New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-09-25

evening, stood awaiting the Eastern Express
which, through one of the mishaps, with
which the Erie road manages to entertain It's
passengers, was an hour behind time. Heads
which had been impaticntly bobbnC in and
out OF the little latticed window, (Which al
ways make ME SILVER and run up and down
the 'gamut' of my recent "haughtiness ~
at last settled back. as tremor of the air. a
rushing sound. and the expected train stood
beside Us. A few al the beIated passengers
came crowding in, eager and GREATNESS, to
secure seats; and among them a mother and
daughter, evidently, who stumbled into the
first one vacant, which CHANGED to be directly
in front of my neighbors across the way, a
colored gentleman and lady. The girl WAS
the first to perceive the fact, and her hurried
whisper of ''niggers behind us >" fail TO reach
the comprehension Of the other, who could
not believe the astounding truth. AS it was
repeated; the woman's hurried glance back
ward, her stare of undisguised horror and
disgust, would make the fortune Of any "dan-
sease." The next moment bound from the
seat, a scrambling up of boxes and bundles,
aud they betook themselves, tittering and
giggling, down the aisle to the farthest seat
in the car. AS contrasted their insuffera-
ably vulgar and supercilious behavior with
the quiet and dignfied department of the
persons they despised, the latter rose mo-
mently in favor. In manners, dress, and
demcanor, they were irreproachable; while
the fiashy and prctentious apparel of the
while women was fair outgrowth of their
Stiffness and ignorance; their miserable caste
and foolish arrogance. And this, thought l.,
in land which has just given its choicest
blood and treasure" to purchase freedom
and equality, civil and religious rights, for
these desrised ones. This, at the North,
yh 70 i
higher law;h which welcomes the outcasts
Of the nations to its shores, with promises of
help, and homes of happiness and plenty.
This, in the Empire State, which calls to its
lecture halls and public councils a son it is
not ashamed to own in Frederick Douglass
man whom the honored President of Cor
nell University was not unwilling to stand
beside in matters of national import and sig
nitinance aud Ia whom the President of the
United States extended the hand of courtesy
and friendly greeting in the invitation to his
own table
In marked contrast to this disgraceful
scene is the sumptuous breakfast lately given
by the PRIMER of England, at Carlton House
Terrace, to the Jubilee Singers from Tennes-
see. Not only Mr. Gladstone and his wife -,
but others, no less distinguished; members
of the Parliament, the Cabinet Minister.
entertain them Dining-tables, We are told,
were beautifully decorated in their honor;
liyeried footmcu ministcrcd to their wants,
and the choicest treasures of painting, sculp-
turc, and ceramic art, were displayed for
their qualification. Aud not only here, but
in the very presence Of royalty were their
claims to merit acknowledged. For we fur
Their read that they had previously sung at
the Premier's, in the presence of the Prince
and Princess of Wales, the CZarowitZ and
Czarvena of RUSSIA, with others who wear
robes of state. We wonder if these things
did not sometimes force sharp recOlectiOns of
far different treatment in Newark and Jersey
CITY, where they were turned out Of hotels
by pigmy-soulcd landlords, who could not
believe that God ever enshrined a royal soul
in the ebony caskct OF ncgro's brain. That
it has been done, let Toussaint L'Ouyreture
and many another noble name answer.
Mr.. Emerson allows that only about one
man in five hundred years is born who is
worthy of Immortality; but even he would
not insist that" that rare example Of the pos
sibilites of our race" should be Of the Anglo
Saxon type. Whence, then, comes this
spirit Of caste still cherished and defended
among us: In the palmy days Of slavery,
when the chains of habit and custom were
strong, we were not surprised that John NJ.
Mason, then minister to France, should
hauohtily reply, when asked what he thought
Of the Haytan Ambassador, whom he met
al an imperial lcyee, ~ think he would be
worth eighteen hundred dollars in Rich
mond." And We could even try to apologize
for the great men who, under great tempta-
tons, succombed to its power; as our own
matchless Webster when, in 1852, he made
those fatal bids for the Presidency, said to
the people Of Virginia And when nothing
else will answer, they invoke religion and
speak of higher law. Gentlemen, this
North mountain is high; the Blue Ridge is
higher still; the Allegheny is higher than
either; and yet this higher law ranges above
the highest peaks Of the Allegheny. No
common vision can discern it 4; no conscience,
not t,anscendental and ecstatic, can feel it /;
the hearing Of common men can never listen
to its high behests. And yet it is the code OF
the fanatical and fanatic AbolitiOnist of the
North"
But, since the Great Expounder- day, how
mighty has been the change. We have sac
ridced many kingly soul and noble spirit
on this alter Of caste, as witness Batchelder,
who fell in defending Anthony Burns, the
gallant Young Robert G.. Shaw, John Brown,
and the hosts Of patriots whose blood en-
riches Southern soil, and whose bones lie
bleaching in broad savannas or marshy will
derness, lar rom all that HE held dear.
And shall we wake up the ashes Of the dead
past, foster, by 80 much ar hairs breadth.
the detestable spirit which has been the ma
TONS baue and curse? or be deluded by such
specious reasoning as ''ehirairOus" South
ron lately addressed to the poet editor W q.
&. Bryant? / trow not. Let us rather stand
ready to slay afresh the tydraheaded mon
ster, if need be and to our works add prayers
Of faith that the glorious day Of freedom and
unity may ''march" swiftly 'On," and the
Jubilee" Of the nation be speedily heralded
in. And in that grand chorus Of the nations,
whose cadences shall rise and fall from the
Misunderstanding groves Of tropical Ceylon,
to the frozen shores Of Nova Zembla, from
the balmy lands Of the OrIent, 70 the distant
isles Of the sea, shall not the ''falsetto" Of
the dusky- bros cal African be heard? Though
quivering ofttimes with the weight of unut-
tered rrief, and the burdens and woes OF
their hapless lives, shall their tones be lost
in The rythmicpEeou OF humanity: No, as
the truths for which earnest souls, in all
ages, have suffered and died; the mighty
principles Of right, which no tyranny could
crush, no opposition destroy, are asserting
themselves with eyer-increasing force, Wild
ening and deepening in the march Of ages,
SO may the mighty symphony roll on and On A.,
from The river, even 10 the end OF the earth,
drowning the InBy voices that aeon and re-
vile and catherine I'D every broken tone