The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-15
TTUW rreueIIck DouSIasss PNPer.
MORE ABOUT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
What Good will Result from it,


"Weu," said one of our colored felow-cit
zens to us, upon our arrival home, "you have
held the Convention, and achat good has 1T done,
or ,ohat good wiU 1t dof There are we pre-
sumo, others who have propounded the same
query. We will try and answer the question,
tor we consider it a fair and reasonable one. If
it has effected no other good, it has Brought to-
gether, from various parts of the cou airy, some
OF our ablest men, for mutual advise, encour
agement, and consultation. These have had
an opportunity of making themselves known
and felt by thousands of "our People," They
have seen each other face to face. conversed
with each other, and mutually pledged them
selves before the world, never to cease SAVING
FOR THEIR RIGHTS, AND CLAMORING ABOUT THE
WHITE MANS OPPRESSION" until they shall
have attained the object of their ardent aspira-
tons. The Convention has brought these to-
gether for dehberative action. This can be
done only in conventional capacity. This,
then, the Convention has done.
Again: it has been the means of eliciting and
presenting new facts in reference to our pres
ent condition, our prospects, &C., which would
probably have remained in the exclusive pos
session of few, who had expended much pains
and labor in ascertaining them. For instance,
the Report of the Committee on Mechanical
Branches among the Colored People of the
United States, by Mr.. f. V. Clerk, of New
York, gentleman of superior intelligence and
moral excellence, in relation to. mechanical
trades, &c, and the number of cc!ored men at
present engaged in them, is reple.e with solid
information. This Report should be read by
every one, and its suggestions stndied and re-
duced to practice. Let the colored people of
the free States weigh well the facts presented
| in this Report, and attend to its suggestions in
| proper manner; and if the Contention should
accomplish nothing else than it has done in
presenting these facts before the people, II will
greatly rebound to their advancement and ele-
| walton.
Furthermore such conventions furnish, to all
who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, and
judgment to discern, convincing proof of our
restlessness under the oppressor's yoke, and
our united and invincible determination to work
ceaselessly and untiringly until it is broken.
Ihcy shoac to our enemies that zoe hare not giu-
en- up the struggle, and that Me,mgjority Of as
are not confounded rith that dsspondency and
despair achich preclude the possibility Of our
| working for our elevation HERE ,cith that hope
ful ardor schich imparts rita,iiy to all our eff:
forts, however feeble, for Se!f&k0ation. They
show in what light we regart~an movement
whatever which has, directly O. indirectly, any
| reference to our expatriation3Or emigration !;
for the principles enunciated it our National
Conventions are regarded by BUR opposers as
| the legitimate embodiment of the thoughts and
| wishes and determinations o. our scattered,
peeled, and broken people. =
The local and general effect of the Conven-
ton cannot fail to exert an influence favorable
| to those whom it represents. fhe shareholders
| and their apologists, who wer so fortunate as
to obtain standing room on the floor of the
Convention during its sessions, must have re-
| tired with another idea in their heads save that
of Negro inferiority. Even the crazy editor of
| the New York Day Book would have been
staggered and astounded," had he been pres
ent, and, possibly, would have been restored to
his right mind. There were those. present, of
his stripe, who expressed themselves altogether
astonished at that display of native talent and
| Of cultivated intellect which they witnessed,
and the development of whifd must have tend
ed to disabuse their minds If the insane and
baseless prejudices they had conceived in rela-
| ton to their colored fellow-t itizens. ALI such
conventions must have thi6 tendency. True,
we wrangled little, and .ostled each other,
and did other foolish things, to be regretted !;
6ut Our White brethren do he same things IN
their National Conventions: and our acting in
the same ioay demonstrates our identity ,oith
| them, and our common origin. We hazard
nothing in the assertion, that the holding of
this Convention turned mcre white men from
darkness into light, and made more Anti.Sa-
very men and Abolitionists than a dozen Anti
Slavery Conventions held b white people.
But another idea presef,vs itself 1t is well
known that we are regart. ed by the enemy as
people with no mind, ns will, no energy, no
aspirations of our own, ali our faculties being
under the exclusive contro' of the white Abo-
litionists, composing the s.arious Anti-Slavery
organizations of the couni'ty We are looked
upon as mere automatic, moving as we are