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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 274

nizing troops in the Mississippi valley. He asked me how soon I could be
ready. I told him in two weeks, and that my commission might be sent to me
at Rochester. For some reason, however, my commission never came. The
government, I fear, was still clinging to the idea that positions of honor in the
service should be occupied by white men, and that it would not do to inaugurate
just then the policy of perfect equality. I wrote to the department for
my commission, but was simply told to report to General Thomas. This was
so different from what I expected and from what I had been promised, that I
wrote to Secretary Stanton that I would report to General Thomas on receipt
of my commission, but it did not come, and I did not go to the Mississippi
valley as I had fondly hoped. I knew too much of camp life and the value of
shoulder straps in the army to go into the service without some visible mark
of my rank. I have no doubt that Mr. Stanton in the moment of our meeting
meant all he said. but thinking the matter over he felt that the time had not
then come for a step so radical and aggressive. Meanwhile my three sons
were in the service. Lewis and Charles, as already named. in the Massachusetts
regiments and Frederick recruiting colored troops in the Mississippi Valley.

CHAPTER XII.

HOPE FOR THE NATION.

Proclamation of emancipat1on — Its reception in Boston — Objections brought against it — Its effect
on the country — lnterview with President Lincoln — New York riots — Re-election of Mr.
Lincoln — His Inauguration, and inaugural — Vice-President Johnson — Presidential reception
— The fall of Richmond — Fanueil Hall — The assassination — Condolence.

The first of January, 1863, was a memorable day in the progress of American
liberty and civilization. It was the turning-point in the conflict between
freedom and slavery. A death blow was then given to the slaveholding rebellion.
Until then the federal arm had been more than tolerant to that relict of
barbarism. It had defended it inside the slave States; it had countermanded
the emancipation policy of John C. Fremont in Missouri; it had returned
slaves to their so-called owners; and had threatened that any attempt on the
part of the slaves to gain their freedom by insurrection, or otherwise, would
be put down with an iron hand; it had even refused to allow the Hutchinson
family to sing their anti-slavery songs in the camps of the Army of the
Potomac; it had surrounded the houses of slaveholders with bayonets for
their protection; and through its secretary of state, William H. Seward, had
given notice to the world that, "however the war for the Union might termi-

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