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From National Freedmen's Relief Association to Abraham Lincoln, May 29, 1863
Whereas it is a matter of public information that Jefferson Davis, styled President of the so-called Confederate States has issued a proclamation relative to the officers and members of colored regiments, as cruel and anti-Christian in spirit as it is repugnant to all rules of civilized warfare:
Official Records, Series II, Volume 5, 795-97 and Collected Works, VI, 357.
Whereas it continues to be represented that the public journals and by private letters until there can be no doubt of the fact, that federal Officers of the Army and Navy, having asked and obtained the aid of colored men as scout, spies and laborers, especially in securing supplies and valuable contraband property, then abandon them to the savage mercies of their masters, and to death at their hands:
Whereas Colored men who have escaped from slavery under rebel masters and are legally free according to the proclamation of the President of January 1st, are taken and sold into slavery for jail fees, in the border states, especially in Kentucky, in positive violation of the spirit if not the letter of said Proclamation, therefore:
Resolved, That we the undersigned committee of the National Freedman's Association, while we have witnessed with the liveliest interest the many benificent measures the Government has instituted in behalf of this unfortunate race, we would most respectfully and earnestly call the attention of Your Excellency and of the public authorities to this important and humane subject. That some proper and so far as feasible, sufficient means be taken to place the officers and men of colored regiments in the same relations as those of white regiments. That common humanity, enlightened policy and our national good name demand this.
Resolved That we urgently request that prompt and adequate orders be given our officers of the Army and Navy, not only not to repulse, but in all cases to call to their aid and fully protect all colored people in the same spirit and manner that they would whites, recognizing the great truth that the rights of justice and law belong to the man and not to his outward circumstances nor to his color.
Resolved That national honor and interest are alike pledged to the colored man and before the world, to the faithful enforcement of the President's Proclamation throughout the states and territories up to the full measure of the final freedom of those in whose behalf it was put forth. Less than this would be a fearful exhibition of national bad faith and justly calculated to provoke the rightious indignation of all good men and the displeasure of the Sovereign Ruler of the world.
Resolved That we hail with delight the benevolent action of the Government and its firm exhibition of moral courage in the face and in spite of the obstinate pejudice of the age, also the encouraging advance of public sentiment and their combined willingness practically to acknowlege that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Resolved That if we are, as a nation or as individuals would invoke the favor of Almighty God and be shielded and delivered from the fearful calamities of his displeasure, we must ourselves do unto others as we would have them do unto us, love mercy & practice justice.
John C. Underwood
President
N. DuBois
Secretary