Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-31
CoIored Man 10 summer.

OIh llllGSs-
TO Hon. Charles Sumner:
Sir: | am not one OF those who, on the llth
of July last, had the honor of asking your
guidance of the action Of the colored voters
of the nation in the presidential contest now
pending. Your reply, however, consider adj
dressed to me as well as TO your correspondents,
for am also a colOred man; l may, indeed,
consider it addressed particularly TO me, Tor
have been slave
"AlloW me to give my reasons in brief for not
accepting your guidance. You intimate, toward
the close OF your letter, that the time will come
when cOlored people ought to think for
themselves With the profoundest Difference to
your wisdom, | propose to do that now. If the
colored people have not intelligence enough TO
form an opinion upon public questions, they
have not intelligence enough to vote. Ii your
enemies and mine, sir shall point to your letter
as an evidence OF your belief tnat my people
cannot be left to their own discretion, it is the
more proper that some Of us should promptly
and publicly protest ageinst that assumption.
81 am, in common with every colored man |
know, a republican. We believe, as Frederick
Douglass has said that the repu blican party is
the deck; all the rest is the sea- We do not
propose to 90 overheard. We have tried drifting
astern of civilization, hanging on by rope for
several generations, and have had enough of it.
Taken on board among our fellow men, and
recognized as fellow creatures we like it best to
stay there. Ii we were to take to the sea once
more we might, as you think, come up dryer
next time. But to US the risk of drowning or
of never having dry foothold again, seems the
greater, and we prefer to stay where we are. In
the depth of your wisdom this will seem like
very shallow reasoning. But you must remem-
Der that we are very simple people. Instinct
goes a great way with us. Between those who
succeeded at length in pulling us out of the sea
and those who were always thrusting us deeper
down into it, we think we know which are our
friends. We shall stick to the first, whatever
you may think of 1t.
you know what mean by this. Less than
ten years ago, 100000 of us were slaves. To-
day every one of those 4, 900 900 are free; every
one of them has the right to life, to liberty, to
property; every man among us has the right to
vote. We owe this, under God, to the republican
party. Had we been left to the mercy OF the
democratic party, we should have been 100000
| of slaves STILL without any rights whatever. In
| that long struggle in our behalf we remember
that we saw you always in the forefront of the
battle. We saw you, with heavy hearts, struck
down in our cause by Shareholders budgeOn.
Now we see you, and we see you with many
tears, beckon us to 90 with you from the ranks
of our friends to the ranks of your and our enc
mics. We cannot follow you.
ave shall vote for Gen. Grant because Gen
Grant is the representative of the republican
party, and if he shall be rechOsen president the
republican party will remain in power. All we
have we owe to them. They have raised us
from slavery TO freedom, and we have no reason
TO doubt that they will, in the future uphold
all they have done in the past. Our masters
waged long and blood war that the Union
might be dissolved and our enslayement made
perpetual, and in all the north they had no
allies except among democrats. The republic
| cans saved the Union and they saved us. We
| can trust and love those who have done this for
us. We cannot trusta and do not love those who,
| if they could have had their way, would still
| have held us as slaves.
"You and other wise men say that some of
| the acts of the republican party since the war
| have not been WISE 1t may be so. No party
was ever uniformly and always wise; but we do
not see that the general welfare and prosperity
| Of the people have suffered much from the acts
| of that party. And we do know that every act
| OF the republican party, that was done with
| special reference to the colored people, was for
our welfare and protection. They have amended
| the constitution for our benefit, They have
| given to us the means of education. They have
| enacted laws to secure to US the rights and
priyilegesAthey have bestowed upon us. And if
they have made any mistakes in legislation in
regard to us-an1 we do not know of them
they have been errors of Judgment and not of
Intention. And we also know that every one of
those republican acts in our behalf-the abo-
ton of slavery, the constitutional amendments,
the laws for our benefit and for our protection
have every one OF them been opposed by demo-
Gratis, and if the democrats could have had their
way, would never have been passed. Shall we
not trust such friends and mistrust such enc
mics?
