little more difficulty in filling up; but the flower of
-our youth--even the sons of millionaires among the rest--came trooping
-on in thousands, and our fleet was manned splendidly. Men were sent
-South by thousands and tens of thousands; the trains carried them down
-every day, accompanied with immense loads of ammunition, and all the
-appliances of war. Our new and old war vessels were gathered about Key
-West, etc., and others were placed near our great harbors, which harbors
-were defended by torpedoes and other means of offense and defense. By
-this time our demand upon Spain to get out of the West Indies had been
-received by the proud Dons, and had been refused by them, as we
-expected. So we moved on with the war, and our own four regiments of
-regular colored United States troops, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and
-the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, which had been brought from
-the far West to Chickamauga Park, were brought down to Key West, in
-order to be at hand to sail over to Cuba along with their white brothers
-when the "Ever-Faithful Isle--Fair Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles,"
-should be invaded by all the boys in blue.
-
-I am not aware that even the most rabid misanthrope in the United States
-believed in his heart that there was one colored man who was not willing
-to go to the war, and also able to do yeoman service in knocking down
-the Spaniards, if he were allowed to get at them. It is true that
-charges were made against some of us, but charges were also made in the
-same way against the whites. It is true that some of our men made their
-marching to war conditional on their now having their own colored
-officers; but that demand was right, and they only asked their own.
-
-Our hereditary enemies are not all dead by any means, yet! Either they
-are less formidable, or we ourselves are growing more independent. The
-small pettifogging journalist tried to make the usual capital out of our
-men holding out for his most undoubted rights, for what would a white
-regiment, indeed, think, if the law was that none but colored officers
-should be placed over white men? And yet, that was the very thing that
-certain men--white men--in our nation demanded, namely, that none but
-white officers should be placed in command of colored soldiers!
-
-
-[Illustration: _BATTLE OF SAN JUAN HILL._]
-
-
-It is very true there were a few colored officers in the ranks, and
-colored chaplains; but, like angels' visits, they were few and far
-between. But the Spanish war was on, and colored men had to go or stay.
-Some demanded officers of their own race, seeing they were competent to
-fill such positions as the whitest of men. It was only the dregs of
-slavery in the bottom of the cup that were left. It was only the
-difference between a dark skin and a light one, don't you know. Well,
-quite a number of the governors granted the colored regiments their
-petitions; gave them all the officers of their own race, from Colonel
-down, and it has been proven that they have acted and succeeded as well
-as white officers could ever have possibly done. Other governors
-hesitated about granting their just demands, and claimed that white
-officers ought to be placed over colored men.
-
-But, as I said before, the war was now under way, and as too much time
-could not be lost in wrangling in this unseemly manner over a matter,
-after all, no greater than the color of the skin, our brave fellows in
-some of the States said they were willing to give way, and go and fight
-the Spaniards under command of white officers. In some States there was
-no dispute. It is a well-known fact that colored men have often been
-greatly attached to their white officers, and in like manner, these
-officers have been greatly attached to their own soldiers, and thus they
-have got along harmoniously together at all times. At the same time,
-this knotty point has been settled once for all in many a State, and the
-men--colored men, I mean--have been allowed to have the officers of
-their own choice. No doubt the time will come when all these "trumpery
-distinctions" will be done away! The dregs of slavery washed out of the
-cup! The time will come in the United States when white men will be led
-by colored officers, and colored men will be led by white officers. Life
-is really too short for such foolishness as squabbling over small
-trifles like these. One thing I know, the Bible tells us that God has
-made of one blood all the races that dwell upon earth.
-
-The readings in the public papers about the enthusiasm of colored men
-for the war against the Spaniards was most refreshing. Taken as a whole,
-white men of every walk in life, awarded them the very highest possible
-praise for their love of drilling--for their great willingness to be
-drilled, and for the great progress they made in drilling. Some of them,
-indeed, seemed to be drilling both in season and out of season, because
-even after their officers had given them all their needful drilling for
-the passing day, they would themselves get together and drill themselves
-for a whole hour, or for an hour and a half at a time. I must not forget
-a most unusually lively letter I saw from Key West at the time that our
-four regiments of regulars (United States) were lying there in readiness
-to sail over to Cuba. This letter stated that they were regiments of
-grand men; tall, powerful, splendid fellows; full of life, humor and
-enthusiasm, and that they looked as if they would be able to lick three
-or four Spaniards apiece! No doubt our glorious fellows were far more
-than a match for the Spaniards, who only weighed about 130 pounds
-apiece, stood five feet, six inches in height, and few of them seem able
-to shoot straight; while our men stand six feet, are powerful, and can
-hit the mark almost every time.
-
-Thus time passed on, while the entire colored race all over the land
-took the deepest interest in the war, calling upon the war department,
-or sending to the President, whenever there was occasion for the same. A
-Conference of the Zion A. M. E. Church, at the commencement of the war,
-sat in Baltimore, at which time a notice was sent forth throughout the
-nation that ten new cadets, for some military reason or other, were to
-be brought forward. The Conference here stepped forward, and did the
-right thing. They drew up a most respectful and patriotic address upon
-the subject to the President, and asked that three cadets out of those
-ten should be men of color. The address was then sealed up, and sent to
-McKinley. At Baltimore, also, under the leadership of Dr. Bryant, a
-regiment of colored men was organized and drilled in good earnest. At
-first many of these young volunteers were awkward enough, but we are all
-awkward in the beginning. So they persevered, and in the course of time
-became quite proficient; and I have no doubt, had the war lasted, and
-they had gone to the front, and met the Spaniards in the open field,
-that they would have whipped them hip and thigh, as other colored troops
-did later on. The spirit of all our people was most excellent; we were
-determined to see ourselves righted, and there were none but a few old
-soreheads that stood in our way.
