New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-02
REPORT

OF the Committee On Address tn
the American People, Adopted
by the National Convention Of
COlOred Men. Held I'm New Or.
leans, April 10. lSs2.
A struggle of more than thirty years dura-
ton, involving in its various phases every
department of American life, eliminating Id
rebellion, the like of which for daring, en-
ergetic prosecution, and bloody consequences,
the world has never seen; struggle carried on
by one party to the contest, with the legiti-
mate weapons of political strife, the pen, the
press, the rostrum by the other party, with
every illegitimate weapons of such strife, the
bowling mob, the assassin's knife or rope,
the pistol shot, and the incendiary's torch,
has terminated in a triumph of the right.
Liberty sits enthroned where before slavery
reigned, and the people of the American ma
ton reaffming the doctrines upon which the
Republic is founded, and giving those doctrines
wider application are rebuilding their insti-
tutiOns upon the basis of equal and exact
justice to all.
We gratefully acknowledge the benefac-
tons we have received under this new dis
pensation. We know that from the auction
block, upon which many of the best Of our
race have stood, to the Senate house of the
United States, the distance is great. We
promise for ourselves and our posterity that
these great gifts of freedom and enfranchise-
ment shall be wisely used, and that the
honor of the nation will be as sacredly
guarded by the colored citizen as by his white
cOmpeer.
1t is our purpose to show in every walk of
life to which we may be called, that we are
capable of performing, and performing well,
every task that shall fall to our lot. We do
not promise to surpass our white fellow-citi-
zens in the path of honor, for our glorious
country has produced many heroes, states
men, and men whose genius is worldwide in
its fame !; but we do promise that the offer
ings we shall lay upon the altar of the nation
will be such as no loyal heart will despise.
That we may accomplish this heartfelt de-
sire of working for the benefit of our country
and the perpetuity of her institutions, we APP
peal to the American people to remove such
disabilities as still press upon us, destroying
our self-respect and preventing the full de-
velopment and exercise of our powers.
We ask that on the railways, steamboats,,
and other means of conveyance employed by
common carriers to transport passengers or
goods, that the common rule of mercantile
honesty shall be enforced, and that all trav-
elers shall receive that for which they pay.
That first-class fare demanded and received
shall entitle the man paying to first-class ac-
cOmmOdatiOns. The simple statement of this
principle is sufficient demonstration of its
correctness. A merchant who fails to deliver
TO his customer goods of the quantity and
quality paid for is driven with scorn from
the exchange and branded as a cheat. The
aggrieved purchaser can, by application to
the law, reimburse his losses from the estate
of the dishonest trader.
When steamboat and railroad companies,
Il
come into the market, vending promises to
transport men and goods, they are no more
in equity than simple merchant; a failure
to comply with contracts made is as dfshon-
able in them as in the petty tradesman, and
the law should provide adequate remedies to
aggrieved purchasers of their dishonored
promises to transport.
Again, certain individuals apply for license
to open a house for the entertainment of
way-farers. They promise, by implication, to
accommodate all decently clad, decently be-
having travellers willing to pay the price de-
manded. One of the parties to this contract
is the landlord /; the other, the people, repre-
scented by the magistrate whom they empower
to make contracts in their behalf. We are
part of the people We frequently need this
accommodation, yet landlords all over the
land continually violate their contracts with
us. COlOred men going on journeys, some-
times thousands of miles in extent, are denied
shelter, even when arriving at their destina-
ton late at night, utter strangers, cold, hum
cry, and friendless. In this condition they
are frequently turned from the doors of hO-
tells, even though they proffer in advance
the money which secures to their white fellow
traveller lodging and food. Such treatment
given to Americans travelling in another coun-
try would provoke an indignant protest from
the Government and people. War, perhaps,
might be waged to secure the rights and vim
dictate the dignity of an American citizen.
Shall we demand less for the same citizen,
travelling in his own country, than We would
demand for him were he a sOjourner in a
foreign land?
Another form of wrong meets us in our
exclusion from schools of high grade, which,
by charter, receive from the people peculiar
privileges, on condition that they educate
the sons and daughters of those who may
desire to patrOniZe them. None of the Amer
lean people need this thorough training more
than we, who, during our centuries of slavery,
had no access to such knowledge as is con-
tanned in books, yet to-day, when we come
to these schools chartered by our represent.
atives, we are told that we cannot be admit
ted. Learned and pious doctors of divinity
not unfrequently take part lr this denial OF
right, and by such action place themselves
on level with the dishonest dishonored
trader.
In the public schools of the country the
wrong perpetrated is, in many cases, more
fragrant than the one just mentioned. We
as portion of the people, actually pay for an
education which is sometimes denied us en-.
tirely, while sometimes a pretense of giving
is made more shameful than the direc
denial.
The tendency of our Government to-day
as it should be, is in the direction of equa
rights and equal duties. 1t is, therefore, un
wise in the State to classify its youth il
schools by their color or race for, when grown
to maturity, they will be disposed to carr,
out the difference taught and the prejudice
engendered thereby into judicial and othc
official positions, and the nice poise of thu
scale of justice be disturbed thereby. On
the ground, then, of mutual good will an,
good understanding between citizens, ire
spective of its degrading influence upon
class, we urge the wrOngfulness of such elias
sifcation.
We will not dwell on the refusal of tn
proprietors of theaters, concert halls, an
other places, to which men resort for the pur
pose of relaxing their minds or refining thei
tastes, to comply with contract implied i
taking out license. The wrong is patent +
every man whose sense of justice is not ut