February 4, 1863, The New York Herald
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The bill for the formation of a negro army, which passed the United States House of Representatives on Monday last, has created considerable discussion and excitement, and Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, the Mephistopheles of Congress, seems to be particularly worried about it. He thinks that negro soldiers should be employed under any circumstances, and fears that unless a nigger army be hurried up there will be no soldiers at all to fight the battles of the Union. Now we have a nigger army after all. We withdraw all opposition to the project, and advise the conservative democrats of Congress to do so likewise. Let the negro army be enrolled at once, but only upon one condition. This is that there shall be a general draft of negroes all through the free States and of as many of those in the South as the federal authorities can reach. Let them be taken everywhere, from the ages of fourteen to fifty, and the government may thus within a brief period put a black army of over four hundred thousand men into the field. This is the only plan by which such an army can be raised, and it would be the easiest way to get rid of the troublesome negro question. That no objection might possibly be raised about taking negroes of from fourteen to fifty, it must be borne in mind that the black race comes to maturity much more rapidly than the white, and if the younger negroes cannot be made serviceable immediately as active soldiers, they can be turned to account in the camp as cooks, scavengers, wood splitters, officers’ bootblacks, and in a variety of other useful occupations.
Therefore, let the black army be raised by all means; but let it be borne in mind that the African soldiers must be officered by white men. This is the invariable practice of every nation that employs the services of black troops. Their intellectual and educational capacities do not fit them for command. The immense armies called out by the rebellion have carried off a large number of the rowdies of our principal cities; but there are plenty of the roughest kind still on hand, who can be got to officer these negro regiments. A rowdy, when brought into proper military training, will make a sharp officer, and he is just the kind of fellow to look after the welfare of black regiments and brigades. When the nigger army is drafted there will be plenty of white rowdies to take command and drill the new soldiers; and we hope that, while they will treat their commands with a proper degree of consideration, these officers will not spare their recruits, but make good soldiers of them, per fas aut nefas.
This, we trust, will satisfy the most earnest longings of Mephistopheles Stevens. His nigger army will soon be marching along, and will kick up such a cloud of dust as has not been seen for a long time. Let the democrats, therefore, withdraw all opposition, as we now do. Our time is coming, and is not very far off, and we can afford to wait. In the interim, let the radicals have plenty of rope, and, what they like better, plenty of nigger.