Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments,: and the Duty of the Colored People in Regard to the Great Slaveholders' Rebellion, in the United States of AmericaGreen, Alfred M.
History
Letters and Discussions on the Formation of Colored Regiments,: and the Duty of the Colored People in Regard to the Great Slaveholders' Rebellion, in the United States of America
Green, Alfred M.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Participation, African American
The issue is here; let us prepare to meet it with manly spirit; let
us say to the demagogues of the North who would prevent us now from
proving our manhood and foresight in the midst of all these complicated
difficulties, that we will be armed, we will be schooled in military
service, and if our fathers were cheated and disfranchised after nobly
defending the country, we, their sons, have the manhood to defend the
right and the sagacity to detect the wrong; time enough to secure to
ourselves the primary interest we have in the great and moving cause of
the great American rebellion. I am, as ever, yours, for truth and justice,
ALFRED M. GREEN.
III.
REJOINDER.
From the Anglo-African, October 26, 1861.
MR. EDITOR:
That it is the duty of every one advancing propositions for public
adoption, inviting scrutiny and analysis, counseling a policy, to assign
competent reasons, I am sensibly convinced; and that Mr. A. M. Green,
in your issue of the 12th, was disposed to combat my ideas—I could only
accept as a compliment—differing, no doubt, from what it was intended.
It raises me in my own estimation to think that one like myself, of so
feeble an intellect, of so little cultivation, should have provoked the
notice of so able a man as my literary opponent. I therefore bow to
it, and for the last time upon this subject, proceed to reiterate in
substance my former sentiments, while I attempt to reply to my worthy
antagonist, though co-worker, who has the advantage of me in assuming the
leadership or acting the spokesman for our race in this country.
Mr. Green says:—
“But I think it just, once in a while, to speak out and let the world
know where we stand on the great issues of the day, for it is only by
this means that we can succeed in arousing our people from a mistaken
policy of inactivity,” &c., &c.
The policy which he recommends, is certainly one which, if followed, must
destroy every vestige of that power which by our united influence has so
long troubled the plotters of our ruin and extinction to the detriment of
their wily schemes.
If his sentiments are those of our people generally, I am heartily sorry,
and must differ with them, though I stand alone, as the only advocate of
the policy of peace measures or neutral action in the great struggle.
He also says, that “this inactivity that is advocated, is the principle
that has ever had us left behind and will leave us again, unless we
arouse from our lethargy and arm ourselves as men and patriots against
the common enemy of God and man.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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