The Washington bee., 1886-07-17

my dppfOdCu, u6 SIOWIy uT6N HIS
feet in from the different parts of
the room, into which they had
strayed, and he began to rise, and
continued to rise until he looked
down upon me and extended his
hand and gave me welcome. l
began with some hesitation, to tell
him who | was aud what | had
been doing, but he soon stopped
me, saying in a sharp, cordial
voice.
''You need not tell me who you
are, Mr.. Douglass, / know who you
are. Mr.. Lenard has told me all
about you
He then invited me to take a
seat beside him. Not wishing to
occupy his time and attention,
seeing that he was busy, stated
to him the object of my call at
once, said:
''Mr. Lincoln, | am recruiting
colored troops. | have assisted in
fitting up two regiments i'll Massa-
chusetts, and am now at work in
the same way iii Pennsylvania, and
L have come to say this to you sir,
if you wish to make this branch OF
the service successful you must do
four things.
"First-You must give colored
soldiers the same paw that YOU give
white soldiers.
.'Second-You must compel the
Confederate States to treat color
ed soldiers, when taken prisoners
as prisoners of war.
Third When any colored man
or soldier performs brave meritori-
Gus exploits in the field, you must
enable me to say to those that
recruit that they will be promoted
for such service, precisely as white
men are promoted for similar ser
vice.
"FOnrth---In case any colored
soldiers are murdered in cold blood
aud taken prisoners, you should re-
taliate in kind.'
TO this little speech Mr.. Lincoln
listened with earnest attention,
and with very apparent sympathy,
and replied TO each point in his
own peculiar forcible way. First he
spoke of the opposition generally
to employing negroes as soldiers at
all, of the prejudice against the
race, and of the advantage to col.
ored people that would result from
their being employed as soldiers in
defense OF their country. He re-
garded such an employment as an
experiment, and spoke OF the ad-
vantage it would be to the colored
race ii the experiment should sue.
ceed. He said that he had difficult
ty in getting colored men into the
United States uniform; that when
the purpose was fixed to employ
them as soldiers, several different
uniforms were proposed for them,
and that it was something gained
when it was finally determined to
clothe them like other soldiers.
Now, as to the pay we had to make
some concession to prejudice. There
were threats that if we made SOL
diers of them at all white men
would not enlist, would not fight
beside them. Besides, it was not
believed that a negro could make a
good soldier, as good soldier as
white man, and hence it was
thought that he should not have
the same pay as a white man. But
said he, II assure you Mr.. Doug
lass, that in the end they shall
have the same pay as white sol
diers'' AS to the exchange and
general treatment of cOlored SOL
diers when taken prisoners of war,
he should insist to their being en-
titled to all privileges of such pris-
oners. Mr.. Lincoln admitted the
justice of my demand for the pro-
motion of colored soldiers for good
conduct i'll the field, but OH the
matter of retaliation he differed
from me entirely. [ shall never
forget the benignant expression of
his face, the fearful look of his eye,
and the culver in his voice, when
he deprecated a resort to retalia-
tory measures.
"Once begun" said he, 81 do
not know where such d measure
would STOP
He said he could not take men
out and kill them in cold blood for
what was done by others. If he
could get hold of the persons who
were guilty of killing the colored
prisoners in cold blood, the case
would be different, but he could
not kill the innocent for the guilty.
Before leaving Mr.. Lincoln, Sena-
tor Pomeroy said:
"Mr. President, Mr.. Stanton is
going to make Douglass Adjutant
General to General Thomas and is
going to send him to Mississippi