New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-03-30
PROSPECT
or Tue
new NATIONAL ERA.
FRED'K DOUGLASS, Editor & Publisher

fold nature--that ofan Advocate and an FS,co,o-
As an Advocate it will assert and maintain evsrv
right pertaining to the American citizen, indie.
pendent of race, color, or accident Of birth 7,
viii demand the recognition of these rights
wherever ,he Constitution extends or the ma
'onai ensign waves. As an Educator. its col.
ums Will be an especial medium for the effective
diffusion of right principles and mucb. ,aad.s :,
S'rucuon, and for the incubation ofthose habi,sof
industry, economy, and s-lfreIance which con.
auee to independent manhood, and give vitality
and energy to free government, insuring in return
blessings to the governed.
while the editors ofthe NEw NATIONAL ER.are
colored men, and the contributors will be mainly
eolored' yet the columns will be open for the
discussion OF all questions of vital importance to
the country by any of its citizens Communics.
nons suitable for publication in these columns.
are solicited from our friends in all parts Of tba
country, especially in the Southern States.
THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT
Upon all questions involving the especial inter.
ests of the colored American citizen the simple
rule of equal justice for all men will govern the
policy ofthe New National Era twill demand
the recognition of no right for one citizen which
1T will not freely accord to every other. 1t will
oppose any attempt to confer privileges upon
class, that are withhold from the humblest citizen
IN the land. II will demand for every citizen
equality before the law, and full protection OF
person and property in every State and Territory
of the National Union
The New NATIONAL ERA will take high ground
upon all public questions, and labor to inspire
a oneness OF purpose and encourage unity of
action, especially among the newly-enfranchised
people of the Reconstructed States Remem.
bering the past history of the Republican party.
and recognizing what it has done for the colored
people of the nation, the New NATIONAL En-,
will give It's hearty support to that party without
reserve. This pledge of fidelity to the RepubE
can party is given under the conviction, and
with the assurance, that in the future, as in the
past that party will be the steadiast and inAexi-
BILE support of those principles of Justice and
liberty which have now become a part of the
organic law of the land.
THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
BY education the people of free Govern nent.
such as ours is intended to be, are better quail
fed to discharge their duties to the State,
and to one another. The nation will ever find
its surest safeguard in the intelligence of its
voting masses, and the journal which would pro.
mote the highest good of government and people
must lend its energies and its power to the work
of educating that people. Especially is the
agency of the press needed by that portion of
the people, colored and white, who, either
in slavery or under the ban of its blighting in.
6uences, have been deprived of the opportunities
enjoyed by their more favored brethren of the
free States.
The treedmen's Bureau had under its charge
during the past year, as shown by the last ANIMAL
report, 1l4,623 colored pupils in the day schools
and s9,78i in the Sunday schools, employing
i $50 teachers About 1876, 900 of these pupiIs
were slaves at the commencement of the war.
The educational department Of this paper will
contain matter prepared and selected with sne-
cial reference TO the capacities and needs of this
large number OF pupils and teachers, thereby
making the new NATIONAL. ERA a valuable aux.
iary in the scheme of education.
THE INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT.
The industrial interests OF the colored people
will claim and receive large snare of our at
ention. We adopt the following extracts from
he address promulgated by the Colored Labor
Convention held in this city in December last, as
the views and policy of the New Ma
rloNAL En-. on this subject:
"tor our own good and the welfare of our
country IN all things pertaining to her material
and moral well-being, we seek a better and
broader opportunity to gain knowledge in the
fields of agricultural, mechanical, commercial
artistic, and professional labor, and this knowl-
edge we would energise, direct, and make more
largely effective through the enlighteuing and
sanctifying influence of education. Our notices
are liberty and labor, entranchisement and edu-
cation The spelling book and the hoe the
hammer and the vote, the opportunity to work
and to rise, a place on which TO stand and 10
be and to do, we ask for ourselves and children
as the means in the use of which under God.
we are to compass these achievements which
furnish the measure, the test, and justification
of our claim 10 impartial treatment and tair
dealing.
sThat this end may be reached, we ask, first
of all, that trades be opened to our children,
and that they be given the benefit of a just and
equitable system of apprenticeship; IN the Sec
ond place. that for every days labor given We
be paid full and fair remuneration, and that NO
avenue of honest industry be closed against us
and thirdly, since we believe that the inteli-
gence the elevation, and happiness of all people
depends in no small degree upon the diversity
of their Industrial pursuits, ask that We
may work in the printing office, whether private
or governmental, in the factory, the foundry, the
workshop, upon the railroad, the canal, the
river, the steamboat, in the warehouse, the store
wherever labor is to be done and an able anu
faithful workman is wanted we conceive that
we may claim place without distinction as to
our color or former condition, since all that can
be demanded by the employer is ability, faith
full performa noes of the contract made, and the
employee reasonable treatment and the cOmpen-
sation promised. Hence, while we condemn that
spirit which in its proscriptive regulations denies
US industrial opportunity and the fruits of honest
toll, we rejoice in all those evidences of pros
pective good which we and other laboring classes
see in the erection of factories and foundries IN