Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-05-17

N-NOAsSMSAt VI t0e pidu OF uHloAJ anu VI
the slst of January the consolidation was
effected, and the nuptials triumphantly
celebrated. This established the "Ameri-
can Freedmen's and Union Commission"
Shortly afterwards, we learned with some
surprise and very deep regret, that our
friends in the West wore not prepared to
cooperate with our new society. Mr.. Ship
herd, our late Secretary at Washington,
who actively supported the plan of Union,
had not succeeded in obtaining the appro-
val Of his western constituents. This being
still the case, we have called this meeting
in a spirit of Cancellation and Christian
sympathy, for q free and frank interchange
of sentiment. Our Commission is strong,
and VIZ of the East are fully united in its
support. We have the approval of Chief
Justice Chase, of Senators and Repressn-
tatives, of business men and scholars, of the
great and good everywhere in the East,
and we ardently desire the cooperation of
and fraternity of all our Western co-labor-
ers in the great cause.
Mr.. McKim then traced the proceedings
of the new Commission and its Executive
Committee from the Slst of January to the
present time, fully explaining its Constitu-
ton and transactions. Its corner stone is
this declaration:
"This Commission is constituted to aid
| and cooperate with the people ofthe South,
without distinction of race or color, in the
improvement Of their condition upon the
basis of industry, education, freedom, and
Christian morality. No schools or supply
depots shall be maintained from the bene-
fits Of which any shall be excluded because
of color."-ART. II. CONSTITUTIONS.
The third resolution was then taken up.
Its author, DR.. Peck, asked for q full ex-
preston upon it, in order to lay the ground
work for harmonious action.
Mr.. McKim called on Rev. DR.. Bur-
roughs, President of the Chicago UniYer-
sity, who proposed to leave town tonight,
to speak in behalf of the people from the
West who were dissatisfied with the union.
He said the Eastern people desired 9nly the
good of the country and the great cause.
If we have made a mistake we are open to
conviction, and We are ready TO do any
thing to retrieve our errors. We will re-
cede-we will do anything to bring about
the truest and best policy.
Rev. DR.. Burroughs reciprocated the fra
ternal and benevolent sentiments Of the
Eastern people, and said the West was also
actuated by good motives. We want no
sectional, no partisan, no seetarian views.
If we have erred in our separate action and
in declining to unite with you, We have
erred with the purest intentions, and most
gladly will we retrace our steps. Some
time ago we were asked by Eastern gen
tlemen to join the american Freedmen's
Aid Commission" We agreed to do this,
and abandoned our local institutions
for the good of the whole. While
we were holding meetings to consummate
our relations with the Freedmen's Commits
sion, we were informed unoficially that
it had died, and we need go no farther.
We were astonished, mortified indeed, and
thinking there must be something wreng
in this dissolution without our knowledge
or consent Of a society to which we proposed
to contribute our funds and influence, we
resolved to overhaul it. We appointed a
committee TO act for Us, OF which I was
chairman, but before our remonstrance was
sent East, we heard that the Freedmen's
Commission had not fully deceased, and
that a committee had been raised 10 confer
with US. We waited to see or hear from
that committee, but in vain. We finally
heard the Society was surely dead.
Then we were asked to unite with you in
this F~reedmen's and Union Commission,
but we were not clear about that. We were
not sure that we might not fail again, and
our work in the West be entirely democrat
lied and destroyed. Here came our real
objection to q union. We went to work on
the principle of ~benevolence. Your Com
mission is not founded upon one but two
ideas,-the FIRST being that of helping the
poor, and the second helping tie freedmen.
We are for the second idea, and cannot but
adhere to the Freedmen's Aid Commission
idea. We think you can never unite these
dissimilar objects, never fuse two societies
based on such different sentiments into one
harmonious body. We cannot see why
you should relieve Southern whites more
than Northern. We would relieve poor
white people on the general ground of be-
nevolence, but our present is a different
object, a specific and imperative one. We
are no! willing to fuse the two things, and
we cannot see that such q fusion is pos
sible.
We also doubt the legality of your action
at New York. The opinion prevails with
is at Chicago, that your action in uniting
the two dissimilar bodies was Illegal. We
have been so advised ty sound legal su-
thority. While we believe this, we dare not
put our funds into your treasury. 1t has
lately been decided by a learned judge that
funds given for one purpose cannot be di-
verted to another. Our friends in the West
gave their money freely for the support of
freedmen, and cannot consent to go into a
general arrangement for supporting the poor
whites of the South.
He concluded with e very conciliatory ap-
peal for harmony.
Further remarks were made by Mr..
Hooper and Mr.. McKIm, when DR.. Bur-
rOughs again discussed the legal disabilities
of the new Commission. He also said he
was informed that our bitterest enemies in
the South were the poor whites. He would
feed enemies, but friends sooner. Our duties
to freedmen are higher than those to South
ern whites.
Mr.. MeKim said he knew of no appro-
priation to the whites, except possibly one
hundred dollars, otherwise than by way of
furnishing education to such whites as have
attended our schools. He spoke more fully
in reply to DR.. Burroughs, and fully ex-
planned the failure of the Freedmen's Aid
Commission to consult with the West. Mr..
shipherd snd DIR. Walden represented the
West with US, and ss they had p~lenipoten-
tiary powers, we left them to the sorres-
pondence, and we supposed all were noti-
fed. We regret this failure, and let it not
stand in the way of our present union.
B~enevolenee is a sentiment, not a principle.
Justice is a principle, and upon that we are
grounded. We plead for Justice to eur eli
ents-not charity, and we want TO rise
above all class legislation.
DR.. Burroughs-You have two classes,
and we one.