New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-08-01
Open Letter 10 Mr.. Sumner.
ALEXANDRIA. VA, july 10,

less ability and opportunity. l hope, there
fore, you will not consider me presumptuous
if 1 attempt to tell you briefly why, in my
opinion, you cannot consistently support Mr.
Greeley as against General Grant now that
the latter has been put in nomination by the
regular Republican Convention. You say in
one of your speeches, I" 1t is vain to say we
accept the situation, and deny to the colored
citizen equality before the law" L have
not your speech before me, but l am certain
that in substance / quote you correctly. The
question then arises Have Mr.. Greeley and
his associates accepted the situation as in
| terpreted by your great speech on Equality
| before the Law" delivered in the Senate,
January Is, 1872? Mr.. Greeley certainly
has not. In his POughkeepsie speech to the
| colOred people, delivered since his nominal
ton at Cincinnati, he advises his colored fell
low-citizens to submit to manifest injustice.
Says Mr.. Greeley, "I If were black man,
1 should not ask separate school; yet
should say If the whites chose to have a
separate school, 1 should not object to it, 1
should say, gentlemen, be it as you please !;
l have no choice in the matter" But YOU
tell us in the speech to which have already
referred, ut is easy to see that the sepa-
rate school founded on an odious discrimina-
ton and sometimes offered as an equivalent
for the common school, is an ill-disguised
violation of the principles of equality, while
as pretended equivalent it is an utter fail
ure, and instead of a parent, is only churl-
lsh step-mother." Again you say, in the
same speech, The child is not trainedin the
way he should go for he is trained under the
which you, sir, would feel keenly were it di-
rected against you or your child. Surely the
race enslaved for generations has suffered
enough without being compelled to bear this
prolonged proscri ption. But Mr.. Greeley
tells us that we should say, awe have no
choice in the matter" Holding the opinion
which you do on this subject, an opinion
which every unprecedented white and cOlored
man must decide to be correst and just, you
are certainly barred by your own words and
life from supporting Mr.. Greeley. Whatever
support you received in your noble effort to
put the cap stone upon your life work, came
from those who support General Grant for
the Presidency. Had it not been for the OPP
position which you met with in Congress at
the hands of Mr.. Greeley's friends, the Sup
Elementary Civil Rights Bill would now be
law of the land, and colored citizen would
not be subjected to insult on every hand. 1
know that you are still devoted to the work
in which you have spent so many years nav,
even dedicated to its final accomplishment.
Knowing this desire to PROFOUND ques-
ton, the answer to which ought to determine
the course of every one devoted to human
rights. Can complete Equality before the
law" as interpreted by your speech in the
Senate on the the 18th of January, 1872, be
more effectually established through the party
which supports General Grant for the Presi-
dency, or through the party which supports
Mr.. Greeley? In order to answer this ques-
ton correctly shall present few facts.
The platform adopted at Philadelphia de-
clares in favor of establishing, by appropriate
State and Federal legislation, complete lib
erty and exact equality in the enjoyment of
all civil, political, and public rights.
We beheld in the actual CARRYING out of
this plank in the platform in the treatment
accorded to the cOlored delegates to the
Philadelphia Convention. For once, in the
Quaker city, all prejudice on account of color
was laid aside in hotels, on the street, in the
convention, and, in short, everywhere reason
assumed sway, and prejudice and hate were
buried. We must also remember that what
ever has been accomplished in this country
in the direction of just government and of
protection to the negro is to be attributed to
the party which now supports General Grant.
All the votes which you obtained in Congress
in favor of your civil rights bill came from
members of that party. But what have Mr..
Greeley and his followers to set over against
this record? We have Greeley's speech at
Poughkeepsie, and the Cincinnati platform
indorsed, after considerable opposition, at
Baltimore. That platform declares in favor
of equality before the law" 1t also de-
clares in favor of local government, which,
as interpreted by Democrats, means death to
our rights. What the Republican party
means by "exact equality" they have clearly
shown in their treatment of colOred delegates
at Philadelphia, and by their votes, already
referred to, in Congress in favor of the supple
mentary civil rights bill. What the sup
porters OF Greeley mean by Equality before
the law" they, also, have clearly shown by
returning from Cincinnati and voting against
every measure'to establish Equality before
the law Trumbull vieing with Bayard, and
Schurz with Thurman in opposition to your
bill, being willing to kill even their darling
amnesty that civil rights might not prevail
In this State, from which write, we are
having constant illustration of what Greeley
ism means, and what it proposes to do. No
where is Greeley more enthusiastically sup
ported than in Virginia, not even in the
heart OF Tammany ITSELF The present Gov
ernor of Virginia Walker-was put in NOM
ination by few boilers from the Republican
State Convention, who professed to be more
liberal than their associates. The Demo-
cratic party Immediately determined to make
ho hoiiiidIiou, DuI 10 support w alkcr. lie
was elected, protesting all the time to be a
better Republican than his opponent, Wells.
What do we now behold? "A Democratic
Legislature, nearly every office in the State
filled by Democrat, colored men not al
lowed to sit in jures, and when they travel
forced forward into ':Jim Grow" cars, unable
to get anything to cat at the various stopping
places on the route, except what they may
catch in the kitchens or take in their hands,
Democratic courts, where no negro is allowed
to sit on the jury, are the only sources to
which he can look for redress.
The same kind of Liberalism. or rather
Conservatism, prevails in Missouri and Ten
nessee. Can you, Senator, afford to lend
your aid toward spreading such system all
over the country? In the same speech of
January Is, 1872, under the heading. " great
issue OF the war;" you say, Behind the en-
battled armies were ideas, and the idea ON
our side was equality in rights, which on the
other side was denied;" then you tell us how
Mr.. Calhoun called the idea which was he
hind our armies a self-evident lie" how
Jefferson Davis, in his farewell speech in the
Senate, January 81, 1861, maintained the
same doctrine as Mr.. Calhoun; then YOU
beautifully tell us how Abraham Lincoln
joined issue with the rebel chieftain Won
add, "Thus the gauntlet flung down by JEFF