[Illustration: TEAMSTER OF THE ARMY]

"Mr. Sherman (Rep.) of Ohio said, "The question arises,
whether the people of the United States, struggling for
national existence, should not employ these blacks for the
maintenance of the Government. The policy heretofore pursued
by the officers of the United States has been to repel this
class of people from our lines, to refuse their services.
They would have made the best spies; and yet they have been
driven from our lines."--"I tell the President," said Mr.
Fessenden (Rep.) of Maine, "from my place here as a senator,
I tell the generals of our army, they must reverse their
practices and their course of proceeding on this subject. *
* * I advise it here from my place,--treat your enemies as
enemies, as the worst of enemies, and avail yourselves like
men of every power which God has placed in your hands to
accomplish your purpose within the rules of civilized
warfare." Mr. Rice, (war Dem.) of Minnesota, declared that
"not many days can pass before the people of the United
States North must decide upon one of two questions: we have
either to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy as a free and
independent nation, and that speedily; or we have as
speedily to resolve to use all the means given us by the
Almighty to prosecute this war to a successful termination.
The necessity for action has arisen. To hesitate is worse
than criminal. Mr. Wilson said, "The senator from Delaware,
as he is accustomed to do, speaks boldly and decidedly
against the proposition. He asks if American soldiers will
fight if we organize colored men for military purposes. Did
not American soldiers fight at Bunker Hill with negroes in
the ranks, one of whom shot down Major Pitcairn as he
mounted the works? Did not American soldiers fight at Red
Bank with a black regiment from your own State, sir? (Mr.
Anthony in the chair.) Did they not fight on the
battle-field of Rhode Island with that black regiment, one
of the best and bravest that ever trod the soil of this
continent? Did not American soldiers fight at Fort Griswold
with black men? Did they not fight with black men in almost
every battle-field of the Revolution? Did not the men of
Kentucky and Tennessee, standing on the lines of New
Orleans, under the eye of And