[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 39 (Thursday, March 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3432-S3435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       LINCOLN, LABOR AND THE BLACK MILITARY: THE LEGACY PROVIDED

 Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, William B. Gould IV--the 
Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB]--celebrates the 
end of the first year of his first term today.
  Mr. Gould recently delivered a speech entitled, ``Lincoln, Labor, and 
the Black Military: The Legacy Provided,'' that makes an important 
contribution to the celebration of Black History Month. This speech 
analyzes President Abraham Lincoln's legacy on the development of 
democratic institutions and the protection of human rights in the 
United States. More specifically, this speech highlights the Great 
Emancipator's views on labor and the right to strike which were founded 
on the belief that ``All people could improve themselves and thus arise 
out of their station if opportunity were afforded them.''
  Our Nation held its first, officially recognized, Black History Month 
in 1976. In reality, of course, the event dates back to 1926, when 
Carter G. Woodson, the noted historian and author, selected February to 
honor the achievement of black Americans because it was the month in 
which both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born.
  There are still some who would simply like to forget the ugly history 
that surrounds race relations in this country, and who question the 
need for a month set aside to reflect on the accomplishments of 
African-Americans. But for me, each year the month of February provides 
me with an occasion to look back and survey the triumphs of African-
Americans, often against overwhelming odds. It gives me a chance to 
give thanks to those who have gone before me, and who paved the way for 
me. And, more importantly, it provides me with the opportunity to 
reflect not only on how far we have come, but also on how far, in many 
respects, we still have to go.
  Having spoken in favor of his nomination on the Senate floor 1 year 
ago today, I am pleased to see that Mr. Gould--the first African-
American chairman of the National Labor Relations Board--also 
recognizes the importance of celebrating President Lincoln's birthday 
and Black History Month.
  I am also encouraged by the fact that Mr. Gould continues to reaffirm 
his commitment to promoting ``The right of employees to band together 
for the purpose of protecting or improving their own working 
conditions, to join unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to 
be free from various forms of discrimination.''
  Mr. President, I would like to conclude my remarks by urging my 
colleagues to read Mr. Gould's speech and by wishing Mr. Gould all the 
best as he continues to serve his country as chairman of the National 
Labor Relations Board.
  I ask that the text of Mr. Gould's speech be printed in the Record.
  The speech follows:

[[Page S3433]]

       Lincoln, Labor and the Black Military: The Legacy Provided

       I heard the glad tidings that the Stars and Stripes have 
     been planted over the Capitol of the Confederacy by the 
     invincible Grant. While we honor the living soldiers who have 
     done so much we must not forget to whisper for fear of 
     disturbing the glorious sleep of the men who have fallen. 
     Martyrs to the cause of Right and Equality.--Diary of William 
     B. Gould, April 15, 1865
       These are the words of my great-grandfather written 130 
     years ago at the time of Appomattox. They reflect the 
     thoughts and passion of one of our country's black naval 
     veterans of the Civil War and his commitment to the military 
     initiatives waged by President Lincoln.
       It is meet and right that we come here this evening to 
     honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President 
     of the United States, properly known throughout the world as 
     the Great Emancipator. The New World's central political and 
     social achievements, the Emancipation Proclamation which 
     President Lincoln authored, transcends the ages and future 
     generations. And his ideas about democracy and the rights of 
     all people constitute the central vision of the American 
     democratic system today.
       As the sons of Union officers who fought in the Civil War, 
     you know better than most that this 186th anniversary of 
     Lincoln's birthday marks anew the ongoing struggle to free 
     our country from the legacy of the odious institution of 
     slavery so that all people may live out their lives and 
     fulfill their aspirations without the actuality or fear of 
     arbitrary limitation.
       One of my law professors used to say that the ``greatest 
     constitutional decision ever rendered occurred when Pickett's 
     charge failed at Gettysburg.'' The legacy of Appomattox and 
     all that led to its resonates throughout our society to this 
     evening here in Washington as part of the unceasing struggle 
     against all arbitrary barriers which afflict mankind.
