UNITED STATES. 



807 



respectively abide until further orders, in the 

 States designated, and not depart therefrom. 



The views of the President relative to the 

 African race were very fully expressed on Oc- 

 tober 10th to the 1st colored regiment of the 

 District of Columbia. After thanking them 

 for the service they had rendered the country, 

 and stating that the question of slavery had 

 been settled by the war, he said : 



But this is not all, and as you have paid me the 

 compliment to call upon me, I shall talce the privi- 

 lege of saying one or two words as I am before you. 

 I repeat that it is not all. Now when the sword is re- 

 turned to its scabbard ; when your arms are reversed 

 and the olive-branch of peace is extended, as I re- 

 marked before, resentment and revenge should sub- 

 side. Then what is to follow ? You do understand, 

 no doubt, and if you do not, you cannot understand 

 too soon, that simple liberty does not mean the privi- 

 lege of going into the battle-field or into the service 

 ofthe country as a soldier. It means other things as 

 well. And now when you have laid down your arms 

 there are other objects of equal importance before 

 you. Now that the Government has triumphantly 

 passed through this mighty rebellion, after the most 

 gigantic battles the world ever saw, the problem is 

 before you, and it is best that you should understand 

 it ; and therefore I speak simply and plainly. Will 

 you now, when you have returned from the army of 

 the United States and taken the position ofthe citizen, 

 when you have returned to the avocations of peace, 

 will you give evidence to the world that you are capa- 

 ble and competent to govern yourselves? That is 

 what you will have to do. Liberty is not a mere 

 idea, a mere vagary. It is an idea or it is a reality ; 

 and when you come to examine this question of lib- 

 erty you will not be mistaken in a mere idea for the 

 reality. It does not consist in idleness. Liberty does 

 not consist in being worthless. Liberty does not 

 consist in doing all things as we please ; and there 

 can be no liberty without law. In a government of 

 freedom and of liberty there must be law, and there 

 must be obedience and submission to the law with- 

 out regard to color. Liberty (and may I not call you 

 my countrymen?), liberty consists in the glorious 

 privilege of work ; of pursuing the ordinary avoca- 

 tions of peace with industry and with economy ; and 

 that being done, all those who have been industrious 

 nnd economical are permitted to appropriate and en- 

 joy the products of their own labor. This is one of 

 the great blessings of freedom ; and hence we might 

 ask the question, and answer it by stating that lib- 

 erty means freedom to work and enioy the products 

 of your own labor. You will soon be mustered out 

 of the ranks. It is for you to establish the great fact 

 that you are fit and qualified to be free. Hence free- 

 dom is not a mere idea, but is something that exists 

 in fact. Freedom is not simply the privilege to live 

 in idleness ; liberty does not mean simply to resort 

 to the low saloons and other places of disreputable 

 character. Freedom and liberty do not mean that 

 the people ought to live in licentiousness ; but liberty 

 means simply to be industrious, to be virtuous, to be 

 upright in all our dealings and relations with men ; 

 and to those now before me, members ofthe 1st regi- 

 ment of colored volunteers from the District of 

 Columbia and the capital of the United States, I have 

 to say that a great deal depends upon yourselves. 

 You must give evidence that you are competent for 

 the rights that the Government has guaranteed to 

 you. Henceforth each and all of you must be meas- 

 ured according to your merit. If one man is more 

 meritorious than another they cannot be equals; 

 and he is the most exalted that is the most meritori- 

 ous, without regard to color. And the idea of hav- 

 ing a law passed in the morning that will make a 

 white man a black man before night, and a black man 



a white man before day, is absurd. That is not the 

 standard. It is your own conduct; it is your own 

 merit; it is the development of your own talents and 

 of your own intellectuality and moral qualities. Let 

 this, then, be your course. Adopt a system of moral- 

 ity, abstain from all licentiousness. And let me say 

 one thing here, for I am going to talk plain. I have 

 lived in a Southern State all my life, and know what 

 has too often been the case. There is one thing you 

 should esteem higher and more supreme than almost 

 all others, and that is the solemn contract, with all 

 the penalties, in the association of married life. Men 

 and women should abstain from those actions or 

 habits that too frequently follow a war. Inculcate 

 among your children and among your associations, 

 notwithstanding you are just back from the army of 

 the United States, that virtue, that merit, that intel- 

 ligence are the standards to be observed, and those 

 wnich you are determined to maintain during your 

 future lives. This is the way to make white men 

 black and .black men white. He that is most meri- 

 torious, and virtuous, and intellectual, and well in- 

 formed, must stand highest, without regard to color. 

 It is the very basis upon which Heaven rests itself. 

 Each individual takes his degree in the sublimer and 

 more exalted regions in proportion to his merits and 

 his virtue. Then I shall say to you on this occasion, 

 in returning to your homes and firesides, after feel- 

 ing conscious and proud of having faithfully dis- 

 charged your duty returning with the determina- 

 tion that you will perform your duty in the future as 

 you have in the past abstain from all those bicker- 

 ings, and jealousies, and revengeful feelings, which 

 too often spring up between different races. There 

 is a great problem before us, and I may as well allude 

 to it here in this connection, and that is, whether this 

 race can be incorporated and mixed with the people 

 of the United States, to be made a harmonious and 

 permanent ingredient in the population. This is a 

 problem not yet settled ; but we are in the right line 

 to do so. Slavery raised its head against the Gov- 

 ernment, and the Government raised its strong arm 

 and struck it to the ground. So that part of the 

 problem is settled ; the institution of slavery is over- 

 thrown. But another part remains to be solved, and 

 that is, can four millions of people, raised as they 

 have been with all the prejudices of the whites, can 

 they take their places in the community and made to 

 work harmoniously and congruously in our system? 

 This is a problem to be considered. Are the diges- 

 tive powers of the American Government sufficient 

 to receive this element in a new shape and digest it 

 and make it work healthfully upon the system that 

 has incorporated it? This is the question to be de- 

 termined. Let us make the experiment, and make 

 it in good faith. If that cannot be done there is an- 

 other problem that is before us. If we have to be- 

 come a separate and distinct people (although I trust 

 that the system can be made to work harmoniously and 

 that the great problem will be settled without going 

 any further), if it should be so that the two races can- 

 not agree and live in peace and prosperity, and the 

 laws of Providence require that thev should be sep- 

 arated in that event, looking to the far distant future 

 and trusting that it may never come if it should 

 come, Providence, that works mysteriously, but un- 

 erringly and certainly, will point out the way, and the 

 mode, and the manner by which these people are to be 

 separated, and they are'to be taken to their lands of 

 inheritance and promise ; for such a one is before 

 them. Hence we are making the experiment. Hence 

 let me impress upon you the importance of control- 

 ling your passions, developing your intellect, and of 

 applying your physical powers to the industrial in- 

 terests of the country ; and that is the true process 

 by which this question can be settled. Be patient, 

 persevering, and forbearing, and you will help to 

 solve the problem. Hake for yourselves a reputa- 

 tion in this cause as you have won for yourselves a 

 reputation in the cause in which you have been en- 



