Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-01-21
Miss Anna Dickinson on her Black Man
and Brother.

and Brother.
From the New York Herald
Miss Anna Dickinson last evening de-
livered lecture entitled Fair Play
ia the large hall Of the Cooper Institute
There was q large audience, the greater
portion being ladies. The fair lecturer,
who was very tastefully alfred in black
silk dress, with black velvet surtout was
quite warmly received by the audience.
She opened the lecture by quoting the
saying of Nelson, that the best way to
overcome an enemy was to 20 as near TO
him as possible, and then fight him to
the death. The United States, she said,
had at present an enemy TO contend
against which was by far more formid-
able than the French had ever been to
the great English admiral, an enemy
which fights power with cunning and
argument with prejudice. The name of
this enemy was caste. 1t was near enough
to everybody to allow all its enormities
to be exposed to view and inspection;
and If it were permitted to have its own
way, and were not fought down and
trampled in the dust, it would prove the
ruin of the republic. Slavery, it was
true, had been destroyed; but the spirit
of despotism and prejudice, engendered
by it when in its full life, was yet living,
and striving to overcome liberty and JUS
tice. In America the lion of Southern
slavery had been slain, but if people
had not care the liberties to which the
death of the lion gave birth would be
certain to be devoured by the wolf of ma
tional prejudice. Few people could, like
the celebrated bird spoken of in story,
always soar high up in the clear regions
of jnstice, above the petty narrow mind
edness of human nature, and as o con-
sequence, with the great lessons of the
war still staring everybody in the face,
the contempt for the man with black
skin still prevailed. And why should
this be go in free country? In land
calling itself Democratic oneeighth of
the people were ostracised because of a
physical peculiarly I? Under the cir
cumstance how could the liberties of the
country be considered secure, for what
was destined to be one day its strongest
foundation was now despised and disre-
garded? Laws never work out the des.
tiny of people, but the spirit of gov
eminent was always its surest safe
guard. When the liberty of one man for
any cause whatever could be restrained at
the mere pleasure of another, every body |
stood in jeopardy. 1t was necessary to |
psison into the whole system
to produce death, for the point OF needle |
dipped in the virus would do all the work.
Yet the American theory was that neither.
birth, talent, profession nor difference of
social position should exempt any man
from equal justice, and the black man
was refused the ballot in the loyal North 4
simply because II was question with l
some great and reverend authorities just \
now whether the extension of the fran
chise to the blacks could be considered
polite" Was not such action on the
part of men who call themselves Repub-
leans poison to republicsnism2 While
on the subject Miss Dickinson
said that she would call the attention of
he audience to the fact that she had been
assaulted by an obscure weekly paper for
ier views regarding marriage between
whites and blacks. Ske was not an eth
nologist, nor did she want to wait until
earned ethnologists should determine
whether or not Frederick Douglass, for
Instance, was q sponge, an ape or man,
,ut what she did protest against was that
here should be laws which prohibited a
White man from marrying q black
woman or black woman from marrying ,
white man. If the two persons were
Ittrscted to each other by nature the
avs that forhads their banda at the altar
vas an outrage, az was the public senti- .
nent which condemned the man and
nobbed the woman. The prejudices
which fostered this sentiment we're the
anne which gave rise to the riots of 1868
md all the ignorant adherence of men !
With black skins. The question as to
whether or not the. negro was a man or
beast was no more mooted one.
Black men as we'll 90 shit5 in the days
f Christ had bowed their kneea and ,
altered about the cross, and no one said
ben that they were not as free to wor-
hip God as any other human beings.
1t any rate, they received the same
given to all the same
alignment day of the white man would be
hat of the black man, and the same eter-
ity awaited eli, without regard to color.
then taking up the thread of her dis
curse as to giving the ballot to the black
nan, Miss Dickinson contended that
congress should pass law declaring
uffrage universal throughout the land
women not to be excepted in the general {
orm. Nor should this suffrage be given
q exchange los pniyessal amnesty, fcF
be idea Of makingit thing Of value and
ale was altogether too repugnsnt to every
val heart to be thought Of for moment.
The nation during the war had been abe
o read the character of black man as
hat Of prothsr, By the fires of the
amp, Port Hudson, Fort Wagner, Refers
lurg. and the flames of death on many
,attleGelds, Black hands had borne the .
anne arms, black men had died in the
2me ditch with wbiis III 81, aud the bat bat
lie sod had been drenched with the blood
# both, and the wrongs of the one and
he blood of the other had been buried
ogether. The lecturer then, after argu-
ng that if Congress had no fright to over
ids stsis CONSTRUCTIONS CPD lsYs &c to
,iyil rights, Il certainly had the Right to
override them as to political rights, con-
,luded by asserting that the change
made by universal suffrage in the system
,qltie yogld add 10 the glory, prosperity
md strength Of the NATION; h