Word: douglass
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Lincoln refused to tap into this source of power, and Douglass became increasingly frustrated with him. By arming only white men, the Union fought the rebels with one hand, he complained. "They fought with their soft white hand, while they kept their black iron hand chained and helpless behind them." Douglass's frustration turned to contempt in August 1862, after Lincoln met with a delegation of African Americans and urged them to emigrate to Central America. "You and we are different races," Lincoln told his black audience. "We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other...
...Douglass was outraged when he heard about the meeting. In Central and South America, he noted, "distinct races live peaceably together in the enjoyment of equal rights" without civil wars. And he sneered at the notion that blacks were the cause of the war. A horse thief did not apologize for his theft by blaming the horse. "No, Mr. President, it is not the innocent horse that makes the horse thief ... but the cruel and brutal cupidity of those who wish to possess horses, money and Negroes by means of theft, robbery and rebellion." He called Lincoln "a genuine representative...
...What Douglass did not know was that Lincoln had already drafted a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation but had not made it public. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, but he felt that the nation was not yet ready for an antislavery war. He was an astute judge of public opinion and knew that he could not be more than one step ahead of it without losing support. His colonization plan helped in this effort; it was good politics and made emancipation seem tolerable to conservatives, especially slaveholders in the border states. The tide of public opinion was beginning to turn...
With emancipation, Douglass's attitude toward Lincoln suddenly and dramatically changed. Never again would he so harshly criticize the President, even though they continued to disagree on many things. He knew that the proclamation was a revolutionary document that turned the war into a "contest of civilization against barbarism" rather than a struggle for territory, as he put it. It acquired for him "a life and power far beyond its letter" and became another sacred text, which restored the Declaration to its rightful place at the center of the nation's laws. Henceforth, he said, Jan. 1 would rank with...
...August 1863, Douglass met with the President for the first time. Since January he had been eagerly recruiting blacks, urging MEN OF COLOR, TO ARMS. But black soldiers were being discriminated against. They received about half the pay whites did and were not being promoted for distinguished service. Worse still, black prisoners were being murdered or enslaved by Confederates. As a result of these injustices, Douglass quit recruiting and went to Washington to plead his case to the President...