New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-08-01
League DiCtatiOn,

We said that the freedmen vote ot tbia
league dlctation because it was in the leag,Ies
they learned how to vote and thew no NOT
as rule, know how to vote otherwise thar
by its command. They have heretofore voted
solIdly according to the wishes of those who
control the leagues, and their favorites have
| changed as the central executive head has
changed. Judging their future by their past.
we see no reason to believe anything better
Is TO be hoped. Without any remembrance
OF their regard for, and obligation to. the
men who accomplished, or did most to ac-
complish, their freedom, the old. honest. life
long AbolitiOnists, like Greeley, Brown, Sum-
ner, Cassius Clay, and Brooks, they will vote
IN November, we believe, as their league
leaders order.-Gazette.
The question to be asked and answered is.
DO the freedmen vote solid according to the
Dlddlng OF the leagues, or do they do so in
the exercise of private judgment? The Ga
zette asserts the former and denies the latter.
and bases its entire argument on these as
sumptions, for there is no attempt to prove
them. Let us examine the assumption. A
few years ago, at a time within the memory
OF every voting freedmen, the white men of
the country were engaged in war. The freed
men seem to have had sufficient Judgment
then to know that they were greatly inter-
ested In That struggle, although both sides
stoutly denied that such was the case. As
the war progressed, the chains that had
CALLED the limbs of "the African racen be-
gan to break, and in process of time the black
man became free man, soldier, a voter,
citizen. All these improvements in his con-
dltlon were made, as he well knows, through
the instrumentality of the Republican party;
and he well understands the fact, also,
that in spite of all that Greeley and
Brown and Simmer
Brooks did before that party was formed his
condition grew worse and worse every day,
and their efforts amounted to nothing until
they were aided by great national party.
Despite OF Greeley and Sumner, the fugitive
slave law was passed; despite of Brooks and
Cassius Clay, the bred Scott decision was
rendered; despite of them all, Judge fancy
decided that negro had no rights white
man was bound to respect; despite of Hor-
ace Greeley, Democrats hung colored men on
lamp-posts and roasted colored orphans in
their asylum, within a mile of the Tribune
office. When the Republican party gained
its first victory by electing Abraham Lincoln,
the black mans condition began to improve.
1t was worse under Buchanan, notwithstand-
ing all that Abolitionists had done, than it
had ever been before. These are facts.
known in whole or in part by every freed
man in the land; especially the fact that he
is indebted to the Republican party for his
freedom and citizenship. Like other men,
he reasons from the known to the unknown.
He judges the candidates of the Republican
party whom he does not know, by the party
which is an old, tried friend. He knows
Grant, and needs no process of reasoning to
induce him to vote for Grant. He knows not
Horace Greeley, but judges him by the facts
in his history, which are notorious -bailing
jeff Davis, and telling the erring sisters to
go in peace, and the character of his sup
porters, with which they are intimately ac-
quainted. What we have said is enough to
prove, as we think, that the freedmen do ex-
ercise very clear judgment in ascertaining
who are their friends, and then place their
confidence accordingly.-Lihle Rock Repub-
Ecn,