The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-10-11
NUMBER 9.
Greeley's Speech in Louisville.

Il
with me to certain truths. First, is i
not true that we desire a Government OF
just and equal laws, which shall extend
equal favor and equal protection to
every American citizen? Great ap-
plause, and cries of 'That's so."l Is
it not true that, while we demand a re-
peal of all Acknowledgement, of all pro-
scriptions of Americans because of the
part they bore in the late struggle, we
| desire that no man shall be disfran-
| chised, that no man shall be prescribed,
but that every man shall stand on an
| equal platform with ourselves? Is not
! that the fact ? TCries of eyes, that's
| SOL Is it not true that we have no ex-
/ peetations, no purposes, no understand
| ing, that the rebel debt shall be paid,
or the rebel soldiers pensiOned, or the
slaves, emaneipated by the result of the
war, paid for. Is it not true that we
| have no purpose or expectation or un-
| derstanding that any of these things
| shall be done? Great applause, and
cries of ''YOU are right -
Now, fellOw~oit1zens, 1 wish to call
your attention to one aspect of this
| struggle which has not yet been present
ed. There is no class of our citizens,
no part of the American people who
have so real and great an interest in the
| success of our movement as the cOlOred
people of this country, for though they
know that we all admit that their rights
are perfectly secured by the Constitu-
ton, and that no one can go back of
that, it is to their real interests that
those rights shall not be merely accord
ed, but that they shall be cheerfully ac-
corded that there shall be no Opposi-
ton, no objection to their enjoying Just
the same political and civil rights that
we do. It is their interest more than
yours or mine that all contention con-
cerning black men or white men shall
absolutely cease, that every individual
shall be Judged and estimated according
to his worth, with no respect whatever
to color or condition. If our movement
succeeds, there is no party, there Is no
considerable faction, really there Is no
body left in the field opposing or OBJ
iecting or standing on q common plat
form of American Nationality. Great
applause. say, then, that it is their
clear interest that our movement shall
be welcome and ratified and approved
by the entire American people; and yet
it Is a discouTaging fact presented to
us that there is no other class so gen.
orally and so bitterly opposing us as
they are. There is no other class, as a
class, who insist so thoroughly on mis-
spprehending and misrepresenting US.
say not this to excite prejudice against
them. They are ignorant, and their ig-
norance is not their own fault, though
| it is their and our misfortune. They
are misled, and we are illuminated in
| their ears. Why, I have been repeat
| edly asked to contradict assertions that
have been a negro trader. Even on
my way to this place, one quadroOn girl,
/ after hearing me speak, said; 81 would
| like to stick knife into his heart. He
sold my mother in Richmond, Va.'
| IGreat applause. I can imagine no
reason why lies like that should be told.
| I can imagine no reason why good men
end women should not everywhere dis
| cOuntenance and refuto them. 1t is, 1
say, misfortune of the colored people,
misfortune of our people that they, as
a class, are steeled against us. They
| will not hear us. They do not believe
us. They are told that this movement
| IL a contrivanee to get them enslaved
/ again, virtually if not absolutely, and
| that all the pretensiOns of the Cincin-
natl platform and Baltimore indOrse~
ment in favor of equal rights are frauds,
are lies. If this party succeeds, says
| Mr.. Wendell Phillips, you must conceal
your property and take care of your
arms. Now, fellow-citizens, I state
| these facts here, not that I would have
| you think any worse of this misguided
| people. state them because I want
| you Kentuckians to realize that igno-
rance is a public peril; that you can not
well afford to have any part of your
people growing up In that dense unac-
quaintance with public order and public
affairs that they can be deceived and
misled as this people are. You want to
| take care that they shall be educated,
! so that they shall be too wise, too well
informed. to be thus deceived and mis-
guided. Fellow-citizens, if our move
ment shall prevail, as trust it will pre-
vail, we will sweep away all this refuse
of lies in three months. We will say to
the cOlOred men: We prOfer you moth
ing except the protection of the laws,
the same for you as for us. You have
your living to earn as well as we You
viii have to use all your abilities, all
your energies, all your facilities, and
make the most of them you can. The
laws do not favor you, but they viii
thoroughly protect you, and in three
months if we succeed, the colored peO-
pie will be so disabused that the same
men can never deceive them again-nev-
er again.
But suppose we fail, and we may fail
| a voice, eve are not going to failp']
Our great danger is this If the color
ed men did not believe that the power
was against us, that the money was
against US if they did not realize that
the treasury, the army, the one hundred
thousand Office holders were all banded
against us, In a force which they be-
heve we cannot overcome, they certainly
/ Of ha hngtII4
us. They think we can not succeed,
and they want to be on the winning side.
That is a part of it; but they are also
deluded in regard to our purposes. We
say we are not your enemies; we VIII
not be your oppressors-we VIII not,
though you have done us injustice. We
will try, as well as we can, to have your
children educated, enlightened, so that
the mistakes you have made can not be
made over and over again. That is
where we stand.
Now, fellow-citizens, why do we con.
demn prescription ? They mistake who
say that there are only two or three
handred left, now forbidden to exercise
the common rights of American citizens
It Is not so. There are thousands
There are five thousand disfranehiseC
In the State of Arkansas alone, and th'
men who hold them disfranchIsed e1
pect to carry the State against us b!
, virtue of that disfranchisement. But
is not the number prescribed. Mel
who are not under this ban feel them
selves prescribed because others are
for an ofFense which was their offeEse a
well. So long as you have prOscribe'
class in the country, men all arounl
q you, honorable, generous men, will feel
. f'I ought to be prescribed the same a
: that man. The difference was only b
: accident. He happened to take an Oat