-
-
-[Illustration: _COLORED SOLDIERS AND MUSICIANS_]
-
-
-While we are getting ready to give the Dons a proper knock-down on his
-own ground, it may not be amiss to notice the most unusual display of
-American flags--the "Stars and Stripes"--that was made here all over our
-beautiful city of Buffalo, where we still reside. At first we thought
-that "The Queen City of the Lakes," as our city is called, was simply
-ultra-patriotic, and wanted to be ahead of all our neighbors, but soon
-all eyes were opened wide at our grand mistake, for we learned that
-there was hardly a city, town, village or hamlet in the Union where the
-self-same grand array of "Star-Spangled Banners" did not obtain. It was
-flags, flags, flags, from one end of the nation to the other--nothing
-but flags! I think I am safe in saying that in any moderate-sized city
-of the Union there were ten thousand flags flying at least. And these
-national emblems of faith, loyalty and love were all sizes, from the
-smallest to the largest. And not alone upon the broad street did the
-banners fly, but in all the smaller streets and alleys--away up the
-narrow and crooked alleys, where the poorer families of both races were
-found, these self-same beautiful banners fluttered to the breeze, and
-plainly said, "We are here in defense of our native country! No more
-oppressive Dons for us! Freedom for Cuba, and for all the world. 'Tis
-the Star-Spangled Banner, O Long May it Wave!"
-
-But the national feeling was exhibited in thousands of other ways
-besides the flags in the open streets. Great meetings were held all over
-the land; sermons were preached, and public prayers ascended to the
-Throne of Grace for the speedy triumph of our armies over the oppressive
-Spaniards. The very envelopes that went through the Postoffice were
-stamped with miniature flags, and pictures of the Maine were hung up in
-almost every house. No doubt many an ingenious man cleared a good, round
-sum by a newly-brought-out device that was cast upon the public, and
-eagerly bought up by almost everybody. An immense quantity of patriotic
-poetry was also written, and scattered broadcast to all the four winds
-of heaven; and it was read and quoted with most unbounded enthusiasm.
-Music came in now for its full share. All the patriotic songs we had
-were sung and played in public and private to their own well-known
-tunes. The Star-Spangled Banner, indeed, "took the cake," and seemed to
-be everywhere floating in the air. Even "John Bull," our true and
-faithful friend across the seas, fell into line with us, and he placed
-the Star-Spangled Banner from one end of the British Isles to the other.
-"Mother England," indeed, was most loyal to us, even before we struck a
-blow at the Spaniards, for she set down her foot against privateering on
-the high seas, and Spain submitted to her against her own will!
-
-
-
-
-THE AMERICAN-SPANISH WAR--II.
-
-
-_The Brave Exploits of our Colored Regiments Around Santiago de
-Cuba--Their Rescue of the Rough Riders--The Wounded in the
-Hospitals--Regiments That Never Went to War--Great Flag Presentations at
-New Orleans--The Colored Chaplains--The Killed, Wounded and Sick of the
-War--Coming Home and Disbanding, Etc.--The Glorious Results of the
-War--Colored Men Did Their Duty--Glory to God in the Highest!_
-
-The reader will naturally expect an account of marching and
-counter-marching, pitched battles, skirmishing, and all kinds of
-military operations, such as I have already described in the war of
-1861-'65. And the reader is justified in such expectations; but this
-American-Spanish War was one of the very shortest conflicts ever
-recorded in history, for the whole affair was over in less than four
-months, having begun towards the end of April, and concluded on the 12th
-of August, 1898. The readers of my own people will now ask if there was
-no opportunity given us whereby we might show our prowess upon the
-battle-field, like our Anglo-Saxon brothers. Well, yes, we had
-opportunities given us to show of what kind of material we were made,
-and I believe that all the generals, officers and soldiers in the army
-awarded us the most unstinted praise for what we did, and they did it
-with a most hearty good will.
-
-
-[Illustration: _SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR._]
-
-
-The heaviest fighting by land was done around the city of Santiago de
-Cuba, the second city of the island, and the old Spanish capital of the
-same. Santiago (which means "St. James," in Spanish) was very strongly
-fortified, and pretty well defended by the ancient and modern methods of
-an old nation going down in the world. On account of the great danger of
-assaulting a city built upon hills, and thus strongly defended by nature
-and art, Uncle Sam wisely decided to send his veteran troops there--not
-merely the pick and cream of the volunteers--but first of all, the old,
-well-seasoned regulars of the American standing army, of which there
-were four regiments of colored men, that is to say, the Ninth and Tenth
-Cavalry, and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. Among the
-first that went to Santiago in General Shafter's expedition were those
-four regiments--brave, powerful, well-built fellows, big, brawny men,
-who could knock Spaniards over like ninepins, and smite them hip and
-thigh like the heroes of old. In the different engagements that took
-place while the enemy was being driven into his beleaguered city, and
-was being pushed back, back farther and farther, into the fortifications
-of Santiago, these colored regiments did splendid service, laying on
-with might and main, and making their enemy flee before them into his
-last retreat. Our troops were usually mixed up with the whites in the
-days in the end of June, and the beginning of July, and thus the history
-of the one is the history of the other.
-
-Seeing, therefore, that they had been so well trained as regulars, we
-need not wonder that they acquitted themselves so well in the
-preliminary assault, that occurred before preparations were made for the
-final advance on the doomed city. That part of the operations of our men
-that caused most noise to be made in the newspapers and elsewhere took
-place when Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders advanced up one of the
-hills that was overgrown with dense brushwood, where the Spaniards had
-dug trenches along the face of the hill, and had run powerful wire
-fences along the front of those trenches, from which they fired upon the
-Americans as they came up the hill-side. The Rough Riders had a hard
-time of it as they advanced in the face of the showers of balls that
-were poured down upon them. Little progress did they make, although they
-lay down again and again to let those leaden showers pass over their
-devoted heads. Colonel Roosevelt had a horse killed under him, jumped
-off the animal before it carried him under as it fell, and advanced up
-the hill in advance of all his men, shouting to them to come on. Well,
-of course, the men did come on; but some were killed here, and others
-were wounded there; while as for the Spaniards, they went down like
-grass before the scythe. As a general thing they were bad shots--as
-might be expected of a dying nation still bragging of the deeds of their
-ancestors four hundred years back; and they themselves swollen with
-ignorance and pride, too haughty to be taught better ways! Thus the
-Rough Riders gravely struggled up the hill-side, cutting the wire fences
-as they went, clearing the retreating Spaniards out of the rifle-pits
-(or trenches, rather), lying down and advancing again and again as best
-they could. It was evident that they must suffer great losses, or might
-even fail altogether.
