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^[[B. K. Ross]] DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. [[double line]] "OPEN THY MOUTH FOR THE DUMB, IN THE CAUSE OF ALL SUCH AS ARE APPOINTED TO DESTRUCTION; OPEN THY MOUTH, JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY, AND PLEAD THE CAUSE OF THE POOR AND NEEDY."——Proverbs, xxxi. 8, 9. [[double line]] VOLUME V. NUMBER VI. ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, MARCH 1863. PRICE——ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM [[double line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] CONTENTS OF THE PRESENT NUMBER [[short line]] Men of Color to Arms - 801 British meeting - 801 Another Law against common sense - 802 Col. Ernest Roumaine - 802 Whilst warmly Sympathizing - 803 Our work in the field - 803 Letter from the Old World - 803 Frederick Douglass at the Cooper Institute - 804 Miss Wilburs Report - 804 Frederick Douglass at the Cooper Institute - 802 To the Friends of Abolition - 808 The Negro Regiment - 809 England and American Slavery - 809 The true British Feeling - 810 The great Emancipation meeting - 810 Letter from J. W. Loguen - 811 Enlistments of colored persons - 811 Destitute negroes in England - 811 Rebel view of the Proclamation - 811 Facts concerning the Contrabands - 812 Treason at the North - 813 General Banks - 813 Negro soldiers - 813 Letter from Col. McVicar - 814 The Confederate Black Flag - 814 [[double line]] DOUGLASS' MONTHLY [[double line]] MEN OF COLOR, TO ARMS! [[short line]] When first the rebel cannon shattered the walls of Sumter, and drove away its starving garrison, I predicted that the war, then and there inaugurated would not be fought out entirely by white men. Every month's experience during these two dreary years, has confirmed that opinion. A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly upon colored men to help to suppress it. Only a moderate share of sagacity was needed to see that the arm of the slave was the best defence against the arm of the slaveholder. Hence with every reverse to the National arms, with every exulting shout of victory raised by the slaveholding rebels, I have implored the imperrilled nation to unchain against her foes her powerful black hand. Slowly and reluctantly that appeal is beginning to be heeded. Stop not now to complain that it was not heeded sooner. It may, or it may not have been best that it should not. This is not the time to discuss that question. Leave it to the future. When the war is over, the country is saved, peace is established, and the black man's rights are secured, as they will be, history with an impartial hand, will dispose of that and other sundry questions. Action! action ! not criticism, is the plain duty of this hour. Words are now useful only as they stimulate to blows. The office of speech now is only to point out when, here and how, to strike to the best advantage. There is no time for delay. The tide is at its flood that leads on to fortune. From East to West, from North to South, the sky is written all over "NOW OR NEVER." Liberty won by white men would lose half its lustre. Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free, than to live slaves. This is the sentiment of every brave colored man amongst us. There are weak and cowardly men in all nations. We have them amongst us. They [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] tell you that this is the "white man's war";——that you will be no "better off after, than before the war"; that the getting of you into the army is to "sacrifice you on the first opportunity." Believe them not——cowards themselves, they do not wish to have their cowardice shamed by your brave example. Leave them to their timidity, or to whatever motive may hold them back. I have not thought lightly of the words I am now addressing to you. The counsel I give comes of close observations of the great struggle now in progress——and of the deep conviction that this is your hour, and mine. In good earnest then, and after the best deliberation, I now for the first time during this war feel at liberty to call and counsel you to arms. By every consideration which binds you to your enslaved fellow country-men, and the peace and welfare of your country; by every aspiration which you cherish for the freedom and equality of yourselves and you children; by all the ties of blood and identity which make us one with the brave black men, now fighting our battles in Louisiana, in South Carolina, I urge you to fly to arms, and smite with death the power that would bury the Government and your Liberty in the same hopeless grave. I wish I could tell you that the State of New York calls you to this high honor. For the moment her constituted authorities are silent on the subject. They will speak by and by, and doubtless on the right side; but we are not compelled to wait for her. We can get at the throat of treason and slavery, through the State of Massachusetts. She was first in the war of Independence: first to break the chains of her slaves; first to make the black man equal before the law; first to admit colored children to her common schools, and she was first to answer with her blood the alarm cry of the nation——when its capital was menaced by rebels. You know her patriotic Governor, and you know Charles Sumner——I need not add more. Massachusetts now welcomes you to arms as her soldiers. She has but a small colored population from which to recruit. She has full leave of the General Government to send one regiment to the war, and she has undertaken to do it. Go quickly and help fill up this first colored regiment from the north. I am authorized to assure you that you will receive the same wages, the same rations, the same equipments, the same protection, the same treatment, and the same bounty secured to white soldiers. You will be led by able and skillful officers——men who will take especial pride in your efficiency and success. They will be quick to accord to you all the honor you shall merit by your valor——and see tha your rights and feelings are respected by other soldiers. I have assured myself on these points——and can speak with authority. More than twenty years unswerving devotion to our common cause, may give me some humble claim to be trusted at this momentous crisis. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] I will not argue. To do so implies hesitation and doubt, and you do not hesitate. You do not doubt, The day dawns——the morning star is bright upon the horizon! The Iron gate of our prison stands half open. One gallant rush from the North will fling it wide open, while four millions of our brothers and sisters, shall march out into Liberty! The chance is now given you to end in a day the bondage of centuries, and to rise in one bound from social degradation to the plane of common equality with all other varieties of men. Remember Denmark Vesey of Charleston.——Remember Nathaniel Turner of South Hampton, remember Shields Green, and Cope and who followed Noble John Brown, and fell as glorious martyrs for the cause of the slave.——Remember that in a contest with oppression, the Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with oppressors. The case is before you. This is our golden opportunity——let us accept it——and forever wipe out the dark reproaches unsparingly hurled against us by our enemies. Win for ourselves the gratitude of our Country——and the best blessings of our posterity through all time. The nucleus of this first regiment is now in camp at Readville, a short distance from Boston. I will undertake to forward to Boston all persons adjudged fit to be mustered into the regiment, who shall apply to me at any time within the next two weeks. FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Rochester, March 2d. 1863. [[line]] BRITISH MEETING SYMPATHIZING WITH THE UNITED STATES. [[short line]] We are indebted to our transatlantic friends for numerous letters and papers containing accounts of public meetings held in England, to express British sympathy with the American Government in its efforts to suppress the slaveholder’s rebellion. These meetings are like England’s better self, and show that she is coming to a far better comprehension of the terrible struggle going on here than at the first. The real motives, aims and natural tendency, of this slaveholding rebellion were not fully comprehended even here in the beginning——and it is not strange that they should not have been better understood there. Time and events are doing their work on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Jefferson Davis, and his piratical crew can no longer disguise their rebellion under fine phrases, about “Independence, “ freetrade,” self-government and the like. The sheeps clothing is removed and the devouring wolf appears. Even the London Times snubs Mason, and refuses to hold out the most distant hope of British recognition. For this change in the public sentiment of England, the thanks of all Americans are due to the clearsightedness, and the straight forward course of such statesman as JOHN BRIGHT, WILLIAM E. FORSTER, RICHARD COBDEN. General Thompson——and last, though not least, MR. GEORGE THOMPSON. From the first, these gentlemen penetrated the cause of our quarel——saw its drift, and warned the British nation against interference in the interests [[/column 3]]
