History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses, 1861-65, by Henry Wilson, 1865.

CHAPTER XV.

PAY OF COLORED SOLDIERS.

MR. WILSON'S BILL. — MR. GRIMES'S AMENDMENT. MR. WILSON'S JOINT RESOLUTION. — MR. CONNESS'S AMENDMENT, REMARKS OF MR. FESSENDEN. — MR. WILSON, — MR. FOSTER. — MR. SUMNER, — MR. JOHNSON. — MR. GRIMES, — MR. HOWE, MR. WILSON. —MR. GRIMES. MR. COWAN’S AMMENDMENT, MR. SUMNER'S AMENDMENT, — MR. WILSON'S AMENDMENT. — MR. DOOLITTLE'S AMENDMENT, — MR. SUMNER'S AMEND MENT TO MR. COWAN’S AMENDMENT, — MR. WILSON'S AMENDMENT, — REMARKS OF MR. CLARK, — MR. DAVIS'S AMENDMENT. — MR. COLLAMER'S AMENDMENT, — REMARKS OF MR. FOOT. — MR. SUMNER'S AMEND MENT. — REMARKS OF MR. WILKINSON, — MR. WILSON, — MR. HOWARD, MR. JOHNSON, — MR. FESSENDEN, — MR. WILSON'S BILL. MR. DAVIS'S AMENDMENT. PASSAGE OF THE BILL, — MR. WILSON'S AMENDMENT TO THE ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL, MR. STEVENS'S AMENDMENT. REMARKS OF MR. HOLMAN. MR. PEICE, MR. HOLMAN'S AMENDMENT. CONFERENCE COMMITTEES. — REPORT ACCEPTED.

IN the Senate, on the 8th of January, 1864, Mr. Wilson (Rep.) of Massachusetts introduced a bill to promote enlistments. It was read twice, referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, and reported back on the 18th with amendments. On the 21st, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Wilson, proceeded to its con sideration. The second section provided that all persons of African descent, who have been or may be mustered into the military service of the United States, shall receive the same uniform, clothing, arras, equipments, camp-equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendance, pay and emoluments, as other soldiers of the regular or volunteer forces of the like arm of the service ; and that Page 294 every such person hereafter mustered into service shall receive two months' pay in advance. Mr. Grimes asked if bounties were given to colored soldiers by the bill. Mr. Wilson replied, that bounties were not given, but that two months' pay in advance was given. Mr. Pomeroy (Rep.) of Kansas desired to know If there was any law allowing the master of a slave compensation for the services of the slave. Mr. Wilson replied, that there was no law authorizing the War Department to allow compensation for slaves, other than the general authority to use the commutation-money to obtain substitutes.

On the 27th of January, on motion of Mr. Wilson, the Senate took up the bill to promote enlistments ; and Mr. Grimes moved to amend the second section by striking out the words, "two months' pay in advance," and inserting, " such sums in bounty as the President shall order, in different States, and parts of States, not exceeding a hundred dollars ; " and the amendment was agreed to.