of sixteen years ago Mfr. Grant voted for the
democratic candidate for the presidency, we for
give him that one error, but shall not follow
his example. We forgive him because since
then he has been General Grant, and a hieved
the most splendid and decisive victories and the
final triumph of that war which gave us our
freedom, and because he has been the chosen
president of the party that secured to us the
| fruits OF that freedom, II, while president, he
has given office to several of his relatiYes-a
mistake not committed lately and not likely TO
be re2eated-can you forgive me for saying
| that l count such an error as infinitely small
when weighed against his services to the repub-
lie and to my race' The nepotism which as
| sumes such formidable dimensions in your ewes
seems in ours small blemish when we remem-
Der the cruel despotism from which this man
was the chosen instrument to deliver us
Democratic rule is the thing that has the most
terrOrS for us.
perhaps it could not reduce us again to
slavery. Even il it did not we have not forgot
ten the New York riots of 1863 when democrats
shot us down in the streets of this city; hanged
our people to lamp posts, burned our houses
over the heads of our wives and children, and
wreaked their hatred Of us upon the dead bodies
of their victims with the most savage atrocities
We hesitate 10 shake hands over such bloody
chasms' with our prosecutors of Yesterday
though General Grant should have given twice
twelve offices TO bis relativesl No, sirl You do
injustice TO the memory of our wrongs, and our
sense of gratitude for benefits received, if you
think you can so easily persuade us TO turn our
backSupon cur friends.
81 should have more confidence in the sincerity
Of your motives if the forgiveness of injury you
inculcate were universal. But while you ask us
to trust those who have done US so much posi-
tive harm, you bid us in tine same breath to be
uUiOrulylup of WFOnU which you Con
Grant proposed TO perpetrate upon some Of our
race IN another country, and, therefore, to trust
him no longer Must we accept this as the un-
imprisoned and candid judgment of a states
NAM Is there not room for doubt that Gen.
Grant, IN proposing to annex Dominica, meant
to benefit the Dominican black man rather than
to harm the black man OF Hayti2 But whatever
his motive was, he abandoned the project when
he found that it did not commend itself to the
judgment Of his cOuntrymen. Shall we quarrel
with him because he repented2 Even if he
meant wrong the fact that he did not commit
it should, it seems to me, commend him the
more to our confidence. will take your word
for it that he crowned that presidential iniquity
by not inviting Mr.. Frederick Douglass to din.
Der; but az the admission Of colored men TO
social attentions OF that sort has not yet become
quite universal, perhaps we may leave it little
while longer out of the list Of qualifications for
the presidency.
"li we cannot cease to believe in Gen Grant
at your bidding, still less can we begin to be-
lieve In Mr.. Greeley. Had our faith in him boon
ever so strong before, it could not have survived
the treachery and folly which led him, appa.
rently to crafty an insane desire lorloffice, to
put himself into the hands of the party he had
always opposed and hated, Had he been ever
so much our friend, how could we trust him to
be true to US when he cannot even be true to
himself2 But for his friendship to us | cannot
take even your word. YOn cOnstrain me TO
doubt either your truthfulness or your judy
ment, or your memory, when you assert OF Mr..
Is honest enough not to make this claim for
himself IN his acceptance Of the democratic
nomination he is careful 10 state, in guarded
terms, that his opposition to slavery was only
70 IT'S extension. He never iorgave the abo-
liuonists that they defeated Henry Clay by
casting their votes for an anti.savery candidate
10 the lirst political anti-saTery party, the free
solers, he was bitterly opposed and The emil
slavery movement received no countenance from
him I'LL itDecame popular enough and strong
enough to form The republican party.
~ am not unmindfu Of how important fine
formation Of that party was in the progress of
events; but the gratitude we owe to it Is quite
another thing from the gratitude that may be
demanded from us to those who preceded il, In
this last Mr. Greeley can have no share, In
those dark days he was not orr friend He adj.
yised us then ii he condescended TO think rs
worthy Of any advice whatever, to be content
with our position us boot.blacks and BARRIERS,
and aspire TO nothing better. Even 50 late as
June last, in an address TO the eolorcd people of
POughkeepsie he counseed us in the same