New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-24
Letter from Ohio.

CINCINNATI, Oct. IA, 1872.
To the Editor ofthe New National Era:
After prolonged silence, Twill, with ydlr
permission, resume my correspondence.
THE COLoRED CITIZEN
of this city, like a cat, seems to have ME
lives. 1t expired again Oh the 9Th install,
notwithstanding the most extraordindy
efforts of its editor, Mr.. &. w. Bell, for cd.
tinued existence. Mr.. Bell deserves cret
for the energy and ability displayed in i
management of paper. 1t was his p@
pose to publish a campaign sheet until II
October elections, and though beset vii
difficulties, he faithfully kept his promi5
and in some measure redeemed the notot
ously bad name that journal formerly ot
tanned through faithless agents and col
scienceless managers. While Bell professd
to have little or no editorial talent as writet
he possesses in high degree the rare faculd
OF manipulating others, and is the best col
ored newspaper business manager l haJ
ever met.
POLITICAL. /
That Ohio went Republican on the 9Th
due to the colored men of the State Will
voted en- masse the straight Republican licked
Hamilton county, however, went Democratic
by about 1900 average majority. This wal
mainly due to a riot melted by procession
OF Greeleyites in the Sixth ward, the resi-
dence of large number of colored peopleI
This ward contains Grant club of colored
voters, numbering several hundred men, Wild
also comprise what is known as the Second
Battalion of State Militia. When the first
procession OF the Grant guards took place!
these men were assaulted in cowardly man.
ner by boulders, bottles, brickbats, and other
missiles thrown into their ranks, and they
retaliated in terrible manner, beating,
wounding, and manning several of those thew
believed to be their assailants. Since then
they have been twice attacked and each time
resented it in the same way as at first. The
Irish wards were indignant, and swore venge-
ance against the niggers," and boosted on
Saturday their determination to extelminate
the Sixth-warders. On Monday night col
Ored man was attacked by them in that ward,
and presuming that this was the signal for a
general outburst, the men of the ward rushed
to their armory and returned to the scene of
the afiray equipped for desperate encounter
with, they knew not how many of, their foes.
A rattle of musketry, loaded with blank
cartridges, into the air, dispersed the pro-
cession and the riot was at an end. The
fact that these men are nearly all veterans
OF the army, and members of the State
militia, accounts for their being drilled, and
the warnings they had repeatedly received
made them ready for resistance. Neverthe-
less, the papers of Tuesday morning were
filled with imaginative accounts of the
NEGRO riot" Of the preceding evening, and
much stress laid upon the discipline with
which each man was imbued. This, we be-
heve, determined the vote Of large number
OF Republicans and lost the county but
there will be proper understanding of the
matter before November, and the wonder
will then be that nobody was killed by the
patient men who ought to have been ex-
asperated at the treatment they had received.
PETER II. CLARK,
the distinguished cOlored orator of this city,
has been out speaking during almost the en-
tire campaign, and he has done very effective
service. l am little surprised that Mr..
Clark's review of Mr.. Greeley's record, as de-
ivered in his Greenwood-IIall speech in this
city. has not been more generally used as
campaign document, and circulated among
colored voters particularly.
Mr.. Clark's power as a ready debater and
orator seems only within the past year or
two to have received its proper appreciation,
and each successive speech delivered by him
is said, by those capable of judging, to be
the best he ever made. Unfortunately his
duties here have confined him too closely for
him to have attained until quite recently the
national reputation to which his merits were
entitled.
Cincinnati has long been noted through
out the country for the educational facilities
it affords, and the consequent intelligence
of its colored population. 1t is natural that
there should be literary societies among us,
and there are.
First among these stands
THE CLARK LITERARY CIRCLE;
but it has apparently Outlived its usefulness,
and now drags on sad and sorrowful exist
ence. Organized for the mutual interchange
OF thought, without prejudice, partisanship,
or sectarianism, in social, religious, or politi.
cal opinions, it has cultivated among the
young men Of this community tolerance for
views in opposition to their own that reflects
credit upon them and the club which pro.
duced it.
"'Tis true, tits pity;
But pity tits, tits true"
that this most excellent institution is rapid,
on the decline, and will shortly be known nc
more among the things that are. Its career
reminds me very much of Sngle-speecl
Hamilton" member of the English Parla
ment, who created sensation by making an
excellent speech in that body, and never
again attempting another. The Circle gave
a public exhibition last November, and is
dying from the effects of too much glory.
Next in order is the
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