Fred. Douglas

U.S. Grant and the Colored People.HIS WISE, JUST, PRACTICAL, AND EFFECTIVE FRIENDSHIPTHOROUGHLY VINDICATED BY INCONTESTABLE FACTSIN HIS RECORD FROM 1862 TO 1872.WORDS OF TRUTH AND SOBERNESS! HE WHO RUNS MAYREAD AND UNDERSTAND!! BE NOT DECEIVED,ONLY TRUTH CAN ENDURE!!!

To the Colored People of the United States:

There are many dissemblers and falsifiers of the Greeley party in the South who are seeking the control of the colored voters, by declaring to them that President Grant is not, and never has been, a faithful and sincere friend of my race. Indeed, Senator Sumner makes a charge of this kind, and while I would not for a moment imply that I have lost faith in the honored Senator's sincerity and integrity, still I must declare that President Grant's course, from the time he drew the sword in defense of the old Union in the Valley of the Mississippi till he sheathed in at Appomattox, and thence to this day in his reconstruction policy and his war upon the Ku-Klux, is without a deed or word to justify such an accusation.

In substantiation of my opinion--and I think I may say my race is a unit with me in this opinion--I desire to submit to you, and to the country through you, the following plain and truthful statement of the facts as the records prove them to be.

STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION.

And, first, let me recall the state of public opinion as regards the extent to which the welfare and rights of four millions of my enslaved people were involved during the first year and a half of the war. I quote from a letter of Mr. Lincoln's, dated August 28, 1862:

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either save or destroy slavery."

Mr. Lincoln, in his proclamation, warned the rebels that he would, on the first day of January following, proclaim emancipation in those States where the people shall be in rebellion against the United States. That glorious proclamation he accordingly issued but Kentucky, Tennessee, and portion Louisiana and Virginia were not it.

HE WAS ALWAYS IN ADVANCE

General Grant commanded the which were moving southward from and operating in territory affected and affected by the proclamation. I find, consultation with an ex-officer in that army who knew all the orders issued, that General Grant was always up with, or in advance of, authority furnished from Washington in regard to the treatment of those of our color then slaves. Thus a large number of our people, through his orders, were furnished employment within his lines, or transportation to homes and places of comfort for themselves and families and education for their children in the North. And when he reached northern Mississippi the region where the people of our colour were numerous, I find that he issued, November 11, 1862, before the Emancipation Proclamation and before authority was furnished from Washington, but solely on his own conviction of the military necessity 2nd right, an order caring for our people.

Those of our people fleeing from slavery had been not inaptly designated contrabands of war by General Butler. Those of us who participated in or witnessed these scenes can recall with sufficient vividness the exodus from slavery to liberty through the Federal lines whenever the soldiers in blue appeared.

HE FORSEES THE EVIL AND PROVIDES MEANS TO AVOID IT.

General Grant saw the demoralizing effect upon the army of thousands of men, women, and children pouring through the camps; he recognized, too, the humane consideration which would not allow, even in those disturbed and fearful scenes, the starvation of those negroes, in regard to whom, as slaves, the Government had not yet fixed its policy. Selecting an officer for the purpose, in Special Order No. 15, dated Headquarters 13th Army Corps, Department of the Tennessee, Lagrange, Tennessee, November 11, 1862, he directed this officer to "take charge of the contrabands who came into the camp, organize them into suitable companies for work, see that they were properly cared for, get them to work. He ordered suitable detailed for their protection, and the officer to report to him in person." He followed this with ample orders to theCommissary General and Quartermaster General for the issuing of rations, clothing for men, women, and children, and implements necessary for use in their labor.

In General Orders No. 13, dated Headquarters 13th Army Corps, Department of the Tennessee, Oxford, Mississippi, December 17, 1862, still half a month before the Emancipation Proclamation, he made the same officer General Superintendent of these affairs for the Department, with authority to designate assistants; and, in a word, increasing his authority, specifying more fully the details of his duties, the kind of labor in which our people were to be employed, and enforcing their compensation. They were to fill every position occupied by the soldier save what depended upon his enlistment. Their wives and children were also to be cared for and given employment as far as possible.

HE ANTICIPATES THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.

Indeed, looking over a report of the General Superintendent, which was printed in the winter of 1865, and favorably reviewed by the North American Review, I find that each military post came to have an office, and that office had one officer to care for supplies furnished them, another for the enforcement of justice in their behalf, other for their medical attendance, another for their education. All abandoned property was ordered used for them. In [???] these benefits I find white refugees shall also.

