The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-09-06
GARRISON TO SUMNER.
A Letter Sumner CANT Answer

DEAR Mr.. SUMNER: Though / should
be strongly induced, by the friendship
,subsistipg between US, to avoid taking q
position, antoeonistic to your owr, under
ordinary circumstances, eve if deemed
it erroneous. yet all personal considera-
tons must be subordinated to the public
welfare when seriously imperiled. You
do not believe in silence in a crisis like
the present, nor do I. In your recent
letter to certain colored citizens of Wash
ington, you have spoken plainly, vehe-
mently and with the rhetorical ampli6-
cation (not for the first time), in utter
condemnation of abe President Of the
United States; and your advice to the
whole body o colored voters is, thatthey
concentrate their suffrage upon a rival
candidate in the person Of Horace Gree
ley. In reviewing your letter | purpose
to speak, with equal plainness, and as
| earnestly to council my colored country
men not to follow your lead in this mat
| ter, but, as voters, to move unitedly for
the reelection of President Grant, for
every consideration pertaining tO.their
safety and happiness, to the cause of
equal rights, and to the furtherance of
national peace and unity. In apology
ling for your delay in answering the letter
Of inquiry referred to, you state that You
wished to be aided by the information
which time might supply" The kind of
information you desired or expected to
gain in the briefspaee of seventeen days
is left to conjecture; but, in view OF your
long avowed estrangement from the pres
ent Chief Magistrate, it could not have
been needed to intensity your hostility to
his administration. Your reply is dated
July 29th and it appears to have been as
carefully timed to influence the election
in North Carolina on the LIST of August,
before anything could be done to neutral
ize its efSsct, az vas your Grant indict-
ment speech in the Senate to determine
the action of the Philadelphia Conven-
ton. These coincidents may have been
accidental, but ypu must not be surprised
if, owing to the well known inlammable
state of your mind, a general belief OBJ
tains that you nave unfairly availed your
self of opportunities to werk-a fatal divis-
ion in the Republican ranks.
1t affords you much gratifcatic," to'Je
singled out by your colored in~terrogatOrs
as "the special advocate of their rights"
But this is an assumption which justice,
as we'll as becoming modesty, should
have led you to disclaim, v if it was
ment only to describe your Congress ca
rcer. Similar advocates have from time
to time stood bravely up, both in the Sem
etc and in the House Of Representatives
Wilson. Hale, Wade, Chase. Giddings,
Mann, Lovejoy, Julian, Palfry, Thad-
deus Stevens, Gerrit Smith and others
who. if not as copious and ornate in
speech as yourself, have been as unfinch-
ing, and in their turn most bitterly de-
nounced, to say nothing of the thousands
Of an,i-slavey men and women whose lot
it WAS to pass through the heat and bur-
den Of the conflict, pleading, in season
and out Of season, nearly o score of years
before your voice was heard in support of
their holy cause. You have since rem
dered eminen& service to that Cause /; your
advocacy Of it las been great and mer-
itoriOus; but to claim it as peculiar At
this late day, as though you stood alone
and almost single handed, IL y personal
appropriation very far removed from self.
abnegation, and quite u~rwarranted..
The Republican party (the product of
thirty year, moral and religious agita.
ton for the overthrow of savery( has
crushed a vast sectional rebellion for the
eviction of an independent slave empire;
hieamancipated 4,00O.OO0 Of bondmen,
and ELEVATED them to the plane Of Amer
lean citizenship; has reconstructed the
rebellious States on a common constitu-
tional bass. with universal liberty; has
oroughtaruet out OF chaos. general tran
quiSts out Of widespread ~disaffection,
'rns1smpled pnsperisy out of frightfui
,desastation aud has advanced the ban.
ter Of liberty and equality far beyond
any expectation eph0pe Of any man liy.
ing tan years ago. The day has gone BY,
thesefore. for any one to exhibit remark
able courage or consFp.ity in the adyo
cacy of any measure inA behalf Of the
rights and iutcreste o ourcolored por,.
la4isn,. ,except, iplsed. Where The oid,