-
-At this very crisis the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, or United States
-colored troops, were ordered forward to the rescue of their dismounted
-brothers, and so dismounted, they advanced up the hill-side, laughing
-and hurrahing with as much trained ease, and as cheerfully as if they
-had been upon their old parade grounds in the far West! Success against
-the enemy was now assured. Our brave, well-seasoned veterans from the
-West fired, advanced, lay down, chatted and laughed with their white
-brothers, as they lay upon the ground, partly hidden among the
-brushwood, tall grasses and bushes of the Cuban jungle; and thus the day
-there was saved, and the white men were saved by the Ninth and Tenth
-Cavalry, just in the self-same way as white and black had often saved
-one another during the Civil War in the sixties. The wire fences were
-cut, the trenches were cleared of their occupants, the hill-top was
-gained, the Spaniards were set upon the run down the hill, on the other
-side, and now our men could see their enemies, and have a straight shot
-at them as they ran down the open, in full retreat and rapid flight. Our
-own trained heroes followed fast after them, dropping on one knee every
-now and then, to get a steadier aim at the fleeing Spaniards and thus
-they fell at a rapid rate before our guns.
-
-While it is true that there was no desire among our own men to be vain
-of their achievements when they had thus timely assisted in saving and
-winning the field, still, the wild and hearty cheers that were there and
-then given to the black soldiers by their white comrades were very
-encouraging, indeed, to the hearts of the former. Many of the letters
-sent home and published in the papers were quite unstinted in their
-praise, and showed how the white men shouted their loudest huzzas to the
-colored men, swung their arms and caps in the air, and made other
-demonstrations of mutual good will and delight. Most of the Republican
-papers, and even some of the Democratic and others wrote editorials and
-other shorter and well-pointed paragraphs, too numerous for me either to
-mention or extract. With the exception of the soreheads and those whose
-stubborn natures love to hide all such promising things and keep them
-from public favor, there were none who failed to do us that justice to
-which we were entitled.
-
-As for the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Colored Infantry, they lent a
-hand in the different actions that were fought around Santiago, and are
-well spoken of by one and all whose duty, love or pleasure it was to
-record the details of the fighting that took place in the environments
-of Santiago de Cuba.
-
-But what shall we say of all those many regiments of colored men who
-were raised in many different States, and drilled and put in a state of
-readiness to march forward to the war, and assist in knocking down the
-tottering powers of old and bigoted Spain? Did those men do nothing for
-their country, after all their drillings and other mighty preparations
-for the purpose of going to the field? What was the use of Camp This, or
-Camp That, or Camp the Other Place to them? Either for good luck, or bad
-luck, as it turned out, all those camps were of no use at all to them.
-And it was just the same with the white volunteers and their camps. All,
-indeed, were drilled, and lay to be called away at any moment--all were
-in perfect readiness to go, and even very greatly desired to go; but few
-went, for their services were not required, as the war came to an end on
-the 12th of August, because "Old Spain" was fast going to the wall, as
-the Bible says of the wicked, "I will laugh at your calamity, and mock
-when your fear cometh." In fact, most that had been done in the war so
-far had been done upon the sea. Dewey and Schley had sunk Spain's best
-war ships, which circumstance placed the Spanish peninsula entirely at
-our mercy. Then she was bankrupt and inferior to the United States in
-every way. We had lost 264 men in the war, who were killed outright; but
-how many thousands Spain lost, she is probably too proud ever to let us
-know. She probably lost at least fifty to our one.
-
-A great deal has been written about the hospitals in and around
-Santiago, and the conduct and sufferings of the patients who were
-treated there. It has been universally stated of the colored men who
-were treated for wounds that they were most exemplary and patient in
-every way, and even ready and willing to give way in favor of those
-white soldiers who lay side by side with them, waiting to be treated by
-the doctors on hand. It is really touching to read in the public papers
-how our own men insisted on their unfortunate suffering neighbors being
-treated first, and that they themselves would wait. "He is worse than I
-am, I can wait!"--and--"He is shot through the body, while I am only
-wounded in the arms; save him first!" This is the very essence of all
-generosity. This, indeed, is the most tender-hearted mercy and
-Christianity. If there is any bravery and nobility of character upon
-earth, this, indeed, is it. And the white Americans in the hospital were
-quite as generous as the colored men--to both their colored and white
-companions, according to the direct testimony and eye witness of foreign
-and domestic correspondents right there and then on the ground. There
-was no color line even dreamed of in the fields and hospitals of
-Santiago. It is only in the day of health and pride that people can
-afford to draw that line. But in the day of distress, and when death is
-hovering over us, then all that kind of foolishness is driven far away,
-and we only know that God has made of one blood all the nations upon
-earth.
-
-It is quite refreshing to look back even now, and think upon the grand
-times we had when flags were raised on our houses, or flags were
-presented to regiments of volunteers getting ready to go to fight the
-Spaniards. I here select from the Southwestern Christian Advocate, of
-New Orleans, an organ of the M. E. Church, the following vivid
-description of the presentation of a flag to colored troops at New
-Orleans:
-
-"A GLORIOUS DAY AND A GREAT CROWD.
-
-"On Wednesday of last week, July 20th, there took place in this city,
-the most patriotic demonstration that it has ever been my privilege to
-witness. It was the occasion of the formal presentation of the
-regimental flag, the national colors, and a Red Cross flag to the Ninth
-Infantry Regiment of United States Volunteers, by the Afro-American
-citizens of New Orleans. Fully ten thousand people took part in what has
-been said to be the most enthusiastic gathering around the Nation's flag
-that has ever assembled in the Crescent City for years, if ever before.
-Political parties and denominational antagonisms were lost sight of in
-the fixed purpose to do honor to our boys in blue. It was thrilling,
-inspiring, to see a thousand black soldiers standing in line before the
-grandstand, with eyes to the front, and ears attentive to the words of
-the speakers.
-
-"The committee on programme had done their work well in selecting such
-an array of talent for the occasion. The Hon. J. Madison Vance, was
-master of ceremonies. The grace and dignity with which he conducted the
-exercises were worthy of the occasion.
-
-"Rev. W. R. Butler, pastor of the First Street M. E. Church, led in a
-fervent and earnest prayer for the protection of our boys, and the
-success of our army. Rev. Dr. Scott, the editor of The Southwestern
-Christian Advocate, was the orator of the day. His speech was scholarly,
-burning with eloquence, and full of patriotism, and words of advice for
-the black boys in blue. Again and again he was interrupted by the
-wildest applause by the vast concourse of people.
-
-"I am sorry that space forbids the giving of the whole address. I simply
-give this. He said: 'We shall always look to you as our regiment, our
-boys. We are glad to see you here; glad to have you respond so readily
-to your country's call; glad you had the opportunity to do so. We
-present this flag, hoping it will ever signify to you the interest we
-feel in you, and impress you with your responsibility to your country
-and your race. We are a part of a great nation, and there are many
-reasons why we should be patriotic and true. The strength of a nation is
-largely measured by its patriotism. If the citizens of a country are
-devoted to the highest and best interests of that country there is
-little cause to fear. Patriotism enlists armies and develops martyrs.'
