all be where mine is on this question. And let me tell you that this faith is no small consolation for the trial of leaving you. "And now, with earnest wishes for your welfare, and aspirations for the success of the great cause for which you are here, I bid you good "Gentlemen," said he, in his fine, simple manner, "I wish, earnestly, that I were able to reply to you that I had been gifted with the faculty or practiced in the habit of public speak-by." ing so that I might make some fitting answer When, at length, the government had arrived to the kind words which you have addressed to at a negro policy, and was arming slaves, the me; so that I might express my gratitude for president offered General Phelps a major-genthe feelings which prompt you to come here. eral's commission. He replied, it is said, that This is the greatest compliment I ever received he would willingly accept the commission if it in my life. Indeed, this is the only compliment were dated back to the day of his resignation, so of the kind I ever received. Lieutenant-Colonel as to carry with it an approval of his course at Lall traced out to you, in more flattering colors Camp Parapet. This was declined, and General than the subject deserved, my military career, Phelps remains in retirement. I suppose the and you observed that it has almost all been on president felt that an indorsement of General the frontier, or at small military posts, where I Phelps's conduct would imply a censure of Genwould naturally not come in contact with large eral Butler, whose conduct every candid person, social gatherings, so that I have never been ex-I think, must admit, was just, forbearing, magposed, even had I deserved it, to receive com- nanimous. pliments like this which you offer me. Therefore it is that I now wish, for the first time, that I possessed the gift of utterance; and I assure you that I desire it solely because I am extremely grateful for this expression of your regard. "So far as the motives which prompted me to the step which I have taken are concerned, I do not see any reason to regret it. My heart tells me that, under the circumstances, I did right in resigning my commission. But I do regret exceedingly that its first consequence will be to separate me from your society. I am truly sorry to part with you. I was greatly struck-I was most favorably impressed-with your appearance, and bearing, and expression, when you arrived to re-enforce me at Ship Island. I was We can not but regret that General Phelps could not have sympathized in same degree with the painful necessities of General Butler's position, and endeavored for a while to "get along" with the negro difficulty at Camp Parapet, as General Butler was striving to do at New Orleans. We should remember, however, that General Phelps had been waiting and longing for twentyfive years, and he could not foresee, that, in six months more, the government would be as eager as himself in arming the slaves against their oppressors. CHAPTER XXIII. AND FINDS WORK FOR THE FUGITIVE SLAVES. touched when I thought I saw in your looks GENERAL BUTLER ARMS THE FREE COLORED MEN, that you felt your true position; that you realized that you had left your business and homes to fight in an extraordinarily just and holy war; that your souls were full of the motives which ought to move men who enter into a conflict for country and liberty. As I watched our division review there, I was more than ever impressed with this appearance of moral nobleness. I had seen armies before, but never such an army as that; never an army which knew it had come out to fight for the highest principles of right, for the good of humanity, and for nothing else. "And here, in Louisiana, I have seen you growing up to be true soldiers. You have borne, worthily, sickness and exposure. You have carried your comrades every day to the grave, and yet you have not been discouraged, but have been patient, and cheerful, and assiduous in your duties. As I have watched this, I have learned to value and esteem you; and, therefore, I am all the more grateful for the good-will which you show me. "Yet, I must not believe that this kind feeling has been aroused solely by what I am personally. It must come chiefly from the fact that you look upou me as in some measure the exponent of a great and just cause. It is because you sympathize more or less with me in my hatred of slavery. Perhaps some of you are not yet of my opinion. Perhaps the past has still a strong hold upon your sentiments. But I firmly believe-yes, I have a happy confidence that, before another year is finished, your hearts will GENERAL PHELPS might have seen the dawn of a brighter day, even before his departure. General Butler himself could wait no longer for the tardy action of the government. Denied reenforcements from the North, he had determined to "call on Africa" to assist him in defending New Orleans from threatened attack. The spirited assault upon Baton Rouge on the fifth of August, though it was so gallantly repulsed by General Williams and his command, was a warning not to be disregarded. All the summer General Butler had been asking for re-enforcements, pointing to the growing strength of Vicksburg, the rising batterics at the new rebel post of Port Hudson, the inviting condition of Mobile, the menacing camps near New Orleans, the virulence of the secessionists in the city. The uniform answer from the war department was: We cannot spare you one man; we will send you men when we have them to send. You must hold New Orleans by all means aud at all hazards. So the General called on Africa. Not upon the slaves, but upon the free colored men of the city, whom General Jackson had enrolled in 1814, and Governor Moore in 1861. He sent for several of the most influential of this class, and conversed freely with them upon his project. He asked them why they had accepted service under the Confederate government, which was set