How negro soldiers are to be treated.
The following letter, from Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts, is in reply to questions addressed to him by Mr. Downing, concerning the position of colored troops in respect to pay, equipments, bounty, and protection, compared to that of white volunteers.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Department. Boston, March 23, 1863.
Geo. T. Downing, Esq., N. Y.
Dear Sir
--In reply to your inquiries made as to the position of colored men who may be enlisted and mustered into the service of the United States, I would say that their position in respect to pay, equipments, bounty, or any aid and protection, when so mustered, will be precisely the same in every particular as that of any and all other volunteers.
Geo. T. Downing, Esq., N. Y.
Dear Sir
I desire further to state to you, that when I was in Washington, on one occasion in an interview with Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, he stated, in the most emphatic manner, that he would never consent that free colored men should be accepted into the service, to serve as soldiers in the South, until he should be assured that the Government of the United States was prepared to guarantee and defend, to the last dollar and the last man, to these men all the rights, privileges and immunities that are given by the laws of civilized warfare to other soldiers. Their present acceptance and muster in as soldiers, pledges the honor of the nation in the same degree and to the same rights with all other troops. They will be soldiers of the Union--nothing less and nothing different. I believe they will earn for themselves an honorable fame, vindicating their race and redeeming their future from the aspersions of the past.
