Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-09-11
THE DEMAND FOR EQUALITY.


The Deld1dre Gazette, borrowing the idea
from the Deldipdrean reads in the call for the
State Convention Of the colored people, which
will assemble at Camden on the 10Th inst, dis
appointment in the fulGllment of the pledges
made them by Republicans. 1t is, of course, no
difficult stretch Of conscience for either Of these
journals to torture into an opposite meaning the
real intentions Of the colored people, and they
have in this instance only Illustrated their agility
in the feat of gaping at a camel and swallow
ing gnat,"
Any one who is at all oonversant with politics
and the demands of the oolored people in this
state know we'll that the newly enfranchised
have received at the hands Of the Republicans
all that they have ever claimed or expected.
They have been admitted into full membership
and enjoy the confidence of the party they
participate in the party meetings are consulted
w,th reference to the party movements servo
upon the party committees, and in one instance,
a. least hold an Office Of emolument in the gift
of the party. Even this was conferred in the
face Of the rawlings Of this same Gazette and
Dttararedn, who are now so Justify pratt
ing about " disappointed hopes" Had their
voices been needed, even this position would
have been filed by white man.
1t is not difficult to understand the true nten
ton of the colored people in their demand for
the entire equality Of all American citizens in
their civil and political rights, regardless of
color" The fact is well known that they are ex-
cluded from public houses and places OF amuse-
ment-that railway and steamboat companies
have refused to allow them equal privileges with
white people upon the highways of travel-that
all access is denied them to the public schools,
and that their rights and privileges are crcum-
scribed in other particulars 1t is also well
known that the Democratic party claims to have
advanced to new and higher plane OF political
ethics; that it has accepted Republican Presi
dent upon platform which promises the same
political equality as the Republican patty has al
ready guaranteed and that Notwithstanding
these professions and these promises, the col
ed people Re misrepresented, maligned, re-
Jected, reviled, and prosecuted just the same by
this Democratic party, Perfect equality can on
ly subsist when all the people are secure in the
enjoyment of all the rights and privileges OF cit
,zenship, without molestation or hndrance.
When the Democratic party promulgated its be-
lief in the justice OF and intention to respect the
political rights OF the cooredp people they deemed
them sincere, but when they hear ascending in
its stead the "White Mans Party" cry, they can
not but entertain feelings of modification and
disappointment
From this source arises the Disappointment
which our cotemporares see stamped in this call
aud not from any uufulhllel promises on the
part of the Republicans. Let the Democrats
withdraw their opposition to the demands Of the
colored people for equality in the civil relations
of life, and extend to them that political equal--
ity which their platform promises, and we will
guarantee that the cloud of disappointment
which now oyershadows them will retire before
the dawn of the era of the universal brotherhood
of man