The Great Conspiracy, Part 5 - John Alexander Logan
THE GREAT CONSPIRACY
Its Origin and History
Part 5
BY
JOHN LOGAN
CHAPTER XVIII.
FREEDOM PROCLAIMED TO ALL.
While mentally revolving the question of Emancipation--now, evidently
"coming to a head,"--no inconsiderable portion of Mr. Lincoln's thoughts
centered upon, and his perplexities grew out of, his assumption that the
"physical difference" between the Black and White--the African and
Caucasian races, precluded the idea of their living together in the one
land as Free men and equals.
In his speeches during the great Lincoln-Douglas debate we have seen
this idea frequently advanced, and so, in his later public utterances as
President.
As in his appeal to the Congressional delegations from the Border-States
on the 12th of July, 1862, he had held out to them the hope that "the
Freed people will not be so reluctant to go" to his projected colony in
South America, when their "numbers shall be large enough to be company
and encouragement for one another," so, at a later date--on the 14th of
August following--he appealed to the Colored Free men themselves to help
him found a proposed Negro colony in New Granada, and thus aid in the
solution of this part of the knotty problem, by the disenthrallment of
the new race from its unhappy environments here.
The substance of the President's interesting address, at the White
House, to the delegation of Colored men, for whom he had sent, was thus
reported at the time:
"Having all been seated, the President, after a few preliminary
observations, informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by
Congress, and placed at his disposition, for the purpose of aiding the
colonization in some country of the people, or a portion of them, of
African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had for a long time
been his inclination, to favor that cause; and why, he asked, should the
people of your race be colonized, and where?
"Why should they leave this Country? This is perhaps the first question
for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have
between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two
races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss; but this
physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think.
Your race suffers very greatly, many of them by living among us, while
ours suffers from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If
this is admitted, it affords a reason, at least, why we should be
separated. You here are Freemen, I suppose?
"A VOICE--Yes, Sir.
"THE PRESIDENT--Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives.
Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on
any people. But even when you cease to be Slaves, you are yet far
removed from being placed on an equality with the White race. You are
cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoys. The
aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free; but on
this broad continent not a single man of your race is made the equal of
a single man of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is
still upon you. I do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as
a fact, with which we have to deal. I cannot alter it if I would. It
is a fact about which we all think and feel alike, I and you. We look
to our condition.
"Owing to the existence of the two races on this continent, I need not
recount to you the effects upon White men, growing out of the
institution of Slavery. I believe in its general evil effects on the
White race. See our present condition--the Country engaged in War! our
white men cutting one another's throats--none knowing how far it will
extend--and then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your
race among us there could not be War, although many men engaged on
either side do not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I
repeat, without the institution of Slavery, and the Colored race as a
basis, the War could not have an existence. It is better for us both,
therefore, to be separated.
"I know that there are Free men among you who, even if they could better
their condition, are not as much inclined to go out of the Country as
those who, being Slaves, could obtain their Freedom on this condition.
I suppose one of the principal difficulties in the way of colonization
is that the free colored man cannot see that his comfort would be
advanced by it. You may believe that you can live in Washington, or
elsewhere in the United States, the remainder of your life; perhaps more
so than you can in any foreign country, and hence you may come to the
conclusion that you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a
foreign country.
"This is, (I speak in no unkind sense) an extremely selfish view of the
case. But you ought to do something to help those who are not so
fortunate as yourselves. There is an unwillingness on the part of our
People, harsh as it may be, for you free Colored people to remain with
us. Now if you could give a start to the White people you would open a
wide door for many to be made free. If we deal with those who are not
free at the beginning, and whose intellects are clouded by Slavery, we
have very poor material to start with.
"If intelligent Colored men, such as are before me, could move in this
matter, much might be accomplished. It is exceedingly important that we
have men at the beginning capable of thinking as White men, and not
those who have been systematically oppressed. There is much to
encourage you.
"For the sake of your race you should sacrifice something of your
present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the
White people. It is a cheering thought throughout life, that something
can be done to ameliorate the condition of those who have been subject
to the hard usages of the World. It is difficult to make a man
miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to
the great God who made him.
"In the American Revolutionary War, sacrifices were made by men engaged
in it, but they were cheered by the future. General Washington himself
endured greater physical hardships than if he had remained a British
subject, yet he was a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting
his race, in doing something for the children of his neighbors, having
none of his own.