On the 3d of February, Mr. Wilson, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported a joint resolution to equalize the pay of colored soldiers. It provided that all persons of color, who have been or may be mustered into the military service of the United States, shall receive the same uniform, clothing, arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendance, pay and emoluments other than bounty, as other soldiers of the regular or volunteer forces of the United States of like arm of service, during the whole terra in which they shall be or shall have been in such service ; and every person of color who shall hereafter be mustered Page 295 into the service is to receive such sums in bounty as the President shall order, in the different States and parts of the United States, not exceeding a hundred dollars. The Senate, on the 4th, proceeded to the consideration of the joint resolution, Mr. Fessenden (Rep.) of Maine wished " to inquire what propriety there is in our going back, and paying them this increase for services already rendered." Mr. Wilson thought, " as an act of justice, the bill should be retrospective. Gross injustice has been done towards these men, and it ought to be corrected." Mr. Ten Eyck (Rep.) of New Jersey thought " the withholding of the full pay to men who were led to believe they would receive the arms pay as other soldiers has occasioned great dissatisfaction, not only in the minds of those troops, but of all their friends at home." Mr. Lane (Rep.) of Kansas hoped "the joint resolution would be retrospective." Mr. Fessenden was in favor, and had ever been in favor, of putting colored soldiers on a level with white ones ; but he was opposed to paying men for services already rendered, unless the men were promised full pay by orders emanating from the War Department. Mr. Conness (Union) from California moved to strike out the words, " during the whole time in which they shall be or shall have been in such service," and insert, "from and after the passage of this act." Mr. Lane hoped the amendment would not be adopted : " The senator from California should not attempt to perpetrate such an outrage upon a gallant regiment of his State." Mr. Conness was in favor of equality of compensation in the future ; but " neither the condition of the treasury, nor the public credit, can afford ' these acts of justice,' as they Page 296 are termed." Mr. Pomeroy (Rep.) of Kansas thought we should give colored soldiers the precise pay, and place them in precisely the same position, as white soldiers. Mr. Doolittle (Rep.) of Wisconsin said, "If the Government has in good faith made a promise to soldiers who have enlisted in any particular regiment, whether in Massachusetts or anywhere else, that promise ought to be kept." He thought there were differences in the condition of colored troops in the States. In the Northern States, they were in the same condition as the white soldiers ; but in the Southern States, the Government was doing much to support their wives and children, and some account should be made of this expenditure. "I wish," said Mr. Sumner, "to see our colored troops treated like white troops in every respect. But I would not press this first principle by any retro-active proposition, unless where the faith of the Government is committed ; and there I would not hesitate. The treasury can bear any additional burden better than the country can bear to do an injustice." On the 10th, the Senate resumed the consideration of the joint resolution equalizing the pay of soldiers. Mr. Foster (Rep.) thought, "If it is just to do this, it is certainly expedient; for justice is always the highest expediency." He thought justice required that we carry out the pledges of the Government or of public officers ; " but justice especially requires it when we consider that we are dealing with men, a great portion of whom, as I have suggested, were never taught to read, and never could, therefore, know what the written law of the country was." Mr. Sumner quoted the order of the Secretary of War to Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, Page 297 and maintained that It was issued under the law of 1861, not the act of 1862. Mr. Fessenden could not concur in Mr. Sumner’s construction of the act of 1862. Mr. Lane (Rep.) of Indiana thought, "If we place colored troops hereafter on an equality with the white troops, it is surely as much as they can ask, either from the justice or the generosity of this Senate ; for no man in his sober senses will say that their services are worth as much, or that they are as good soldiers." Mr. Wilson said, "A colonel of a colored regiment stated to me, the other night, that his regiment made a march of forty-three miles in the late expedition to North Carolina, without one straggler ; that he had seen but one case of drunkenness in his regiment for six months. All the testimony of our officers who took these troops with prejudices against them goes to show that they are industrious ; that they are obedient ; that they are deferential in their manners ; that they make the best kind of scouts ; that they know the country well ; that they are performing their duty with a zeal and an earnestness unsurpassed. There is a reason for this. Take a colored man who has been degraded by popular prejudice, or by law, or in any other way, put the uniform of the United States upon him, and let him follow the flag of the country, and he feels proud and elevated. They are fighting for the elevation of their race, as well as for our country and our cause, and for the emancipation of their race ; and well may they perform that duty." Mr. Sumner said, "I hope the senator from Indiana will pardon me if I refer to him for one minute. He is so uniformly generous and just, that I was the more surprised when I hastened to his remarks just now. I Page 298 was surprised at his lack of generosity and his lack of justice — he will pardon me — toward these colored soldiers. I was surprised — he will pardon me — at his injustice to the State of Massachusetts. He spoke disparagingly of the colored soldiers. He thought they had been paid enough. He thought that the gallant blood shed on the parapets of Fort Wagner had been paid enough; and he failed to see that those men who died for us on that bloody night, and were buried in the same grave with their colonel who led them, now stood alive in this presence to plead for the equality of their race." The Senate, on the 13th, resumed the consideration of the joint resolution ; and Mr. Conness withdrew his amendment to strike out the retrospective clause. Mr. Sumner offered an amendment, that in regard to all past services, if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War that the persons were led to suppose they were mustered into the service under the act of July 22, 1861, they shall receive full pay. Mr. Anthony thought the amendment did not cover the case. "I think there were a number of these men — I know it was so in my State — who were led to suppose that they would have the same pay as the white soldiers as soon as Congress assembled ; that the manifest injustice of paying white soldiers one price, and colored soldiers another price, would be at once corrected." — "In my view," said Mr. Johnson, "there is no obligation, either legal or moral, upon the Goverment to pay these men more than the law entitles them to.", Mr. Grimes thought "this matter is being com promised by attempting to cover some individual cases in a general law. I think, however, that the Chairman Page 299 of the Committee on Military Affairs had better not involve this bill with any reference to the Massachusetts regiments or to the Rhode-Island men who have been enlisted, or to the South-Carolina regiments." Mr. Howe rose " to assent to the advice given by the senator from Iowa : it is eminently sensible." — "It is evident," said Mr. Wilson, " after what has been said here this morning, that this joint resolution is delayed by the attempt to do justice to some ten or fifteen or twenty regiments to whom this promise was made. I think the amendment proposed by my colleague would not apply to more than fifteen or twenty regiments at moat, and it would be at the discretion of the Secretary of War. I should be perfectly willing to trust It in his hands. But, as I see that I cannot get the resolution through promptly in its present shape, I propose to amend it by striking out that portion which makes it retrospective, — by striking out all after the word 'service ' in the ninth line, down to the word ' and ' in the tenth line, and inserting ' from the first day of January, 1864;' so that it will read, 'As other soldiers of the regular or volunteer forces of the United States of like arm of the service, from and after the first day of January, 1864." Mr. Johnson thought, "If the Governor of Massachusetts has made a promise which the law did not authorize ; if he has created, ae between the Massachusetts soldiers and the Governor of Massachusetts, an obligation which ought to be redeemed, let Massachusetts redeem it." — " They have passed," said Mr. Fessenden, " a law to redeem it ; but these regiments refuse to receive it of Massachusetts." Mr. Wilson explained the action of the State, and the position of Page 300 the colored regiments in declining to receive the money of Massachusetts. " They enlisted under the expectation of receiving the same pay as other troops, and they hold the Government to its pledges." Mr. Johnson, in reply, said, " They are gentlemen of most extraordinary sensibility." — "They will not receive," said Mr. Collamer, " the three dollars from the State, or the ten dollars from the United States." — "I will say," replied Mr. Johnson, " if they are made up of that material, they will not be as good soldiers as we hope the others will be." — "They have made their record on that point," replied Mr. Wilson. " I sympathize," said Mr. Grimes, "a great deal with those gallant and patriotic noble young men who have gone out in command of the Massachusetts fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth regiments, and who are in command of the first and second South-Carolina regiments. I know a great many of them. I know them to be gallant and patriotic young men. But I cannot help thinking that they have involved us un necessarily in trouble in connection with this subject ; for I know perfectly well that it was through their persuasions that these colored troops in South Carolina declined to receive the money that Massachusetts voted to pay them." Mr. Cowan (Rep.) would vote to equalize the pay, but was opposed to retrospective legislation in this case. Mr. Collamer thought Mr. Sumner's amendment did " not reach the case at all. It puta the question of paying these men back to the time of their enlistment, upon whether they were led to believe or did believe that they were to receive thirteen dollars a month. I do not think it makes -any difference what they were led to believe or did believe. It is not to be Page 301 put upon any contingency of that kind. There is the written enlistment; and it speaks for itself." The amendment was lost.

