You can lie like a Clinton.
Well, here's the letter.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 18. 1864.
Yours of the 12th was received yesterday. If I were to judge from the letter, without any external knowledge, I should suppose that all the colored people South of Washington were struggling to get to Massachusetts; that Massachusetts was anxious to receive and retain the whole of them as permament citizens; and that the United States Government here was interposing and preventing this. But I suppose these are neither really the facts, nor meant to be asserted as true by you. Coming down to what I suppose to be the real facts, you are engaged in trying to raise colored troops for the U. S. and wish to take recruits from Virginia, through Washington, to Massachusetts for that object; and the loyal Governor of Virginia, also trying to raise troops for us, objects to you taking his material away; while we, having to care for all, and being responsible alike to all, have to do as much for him, as we would have to do for you, if he was, by our authority, taking men from Massachusetts to fill up Virginia regiments. No more than this has been intended by me; nor, as I think, by the Secretary of War. There may have been some abuses of this, as a rule, which, if known, should be prevented in future.
If, however, it be really true that Massachusetts wishes to afford a permanent home within her borders, for all, or even a large number of colored persons who will come to her, I shall be only too glad to know it. It would give relief in a very difficult point; and I would not for a moment hinder from going, any person who is free by the terms of the proclamation or any of the acts of Congress."
This letter is the -only- thing I've seen that suggests President Lincoln's ideas late in his administration on where blacks should settle; it blasts the interpretation of those who say he wanted blacks out of the country. They have no words of his to support their position.
Walt
As Lincoln makes clear, the scumbag governor of Massachusetts of attempting to import Black bodies from Virginia to put in the U.S. Army and export immediately out of the state. Having created a nearly lily-white state, the scumbag governor now wanted to fill the Massachusetts military quota with Blacks imported from Virginia for that purpose and no other.
Coming down to what I suppose to be the real facts, you are engaged in trying to raise colored troops for the U. S. and wish to take recruits from Virginia, through Washington, to Massachusetts for that object; and the loyal Governor of Virginia, also trying to raise troops for us, objects to you taking his material away; while we, having to care for all, and being responsible alike to all, have to do as much for him, as we would have to do for you, if he was, by our authority, taking men from Massachusetts to fill up Virginia regiments.
Charles Graham Halpine
Editor, New York Citizen
Brigadier-General, U.S. Army
|LINK|
SAMBO'S RIGHT TO BE KILT
by Private Miles O'Reilly
Some tell me 'tis a burnin' shame
To make the naygers fight,
And that the trade of bein' kilt
Belongs but to the white.
But as for me, upon my soul!
So lib'ral are we here,
I'll let Sambo be shot instead of myself
On ev'ry day in the year.
Chorus:
On ev'ry day in the year, boys,
And in ev'ry hour in the day,
The right to be kilt I'll divide wid him,
And devil a word I'll say.
In battle's wild commotion,
I shouldn't at all object,
If Sambo's body should stop a ball
That's coming for me direct;
And the prod of a Southern bagnet
So ginerous are we here,
I'll resign and let Sambo take it
On every day in the year.
Chorus:
On ev'ry day in the year, boys,
And wid none 'iv your nasty pride,
All my right in a Southern bagnet prod
Wid Sambo I'll divide.
The men who object to Sambo
Should take his place and fight;
And it's better to have a nayger's hue
Than a liver that's wake and white.
Though Sambo's black as the ace of spades,
His fingers a trigger can pull,
And his eye runs straight on the barrel sight,
From under his thatch of wool.
Chorus:
On ev'ry day in the year, boys,
Don't think that I'm tippin' you chaff,
The right to be kilt we'll divide with him, boys,
And give him the largest half.
bagnet=bayonet
=====