New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-27


the liberation and the advancement of the
blacks" The bullet of an assassin had sent
honest Abraham Lincoln to his grave. "A
bloody hand had raised johnson to power,
and Cassius held his place by the consent, no
longer of Lincoln, but of this murder-made
Chief Magistrate. And when this most cruel
political traitor-Andrew Johnson-entered
upon his notorious Presidential career to pre-
vent the advancement of the blacks and to
restore the rebels to power, Mr.. Clay is un-
derstood TO have endorsed the bad policy OF
johnson and thus again wounded the cause to
which he now processes lifelong devotion.
But here we rest. Further evidence of Mr..
Clay's untitness TO advise the negroes OF
Kentucky concerning their political duties is
wholly unnecessary. His triple blunders, if
they deserve no harsher name, are quite
enough They show that even if he pos
sesses the needed heart he has not the
needed wisdom TO properly direct the black
political power of Kentucky. He has failed
us in every great crisis of our cause, and
when he seeks to turn us from Grant to
Greeley, from the Republican party to the
Democracy, from our tried and trusty friends
to those who have heretofore gloried in being
our enemies, he fails us again and worse than
ever. Once give the negro completely over
to the care Of the local governments-State
and municipal-of the old slave States, as
now proposed by Mr.. Greeley and the Demo-
Gratis, then farewell to his personal liberty
d. L. l.
it will be intolefable then. Wendell Phillips
puts the case none to strongly when he says,
mo colOredman who values his life, can vote
for Greeley; - and the Judgment of Phillips
may be well set against the judgment Of Clay.
The first has never faltered nor Numbered,
the latter has done very little else.
In his letter before us Mr.. Clay says,
" that colored Americans owe nothing to
Grant Republicans" If this be true, they
owe nothing to any kind of Republicans.
There is not single civil or political right
now enjoyed by them which has not been
secured to them by General Grant and by
Grant Republicans. That any man can deny
or question this in the face of recent history,
only shows that there is no candor in those
who are bent upon the defeat of Grant. The
most telling point made against General
Grant, has its whole force in the fact that he
has dared, in certain contingencies, to WELD
federal power to protect the rights of black
men in distant States against midnight muir
derers. The statement of Mr.. Clay at this
point is fifty followed by another, and that is
that what has been accomplished for freedom
in this country, has been gained through the
Liberal Republicans represented at Cincin-
natl. This is true only so far as these men
acted with the Republican party. "Liberal
Republican" is new name and new thing
in American politics. Happily for colored
Americans, they had secured most of their
rights of manhood and of citizenship long be-
fore Liberal Republicanism was dreamed of.
To the point that General Grant is a new
convert, it is enough to quote brakes reply
to SchurZ, " 1t is better to be a new convert
and a true one, than an old convert and a
treachcrous one.' No man can deny, with
any show of TRUTH that General Grant has
been a faithful friend and true chief magis-
trate to all classes of the American people,
without regard terrace, color, or previous con-
dition of servitude. TO him, owing to his
position as President of the United States,
they are indebted for the most potent word
ever spoken in their behalf, and that was the
word recommending the ratification of the
18th amendment.
But how indescribably contemplate are
the charges which Mr.. Clay brings against
President Grant. They plainly show the
extreme desttution of valid complaints
against his administration. Were better
grounds of hostility in existence surely such
viglant malice as his assailants exercise,
would find them. In dealing in such paltry
stuff as of T" gift taking" putting his friends
and relatives in office" making a son of
Stephen A. Douglass his private Secretary,
favoring the annex ation with its free con-
senD of Santo Domingo, emitting to invite
the writer of this article to dinner at the
White House, placing recent converts in Of
flee, voting for James Buchanan sixteen years
ago, are about the worst things that the most
INSCRIPTIONS of his assailants can oppose to
the man who from being the colonel of regi-
ment fought his way through a thousand
able generals, to the command Of all the ar
mics Of the nation, and delivered the country
from one Of the most fierce, fearful, and san
culinary wars that ever wasted blood and
treasure, man who, though raised to
height of place and power, than which none
is higher, is yet the same modest unassuming
man, that all his honOrs found him to be ac-
cessible to rich and poor white and black
alike, gentle and amiable to all, austere and
naughty to none, gracefully yielding to the
judgment Of the whole people and faithfully
executing the laws. Cassius NJ. Clay, who
is brave man, will live TO see the day when
he will be ashamed Of his paltry accusations
and miserable inuendoes. Grant is indicated
by the very charges which are brought against
him.
Of Mr.. Clay's praise of Horace Greeley,
we find no fault. II is not true that we have
ever abused him as "pirate." He has in
other days done the cause of our people high
and lasting service, and il is not in our COM
position 10 forget the good works of our
friends. 1t is not, however, with Horace