Justice Long Delayed

[David Lockmiller]

(06-25-2023 05:41 AM)Steve Wrote:  According to the well-sourced entry in the Lincoln Log website, Douglass's meeting with Lincoln was on August 10, 1863 and the letter sent to Douglass sans commission (which I posted an image of in my earlier post above) is dated August 13, 1863. So Douglass's memory 18 years later does seem to falter a little misremembering the order of events -- the letter from the War Department would likely have come before Douglass would've had a chance to write a letter to the War Department inquiring about his commission. But he clearly says Lincoln told him he would sign any Black officer's commission the War Department sent him. The only mention of Douglass possibly being commissioned comes up during his later meeting with Stanton.

I remember once that Gene jokingly made the comment on this website that "my memory is so good that I can remember things that never happened."

You wrote in your post: "But [Douglass] clearly says Lincoln told him he would sign any Black officer's commission the War Department sent him."

What President clearly said to Douglass in context in their August 10, 1863 meeting, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin, was:

Lincoln first recognized the indisputable justice of the demand for equal pay. When Congress passed the bill for black soldiers, he explained, it "seemed a necessary concession to smooth the way to their employment at all as soldiers, "but he promised that "in the end they shall have the same pay as white soldiers." As for the absence of black officers, Lincoln assured Douglass that "he would sign any commission to colored soldiers whom his Secretary of War should commend to him."

Black soldiers at the time were being paid $7 a month (after a $3 deduction for clothing). This pay scale included black combat soldiers. The War Department followed up with an offer [to Douglass] of a $100-a-month salary plus subsistence and transportation.

Douglass: "Though I was not entirely satisfied with [Lincoln's] views, I was so well satisfied with the man and with the educating tendency of the conflict that I determined to go on with the recruiting."

But the bottom line for Douglass: No commission; no recruiting.