Page 5 - Integrity Seminars - Special Report

“I said: 'Mr. President, I have been recruiting In parting he said: “Douglass, never come to
colored troops, and if you want me to succeed I Washington without calling upon me.” And I
must be able to assure them that colored never did.
soldiers, while in the service shall have pay
--Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn
equal to that of white soldiers; secondly, that
(Speeches by Frederick Douglass, edited by
when they shall perform acts of bravery in
Theodore Hamm, 2017, pp 210-211).
battle, which would secure promotion to white
soldiers, the like promotion shall be accorded
colored soldiers: thirdly, that if the threat of
Jefferson Davis [against black troops in the
Union Army] is carried out, you, President
Lincoln, will retaliate in kind.”

Feeling myself now perfectly free to say to Mr.
Lincoln all that I thought on the subject, I
supported my demands as best I could with
arguments, to which he calmly and patiently
listened, not once interrupting me, and when I
had finished he made a careful reply, covering
each proposition that I had submitted to him. He
held . . . that in time the first two points I had
insisted upon would be conceded: that colored

soldiers would be equally paid and equally
promoted.

But when it came to the matter of retaliation, the
tender heart of the president appeared in the
expression of his eyes, and in every line of his
care worn countenance, as well as in the tones of
his appealing voice. “Ah!” said he, “Douglass, I
cannot retaliate. I cannot hang men in cold The "truth-seeking" element in this story is the
blood. I cannot hang men who have had nothing demonstrable capacity of both Lincoln and
Douglass to consider both sides of an argument.
to do with murdering colored prisoners. Of
The "truth-telling" component is Douglass's
course, if I could get hold of the actual murderers
generosity in describing Lincoln as "a president
of colored prisoners, I would deal with them as
with a heart."
they deserve, but I cannot hang those who had

no hand in such murders.” I was not convinced
that Mr. Lincoln himself was right. I could, and
did, answer [his] arguments; but was silenced by
his over-mastering mercy and benevolence. I had
found a president with a heart—one who could,
even in war, love his enemies; and that was
something.

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