"The Colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. In a certain
sense it is a success. The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just
been with me the first time I ever saw him. He says they have, within
the bounds of that Colony, between three and four hundred thousand
people, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island, or
Delaware, or in some of our newer States, and less than in some of our
larger ones. They are not all American colonists or their descendants.
Something less than 12,000 have been sent thither from this Country.
Many of the original settlers have died, yet, like people elsewhere,
their offspring outnumber those deceased.
"The question is, if the Colored people are persuaded to go anywhere,
why not there? One reason for unwillingness to do so is that some of
you would rather remain within reach of the country of your nativity. I
do not know how much attachment you may have toward our race. It does
not strike me that you have the greatest reason to love them. But still
you are attached to them at all events.
"The place I am thinking about having for a colony, is in Central
America. It is nearer to us than Liberia--not much more than one-fourth
as far as Liberia, and within seven days' run by steamers. Unlike
Liberia, it is a great line of travel--it is a highway. The country is
a very excellent one for any people, and with great natural resources
and advantages, and especially because of the similarity of climate with
your native soil, thus being suited to your physical condition.
"The particular place I have in view, is to be a great highway from the
Atlantic or Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and this particular
place has all the advantages for a colony. On both sides there are
harbors among the finest in the World. Again, there is evidence of very
rich coal mines. A certain amount of coal is valuable in any country.
Why I attach so much importance to coal is, it will afford an
opportunity to the inhabitants for immediate employment till they get
ready to settle permanently in their homes.
"If you take colonists where there is no good landing, there is a bad
show; and so, where there is nothing to cultivate, and of which to make
a farm. But if something is started so that you can get your daily
bread as soon as you reach there, it is a great advantage. Coal land is
the best thing I know of, with which to commence an enterprise.
"To return--you have been talked to upon this subject, and told that a
speculation is intended by gentlemen who have an interest in the
country, including the coal mines. We have been mistaken all our
lives if we do not know Whites, as well as Blacks, look to their
self-interest. Unless among those deficient of intellect, everybody you
trade with makes something. You meet with these things here and
everywhere. If such persons have what will be an advantage to them, the
question is, whether it cannot be made of advantage to you?
"You are intelligent, and know that success does not as much depend on
external help, as on self-reliance. Much, therefore, depends upon
yourselves. As to the coal mines, I think I see the means available for
your self-reliance. I shall, if I get a sufficient number of you
engaged, have provision made that you shall not be wronged. If you will
engage in the enterprise, I will spend some of the money intrusted to
me. I am not sure you will succeed. The Government may lose the money,
but we cannot succeed unless we try; but we think, with care, we can
succeed.
"The political affairs in Central America are not in quite as
satisfactory condition as I wish. There are contending factions in that
quarter; but it is true, all the factions are agreed alike on the
subject of colonization, and want it; and are more generous than we are
here. To your Colored race they have no objection. Besides, I would
endeavor to have you made equals, and have the best assurance that you
should be the equals of the best.
"The practical thing I want to ascertain is, whether I can get a number
of able-bodied men, with their wives and children, who are willing to
go, when I present evidence of encouragement and protection. Could I
get a hundred tolerably intelligent men, with their wives and children,
and able to 'cut their own fodder' so to speak? Can I have fifty? If I
could find twenty-five able-bodied men, with a mixture of women and
children--good things in the family relation, I think I could make a
successful commencement.
"I want you to let me know whether this can be done or not. This is the
practical part of my wish to see you. These are subjects of very great
importance--worthy of a month's study, of a speech delivered in an hour.
I ask you, then, to consider seriously, not as pertaining to yourselves
merely, nor for your race, and ours, for the present time, but as one of
the things, if successfully managed, for the good of mankind--not
confined to the present generation, but as:
"From age to age descends the lay
To millions yet to be,
Till far its echoes roll away
Into eternity."'
President Lincoln's well-meant colored colonization project, however,
fell through, owing partly to opposition to it in Central America, and
partly to the very natural and deeply-rooted disinclination of the
Colored free men to leave the land of their birth.