-
-"The flag was presented by Dr. L. H. Reynolds, editor 'The African
-Methodist,' published in this city. Dr. Reynolds is gifted as a speaker,
-and the thrilling occasion warmed his heart. His words, patriotic and
-weighty, stirred the entire assembly, which cheered him to the echo.
-
-"At the conclusion of the address, Mr. Vance introduced Major Armand
-Romain, 'as a remarkable son, from one of the best homes of the South,'
-who received the beautiful and costly flag with well-chosen words. As
-the flag was unfolded, the cheering was deafening. The officers and
-soldiers joined with the people in cheering the colors of the Ninth
-Regiment. This flag was purchased by a committee of ladies and gentlemen
-organized for that purpose.
-
-"The Red Cross flag was presented by Miss Emma M. Williams, who
-represented the donor, 'The Phillis Wheatley Club,' and it was received
-on behalf of the regiment by Lieutenant Barnett. The National colors
-were given by the Israel Lodge of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows,
-and they were presented in a happy speech by the Rev. R. A. Alston, of
-this city. Major Harrison, in his characteristic and earnest way,
-received the colors for the regiment amid great applause. Colonel Crane,
-Major Harrison, and the other members of the staff, were called forward
-and given three cheers, most heartily.
-
-"The Rev. T. A. Wilson, on behalf of the A. M. E. Church, presented the
-regiment with a number of small Bibles and song books. Resolutions
-pledging loyal support to President McKinley and the country were
-unanimously adopted.
-
-"Among others who served on the programme were Miss E. V. Edwards, Miss
-Ida Cohen, Miss Naomi Kitchens and Mr. A. Lewis. The soldiers seemed
-happy over the way their friends and loved ones remembered them, and I
-am sure they will sustain the confidence of the friends at home--never
-letting the old flag touch the ground.
-
-"R. E. J."
-
-The above article is taken from the Southwestern Christian Advocate, of
-New Orleans, for Thursday, the 28th of July, 1898. There is more of it,
-but the lines that follow are only taken up with the names of those who
-were on the different committees.
-
-The careful reader must have observed in the article given above what a
-large share the preachers of the gospel had in the above flag
-presentations at New Orleans. And right here it may be proper for me to
-remark that the entire press of this country, so far as they have
-written on the subject, had given the greatest praise to the colored
-chaplains of the four regular regiments, United States cavalry and
-infantry, and mention what a deal their fatherly care and guidance had
-to do with the building up of the troops. And the same is equally true
-of those chaplains of those volunteer regiments that got ready for the
-field, but never went to the war, because they were not called upon to
-do so.
-
-Although the war with Spain is now over, at this writing (September,
-1898), I know not what may be the ultimate destination of the numerous
-colored volunteer regiments that were organized for the war, which will
-be retained for the country's service, and which will be disbanded and
-sent home. There is, however, one regiment from Illinois, all the
-officers being colored, from the colonel down, who have been sent to
-assist in the garrisoning of Santiago de Cuba.
-
-The authorities at Washington have not been slow to reward bravery in
-the late war with Spain, as the following short article from an exchange
-will show:
-
-"NEGRO BRAVERY REWARDED.
-
-"Washington, D. C., August, 1898.--Six colored non-commissioned
-officers, who rendered particularly gallant and meritorious service in
-the face of the enemy in the actions around Santiago on July 1st and
-2nd, have been appointed second lieutenants in two of the colored immune
-regiments recently organized under special acts of Congress. These men
-are Sergeants William Washington, of Troop F, and John C. Proctor, of
-Troop I, of the Ninth Cavalry; and Sergeants William McBonjar, of
-Company H; Wyatt Hoffman, of Company G; Mason Russell, of Company H, and
-Andrew J. Smith, of Company B, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, commanded
-by Colonel Daggatt. These two Negro regiments were in the thick of the
-fierce fighting at El Caney and San Juan, and won high praise for their
-courage and efficiency. The Ninth Cavalry was also with the Rough Riders
-at La Quasina."
-
-As the above extract will show, there has been a disposition shown at
-Washington to reward bravery, and reward it at once. People have not
-been wanting to point out who ought to be honored, and honor has been
-forthcoming on all hands.
-
-While I am engaged writing these pages, the war is practically over, and
-a great many of the regiments are being disbanded and sent home. It is
-expected, however, that a larger army will be maintained at the national
-expense than ever before. We used to support 25,000 men, but now we have
-the Philippine Islands, Cuba and Porto Rico on our hands, besides home
-duties and the Hawaiian Islands, and therefore we shall need more men
-than before; at least, for some time to come. But all these things must
-be settled by the authorities at Washington.
-
-While it is now my mournful task once more to revert to the 266 men
-killed on the Maine, and the 264 killed in battle, our list of wounded
-was much higher; while those who died of fevers contracted in the
-tropical climates, and came home sick, were, indeed, a mournful subject
-for us to think about. Our men were not used to the heat and rains of
-the East and West Indies, or even to the lowlands of Florida, and other
-far Southern States, which rendered them more helpless than children, so
-that many died far away from home, while others were too weak to be
-moved. Some died on the way, and many were carried into our hospitals as
-soon as they arrived at their destinations. Most of those who could
-stand the journey were sent on their way home, and all seemed to be glad
-that the war was over.
-
-It is hardly necessary for me to say that this war has largely had the
-happy result of greatly elevating the character of the United States
-before the whole world. We are now a second-class naval power, and our
-praises are sung in all lands, from one end of the world to the other.
-Our armies that fought on shore at Manilla and Santiago have been
-honored by the nations of the earth, "Mother England," and all the
-rest--no matter whether they are willing or not. Immense good will
-follow to Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines, and, indeed, all mankind,
-for we will teach them what a moral, Christian and talented people we
-are. And we have done all this in less than four months--at the loss of
-very few lives, indeed, and not at much expense. I feel that Almighty
-God has been the head and spring of all this; and I am also proud that
-my own people have done their whole duty, and done it well.
-
-BEULAH LINCOLN.
-
-
-[Illustration: __FINIS.__]
-
-
-
-
-BLACKS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND IN 1812.
