Lincoln on Democracy

"So THAT THEY CAN HAVE THE BENEFIT"

322 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY "So THAT THEY CAN HAVE THE BENEFIT" Letter to Senator Charles Sumner [MA Y 19, 1864] In April 1864, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow in Tennessee, inflicting heavy losses on both black and white defenders. Rumors quickly spread that the Union troops had surrendered, only to be killed. Forrest, who denied the stories, did boast that the carnage proved "Negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners, "adding: "The river was dyed with the blood ofthe slaughterfor 200 yards." The Fort Pillow Massacre, as it came to be called, enraged Northerners. Lincoln eventually promised that if the stories were proven, "retribution shall . . . surely come." Here he endorsed the idea of providing pensions to the black victims' widows, even though they had not been married in conventional ceremonies, as the pension law required. Hon. Charles Sumner, My dear Sir: Executive Mansion, Washington, May 19, 1864. The bearer of this is the widow of Major [Lionel] Booth, who fell at Fort-Pillow. She makes a point, which I think very worthy ofconsideration which is, widows and children in jact, of colored soldiers who fall in our service, be placed in law, the same as iftheir marriages were legal, so that they can have the benefit of the provisions made the widows & orphans of white soldiers. Please see & hear Mrs. Booth. Yours truly A. LINCOLN ...