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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 271

colored soldiers at Charleston and elsewhere the same protection against
slavery and cruelty extended to white soldiers. What ought to have been
done at the beginning, comes late, but it comes. The poor colored soldiers
have purchased interference dearly. It really seems that nothing of justice,
liberty, or humanity can come to us except through tears and blood."

My efforts to secure just and fair treatment for the colored soldiers did
not stop at letters and speeches. At the suggestion of my friend, Major
Stearns, to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, I was induced to go to
Washington and lay the complaints of my people before President Lincoln
and the secretary of war; and to urge upon them such action as should secure
to the colored troops then fighting for the country, a reasonable degree of fair
play. I need not say that at the time I undertook this mission it required much
more nerve than a similar one would require now. The distance then between
the black man and the white American citizen, was immeasurable. I was an
ex-slave, identified with a despised race; and yet I was to meet the most
exalted person in this great republic. It was altogether an unwelcome duty,
and one from which I would gladly have been excused. I could not know
what kind of a reception would be accorded me. I might be told to go home
and mind my business, and leave such questions as I had come to discuss to
be managed by the men wisely chosen by the American people to deal with
them. Or I might be refused an interview altogether. Nevertheless, I felt
bound to go; and my acquaintance with Senators Charles Sumner, Henry
Wilson, Samuel Pomeroy, Secretary Salmon P. Chase, Secretary William H.
Seward, and Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana, encouraged me to
hope at least for a civil reception. My confidence was fully justified in the
result. I shall never forget my first interview with this great man. I was
accompanied to the executive mansion and introduced to President Lincoln
by Senator Pomeroy. The room in which he receiwd visitors was the one
now, used by the president's secretaries. I entered it with a moderate estimate
of my own consequence, and yet there I was to talk with, and even to advise,
the head man of a great nation. Happily for me, there was no vain pomp and
ceremony about him. I was never more quickly or more completely put at
ease in the presence of a great man, than in that of Abraham Lincoln. He was
seated, when I entered, in a low arm chair, with his feet extended on the
floor, surrounded by a large number of documents, and several busy secretaries.
The room bore the marks of business, and the persons in it, the president
included, appeared to be much over-worked and tired. Long lines of care
were already deeply written on Mr. Lincoln's brow, and his strong face, full