Meanwhile, limited Military Emancipation of Slaves was announced and
regulated, on the 22d July, 1862, by the following Executive
Instructions, which were issued from the War Department by order of the
President--the issue of which was assigned by Jefferson Davis as one
reason for his Order of August 1, 1862, directing "that the commissioned
officers of Pope's and Steinwehr's commands be not entitled, when
captured, to be treated as soldiers and entitled to the benefit of the
cartel of exchange:"
"WAR DEPARTMENT,
"WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 1862.
"First. Ordered that Military Commanders within the States of Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Texas, and Arkansas, in an orderly manner seize and use any property,
real or personal, which may be necessary or convenient for their several
commands, for supplies, or for other Military purposes; and that while
property may be destroyed for proper Military objects, none shall be
destroyed in wantonness or malice.
"Second. That Military and Naval Commanders shall employ as laborers,
within and from said States, so many Persons of African descent as can
be advantageously used for Military or Naval purposes, giving them
reasonable wages for their labor.
"Third. That, as to both property, and Persons of African descent,
accounts shall be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail to show
quantities and amounts, and from whom both property and such Persons
shall have come, as a basis upon which compensation can be made in
proper cases; and the several departments of this Government shall
attend to and perform their appropriate parts towards the execution of
these orders.
"By Order of the President:
"EDWIN M. STANTON,
"Secretary of War."
On the 9th of August, 1862, Major General McClellan promulgated the
Executive Order of July 22, 1862, from his Headquarters at Harrison's
Landing, Va., with certain directions of his own, among which were the
following:
"Inhabitants, especially women and children, remaining peaceably at
their homes, must not be molested; and wherever commanding officers find
families peculiarly exposed in their persons or property to marauding
from this Army, they will, as heretofore, so far as they can do with
safety and without detriment to the service, post guards for their
protection.
"In protecting private property, no reference is intended to Persons
held to service or labor by reason of African Descent. Such Persons
will be regarded by this Army, as they heretofore have been, as
occupying simply a peculiar legal status under State laws, which
condition the Military authorities of the United States are not required
to regard at all in districts where Military operations are made
necessary by the rebellious action of the State governments.
"Persons subject to suspicion of hostile purposes, residing or being
near our Forces, will be, as heretofore, subject to arrest and
detention, until the cause or necessity is removed. All such arrested
parties will be sent, as usual, to the Provost-Marshal General, with a
statement of the facts in each case.
"The General Commanding takes this occasion to remind the officers and
soldiers of this Army that we are engaged in supporting the Constitution
and the Laws of the United States and suppressing Rebellion against
their authority; that we are not engaged in a War of rapine, revenge, or
subjugation; that this is not a contest against populations, but against
armed forces and political organizations; that it is a struggle carried
on with the United States, and should be conducted by us upon the
highest principles known to Christian civilization.
"Since this Army commenced active operations, Persons of African
descent, including those held to service or labor under State laws, have
always been received, protected, and employed as laborers at wages.
Hereafter it shall be the duty of the Provost-Marshal General to cause
lists to be made of all persons of African descent employed in this Army
as laborers for Military purposes--such lists being made sufficiently
accurate and in detail to show from whom such persons shall have come.
"Persons so subject and so employed have always understood that after
being received into the Military service of the United States, in any
capacity, they could never be reclaimed by their former holders. Except
upon such understanding on their part, the order of the President, as to
this class of Persons, would be inoperative. The General Commanding
therefore feels authorized to declare to all such employees, that they
will receive permanent Military protection against any compulsory return
to a condition of servitude."
Public opinion was now rapidly advancing, under the pressure of Military
necessity, and the energetic efforts of the immediate Emancipationists,
to a belief that Emancipation by Presidential Proclamation would be wise
and efficacious as an instrumentality toward subduing the Rebellion;
that it must come, sooner or later--and the sooner, the better.
Indeed, great fault was found, by some of these, with what they
characterized as President Lincoln's "obstinate slowness" to come up to
their advanced ideas on the subject. He was even accused of failing to
execute existing laws touching confiscation of Slaves of Rebels coming
within the lines of the Union Armies. On the 19th of August, 1862, a
letter was addressed to him by Horace Greeley which concluded thus:
"On the face of this wide Earth, Mr. President, there is not one
disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union Cause who
does not feel that all attempts to put down the Rebellion, and at the
same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile--that
the Rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a year
if Slavery were left in full vigor--that Army officers, who remain to
this day devoted to Slavery, can at best be but half-way loyal to the
Union--and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour of added
and deepened peril to the Union.