Mr. Wilson then moved to strike out the words, "during the whole time in which they shall be or shall have been in such service," and to insert in lieu thereof, " from and after the first day of January, 1864." The amendment was agreed to. Mr. Doolittle moved to amend by reserving out of the pay of colored soldiers from the States in rebellion four dollars per month to reimburse the Government for expenses incurred in feeding and clothing women and children of color in those States. Mr. Conness opposed the amendment. Mr. Sherman thought It not only just, but in accordance with the practice of the Government. Mr. Grimes objected to this amendment. " Is it just," he inquired, " to take four dollars from the pay of a man who has no wife, and put it into a common fund?" Mr. Wilson believed that the women and children, being accustomed to outdoor work, instead of being a burden to the Government, are a benefit to it. Mr. Lane of Kansas believed that " the families of the colored soldiers are self-sustaining machines almost from the moment they enter our lines. I hope," he said, " that this amendment will not receive a single vote in this Chamber ; for it is a discrimination between the soldiers of the array of the United States, and an invitation to Jeff Davis to persist in his brutal treatment of our gallant troops." Mr. Doolittle's amendment was reject ed. Mr. Cowan moved to strike out all after the enacting clause, and insert, " That, from and after the passage of this resolution, the soldiers of the United States of Page 302 America, of the same grade and service, shall be entitled to the same pay, rations, and pension. Mr. Sumner moved to amend the original bill by adding as a proviso : "Provided, that in all cases of past service, where it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War, by the actual papers of enlistment, that such persons were enlisted as volunteers under the act of July, 1861, the pay promised by that act shall be allowed from the commencement of such service." The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted — yeas 16, nays 21. Mr. Cowan earnestly advocated his amendment. He was in favor of " treating the negro precisely the same as any other man. He was a citizen of the United States. When I say that the negro is a citizen, I do not mean to say that he is equal to the white man." Mr. Saulsbury rose to enter his "protest against the constitutional views of the senator from Pennsylvania." He objected to the words " colored soldiers " and " colored persons." They used the word " negro " In his State. " Now, lo and behold, in the advancement of civilization and Christianity and refinement of which we hear so much, the negro has got to be a ' colored person ; ' and, when you come to provide for calling him into the public service, there must be perfect equality ! "