Here was the full germ of the Freedman Bureau apparent in the orders of General Grant before the Emancipation Proclamation, not as a theory, but as a [practical?] solution of the relation of slaves in [the?] South to the suppression of the [rebellion?] and in the interest of the welfare of all concerned.

How do these facts comport with the cusations in question? We know General Grant dislikes everything dramatic, what a scene is this for the [contemplation?] of the people of our color! Here, in [the?] midst of the terrible scenes of war, [the?] slaves, so far as law and the action of Government is concerned, they are as [far as?] possible protected in their families and [???] sheltered and clothed, their sick [furnished?] medicines, and the well furnished with [employment?] that they might learn self-supp[???]

After slavery was declared abolished [the?] spring approached, the Government determined to employ the freedmen as sold [???] and Adjutant General Thomas was sent [???] proper authority to organize regim[??] in the Mississippi Valley. Already [the?] company of colored troops had been organized, furnished with arms, and put on [???].

General Grant was at Milliken's B [???] Louisiana. His General Orders No. 25, [??].

"Commissaries, will issue supplies [and?] quartermasters will furnish stores [of the?] same requisitions and returns [as required?] from the troops. It is expected [that?] all commanders will especially exert themselves in carrying out the policy of the administration, not only in organizing [coloured?] regiments and rendering them efficiently also in removing prejudice against the [???]. Was this opposing the organization troops?

General Grant, in his letter to [General?] Lee, October 19, 1864, although declined to discuss the slavery question, declares [???] shall always regret the necessity of [relating?] for wrongs done our soldiers, but regard it my duty to protect all person received into the army of the United States regardless of color or nationality.

HE WAS ALWAYS READY TO HEAR CONCERNING THE FREEMEN.

* I learn from an ex-officer, who was thoroughly cognizant of the facts, that in the midst of the fearful labor around Vicksburg, General Grant always found time to attend to the calls necessary to make upon him in regard to the colored people or colored troops, that he gave every aid to the development of their industry and the means of their improvement. He favored no Utopian schemes, and sought practical solution of every difficulty in the way of the welfare of our people. That when before Vicksburg, he, and his associates in the chief command of the troops, who, night and day, were pressing the siege, found time to listen to an extended report of the officer he had placed in charge of our people in the November previous. This report he afterwards forwarded to President Lincoln with a private letter, dated June 11, 1863, in which he says:

+ "Finding that negroes were coming into our lines in great numbers and receiving kind or abusive treatment according to the peculiar views of the troops they first came in contact with, and not being able to give that personal attention to their care and use the matter demanded, I determined to appoint a General Superintendent over the whole subject, and give him such assistants as the duties assigned him might require. I have given him such aid as was in my power, by the publication, from time to time, of such orders as seemed to be required, and generally at the suggestion of the Superintendent.

He speaks of the results up to that date as of great service to the blacks in having them provided for, when otherwise they would have been neglected, and to the Government in finding employment for the negro whereby he might earn what he was receiving. And, in closing, directs special attention to that portion of the report which would suggest orders regulating the subject which a Department Commander is not competent to issue.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS SATISFIED WITH HIM.

The officer who delivered this letter and report to Mr. Lincoln, states that Mr. Lincoln received them with the greatest satisfaction, asking many questions about General Grant's views upon the whole subject of the treatment of the colored people, and on thus learning something in detail of the success of General Grant's plans and the usefulness, in his judgment, of colored soldiers, he repeated the expressions of his gratification that a General who was winning such military successes over the rebels was able, from a military standpoint, to give him so many practical illustrations of the benefits of the emancipation policy.

HE ORGANIZES FREE LABOR WHERE HE GOES,

I find in a printed copy of a letter to Mr. Levi Coffin, then in England, written by the General Superintendent, and dated at Vicksburg only a year after its fall, a statement that "this supervision, embracing the territory within the lines of our army, from Cairo down the Mississippi to Red river, together with the State of Arkansas; numbered in its care during the past year 113,650 freedmen. These are now disposed as follows: In military service as soldiers, laundresses, cooks, officers' servants, and laborers in the various staff departments, 41,150; in cities, on plantations, and in freedmen's villages and cared for, 72,500. Of these, 62,300 are entirely self-supporting--the same as any industrial class anywhere-as planters, mechanics, barbers, hackmen, draymen, &c., conducting enterprises on their own responsibility, 00044or as hired laborers. The remaining 10,200 receive subsistence from the Government. Thirty thousand of them are members of families whose heads are carrying on plantations, and have under cultivation 4,000 acres of cotton, and are to pay the Government for their subsistence from the first income of crop. The other 7,000 include the paupers (those over and under the self-supporting age, the crippled and sick in hospital) of the 113,650, and those engaged in their care, and, instead of being unproductive, have now under cultivation 500 acres of corn, 790 acres of vegetables, and 1,500 acres of cotton, besides the work done at wood-chopping, &c.

