The colored American., 1902-08-30

even by suggestion, have l referred to
colored men in Government employ,
and, while l have been in Washington
for many, many years, and have been
constantly about the Executive Depart
ments. I have never seen anything CT
the Indifferent idleness which Mr..
Thompson describes. 1t is not expect
ed that messengers at the doors of Of
ficials are to be engaged in. clerical or
constant mechanical work; but they
must be alert at any moment to an
SWer a call and perform whatever duty
is at the moment demanded. I don't
think that any subordinate Government
employe is just eager to injure his
health at hard labor, or in eXert1On of
a strenuous life; but | think that this
applies no less to white men than 1t
does to colored. I don't remember see
ing a colored watchman anywhere.
In the Interior Department, I know
there is not one.
AS to these young cOlored men TAX
ing places that should be given to vet
Grams, | have only to say that 1t is just
as bad that young white men should be
given places that should be accorded
to veterans, although 1 don't think that
veterans are quite adapted to act as
Mercuries, or to fly into "the presence"
at the touch of bell. 1t is perfectly
true that places such as watchmen and
the like are given to young men, when
they should be filled by old soldiers;
but we have cOlOred veterans, as we'll
as white, who are capable OF filling
these places. We have, for example,
in our ranks, members of the 4th Mas
sachusetts Volunteers, the regiment of
brave young Colonel Shaw, who was
killed at Wagner; and no truer and
more patriotic set of men ever lived
than those men who stormed Fort Wag-
ner and. in a terrific tempest of shot,
shell anG ball, fearlessly and heroic
ally facing fire and imminnet death,
carried their dying. Colonel in their
arms, as he fell on the ramparts. 1t
required more courage in the Negro
to be a soldier than in the white man,
because every nerve was strained by
the enemy to kill him, and capture
meant death All honor to our cOlOred
soldiers who helped us in freeing their
brethrenl
Under the statement, in the constitu-
ton. of the objects of the Union Vet
erans' Union, the sixth and last object
of the Order is as follows:
sixth. To secure complete and en-
during enforcement of the logical re-
suits of the war of the Rebellion,
which results include the discontinu-
ance of slavery and the establishment
of American citizenship on the elevated
plane of political and legal equality"
I wish to remind my comrades that,
while the immediate and OstenSible
cause of the War was defiance of the
Government and attempt at secession,
vet the very cause of secession and, as
such, the real basis of the War. was the
institution of slavery. Now, we battle
men who marched through the rebel
States, vividly remember the hordes of
Door SlaveS,-men, women and child
ren,-who looked upon us as their sa-
viOr and followed us to freedom. We
led them out of the house of bondage
toward the promised land but good
deal of it is. I guess, promised yet, in
that their freedom is not complete and
the full doctrine of civil rights does
not, as yet, obtain. The quite effusive
manner in which the promise is net in
some of the Southern States makes me
think of the comedy, Come and See
Us and We VIII Make it Pleasant for
You" There is no suggestion of social
equality; this the Negro himself does
not desire; but what he is entitled to
and shall have. if the active men who
actually freed him, can effect it, is alb
solute and complete legal and political
equality.
The Union Veterans Union will CO.
operate with the Negro and ask him
to cooperate with it, that he may OBJ
tain his complete freedom and, by aid
ing the veteran with his votes, help the