       And both Gettysburg and Appomattox produced the great Civil 
     War amendments to the Constitution, which reversed the 
     infamous Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court 
     declared blacks to be property constitutionally. The 
     amendments, in turn, have provided our country with the 
     historical framework for both the Supreme Court's great Brown 
     v. Board of Education, 1954 ruling condemning separate but 
     equal as a denial of equal protection and also the modern 
     civil rights movement as well as the legislation that it 
     produced. Similarly, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 
     1964, our most comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation 
     relating to the workplace, is a lineal descendant of the 
     previous century's developments.
       I am not a Lincoln or Civil War scholar. Indeed, I find the 
     amount of literature about both subjects to be daunting--and, 
     accordingly, I know that you do not expect a scholarly 
     examination of President Lincoln from me. But there are 
     matters which have and do involve me both practically and 
     professionally with Lincoln and his times.
       The first is that I am the fourteenth Chairman of the 
     National Labor Relations Board and, as such, administer an 
     agency and interpret a statute which both seek to implement 
     some of Lincoln's most basic views on labor.
       The second is that I am the great-grandson of the first 
     William Benjamin Gould who, along with seven other 
     ``contraband'' (seized property--the appellation which 
     General Benjamin Butler gave to escaped slaves) set sail in a 
     small boat from Cape Fear, North Carolina and boarded the USS 
     Cambridge on September 22, 1862, the day that President 
     Lincoln announced his intent to issue the Emancipation 
     Proclamation. You will know that the Proclamation states in 
     relevant part:
       ``And I further declare and make known, that such persons 
     of suitable condition [the freed slaves held by those in 
     rebellion], will be received into the armed service of the 
     United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
     other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said 
     service.''
       And thus it was that William B. Gould joined the United 
     States Navy and served as landsman and steward on the North 
     Atlantic Blockade and subsequently served on vessels visiting 
     Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, chasing the 
     Confederate ships which were built by their undercover 
     allies.
       In 1864 the American Minister Charles Francis Adams had 
     notified the British government that if the Alabama and the 
     Georgia--two iron clad ``rams'' built by the British for the 
     Confederacy--were allowed to go to sea, this would be 
     construed by the United States as a declaration of war. 
     William B. Gould sailed with the steam frigate Niagara for 
     the European station to join other vessels such as the 
     Kearsarge to keep, in my great-grandfather's words, a ``sharp 
     lookout'' for these vessels. The Niagara's destination was 
     the Bay of Biscay where she eventually engaged in battle.
       William B. Gould's service ended on September 29, 1865 when 
     he made the following entry in his diary:
       ``At the Navy Yard [Charlestown, Massachusetts] at five 
     Oclock I received my Discharge being three years and nine 
     days in the service of Uncle Samuel and glad am I to receive 
     it . . . [pay] of four hundred and twenty four dollars. So 
     end my service in the Navy of the United States of America.''
       I did not know the first William B. Gould for he died--in 
     Dedham, Massachusetts where he resided from 1871 onward--
     thirteen years before my birth. I did not know my 
     grandfather, William B. Gould, Jr., a Spanish-American War 
     veteran, for he was to die nine years later in 1932. But the 
     third William B. Gould was my greatest inspiration in my most 
     formative years--and my belief is that the values and culture 
     which he attempted to
      transmit to me where very much a part of the lives of the 
     first two gentlemen to whom I have referred.
       Truly then, President Lincoln's views and policies have had 
     a major impact upon my own life.
       As Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, I have a 
     responsibility to implement a statute which promotes the 
     right of employees to band together for the purpose of 
     protecting or improving their own working conditions, to join 
     unions, to engage in collective bargaining and to be free 
     from various forms of discrimination. This statute, enacted 
     as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in 
     1935, is one of the country's proudest achievements, 
     expressing the policy that the protection of ``the exercise 
     by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, 
     and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for 
     the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their 
     employment or other mutual aid or protection'' should be 
     encouraged.
