e deluded by any extravagant
praise of their past heroic services, which veiled a determination to
ignore their just claims. So firmly did they adhere to their demands
that but one volunteer regiment of colored troops, the Third Alabama,
could be induced to enter the service with none of its officers
colored. But the concessions obtained were always at the expense of
continuous and persistent effort, and in the teeth of a very active
and at times extremely violent opposition. We know already the kind of
opposition the Eighth Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas, and the Third
North Carolina Regiments, officered entirely by colored men,
encountered. It was this opposition, as we have seen, which confined
colored officers to positions below the grade of captain in the four
immune regiments. From a like cause, we know also, distinguished
non-commissioned officers of the four regular regiments of colored
troops were allowed promotion only to Lieutenantcies in the immune
regiments, and upon the muster out of those organizations, were
compelled, if they desired to continue soldiering, to resume their
places as enlisted men.

There is some explanation for this opposition in the nature of the
distinction which military rank confers. Military rank and naval rank
constitute the only real distinction among us. Our officers of the
army and navy, and of the army more than of the navy, because the
former officers are more constantly within the country, make up the
sole separate class of our population. We have no established
nobility. Wealth confers no privilege which men are bound to observe.
The respect paid to men who attain eminence in science and learning
goes only as far as they are known. The titles of the professions are
matters of courtesy and customs only. Our judges and legislators, our
governors and mayors, are still our "fellow citizens," and the dignity
they enjoy is but an honorary one. The highest office within our gift
offers no exception. At the close of his term, even an ex-President,
"that melancholy product of our system," must resume his place among
his fellow citizens, to sink, not infrequently, into obscurity. But
fifty thousand soldiers must stand attention to the merest second
lieutenant! His rank is a _fact_. The life tenure, the necessities of
military discipline and administration, weld army officers into a
distinct class and make our military system the sole but necessary
relic of personal government. Any