There are reported in the aggregate something over 100,000 acres of cotton under cultivation. Of these about 7,000 acres are leased and cultivated by blacks. Some of these are managing as high as 300 or 400 acres. It is impossible to give, at the present date, any definite statement of many of the forms of industry. Fifty-nine thousand words of wood are reported to me by Col. Thomas, Superintendent and Provost Marshal of Freedmen, as cut within the lines of 110 miles on the river banks above and below this place. It would be only a guess to state the entire amount cut by the people under this supervision; it must be enormous. The people have been paid from 50 cents to $2.50 per cord for cutting. This wood has been essential to the commercial and military operations on the river.

"Of the 113,650 blacks here mentioned, 13,620 have been under instruction in letters; about 4,000 have learned to read quite fairly, and about 2,000 to write." So our people were helped by General Grant's policy through this terrible transition.

HE SEES NO PEACE WHILE THERE IS SLAVERY.

August 16, 1864, General Grant wrote Mr. Washburne the celebrated letter so widely quoted, in which he affirms that the Confederate leaders had robbed the cradle and the grave to carry on the war, urging that our friends in the North could have no hope for peace from separation; and among the special reasons in reply to "peace on any terms," he affirms that the South would demand the restoration of their slaves already free; they would demand indemnity for losses sustained; they would demand a treaty which would make the North slave hunters for the South; they would demand pay for every slave that escaped to the North.

In his last and noted order to the great army, dated June 2, 1865, General Grant distinctly recognizes the good results they had accomplished; affirms that they had "overthrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws, and the proclamation forever abolishing slavery-the cause and pretext of the rebellion."

May we not justly say, will it not be the unquestioned sentiment of history that the liberty which Mr. Lincoln declared with his pen General Grant made effectual with his sword-by his skill in leading the Union armies to final victory?

But I prefer that General Grant shall speak for himself, by here quoting from his private letter to Mr. Washburne, and published without the General's knowledge or permission, dated August 30, 1863, in which he said: "The people of the North need not quarrel over the institution of slavery. What Vice President Stephens acknowledges as the corner-stone of the Confederacy is already knocked out. Slavery is already dead, and cannot be resurrected. It would take a standing army to maintain slavery in the South, if we were to make peace to-day guaranteeing to the South all their former constitutional privileges.

"I never was an Abolitionist--not even what could be called anti slavery--but I try to judge fairly and honestly, and because patent to my mind, early in the rebellion, that the North and South could never live in peace with each other except as one nation. As anxious as I am to see peace, and that without slavery, re-established, I would not therefore be willing to see any settlement until this question is forever settled."

In a letter written by Mr. Lincoln to General Grant, April 30, 1864, is this emphatic sentence: "I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time."

HE HAS BEEN TRUE IN PEACE AS IN WAR.

But since he became President how faithfully has he carried out his pledges in which we are most directly interested?

In his inaugural, March 4, 1867, we find these wise words in regard to suffrage and the fifteenth amendment:

The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution."

Indeed, his language often points to his clear apprehension of the fact that peace could only be fully restored by removing the causes of disturbance. In his message in regard to Mississippi and Virginia, April 7, 1869, while he urges the restoration of the States to their proper relations to the Government as speedily as possible, he clearly states that it must be conditioned that the people of those States shall "be willing to become peaceful and orderly communities, and to adopt and maintain such constitutions and laws as will effectually secure the civil and political rights of all persons within their borders.

HE COMMENDS THE INDUSTRY OF THE FREEDMEN.

True to all his instincts, all his declarations and acts in his first annual message, he has for our people as freedmen a kind word, and declares "the freedmen, under the protection they have received, are making rapid progress in learning, and no complaints are heard of lack of industry on their part where they receive fair remuneration for their labor; and among the reasons which he finds for gratitude to the Giver of all good, is a country "with a population of forty millions of free people, all speaking one language; with facilities for every mortal to acquire an education; with institutions closing to none the avenues to fame or any blessing of fortune that may be coveted; with freedom of the pulpit, the press, and the school." Again, he declares that the second great object of the Government is to secure protection to the person and property of the citizen of the United States in each and every portion of our common country wherever he may choose to move, without reference to original nationality, religion, color, or politics, demanding of him only obedience to the laws and proper respect for the rights of others."

THE RATIFICATION OF THE 15TH AMENDMENT.