-
-
-I now undertake to write a history of the part which the colored men
-took in the great American Rebellion. Previous to entering upon that
-subject, however, I may be pardoned for bringing before the reader the
-condition of the blacks previous to the breaking out of the war.
-
-
-[Illustration: _THE BOSTON MASSACRE._]
-
-
-The Declaration of American Independence, made July 4th, 1776, had
-scarcely been enunciated, and an organization of the government
-commenced, ere the people found themselves surrounded by new and trying
-difficulties, which, for a time, threatened to wreck the ship of state.
-The forty-five slaves landed on the banks of the James river, in the
-colony of Virginia, from the coast of Africa, in 1620, had multiplied to
-several thousands, and were influencing the political, social and
-religious institutions of the country. Brought into the colonies against
-their will; made the hewers of wood, and the drawers of water;
-considered in the light of law and public opinion as mere chattels,
-things to be bought and sold at the will of the owner; driven to their
-unrequited toil by unfeeling men, picked for the purpose from the lowest
-and most degraded of the uneducated whites, whose moral, social and
-political degradation by slavery was equal to that of the slave--the
-condition of the Negro was indeed a sad one!
-
-The history of this people, full of sorrow, blood and tears, is full
-also of instruction for mankind. God has so ordered it that one class
-shall not degrade another without becoming themselves contaminated. So
-with slavery in America. The institution bred in the master insulting
-arrogance, deteriorating sloth, pampered the loathsome lust it inflamed
-until licentious luxury sapped the strength and rottened the virtue of
-the slave owners of the South.
-
-Never were the institutions of a people, or the principles of liberty,
-put to such a severe test as those of the American Republic. The
-convention to frame the Constitution for the Government of the United
-States had not organized before the slave-masters began to press the
-claims of their system upon the delegates. They wanted their property
-represented in the National Congress, and undue guarantees thrown around
-it; they wanted the African slave-trade made lawful, and their victims
-returned if they should attempt to escape; they begged that an article
-might be inserted in the Constitution making it the duty of the general
-government to put down the slaves if they should imitate their masters
-in striking a blow for freedom. They seemed afraid of the very evil they
-were clinging to closely to. "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us
-all."
-
-In all this early difficulty, South Carolina took the lead against
-humanity, her delegates ever showing themselves the foes of freedom.
-Both in the Federal Convention to frame the Constitution, and in the
-State Conventions to ratify the same, it was admitted that the blacks
-had fought bravely against the British, and in favor of the American
-Republic, for the fact that a black man (Crispus Attucks) was the first
-to give his life at the commencement of the Revolution, was still fresh
-in their minds. Eighteen years previous to the breaking out of the war,
-Attucks was held as a slave by Mr. William Brown, of Framingham, Mass.,
-and from whom he escaped about that time, taking up his residence in
-Boston.
-
-The Boston Massacre, March, 5th, 1770, may be regarded as the first act
-of the great drama of the American Revolution. "From that moment," said
-Daniel Webster, "we may date the severance of the British Empire." The
-presence of the British soldiers in King street excited the patriotic
-indignation of the people. The whole community was stirred, and sage
-counsellors were deliberating, and writing, and talking about the public
-grievance. But it was not for "the wise and prudent" to be the first to
-act against the encroachments of arbitrary power. "A motley rabble of
-saucy boys, Negroes and mulattoes, Irish teagues, and outlandish
-Jacktars" (as John Adams described them in his plea in defence of the
-soldiers) could not restrain their emotion, or stop to inquire if what
-they must do was according to the letter of any law. Led by Crispus
-Attucks, the mulatto slave, and shouting, "The way to get rid of these
-soldiers is to attack the mainguard; strike at the root; this is the
-nest!" with more valor than discretion, they rushed to King street, and
-were fired upon by Captain Preston's company. Crispus Attucks was the
-first to fall; he and Samuel Gray and Jonas Caldwell were killed on the
-spot; Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded.
-
-The excitement which followed was intense. The bells of the town were
-rung; an impromptu town meeting was held, and an immense assembly was
-gathered. Three days after, on the 8th, a public funeral of the martyrs
-took place. The shops of Boston were closed, and all the bells of Boston
-and the neighboring towns were rung. It is said that a greater number of
-persons assembled on this occasion than were ever before gathered on
-this continent for a similar purpose. The body of Crispus Attucks, the
-mulatto slave, had been placed in Faneuil Hall, with that of Caldwell,
-both being strangers in the city. Maverick was buried from his mother's
-house, on Union street, and Gray from his brothers, in Royal Exchange
-Lane. The four hearses formed a junction in King street, and there the
-procession marched in columns six deep, with a long file of coaches
-belonging to the most distinguished citizens, to the Middle
-burying-ground, where the four victims were deposited in one grave, over
-which a stone was placed with this inscription:
-
-    "Long as in Freedom's cause the wise contend,
-    Dear to your country shall your fame extend;
-    While to the world the lettered stone shall tell
-    Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray, Maverick fell."
-
-
-The anniversary of this event was publicly commemorated in Boston by an
-ovation and other exercises every year until after our national
-independence was achieved, when the Fourth of July was substituted for
-the Fifth of March, as the more proper day for a general celebration.
-Not only was the event commemorated, but the martyrs who then gave up
-their lives were remembered and honored.
-
-For half a century after the close of the war, the name of Crispus
-Attucks was honorably mentioned by the most noted men of the country,
-who were not blinded by foolish prejudice. At the battle of Bunker Hill,
-Peter Salem, a Negro, distinguished himself by shooting Major Pitcairn,
-who, in the midst of the battle, having passed the storm of fire without
-mounting the redoubt, and waving the sword, cried to the rebels to
-surrender. The fall of Pitcairn ended the battle in favor of liberty.
-
-A single passage from Mr. Bancroft's history will give a succinct and
-clear account of the condition of the army in respect to colored
-soldiers, at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill:
-
-"Nor should history forget to record that as in the army of Cambridge,
-so also in this gallant band, the free Negroes of the colony had their
-representatives. For the right of free Negroes to bear arms in the
-public defence was at that day as little disputed in New England as
-their other rights. They took their place, not in a separate corps, but
-in the ranks with the white man; and their names may be read on the
-pension rolls of the country, side by side with those of other soldiers
-of the Revolution."--Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII,
-p. 421.
-
-The capture of Major-General Prescott, of the British army, on the 9th
-of July, 1777, was an occasion of great joy throughout the country.
