CONGRESS, U. S 



325 



Tuonths givings-out that such was to he the 

 policy of the Administration, or indeed that it 

 actually was ; hut the results which have been 

 accomplished have never satisfied me that that 

 was their real genuine intention, for I have 

 always believed that if there had been the 

 proper agencies used, if there had been the 

 proper degree of practical sagacity exhibited 

 by the agents who were selected by the Gov- 

 ernment to raise colored regiments, there could 

 have been two hundred thousand colored men 

 marshalled into the field to-day, and I believe 

 it now. I believe that there might have been, 

 and ought to have been, two hundred thousand 

 colored men in the field at this moment, and 

 that instead of our being compelled to pass a 

 bill appropriating $20,000,000 for bounties, as 

 we have done to-day, and passing a bill to 

 amend the enrolment act, we need not have 

 required a single new white soldier to enter the 

 army." 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, again said: 

 ' ; Mr. President, in the State of Maryland we 

 have raised a large number of men under the 

 lead of General Birney, a son of James G. Birney, 

 who inherits the principles of his father, and 

 who is one of the most devoted and faithful 

 officers we have in the service of the United 

 States. He has officered those regiments from 

 men who have passed before this board, and in 

 my judgment, derived from the information 

 given by him and by others, no regiments in the 

 service have been better officered. In General 

 Butler's department, he said to me the other 

 day that he had raised since he went there, 

 only a few weeks ago, three thousand colored 

 men. They had some raised there before; Gen- 

 eral Wilde had raised a brigade in Xorth Car- 

 olina. General Wilde belongs to that class of 

 men who know what this war is about, and 

 whose heart is in it. He believed in raising these 

 troops, and he had them well officered. We 

 are raising in the State of Tennessee a large 

 number of men, because there we have the 

 influence of Andrew Johnson, who is for rais- 

 ing these troops and for making Tennessee what 

 she ought to be, a free State. Down in the de- 

 partment of the Gulf we have raised prob- 

 ably twenty thousand black men, and we have 

 officered them as best we could ; perhaps they 

 are not so well officered there as the regiments 

 nearer the city of Washington, whose officers 

 have passed through an examination before this 

 board. Still we are improving there ; and 

 everywhere in the country, with possibly the 

 exception of the States of Missouri and Ken- 

 tucky, the raising of colored troops is progress- 

 ing finely. 



" Little has been done in the State of Ken- 

 tucky, for the reason that Kentucky to-day is 

 the only State in the Union that maintains 

 the cause of slavery or carries its flag. Dela- 

 ware has taken her position ; Maryland has 

 taken hers ; and so have West Virginia and 

 Missouri. Tennessee, which was excepted from 

 the proclamation of freedom, is taking her 



position under the influence of Andrew John- 

 son and the patriotic men of the State. But, 

 sir, Kentucky passed into the hands of a con- 

 servative class of politicians, who started in 

 the first place to hold her in a neutral position, 

 where she could dictate terms to the country. 

 They undertook, then, to dictate to the Presi- 

 dent, but they failed, and now they are de- 

 nouncing him. That class of politicians, how- 

 ever, is passing away, even in Kentucky. The 

 people are ripening there as they are ripening 

 everywhere else ; and when the next opportuni- 

 ty comes for Kentucky to speak, I entertain not 

 the shadow of a doubt that she will speak by 

 an overwhelming majority, just as Missouri and 

 Maryland and Delaware and West Virginia 

 have spoken. I think the Government has 

 dealt rather tenderly in not enlisting colored 

 men in that State. If I had the power I would 

 enlist every black free man who was willing to 

 enlist and every slave who was willing to en- 

 list, and ask no leave of Kentucky politicians 

 or of slavemasters in Kentucky, but I would 

 put them into the service at once. 



" Xow. sir. a word in regard to the board for 

 the examination of officers. General Casey is 

 chairman of the board, and I say to the Sena- 

 tor from Iowa what I know to be the fact, that 

 a more true, loyal, faithful man does not bear 

 the commission of the United States than Gen- 

 eral Casey. He is in favor of enlisting black 

 troops, and was early in favor of it. He is in 

 favor of giving them good officers, men quali- 

 fied to command, men of personal character 

 and individual honor. I do not entertain a 

 doubt that the men who have passed that board 

 are better fitted for their places than are the 

 officers of the average white regiments of the 

 country. I know that General Casey believes 

 that the colored troops ought to have better 

 officers than white troops, that they ought to 

 have men whose sympathies are with them, 

 who will treat them kindly, but firmly, men of 

 intelligence and of character qualified for their 

 positions, and I know that he has striven to 

 give them such officers. I wish all the colored 

 troops in the country were as well officered as 

 the troops are whose officers have passed before 

 the board." 



The bill was again considered on Jan. 14th, 

 when Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, withdrew 

 his amendment, and the vote was taken on the 

 amendment reported by the committee as fol- 

 lows : 



SEC. 21. And be it further enacted, That so much 

 of the act entitled " An act for enrolling and calling 

 out the national forces and for other purposes, 

 approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, as authorizes 

 the discharge of persons drafted into the service of 

 the United" States under the authority of that act 

 upon the payment of a sum of money not exceeding 

 $300, be, and the same is hereby, repealed. 



YEAS Messrs. Brown, Grimes, Harlan, Lane of 

 Indiana, Morgan, iXesmith, Ramsey, Sprague, Ten 

 Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, and Wilkinson 12. 



XAYS Messrs. Anthony, Bnckalew, Carlile, Clark, 

 Collamer, Conness, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, 

 Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Hale, Harding, Harris, 