On motion of Mr. Wilson, the Senate resumed, on the 16th, the consideration' of the joint resolution. Mr. Wilson moved to amend Mr. Cowan’s amendment by striking out all after the word " that," and inserting, "From and after the passage of this resolution, the soldiers of the United States of America, of the same grade and service, shall be entitled to the same pay, rations, and pension." Mr. Davis then gave notice Page 303 that he would move to amend Mr. Cowan’s substitute. He addressed the Senate for two days in denunciation of the policy of the Government, and in reviewing the history and criticising the action of Massachusetts.

On the 23d, the Senate resumed the consideration of the joint resolution ; the pending question being on Mr. Wilson's amendment to Mr. Cowan's substitute for the original resolution. Mr. Wilson modified his amendment : the vote was taken upon it, and it was lost. Mr. Davis moved three resolutions as an amendment in the nature of a substitute to Mr. Cowan's amendment. The amendment proposed that all negroes and mulattoes by whatever term designated — in the military service of the United States, be, and the same are hereby, declared to-be discharged from such service, and shall be disarmed as soon as practicable. Mr. Conness demanded the yeas and nays, and they were ordered. Mr. Clark opposed this proposition to dis band thousands of soldiers. " I want," said Mr. Clark, "the black man to have arras in his hands. I glory in the opportunity of putting arras in his hands, that, when he puts down the Rebellion, he may put down for ever the institution which has enslaved him. I shall in It the safety of the black man. I glory in his elevation : and I say here to the senator from Kentucky, — and I say it unhesitatingly, — that, when you have put arras in the hands of the black man, you cannot enslave him ; and therefore I would give him arms. I would make his arms his protection. I would teach him to respect himself as a man, and to feel that he is respected, and his rights preserved. . . . When the negro was brought into the service of the country, he vindicated himself; Page 304 he showed that he could make a good soldier ; he showed that he could make a good fighter ; he showed that he could make a good marcher ; he showed that he was obedient to discipline ; he showed, that, in some cases, he could endure more than the white man, and Avaa equally loyal and ready to fight. Then, if the black man makes a good soldier ; if he goes readily to the fight ; if he stands up firmly and bravely, and gives his blood and his life to the country, — I ask. Why should he not be paid ? Can anybody tell me ? " The vote was taken on Mr. Davis’s amendment, — yeas 7, nays 30.