-Prince, the valiant Negro who seized that officer, ought always to be
-remembered with honor for his important service. The exploit was much
-commended at the time, as its results were highly important; and Colonel
-Barton very properly received from Congress the compliment of a sword
-for his ingenuity and bravery. It seems, however, that it took more than
-one head to plan and to execute the undertaking. The following account
-of the capture is historical:
-
-"They landed about five miles from Newport, and three-quarters of a mile
-from the house, which they approached cautiously, avoiding the
-mainguard, which was at some distance. The Colonel went foremost, with a
-stout, active Negro close behind him, and another at a small distance;
-the rest followed so as to be near, but not seen.
-
-"A single sentinel at the door saw and hailed the Colonel. He answered
-by exclaiming against and inquiring for rebel prisoners, but kept slowly
-advancing. The sentinel again challenged him, and required the
-countersign. He said he had not the countersign, but amused the sentry
-by talking about rebel prisoners, and still advancing till he came
-within reach of the bayonet, which, he presenting, the colonel suddenly
-struck aside and seized him. He was immediately secured, and ordered to
-be silent on pain of instant death.
-
-"Meanwhile the rest of the men surrounding the house, the Negro, with
-his head, at the second stroke, forced a passage into it, and then into
-the landlord's apartment. The landlord at first refused to give the
-necessary intelligence, but on the prospect of present death, he pointed
-to the general's chamber, which, being instantly opened by the Negro's
-head, the Colonel calling the general by name, told him he was a
-prisoner."--Pennsylvania Evening Post, August 7th, 1777 (in Frank
-Moore's "Diary of the American Revolution," Vol. I, p. 468).
-
-There is abundant evidence of the fidelity and bravery of the colored
-patriots of Rhode Island during the whole war. Before they had been
-formed into a separate regiment, they had fought valiantly with the
-white soldiers at Red Bank and elsewhere. Their conduct at the battle of
-Rhode Island, on the 29th of August, 1778, entitles them to perpetual
-honor. That battle has been pronounced by military authorities to have
-been one of the best-fought battles of the Revolutionary War. Its
-success was owing, in a great degree, to the good fighting of the Negro
-soldiers. Mr. Arnold, in his "History of Rhode Island," thus closes his
-account of it:
-
-"A third time the enemy, with desperate courage and increased strength,
-attempted to assail the redoubt, and would have carried it, but for the
-timely aid of two Continental battalions despatched by Sullivan to
-support his almost exhausted troops. It was in repelling these furious
-onsets that the newly-raised black regiment, under Col. Greene,
-distinguished itself by deeds of desperate valor. Posted behind a
-thicket in the valley, they three times drove back the Hessians, who
-charged repeatedly down the hill to dislodge them; and so determined
-were the enemy in these successive charges that the day after the
-battle, the Hessian colonel, upon whom this duty had devolved, applied
-to exchange his command, and go to New York, because he dared not lead
-his regiment again to battle, lest his men should shoot him by having
-caused them so much loss."--Arnold's History of Rhode Island, Vol. II,
-pp. 427, 428.
-
-Three years later, these soldiers are thus mentioned by the Marquis de
-Chastellux:
-
-"The 5th (of January, 1781), I did not set out till eleven, although I
-had thirty miles' journey to Lebanon. At the passage to the ferry, I met
-with a detachment of the Rhode Island regiment--the same corps we had
-with us all the last summer; but they have since been recruited and
-clothed. The greatest part of them are Negroes, or mulattoes; they are
-strong, robust men, and those I have seen had a very good appearance."
-
-When Colonel Greene was surprised and murdered near Point Bridge, New
-York, on the 14th of May, 1781, his colored soldiers heroically defended
-him till they were cut to pieces; and the Negro reached him over the
-dead bodies of his faithful Negroes. That large numbers of Negroes were
-enrolled in the army, and served faithfully as soldiers during the whole
-period of the war of the revolution, may be regarded as a
-well-established historical fact, and it should be borne in mind that
-the enlistment was not confined, by any means, to those who had before
-enjoyed the privileges of free citizens. Very many slaves were offered
-to and received by the army, on the condition that they were to be
-emancipated either at the time of enlistment, or when they had served
-out the term of their enlistment. The inconsistency of keeping in
-slavery any person who had taken up arms for the defence of our national
-liberty had led to the passing of an order forbidding slaves, as such,
-to be received as soldiers.
-
-That colored men were equally serviceable in the last war with Great
-Britain is true, as the following historical document will show:
-
-"GEN. JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO THE NEGROES.
-
-"Headquarters, Seventh Military District,
-
-"MOBILE, September 21st, 1814.
-
-"To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana:--
-
-"Through a mistaken policy, you have heretofore been deprived of a
-participation in the glorious struggle for national rights, in which our
-country is engaged. This no longer shall exist. As sons of freemen, you
-are now called upon to defend our most inestimable blessing. As
-Americans, your country looks with confidence to her adopted children
-for a valorous support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed
-under her mild and equitable government. As fathers, husbands and
-brothers, you are summoned to rally around the standard of the Eagle, to
-defend all which is dear in existence. Your country, although calling
-for your exertions, does not wish you to engage in her cause without
-amply remunerating you for the services rendered. Your intelligent minds
-are not to be led away by false representations. Your love of honor
-would cause you to despise the man who should attempt to deceive you. In
-the sincerity of a soldier, and the language of truth, I address you. To
-every noble-hearted, generous freeman of color, volunteering to serve
-during the present contest with Great Britain, and no longer, there will
-be paid the same bounty in money and lands now received by the white
-soldiers of the United States, viz: one hundred and twenty dollars in
-money, and one hundred and sixty acres of land. The non-commissioned
-officers and privates will also be entitled to the same monthly pay and
-daily rations and clothes furnished to any American soldier.
-
-"On enrolling yourselves in companies, the Major-General commanding will
-select officers for your government from your white fellow citizens;
-your non-commissioned officers will be appointed from among yourselves.
-
-"Due regard will be paid to the feelings of freemen and soldiers. You
-will not, by being associated with white men in the same corps, be
-exposed to improper comparisons or unjust sarcasm. As a distinct,
-independent battalion or regiment, pursuing the path of glory, you will,
-undivided, receive the applause and gratitude of your countrymen. 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."
