Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-08-22
From the New York Tribune.
LETTER FROM MR.. GERRIT SMITH.

Sm;- In your leader repecting my gifts OF lanC
to colored men, you find more occasion for com
mendiog me and for blaming them than the cas-,
really affords.
1t was not l. but my father, who toiled to pa,
for the land. 1t is easy to give away what W,
easily get.
sold the best and gave away the poorest of my
land Some of it was given to schools some of j
to white men, and some of it to coored men. Ny
consenting to sell any of it shows that 1 wat
perhaps a better landreformer in theory than ir
practice.
confess that my expectations from this measure
have not been fully realized. Of the three thou
sand colored men to whom | gave land, probably
less than fifty have taken and continue to hold
possession Of their grants WHAT'S worse, half Of
the three thousand as judge, have either sold
their land, or been careless to allow it to be
sold for taxes.
Much, however, can be said in excuse for them
The great body of the land, which gave to
colored men, is in the Counties of Essex and
Franklin, some 20 to 80 miles west of Lake
Champlain. The Winters there are long, the
SHOWS deep and the soil thin. White men who
dwell there can support their families only by
very hard work and very frugal habits. Why,
then, considering the character of the colored
people, should we expect them to do much in such
country? Most of the parcels | gave them in
the central part of the State they are occupying
Is i! reas enable to suppose that they would be
occupying the other parcels also had they been
equally invitingP
1t is improving, but still far from what it should
be. Among them are intelligent and noble men
and women, but the mass are ignorant and thrift
less. You and have the right to complain to them
since we have demanded justice in their behalf
and have not contributed to form and perpetuatt
their undesirable character. They have not thi
righ. who deny their manhood and shut then
~ from the ballot box. and school, and omni
bus, and table and thus do what they can to ne
cessitate bad character in the colored people.
Our coiored people complain of your treatmen
of them. think myself that it is sometimes toe
rigorous, though. in the main, candidly approve
it. You are their friend in demanding that they
shall, by their own good conduct, redeem them
selves from their deep debasement. You deal but
justly with them, when you declare tha. their own
bad influence goes further than the arts of the
worst Shareholders to uphold Slavery.
So far from making their wrongs and outrages
an excuse for their continued degradation, the free
colored people should, in view of these wrongs
and outrages, arouse themselves to the irresistible
determination to equal and surpass their perse-
cutors in all that honors manhood. They should
swear that they will be Pariahs and lepers no
longer, To this end, they should quit the towns,
in which they wont to congregate, and where
they are but servants. and should scatter them.
selves over the country in the capacity of farmers
and mechanics. They should cease from the habit
of wasting their earnings in periodical balls
They should never wet their lips with intoxicating
drinks nor defle them with tobacco. They should
never so war upon their selerespect as to join a
church which spares Slavery, or join politica
party which knows law for Slavery.
1t was, perhaps, needless for me to say ever
this little in reply to your article before me- Ou
colored people well know thai for nearly quarter
of century, my lips and pen have been urging
them to save themselves and deliver their enslaveC
race GERRIT SMITH.
PETERBoRo', Aug. S, 1857.