Mr. Collamer proposed to amend the original joint resolution by adding to it, "All persons enlisted into the service as volunteers under the call dated Oct. 17, 1863, who were at the time of enlistment actually, and for six months previous had been, resident inhabitants of the State in which they volunteered, shall receive from the United States the same amount of bounty, without regard to color ; provided, however, that the foregoing provision shall not extend to any State which the President by proclamation has declared in a state of insurrection." Mr. Foot earnestly and eloquently advocated this amendment. The War Department, after the call of October for three hundred thousand men, offered a bounty, to all accepted volunteers, of $300. " This is simply," he said, " a proposition to redeem that promise, — a promise published and proclaimed everywhere throughout the country ; in every nook and corner of the country, at the threshold of every hamlet in the country, — a promise everywhere and by everybody understood as applying to and embracing all accepted Page 305 volunteers, without exception of class or color, — a promise everywhere and by everybody so interpreted and so relied upon, and so acted upon." Mr. Sumner moved to amend Mr. Collamer's amendment by adding, " that all persons whose papers of enlistment shall show that they were enlisted under the act of Congress of July, 1861, shall receive, from the time of their enlistment, the pay promised by that statute," — yeas 19, nays 18. Mr. Wilson moved to amend Mr. Collamer’s amendment by adding the word "free" after the word "all," for the reason that all slaves are now provided for by law. Mr. Wilkinson earnestly opposed this amendment, and severely criticised the provisions of the Enrolment Act for drafting and enrolling slaves. " I am willing," said Mr. Wilson in reply, " that he shall denounce that measure. That act says to every slave in the loyal States. Enroll your name among the defenders of the Republic ; and, the hour you are mustered into our armies, you are a free man for evermore.' The Government of the United States by that act, for the first time in our history, has declared tens of thousands of slaves in the loyal States free, upon their own will to become free. It is incomparably the greatest emancipation measure that was ever passed by the Congress of the United States ; and I would rather have ray name to that bill, which asserts the power of this nation to emancipate every slave in the country who will enroll his name among the defenders of the Union, than to any measure for which my name stands recorded in favor of the freedom of mankind. Sir, I glory in the vote, and I glory in that measure." Mr. Howard eloquently defended his vote against that portion of the Enrolment Act Page 306 relating to mustering slaves into the service. " You call him to aid you in your wars," he said : " your necessities remit him to the condition in which Nature herself placed him. The hand of robbery becomes palsied. Freedom, his birthright, accrues to him as a responsible being ; and he again enjoys what was not yours to give, and which human force and crime have withheld. The Almighty, not you, restores to him the gift of liber ty. He owes you nothing for it ; not even gratitude." — "The senator from Michigan," said Mr. Johnson, " seems to think that nothing has been gained by the slave. Nothing ! What was his condition before? That of a slave, — slavery for himself and his posterity for ever. What do we tell him ? Come into the service of the United States, and you shall be free, you and yours ; the shackles that have bound your limbs shall fall from them ; you shall stand erect in the presence of your Maker, as free as any white man who treads the soil. Is that nothing?"

Mr. Fessenden addressed the Senate, on the 29th, in explanation of his sentiments and opinions. He had, from the beginning, been in favor of placing colored soldiers on the same footing as white soldiers. " Pass," he said, " the bill, and settle the principle as it ought to be settled ; place the colored troops on the same level with the white troops in all cases ; let them receive the same pay and rations, and every thing else." Mr. Grimes moved to recommit the joint resolution to the Military Committee ; "and the motion was agreed to.

