ath of allegiance to
the United States. By order of the President.

"E. D. TOWNSEND,
"_Assistant Adjutant-General_."

This order was extended, on October 26th, to Delaware, at the personal
request of Governor Cannon.

On the 12th of November, 1863, the Union League Club of New York City
appointed a committee for the purpose of recruiting Colored troops.
Col. George Bliss was made chairman and entered upon the work with
energy and alacrity. On the 23d of November the committee addressed a
letter to Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, stating that as he
had no authority to grant them permission to enlist a Negro regiment;
and as the National Government was unwilling to grant such authority
without the sympathy and assent of the State government, they would
feel greatly obliged should his excellency grant the committee his
official concurrence. Gov. Seymour assured the committee of his
official inability to grant authority for the raising of Colored
troops,--just what the committee had written him,--and referred them
to the National Government, on the 27th of November. The committee
applied to the authorities at Washington, and on the 5th of December,
1863, the Secretary of War granted them authority to raise the 20th
Regiment of United States Colored Troops. Having secured the authority
of the Government to begin their work, the committee wrote Gov.
Seymour: "We express the hope that, so far as in your power, you will
give to the movement your aid and countenance." The governor never
found the time to answer the request of the committee!

The work was pushed forward with zeal and enthusiasm. The Colored men
rallied to the call, and within two weeks from the time the committee
called for Colored volunteers 1,000 men responded. By the 27th of
January, 1864, a second regiment was full; and thus in forty-five days
the Union League Club Committee on the Recruiting of Colored Regiments
had raised 2,000 soldiers!

Out of 9,000 men of color, eligible by age--18 to 45 years--to go into
the service, 2,300 enlisted in less than sixty days. There was no
bounty held out to them as an incentive to enlist; no protection
promised to their families, nor to them should they fall into the
hands of the enemy. But they were patriots! They were willing to
endure any thing rather than the evils that would surely attend the
triumph of the Confederacy. They w