Blacks in America 4

'Recognizing me, even before I reached him, the president exclaimed, so that all around could hear him, “Here comes my friend Douglass.” Taking me by the hand, he said, “I am glad to see you. I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my inaugural address; how did you like it?” I said, “Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion when there are thousands waiting to shake hands with you.” “No, no,” he said, “you must stop a little, Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you thought of it.” I replied, “Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.”’

- Frederick Douglass, Ex-slave, White House reception after Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

Blacks in America 3

One man's description of the Emancipation Proclamation: 'As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger [a United States officer, I presume] made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.'

- Booker T. Washington, 9 years old

Blacks in America 2

In July of 1862, two months before Lincoln made public his momentous decision to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, admitted bluntly, ‘Our people want nothing to do with the Negro.’

Blacks in America 1

According to Lincoln’s dazzling 1860 Cooper Union speech, Blacks in colonial America were far more influential than is commonly supposed. According to Lincoln, in five of the original thirteen states – Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina - free Negroes had the right to vote. They undoubtedly played a part in the ratification of the Constitution and certainly were included in the preamble 'we the people.'

The Vagaries of War 2

In those early days of the Civil War the bumbling, fumbling giant known as the North hardly seemed capable of mounting anything like a victory against the dazzling military talent of the South. This was particularly true in 1862 – Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia seemed able to walk on water. In May of that year Lee, although outnumbered two to one, had divided his army and struck General Joseph Hooker with frontal and flank assaults and a titanic battle roared around Chancellorsville, Virginia. On May 6, 1862 came the awful news that Hooker had quit fighting. Another defeat. Fighting Joe Hooker, as he was known, had let the Rebel force run rings around him suffering 17,000 casualties in the process. How was this war ever to be won?

The Vagaries of War 1

With what looked very much like the advent of war in those first few weeks of the Lincoln administration the government over which he presided was embroiled in a huge bureaucratic mess. The army didn't seem to know what it was doing, but then neither did the various government departments, or Congress. In short, the benign chaos that dominated the sleepy little two-man law firm of Lincoln & Herndon for the previous 17 years seemed to apply to the White House in particular and the entire federal apparatus in general. [It's a good thing the Rebel government across the way was also embroiled in similar problems of needed rapid growth and did not have the wherewithal, or foresight, to send a moderately sized force across the Potomac in those early, early days of the war to a virtually undefended Washington, DC and bag the lot!]

The Impact of Lincoln’s Death 2

Lincoln's death was an unparalleled international phenomenon. Of course heads of state, like his great and good friend Queen Victoria, sent condolences. But what was astonishing was that, according to one historian, condolences also came from the Working Class Improvement Association of Lisbon, the Students in the Faculty of Theology in Strasbourg, the Teachers of the Ragged School in Bristol, the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea, the Cotton Brokers' Association of Liverpool, the Men's Gymnastic Union of Berne, Switzerland [all 44 members]. As if moved inexorably by some powerful if unseen gravitational pull, people thousands of miles away all made it their business to express their profound sorrow at the passing of this most enigmatic of men. For somehow Lincoln had managed to capture their imaginations, this man carved from the granite of the great American heartland, who had clambered through the dense entangling undergrowth of misunderstanding and greed, of violence and stupidity, to burst forth onto God's very own broad, sunlit uplands.