The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-04-03
coLoRED MEN. CONVECTION.

COLORED MEMS CONVENTION.
A convention Of colored men was held at
lexington, Kentucky, on the 26th ult. The
resolutions adopted address themselves to the
candor, intelligence and sense Of justice Of
the whites of the country. So far as we have
noticed them they are sensible, moderate,
just and forcible. They show clear and
accurate conception Of the situation. Re-
garding the matter of their emancipation
they say discretely and with just as little
aspread eagle y as . stump orator or com
mittee on resolutions at political meeting
of our Anglo. Americans would have used.
!" We are not unmindful Of the fact that we
have just been released from bondage that
we are just stepping out of the dark into the
full beauty Of Gods bright day that free
dom does not mean idleness or exemption
from labor; that with its blessings it confers
on us new duties, new obligations, new res
possibilities, and we trust, new energies and
new purposes. We realize and accept the
fact that we have no wealth except horny
hands-no skill but what untaught nature
gives that we must work, must acquire
property, must educate our people, and make
for ourselves and our posterity undying char
acters and regulations, which will grow
the ages Their industry and desire to
learn in our own community and elsewhere
prove that this is not altogether false as
sumption of existing facts they utter when
they thus speak Of their apprehension of their
emancipated condition, and their views and
purposes in reference to it.
They show iuster perception of q fixed,
social and physical fact than do democratic
demagogues. as well as dispel bugbear
that frightens some people from doing justice
to the negro when they say that ''we do not
desire nor expect social equality we know
that there is social barrior which we cannot
oyerstep, even if We wonld we know that
some Of the best friends we now have lately
held our brothers in bondage, and when the
chain was snapped asunder, by no consen,
on their part, they acquiesced in the new or
der of things There is, too, in that latter
clause the candor, temperateness, and the
absence of bitterness and partizan feeling.
and Of revolutionary sentiments that have so
remarkably characterized the colored people
during the war and since its close.
Aud as they stand upon soil which they
and their ancestors have titled through long
years, soil which white traitors tried to put
4la - ND ,,,tr, ha Eaa Of
new and hostile government. As we regard
the wealth that their almostunrequitted labor
added to the capital of the country, and con-
slider the untenanted and uncutivated terri
tory of the government, who is SO base as to
deny them the right they claim when they
say they "will inculcate into the minds of
our people desire to become landholders.
to own IA little spot which they may call th cir
own-aronnd which they can gather all the
comforts of home, and have spot upon
which their bones and the ashes of their
fathers may be laid away in peace" They
speak. too, temperately. when they declare
that. "waiving for the time being the ballot
box and the doctrine of equality before the
law. we ASH tHe opportunity VIC ucHaiu thc
privilege, of achieving for ourselves and onr
children, under the regulation Of impartial
State and Federal laws, the blessings which
pertain tc a well ordered and dignihed life. =
Copperhea dsm with all its vapid declama-
tons and its journalistic outpourings, has
conceived and uttered nothing during all
these five years in so admirable spirit as
that expression embodies.
When We take into account the action OF
of the colored people of the country during
the war just closed: their devotion the
fag and the Union their service in the
ranks Of our army their ready assistance to
our soldiers their kind care of our prisoners,
{. that they were faithful among the fathless
found, I" it is only the spite Of a traitor or the
hate Of a sympathizer. whose anger is kindled
against those people, when he hears their
firmly uttered defamation. THAT this coun
Try is indeed our home, here we intend to re-
main, minging our efforts with the efforts of
our white fellow citizens to sustain and per-
petuate its liberties and interests and making
our destiny one in common with the destiny
of all Americans
Tur life of Senator Foote was admirable