On the 2d of March, Mr. Wilson reported a new bill, in lieu of the original joint resolution to equalize the pay of soldiers. The first section placed colored Page 307 soldiers on an equality with white soldiers from the 1st of January, 1864 ; the second section gave the same bounties to colored volunteers in the loyal States, under the call of October, 1863 ; the third section gave to all persons of color, who have been enlisted and mustered into the service of the United States, the pay allowed by law to other volunteers in the service, from the date of their muster. If it has been pledged or promised to them by any officer or person, who, in making such pledge or promise, acted by authority of the War Department ; and the Secretary of War is to determine any question of fact arising under this pro vision. Mr. Davis moved to amend the bill by adding a section to give to loyal owners of slaves such compensation as should be determined by commissioners appointed by the Circuit Court. On the 9th, Mr. Davis spoke at great length upon matters pertaining to slavery : his amendment was rejected on the 10th, — yeas 6, nays 31. Mr. Davis then demanded the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill, — yeas 31, nays 6. So the joint resolution passed the Senate.

On the 22d of April, Mr. Wilson moved to amend the Army-appropriation Bill by adding as an amendment the bill, which passed the Senate on the 10th of March, to equalize the pay of soldiers in the army. In support of his amendment, he said, " The failure of Congress to increase the pay of colored soldiers is not only checking enlistments, but disastrously affecting the men in the field. Sir, can we, dare we, hope for the blessing of Heaven upon our cause, while we perpetrate these wrongs, or suffer them to remain unredressed? Can we demand that the rebels shall give to our colored soldiers Page 308 the rights of civilized warfare, while we refuse to them equality of rights? Can we redress the brutal and bloody butchery at Fort Pillow, while we continue this injustice? Sir, the whole country is horrified at the barbarities perpetrated by the rebels upon our colored soldiers. The civilized world will be shocked as it reads of the bloody butchery at Fort Pillow. Sir, I feel that the nation is doing a wrong to the colored soldiers hardly less wicked than the wrongs perpetrated upon them by slaveholding traitors." Mr. Fessenden thought the measure ought to be- passed, and passed at once. If the Senate would waive the objection to put it on the Appropriation Bill, he would not object to it. The amendment was agreed to, — yeas 32, nays 6.

In the House, on the 30th of April, Mr. Stevens (Rep.) of Pennsylvania asked leave to report from the Committee of Ways and Means the Senate amendments to the Army-appropriation Bill. Mr. Holman (Dem.) of Indiana opposed the amendment equalizing the pay of soldiers. " I protest against it," he said, " as but a part of your general policy, which seeks by the force of power to extinguish every vestige of the old Republic of our fathers, wild, reckless, impracticable. I protest against it in the name of a distracted and bleeding country, which, struggling with defiant treason, and demanding prudence and patriotism in the conduct of its affairs, and the noblest incentives to constancy and courage, received at your hands only the paralyzing counsels of fanaticism and passion." Mr. Price (Rep.) of Iowa said, " Gen. Jackson, in his day, knew something of the value of negro soldiers as well as white soldiers ; and he placed them upon an equality as to pay and Page 309 rations." — "I despise the principle," said Mr. Stevens, " that would make a difference between them in the hour of battle and of death. The idea that we are to keep up that distinction is abhorrent to the feelings of the age, is abhorrent to the feelings of humanity, is shocking to every decent instinct of our nature ; and I take it that no man who is not wedded to the institution of slavery, or does not foster it for the sake of power, will go with the gentleman from Indiana." Mr. Holman moved to strike out the word " pay," — yeas 52, nays 84. Mr. Schenck (Rep.) of Ohio moved to amend the Senate amendment: lost, — ayes 58, noes 65. The Senate amendment equalizing the pay of soldiers was agreed to, — yeas 80, nays 49. Mr. Schenck moved to amend that portion of the Senate amendment giving to colored volunteers the same bounties allowed to white volunteers under the call of October, 1863 ; as that the bounty should not exceed a hundred dollars, — yeas 78, nays 51. Mr. Stevens moved to strike out the action of the Senate amendment authorizing the Secretary of War, on proof, to allow full pay to volunteers who were promised it, and to insert that all free persons of color shall receive the same pay as other soldiers, — yeas 73, nays 54.

