ublic mind toward the black soldier,
and history can but record that these efforts were too successful. The
three hundred colored officers became an object at which both
prejudice and jealousy could strike; but to reach them the reputation
of the entire colored contingent must be assailed. This was done with
such vehemence and persistency that by the opening of 1899 the good
name of the black regular was hidden under the rubbish of reports of
misconduct. So much had been said and done, even in Denver, which had
poured out its welcome words to the heroes of El Caney, that the
Ministerial Alliance of that city, on February 6, 1899, found it
necessary to take up the subject, and that body expressed itself in
the unanimous adoption of the following resolutions:

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE
OF DENVER, FEBRUARY 6, 1899.

_Resolved_, By the Ministerial Alliance of the City of
Denver, that the attempt made in certain quarters to have
the Twenty-fifth Regiment, United States Infantry, removed
from Fort Logan, appears to this body to rest on no just
grounds, to be animated on the contrary by motives unworthy
and discreditable to Denver and the State, and that
especially in view of the heroic record of the Twenty-fifth
Regiment, its presence here is an honor to Denver and
Colorado, which this Alliance would regret to have
withdrawn.[24]

The mustering out of the volunteers about the time this opposition was
approaching what appeared to be a climax, causing the removal from the
service of the colored officers, appeased the wrath of the demon, and
the waves of the storm gradually sank to a peace, gratifying, indeed,
to those who shuddered to see a black man with shoulder-straps. As the
last Negro officer descended from the platform and honorably laid
aside his sword to take his place as a citizen of the Republic, or a
private in her armies, that class of our citizenship breathed a sigh
of relief. What mattered it to them whether justice were done; whether
the army were weakened; whether individuals were wronged; they were
relieved from seeing Negroes in officers' uniforms, and that to them
is a most gracious portion. The discharge of the volunteers was to
them the triumph of their prejudices, and in it they took great
comfort, although as a matter of fact it was a plain national movement
coming about as a logical sequence, entirely indepe