St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1940-04-19
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This
IT COULDN'T HAPPEN NOW
By Hobart T. Mitchell

The American Legion could have
been a great help to Edom London
if the organization had existed
after the Revolutionary War.
London had been a slave as early
as 1857 and was sold to nine diff
ferent masters before 1775. From
the ninth owner he ran away and
enlisted in the Massachusetts army
with the eight-months' men al
Cambridge. Before his term OF
service had expired he was again
sold, in July, 1776, and worked fol
his owner about five weeks when
he again enlisted for three years,
This owner received all his state
bounty money and part of his
wages.
In 1906, this revolutionary pa
triot, half starved, shoeless, rag
ged, applied for relief in the town
where he resided. That town man.
euvered magnificently, as towns do
nowadays, to shift the response
bility of the old soldier to one of
the several in the state where he
lived as a slave of his masters. The
town was unsuccessful in this
shifting of responsibilities.
THE WORDS OF A
CONGRESSMAN
Words did not fail General Ben
jamin F. Butler, a representative
in Congress, speaking to that body
on January 7, 1874, in eulogizing
the heroic deeds performed by the
4th United States Colored Troops
in their assault on New Market
Heights and Fort Harrison, Sep
TENDER 20, 1864.
"There in a space not wider than
the clerks desk, and 800 yards
long, lay the dead bodies of SAB
their lives, and whose flag had
been to them flag of stripes, in
which no star of glory had ever
shone for them; feeling l had
wronged them in the past, and be-
lieving what was the future duty
of my country to them, I swore a
solemn oath, May my right hand
forget its cunning and my tongue
cleave to the roof of my mouth if
I ever fail to defend the rights of
the men who have given their
blood for me and my country that
day and for their race forever, and,
God helping me, 1 will keep that
OATH"
HE REPORTED TO GOD
Colonel Stafford, in presenting
the colors to the Second Louisiana
Native Guards, a Negro battalion
assembled at New Orleans for the
Union cause, addressed the color
guard thusly, protect, defend, die
for, but do not surrender these
colors." The color-bearer replied,
Colonel, I will bring back these
of my colored comrades, slain in
the defense of their country, who
had lain down their lives to up
hold it's flag and it's honor as a
willing sacrifice. And as I rode
along, guiding my horse this way
and that lest he should profane
with his hoofs what seemed to me
the sacred dead, and as l looked
at their bronzed faces, upturned in
the shining sun, as if in mute ap-
peal against the wrongs of the
country for which they had given
colors to you in honor, or report to
God the reason why"
The colors returned but were
stained by the blood of the brave
fiag-sergeant Plancianos.
THE CONDUCT
OF A SOLDIER
Fourteen white officers sent the
following statement to the Massa-
chusetts Legislature on December
5, ITS: "The subscribers beg
leave to report to your Honorable
House, which we do in justice to
the character of so brave a man,
that under our own observation we
declare that a Negro man named
Salem Poor of Col. Frye's regi-
ment in the battle of Charlestown,
behaved like an experienced officer
as well as an excellent soldier. To
set forth particulars of his conduct
would be tedious. We only beg
leave to say, in the person of this
said Negro centers a brave and
gallant soldier. The reward due to
so great and distinguished a char
acter we submit to congress"