up for the distinctly avowed purpose of bolding in eternal slavery their brethren and kindred. They answered that they had not dared to refuse; that they had hoped by serving the Confederates, to advance a little nearer to equality with whites; that they longed to throw the weight of their class into the scale of the Union, and only asked an opportunity to show their devotion to the cause with which their own dearest hopes were identified. The general took them at their word. The proper orders were issued. Enlistment offices were opened. Colored men were commissioned. Of the first colored regiment, all the field officers were white men, and all the line officers colored. Of the second, the colonel and lieutenant-colonel alone were white men, and all the rest colored. For the third, the officers were selected without the slightest regard to color; the best meu that offered were taken, white or yellow. The two batteries of artillery were officered wholly by white men, for the simple reason that no colored men acquainted with artillery presented themselves as candidates for the commissions. The free colored men of New Orleans flew to arms. One of the regiments of a thousand men was completed in fourteen days. In a very few weeks, General Butler had his three regiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery enrolled, equipped, officered, drilled and ready for service. Better soldiers never shouldered arms. They were zealous, attentive, obedient, and intelligent. No men in the Union army had such a stake in the contest as they. Fow understood it as well as they. The best blood in the South flowed in their veins, and a great deal of it; for "the darkest of them," said General Butler, were about of the complexion of the late Mr. Webster." At Port Hudson, in the summer of 1863, these fine regiments, though shamefully despoiled of the colored officers to whom General Butler gave commissions, demonstrated to the whole army that witnessed their exploits, and to the whole country that read of them, their right to rank with the soldiers of the Union as brothers in arms. This bold measure of General Butler-bold in 1862-was not achieved without opposition. Public opinion, in New Orleans, was thus divided in regard to arming the free colored men: nearly every Union man in the city favored it; every secessionist opposed it. Many of the Union officers had not yet traveled far enough away from old bunkerism to approve the measure, but a large minority of them warmly seconded their general. There was but one breach of the peace in the city in connection with the colored troops. A party of them were stoned by some low Frenchmen, who, it appears, received, at the hands of the assailed soldiers, prompt and condign punishment. Need say, that the French consul complained to General Butler? The general set the consul right as to the facts of the case, and, at the same time, asked him "to warn his countrymen against the prejudices they may have imbibed, the same as were lately mine, against my colored soldiers, because their race is of the same hue and blood as those of your celebrated compatriot and author, Alexauder Dumas, who, I believe, is treated with the utmost respect in Paris." In fact, a majority of these colored soldiers are whiter men than Dumas. In November, the colored regiments were employed in the field, in an expedition upon the western bank of the river. They were not engaged in actual conflict with the enemy, but their conduct, on all occasions, was most exemplary and soldier-like. Their presence in a region where there were ten slaves to one white man, was thought by General Weitzel to tend to provoke an insurrection. He was in so much dread of such an event, that he asked General Butler to relieve him of the command. General Butler, while continuing General Weitzel in his position, contrived to gratify him by placing the colored troops under another officer, one who believed in them. General Weitzel, in acknowledging this complaisance, remarked that if the colored troops, in action, proved only half as trustworthy as General Butler thought them, the rebellion would most certainly be crushed. General Weitzel has since had an opportunity of witnessing the conduct of colored troops in battle. If he was not convinced by General Butler's reasoning, he must have been convinced by what he saw of the conduct of these very colored regiments at Port Hudson, where he himself gave such a glorious example of prudence and gallantry. I may add, that the country owes the promotion of this accomplished officer from the rank of lieutenant of engineers to that of brigadier-general of volunteers, to the discernment of General Butler, who twice urged it on the war department. The heroic Strong was another of General Butler's recommendations to the same rank. Few men would have ventured to ask such sudden advancement for officers not thirty-two years of age. Fort Wagner and Port Hudson justified their almost unprecedented promotion. As the season advanced, the negro question did not diminish in difficulty. The number of fugitives constantly increased, until, in the city alone, there were ten thousand, many of whom were women and children, and all of whom were dependent upon the government for support. There were great numbers at Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip and Camp Parapet. Many plantations had been abandoned by their owners, and the negroes remained in their huts idle and destitute. The conquests of General Weitzel greatly added to the number of abandoned and confiscated plantations, and set free thousands of slaves. From the starving country bordering on the lakes whole families of whites wero continually coming to the city, sometimes bringing their slaves with them, sometimes leaving them behind to wander off to the nearest post. Society, as General Phelps had remarked, seemed on the poin of dissolution, and General Butler saw bofore him