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December 4th, 1863 AD (search for this): chapter 17
ten dollars are to be further reduced to seven; and that, to crown the whole, all the previous overpay is to be again deducted or stopped from the future wages, thus leaving them a little more than a dollar a month for six months to come, unless Congress interfere! Yet so clear were the terms of the contract that Mr. Solicitor Whiting, having examined the original instructions from the War Department issued to Brigadier-General Saxton, Military Governor, admits to me (under date of December 4, 1863,) that the faith of the Government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted under that call. He goes on to express the generous confidence that the pledge will be honorably fulfilled. I observe that every one at the North seems to feel the same confidence, but that, meanwhile, the pledge is unfulfilled. Nothing is said in Congress about fulfilling it. I have not seen even a proposition in Congress to pay the colored soldiers, from date of enlistment, the same pay w
July 4th, 1864 AD (search for this): chapter 17
hing compared with the absolute wrong done and the discredit it has brought, both here and in Europe, upon the national name. T. W. Higginson, Late Col. 1st S. C. Vols. (now 3d U S. C. T.) Newport, R. I., December 8, 1864. Petition. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:-- The undersigned respectfully petitions for the repeal of so much of Section IV. of the Act of Congress making appropriations for the army and approved July 4, 1864, as makes a distinction, in respect of pay due, between those colored soldiers who were free on or before April 19, 1861, and those who were not free until a later date; Or at least that there may be such legislation as to secure the fulfilment of pledges of full pay from date of enlistment, made by direct authority of the War Department to the colored soldiers of South Carolina, on the faith of which pledges they enlisted. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Late Colonel 1st S. C. Vols. (no
July 2nd (search for this): chapter 17
ly demoralized by its pauperism, that after it has had the lives of these men, it must turn round to filch six dollars of the monthly pay which the Secretary of War promised to their widows? It is even so, if the excuses of Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Doolittle are to be accepted by Congress and by the people. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, T. W. Higginson, Colonel commanding 1st S. C. Volunteers. New Victories and old wrongs. To the Editors of the Evening Post: On the 2d of July, at James Island, S. C., a battery was taken by three regiments, under the following circumstances: The regiments were the One Hundred and Third New York (white), the Thirty-Third United States (formerly First South Carolina Volunteers), and the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts, the two last being colored. They marched at one A. M., by the flank, in the above order, hoping to surprise the battery. As — usual the rebels were prepared for them, and opened upon them as they were deep in one of
July (search for this): chapter 17
ract where the Government has openly repudiated the other share. If a year's discussion, however, has at length secured the arrears of pay for the Northern colored regiments, possibly two years may secure it for the Southern. T. W. Higginson, Colonel 1st S. C. Vols. (now 33d U. S. August 12, 1864. Justice not done yet. To the Editor of the New York Tribune: Sir,--An impression seems to prevail in the newspapers that the lately published opinion of Attorney-General Bates (dated in July last) at length secures justice to the colored soldiers in respect to arrears of pay. This impression is a mistake. That opinion does indeed show that there never was any excuse for refusing them justice; but it does not, of itself, secure justice to them. It logically covers the whole ground, and was doubtless intended to do so; but technically it can only apply to those soldiers who were free at the commencement of the war. For it was only about these that the Attorney-General was o
January 4th (search for this): chapter 17
which they were enlisted. This is what will be done, should Mr. Wilson's bill, legalizing the back pay of the army, be defeated. We presume too much on the supposed ignorance of these men. I have never yet found a man in my regiment so stupid as not to know when he was cheated. If fraud proceeds from Government itself, so much the worse, for this strikes at the foundation of all rectitude, all honor, all obligation. Mr. Senator Fessenden said, in the debate on Mr. Wilson's bill, January 4, that the Government was not bound by the unauthorized promises of irresponsible recruiting officers. But is the Government itself an irresponsible recruiting officer? and if men have volunteered in good faith on the written assurances of the Secretary of War, is not Congress bound, in all decency, either to fulfil those pledges or to disband the regiments? Mr. Senator Doolittle argued in the same debate that white soldiers should receive higher pay than black ones, because the famil