-
-Three months later General Jackson addressed the same troops as follows:
-
-"To the Men of Color, Soldiers:--
-
-"From the shores of Mobile I collected you to arms. I invited you to
-share in the perils, and to divide the glory of your white countrymen. I
-expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities
-which must render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you
-could endure hunger and thirst, and all the hardships of war. I knew
-that you loved the land of your nativity, and that, like ourselves, you
-had to defend all that is most dear to man. But you surpass my hopes. I
-have found in you, united to these qualities, that noble enthusiasm
-which impels to great deeds.
-
-"Soldiers, the President of the United States shall be informed of your
-conduct on the present occasion, and the voice of the Representatives of
-the American nation shall applaud your valor, as your General now
-praises your ardor. The enemy is near! His sails cover the lakes. But
-the brave are united, and if he finds us contending with ourselves, it
-will be for the prize of valor and fame--its noblest reward."
-
-Black men served in the navy with great credit to themselves, receiving
-the commendation of Commodore Perry and other brave officers.
-
-Extract of a letter from Nathaniel Shaler, commander of the private
-armed schooner General Tompkins, to his agent in New York, dated--
-
-"AT SEA, January 1st, 1813.
-
-"Before I could get our light sails in, and almost before I could turn
-round, I was under the guns, not of a transport, but of a large frigate,
-and not more than a quarter of a mile from her! Her first broadside
-killed two men, and wounded six others. My officers conducted themselves
-in a way that would have done honor to a more permanent service. The
-name of one of my poor fellows who was killed ought to be registered in
-the book of fame, and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is
-considered a virtue. He was a black man, by the name of John Johnson. A
-twenty-four pound shot struck him on the hip, and took away all the
-lower part of his body. In this state, the poor, brave fellow lay on the
-deck, and several times exclaimed to his shipmates, 'Fire away, my boy!
-No haul a color down!' The other was also a black man, by the name of
-John Davis, and was struck in much the same way. He fell near me, and
-several times requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only in
-the way of others. When America has such tars she has little to fear
-from the tyrants of the ocean."
-
-
-
-
-"NICK" BIDDLE.
-
-
-The title of "First Defenders" has been given to the five companies of
-Pennsylvania troops, two of which were from Schuylkill Co., one from
-Reading, one from Allentown, and one from Lewistown, Pa., that marched
-through Baltimore on the day before the Massachusetts soldiers were
-mobbed in the streets on the way to defend the national capital. After
-running the gauntlet of a furious rabble, the five companies reached
-Washington on the evening of the 18th, and were quartered in the Capitol
-Building. A pool of blood, which ran from the wounded cheek of "Nick"
-Biddle, marked the spot on the Capitol floor, where he lay that night.
-It was the first blood shed in the war for the Union. His grave is in
-the colored churchyard in Pottsville, Pa.
-
-    The grave of "Nick" Biddle a Mecca should be,
-    To Pilgrims who seek in this land of the free,
-    The tombs of the lowly as well as the great,
-    Who struggled for freedom in war or debate;
-    For there lies a black man distinguished from all
-    In that his veins furnished the first blood to fall
-    In war for the Union, when traitors assailed
-    Its brave "First Defenders," whose hearts never quailed.
-    The eighteenth of April, eighteen sixty-one,
-    Was the day "Nick" Biddle his great laurels won,
-    In Baltimore city, where riot ran high,
-    He stood by our banner to do or to die;
-    And onward, responsive to liberty's call--
-    The Capital City to reach ere it fall.
-    Brave Biddle with others as true and as brave,
-    Marched through the wild tempest, the nation to save.
-    Their pathway was fearful, surrounded by foes,
-    Who strove in fierce madness their course to oppose;
-    Who hurl threats and curses defiant of law,
-    And think by such methods they may overawe
-    The gallant defenders, who nevertheless
-    Hold back their resentment as forward they press,
-    And conscious of noble endeavor, despise
-    The flashing of weapons and traitorous eyes.
-    Behold now the crisis! The mob thirsts for blood!
-    It strikes down "Nick" Biddle, and opens the flood;
-    The torrents of crimson from hearts that are true,
-    That shall deepen and widen, shall clean and renew,
-    The land of our fathers by slavery cursed.
-    The blood of "Nick" Biddle--yes, it is the first,
-    The patter of raindrops presaging the storm,
-    That will rage and destroy till the nation reform.
-    How strange, too, it seems that the Capitol floor,
-    Where slave-holders sat in the Congress of yore,
-    And forged for his kindred chains heavy to bear,
-    To bind down the black man in endless despair,
-    Should be stained with his blood, and thus sanctified,
-    Made sacred to Freedom, through time to abide,
-    A temple of justice, with every right
-    For all of the nation--black, red men and white.
-    The grave of "Nick" Biddle, though humble it be,
-    Is nobler by far in the sight of the free
-    Than tombs of those chieftains whose sinful crusade,
-    Brought long years of mourning, and countless graves made;
-    In striving to fetter their black fellow-men,
-    And make of the Southland a vast prison pen,
-    Their cause was unholy, but "Nick" Biddle was just--
-    And hosts of pure spirits watch over his dust.
-
-
-
-[Illustration: _THE GRAVE OF NICK BIDDLE._]
-
-
-Deeds are indestructible; ideas are imperishable, and mind is immortal.
-"Children," says George Eliot, "may be strangled, deeds never; they have
-an indestructible life, both in mind and outside of our consciousness."
-It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that many of the ancients of the
-distant past should have predicated eternal life upon deeds and ideas.
-Deeds which are formidable, and ideas which grow and expand, and gather
-strength, until they become the very life of the social, moral and
-religious structure of the nation. To my mind there can be no truer
-measurement of a man, or a race, or a nation, than the standard of ideas
-which formulate themselves into deeds. "Deeds and ideas," which,
-according to Disraeli, "render a man independent of his constituencies,
-independent of dissolution, independent even of the course of time."
-
-
-[Illustration: _THEODORE ROOSEVELT._]
-
-
-Measure from this standard Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the
-United States of America, is the most unique figure before the American
-people to-day. No President since the days of Lincoln, the emancipator,
-merits in a larger degree the unselfish praise and devotion, not only of
-his countrymen, but of the whole civilized world. In the strictest sense
-of the term, he is a man of destiny. Born, like all true leaders and
-reformers, at a particular time, for a particular purpose; endowed by
-nature with a constitution which defies the encroachment of disease;
-with an intellect which craves the most rigid discipline; with a courage
-which knows no daring, and a conscience which repels the slightest
-innovation which might result to the detriment of his fellow-man,
-regardless of race, color or creed. It was for Abraham Lincoln to issue
-the proclamation of freedom, and thus save the nation from
-disintegration; it is for Theodore Roosevelt to preserve that
-proclamation, and preserve the amendments to the Constitution, which is
-the very life of the freedom guaranteed to the emancipated. From the
-time of President Grant down to the present time, there has been a
-persistent attempt on the part of the South to paralyze the spirit and
-practice of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the
-Constitution, without which freed men would have no legal standing in
-the nation.