a prospect of having a countless host of white and black looking to him for their daily bread. He determined, in October, to take the responsibility of working the abandoned plantations on behalf of the United States, their rightful owner, and of employing upon them his fugitive and emancipated slaves at fair wages. The first of his special orders relating to this matter has an historical interest and value: "NEW ORLEANS, October 20; 1862. "SPECIAL ORDER, No. 441. "It appearing to the commanding general, that the sugar plantations of Brown & McMan nus have been abandoned by their late owners, who are in the rebellion, are now running to waste, and the valuable crops will be lost, as well to the late owners as to the United States, if they are not wrought; and as large numbers of negroes have come and are coming within the lines of the army, who need employment, it is ordered: "That Charles A. Weed, Esq., take charge of such plantations, and such others as may be abandoned along the river, between the city and Fort Jackson, and gather and make theso crops for the benefit of the United States, keeping an exact and accurate account of the expenses of Buch. "That Mr. Weed's requisition for labor be answered by the several commanders of camps for labor; or, in the scarcity of contrabands, that Mr. Weed may employ white laborers at one dollar each per day, or each ten hours' labor. "That for any stores or necessaries for such work the quartermaster's or commissary's department will answer Mr. Weed's approved requisitions. "That said Weed shall be paid such rate of compensation as may be agreed on; and that all receipts of whatever nature from such plantations, be accurately accounted for by him; and that for this purpose Mr. Weed shall be considered in the military service of the United States. "By command of Major-General BUTLER. "GEORGE C. STRONG, A. A. G." But this was not all. Among the papers relating to the negroes of Louisiana, there is a document still more interesting. It contains the plan devised by the commanding general for enabling the loyal planters to give a trial to the system of free labor: NEW ORLEANS, LA., October 18, 1862. "Memorandum of an agreement, entered into between the planters, loyal citizens of the United States, in the parishes of 'St. Bernard' and 'Plaquemines,' in the state of Louisiana, and the civil and military authorities of the United States in said state. "Whereas, many of the persons held to service and labor have left their masters and claimants, and have come to the city of New Orleans, and to the camps of the army of the gulf, and are claiming to be emancipated and free; "And whereas, these men and women are in a destitute condition; "And whereas, it is clearly the duty, by law, as well as in humanity, of the United States to provide them with food and clothing, and employ them in some useful occupation; "And whereas, it is necessary that the crop of cane and cereals now growing and approaching maturity in said parishes shall be preserved, and the levees repaired and strengthened against floods; "And whereas, the planters claim that these persons are still held to service and labor, and of right ought to labor for their masters, and that the ruin of their crops and plantations will happen if deprived of such services; "And whereas, these conflicting rights and claims can not immediately be determined by any tribunals now existing in the state of Louisiana. "In order, therefore, to preserve the rights of all parties, as well those of the planters: as of the persons claimed as held to service and abor, and claiming their freedom, and those of the United States; and to preserve the crops and property of loyal citizens of the United States; and to provide profitable employment at the rate of compensation fixed by act of congress for those persons who have come within the lines of the army of the United States, "It is agreed and determined, that the United States will employ all the persons heretofore held to labor on the several plantations in the parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines belonging to loyal citizens as they have heretofore been employed, and as nearly as may be under the charge of the loyal planters and overseers of said parishes and other necessary direction. "The United States will authorize or provide suitable guards and patrols to preserve order and prevent crime in the said parishes. "The planters shall pay for the services of each able-bodied male person ten (10) dollars per month, three (3) of which may be expended for necessary clothing; and for each woman (-) dollars; and for each child above the age of ten (10) years, and under the age of sixteen (16) years, the sum of- (--) dollars; all the persons above the age of sixteen years being considered as men and women for the purpose of labor. "Planters shall furnish suitable and proper food for each of theso laborers, and take care of them, and furnish proper medicines in case of sickness. "The planters shall also suitably provide for all the persons incapacitated by sickness or age from labor, bearing the relation of parent, child or wife, of the laborer so laboring for him. "Ten hours a day shall be a day's labor; and any extra hours during which the laborer may be called by the necessities of the occasion to work, shall be returned as so much toward another day's labor. Twenty-six days, of ten hours each, shall make a month's labor. It shall be the duty of the overseer to keep a true and exact account of the time of labor of each person, and any wrong or inaccuracy therein, shall forfeit a month's pay to the person so wronged. "No cruel or corporal punishment shall be inflicted by any one upon the person so laboring, or upon his or her relatives; but any insubordination or refusal to perform suitable labor, or other crime or offense, shall be at once reported to the provost-marshal for the district, and punishment suitable for