New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-04
BATON ROUGE, June %, 1872.


TO Lieutenant Governor Pinchback. cor
ner of Canal and Derbigny streets.
The Packard corruption, conspiracy, and
tyranny has triumphed over the will of the
colored people. BY keeping Republicans di-
vided they have driven thousands from the
ranks and organized a defeat. The only hope
Republican party. IIenceiorth I am one Of
them. Address me at Shreveport.
J. SELLA MARTIN.
Well, we are sorry to part with Mr.. Mar
tin. He is smart, courageous, and eloquent,
and may succeed in making some colorcd
voters believe that the Liberal Greeley Demo-
cratic movement is the only hope of the col
ored people Of the South, aud lead them to
throw away their votes in that direction. But
let him go. His way will be dark and sim
uous and full of bitter disappointment. What
ever may be his impressions of the character
of this Cincinnati party, he will find that in
going over to it, he has, in fact, gone over to
the enemy. If there were no evidence in
the origin of this movement, of its hostility to
the peace and security of the colored people
of the South, the fact that il is the party of
their old oppressors, that they rush into il as
the ark of their salvation, and hail il as the
hope of their restoration TO power, ought to
South the true path of political duty and
safety. BE not deceived colorcd men of the
Nuth. No man can serve two masters.
The hopes, ends, and aims of the old master
class differ widely from those who once wore
the yoke of bondage. Mr.. Greeley is a
great man, but he cannot at the same time
be the only hope both of the former
master and the former slave. What
ever may be the case i'll the distant future,
when time and civilization have wrought
changes greater than any yet seen, when
the practices and prepossessions, the product
of two hundred years of bondage shall have
been totally blotted out, when the lamb may
safely lie down with the lion, then the hope
of the master may be that of the slave. But
this day has not yet come. Slavery was struck
hopes OF the masters and the same spirit which
fought to uphold slavery, lives at the South to-
day. It's as proud, imperous, and as exact
ing now as ever. 1t has all the disposition it
eyer had, to own and Cypress the newly and
'forcibly liberated class, and only lacks the
power. Grant stands in their way. The
Republican party stands in their way. But
for these, bloody war of determination
against the colored people of the South would
have well-nigh done its work ere this. The
chief ofiense of General Grant, i'll the eye of
the South, is not that he has oppressed the
law-abiding and peaceful citizens OF the old
slaveholding class, (for he has done no such
thing,) but he has stayed the bloody hands
of the Ku-Klux murderers, the men who
BACKED their faces and otherwise disguised
themselves and went forth under cover of
midnight to startle the poor colored freedman
and his family in their lonely huts and per-
petrate their deeds of dastardly cruelty, MUIR
der, and shame. He has done this, how
ever, in accordance with law, and only when
the Legislatures and Governors Of States
have, through indifference or lack of power,
failed to suppress the brutal and hell-black
violence.
All this is known to j. Sella Martin as well
as to any other man in the United States;