He's rich, I've heard. It don't
hurt him any; but it's rather selfish to hold some of the rest up to
his standard; and I presume that such a man as he has no end of
influence with them!'
"'As he should,' said his officer. 'Ercildoune has brains enough to
stock a regiment, and refinement, and genius, and cultivation that would
assure him the highest position in society or professional life anywhere
out of America. He won't leave it though; for in spite of its wrongs to
him he sees its greatness and goodness,--says that it is _his_, and that
it is to be saved, it and all its benefits, for Americans,--no matter
what the color of their skin,--of whom he is one. He sees plain enough
that this war is going to break the slave's chain, and ultimately the
stronger chain of prejudice that binds his people to the grindstone, and
he's full of enthusiasm for it, accordingly; though I'm free to confess,
the magnanimity of these colored men from the North who fight, on faith,
for the government, is to me something amazing.'"
"'Why,' said the Captain,--'why, any more from the North than from the
South?'"
"Why? the blacks down here can at least fight their ex-masters, and pay
off some old scores; but for a man from the North who is free already,
and so has nothing to gain in that way,--whose rights as a man and a
citizen are denied,--for such a man to enlist and to fight, without
bounty, pay, honor, or promotion,--without the promise of gaining
anything whatever for himself,--condemned to a thankless task on the one
side,--to a merciless death or even worse fate on the other,--facing
all this because he has faith that the great republic will ultimately be
redeemed; that some hands will gather in the harvest of this bloody
sowing, though he be lying dead under it,--I tell you, the more I see of
these men, the more I know of them, the more am I filled with admiration
and astonishment.
Pages:
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192