Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-08-07
NO. 1877.
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
TO CHARLIE SUMNER.
RosroN. August 9. 1872.

BOSTON, August =, 1872.
DEAR Mr.. SUMNER: Though l should be
strongly induced, by the friendship subsist-
ing between US, to avoid taking position
antagonistical to your own, under ordinary
circumstances, even if deemed it erroneous,
yet all personal considerations must be SUBJ
ordlnated 20 the public welfare when serious
~ lmperllled. You 90 not believe in silence
IN crisis like the present, nor do 1. In your
recent letter to certain colored citizens of
Washington, you have spoken plainly, ve-
hemently, and with rhetorical amplification
(not for the first time), in utter condemnation
OF the President of the United States; and
your advice to the whole body of coiored
voters is, that they concentrate their suffrages
upon rival candidate in the person of Hor-
ace Greeley.
In reviewing your letter propose to speak
with equal plainness, and as earnestly to
counsel my colored countrymen not to follow
your lead in this matter, but, as voters, to
move unitediy for the reelection of Presi-
dent Grant, for every consideration pertain
ing to their safet, and happiness, to the cause
OF equal rights, and to the furtherance of ma
tlonal peace and unity.
In apologizing for your delay in answering
the letter of inquiry referred to, you state
that you ''wished TO be aided by the informa-
ton which time might supply" The kind Of
information you desired or expected to gain
! in the brief space of seventeen days is left to
conjecture; but, in view of your long avowed
estrangement from the present Chief Magis-
trate, it could not have been needed to inten-
sity your hostility to his administration. Your
reply is dated July 29 and it appears to have
been as carefully timed to influence the elec.
ton in North Carolina on the lst of August,
before anything could be done to neutraliyc
its effect, as was your Grant Indictment speech
in the Senate to determine the action Of the
Philadelphia Convention. These coinci.
dences may have been accidental, but you
must not be surprised if, owing to the we'll
known infammable state Of your mind, gen.
eral belief obtains that you have unfairly
availed yourself Of opportunities to work
fatal division in the Republican ranks.
1t affords You much gratincation to be
singed out by your colored nterrogators as
'the speciol advocate of their rights" But
this is an assumption which justice, as well
as becoming modesty, should have led you to
discam, even if it was meant only to describe
your Congressional career. Similar advo-
Gates have from time to time stood bravely
up, beth in the Senate and in the House of
Representatives-W ilson, Hale, w ade Chase,
Giddings, Mann, Lovejoy, Julian, Palfrey,
! Ihaddeus Stevens, Gerrit Smith and others
| who, II not as coplous and ornate in speech
as yourself, have been as unfiinching, and in
|
nothing of the thousands of ani-slavery men
and women whose lot it was to pass through
the heat and burden of the conflict, pleading.
in season and out of season, nearly score of
years before your voice was heard in support
of their holy cause. You have since rendered
eminent service to that cause your advocacy
of it has been great and meritorious; but to
claim it as peculiar at this late day, as though
you stood alone and almost single-handed, is
a personal appropriation very far removed
from self abneRation, and quite unwsrrantej.
The Republican party (the product of
| thirty years moral and religious agitation for
the overthrow Of slavery has crushed vast
sectional rebellion for the erection of an in
dependent slave empire; has emancipated
four millions of bondmen, and elevat.d d them
to the plain Of American citizenship; has
reconstructed the rebellious States on a COM
mon constitutional basis, with unive rsal lib
erty; has brought order out of chaos, gen.
eral tranquility out of wide spread disaffec-
tion, uneXampled prosperity out of trightfnl
devastation; and has advanced the banner of
liberty and equality far beyond the expecta-
ton or hope OF any man living ten years ago.
The day has gone by, therefore, for any one
10 exhibit remal kabe courage or conspicuity
in the advocacy of any measure in behalf Of
the rights and interests OF our colored popu-
la,ion, except, indeed, where the old slave
holding spirit still exercises mastery st the
South. Nor is it pertinent TO the occasion TO
talk of their 'infnite wrongs" now that they
are emancipated and entranchised, supplied
with mulutudious schools and teachers, free
TO make their own contracts as independent
laborerS, protected as husbands and wives,
bound together as parents and children, yot-
ing and being voted for, pursuing success
fully all professional employments, steadily
augmenting their home comforts and laying
up wealth, occupying stations of trust and
em0lument, and having their representatives
in every Southern Legislature and on the
floor of Congress.
True, in cert in localities they are still sub
iected to many indignities, and sometimes TO
horrible outrages, but these are inflicted by
that class of incorrgible miscreants at the
South who are just now in happy afiiation
with yourself to place Horace Greeley in the
Presidential chair True, there is still,
throughout the country. strong prejudice
against social equality irrespective of color;
but this is steadily yielding, and in many
cases has ceased TO operate. The special
time to express sympathy for the "infinite
wrongs" of the colored race was when they
had few to interfere for their deliverance
| from the auction block and slave-coffie, from
the slsve-drvers CORY lash, from CALLING yokes
and torturing thumb screws, from the fangs
of prowling kldnappers, from inconceivabie
agonies Of the burning stake; and when TO
remember those in bonds as bound with
them" led anywhere else than to the high
places of the country. And l always deeply
| regret, too GAS am quite sure you now do)
that for so many years after the commence
ment of the struggle TO effect that deliver
ance, when the elements were melting with
| te vent heat, and when mohocratic violence
for the suppression of anti. slavery discussion
was everywhere prevalent, not excepting in
your own native city, you took no active part
in that conflict, attended no anti.slavery
gath, rings, gave no visible sign of a lively
lntel est IN its success; for the first time bear
ing our public testimony against slavery IN
opposing the annexation of Texas. when
elect d to the United States Senate, in 1891,
YOU sat nearly eiAht months in that body
speeehless in re . ct to the Fugitive Slave
bill, eliciting srolg remonstrances against
your proiracted silence, seeing that. as the
successor of Mr.. w Webster, your election was
REGARDED as an important gain to the cause OF
inpsrtial freedom. Your silence was the