The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-10

lady was pl esent, and occupied seat on the
The following letter was read by Mr.. Bates
(white), at the request of Mr.. Thomas A.
Scott (colOred):-
LETTER FROM JOHN MINOR BoTrs.
AUBURN, Culpeper Co., April 4, 1867.
TO O. Eoye,0lun, Secretary, James Garter, va
3. II. HdrgrdVe l. Thompson, L. Harrison
Oates, Managing Commtpee, and other Colored
Members OF the Rep"6Hc1n Party Of PEERS
have received, through Messrs. Baine, Mall
lery, and Reed, your invitation to address a
on the Sth instant, and 1 regret that circum-
stances, now too late TO be controlled, will pre-
son Would be % aCosptabs, It @ may n not p15 be
address you as members Of the Republican
party, because, in the nature OF things, you can
belong to no other than the great natioual Re
publican party of the United States, party to
which you owe debt of gratitude that neither
you can ever forget or repay-tO that party in
the North alone are you Indebted for your
emancipation from bondage; and to that party
in the South will you be indebted in the future
for your full development into an intelligent
and elevated manhood; and further L address
you as Republicans, because we hold you to be
our friends and our allies in the political con-
tests that are before us; still more, 1 address
you men, although but recently emerged
none Of the present day are responsible
Selves 6ad no anu power to control or re-
sist. Yet that now, when the power is
LOGGED IN your own hsnds n 10 DeT2etIate your
time to come, cannot but believe that you
have too much sagacity, too much intelligence
any manner give aid and comfort, assistance
or sympathy, to those who. If successful in
perpetuated your bondage, but have spread
slavery and Democracy over every part OF the
United States, and have made perpetual bond
age the CORNERSTONE" of this great enlight-
ened, and now universally free ana Heaven
protected Republic Of the United States.
No! you are not of them, ana you are
not with them. They are not of you,
apa,t ana rom Tie fierce pro.slavery Democratic
leaders OF the South IN political interest In
political feeling. ana IN p0lloeal &C action get
Heaven is far from the earth. That they will
endeavor to tiatter, to cajole and to use you for
their own political and party purposes-as they
have done all other classes, only to crafty their
own beastlg lust for power, is beyond all ques-
denounced for twenty years as an Abolitionist,
because he would not join with them in their
petuat:on of slavery, warn you to touch not,
taste not, handle not that unclean thing called
Democracy" To be foreWarned is to be fore
Mark we'll then. this day, what say to you.
Let these unprincipled, unscrupulous and
Heaven. forsaken leaders Of Democracy get the
control of the National and State Governments
again ana you w m aSe nage 70 @T tS OF
National and State Governments to reduce you
again to bondage.
false alarm, by expressing the apprehension
that it will be successful, because by your own
strong arms and the powerful aid of your Re-
publican friends Nel tn and South, we will beat
down all such efforts, let them come when and
What respect have they paid to the amnesty
oath that they crawled on their knees to take.
in order to obtain their pardons, and thus
saved their forfeited lives and property? Just
so much respect Will they pay hereafter to the
solemn obligatio of the Constitutional provi-
which
If they get the power that IL is in your hands
to give or to withhold, they viii assume that
all this was done under duIess under compuls
sion; and, therefore, is not binding in law or
equity, and is null and void.
How many OF them this day can you find who
will admit that you have been legally emanci-
pated. or that you are legally entitled to the
right of suffrage, or to the exercise OF free
manhood, and how many of them would sub
NIT to it, ifthey could he1pit?
1 have referred to their universal charge
against me, of having been an abolitionist. /
set up no such claim before you. never was
an abolitionist, but IL suited their purposes
then to say so, 1t will suit their purposes now
20 say am not your friend. No, never was
an Abolitionist, in the sense in which that term
was understood, but never saw the day that
1 would not have thanked God for proper
and gradual system of emancipation, and do
now thank Him with all my heart, that you
are all free, and that the stigma no longer
rests upon the fair fame and broad banners
of the freest, If not the only free Government
on earth, that we alone were the chief advo-
Gates of a system of human bondage, as a
mat this day no footprint of a slave is allowed
to pollute the soil of free America, and that the
only slavery now tolerated in the land Is an in-
tolerable system OF slavery 70 the wicked pas
sions and Insane prejudices of our own race;
Nearly twenty years ago l said in public
speech "That should look upon that man, as
the greatest benefactor of the age, who would
devise some system by which we could provide
for the gradual emancipation OF slavery among
ourselves without the interference OF ouI
fleiehbors." Now, that this same Democracy then
and ever since have denounced ana Nlllnet
me for the utterance OF this sentiment o
humanity, is fresh in the recollection OF every
reader Of the Democrats press and public
speeches Of that party; and yet they VIII assume
nom that you can be useiul 20 JheIni tnaI Ine9
are your only reliable friends. -s r.
was opposed to having the rlgnt OF suurag
axfended to YOU even as late as last ran unles
III eouId be accompanied win mAltaTy PoWe
in the state that would assure you ample pro
fection in the exercise OF Ine Ilgntt IoI olu no
beiieve then that, in the absence OF suoh power
10, vvonld have been permitted TO vote will
Safety either TO your persons or properly, un
SesS Won voted with the majoflty-nor DO De
iievs now that It would have been permitted
XIIthout bloodshed - without sucn scenes a
N,ere Ugitnesse in Memphis ana New orleans
~ neuooeracy Is Democracy all over the South
snd aid not then see the hkihood that thl
SsrStecfion would be Afforded; Dut am nov
baDnv 10 congratulate you on the tact tina
GepeIaI Schodeld in whom you VIII ma al
honorable, Just, and enllghteneu mmlsno, m ~ @ heI
I. ~ 1--WE YOU that protection, and you hay
70 Btno 10 fear in the free exercise OF a.
Xonr political rights; but VIII you os sal
tha svercise OF these rights, aIter Jhe ullltar
1oaS1eT is withdrawn That Is tor you now
determine-aid your frtends IN Ine SieSSioh M on OI
loyal convention ana lhSy VIZ ~ - attoassd The
Wisconsin the constitution 70 " A"VP'e" sH'