the offense shall be inflicted under his orders, preferably imprisonment in darkness on bread and water. "This agreement to continue at the pleasure of the United States. "If any planter of the parishes of St. Bernard or Plaquemines refuses to enter into this agreement or remains a disloyal citizen, the persons claimed to be held to service by him may hire themselves to any loyal planter, or the United States may elect to carry on his plantation by their own agents, and other persons than those thus claimed may be hired by any planter at his election. "It is expressly understood and agreed that this arrangement shall not be held to affect. after its termination, the legal rights of eitner master or slave; but that the question of free dom or slavery is to be determined by considerations wholly outside of the provisions of this contract, provided always, that the abuse by any master or overseer of any persons laboring under the provisions of this coutract, shall, after trial and adjudication by the military or other courts, emancipate the person so abused." And, now, what were the results of the experiment? We have explicit information on this point. Among those who heard of the startling innovation, noue listened to the tale with deeper interest than the president of the United States. Mr. Chase read to him one of General Butler's private letters upon the subject, and the president then wrote a note to the general, asking detailed information. The president was also curious to know something respecting the election of members of congress in Louisiana, then about to take place. General Butler replied in a letter, which the citizens of free Louisiana will consider historically important. "Our experiment," wrote the general, November 28th, 1862, "in attempting the cultivation of sugar by free labor, I am happy to report, is succeeding admirably. I am inforined by the government agent who has charge, that upon one of the plantations, where sugar is being made by the negroes who had escaped therefrom into our lines, and have been sent back under wages, that with the same negroes and the same machinery, by free labor, a hogshead and a half more of sugar has been made in a day than was ever before made in the same time on the plantation under slave labor. profit enough to enable us to support, for six months longer, the starving whites and blacks bere,-a somewhat herculean task. "We are feeding now daily, in the city of New Orleans, more than thirty-two thousand whites, seventeen thousand of whom are British born subjects, and mostly claiming British protection; and only about two thousand of whom are American citizens, the rest being of the several nationalities who are represented here from all parts of the globe. "Besides these, we have some ten thousand negroes to feed, besides those at work on the plantations, principally women and children. All this has, thus far, been done without any draft upon the treasury, although how much longer we can go on, is a problem of which I am now anxiously seeking the solution. * * * "The operations of General Weitzel, in the Lafourche country, the richest sugar planting part of Louisiana, have opened to us a very large number of slaves, all of whom, under the act, are free; and large crops of sugar, as well those already made, as those in process of being made. *** All this portion of the country are rapidly returning to their allegiance, and the elections are being organized for Wednesday next, and I doubt not a large vote will be thrown. "I bound Dr. Cotman not to be one of the So candidates in the field. He had voluntarily "Your friend, Colonel Shaffer, has had put up, to be forwarded to you, a barrel of the first sugar ever made by free black labor in Louisiana; and the fact that it will have no flavor of the degrading whip, will not, I know, render it less sweet to your taste. The planters seem to have been struck with a sort of judicial blindness, and some of them so deluded have abandoned their crops rather than work them with free labor. I offered them, as a basis, a contract, a copy of which is inclosed for your information. It was rejected by many of them, because they would not relinquish the right to use the whip, although I have provided a punishment for the refractory, by means of the provost-marshal, as you will see-imprisonment in darkness, on bread and water. I did not feel that I had a right, by the military power of the United States, to send back to be scourged, at the will of their former and, in some cases, infuriated masters, those black men who had fled to me for protection; while I had no doubt of my right to employ them under the charge of whomsoever I might choose, to work for the benefit of themselves and the government. I have, therefore, caused the ne-man can not be found. groes to be informed that they should have the same rights as to freedom, if so the law was, on the plantation as if they were in camp; and they have, in a great majority of instances, gone willingly to work, and work with a will. They were, at first, a little averse to going back, lest they should lose some rights which would come to them in camp; but, upon our assurances, are quite content. "I think this scheme can be carried out without loss to the government, and I hope with "But to return to our negroes. I find this difficulty in prospect: Many of the planters here, while professing loyalty, and I doubt not feeling it, if the 'institution' can be spared to them, have agreed together not to make any provision this autumn for another crop of sugar next season, hoping thereby to throw upon us this winter an immense number of blacks, without employment and without any means of support for the future; the planters themselves living upon what they made from this crop. Thus, no provision being made for the crop either of | good to their interests. This conduct on their corn, potatoes, or cereals, the government will be