The Portland daily press., 1869-02-01
The Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society,

The annual meeting of this association in
Boston, Friday was a very interesting one
There are many persons who think the mis-
sion of the association was finished when sla-
very was abolished Yet it shows much vitali-
ty. Wendell Phillips offered characteristic
resolutions in favor of the impeachment of
Andrew johnson at the eleventh hour, the
passage of the Political Rights bill and the
pending impartial suffrage amendment.
After some remarks by Mr.. Phillips on the
resolutions Mr.. S. S. Foster spoke of the ne
cessity of completing the anti-slavery work.
He thought the woman suffrage and negro
suffrage question should be kept separate and
the latter settled first r
j. Willis Menard, the colored claimant for a
seat in Congress from New Orleans, who re-
Gently argued his own case before the commit
tee on elections with so much ability was pres
ent and being called upon for speech made
some red hot remarks which after all were
quite sensible. He preferred to stand on the
anti-slavery platform rather than on the floor
of Congress. The ballot given to the negro
without protection was valueless. Treason
ought to have been punished and peace would
not come till the Republican party pursued
more rigorous course. He favored female suf-
frage. One great purpose of the Society
should be to secure homesteads to the freed
men and to encourage Northern emigration to
the South. q ~ 3 1851 OLD
The recent convention of colored men at
Washington, he thought disgrace to those
who took part in it; it seemed to him that the
speakers sought more to display their oratori-
cal novvarc than IN aaoura ,rniyarsaI ffro.ra
The colored men, as a race, had been praised
too much; they should be criticised freely, and
stand only on their own merits. The negro
should prove to the world that he was capable
of self-government, and show that the asser-
tions of the leaders in the antislavery move
ment in this regard were true. All this was
very sensible and so it was when in answer to
question by Mr.. Foster he said that his color
would be no disadvantage to him in securing
his rights in Congress. If he had any rights
there he thought they would be conceded
Mr.. James Sims, one of the colored mem
beers of the Georgia legislature whose expul-
sion from that body had excited the indigna-
ton of the whole country wac the next speak
or. He gave an interesting account of the sit
uation of affairs in Georgia. He said that the
ninety thousand colored men in Georgia could
have elected majority of the members of the
legislature, but in Difference to the opinion of
those they considered their friends in the
North, they elected less than they had sent to
the constitutional convention, and sent only
thirty one to the State Capital. The white
members being in the majority, the colored
members were expelled, he among the num-
Der. The cruel atrocities perpetrated on ne
groes in Georgia were described by Mr.. Sims
some of which he had himself Witnessed
Three hundred colored persons were wounded
and murdered in Georgia during the year 1868,
he said. three-fiiths of them since the expul-
sion of the colored repre- sentatives in the leg
islature. Es.- 5.sI o1aa4
In the afternoon and evening sessions
speeches were made by Mrs. Cora L. v. Dan
iels, Mr.. Sims, Aaron A Powell, editor of the
Auti-Slavery Standard, Abby Kelly Foster,
Charles W. Slack, Rev. Gilbert Haven, Mrs
Hirper and Stephen S. Foster. Much inter-
est was expressed in the emancipation move
ment in Cuba. The only violent speech was
made by Wendell Phillips who outdid him
self - ..-. ....l.I ssl-aa--