Colonel Revere, of the Seventh New Jersey Regiment, has addressed to the Governor of New Jersey a long letter in which he gives his expert opinion on two matters: recruiting and the organization of Negro regiments. Colonel Revere has seen thirty years of military service, having fought in Mexico, India, and Egypt. So he is well able to pass judgment, and we can expect that his judgment will receive due consideration.

With reference to the organization of Negro regiments Revere has this to say: "There has been much argument as to whether blacks can be rendered fit for military service. I have had many years of experience with black troops--with Sepoys, Malays, the black troops of the Mohammedan nobles of Asia, the black troops of the French in Algiers, and the black regiments of India--and I claim, on the basis of my experience, that blacks can be successfully trained for military service.

"Iron discipline, unconditional, blind obedience, and complete renouncement of will are the life and soul of an army; they constitute its power, its invincible strength. However, an army can acquire these requisites only in the school of experience, through active service. The free citizens of the North, owing to their innate desire for freedom and equality, can be persuaded only with the greatest difficulty to subject their will to that of another person. But it will not be diffucult to make soldiers of the Negroes; only they must be put under the leadership of whites, because they will not obey officers of their own race.

"England and France are organizing the black natives of India and Egypt, and are thus acquiring a great military reserve. I have been in battles in which regiments of Negroes have fought, and I am convinced that any combination of 'flesh and bones,' irrespective of race or color, can be successfully trained for effective military service.

"Anybody who has seen, as all naval officers have, how the herculean Negroes from 3our South competed with white sailors on our battleships, how they fearlessly and efficiently manned and worked cannons amid the most dreadful firing by the enemy, or anybody who has seen how ably and deftly they can handle a gun or a sword will certainly agree with me.

"We need reinforcements very badly. So send us all the men you possibly can, blacks and whites, and we shall make good use of all of them."

We should have organized dozens of Negro regiments as early as last year, and today there are still several thousands of young, able men of this race who are only too willing to enlist for service in defense of the Union. It is really strange that some whites still would submit to compulsory military service rather than accept the help of loyal Negroes. They are just as foolish as a person who is drowning and refuses to be saved by a man because the color of the man's face does not suit him.