The proclamation contained a statement that ex-slaves
would be “received into the armed service of
the United States.” Up to this time not
much had been done in the way of enlisting colored
troops. The negroes themselves had somewhat disappointed
their friends by failing to take the initiative, and
it became evident that they must be stirred by influences
outside their own race. The President now took
the matter in hand, and endeavored to stimulate commanders
of Southern departments to show energy concerning
it. By degrees successful results were obtained.
The Southerners formally declared that they would not
regard either negro troops or their officers as prisoners
of war; but that they would execute the officers as
ordinary felons, and would hand over the negroes to
be dealt with by the state authorities as slaves in
insurrection. Painful and embarrassing questions
of duty were presented by these menaces. To Mr.
Lincoln the obvious policy of retaliation seemed abhorrent,
and he held back from declaring that he would adopt
it, in the hope that events might never compel him
to do so. But on July 30 he felt compelled, in
justice to the blacks and those who led them, to issue
an order that for every Union soldier killed in violation
of the laws of war a rebel soldier should be executed;
and for every one enslaved a rebel soldier should
be placed at hard labor on the public works.
Happily, however, little or no action ever became necessary
in pursuance of this order. The Southerners either
did not in fact wreak their vengeance in fulfillment
of their furious vows, or else covered their doings
so that they could not be proved. Only the shocking
incident of the massacre at Fort Pillow seemed to demand
stern retaliatory measures, and even this was, too
mercifully, allowed gradually to sink away into neglect.[42]
[Illustration: Lincoln Submitting the Emancipation
Proclamation to His Cabinet.]
FOOTNOTES:
[33] To A.G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, N. and H.
vi. 430; and see Lincoln to Chase, September 2, 1863;
ibid. 434.
[34] “It was,” says Mr. Arnold, “full
of errors and mistaken inferences, and written in
ignorance of many facts which it was the duty of the
President to consider.” Life of Lincoln,
254. But, per contra, Hon. George W. Julian
says: “It was one of the most powerful appeals
ever made in behalf of justice and the rights of man.”
Polit. Recoil. 220. Arnold and Julian
were both members of the House, and both thorough-going
Abolitionists. Their difference of opinion upon
this letter of Mr. Greeley illustrates well the discussions
which, like the internecine feuds of Christian sects,
existed between men who ought to have stood side by
side against the heretics and unbelievers.
[35] For views contrary to mine, see Julian, Polit.
Recoil. 221.
[36] The story that some members of the cabinet were
opposed to the measure was distinctly denied by the
President. Carpenter, Six Months in the White
House, 88.
