CHAPTER XIX.

Rumor of freedom amongst the negroes-Fourth of July, 1865—“Golden chariot and hosses' of salvation "-Judge George W. JohnstonIndictments against me-Letter to Hon. George Robertson-Election order of 1865-Revisit the old home-Mr. Garrett-Letter to Mr. Dana-Letter to the president-Success of the conservativesLetter to Judge Trumbull.

The negroes in Kentucky believed that I had unlimited power, and one of those impalpable rumors reached the negro population that if they would come to Louisville on the Fourth of July, I would declare them to be free. The first I heard of such a rumor was from Mr. O'Bannon, of Eminence, Kentucky, which was about sixty miles from Louisville. He called at my headquarters a few days before the Fourth, and after the courtesies of the occasion-for I had known him-he said to me: "What in the h-ll do you mean by telling the negroes to come to Louisville on the Fourth of July and you will set them free?" I replied: "I never said such a thing in my life;" and he then told me that "the whole negro population in his part of the state were in motion for Louisville, where they expected to be declared free by me." Between that time and the Fourth I was told that negroes from all the surrounding counties were moving on to Louisville with the expectation that I would give them freedom.

The advance of the negroes began to arrive on July 3d, and a committee of them waited on me at my headquarters to know "at what hour and at what place I would declare their freedom." I told the committee that "I had no authority to set them free," and tried to persuade them to go home quietly and wait, and they would be free after awhile anyhow. There was a circus at the time in Louisville, performing under the direction of a man named Noyes, with whom I had formed quite

an acquaintance from frequent attendance upon his performances, and through Colonel Mark Mundy, Noyes had offered me his gilded chariot and the piebald horses to take myself and company to the fair grounds to hear Parsons, who had been an actor, and was now a Methodist preacher, read the "Declaration of Independence." The next morning, I took the gilded chariot and the piebald horses, with Parsons, Colonel Mundy and General Brisbane, for company, and reached the fair grounds about ten o'clock on the Fourth of July. Parsons, who was an excellent reader, and had a grand voice, read "the Declaration" in a manner which I have never heard equaled.

Messengers from Louisville told me that the city was full of negroes who were waiting for me to set them free, and that which finally determined me to go back to the city was a message from Captain E. B. Harlan, my adjutant-general, that Mr. James Guthrie, Mr. Osborne, Judge Ballard, and others who were my friends, had called upon him and said that I "must return in order to dispose of the negroes, of whom the city was full." I took the chariot and horses and returned to

the city, and after stopping at headquarters long enough to consult Harlan, I noticed that there were fewer negroes in town than usual, and was told that nearly all of them had assembled in a grove south of the city, where I would find, as my informant said, "Twenty thousand negroes waiting for freedom!" I proceeded south on Preston street, with the chariot and horses, and General James S. Brisbane who had accompanied me from the fair grounds, and after we had passed Tenth street, I saw outlying negroes run back to the crowd after discovering us and report that we were coming. After we reached the edge of the crowd, I heard one old negro man shout aloud and say, "Dar he comes in the golden chariot and de hosses of salvation!" which was caught up and repeated to the echo, and then a sense of the

ridiculous nearly overcame me. When I reached the mass of colored people I was lifted over their heads and placed upon a platform erected for the occasion and surrounded by negroes whom "no man can number." When the tumult had partially subsided, I said, "My countrymen, you are substantially free!" They never heard the word "substantially. There went up a shout which could have been heard for a mile. Some were singing and shouting as if they were in a religious meeting, and terms were applied to me that were only proper when used in reference to the Supreme Being; while I thought of the president and secretary of war and doubted if they would sustain me; but while I stood I determined to "drive the last nail in the coffin" of the "institution" even if it cost me the command of the department. How long I stood on the platform I do not know, but when the noise had in a measure subsided, I said, "My countrymen, you are free, and while I command in this department the military forces of the United States will defend your right to freedom." Nothing like the scene I then witnessed will ever occur again in the United States, for human slavery has ceased to exist.

Slavery practically ended in Kentucky on July 4, 1865. I reported my conduct on that occasion to the president and the secretary of war, and as a consequence on the 25th of July the following order was issued:

"WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
“WASHINGTON, July 25, 1865.

"GENERAL ORDER No. 129.

"To secure equal justice and the same personal liberty to the freedmen as to other citizens and inhabitants, all orders issued by post, district or other commanders, adopting any system of passes for them, or subjecting them to any restraints or punishments not imposed on other classes, are declared void.

"Neither white nor black will be restrained from seek

ing employment elsewhere when they cannot obtain it at a just compensation at their homes and when not bound by voluntary agreement, nor will they be hindered from traveling from place to place on proper and legitimate business.

By command of the secretary of war.

E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General."

And thus President Johnson kept the promise made to me by Mr. Lincoln: "Go to Kentucky, keep your temper, do as you please, and I will sustain you.

At the election held the first Monday in August, 1865, Judge George W. Johnston, who had before that time held the office of city judge, and to whom I have referred as one of my correspondents, was elected circuit judge of the Jefferson county circuit court.

Judge Johnston was a good lawyer and an ardent well-wisher of the Confederates, but I may as well say here, that I have never met an old lawyer who was not conservative in his opinions and devoted to the orderly administration of justice.

At the November term of the circuit court which Judge Johnston held, he charged the grand jury, that though marshal law existed in Kentucky, my orders Nos. 32 and 49 were illegal, and therefore void, and afforded no justification for any one who acted in obedience to those orders. He instructed the grand jury that slaves who escaped under my orders were still slaves, and might be recaptured by their masters when found.

He mentioned instances where slaves had escaped under those orders, and without advising the grand jury to indict me, he clearly intimated that it was a proper subject for their investigation and consideration.

The grand jury of Jefferson county at the November term of the circuit court found several indictments against me, but public curiosity will be satisfied by stating the substance of No. 9,424, as it was numbered on

the criminal docket of the court. The case was entitled "The Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. John M. Palmer." The indictment charged John M. Palmer, a free person, of the crime of aiding a slave to escape and in attempt to escape from her owner; he, the said John M. Palmer, not having lawful nor in good faith a color of claim thereto committed in manner and form, as follows, to wit: "That the said John M. Palmer, a free person in said county of Jefferson, on the 11th day of May, A. D. 1865, with force and arms, feloniously did aid and assist a slave named Ellen, a female slave, in an attempt to make her escape from her owner, and said slave being then the property of L. R. Womack, by making and issuing an order dated, 'Headquarters of Department of Kentucky, May 11, 1865, General Order No. 32,' and commanding, among other things, that the provost marshal of the post of Louisville, upon the application of any colored person who may report him or herself as unable to find sufficient employment in the city of Louisville, to issue a 'pass' to said colored person, and for his or her family to go to any point they may wish, to engage in or in search of 'employment.' The said order made it the duty of all conductors and managers of railroads, steamboats and ferryboats to transfer the persons named in such passes, and in case of a refusal by any of them, they were ordered to be immediately arrested and sent out of the Department of Kentucky or punished as a military court might adjudge; the said John M. Palmer, being at that time the commander of the Department of Kentucky, and a major-general in the service of the United States. And, in obedience to said order, the provost marshal of the post of Louisville did, on May 14, 1865, in Jefferson county, Kentucky, issue a pass to Ellen, a female slave owned by L. R. Womack, to go and return from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and by means of said order and said 'pass,' said slave did attempt to escape and did escape from her owner, the said L. R. Womack," contrary to the statute. Writs of capias were