The Issue of Arming the Negroes Is Debated

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/31/2009

Imprint, "THE CONSCRIPTION. also SPEECHES of the HON. W. D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, on THE CONSCRIPTION; ... and on ARMING THE NEGROES. PRINTED FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION. 1863," 40pp., 8-1/2," VG. Lively debate regarding the arming of Negro soldiers, in part, " ... Why should it not be done? Is the life of the negro more sacred than that of the white man ? Why should not American Africans encounter the power of the enemy and the malaria of the swamps ? Why should your son, and my brother, and our friends die that the negro may live? I do not esteem him one whit better than ourselves ; nor do I deny that he is our equal in rights before the great God our common Father ..." then, "The American blacks must be called into this conflict, not as cattle, not now, even as contrabands, but as men. In the Free States and by the proclamation, in the rebel States, they are free men. ..."

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