Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-06-14
A Plain UnvarniShed Letter from
the Chief and Head.Center Of
all AbolitiOnists in the
West.
Greeley the Lifelong Friend of
the Blacks---Gratz Brown the
Lifelong Friend Of the
Slave.
The Negroes Advised to Vote for
Greeley and Brown, and Am
nesty and Equal Rights
for All.

A colOred man, a citizen of Bloom
D field, Kentucky, wrote to the Hon.
: Cassius NJ. Clay on the thirtieth uIti-
r more, in regard to the political issues OF
} the day, closing with this paragraph
, Please give me your views of the duty
, of colored men. / am no poll
tician, but 1 feel that there is a debt OF
] gratitude that every black man owes to
Mr.. Greeley, and will work necessarily
for his election in November. / would
be gratified beyond expression if my
race here in Nelson county could heaI
you. They well might rejoice
to hear the voice that has often been
: raised in their defense, and see the great
, and good Hon. c. NJ. Clay, and hear his
voice urging them to flock to the stand
! ard Of liberty, the sovereignty of the
States, and redeem our institutions from
the menaces of a military chieftain.' -
In answer to this urgent appeal, Mr..
Clay sent the following
| RESPONSE.
WHITE HALL, KY, June 2, 1872.
: Ny DEAR SIR-YOur favor of the
thirtieth ult. is just received. L am pre-
pairing my speech for tomorrow, to be
made at Nicholasville, principally for
our cOlOrod voters, so / can but briefly
reply to your interesting letter. For
this purpose | declined an invitation to
f speak at the great ratification meeting
of Horace Greeley and H. Gratz Brown,
! which also takes place tomorrow, the
/ third instant, at Cooper Institute, in
! New York. / am gratified to hear from
you, OF any colored man, having devo-
ted so much of my lifetime to the liber-
, alton Of and the advancement of the
blacks, that they have, perhaps, become
q sort of " hobby to me. The present
great great {" Radicaln) party, as Sum-
ner Whose late speech as telegraphed |
send YOU terms them. is like the Yam
kee's knife with a new blade and a new
T handle, so that almost nothing of
it is left but the name. SO far
as the cOlOred Americans are concerned,
they owe nothing to the Grant Republi-
cans. 1t was the old "iberationn ele-
ment of the Cincinnati Liberal Republi-
cans who achieved their liberty, and
established their rights forever in the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments of the Constitution. And
Sumner, who denounced Grant as ''the
chief ku-klux" for attempting to de-
stroy, by illegally interfering with San
Domingo and Hayti, the two black ma
tiOns of that island, was the most eff
cient friend the colOred people had in
all their past days of legislation. When
we elected Lincoln we were in minor
/ ity, Bell and Everett, Douglas and
| Breckinridge carrying a majority of the
votes. So at the end of Lincoln's term,
although he had been reelected, we
were not sure that we had a majority of
the people for equal rights to all, so we
Z nm n ~
ocrat, and hater of the Abolitionists,
who, after the discussion of the rights of
man for thirty years, in 1856 voted
4 for that old enemy of Justice, James
/ Buchanan, for President, who saw blood
shed in Kansas, and the civil war be-
gun to establish slavery forever, and
aided and abetted it. 1t seems
Grant did not vote for Lincoln; perhaps
! too drunk to vote. AS soon as he was
made President, he put the son of
Stephen A. Douglas, the most powerful
of our enemies, in the most confidential
place as his private Secretary. And
went on neglecting our old friends who
had fought the good fight and achieved
victory, to put in office our enemies and
eleventh-hour men to their exclusion,
and now he has fallen into the hands
of the worst men in the nation, Hamil-
ton Fish, o. P. Morton, Ben Butler and
Simon Cameron, none Of whom were
ever Republicans; and an eleventh.
hour man is holding the highest office
in the gift of the President Secretary
/ of State), voting in 1868 for Hoffman, a
! Democrat, for Governor of New York,
years after the war, who aids Spain to
/ keep the blacks of Cuba in slavery, and
whose son-in-law, Sidney Webster, is
the paid attorney and hireling of the
Spanish king to keep up slavery and the
slave trade in Cuba.
Now Greeley is the lifelong friend of
the blacks, and has done as much as
any living man to achieve their liberty,
the New York Tribune, defending AT
New York my movement in favor of
liberty to all, while the New York
Herald, Grants paper, was doing all il
could to have me murdered by a mob; I
being shot and stabbed to the lungs at
several times, and only escaped by the
providence of God. Greeley is also in
favor of San Domingo and Hayti's lib
erty, and the liberty of the blacks in
Cuba, which Grant 4 Co. are doing their
best to destroy. B. Gratz Brown is also
a lifelong friend of the slave; con-
vert to my sentiments in Kentucky, he
went to Missouri and joined the free-soil
Benton party, who wanted every man in
the Territories free, and who, during the
war, was UniOnist, and for the liberty
of all. And yet Frederick Douglass, a
half white man, who got a small Office
from Grant, but who Grant refused to
invite TO his table with the other San
Domingo Commissioners, denounces
Greeley and Brown as though they were
pirates. By the Fourteenth amendment,
q large number of the leaders of the re-
belliOn were made incapable of holding
office. These Brown and Greeley and
the Cincinnati Convention want par
dOned, as they are willing to give the
blacks all their rights; Liberty of all
before the law" as our Cincinnati plat
form has it.
The Grant men, to keep in office, are
playing the part Of the monkey, who
took the cats paw to pull the chestnuts
out OF the fire. They seem bent on keep
ing up the strife between the blacks and
whites that they NAV keep In Office. and
after awhile, when the blacks are ruined
in property and character. they will flv
with their ill-gOtten gains and leave
them to the vengeance of the whites Of
the nation, whom the Radical party
would have made their eternal enemies.
First-Now the whole matter is, that
we are now, we think, strong enough to
elect, by the assistance of the Demo-
Gratis an old friend OF the blacks to the
Presidency, and the blacks, ingratitude,
ought to do it.
Second-There are forty millions of
whites in the Union, and, say, about
five million blacks, or about eight
whites TO one black. Now, the whites
are too strong in arms and in votes for
the blacks, who are, therefore, depend
ent on the whites for their good will,
magnanimity and justice, for their
rights and liberties. Now, we don't
think it good policy for the blacks with
the Grant party to keep up abuse and |
strife, till the whites shall learn to hate |
the blacks, for the weakest must at last
go under.
Third-Now, therefore, when the
blacks viii have all their rights admit
ted by Greeley and the Democrats, /, as
their lifelong friend, beg them to accept
the offer. Go for Greeley, amnesty and
equal rights to alll "Let not the sun 90
down on your wrath"
Fourth-SuppOse you will not be per-
suaded, and you go with the Grant
men and you are beaten, the National
Government goes into the hands of your
enemies. Where are you? In the hands
OF the Philistines. Ihave not the time
now to discuss centralization,n y " Off
cial corruption" and "hd6eds corpus
suspension I" further than to say that
these usurpations affect US 1.-THE whites
as well as the blacks, and If allowed will
take away the liberty of all. To sus-
pend the writ of "hd6eas corpusn as
Grant is doing, places the life, liberty