The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-04-16
NEW ORLEANS.
The Colored Cenvention-Grant En-
dOrSed.

NJ, Mr.. Douglass in the chair.
Prayer by Rev. II. NJ. Turner.
The minutes were read and approved.
Governor Ransier, of South Carolina,
submitted the report Of the Committee
on Platform and Resolutions, which
was read by T. Morris Chester, OF
Pennsylvania: Regretting the necessity
which has called into existence a Col
ored Convention, and deeply sensible
of the responsibility which has been
entrusted to our consideration, We
hereby acknowledge our gratitude for
past triumphs in behalf of equal rights
and respectfully submit our peculiar
grievances to the attention of the
American people in the following plat
form and resolutions:
First-We thank God, the friends Of
universal liberty in this and other lands,
the bravery of colored soldiers and the
loyalty of the colored people for our
emancipation, our citizenship and our
en'ranchisement.
Second-Owipg our political eman-
cipation in this country to Republican
legislation, to which all other parties
and political shades Of colors were un.
justly and bitterly opposed, we would
be blind to our prospects and false to
our best interests, did we identify our
selves with any other organization; and
as all roads out of the Republican party
lead into the Democratic party camp,
we pledge our devotion to support the
nominees of the Philadelphia Conven-
| ton.
Third-We sincerely and gratefully
indorse the administration Of President
U. S. Grant in maintaining our liber-
ties, in protecting us in our privileges,
in furnishing our enemies, in the recog-
| milton OF the claims OF men without
regard TO color, by appointing us to
important official positions at home and
abroad in the assurance that he has
given to defend our rights, and that
while we in our grateluIness acknowl;;
edge and appreciate his efforts in behalf
Of equal rights, we are not unmindful
of his glory as soldier and his exalted
virtues as a statesman.
Fourth.-Our thanks are due and
hereby rendered to President Grant for
overriding the precedents Of prejudice
in the better recognizance Of the ser
vices of men without regard to color,
in some parts OF the country, and we
earnestly pray that the Colored Re-
publicans OF the States where there are
no federal positions given to colored
men, may no longer be ignored, but
that they may be stimulated by some
recogLization by the federal patronage.
Fifth-It would be an ingratitude,
abhorred BY God and loathed by men,
did we not acknowledge our obligations
to Hon. Charles Sumner, who
stood for long time in the Senate Of
the United States the Gibraltar OF our
cause and hopes, who has been malign-
ed for his fidelity to principles, and who
has been stricken down by an assassin
for advocating liberty throug hout the
land and unto all the inhabitants
thereof, and whose giant body rising
almost out OF the ground to marshal
the hosts OF impartial justice with his
mighty ideas going to the iarthest part
of the land, ard finding a responsive
echo in the triumphs Of liberty over
slavery. We have an assurance OF this
good, great and beloved patriot being as
faithful to the Republican party in the
future as he has been unfaltering in the
past.
Sixth-Having been by the solemn
legislation of the American Congress
raised to the dignity OF citizenship, we
appeal to the law-abiding people
OF all the States, and especially
those who, in the days Of the fugitive
slave law, exhorted obedience to the
States, however offensive, to protect
and defend us in the enjoyment Of our
Just rights and privileges upon all con-
veyances which are common carriers,
at all resorts of public amusements,
where tastes are cultivated and man.
hood is quickened and in all places OF a
public character or corporate assocla-
lions which owe their existence to the
legislation Of the nation or States,
against the spirit OF slavery
which attempts to degrade our standard
of intelligence and virtue, by forcing
our refined ladies and gentlemen into
smoking cars amid obscenity and
vulgariiy, which humiliates our ladies,
By denying US first class accommoda'
tions on steamboats,, and compelling US
to eat and sleep with servants, for
which we are charged the same
IS those who have the best accom-.
modatious, aud which closes
the doors of the hotels against the col
ored people, however wealthy, intelli.
gent or respectable they may be, while
all other public places and conveyaoces
welcome and entertain all whites,
whatever may be their character, who
may apply. Now, in view of this dis
graceful Inconsistency, this affectat;on
OF prejudice, this rebellion against the
laws Of God, humanity and the nation,
we appeal to the justice OF the Amer
ican people to protect US in our civil
rights, in public places and upon public
convevances which are really accorded,
aud very justly, to the most degraded
specimens OF our white fellow-citizens.
Seventh-That wherever the Re.
publicans have betrayed their negro
constituents we recommend that better
men be selected to succeed them, and
especially do We pledge ourselves to
elect successors in Congress, whenever
we have power, to every Republican
who voted against or lodged the sup
Elementary civil rights bill, recently
introduced in the United States Senate
by the Honorable Charles Sumner, and
also successors to those who shall no,
,bo- sa,isractory recnr1 unnn tbs