       In recent years, a number of scholars and critics, like 
     myself, took note of the fact that the statute has not been 
     working well in implementing these objectives because of poor 
     administrative processes and ineffective remedies. Some of 
     these matters can be and are being cured by us at the Board 
     and some can be only addressed by Congress. I hope to do what 
     I can to make continued progress in the former category 
     before I depart from Washington and return to California a 
     few years down the road when my term ends.
       I enthusiastically support the views contained in the 
     preamble and have made my position known in books, articles, 
     and speeches. In many respects, the fundamentally similar 
     views of President Lincoln were a precursor of our own 1935 
     legislation.
       Recall what Lincoln said to the New York Workingmen's 
     Democratic Republican Association on March 21, 1864:
       ``The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the 
     family relation, should be one uniting all working people, of 
     all nations, and tongues and kindreds.''\1\
     Footnotes at the end of article.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
       As the Presidential campaign of 1860 unfolded, Lincoln 
     stated his philosophy in these terms:
       ``When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, 
     free society is such that he knows he can better his 
     condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor 
     for his while life . . . I want every man to have the 
     chance--and I believe a black man is entitle to it--in which 
     he can better his condition--when he may look forward and 
     hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for 
     himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him! 
     That is the true system.''\2\
       In the same speech, Lincoln makes clear that the right to 
     strike is integral to a democratic society, a policy 
     reflected in the language of Sections 7 and 13 of the 
     National Labor Relations Act and in the Norris-LaGuardia Act 
     of 1932 which preceded it. Just a few weeks ago, President 
     Clinton took note of one of our law's limitations in his 
     statement criticizing the Bridgestone/Firestone Company's use 
     of permanent striker replacements, noting that such tactics 
     show the need to enact legislation prohibiting such a denial 
     of the fundamental right to strike.
       It bears note that Lincoln's view of labor and the right to 
     strike ran against the tide of laissez-faire thinking which 
     predominated in the previous century--thinking which has 
     reared its head again toward the close of this century, one 
     of its forms being the repressive striker replacement weapon 
     of which President Clinton spoke. President Lincoln supported 
     the right to strike and spoke out in the spring of 1860 in 
     support of a well-organized strike conducted by the boot and 
     shoe workers in New England. Lincoln regarded the right to 
     strike by free labor as a ``virtue, not a failing, of free 
     society,'' as G.S. Boritt has written in Lincoln and the 
     Economics of the American Dream.\3\
       Boritt also notes that during the Civil War several 
     delegations of strikers from the Machinists and Blacksmiths 
     Union of New York visited the White House and spoke to the 
     President about their position. States Boritt:
       ``The labor representatives took great comfort from their 
     interview, reasoning that although their employers refused to 
     deal with them, Lincoln received them. `If any man should 
     again say that combinations of working men are not good,' 
     they concluded, `let them point to the Chief Magistrate.' 
     They even quoted the President as saying `I know that in 
     almost every case of strikes, the men have just cause for 
     complaint.' It is rather likely that the union men quoted 
     Lincoln correctly.''\4\
       Of course, Lincoln's view of labor was closely related to 
     his view of slavery. Again, in 1860 he said: ```Owned labor' 
     would compete with free labor so as to `degrade' the 
     latter.'' And, in an earlier and lengthy speech to the 
     Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in Milwaukee on 
     September 30, 1859, 
     [[Page S3434]] he noted that the so-called ``mud-sill'' 
     theory was that a hired laborer is ``fatally fixed in that 
     condition for life'' and thus his condition is the same as 
     that of a slave.\5\
       But as Lincoln noted, this theory proceeded upon the 
     assumption that labor and education were incompatible and 
     that one could not improve oneself and one's family through 
     free labor. Lincoln's view was antithetical to all of this. 
     He held the view that workers should be able to rise to new 
     horizons.
       And this view is closely related to another held by the 
     President which has similar contemporary implications. 
