I have heard of your recruiting bureau, and I think you would be the best man to run the machine you have constructed. I will make you an Assistant Adjutant-General with the rank of Major, and I will give you authority to recruit colored regiments all over the country.Stearns thanked him, and replied that there was nothing which he had so much at heart as enlisting the black men on a large scale; for no people could be said to be secure in their freedom unless they were also soldiers; but his wife
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the Ohio quota.
Andrew replied that the Governor of Ohio was at liberty to recruit colored regiments of his own; but the Massachusetts Fifty-fifth, having now a complement, it was decided not to continue the business any further, and Mr. Stearns's labors at Buffalo were thus brought to an end about the middle of June.
He had recruited fully one-half of the Fifty-fourth, and nearly the whole of the Fifty-fifth regiments.
He now conceived the idea of making his recruiting bureau serviceable by placing it in the hands of the Government.
He therefore went to Washington and meeting his friend, Mr. Fred Law Olmstead, at Willard's Hotel, the latter offered to go with him to the War Department and introduce him to Secretary Stanton.
They found Stanton fully alive to the occasion, and in reply to Mr. Stearns's offer he said:
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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