American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-08-07
A Black Mans Party In the
SnutIt

1t is the destiny OF the RepuDncan par
ty to abolish in our laws all distinctions
on account of celor. 1t is the first great
political party in this country that has
maintained the truth that manhood is alb
solute, and that the righls of man are
not to be measured by race or complex
ion. As party cannot be created by
the mere resolutions of Convention, but
must grow out as the convictions of the
people, it has formed its creed slowly, ar
ticle by article. 1t abolished Slavery
that was not enough. 1t made Union
soldiers of the slaves it had liberated
that was not enough. 1t gave the ballot
to the negroes of the South that was
not enough. 1t clothed them with full
citizenship, the right to sit on juries, to
hold Office; and yet this is not enough. 1t
remains for the Republican party to place
the colored men of the North upon the
same level, in that in every election in ev,
cry Court in the United States, there
shall be no question Of black or white,
no rule for the one race that is not also
the rule for the other. Either by the
action of States or of Congress it will
certainly effect this in year or two at
the most all discrimination on account OF
color will be banished from our laws.
Those men in the South who are work.
ing to establish black mans party are
the enemies of this principle of equality,
and if they carry out their plans they
will strike Republicanism blow far heav-
-. H. .Lo llo,,oora oy oan daal Thav
will go far to undo the grand reform of
which the war was the instrument. In
Virginia it is feared that the State Re
publican Convention, August |, will BE-
the occasion of division in the Repub>
iican ranks, and the creation Of rival par>
ties, black and white. In Missouri, also,
there arc adventurers who urge the col>
ored men to demand representation on the
Presidential ticket, and in ease it is re-
fused, to form a separate Organization
We do not believe these efforts will be
sustained by the colored men, for they
surely know the fatal results. of such an
unprincipled policy.
1t is unprincipled because in denies
every moral principle of the great move'
ment which gave the colored race their
rights. The Republican party abolished
the distinction of color in politics and
law these agitators would restore it
Republicanism broke down the barriers
that separated the races /; these men
would rebuild them. Republicanism
seeks to reconcile on the broad plains of
the continent the discordant peoples of
Africa aud Europe here it would solve
the problem of races, and prove how
much greater and deeper are tie unities
of humanity than its divisions, and that
under equal laws all races may exist in
one peaceful confederation. The far
reaching results of this experiment, the
tremendous effect of its success, we need
not intimate, though few men may haye e
reflected that American Republicanism is
the leading reform of the world, and that
God has given it a continent to work out
the enigma of human happiness. With
what disgust, then, must all true reform
ers look upon this ignorant or malignant
attempt to ruin an experiment Sc noble.
The men who would establish Black
party in the South would create for us a
new Africa. They would place gull
between race and race. Nothing can be
more anti American than party which
denies the unity of American citizen
ship such party could not long exist
Who has forgotten when, in 1864, Ger>
man party was foolishly projected, the
indignation which that suggestion caus-
ed America desired to reconcile all ma
tionalities in her own, and would newt
ably have crushed any attempt to set up
France or Germany or Italy as an. alien
and Independent power upon American
ground. Equally certain will be the
overthrow of an effort to gather the mill
lions of colored men in the United States
into a distinct political organization.
We desire the time to come speedily
when it shnll no longer be matter of sur
prise to see colered men at the polls, on
juries, or in Office; but we know that
this will only come by the absorption OF
the race in the American nationality. 1t
is said that this is impossible; that the
d fferences of the races are not to be rec>
onciled. This we do not believe; but
the shortest way to prove it would be to
organize Black mems party. Thai
would be conclusive. If after four years
fighting, the greatest results of which
are the freedom and the citizenship Of
the colered men, their first act should be
to affirm that color is the true basis OF
political distinction, there would be nc
more to say. Republicanism would be
answered and silenced, and those who
had put it to shame might boast if they
could that while we had sought to
make the colored citizen an American,
they had left him, as we found him, an
African.-N Y Tribune
THE SECRET OF SURGEONS EFFICIENCY
| SpurueOnis efhciencv il go id IN lia in biS od