en. It is gratifying to record that the War
Department recognized this special injustice to colored officers, and
in the two regiments of colored volunteers recruited for service in
the Philippines all the line-officers are colored men, the field
officers being white, and appointed from the Regular Army in pursuance
of a general policy. Thus far has the general government advanced in
recognition of the military capacity of the Negro. In the swing of the
pendulum the nation is now at the place where the hardy General Butler
was thirty-seven years ago, when he organized the three regiments of
Louisiana Native Guards with all line-officers colored.

The way in which modern armies are organized and perfected leaves
little necessity for an equipment of exceptional personal gifts in
order to exercise ordinary military command. The whole thing is
subordinate, and the field for personal initiative is contracted to
the minimum. In our own army the President is Commander-in-Chief, and
the command descends through a multitude of subordinate grades down to
the lowest commissioned officer in the service. We have "Articles of
War" and "Regulations," and the entire discipline and government of
the army is committed to writing. There is no chance to enshroud in
mystery the ability to command. For ordinary military command, with
intelligence the chief requisite, little is required beyond courage,
firmness and good judgment. These qualities are in no respect natural
barriers for colored men.

This last story of the Negro soldier's efficiency and gallantry, told
in the pages of this book, teaches its own very simple conclusion. The
Cuban campaign has forced the nation to recognize the completion of
the Negro's evolution as a soldier in the Army of the United States.
The colored American soldier, by his own prowess, has won an
acknowledged place by the side of the best trained fighters with arms.
In the fullness of his manhood he has no rejoicing in the patronizing
paean, "the colored troops fought nobly," nor does he glow at all
when told of his "faithfulness" and "devotion" to his white officers,
qualities accentuated to the point where they might well fit an
affectionate dog. He lays claim to no prerogative other than that of a
plain citizen of the Republic, trained to the profession of arms. The
measure of his demand--and it is the demand of ten millions of his
fellow-citizens allied to him by race--is that the full manhood
privilege