''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 253"A. LINCOLN.""SAMBO" WAS "AFEARED."In his message to Congress in December, 1864, just after his re-election,President Lincoln, in his message of December 6th, let himself out, inplain, unmistakable terms, to the effect that the freedmen should never beplaced in bondage again. "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" ofDecember 24th, 1864, printed the cartoon we herewith reproduce, the textunderneath running in this way:UNCLE ABE: "Sambo, you are not handsome, any more than myself, butas to sending you back to your old master, I'm not the man to do it--and,what's more, I won't." (Vice President's message.)Congress, at the previous sitting, had neglected to pass the resolution forthe Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery, but, on the 31st ofJanuary, 1865, the resolution was finally adopted, and the United StatesConstitution soon had the new feature as one of its clauses, the necessarynumber of State Legislatures approving it. President Lincoln regarded thepassage of this resolution by Congress as most important, as theamendment, in his mind, covered whatever defects a rigid construction ofthe Constitution might find in his Emancipation Proclamation.After the latter was issued, negroes were allowed to enlist in the Army, andthey fought well and bravely. After the War, in the reorganization of theRegular Army, four regiments of colored men were provided for--the Ninthand Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. In thecartoon, Sambo has evidently been asking "Uncle Abe" as to the probabilityor possibility of his being again enslaved.WHEN MONEY MIGHT BE USED.Some Lincoln enthusiast in Kansas, with much more pretensions thanpower, wrote him in March, 1860 proposing to furnish a Lincoln delegationfrom that State to the Chicago Convention, and suggesting that Lincoln