ur gratitude.

In the events that led to the achievement of American independence the
Negro was not an inactive or unconcerned spectator. He bore his part
bravely upon many battlefields, although uncheered by that certain hope
of political elevation which victory would secure to the white man. The
tall granite shaft, which a grateful State has reared above its sons who
fell in defending Fort Griswold against the attack of Benedict Arnold,
bears the name of Jordan, Freeman, and other brave men of the African
race, who there cemented with their blood the corner-stone of the
Republic. In the State which I have the honor in part to represent
(South Carolina) the rifle of the black man rang out against the troops
of the British Crown in the darkest days of the American Revolution.
Said General Greene, who has been justly termed the "Washington of the
North," in a letter written by him to Alexander Hamilton, on the 10th of
January, 1781, from the vicinity of Camden, South Carolina: "There is no
such thing as national character or national sentiment. The inhabitants
are numerous, but they would be rather formidable abroad than at home.
There is a great spirit of enterprise among the black people, and those
that come out as volunteers are not a little formidable to the enemy."

At the battle of New Orleans under the immortal Jackson, a colored
regiment held the extreme right of the American line unflinchingly, and
drove back the British column that pressed upon them at the point of the
bayonet. So marked was their valor on that occasion that it evoked from
their great commander the warmest encomiums, as will be seen from his
dispatch announcing the brilliant victory.

As the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Beck), who seems to be the leading
exponent on this floor of the party that is arrayed against the
principle of this bill, has been pleased, in season and out of season,
to cast odium upon the Negro and to vaunt the chivalry of his State, I
may be pardoned for calling attention to another portion of the same
dispatch. Referring to the various regiments under his command, and
their conduct on that field which terminated the second war of American
Independence, General Jackson says. "At the very moment when the entire
discomfiture of the enemy was looked for with a confidence amounting to
certainty, the Kentucky reinforcements, in whom so much reliance had
been placed, ingloriously fled."

In quoting this indisputable piece of