1862 AD (search for this): chapter 17
eral was officially consulted. Under this decision the Northern colored regiments have already got their arrears of pay,--and those few members of the Southern regiments who were free on April 19, 1861. But in the South Carolina regiments this only increases the dissatisfaction among the remainder, who volunteered under the same pledge of full pay from the War Department, and who do not see how the question of their status at some antecedent period can affect an express contract. If, in 1862, they were free enough to make a bargain with, they were certainly free enough to claim its fulfilment. The unfortunate decision of Mr. Solicitor Whiting, under which all our troubles arose, is indeed superseded by the reasoning of the Attorney-General. But unhappily that does not remedy the evil, which is already embodied in an Act of Congress, making the distinction between those who were and those who were not free on April 19, 1861. The question is, whether those who were not fre
December 8th, 1864 AD (search for this): chapter 17
e plain duty of Congress to repeal the law which discriminates between different classes of colored soldiers, or at least so to modify it as to secure the fulfilment of actual contracts. Until this is done the nation is still disgraced. The few thousand dollars in question are nothing compared with the absolute wrong done and the discredit it has brought, both here and in Europe, upon the national name. T. W. Higginson, Late Col. 1st S. C. Vols. (now 3d U S. C. T.) Newport, R. I., December 8, 1864. Petition. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:-- The undersigned respectfully petitions for the repeal of so much of Section IV. of the Act of Congress making appropriations for the army and approved July 4, 1864, as makes a distinction, in respect of pay due, between those colored soldiers who were free on or before April 19, 1861, and those who were not free until a later date; Or at least that there may be such legis
February 14th, 1864 AD (search for this): chapter 17
ute. The mere delay in the fulfilment of this contract has already inflicted untold suffering, has impaired discipline, has relaxed loyalty, and has begun to implant a feeling of sullen distrust in the very regiments whose early career solved the problem of the nation, created a new army, and made peaceful emancipation possible. T. W. Higginson, Colonel commanding 1st S. C. Vols. Beaufort, S. C., January 22, 1864. Headquarters First South Carolina Volunteers, Beaufort, S. C., Sunday, February 14, 1864. To the Editor of the New York Times: May I venture to call your attention to the great and cruel injustice which is impending over the brave men of this regiment? They have been in military service for over a year, having volunteered, every man, without a cent of bounty, on the written pledge of the War Department that they should receive the same pay and rations with white soldiers. This pledge is contained in the written instructions of Brigadier-General Saxton, Milit
December 9th, 1864 AD (search for this): chapter 17
edit it has brought, both here and in Europe, upon the national name. T. W. Higginson, Late Col. 1st S. C. Vols. (now 3d U S. C. T.) Newport, R. I., December 8, 1864. Petition. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:-- The undersigned respectfully petitions for the repeal of so much of Section IV. of the Act of Congress making appropriations for the army and approved July 4, 1864, as makes a distinction, in respect of pay due, between those colored soldiers who were free on or before April 19, 1861, and those who were not free until a later date; Or at least that there may be such legislation as to secure the fulfilment of pledges of full pay from date of enlistment, made by direct authority of the War Department to the colored soldiers of South Carolina, on the faith of which pledges they enlisted. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Late Colonel 1st S. C. Vols. (now 33d U. S. C. Vols.) Newport, R. I., December 9, 1864.
July 10th, 1864 AD (search for this): chapter 17
ery. The only doubt he had was whether the nation had yet been satisfactorily chastised for their cruel oppression of a harmless and long-suffering race. Inasmuch as it was Mr. Stevens himself who induced the House of Representatives, most unexpectedly to all, to defeat the Senate bill for the fulfilment of the national contract with these soldiers, I should think he had excellent reasons for the doubt. Very respectfully, T. W. Higginson, Colonel 1st S. C. Vols. (now 33d U. S.） July 10, 1864. To the Editor of the New York Tribune: No one can possibly be so weary of reading of the wrongs done by Government toward the colored soldiers as am I of writing about them. This is my only excuse for intruding on your columns again. By an order of the War Department, dated August 1, 1864, it is at length ruled that colored soldiers shall be paid the full pay of soldiers from date of enlistment, provided they were free on April 19, 1861,--not otherwise; and this distinction i
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