Abraham Lincoln's Speech to the Indiana Volunteers

[Steve]

(05-09-2020 11:30 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  "I may incidentally remark, however, that having, in my life, heard many arguments,---or strings of words meant to pass for arguments,---intended to show that the negro ought to be a slave, that if he shall now really fight to keep himself a slave, it will be a far better argument why [he] should remain a slave than I have ever before heard. He, perhaps, ought to be a slave, if he desires it ardently enough to fight for it. Or, if one out of four will, for his own freedom, fight to keep the other three in slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish meanness. I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others.

Perhaps those black men who fought with General Forrest thought that the South would win the Civil War and that these men and their families would remain forever slaves. And, I do not know if President Lincoln was aware at the time that negro soldiers were already fighting for the South.

I haven't found a reliable source for the claim made in the above quoted article about Gen. Forrest's slaves becoming soldiers under his command. The Confederate government didn't start allowing the enlistment of black soldiers until March 1865, which is the very context behind Lincoln's speech. Also, the Confederates required that slaves enlisting in their army following Mar. 1865 to be freed by their masters before enlisting. From the article quoted above it sort of sounds like Forrest's men remained slaves. If so, they really didn't have a choice.