The Senate, on the 3d of May, disagreed to the House amendments, asked a Committee of Conference ; and the Chair appointed Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Henderson, conferees. The House insisted on its amendments ; and the Speaker appointed Mr. Stevens, Mr. Schenck, and Mr. Morrison, conferees on the part of the House. The Conference Committee were unable to agree. A second Conference Committee was appointed, and the Conference Committee's report was Page 310 rejected by the House on the 26th of May ; and the House appointed Mr. Stevens, Mr. Pendleton, and Mr. Davis of New York, conferees, and asked another conference. The Senate, on the 27th, agreed to another Conference Committee; and Mr. Howe, Mr. Morrill, and Mr. Buckalew, were appointed conferees. On the 10th of June, the committees reported that the House recede from its amendment reducing the bounty of volunteers enlisted under the call of October, 1863, from three hundred dollars to one hundred dollars ; and that " all persons of color who were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the United States, shall from the time of their enlistment be entitled to receive the pay, bounty, and clothing allowed to such persons by the laws existing at the time of their enlistment. And the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby authorized to determine any question of law arising under this provision; and if the Attorney -General aforesaid shall determine that any of such enlisted persons are entitled to receive any pay, bounty, or clothing, in addition to what they have already received, the Secretary of War shall make all necessary regulations to enable the pay department to make payment in accordance with such determination." Mr. Pendleton refused to sign the report. Mr. Sumner desired to know in what condition the report left the colored troops enlisted in South Carolina. Mr. Howe, Chairman of the Conference Commit tee replied, that it made no provision for them, unless they were free at the breaking-out of the war. Mr. Sumner, as a senator from Massachusetts, might be content, as the regiments from his State were cared for; Page 311 but he was interested in the adjustment, on principles of justice, of colored troops from other States. Mr. Wilson said there was no doubt that the South-Carolina regiments ought to have full pay, and it was wrong to quibble about it : to omit the provision to men who were free in 1861 leaves out the men who were slaves then, and who ought to have justice done them. Mr. Pomeroy thought injustice was done to regiments from his State. Mr. Conness opposed the report as an " un just discrimination." Mr. Howe explained and defended the report. Mr. Sumner said, "The last chapter of ' Resselas ' is entitled, ' A conclusion in which nothing is concluded ; ' and I think that title may be properly given to the report of this committee." — "The report of the committee," said Mr. Johnson, "really does settle no thing ; and it is not intended to settle any thing, except contingently." Mr. Fessenden appealed to senators to concur in the adoption of the report. "I shall," said Mr. Wilson, " run the risk of It, for the reason that the bill, as it now stands, settles the question of equality from the lst of January last ; and, in the next place, it settles the question of bounty to colored men who are liable to be drafted in the loyal States, and it puts their matter in the control of the Attorney-General, whose opinion, I think, cannot be any thing else than that these men have the right which they claim." Mr. Henderson was un willing to pay colored troops more than they agreed to receive when they enlisted.

On the llth, Mr. Wilson moved to take up for con sideration the report of the Conference Committee. Mr. Sumner did not think the report creditable to Congress; and he concurred in its acceptance with reluctance. Page 312 "It is," he said, "in the full confidence that in this way we shall at last, through the opinion of the Attorney- General, obtain that justice which Congress has denied, that I consent to give my vote for this report." The report was accepted by the Senate. In the House, the report was accepted on the 13th, — yeas 71, nays 58. By the provisions of this legislation, colored troops were in all respects placed on the same footing as white troops from the 1st of January, 1864. Colored volunteers in the loyal States, under the call of the 17th of October, 1863, were allowed the same bounty as white volunteers; all colored soldiers free on the 19th of April, 1861 , were to receive full pay ; and the Attorney-General was authorized to decide whether colored men not free on the 19th of April were entitled to the same pay as white soldiers. The Attorney-General has finally decided that colored soldiers are in all respects entitled to the same compensation as white soldiers.

Source: Wilson, Henry. History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth United States Congresses, 1861-1865, Boston: Walker, Fuller, & Co., 1865.