Though, as he said, it is unusual to notify the two Houses by message, of the promulgation of the ratification of an amendment to the Constitution, yet he sent one in regard to the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, in which he said: "Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly-enfranchised race to the importance of their striving in ever honorable manner to make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To The Race More Favored Heretofore By Our Laws I Would Say, Withhold No Legal Privilege Of Advancement To The New Citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people." The "Father of his country," in his farewell address, used this language: "Promote, then, as a matter of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the Government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.

I repeat that the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution completes the greatest civil change, and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life. The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed that is given to the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more important 00066now, with a population of forty millions, and increasing in a rapid ratio.

I would, therefore, call upon Congress to take all the means within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country; and upon the people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the Government a blessing, and not a danger.

COLORED MEN APPOINTED TO OFFICE.

An inquiry into the appointments of coloredmen to office under General Grant gives results more satisfactory than I anticipated. No records, so far as I learn, appear to be kept of the color of the appointees.

I can only ascertain facts by my own personal knowledge and from the personal knowledge of others acquainted with the appointees. It is impossible for me to fix the exact number, but I find them in all departments of the civil service. Two have been appointed foreign Ministers, several Collectors of Customs, some Assessors of Internal Revenue, and so on down through all the various grades of the service-as route agents, postmasters, clerks, messengers, &c., according to the intelligence and character of the applicants.

I should have been glad to have obtained the exact number of appointees of our color. In one Department at Washington I found 249, and many more holding important positions in its service in different parts of the country. In other Departments I ascertain corresponding gratifying facts as I pursued the inquiry, meeting some new man at every step, and left it satisfied, as I think any colored man would be, that there has been a hearty disposition to disregard all past prejudices and treat us in the matter of appointments according to our merits. The appointments to West Point, as overcoming the army prejudices, are well known, and too significant to be overlooked.

PROTECTION AGAINST THE KU-KLUX.

And what shall I say of his enforcement of the law for the preservation of life and property in the South, whereby the savage outrages of organizations, known as Ku Klux Klans, upon an innocent and suffering people have been so generally suppressed? What a change has come? These outrages, the burning of school houses and churches, the whipping and shooting of teachers, the midnight murder of men and women without cause by masked villains, were so contrary to the ideas of the country that they hardly seemed possible in a civilized land. But by the quiet yet firm coarse of General Grant in enforcing the law, thousands have openly acknowledged the crimes charged, the organizations stand confessed to the amazement of all good men North and South, and peace has come to many places as never before. The scourging and slaughter of our people have so far ceased.

History will not mistake the first yet humane part General Grant has performed in this work. Have not all violence and injustice to us ceased, it is not because he has failed to do his duty, but because of the prejudices and opposition of those who now claim to be the special friends of the colored man. And should not the good work of peace and good will go on till every American citizen is known in the law and treated the same without regard to his color, it will be by the fatal success of those who assail General Grant, and would defeat his election, and thus prevent the successful accomplishment of his benign purpose of perpetual union for the country and of assured liberty and protection to every person in it.

Indeed, I closed the inquiry thoroughly satisfied, and believe that any man of my race would be, with the same facts before him, that with General Grant at the head of the Administration of the country we are assured, in due time, not only of all our rights, but of our privileges.

Let me now come to my own personal relations with General Grant, as well as my own personal knowledge of him; for I have the honor to know him well. Very much that you have heard concerning him is true, and very much is false. He, like most public men, has been severely criticized, not only as an officer, but as a man. Here, 00077then, is my testimony concerning him. During my varied public career of more than thirty years, I have, perhaps, more than any other colored man of my times, been brought into direct contact with our nation's great men, and taking my whole experience into account, I affirm that after our martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, and Senator Charles Sumner, no man in high position has manifested in his intercourse with me upon all occasions and in all places a more entire freedom from vulgar prejudice of race and color, than Ulysses S. Grant. I have called upon him often, (never, however, to solicit office for myself or for others,) and have always found him to be easily accessible, gentlemanly, and cordial. Like most of you when meeting with distinguished white persons, I was on the lookout when meeting with General Grant for some indication of the presence in his manners and words of the slavery-born aversion to my race. I found nothing of the kind in him. You have heard that General Grant is a man of few words, and the inference has been drawn by his enemies, that he is a man of few ideas. Never was an inference more unjust. It often requires more talent to be silent, than to speak. It is the merit of this man that he knows just when to speak, and when to be silent. I have heard him converse, and converse freely, and to those who have seen him only in his silent moods my statement will hardly be credited, that few men in public life, or otherwise, can state facts with greater clearness and fluency, than General Grant.