     Because Lincoln believed that all people could improve 
     themselves and thus rise out of their station if opportunity 
     were afforded them, unlike other proponents of the rights of 
     labor, he did see the working class as a well-defined unit, 
     notwithstanding his endorsement of its use of the strike to 
     defend its interests and act jointly in its dealings with 
     employers. To some extent, said Professor Boritt, Lincoln 
     shared the view that there was a harmony between the capital 
     and labor and that it ought to be promoted so as to enhance 
     the ability of workers to rise out of their class.
       Again, these views resonate with us today as Congress 
     considers proposals to enhance employee participation and 
     proposed amendments to the National Labor Relations Act which 
     will achieve this goal. I believe that President Lincoln 
     would be sympathetic with contemporary efforts to promote 
     employee involvement in the workplace and thus enhance our 
     industry's global competitiveness--so long as such reforms do 
     not interfere with the ability of the workers and unions to 
     defend their own positions, a proposition that I have long 
     advanced.\6\
       The view that an individual was not ``fatally fixed'' in a 
     particular condition forever constitutes the philosophy which 
     prevailed in the Civil War and through the Emancipation 
     Proclamation and the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment 
     which Lincoln sponsored before his assassination. Again, this 
     is reflected anew in last month's State of the Union address 
     by President Clinton when, in advocating new minimum wage 
     legislation, he said that the worker who works must have his 
     ``reward'' and that the job of government is to ``expand 
     opportunity . . . to empower people to make the most of their 
     own lives. . . .''
       This is what is at the heart of modern democracy and the 
     Bill of Rights for workers in the private sector which are 
     contained in the National Labor Relations Act and similar 
     statutes. And this has been the assumption behind the 
     struggle for equality which has attempted to make good on the 
     promise of emancipation in the previous century.
       My great-grandfather, a mason who worked with his mind and 
     hands and established a business as a contractor, employing 
     other workers in Dedham, Massachusetts, benefited from the 
     above-noted philosophy and the quoted portions of the 
     Emancipation Proclamation. Said William B. Gould on March 8, 
     1863, two months after its issuance:
       ``Read . . . the Proclamation of Emancipation . . . verry 
     [sic] good.''
       The policy, of course, had evolved in fits and starts. As 
     Benjamin Quarles has noted in ``The Negro in the Civil War,'' 
     General Butler was the first to devise a policy of acceptance 
     of blacks who wanted to fight with the North.\7\ This was, as 
     Quarles noted, the most ``insistent'' problem faced by the 
     Lincoln Administration in 1861 and 1862. It emerged, as he 
     has noted, after the Union defeat at Bull Run which was 
     attributable ``in part to the Confederate military defenses 
     constructed by slaves. . . .''
       Congress enacted legislation which provided for the 
     forfeiture of all slaves whose masters had permitted them to 
     be used in the military or naval service of the Confederacy. 
     Quarles notes that the 1861 legislation ``strengthened the 
     hand of the small band of Union officers from the beginning 
     had been in favor of freeing the slaves.'' Two military 
     initiatives--one designed by John C. Fremont in July 1861, 
     ``The Pathfinder,'' and the other undertaken by Major General 
     Dave Hunter in the summer of 1862--were both rescinded by 
     Lincoln out of his concern with preserving the allegiance of 
     the border states.
       The confiscation Act enacted on July 17, 1862, declaring 
     free all slaves who were owned by those in rebellion was the 
     next step in the process. This had the effect of increasing 
     the number of fugitives in whom the United States Navy 
     expressed a particular interest so as to make use of the 
     information that they could provide about enemy locations and 
     movements. As summer became fall the problem became more 
     ``insistent.''
       Three days after my great-grandfather boarded the U.S.S. 
     Cambridge came this report of Commander G.H. Scott regarding 
     the blockade of Wilmington:
       ``Fourteen contrabands have reached the `Monticello' and 
     `Penobscot' and several the `Cambridge' within a few days, 
     and as the vessels have not room for them, will you please 
     direct what disposition shall be made of them?''
