New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-09-17
What the Negro Desires.

Five millions Of the forty millions of the
population Of the United States are of Afri-
can descent. Ten per centum of these people
of African descent are through miscegena-
ton descendants Of the proud Southern
whites. They are the labOrers without
whom the chief staple of the South could not
be produced. They are of peaceable, do
cile disposition, desiring to live in harmony
with their neighbors, and are eager to
acquire knowledge and property. Like all
other people they have proportion of good
for-nothings among them which is evidence
that they belong TO a common humanity.
The cruelty of the bondage from which
these five millions have been released was
beyond description. 1t left the negro with
nearly every vestige of humanity obliterated.
The love for freedom and the ability to dis
cover the right side in the conflict between
the North and the South, however, remained
with the negro, even after centuries of the
untold cruelties of American slavery. Dur
ing the conflict against treason the negro
embraced every opportunity to be of service
TO the Union. lie knew the right path and
followed il. Though often meeting with re-
bluffs from the over-ZealOus prO-slavery Cen
erals in our armies, the negro continued to
give information of vulnerable positions of
the enemy, to assist Union soldiers in their
escapes from rebel prisons, and to mark their
fall faith in the triumph of the right by alb
staining from excuses in the South in retalia-
ton upon the hefence!ess women and chill
dren left at their mercy by men who had
gone to strike down the Union flag.
The negro for nearly two years mplored
the Government to accept his services as a
soldier. lie met with GOODNESS and often
with insult and cruelty. :. He was denounced
in advance as a coward, a spirtless being,
who would run at the swapping of percus-
sion cap. lie was deemed incapable of in
struction as soldier, and through his
cowardicc and inability to be taught discip-
line, our armies would at some moment Of
dependence on him find him in complete ds-
order and themselves in great jeopardy. This
was the Copperhead idea at the North. 1t
had the effect TO tic the hands of the Govern
ment and to allow rebel victory upon victory
until the better sense of the nation was
aroused by the slaughter of the young white
men of the North. The cry came as with
one voice to arm the negroes, and they re-
sponded with an a:acrity that gave evidence
of their deep devotion to the cause of the
Union and the establishment Of freedom.
Old and young crowded one another at the
recruiting office door in the struggle to have
themselves enrolled in the armies of the
Union. Old men shed tears when told that
they were too far advanced in years to be
accepted as soldiers. Youths below the
minimum age could not hide their sorrow al
not being accepted. The negro came to the
conflict with his whole heart. Port Hudson,
Millikens Bend, Petersburg, Fort Wagner,
Olustee, the Planter. the schooner Waring,
all attest his bravery and his devotion.
The nation for which the negro was so
eager to take up arms had no claim to his
assistance that could be based on its care for
his interests. 1t had been pa,ticeps rrimi,,is
with the stakeholder. On its Statutes-at-
Large was an infamous act allowing the
hunting down of black humanity anywhere
i'm the nation and its return to slavery. In
its Supreme Court decisions was to be found
the idea that the negro had no rights entitled
to respect. His life and liberty were at the
mercy of United States marshals and United
States commissioners. The country had no
claim on his devotion. Ii owed him all that
Justice would give the wronged, yet the
negro, filled with the hope that the people
Of ha N.rtl in no 1o f,r,a To-
liberty, fought on the side of the Union, lend
ing no trif1ing aid in the great struggle for its
maintenance. What, if not his freedom and
the ballot, should be the reward of the
negro's devotion: The negro accepts the
ballot and his complete freedom as just
reward for his services in the time of the
nations peril. lie desires that that freedom
be equal to the freedom of any other race in
the land. He desires that protection shall
be afforded him against the hatred of the
nations enemies. lie desires that his civil,
as well as political, rights shall be guarded |
and protected by the strong arm Of the law,
to the end that men who cannot rise above |
the level of race hate may not with impunity |
outrage him upon public conveyances, in the |
common schools, and in places of public |
resort generally.
To the liberty-loving and grateful people |
Of the Union the negroes look for the just |
reward for their services. No higher price |
can be paid for citizenship in nation and |
for title to its protection than that of fight
ing. bleeding and dying for its preservation.
This the negro has done; still to-day in one
half Of the nation he approaches the cxer-
else of citizenship rights at the peril of life
or limb. A powerful political organization-
the Democratic party-is laboring for success
in getting control of the Government: its
aim is to repudiate the acts that gave freedom