The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1866-02-15
THE COLOasED DELEGATIoN.
Their Reply to the pr..id.n.'s speech.
AN EARNEST AND EMPHATIC
APPEAL.
WAsnlNoroN, February 5

| WAsniNoroN, February s.
The following is the published reply
of the colored delegation 20 Presiden,
johnson, prepared after they had ar
interview yesterday with him:
Mr.. President-In consideration Of 9
delicate sense of propriety, as we'll as
your intimatlons of indisposltion te
discuss or listen to reply to tho views
you were pleased to express to us in
your elaborate speech to-day, the un.
dersigned would respectfully take this
method of replying thereto. Believ.
ing as we do, that the views and opin-
ions expressed in that address are en-.
tircly unsound and prejudical to the
highest interests of our race rs we'll as
OF our country, wo can not do other
wise than expose tho same, and, as far
as may be in our power, arrest their
dangerous influence. 1t is not neces-
sary, at this time, to call attention to
more than two or three features OF your
remarkable addcess.
The first point to which wc feel cs,
pecialIy bound to take exception, is
your attempt to found policy oppo-
scd to our enfranchisement, upon the
alleged ground Of an existing hostility
OIL the part Of tho former slaves toward
the poor whito pcoplo of the South
We admit the existence Of this hostli'
ty, and hold it as entirely reciprocal;
but you obviously commit an error by
drawing an argument from an Incl.
dent OF a state Of slavery and making
it tho basis for policy adapted to n
state Of freedom. The hostility be-
tween tho whites and blacks Of tho
South is easily explained. 1t has its
root and pin tho relations of slavery,
and was melted on both sides by the
cunning of the slave masters. Those
masters secured their ascendancy over
both the poor whites and the blacks
by putting eNlnity between thom.--
They divided both to conquer each.
hero was no earthly reason why the
blacks should not hate and dread tho
poor whites when in state of slavery,
TOR it was from this class that their
masters received thoir slave -catchers,
slave drivers and ovcrscers. They
wero tho mon called on upon all occa-
sions by tho masters whom any fiend-
ish outrage was to be committed upon
tho slaves.
Now. sir, you can not but perceive
that The cause of this is abolished -
The cause Of antagonism is removed,
and you must 500 that it is altogether
illogical--ths putting now vino into
old bottles, mending new garments
with old eloth--to lcgislato from slave
holding and driving persons for
Il people whom you have repeatedly
declared it your purpose to maintain
in freedom. Besides, if it oven were
true, as you allego, tho hostility of the
blacks toward tho poor whites must no.
cessarily be tho same in state of FREQ
dom as in state Of slavery.
In the name of Heaven, wo reveren
TALLY ask, how can you, in view OF
your professedI desire to promote the
welfare of tho black man, deprive him
of all tho means Of defense, and clotho
him, whom you regard as his cnomy,
in tho panoplyssof political powcr?--
Can 1t be that you would recommend
policy which would arm the strong and
cast down tho defenceloss? Can you,
by any possibility of reasoning, re-
Ig.rd this as just, fair or wise? Expo.
renco proves that thoss arc oltenest
abused who can be abused with tho
greatest impunity. Men are whipped
the oftonest who arc whipped. the easi
est. Peace between races is not to DO
secured by degrading ono race and OK.
alting another; by giving power to one
race and withholding it from another,
but by maintaining state Of equal
justice between all partics-6rst purc
and then-pcacable.
On the colonization theory that you
woro pleased to broach, very much
could bo said. 1t is impossible to sup.
poso, in Wow OF tho usefulness Of tho
black man in limo Of pence as a labor
or in tho South, and in time of war as
soldier at the North. and tho grow
ing respect for his rights among tho
people, and his increasing adaptation
TO high state of civilization in this,
his native land, there can como time
when ho can bo removed from this
country without q terrible shock to its
prosperity and pcace. Besides tho
worst enemy of the nation could not
cast upon its iair namo greater infa.
my than to suppose tina; tho negroes
could be tolerated among them in q
state Of the most degrading slavery &
opposition, and must bc cast away and
driven into oXilo for no other cause
than having been forced from their
chains.
[Signedl GEO, T. DOWNING,
JNO. JON rs,
WIN. WHIPPER,
FRED'K DOUGLASS,
LEWIS. II. DOUGLASS,