d make the pay-rolls of
these regiments more complicated than at present, or the men more
rationally discontented. I had not the ingenuity to imagine such an
order. Yet it is no doubt in accordance with the spirit, if not with the
letter, of the final bill which was adopted by Congress under the lead
of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens.

"The ground taken by Mr. Stevens apparently was that the country might
honorably save a few dollars by docking the promised pay of those
colored soldiers whom the war had made free. _But the Government should
have thought of this before it made the contract with these men and
received their services._ When the War Department instructed
Brigadier-General Saxton, August 25, 1862, to raise five regiments of
negroes in South Carolina, it was known very well that the men so
enlisted had only recently gained their freedom. But the instructions
said: 'The persons so received into service, and their officers, to be
entitled to and receive the same pay and rations as are allowed by law
to volunteers in the service.' Of this passage Mr. Solicitor Whiting
wrote to me: 'I have no hesitation in saying that the faith of the
Government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted
under that call.' Where is that faith of the Government now?

"The men who enlisted under the pledge were volunteers, every one; they
did not get their freedom by enlisting; they had it already. They
enlisted to serve the Government, trusting in its honor. Now the nation
turns upon them and says: Your part of the contract is fulfilled; we
have had your services. If you can show that you had previously been
free for a certain length of time, we will fulfil the other side of the
contract. If not, we repudiate it. Help yourselves, if you can.

"In other words, a freedman (since April 19, 1861) has no rights which a
white man is bound to respect. He is incapable of making a contract. No
man is bound by a contract made with him. Any employer, following the
example of the United States Government, may make with him a written
agreement, receive his services, and then withhold the wages. He has no
motive to honest industry, or to honesty of any kind. He is virtually a
slave, and nothing else, to the end of time.

"Under this order, the greater part of the Massachusetts colored
regiments will get their pay at last, and be able to take their wives
and children out of the almshouses, to which, as Governor Andrew informs
us, the gra