The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-20
DEMOCRACY AND coLoRED ZEN

What Gen. jackson of Negro Soldiers
and What Thomas A. Hendricks Thinks.
To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
General Jackson, in an address he made to his
soldiers after the battle of New Orleans, spoke
as follows to the colored troops:
"Fellow-citizens and Soldiers I invited you TO
share in the glory Of your white brethern. / expected
much from you, for l was not uninformea OF those
qualities which must render you formidable to an IN,
vadlng foe. l knew that you could endure hunger and
thirst and all the h~ardships of war. l knew that you
loved the land of your nativity, and that like ourselves
you had to defend all that is dear to man. ! have
found in you, united to these qualities, that noble en-
thusiasm 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 ap-
plaud your valor as yonr general does your ardor.
One thousand colored soldiers aided General
Jackson in that trying hour He appreciated
their services, and in language foreible and
eloquent sounded their praises, and told them
that the representatives of the American Nation
would applaud their valor.
Fifty years later the American people were
called to grapple with a rebellion the most
gigantic the world ever knew. The enemies of
our country both at home and abroad, were
plotting her destruction. At the call of the
President mere than 300, 900 colored men aided
General Grant in the suppression of the re-
bellion. They shared in the sufferings Of their
white brethren, guided our armies in intricate
paths, and withheld no information that would
be of service to their commander. For conduct
SO noble, and for services so valuable, they re
eeived from Ex-Governor Hendricks the follow
ing need of praise:
Jan. 30, 1855, Mr.. Hendricks, in a speech in the
Senate chamber, after arraigning the Republicans,
asks the question, What have you doneY He an
swered by SAYING, you have excluded from the right
given the right to the negroes. Ii you can tell me OF
any thing else YOU have accomplished, l should like
to know what il IS. You have taken the robes of po-
iitical power of the shoulders of white men, and you
have put them upon the shoulders OF the negroes.
Gentlemen may moraize in solemn tones, as if they
came from the tombs, about the ~galantry and dis
tinguished services of the negroes in the war. / can
tell you that with all the political and party ambition
you have. You have not power to take the garlands
from the brows Of the white soldiers, and put them on
the heads Of the negroes. You cannot do it. All
over this land, in every neighborho0d, there are the
soldiers that have returned home, who will vindieate
and defend their own honor against the efforts to ap-
prepriate the glory of the white boys to the negroes.
There was not a battle in the war that was won by
the negroes. There was not a point that was carried
by them"
The nominee of the Democratic party for the
vice presidency, unlike General jackson, has
no voice to applaud these colored troops,
their daring, their valor SO conspicuous on many
a battlefield. Had he forgotten the essential
aid rendered by them in the varied and i'm
portant services in which they were Employed
Had he forgotten the testimony of their officers
TO their braveryg Had he forgotten the large
number of them who fell before rebel bullets
and with their white brethren filed a common
gravel P. j. FIsKE.