-
-The amendments received a dangerous wound during the administration of
-President Hayes. From the effects of this wound it hardly ever
-recovered. When, by a strange Providence, Theodore Roosevelt was called
-suddenly to occupy the place of the martyred President McKinley, a most
-lovable and peaceful man, black men and their friends, all over the
-country, rejoiced in the hope of a better day, when right and justice
-would succeed policy and conciliation. In this we were not mistaken. Not
-that Theodore Roosevelt loves the black man any more than any of his
-predecessors, but that Theodore Roosevelt has convictions and the
-courage of his convictions, regardless of consequences. The appended
-correspondence, which explains itself, will render him immortal, and
-will keep his memory fresh in the recollection of his fellow-men, and
-when future historians chronicle his acts, they shall speak of him as
-"Theodore, the Great and the Good."
-
-
-
-
-COLOR IS NO BAR TO OFFICE.
-
-
-_President Roosevelt Defines His Attitude--In a Letter to a South
-Carolinian, Who Includes in a Number of Objections to the Appointment of
-Dr. Crum as Collector of the Port of Charleston the Statement That He is
-a Negro, the President Declares That He Will Continue to Appoint Colored
-Men of Intelligence and Standing--Incentive to Good Citizenship._
-
-Washington, November 27.--The President has sent the following
-communication to a prominent citizen of Charleston, S. C.:
-
-"Personal.
-
-"WHITE HOUSE,
-
-"Washington, November 26th, 1902.
-
-"My Dear Sir:--I am in receipt of your letter of November 10th, and one
-from Mr. ----, under date of November 11th, in reference to the
-appointment of Dr. Crum as collector of the port of Charleston.
-
-"In your letter you make certain specific charges against Dr. Crum,
-tending to show his unfitness in several respects for the office sought.
-These charges are entitled to the utmost consideration from me, and I
-shall go over them carefully before taking any action. After making
-these charges, you add, as a further reason for opposition to him, that
-he is a colored man; and after reciting the misdeeds that followed
-carpet-bag rule and Negro domination in South Carolina, you say that 'we
-have sworn never again to submit to the rule of the African, and such an
-appointment as that of Dr. Crum to any such office forces us to protest
-unanimously against this insult to the white blood,' and you add that
-you understood me to say that I would never force a Negro on such a
-community as yours. Mr. ---- puts the objection of color first, saying,
-'First, he is a colored man, and that of itself ought to bar him from
-the office.'
-
-"In view of these last statements, I think I ought to make clear to you
-why I am concerned and pained by your making them, and what my attitude
-is as regards all such appointments. How anyone could have gained the
-idea that I had said I would not appoint reputable and upright colored
-men to office when objection was made to them solely on account of their
-color, I confess I am wholly unable to understand. At the time of my
-visit to Charleston last spring, I had made, and since that time I have
-made, a number of such appointments from several States in which there
-was considerable colored population. For example, I made one such
-appointment in Mississippi, and another in Alabama shortly before my
-visit to Charleston. I had at that time appointed two colored men as
-judicial magistrates in the District of Columbia. I have recently
-announced another such appointment for New Orleans, and have just made
-one from Pennsylvania. The great majority of my appointments in every
-State have been of white men. North and South alike it has been my
-sedulous endeavor to appoint only men of high character and good
-capacity, whether white or black. But it has been my consistent policy
-in every State where their numbers warranted it to recognize colored men
-of good repute and standing in making appointments to office. These
-appointments of colored men have in no State made more than a small
-proportion of the total number of appointments. I am unable to see how I
-can legitimately be asked to make an exception for South Carolina. In
-South Carolina, to the four most important positions in the State, I
-have appointed three men and continued in office a fourth, all of them
-white men--three originally Gold Democrats; two of them, as I am
-informed, the sons of Confederate soldiers. I have been informed by the
-citizens of Charleston whom I met that these four men represent a high
-grade of public service.
-
-"I do not intend to appoint any unfit man to office. So far as I
-legitimately can I shall always endeavor to pay regard to the wishes and
-feelings of the people of each locality, but I cannot consent to take
-the position that the door of hope--the door of opportunity--is to be
-shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race
-or color. Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be
-fundamentally wrong. If, as you hold, the great bulk of the colored
-people are not yet fit in point of character and influence to hold such
-positions, it seems to me that it is worth while putting a premium upon
-the effort among them to achieve the character and standing which will
-fit them.
-
-"The question of 'Negro domination' does not enter into the matter at
-all. It might as well be asserted that when I was Governor of New York,
-I sought to bring about Negro domination in that State because I
-appointed two colored men of good character and standing to responsible
-positions--one of them to a position paying a salary twice as large as
-that paid in the office now under consideration; one of them as a
-director of the Buffalo Exposition. The question raised by you and
-Mr.---- in the statements to which I refer is simply whether it is to be
-declared that under no circumstances shall any man of color, no matter
-how upright and honest, no matter how good a citizen, no matter how fair
-in his dealings with all his fellows, be permitted to hold any office
-under our government.
-
-"I certainly cannot assume such an attitude, and you must permit me to
-say that in my view it is an attitude no man should assume, whether he
-looks at it from the standpoint of the true interest of the white man of
-the South or of the colored man of the South--not to speak of any other
-section of the Union. It seems to me that it is a good thing from every
-standpoint to let the colored man know that if he shows in marked degree
-the qualities of good citizenship--that the qualities which in a white
-man we feel are entitled to reward--then he will not be cut off from all
-hope of similar reward.
-
-"Without any regard as to what my decision may be on the merits of this
-particular applicant for this particular place, I feel that I ought to
-let you know clearly my attitude on the far broader question raised by
-you and Mr. ----, an attitude from which I have not varied during my
-term of office.
-
-"Faithfully yours,
-
-"THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
-
-"Hon. ----
-
-"Charleston, S. C."
-
-[Transcriber's note: Original spelling varieties have been maintained.]
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE
-AMERICAN NEGRO ***
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