obliged to come to their terms for the future employment of the negrocs, or to be at enormous expenses to support them. "We shall have to meet this as best we may. Of course, we are not responsible for what may be done outside of our lines, but here I shall make what provision I can for the future, as well for the cereal and root crop as the cane. We shall endeavor to get a stock of cane laid down on all the plantations worked by government, and to preserve seed corn and potatoes to meet this contingency. "I shall send out my third regiment of Native Guards (colored), and set them to work preserving the cane and roots for a crop next year. "It can not be supposed that this great change in a social and political system can be made without a shock; and I am only surprised that the possibility opens up to me that it can be made at all. Certain it is, and I speak the almost universal sentiment and opinion of my officers, that slavery is doomed! I have no doubt of it; and with every prejudice and early teaching against the result to which my mind has been irresistibly brought by my experience here, I am now convinced: "1st. That labor can be done in this state by whites, and more economically than by blacks and slaves. "2d. That black labor can be as well governed, used, and made as profitable in a state of freedom as in slavery. "3d. That while it would have been better could this emancipation of the slaves be gradual, yet it is quite feasible, even under this great change, as a governmental proposition, to organize, control, and work the negro with profit and safety to the white; but this can be best done under military supervision." Slavery is doomed !" So says General Rosecrans, also. So says the reticent and modest General Grant. So says, I believe, every officer who has served in the heart of a slave state. We shall see, in a moment, by what means the true nature of slavery was brought home to the mind of General Butler, so that he not only foresaw, but exulted in the downfall of the institution. part, it seems to me, exhibits a large amount of intellectual ability; for they have had the intelligence, while thoroughly understanding the nature of the revolution going on around them, of heartily sympathizing with the enemy; yet they have been secretive enough to keep their real opinions in their own hearts until the proper time came to give them utterance. I know of no people who, under thre circumstances, could have acted better or wiser."* The president's proclamation of freedom, which took effect January 1st, 1863, suggested to General Butler's fertile genius a measure which, it is greatly to be deplored, he had not time to carry out before his sudden recall. The proclamation, it will be remembered, exempted from emancipation certain parishes of Louisiana, which were already in the possession of the United States. It was well known to General Butler that a large proportion of the slaves in those parishes belonged to foreign-born แ neutrals," whose sympathy with secession had given him so much trouble. It occurred to him to inquire whether, by French law, those Frenchmen could hold slaves in a foreign country. Consulting with a French jurist on the subject, he received from him a statement respecting the law of the French empire, which showed that no French citizen can lawfully hold slaves in any part of the world. English law forbade the owning of slaves by British subjects, under heavy penalties. The confiscation act emancipated the slaves of rebels. So that, while the proclamation of January 1st appeared to retain in servitude eighty-seven thousand slaves in Louisiana, General Butler deemed it feasible, by enforcing the laws of France and England, and by the complete execution of the confiscation act, to give freedom to nearly the whole number of these eighty-seven thousand slaves. Probably not more than seven thousand of the eighty-seven thousand were the property of loyal citizens. The rest were free by the laws of France, England, or the United States. While he was considering the best means of bringing these laws to bear in "extending the area of freedom," the coming of his successor was announced by rebel telegraph, straight from the recesses of the French legation at the city of Washington. I should add, that the British consul, Mr. Coppell, who now appeared to be on friendly terms with the commanding general, entered warmly into the halfformed scheme. The perfect behavior of the black men in their new character of free laborers has been often remarked. A whole book full of testimony on this point could be adduced. If it be objected that General Butler had too short an experience of his system to be able to judge its results, we I shall take leave of this subject by relating can point to the testimony of men now in Louis- several anecdotes illustrative of the practical iana, who have observed the working of the free-working of slavery in Louisiana, and of the manlabor system for more than a year. One highly intelligent gentleman has recently written from New Orleans: ner in which the system presented itself there to the hunker mind. Most of these stories I had the pleasure of hearing General Butler himself relate. "No one has properly noticed how well the slaves in the South have maintained their difficult position. From the commencement up to this time they have in no instance called upon their heads the indignation of their masters by any impudent expression or untimely outbreak. Whenever our forces have afforded them an opportunity to break their bonds, they have done it promptly and efficiently; but they have, with a rare prudence, not involved themselves in difficulties which would be fruitless of substantial CHAPTER XXIV. REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. SPECIMEN OF THE PROVOST COURT SLAVE CASES. JOHN MONTAMAL, a free man of color, married colored woman, who was a slave. Both were *New York Times, October, 1863. |