Geary, John White (1819-1873) to Edgar Cowan
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00673 Author/Creator: Geary, John White (1819-1873) Place Written: Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 August 1863 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 24.8 x 20.2 cm. Order a Copy
Geary writes to Cowan, a United States Senator from Pennsylvania, in attempt to obtain a recommendation for his promotion to Major General. Cites his qualifications and the achievements of his brigades. Declares "I have received four honorable wounds, and have never left my command for a single hour (Except once when my left arm was badly shattered) to devote even one moment to my own private affairs, or like many that you and I could name, parade ... around Washington to make political capital and ensure promotion." Discussing his opinions on current policy, states that "Patriotism should sink all party names and party measures, until the Union is restored ... I am decidedly in favor of the enlisting and arming of negroes, and I can find no argument for opposition to it, but what seems founded mostly in an unmanly and unchristian prejudice against their color. Negroes make brave and efficient soldiers, and it seems to me that they should be used promptly and to their utmost capacity & indeed honor, interest and humanity demand, that they should be permitted to strike for freedom and the unity of the land." Mentions the brutal New York City draft riots that occurred just three weeks before. Approves of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1863. Reports that his own actions in the previous year contributed to the liberation of over 25,000 slaves. Written at camp near Ellis Ford, Virginia.
[excerpt:]
The "Draft" should be made at once, with unwavering energy and despatch, and without fear of mobs or Copperheads. Treason has its penalties, of which Confiscation is one, and which in my opinion should work out perpetual separation of property, and the traitor and his heirs. No just man is afraid of its abuse, and I am willing the President shall have in his hand the rod of justice to its fullest extent, as well as the seal of mercy...I also heartily approve the President's Proclamtion of Jany 1st 1863, and my own action for a year previous, in liberating over 25,000 slaves, is more than an endorsement upon it.
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