The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-06-28
AN EPISTLE TO THE BLACKS.

AN EPlSTLE TO THE BLACKS.
what the Original litfonist Of Ken.
lucky Has to Say to the Col0red Peo.
ple.-Lettcr from the Hon. Casssius
N. Clay.
From the Louisville Courier Journal
BLOOMFIELD. KY, May 80, 1872.
To Hon. C1ssius N. Clay, White Hall,
Mansion County, Ky.
DEAR SIR: Nothing short of the COM
plexity of polical affairs in our beloved
country could ever have induced me
to force myself upon your notice. The
complexity referred to is unequivOcal-
ly better understood by you than is
either comprehended or can hope to be
explained by me. Knowing you to be
in friendship with the Liberal move
ment, and having seen a statement in
the CO,trieT-JouPdI to the effect that
you would speak at several points in
the State during the pending campaign
ON the living issues of the day, 1 COLI
cluded to write to you. Doubtless you
have more influence with the blacks
than any man in the State.
But there are three or four points
that il would be we'll to notice:
First-All of the co.ored men do not
know the antecedents of the great Abo-
li,ionist of Kentucky, due to the fact
that they have ever been kept, As far
as was possible to keep them, in total
ignorance of the names as well as deeds
of the advocates of their freedom.
However, there are some who have
heard of the Hon. Cassius M. Clay and
are eager to hear his views of the politi-
cal situation.
Second-Most of the colored people
(outside of the cities and large towns)
are not aware that they have any
true friends but those men who were
prominent by the war-a very sad mis-
take; hence the adherence of many of
them to Grantism because Mr.. Greeley
is not generally known among them.
Third-A large per cent of the black
people can't understand what political
emergency has transpired to cause
their former masters to vote for Horace
Greeley, who, as the whites tell them,
is one OF the best friends they ever had.
They are not slow TO discredit the
statement, and think it a cunningly
devised trick to get them to vote for a
Democrat by calling him an Abolition
ist. And so they unwisely conclude
that they will only vote the right way
wnen they vote contrary to their Dem
Ocratic friends vote; bit OF absurdity
[ think.
Fourth-They can't comprehend the
meaning of the words, GENERALIZATION"
"official corruption" or 'habeas cor.
pus suspension" all of which is preg-
nant with strife and trouble. Many of
are extremely credulous, and in many
instances all that is necessary to cause
them to vote for Grant is to tell them
that he was COmmander-in-C OF
the Federal forces during the late war
las if the war wasn't over, and they
will let Summer, Garrison (whO has
made a fool himselD, Phillips and
Horace Greeley, all slip through their
fingers. This is bad.
Your purpose of canvassing the State
will, however, in a great measure REM
edy this evil. But there are many
small towns, such as this one, where
the time of canvassing nor the number
of voters in them will admit of your
speaking. / would, therefore, as be-
ing deeply interested i'll the Liberal
movement, and entirely committed To
Mr. Greeley, also feeling that you and
/ are engaged in common cause for the
prosperity of our beloved land aud
glorious institutions, ask cOndescen-
ton of you. Please give me your
views of the duty of colOred men.
/ am no politician, but l feel that
there is debt of gratitude that every
black man owes to Mr.. Greeley, and
will work necessarily for his election
in November i would be gratified be-
yond expression if my race here in
Nelson County cold hear you.
8 They well might rejoice to
hear the voice that has often been
raised in their defence, and see the
great and good Hon. g. M. Clay and
hear his voice urging them to flock to
the standard of liberty, the sovereign
ity of the States and redeem our insti.
tutions from menaces of military
chieftain.
An answer will oblige your Obedient
servant, ANDREW ]. CHAMBERS.
WHITE HALL, KY, June 2, 1872.
My DEAR SIR: Your favor of the
3Oth ult. is just received. L am pre-
pairing my speech for tomorrow to be
made at NichOlasville, principally for
our colored voters, so / can but briefly
reply to your interesting letter. For
this purpose / declined an invita-
ton to speak at the great ratification
meeting of Horace Greeley and b.
Gratz Brown, which also takes place
TO morrow, the Sd inst, at Cooper In
stitute in New York. l am gratified
to hear from you, or any colorcd man,
having devoted so much of my life
time to the liberation of and the adj
vancement of the blacks, that they
have, perhaps, become a sort of hobby
to me. The present great {" Radically
party, as Sumner (whose late speech
as telegraphed send you) terms them,
is like the Yankees knife with new
blade and n new handle, so that almost
nothing of ii is left but the name. SO
far as the colored Americans are con-
cerned, they owe nothing to the Grant
Republicans. 1t was the old " liberd-
ton element of the Cincinnati Liberia,
Republicans who achieved their liberty
and established their rights forever in
the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments of the COnsti-
tuition. And Sumner, who denounced
Grant as "the chief Ku-Klux" for at
tempting to destroy, by illegally in
terfering with San Domingo and
Hayti, the two black nations of that
island, was the most efficient friend the
colored people had i'm all their past
DAYS of legislation. When we elected
Lincoln we were in a minority, Bell
and Eeverett, Douglas and Breck-
inridge carrying q large majority of the
votes. So at the end of LincOln's term,
although he had been reelected, we
were not sure that we had majority
of the people for equal rights to all so
we Gnhappily took Grant, life long
Democrat, and hater of the abolition
lists who, after the discussion of the
rights of men for thirty years, i'm
1856 voted for that old enemy Of justice,
James Buchanan, for President, who
saw blood shed in Kansas and the
civil war begun to establish slavery
forever, and aided and abetted it. Ii
seems Grant did not vote for Lincoln ;
perhaps too drunk to vote. AS soon rs
he was made President he put the son
of Stephen A. Douglas, the most
powerful of our enemies, in the most
confidential place as his private Secre-
tary. And went on neglect,ng our
old friends who had fought the good
fight and achieved victory, to put in
office our enemies and eleventh hour
men to their exclusion, and now he
has fallen into the hands of the worst
men in the nation, Hamilton Fish, o.
p. Morton Ben Butler, and Simon
Cameron, none of whom were ever
Republicans and an eleventh-hOur