“I regret, gentlemen, that you are not able to secure all your rights, and that circumstances will not permit the government to confer them upon you. I wish you would amend your petition so as to include several suggestions which I think will give more effect to your prayer, and, after having done so, please hand it to me.”

“If you will permit me,” replied the chairman of the delegation, “I will make the alterations here.”

“Are you, then, the author of this eloquent production?” inquired Mr. Lincoln.

“Whether eloquent or not, it is my work,” was the modest reply: and the negro took his seat by the President’s side, and made the alterations suggested. A Southern gentleman present concluded that Mr. Lincoln did not know that the delegation from Louisiana were “black men.”

The rebel government inflicted inhuman barbarities upon Union coloured soldiers at Port Hudson, Morris Island, and other places. The knowledge of the harrowing facts reaching the President, he immediately issued the following proclamation for the protection of coloured soldiers:—

“Executive Mansion, July 30th, 1863.

“It is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever class, colour, or condition; especially those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations, and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to colour in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person on account of his colour, and for no offence against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age. The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because of his colour, the offence shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession. It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States, killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labour on the public works, and continued at such labour until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.

“Abraham Lincoln.

“By order of the Secretary of War.

“E. D. Townsend, Adjutant-General.”

Here, again, is proof of Mr. Lincoln’s genuine interest in the soldiers. Retaliation was a war measure from which he shrank; his whole nature condemned it. And yet he adopted it, in the circumstances, as a dire necessity, to protect the soldier. In no case would he consent to starve or torture rebel prisoners by way of retaliation; but he did consent to take life for life.

President Lincoln often expressed his admiration of the bravery and loyalty of coloured soldiers, and once he said to Judge J.T. Mills, of Wisconsin:—

“There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe.”

He was applied to for the pardon of a slave-dealer sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of a thousand dollars. He had served the five years in Newburyport prison, Massachusetts, and was now held because he could not pay the fine. Parties interceded for the prisoner, and bore from him a very touching letter to the President. After having listened to the slave-dealer’s advocate, and read his piteous letter, Mr. Lincoln said:—