Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-02-12
The National CoIored Mems Con-
VentiOn.

The Columbus Journals Washing
ton correspondent writes the follow
ing about the late National Convention
of coIored men:
The History and Biography of races
or man are interesting so long as they
continue to struggle for liberty or re-
G0gffitiOu. In romance, the hero is
charming till behind him are closed
the golden gates of marriage. Let us
glance then again at the negro before
he passes out of the historic vista of his
march to Equal Rights.
The Convention sitting here is the
African question in a nutshell. Fred
Douglass is the. central cons picuous fig
ure Of it-mighty Moses hut he is, of
his race. Who does not remember him
three years ago boarding with terrific |
unanswerable questioning the false
Moses on the steps ct the White House?
Behind him there, in the dr1zZling storm
stood delegation of his people-men
intelligent and cultivated, without a
voice or a vote in the nations counsels
out in the storm of social and polite
al ostracism, as well as the Winters.
Andrew Johnson's antagonism forced
the march of history.
Three years, and in ten States or so
the black man holds the ballot But
the right is accorded him out of a pO-
Iitieal convenience-out of a stimulated
popular hatred to his old master-a hat
red that determined to thwart Andrew
johnson, cost what it cost. So divine
ly overruled is the world that the chic
rets q kernel OF corn between two
cocks fighting, and Justice creeps in be-
tween mems worst passions Thus the
negro has got part of his rights-but
In a score of States or so, the race stig-
ma Is not taken off. Shame, Republic
ans of Ohio, who confessed the mean
ness OF your motives voting black Suf-
frage pell nell over the South, and de-
nying it to pitiful handful at home
That inspiration was worthy of baser
conse. But to retun to the nutshell
the Colored Mems Convention. 1t is
made up of two hundred delegates or
more, come from all the States, South
and North, with enough learning, vir-
tue and public spirit in it to put to
blush the Legislatures of half the
Western States-Ohi present one GER
tainly.
There having been so much expedien-
cy, these men claim that there should
now be a little righteousness in the
country'S legislation respecting them.
They demand a constitutional amend
ment, the new deal of the ballot with
even honOrs in the black hand, Slaves,
plebeians, soldiers, simply, they have
been long enough. Having got taste
of the ballot-politicaI potency -nOUi
h0n1ineS, they demand to be invested
with the full insignia of the Patrician
OIu6Is 1IAGnQS anu dA44CS VI gA6 ISGDuD-
lie. Their demands are as strong as
metaphor can make them, and promise
a lively picturesqueness of future 1egis-
1atiVe statement. tfResoLUed,' - they say.
that the voter of whatever color should
step to the ballot-bOx with confidence
of having his way cleared, if needs be
by the broad-sword of the nation.''
This Convention of black mon at the
Capital, in an atmosphere liberal and
friendly, to make demand for the last
rights withheld from them, is an event
of the times, and a concluding chapter
in the romance of a race. The sittings
Of the Convention have been held an
arrows flight from the Capitol, in Tsra-
Ell Church, standing on a spot consecra-
ted, they say, to the cause of their
emancipation. In a rude building there,
fifty years ago and downward to free
dom, the slave blacks, like the old Gov
enanters, with lamps extingushed, Of
fered up in the mIdnights their prayers
for the light of liberty. ''The history
Of all races is bound to be heroic ,, said
Alfred Townsend yesterday, speaking
of this. The Convention is headed by
men as sagaciOus and able as the
ablest. All week they have received
amid their deliberations the most dis
tinguished men of the nation, members
from the two House of Congress and
others, notabIes and visitors from
abroad and these they have received,
not as patrons, but as admirers. The
dark skin begins to have prestige be-
hind it, these latter days and there
were men enough high up in public
fame, thought it not the palest feather
in their plume to have honorable mem
ton from the lips of this negro conven-
ton, the first day or two of its sitting
Henry Wilson, Richard Hinton. Tbo1n-
as Tullock, William Kelley, and others
who fought for the recognition of The
race, when before it was not cast. the
shadow of the coming ballot. Thev
were met there by men as talented ana
eminent as themselves, and could not
be ashamed to stand in an assem- blv
where Robert Purvis's presence casts a
grace as courtly as Sidney's, and Doug
lass eloluenee flames up like Mira
beAu's. 1--WE are thankful to Heaven
for its gifts - he said, on Tuesday "but
the recipients - your patronage We
are not the partial Justice which bHt
late you have accorded us is as a grain
of sand on the sea shore to the infinite
wrongs we have suffered for two centu-
ries." Garnet, Langston, Weir, Down
ing, Turner and Sims-brother to the
slave taken back from Boston in the
dark days-are public names and visi-
Bile leaders in the counsels of the As=
sembly. The Convention will adjourn |
to-day from an eminence on which the |
negro's outlook to the future is like |
Moses's from Pisgah's.