ovided they were free on April 19, 1861,--not
otherwise; and this distinction is to be noted on the pay-rolls. In
other words, if one half of a company escaped from slavery on April 18,
1861, they are to be paid thirteen dollars per month and allowed three
dollars and a half per month for clothing. If the other half were
delayed two days, they receive seven dollars per month and are allowed
three dollars per month for precisely the same articles of clothing.
If one of the former class is made first sergeant, Us pay is put up to
twenty-one dollars per month; but if he escaped two days later, his pay
is still estimated at seven dollars.

It had not occurred to me that anything could make the payrolls of these
regiments more complicated than at present, or the men more rationally
discontented. I had not the ingenuity to imagine such an order. Yet it
is no doubt in accordance with the spirit, if not with the letter,
of the final bill which was adopted by Congress under the lead of Mr.
Thaddeus Stevens.

The ground taken by Mr. Stevens apparently was that the country might
honorably save a few dollars by docking the promised pay of those
colored soldiers whom the war had made free. _But the Government should
have thought of this before it made the contract with these men
and received their services_. When the War Department instructed
Brigadier-General Saxton, August 25, 1862, to raise five regiments
of negroes in South Carolina, it was known very well that the men so
enlisted had only recently gained their freedom. But the instructions
said: "The persons so received into service, and their officers, to be
entitled to and receive the same pay and rations as are allowed by law
to volunteers in the service." Of this passage Mr. Solicitor Whiting
wrote to me: "I have no hesitation in saying that the faith of the
Government was thereby pledged to every officer and soldier enlisted
under that call." Where is that faith of the Government now?

The men who enlisted under the pledge were volunteers, every one;
they did not get their freedom by enlisting; they had it already. They
enlisted to serve the Government, trusting in its honor. Now the nation
turns upon them and says: Your part of the contract is fulfilled; we
have had your services. If you can show that you had previously been
free for a certain length of time, we will fulfil the other side of the
contract. If not, we repudiate it Help yourselves, if you can.

In other