The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-15

| a meeting was held in the African church, and
| was the most extraordinary Of its kind that has
| yet taken place. The centre of the church was
| occupied by large number of prominent white
| thronged by a dense assemblage of blacks The
platform was occupied by Horace Greeley,
| Gerritt Smith, Governor PierpOnt, Judge Un-
| derWood, j. w, Hunnicutt, and others,
SPEECH OF HORACE GREELEY.
Governor Pierpont introduced Mr.. Greeley,
| who said he did not understand that his tnvt-
tation to speak was at the dictate OF any party.
wished to hear his views They knew his
! views, and he came not to speak to any particu-
| lar party. He came as a citizen of New York
and he wished to speak kindly to all. An Ame-
rican citizen standing in the circle of the great
| civil war; men falling on this side and that, in
| what each believed righteous cause, he
| would say to them that all the heartburnlng
be forever @ Tbe TPvers of boo
| that have been shed attest the sincerity with
which the American people fought out the
| great struggle for Union ana liberty; When
people of different parties and sections look dis
| trusttully upon each other, there may be an
! avoidance OF hostility, but no real peace The
! war ceased with the surrender Of General Lee,
! though much had been said about continue
! ton of guerilla warfare; but the people of the
! South said:-"We yield-give us peace" What
! hindered peace in the flush of triumph? An
nation, and this calamity received compica-
! ton from Southern sentiment at the time that
! injured the prospects of the South The adhe-
| rents of these assassins were identified with
| The South, and as the word was flashed across
the country that its Chief Magistrate was
| stricken down in the hour of eXultation, wild
and passionate grief and wrath pervaded the
! whole country. Those who pleaded for mercy for
nation could not in its blind fury consider that
this was the work OF men unknown to the
great mass of the Southern people. 1t was a
terrible calamity to both North and South.
| The melancholy military events that followed
were true expressions of what the popular
mind felt at the moment, Shortly after there
assembled southern Legislatures that showed
an unfrienGliness to the colored people of the
South. These Legislatures met and devised
laws, as if to discriminate harshly against the
war. He would merely glance at some of these
laws, some of which, II they had been wise,
were utterly, inapplicabe when slavery was
abolished. 1t might have been proper when
slavery existed to forbid, for Instance,
eolored people, keeping arms but when
white or colored people holding arms was
States. If 1t be that United States soldiers went
around, and took arms that had been used in
the service of the Union, 1t was but an incite-
juries of the United States had the right to
deal with all such cases. When Legislatures
mating between the testimony OF black and
white, the common sense of the country was
degrading, and it looked to the people of the
North as a revival of the Rebellion. This legis-
one of the chief impediments towards an early
and hearty reconstruction of the Union. He
at Memphis and New Orleans TO indicate this
species of class legislation. They had no
affected by this suicidal policy. TIE re-
assem- bling of the Convention In Louisiana
was made the pretext for the slaughter Of
a damaging impression at the North against
the South. These tragedies, this unwise and
injudicious legislation, impressed a conviction
in the minds of the Northern people that there
was no peace in the Union unless that all men
were guaranteed an equal share in the admin
istration OF the laws The Republican party, he
believed, had increased in strength and power
since the promulgation or the peculiar recon
struction policy of President Johnson. He knew
that the blacks hurrahed for their masters
when the war began, but when the conflict be-
came deadly and the North thought proper to
put the blacks in the field, silent understand
| ing was felt among the blacks that the war
was a war for freedom. While the North
! is under thousand obligations to the
blacks Tor their Kindness TO Northern pri-
! soners, the South is under an equal obliga-
! tion to them for resisting every temptation
to ipjure their white masters. They could
massacre; put no outrage was perpetrated. Yet
| II was predicted that the proclamation of
massacre. You will bear me out that no such
! predictions came TO pass and he would say
deepest dye to take such advantage OF their
! masters absence. Some men say the blacks
| are ignorant and degraded-as If you make
! ignorance the ground OF excluding men from
suffrage. can understand the justice of such
| exclusion; but if ignorant whites are permitted
to vote the argument is in favor of the black
man, his ignorance was compulsory,
while the white mans was not. He spoke at
! length upon the obstacles in the way of the
African race, who must always remain
separate from the Caucasian, and the
! gradual decline in the number of the
colored people The enormous wave OF for.
egn emigration breaking upon these shores
| will at future time render the black race a
| mere fraction. He would make equal rights the
| cornerstone OF reconstruction. He would wish
| TO be done with the question forever, and go
/ along TO the consideration of other matters, If
| those in the Offices of the Government had
recognized this tact two years ago, the question
| would be settled now and forever. IL is dis
| gracefully true that Republican States have not
carried out this principle of equal rights. II
| there be any who think that the Republican
| party should be moved out of the way, he would
| ask them to help have embodied in the Federal
Constitution the equal rights OF all citizens, and
| then he had no objections as to the
the question of prescription. In his
| opinion every man who was q thorough
| loyal citizen should not be denied the
believed was TO discriminate between those
| who We're still disloyal and those who, having
| rebelled, turned honestly around and repented,
| When you see men hieing away to Brazil and
| other places, you may be sure these men are
| not reconciled to the Government How many
| more there may be we cannot tell. 1t was right
TO exclude such men from sharing in the gov"
cription embodied in the act of Congress only
as a precautionary measure, and when dis
loyalty ceases to be chronic the nation would
insist on the restoration of the prescribed to
the privileges of citizenship. AS 10 con1sca-
tion, he would say, having been told the colored
people mad refused to buy homes because they
had been promised them by cOniscation.
that they had a much better chance of earning
homes than of receiving them by confiscation.
At the head and foot OF this conhscatlon move
| ment was Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens, who has held
the highest position in the Republican ranks
|. His confiscation speeches were published, and
also his late letter against men peddling out
amnesty, but he knew OF no other man in Con-
| gTess who purposely proposed to take away the
| property OF Rebels and give IL to loyal men.
| He did not mean to assume an opinion as to