Africans  who  have  by  the  will  of  Providence  been  placed  in  our
charge.  Comparing  the  results  of  our  own  experience  with  those
of  the  experiments  of  others  who  have  borne  similar  relations  to
the  African  race,  the  people  of  the  several  States  of  the  Confeder-
acy have  abundant  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  past,  and  to  use
the  greatest  circumspection  in  determining  their  course.  These
considerations,  however,  are  rather  applicable  to  the  improbable
contingency  of  our  need  of  resorting  to  this  element  of  assistance
than  to  our  present  condition.  If  the  recommendation  above,
made  for  the  training  of  forty  thousand  negroes  for  the  service
indicated,  shall  meet  your  approval,  it  is  certain  that  even  this  lim-
ited number,  by  their  preparatory  training  in  intermediate  du-
ties, would  form  a  more  valuable  reserve  force  in  case  of  urgency
than  threefold  their  number  suddenly  called  from  field-labor,
while  a  fresh  levy  could  to  a  certain  extent  supply  their  places  in
the  special  service  for  which  they  are  now  employed."

Subsequent  events  advanced  my  views  from  a  prospective
to  a  present  need  for  the  enrollment  of  negroes  to  take  their
place  in  the  ranks.  Strenuously  I  argued  the  question  with
members  of  Congress  who  called  to  confer  with  me.  To  a
member  of  the  Senate  (the  House  in  which  we  most  needed  a
vote)  I  stated,  as  I  had  done  to  many  others,  the  fact  of  having
led  negroes  against  a  lawless  body  of  armed  white  men,  and
the  assurance  which  the  experiment  gave  me  that  they  might,
under  proper  conditions,  be  relied  on  in  battle,  and  finally  used
to  him  the  expression  which  I  believe  I  can  repeat  exactly :  "  If
the  Confederacy  falls,  there  should  be  written  on  its  tombstone,
'  Died  of  a  theory.' "  General  Lee  was  brought  before  a  com-
mittee to  state  his  opinion  as  to  the  probable  efficiency  of  ne-
groes as  soldiers,  and  disappointed  the  probable  expectation  by
his  unqualified  advocacy  of  the  proposed  measure.
