New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-23
THURSDAY, MAY %, 1872.
Hon. EUorace Greeley On the Airi-
can I'm America.

Last week before the colored people OF Pough-
keepsie will, for many reasons, attract marAeo
attention in all parts of the country and es-
pecially in the Southern States. Mr.. ureeiey
is now before the country as a candidate ior
the Presidency of the United states, ana ms
address was delivered, no doubt, in view OF
that fact, and it may be taken as an indlca-
tion of what the "African people," as he
calls them, have to expect from him in case
he and his friends shall succeed in making
themselves "ofiice-holders" instead of"ofiice-
seekers The position of the speaker gives
him an audience of millions, and power Tor
good or evil which belongs to his position
alone. He who speaks on the relations SUBJ
s;sting between the colored and white peo-
ple of this country, especially when solicit
inc votes will be closely watched by both
classes. That Mr.. Greeley should thus early
in the Presidential canvass strike the Key
note on the "a fican," proves that after all,
he does not place him among the dead issues
and obsolete questions of The past about
which no more discussion is needed or action
demanded. In this address he takes the ne
GRO over the course pretty thoroughly and
evidently with no Indifferent eye to the effect
his words will be likely to produce upon the
minds of his new allies as we'll as those of his
old friends.
It cannot be denied that Mr.. Greeley In
this Poughkeepsie address has given the
"African people in America" much whole
some advice. A man of his eminently prac-
teal turn of mind, who has been close and
earnest student of the question as to how to
make the best of this world, could not very
well speak without saying something vaitia-
BILE, and vet we doubt if Mr.. Greeley has not
given his good advice from an outlook and In
a tone which may go far to destroy the good
effects of his otherwise excellent teachings.
Taking his own political prospects into ac-
count, it seems to us that silence was his
best policy. He is manifestly too liberal to-
wards the Africans to suit the Democratic
party and not quite liberal enough to meet
the wishes of the Africans. In all Mr.. Gree
ley has to say about industry, self-depend-
ence, saving money, buying land, co1pera-
ton and the like, we fully concur, and have
in our imperfect way said the same things a
thousand times and expect. to continue saying
them. These ideas meet with a hearty well
come among men of sense of every shade and
color, and are needed by people OF every
shade and color. A manly self-sustaining
spirit of independence, can never have
preachers too earnest or too numerous for us.
Nevertheless, the spirit of the preacher is
often of more consequence than the letter OF
his sermon, and where the former is unjust
the latter, though true and wise, loses much
of its power for good.
From the start, Mr.. Greeley in his address
but feebly recognizes the colored people as
American citizens. With him they are "the
African race in America" and plainly when
north of certain lines of latitude much out Of
their places. The old doctrine of natural
gravitation is limited at as likely to restore
the ''African" to the tropics. His color is
suited to warm climate, and of course not
suited to any other. He does net propose to
drive us under the equator, as the old-fash-
toned colonizationists once aimed to do, but
he evidently thinks that we ought to get out
of this North land, and that our staying here
is in violation of that law of nature which
makes dark-skinned race more at home in
q warm than in a cold climate. This feature
of Mr.. Greeley's Poughkeepsie address will
excite no little interest among the colored
people of the country, for one of the deepest
convictions that has taken possession of their
minds is, that they are, and of right ought to
be, American citizens; that they have been
here long enough to have earned the right of
being regarded as permanent part of the
American people. They do not, after living
here as slaves two hundred and fifty years,
like even to have it limited, that now they
are free, it would be natural for them to
drift back to the latitude and climate in which
they originated. Having stood the American
climate as slaves they think they can stand it
as freemen. In this, if our opinion is
worth anything, we must say that we think
them right. There is an endless deal of nom
sense pretending to be science and philoso-
ply in respect to where certain races ought
to locate and live. Man is animal not con-
fined to any particular latitude. He has that
within him which makes him master of the
whole situation. He can make it cool where
it is warm and warm where it is cool. He is
everywhere warrior against hurtful natural
forces, and is ever noblest and greatest where
he conquers most and has most to conquer.
We did not think that Mr.. Horace Greeley
would at this late day come out with even
hint, in favor of the old climatic dogmas of
the American Colonization Society. We
know not what other colored men NAV think
Of Mr.. Greeley at this point, but to us it
seems an unjustifable effort to ALLEVIATE us
from the land of our birth, and to in
duce the belief among us that we are
strangers and pilgrims. Mr.. Greeley does,
indeed, call us citizens, and, in one
instance speaks Of us as a permanent
part OF the American people yet his marked
reference to the laws Of climate, to " African
people" amongst us, and indeed the whole
philosophy of his lengthy address, makes the
impression that, to the mind of the speaker,
the colored man, after all, is an alien element
In this country, and should hardly insist upon
considering himself here as an equal among
equals. 1t does seem to us that Mr.. Gree