Remarks to New York Committee1Jump to section
The President declared that he would gladly receive into the service not ten thousand but ten times ten thousand colored troops; expressed his determination to protect all who enlisted, and said that he looked to them for essential service in finishing the war. He believed that the command of them afforded scope for the highest ambition, and he would with all his heart offer it to Gen. Fremont.
Annotation
[1] New York Tribune, June 1, 1863. The members of the committee are not named, but are designated as ``originating in Dr. Cheever's church, and endorsed by such men as Horace Greeley, George Opdyke, William Cullen Bryant, and Daniel S. Dickinson.'' Reverened George B. Cheever was pastor of the Church of the Puritans. The committee is reported as requesting that Lincoln ``give a command to Gen. Fremont at some point where he can rally around him the colored men of the country.'' A three-page memorial dated May 28, 1863, presented by the committee and signed by Bryant, Greeley, Dickinson, and others, urged the assignment of Fremont to command 10,000 colored troops. (DLC-RTL). See Lincoln to Sumner, June 1, infra.