the public
safety may demand it. Congress realized both this obligation on
the one hand, and this duty on the other when, by the 12th
section of the Act of the 17th of July, 1862, it was enacted that
'the President be and is hereby authorized to receive into the
service of the United States for the purpose of constructing
intrenchments, or performing camp service or any other labor, or
any military or naval service for which they may be found
competent, persons of African Descent, and such persons shall be
enrolled and organized under such regulations not inconsistent
with the Constitution, and the laws, as the President may
prescribe.'

"The terms of this Act are without restriction and no distinction
is made, or was intended to be made, between persons of African
Descent held to service or labor or those not so held.

"The President is empowered to receive them all into the military
service, and assign them such duty as they may be found competent
to perform.

"The tenacious and brilliant valor displayed by troops of this
race at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, and Fort Wagner, has
sufficiently demonstrated to the President and to the country,
the character of service of which they are capable. In the
interpretation given to the Enrolment Act, free citizens of
African Descent are treated as citizens of the United States, in
the sense of the law, and are everywhere being drafted into the
military service.

"In reference to the other class of persons of this race--those
held to service or labor--the 12th section of the Act of July
17th is still in full force, and the President may in his
discretion receive them into the army and assign them to such
field of duty as he may deem them prepared to occupy. In view of
the loyalty of this race, and of the obstinate courage which they
have shown themselves to possess, they certainly constitute at
this crisis in our history a most powerful and reliable arm of
the public defence. Whether this arm shall now be exerted is not
a question of power or right, but purely of policy, to be
determined by the estimate which may be entertained of the
conflict in which we are engaged, and of the necessity that
presses to bring this waste of blood and treasure to a close. A
man precipitated into a