       We know what disposition was made of William B. Gould. On 
     October 3, 1862, he said:
       ``All of us shipped today for three years, first taking the 
     Oath of Allegiance to the Government of Uncle Samuel.''
       Thus, he, and eventually I, benefited from both the 
     Confiscation Act and the new policy expressed in the 
     Emancipation Proclamation which was not to be effective for 
     another three months. His service was made possible because 
     of it. This was then his opportunity--and his observations, 
     hopes and views are chronicled in the diary which he kept 
     between 1862 and 1865.
       On the perils of the seas and their storminess, he says:
       ``[T]he gale still blows fresh and the seas running very 
     [sic] high. We shipped several through the night and one--
     fill'd the Ward Room with Water. I have got ducked awfully 
     last night. It was worth something to be upon the Deck. 
     Although there is much danger in a storm there is something 
     very sublime to hear the roar of the storm. The hissing of 
     the Waves, the whistling of the Rigging and the Cannon like 
     report of the torn sail and above all the stern word of the 
     commander and the--sound of the boatswain's pipe all adds to 
     the grandeur of the scene. For there is something grand in a 
     storm. Allnight with eager eyes both Officers and Men paced 
     the deck watching our Foretopsail, feeling in a measure 
     secure as long as we could sail at all. It has it stood 
     through the night. There was no sign of the storm abateing 
     [sic]. All the galley fire is out and nothing to eat is the 
     cry and almost nothing to wear on account of the Water. Shine 
     out fair sun and smote the Waves that we may proceed on our 
     course and all be saved.''
       And on December 25 and December 27 of 1862, he had this to 
     say about the loneliness of his work off New Inlet:
       ``This being Christmas I think of the table at home . . . 
     cruised around as usual. Fine weather but very lonesome in 
     the absence of news and we all had the Blues.''
       While on the North Atlantic Blockade with the U.S.S. 
     Cambridge he says on November 17, 1862:
       ``A sail was reported close under the land right ahead. We 
     gave chase. When within range of our boat we told them good 
     morning in the shape of a shot for her to heave to.''
       But then he describes the difficulties that arose:
       ``To this [the shot] they took no notice. We sent another 
     which fell under her stern . . . the ship stood for the 
     Beach. Shot after shot was set after her but they heeded not 
     . . . we immediately manned the first cutter and sent her . . 
     . to board and destroy her. We also sent two boats to lend 
     assistance . . . [after sending a line to these boats so that 
     they could return to the main ship] . . . they got the Boat 
     all ready to come out when a body of Rebel Soldiers dashed 
     over the hill at the double quick and all were prisoners. We 
     could see them from the ship marching off our men and 
     dragging the boats after them. We lost eleven men and three 
     officers. Rather a bad day's work.''
       But the fortunes of war were not all negative as testified 
     to by him in this entry in the summer of 1864 off Portugal:
       ``[W]e made a steamer and stood for her. She kept on her 
     course without any until we got within 5 miles of her when 
     she suddenly changed her course. We beat to Quarters and 
     Fired a shot. She showed the English collors [sic]. We Fired 
     another. When she came to be boarded her and found her to be 
     the Rebel Privateer `Georgia' from Liverpool on her way to 
     refit a cruiser. But the next cruise that she makes will be 
     for Uncle Samuel . . . this capture makes a crew feel verry 
     [sic] proud.''
       While in the English Channel:
       ``[W]e took on board an English Pilot who brought the 
     thrice glorious news of the sinking of the `Alabama' by 
     `Kearsarge' off Cherbough. . . . [A]lthough we have been 
     disappointment to us in not getting a shot at the `Alabama' 
     we are satisfied that she is out of the way.''
       And in 1864 while serving on the Niagara he said about the 
     people that he saw in Spain:
       ``[I]t looks very strange in this country which nature have 
     lavished with riches that there should be so many Poor 
     People.''