I have often been called upon to reconcile my exalted opinion of President Grant with the fact that I failed to be invited with the Commissioners of Inquiry to Santo Domingo to dine with the President at the White House. I have two answers to those who inquire of me on this point. First. The failure of the President to invite me could not have been disagreeable to him, for he never withheld any social courtesy to General Tate, the Minister Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Hayti, a man of my own complexion; and in this connection I may state that during the war he showed himself as free from Indian prejudice as negro prejudice, by retaining upon his staff General Eli Parker. It is, besides, impossible that color is the explanation of the omission to invite me, because the gentlemen whom he did invite had dined with me daily during ten weeks on an American ship, under an American flag, and in presence of representatives of the leading presses of the United States, and this doubtless by the President's special direction. It is further obvious that color had nothing to do with the omission, because other gentlemen accompanying the expedition to Santo Domingo equally with myself, though white, failed to receive an invitation to dine at the White House. The only Commissioners provided for by the act of Congress, were Messrs, B. F. Wade, Andrew D. White, and S. G. Howe, with one Secretary, Mr. Allan A. Burton. These gentlemen called in a body upon the President and were invited in an informal way to dine with him. I was not in company with the Commissioners when this call was made, and did not see the President until afterward. Had I been in company with the Commissioners at the time of their visit, I have no question but that an invitation would have been extended to me as freely as to any of the gentlemen of the Commission who were invited. My second answer is that my devotion to General Grant rests upon high and broad public grounds, and not upon personal favor. I see in him the vigilant, firm, impartial, and wise protector of my race from all the malign, reactionary, social, and political elements that would whelm them in destruction. He is the rock-bound coast against the angry and gnawing waves of a storm-tossed ocean saying, thus far only shalt thou come.

Wherever else there may be room for doubt and uncertainty, there is nothing of the kind with Ulysses S. Grant as our candidate. In the midst of political changes he is now as ever--answering and inflexible. Nominated regularly by the time-honored Republican party, he is clothed with all the sublime triumphs of humanity which make its record. That party stands to-day free 00088from alloy, pure and simple. There is neither ambiguity in its platform nor incongruity in its candidates. U. S. Grant and Henry Wilson, the one from the West and the other from the East--the soldier and the Senator--are men in whom we can confide. No two names can better embody the precious and priceless results of the suppression of rebellion and the abolition of slavery. We can no more array ourselves against these candidates and this party than we can resume our chains or insult our mothers. We are allied to the Republican party by every honorable sentiment of the human soul. While affection and gratitude bind us to the party, the well known character of the Democratic party, and the long line of antecedents of that party, repel us and make it impossible for us to cast in our lots with it. To vote for Messrs. Greeley and Brown would justly invite to our heads the contempt and scorn of honest men. We should not only brand ourselves as political knaves but as political fools, meanly marching to occupy a position to which we are invited by the Democratic party, which party during the last forty years has existed almost exclusively to make sure our slavery and degradation as a race. The key-note of the whole Greeley movement was sounded by Mr. James R. Doolittle upon taking the chair of the convention that nominated Mr. Greeley. He announced as one of the objects of the movement the "overthrow of negro supremacy." Can any negro be so blind as not to see the meaning of this? Where has the negro been supreme in this country? Is the simple exercise of the elective franchise (for surely this is all we have exercised) to be overthrown? We leave the question with you.

In view of the foregoing facts, the following most excellent letter should be added:Executive Mansion.Washington. D. C., May 9, 1872.

Gentlemen: I am in receipt of your invitation extended to me to attend a mass meeting, to be held for the purpose of aiding in securing civil rights for the colored citizens of our country. I regret that a previous engagement will detain me at the Executive Mansion, and that I shall not be able to participate with you in person in your efforts to further the cause in which you are laboring. I beg to assure you, however, that I sympathize most cordially in any effort to secure for all our people, of whatever race, nativity, or color, the exercise of those rights to which every citizen should be entitled.

I am, very respectfully,U.S. GRANT.

Such is the record of the great chieftain whose sword cleft the hydra-head of treason, and by whose true heart and good right arm you gained the ballot, that glorious insignia of your citizenship. Such is the record of the wise statesman for whom you trusted your first ballot for President; for no other than him can you trust your second. Rally, then, to his support with the resistless spirit in which you fought for your liberties, with that deep sincerity in which you mourned the foul death of your liberator--Lincoln--with the same exultant hope in which you made General Grant your first President, with your first votes, in 1863.FREDERICK DOUGLASS.Washington, july 17, 1872