Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-27
THE NORTH CAROLINA NEGRO
CONVENTION.
Character of the Leaders-What they
Asked Or.
Correspondence of the Nation

There were three delegates who took
very prominent positions IN the conven-
ton, and who may be called leaders. One
was q mulatto, born within the State, but
who had receiveda collegiate education in
the north. He was a person OF some
ability, but it was to his education that he
owed his influence. He made many fluent
speeches, and was chairman of the business
committee, which reported a great many
resolutions. A much ADLER man, one who
would be considered a man of more han
common ability in any community, was
chairman of the committee which re-
ported an address to the state convention.
He, l believe, is of unmixed African blood
and a North Carolinian by birth. He,
too, spoke often, and always with ease and
force. Never attempting the passionate
style of oratory, which was the kind by
far most frequently employed by his fell
low members, but combining himself to
straightforward, sensible speaking, he
pushed business forward, instructed the
ignorant, attained the ends at which he
aimed, and, l dare say, won the respect of
every man, white or black, in the cOnven-
ton. But perhaps the most remarkable
person among the delegates was the last of
the three, a light-yellow man whose fea-
lures seemed to indicate that there was a
cross of Indian blood in his veins. His
hair was long and black. but very curly,
and he appeared to be vain of its beauty
as he tossed it carelessly off his forehead,
or suffered it to fall heavily and half con-
ceal his eyes. These were twinkling and
slippery, and nearly always half-shut, for
he laughed much, and then they partly
closed of themselves, and at other times he
had a way of watching from under his
dropped lids. He was a well-shaped man,
but it was hardly to be discovered as he
lolled in his seat, or from the insufferably
lazy manner of his walking. When he
spoke, however, he stood erect, using for
chile and graceful gestures. His voice
was powerful, and, though an illit-
crate man, his speaking was effect
i've. But sometimes his most i'm
passioned ~harangues, made for the
purpose of fomenting sectional iealousies
between the east and west, or to embarrass
the chair, or to defeat some resolution Of
fered by an opponent, or for the mere
pleasure of contradiction, were brought to
an untimcly end by his inability to refrain
from laughing. He was really in earnest
about nothing, but his power of sarcasm
and brutal invective, and the per onal lis
fuence given him by his fearlessness and
audacity, always secured him a hearing
1t seemed to be his keen sense of the ridi-
culous only which prevented him from
playing the part of demagogue with sue,
cess. he had artfully spread dissension
among the delegates by declaring it dis
graceful to North C%arolinians that a man
from the North should have been made
President of the Convention. That oficerr
hearing Ofthe murmurs, had rendered his
resignation, accompanying the offer with
a speech so judicious that the Convention
compelled him to retake his office. A del.
egate had declared that such whisperings
were born in he'll, and should return to
their place of birth they embodied pre-
JUDGES which, at the present time, in a re-
stored and liberated country, had no place
they belongedamong the bloody relics ofthe
past. al come forward, Mr.. President, u
said the man 1 have been describing
II come forward as not bein' one O the
whisperin' class that the gentleman has
referred to. Our young Demosthenes, sir,
is very polite, and shows his good breedin'
to this honorable body with his invitations
to his fathers house. But who does he
/ 6uPBCGO 10 KUN W 1AtCBb Nlh NACh HO &c
not at home? He can talk about the bloody
relicks of the past, sir, but as for me, |
didn't come here, and no other man of this
convention didn't come here, sir, to have
the whip of slavery cracked over us by no
Shareholders son." His opponent was a
rather light mulatto. But the brutality OF
this attack is hardly so great as it seems,
the standards for measuring the degree of
such insults being different at the North
and at the South. The speaker, on an
other occasion, announced himself as one
well fitted to be a mediator between the
white and black races, partaking as he did
of the blood of each in equal parts, and
BB StiRRe f &c is f t6aiT9 of hRa im illi that e once Hsei %sTin of
a speech in his native town, he said this,
among other things: at IL never do to
give these niggers the ballot, they say if
they was to get it, that id - would be
mayor. As if l wanted that office, gen.
tlemenl I'm goin' to Congress"
But the moderate men among the ne
groes, those who thought it best to petition
and not to demand, and to petition only
for equality before the law and not for adj
mission to all the political rights of citi-
zenship, easily obtained control of the
convention. Every thing that they thought
could justly offend any class of their fell
low-citizens at the South or North was
carefully rejected. A resolution was offer
ed which declared that if a negro knew as
much when sober as an Irishman knew
when drunk, he knew enough to vote on
good American principles. This was
thrown aside without a dissenting voice.
Another one, framed with the praise
worthy intention of encouraging colored
youth to educate themselves, and pro-
nOuncing it the duty of colored people to
employ, whenever practicable, properly
prepared pastors and instructors of their
own race, became the subject of animated
debate. al come here to stick fast to my
friends" said a delegate; Hthe white peo-
pie that done teach my little gals to read,
and I'd ha' voted to bite off a snakes head
before I'd ha' voted for that ar" The
resolution was laid On the table, and a sub
stitute was passed which thanks the North
ern Aid Societies and the Northern teach
ers whU have done SO much to encourage
and elevate the negro race. The address
which has been laid before the State Con-
vention is conceived in a similar spirit, and
breathes nothing but moderation and con-
Citation. The Raleigh newspapers praise
its ability, and consider it a wonderfully
conservative document, undisfigured by
the marks of dwelling radicalism. Yet
it contains these ~senteneesi
1--WE desire education for our children
that they may be made useful in all the re-
latiOns Of life. We most earnestly desire
to have the disabilities under which we
formerly labOred removed, and to have all
oppressive laws which make unjust
determinations on account of race or color
from the statutes of the State"