       And again on the shameful treatment of black soldiers on 
     his ship:
       ``Yesterday about 900 men of the Maryland (colored) 
     regiment came on board (they being transferred to the Navy) 
     and took dinner then departed for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
     They were treated very rough by the crew. They refused to let 
     them eat out of the mess pans and call them all kinds of 
     names. One man [had] his watch stolen from him by these 
     scoundrels. In all they were treated shamefully.''
       On the proposed colonization of blacks to Africa or the 
     Caribbean:
       ``We see by the papers that President [Johnson] intimates 
     colonization for the colored people of the United States. 
     This move of his must and shall be resisted. We were born 
     under the Flag of the union and never will we know no other. 
     My sentiment is the sentiment of the people of the 
     States.''\8\
       All of this ended in 1865 and provided William B. Gould 
     with his chance at life. Sometimes I think about his thoughts 
     as he walked the streets of Wilmington a young man and what 
     would have been had he stayed in North Carolina and the 
     events of those four critical years had not taken place. Most 
     certainly his great-grandson would not be here today 
     addressing you as Chairman of the National Labor Relations 
     Board.
       I am privileged to have this opportunity in 1995 to 
     contribute to the public good in the most inspirational and 
     progressive Administration in Washington since the 1960's--
     one which is unabashedly committed to the principles of those 
     who fell 130 years ago.
       My hope is that I can reflect well upon the first William 
     B. Gould and the chance that he made for me by rising out of 
     his ``fixed station,'' to use Lincoln's words, and I am all 
     [[Page S3435]] too aware of the limitations of time as we 
     move rapidly toward a new millennium.
       As William B. Gould said on December 31, 1863, in New York 
     harbor:
       ``We are obliged knock off on the account of the storm. It 
     blew very hard from South East. The old year of `1863' went 
     out furiously as if it was angry with all the world because 
     it had finished the time allotted to it. Sooner or later we 
     must follow.''
       My first major impression during my first trip outside of 
     the United States in 1962, as a student at the London School 
     of Economics, is of the grand and majestic statute of 
     President Lincoln which sits in Parliament Square today. Now 
     I live in Washington within a mile of the great Lincoln 
     Memorial in which his brooding historical omnipresence is 
     made so manifest.
       You and I, the entire nation and the world honor President 
     Lincoln and his policies tonight. Both personally and 
     professionally they are with me always as is the legacy 
     provided by him and so many others in what my great-
     grandfather called:
       ``[T]he holiest of all causes, Liberty and Union.\9\
                               footnotes

     \1\Basler, Roy P., Editor, The Collected Works of Abraham 
     Lincoln, Volume VII, page 259, (1953)
     \2\Ibid. Volume IV, pp. 24-5.
     \3\Boritt, Gabor S., Lincoln and the Economics of the 
     American Dream, page 184, (1978).
     \4\Ibid., page 185.
     \5\Basler, Roy P., Editor, The Collected Works of Abraham 
     Lincoln, Volume 111, pp. 477-8 (1953).
     \6\Of course, I advanced such ideas in the context of 
     proposals for comprehensive labor law reform. See W. Gould, 
     Agenda for Reform: The Future of Employment Relationships and 
     the Law, pp. 109-150 (1993).
     \7\B. Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War, pp. 59-61, 64 
     (1953). On blacks in the U.S. Navy see generally, D. Valuska, 
     The African American in the Union Navy: 1861-1865, (1993).
     \8\Of course, President Lincoln had earlier proposed 
     colonization within the context of compensated emancipation.
     \9\Dairy May 6, 1864. The full text actually states, 
     ``[H]eard of the departure of one battalion of the 5th 
     Regiment Massachusetts Cavalry from Camp Meigs for 
     Washington, D.C. May God protect them while defending the 
     holiest of all causes, Liberty and Union.'' As William B. 
     Gould III wrote in an entry adjacent to the diary: ``Camp 
     Meigs was in Readville, Massachusetts, about two miles east 
     of where William B. Gould made his home at 303 Milton Street, 
     East Dedham, Massachusetts.''
     

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