"I appeal to the testimony of your embassadors in Europe. It is freely
at your service, not mine. Ask them to tell you candidly whether
the seeming subserviency of your policy to the Slaveholding,
Slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the despair,
of Statesmen of all parties; and be admonished by the general answer.
"I close, as I began, with the statement that what an immense majority
of the loyal millions of your countrymen require of you, is a frank,
declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the Laws of the Land,
more especially of the Confiscation Act. That Act gives Freedom to the
Slaves of Rebels coming within our lines, or whom those lines may at any
time inclose. We ask you to render it due obedience by publicly
requiring all your subordinates to recognize and obey it.
"The Rebels are everywhere using the late Anti-Negro riots in the North
--as they have long used your officers' treatment of Negroes in the
South--to convince the Slaves that they have nothing to hope from a
Union success--that we mean in that case to sell them into a bitter
Bondage to defray the cost of the War.
"Let them impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant
and credulous Bondmen, and the Union will never be restored--never. We
can not conquer ten millions of people united in solid phalanx against
us, powerfully aided by Northern sympathizers and European allies.
"We must have scouts, guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers, and
choppers, from the Blacks of the South--whether we allow them to fight
for us or not--or we shall be baffled and repelled.
"As one of the Millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle, at
any sacrifice but that of principle and honor, but who now feel that the
triumph of the Union is indispensable not only to the existence of our
Country, but to the well-being of mankind, I entreat you to render a
hearty and unequivocal obedience to the Law of the Land.
"Yours,
"HORACE GREELEY."
To this letter, President Lincoln at once made the following memorable
reply:
"EXECUTIVE MANSION,
"WASHINGTON, Friday, August 22, 1862.
"HON. HORACE GREELEY
"DEAR SIR:--I have just read yours of the 19th inst. addressed to myself
through the New York Tribune.
"If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may
know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
"If there be any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I
do not now and here argue against them.
"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I
waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always
supposed to be right.
"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant
to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in
the shortest way under the Constitution.
"The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union
will be--the Union as it was.
"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time save Slavery, I do not agree with them.
"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree, with them.
"My paramount object is to save the Union and not either to save or
destroy Slavery.
"If I could save the Union without freeing any Slave, I would do it--and
if I could save it by freeing all the Slaves, I would do it--and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do
that.
"What I do about Slavery and the Colored race, I do because I believe it
helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union.
"I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the
cause, and shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the
cause.
"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty,
and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
men everywhere could be free.
"Yours,
"A. LINCOLN."
On the 13th of September, 1862, a deputation from all the religious
denominations of Chicago presented to President Lincoln a memorial for
the immediate issue of a Proclamation of Emancipation, to which, and the
Chairman's remarks, he thus replied:
"The subject presented in the Memorial is one upon which I have thought
much for weeks past, and I may even say, for months. I am approached
with the most opposite opinions, and advice, and that by religious men,
who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am sure
that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and
perhaps, in some respects, both. I hope it will not be irreverent for
me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to
others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He
would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself
than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence
in this matter. And if I can learn what it is, I will do it!
"These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be
granted that I am not to expect a direct Revelation; I must study the
plain physical aspects of the case, ascertain what is possible, and
learn what appears to be wise and right!
"The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For instance, the
other day, four gentlemen, of standing and intelligence, from New York,
called, as a delegation, on business connected with the War; but, before
leaving, two of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general
Emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked them.
"You know also that the last Session of Congress had a decided majority
of Anti-Slavery men, yet they could not unite on this policy. And the
same is true of the religious people; why the Rebel soldiers are praying
with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and
expecting God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers, who had been
taken prisoner, told Senator Wilson, a few days since, that he met
nothing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among,
in their prayers. But we will talk over the merits of the case.
"What good would a Proclamation of Emancipation from me do, especially
as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document that the
whole World will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's
Bull against the Comet! Would my word free the Slaves, when I cannot
even enforce the Constitution in the Rebel States? Is there a single
Court or Magistrate, or individual that would be influenced by it there?
And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon
the Slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved and which
offers protection and Freedom to the Slaves of Rebel masters who came
within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a single
Slave to come over to us.