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272 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

of earnestness, lighted up as soon as my name was mentioned. As I
approached and was introduced to him, he rose and extended his hand, and
bade me welcome. I at once felt myself in the presence of an honest man —
one whom I could love, honor, and trust without reserve or doubt. Proceeding
to tell him who I was, and what I was doing, he promptly, but kindly, stopped
me, saying, "I know who you are, Mr. Douglass; Mr. Seward has told me all
about you. Sit down. I am glad to see you." I then told him the object of my
visit: that I was assisting to raise colored troops; that several months before
I had been very successful in getting men to enlist, but that now it was not
easy to induce the colored men to enter the service, because there was a feeling
among them that the government did not deal fairly with them in several
respects. Mr. Lincoln asked me to state particulars. I replied that there were
three particulars which I wished to bring to his attention. First, that colored
soldiers ought to receive the same wages as those paid to white soldiers.
Second, that colored soldiers ought to receive the same protection when
taken prisoner, and be exchanged as readily, and on the same terms, as any
other prisoners, and if Jefferson Davis should shoot or hang colored soldiers
in cold blood, the United States government should retaliate in kind and
degree without delay upon Confederate prisoners in its hands. Third, when
colored soldiers, seeking the "bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth,"
performed great and uncommon service on the battle-field, they should be
rewarded by distinction and promotion, precisely as white soldiers are
rewarded for like services.

Mr. Lincoln listened with patience and silence to all I had to say. He was
serious and even troubled by what I had said, and by what he had evidently
thought himself before upon the same points. He impressed me with the
solid gravity of his character, by his silent listening not less than by his earnest
reply to my words.

He began by saying that the employment of colored troops at all was a
great gain to the colored people; that the measure could not have been successfully
adopted at the beginning of the war; that the wisdom of making
colored men soldiers was still doubted; that their enlistment was a serious
offense to popular prejudice; that they had larger motives for being soldiers
than white men; that they ought to be willing to enter the service upon any
condition; that the fact that they were not to receive the same pay as white
soldiers, seemed a necessary concession to smooth the way to their employment
at all as soldiers; but that ultimately they would receive the same. On
the second point, in respect to equal protection, he said the case was more
difficult. Retaliation was a terrible remedy, and one which it was very diffi-