New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-25
From the New York Tribune, July 49, 1871 !,
Charitable Judgments.

In Washington is printed the NEW
NATIONAL ERA, which is edited by Mr..
Frederick Douglass. This newspaper is
the devoted friend and supporter Of the
President, and is uncommonly acrid in
its opposition to Mr.. Greeley. Its war;
fare is waged in the paste-pot and scissors
style; and it proves that Mr.. Greeley
never was an anti-slavery man by show.
ing from his own words that he never was
anything else. This sort of thing is so easy
to do that we wonder Mr.. Douglass does not
leave ii to the third and fourth-rate clerks in
the departments. All that is needed to car
ry on such-work with great spirit is an old
file of newspapers, the tailor's tool aforesaid,
and a little boiled flour. 1t happens, how
ever, to be a style Of controversy, which, in
the present peculiar state of public affairs,
can be maintained by one side as we'll as
another. If the Grant men are greedy for
political "reminiscences, they can be easily ac-
commodated. Perhaps Mr.. F. Douglass, who
is so learned generally in the history of con-
versions, remembers the timo when his po-
litical opinions were somewhat different from
what they now arc when, like his old friend,
Mr.. Garrison, he thought it wicked to vote at
all, and considered the Constitution of the
United States to be "a covenant with Death,
and an agreement with HELL" We observe
authoritative the opinions of Gen. BENJAMIN
F. Butler. How about Gen. Buffers re-
cord? Suppose he were nominated for the
Presidency. would Mr.. F. Douglass think it
necessary to hunt up his old, bitter pro-
slavery speeches? How about Gen. Grant i?
What is there about his record on the slavery
question which makes him altogether lovely
in the eyes of the New NATIONAL. ERA +?
1t is the same Gen. Grant who supported and
voted for James Buchanan, and who boasted
afterward of doing so; who sustained the
policy of the President on the kansas-Ne-
braska question; who said, early in the
course Of the rebellion, II am Democrat,
and when am convinced that the war is
waged to prosecute the designs of the Abo-
litionists, pledge my honor as soldier,
that l will carry my sword on the other side,
and cast my lot with the people :" and who
arrived at the opinion that "the contemplated
reconstruction of the South upon the base
of negro suffrage was an outrage upon all the
principles Of justice or craftsmanship, and
would eventually result in a war of races. !"
Cut that out, Mr.. Douglass, and send it down
to North Carolina with the other elegant ex-
tracts!
The Grant faction. 1t cannot be truly de-
MED, contains pretty fair assortment of
good old Democrats" including that most
important ofiice-holder, Mr.. George S. Bout
well, who, instead of attending to the bust
ness Of the Treasury Department, is making
electioneering speeches for his chief in North
Carolina. If Butler and Boutwell, and the
rest can honestly acquiesce in the present
sentiment of the country toward slavery, why
may not all the delegates to the National
Democratic Convention accept this plank of
their platform and ours:
Z :" Fva. We recognize the equality Of all
men before the law, and hold that it is the
duty of Government in its dealings with the
people to mete out equal and exact Justice
to all, Of whatever nativity, race, color, or
persuasion, religious or political"
Will it be believed that upon this plain,
catholic, and satisfactory statement of opin-
ion Mr.. Fred. Douglass could make no fairer
comment than this
Equal rights for black men is now con-
sidered by the Democratic party as negro
supremacy, and, according to the chair
man Of the Baltimore Convention, Eek
Senator Doolittle,) the union of Liberal Re-
publicans and Democrats is to break down
this so-called supremacy"
What Mr.. Doolittle did demand in his
speech was "equal rights to ALL men, white
or black" Well, is the NEW NATIONAL
ERA opposed to that? Have white men no
rights which black men are bound to respect
Doesn't Mr.. D. want "equal and exact JUS
-tice to all, Of whatever nativity, race, color,
or persuasion, religious Or political?" II
seems to us that when Democratic Conven-
ton can he brought to demand this, il is
clubbing without decency, and no more than
an indulgence in damnable innuendo" to
assume that the convention cared only for
the rights of white men. If there is NO
NEGRO supremacy" then there is no harm
done if there is such supremacy" is Mr..
F. Douglass to blame for maintaining it? II
men cannot change their opinions and recant
their errors, what kind of a "new National
Era" are we likely to have?
The Greeley Bargain with the