Because it is Sunday:
From THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER 1864-01-09
THE COLORED SOLDIERY AND THE COLORED PEOPLE.
MR. EDITOR:- This subject demands at the hands of the Pulpit, the Press, and the People, much more attention than it has hitherto received. It is of infinite importance to us as a people to know how and why we are being disposed of, to know what are the advantages and disadvantages to us of that disposition.
The time has gone by when we should be regarded, or regard ourselves as the mere clay for the potter, or the mere instruments in the hands of the skilful operator to be used at his will, and for his own behalf. The colored people as a unit, in this country, today is a power, and the sooner they know it, and the country know it, the better. As such I claim for them no undue advantage or favors, but a fair chance. Is this being given? Let us see. Take for example the colored soldiery. In the commencement of the rebellion we were very coolly told that we were not wanted, that we should not be permitted to aid in defence of the Government. But in a space of time so brief that it challenges the amazement of the civilized world, are we called upon, and that right lustily, to grasp the musket and go forth and aid with all our might and soul in rescuing our country from her great peril. This is right. It should have been so at the outset. But late as the call came, cheerily and well have we responded to it. At least 50,000 colored soldiers are today in the field, and well prepared are they to do their country service. But how has this noble response been met? I speak not now of the unequal bounties and monthly pay, because I trust the general government is about to deal fairly in that respect, but of the more immediate and unequal aspects of the case. These 50,000 soldiers leave behind them, in the background, fathers, mothers, wives, children, friends, advisers by the thousands, to whom they have their life-long looked or been looked to for guidance and counsel.
And now I put it - how many of these leaders of our people have been assigned to this army of 50,000 colored men? How many colored chaplains have they among them? Out of the intelligent and business colored men how many sutlers have been appointed? How many army contractors encouraged? How many of the advantages of even recruiting colored men have there been meted out to them? How insignificant is the highest and best office the colored men can at present hold in these very regiments composed of his own fellows, and of which he is a member? The white man, because he is white, (often inferior to himself,) outranks the colored soldier even in his own regiment; the white chaplain, usually third-rate, is not unfrequently forced upon him because he is white; the white man is detailed to be the chief in the business of recruiting the colored soldier, only because he is white. Yes, in some instances the very scoundrels who were clubbing, burning, and hanging upon trees, and up to lamp posts, and making the streets of New York run red with the blood of colored men in July, approach them in December and January to enlist them, and to our shame, be it said, have too often succeeded. Even the right to do petty peddling at colored camps we see granted to white men over the heads of colored men. Now all this may not be the result of positive design, but it is nevertheless facts.
We have said that these 50,000 colored soldiers leave behind them thousands of their relatives and connexions. This is eminently true in the Southern States, and what a vast population is there left to be looked after. To be instructed spiritually and mentally. And who is doing it? the white man and the white woman. To go to Africa. They tell us we are the only ones that can at all instruct and elevate spiritually and mentally our colored brother and sister. I own the field not so large there, nor does it pay so well. Here it is somehow or other found out that we are not quite equal to the task of promoting the elevation of our colored brethren. One thing I do know, the field here is large; the harvest is plenteous, and the labor pays.]
We are told, moreover, and that truly, that we are behind the dominant class; and if we are ever to be fitted to become full members of the American Republic, we must be elevated up to the level of that class. And those who so speak, say with equal truthfulness, that, to show equal capacity, the work must be our own - that we must bring ourselves up.
Failing in this, they say we fail to show equal capacity, and our status must be below that of the dominant class. We shall find, if we are not very careful, that we, as a class in the United States, have had a change, and not a reform - a change of masters - of Southern for Northern ones.
Now I put the question to every philanthropist, every well-wisher of the country, and the people of color, if they expect the colored people to rise without a fair field and a fair fight. If they expect the colored people to promote their elevation, if the work of that elevation is committed to the hands of those of the dominant class, and cut out, and fitted, and shaped to entirely answer the interests of that class. However, anxious, good men everywhere may be for a contrary effect, both in the colored army and among the colored people under the system at present inaugurated, the result can not be otherwise. And we say to such men, if you want the full cooperation of the colored people, you must fully employ the colored people. If the country requires the aid of our strong armed men, and we have them, those seeking them must give place and preferment to men of character, worth and influence, among colored people, just as you do among our Dutch or Irish, or American citizens, when requiring their aid. Give us from among the colored people, chaplains, officers, sutlers, matrons, nurses, teachers, recruiters, contractors, traders, surgeons, if you would have our hearty cooperation. But it was not our intention to enter upon a discussion of the subject. We simply aimed to call attention to it. We hope the pulpit, the press, and true men everywhere will give it that attention it demands, to the end, that a reform may be effected. “ETHIO.” |
