New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-09-19

also of fugitive slave laws being enacted Civ
| ing power to the STAKEHOLDER to rctake these
contented slaves who were so DESTROYS OF
getting away to a land of freedom. We
know that Southern newspapers received as
a large part of their revenue money paid for
advertising contented runaway slaves. The
| slaves were as cOntcnted as the cOnvicts III
| our penitentiaries, and made no stronger at
tempts to burst the bonds of their oppres-
sion for pretty much the same reason as do
convicts. Though the slaves were held in
oppression in moCkery Of all justice and the
rights of humanity, and cOnyicts were inn
prisoned for violating the laws of the land,
all attempts of the one to escape met
with the same opposition as did attempts OF
the other. In short, the whole United
States with its army and navy stood ready
to seize by the throat every negro who dared
TO assert his right to liberty, and every per-
son by law of Congress was made slave
catcher under pain of fine and Imprisonment
for refusing to act in that capacity. Every
mans hand with but few exceptons) was
against the negro. He was like our prisoners
in Andersonville, if he escaped any man in the
South would have been commended for shoot
ing HIM down. SO well understood was this,
and such was the disregard of a negro's life,
that even now Southerners have not learned
to leave off shooting negroes whenever they
attempt to assert their manhood.
The assistance rendered Union armies and
escaping Union prisoners by the slaves was
an evidence of their desire for freedom.
They reasoned that the war was inauguratcd
on the part of their masters for the purpose
of strengthening the bonds which held them,
and at every opportunity, though often re-
PEELED, they rendered all assistance in their
power to the friends of the Union. These
cOntented slaves, leaving their masters,
whom they had known for years, and going
to the assistance of those opposed to these
masters, even though meeting in many cases
with repulse, is strong proof oe their love
of liberty and hatred of slavery.
1t is time, Mr.. Editor of the Capital, that
all that stuff and nonsense about the negro
arraying himself in a hostile camp to the
white people be silenced. DO the colored
men Of North Carolina supporting Ulysses
S. Grant for President array themselves in
hostility to the white men of Vermont and
Maine, who also support Grant for the Presi-
dency? Can it be said that all the white
men in this nation who will vote for Grant
are antagonists of the negro? There are
two parties in this Countrywide negro voting
with one, generally, and that one, according
to the best of our knowledge and belief, i.
the party having the larger number of white
men. viz, the Republican party, so that the
negro is in the camp with most of the white
men in the country, instead of being IN
hostile camp, as negotiating Greeley papers
assert.
We will have no war of races if it is left
to the negro to inaugurate it by any act of
hostility to the whites, unless the assertion
Of his manhood-right to vote for whom he
sees fit is sufficient cause for such war.
The trouble with the Capital is that the negro
is in the white camp favorable to freedom
and equality, and refuses to be of the other
white camp, who hope, by false pretenses, to
place in power the party that will attempt to
restore the old condition Of oppression and
neUrO.hote