An Unusual Friendship - Lincoln & Frederick Douglass
By William Connery
william.connery@verizon.net
4-10-5
SUPPORTING LINCOLN
In spite of the seeming pro-slavery policy of the Lincoln administration, Douglass was earnestly working in the President,s support. He was wise enough to understand that if Lincoln in the beginning, had stated his policy to be, not only to save the Union, but also to free the slaves, all would have been lost. In his speeches Douglass always emphasized "the mission of the war was the liberation of the slaves as well as the salvation of the Union. I reproached the North that they fought with one hand, while they might fight more effectively with two; that they fought with the soft white hand, while they kept the black iron hand chained and helpless behind them; that they fought the effect, while they protected the cause; and said that the Union cause would never prosper until the war assumed an anti-slavery attitude and the Negro was enlisted on the side of the Union."
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It was decided not to give the black soldiers the same pay as that allowed to the white troops. Negro soldiers were to receive only seven dollars per month. Regular pay was $13 a month. Douglass was distressed by the restrictions put upon these soldiers, but said, "While I, of course, was deeply pained and saddened by the estimate thus put upon my race, and grieved at the slowness of heart which marked the conduct of the loyal government, I was not discouraged and urged every man who would enlist to get an eagle on his button, a musket on his shoulder, and the star and spangle over his head." Only through black participation in the war, he believed, could abolition and full citizenship for Negroes be established.
VISITING LINCOLN
In July 1863, Douglass met with Lincoln in the White House to redress the grievances that the black troops were suffering as second-class citizens. It was unheard of for a colored man to go to the White House with a grievance. But he had many influential friends and admirers in Washington, and Senators Sumner, Wilson, and Pomeroy; Secretary of the Treasury Chase, Assistant Secretary of War Dana all guaranteed safe passage into Lincoln,s presence. Senator Pomeroy introduced Douglass to the President and they soon found that they had much in common. The one had traveled a long hard path from the slave cabin of Maryland, and the other a thorny road from the scant and rugged life of Kentucky, to the high position of President. The one was too great to be a slave, and the other too noble to remain, in such a national crisis, a private citizen.
Douglass stated three complaints to the President: that colored troops be paid the same as white troops; that they be fairly treated, especially when captured by the Confederates (some colored troops had been summarily executed or sent into slavery); and that colored troops should receive the same promotions as whites, when their valor in battle demanded it. A few days later, President Lincoln issued an order "that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labour on the public works."
Read More: http://rense.com/general63/friend.htm
I have read about Frederick Douglas and wanted to learn more after I saw this.
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Overview
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were the preeminent self-made men of their time. In this masterful dual biography, award-winning Harvard University scholar John Stauffer describes the transformations in the lives of these two giants during a major shift in cultural history, when men rejected the status quo and embraced new ideals of personal liberty. As Douglass and Lincoln reinvented themselves and ultimately became friends, they transformed America.
Lincoln was born dirt poor, had less than one year of formal schooling, and became the nation's greatest president. Douglass spent the first twenty years of his life as a slave, had no formal schooling-in fact, his masters forbade him to read or write-and became one of the nation's greatest writers and activists, as well as a spellbinding orator and messenger of audacious hope, the pioneer who blazed the path traveled by future African-American leaders.
At a time when most whites would not let a black man cross their threshold, Lincoln invited Douglass into the White House. Lincoln recognized that he needed Douglass to help him destroy the Confederacy and preserve the Union; Douglass realized that Lincoln's shrewd sense of public opinion would serve his own goal of freeing the nation's blacks. Their relationship shifted in response to the country's debate over slavery, abolition, and emancipation.
Both were ambitious men. They had great faith in the moral and technological progress of their nation. And they were not always consistent in their views. John Stauffer describes their personal and political struggles with a keen understanding of the dilemmas Douglass and Lincoln confronted and the social context in which they occurred. What emerges is a brilliant portrait of how two of America's greatest leaders lived.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/giants-john-stauffer/1102547975?ean=9780446698986
The author John Stauffer will be discussing his book here on February 25.
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I'm not sure why in other places the history of AA's was not included. Our books went through the horrors of the slave trade, the state by state battles that eventually brought about the Civil War, the KKK and their part in the failure of Reconstruction, the great pushback, Jim Crow, Poll Tests and the continuing harrassment of blacks to keep them from voting and all of that.
Including some of the pictures of the rampant murder of AA's all the way through this century, and the carnival of death and genocide gladly committed.
The books went into the fall of the KKK, its resurgence using
'Birth of a Nation' to recruit. And how pervasive every level of local governments and the police were involved in so many of the crimes of the KKK across the USA.
We learned this. We knew about black women being raped, bred for profit by plantation owners. Yet amnesia prevails today, and denials.
IDK what happened to history classes after I left public school, but was told the great dumbing down was part of Nixon's plan. All of this should be taught to all students and this story you give you here, shows that the war was for freeing the slaves.
Imagine what our lives would have been if Lincoln had never been able to enforce his EO on the Emancipation Proclaimation and those amendments were not passed. We have enjoyed some sense of freedom, but the forces of feudalism never rest.
And sorry about that tiresome snow. It has clearly worn out its welcome now.
and stay safe and warm... as you can.
“this woman suffrage movement is but a continuance of the old anti-slavery movement…. The fundamental proposition of the woman suffrage movement is scarcely less simple than that of the anti-slavery movement. It assumes that woman is herself. That she belongs to herself.”
Good to see you.
