.

"2. Their promotion when they had earned it on the battle-field.

"3. Should they be taken prisoners and enslaved or hanged, as Jefferson
Davis had threatened, an equal number of Confederate prisoners should be
executed within our lines.

"A declaration to that effect I thought would prevent the execution of
the rebel threat. To all but the last, President Lincoln assented. He
argued, however, that neither equal pay nor promotion could be granted
at once. He said that in view of existing prejudices it was a great step
forward to employ colored troops at all; that it was necessary to avoid
everything that would offend this prejudice and increase opposition to
the measure.

"He detailed the steps by which white soldiers were reconciled to the
employment of colored troops; how these were first employed as laborers;
how it was thought they should not be armed or uniformed like white
soldiers; how they should only be made to wear a peculiar uniform; how
they should be employed to hold forts and arsenals in sickly locations,
and not enter the field like other soldiers.

"With all these restrictions and limitations he easily made me see that
much would be gained when the colored man loomed before the country as a
full-fledged United States soldier to fight, flourish or fall in defense
of the united republic. The great soul of Lincoln halted only when he
came to the point of retaliation.

"The thought of hanging men in cold blood, even though the rebels
should murder a few of the colored prisoners, was a horror from which he
shrank.

"'Oh, Douglass! I cannot do that. If I could get hold of the actual
murderers of colored prisoners I would retaliate; but to hang those who
have no hand in such murders, I cannot.'

"The contemplation of such an act brought to his countenance such an
expression of sadness and pity that it made it hard for me to press my
point, though I told him it would tend to save rather than destroy life.
He, however, insisted that this work of blood, once begun, would be hard
to stop--that such violence would beget violence. He argued more like a
disciple of Christ than a commander-in-chief of the army and navy of a
warlike nation already involved in a terrible war.

"How sad and strange the fate of this great and good man, the saviour
of his country, the embodiment of human charity, whose heart, though
strong, was as tender as a heart of childhood; who always tempered
justice with mercy; who soug