New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-03-26
From M Massachusetts.
Butler and the Negro.
CAMBRIDGE, March .,

CAMBRIDGE, March >, 1874.
70 he EaiiT efMe Eeo National Era:
There is one broad proposition on which l
stand; it is this, that an American negro is
an American citizen, and that no American
citizen shall be subjected to any insult or
inconvenience on account of color. accident
of birth or previous condition of servitude.
The American negro is your fellow citizen
as well as mine and come what may, my
voice will always be raised in behalf of my
countrymen against an inhuman desire to de-
grade them to the level of brute.
In many q blooddy battle has the superb
GRITTY of the negro decided the conflict in favor
of his country, and / beseech you in the
name of humanity and justice to secure and
preserve that superiority.
Who in 177O set an example TO his white
comrades by giving up his life that you might
have a country? Who, say, was this martyr
to the cause of liberty? a negro, fugitive.
Who was Peter Salem? Who was he that
helped to man the slight breast-works so
calamity defended? Who shot dead Major
Pitcairn and in the final struggle he scaled
the redoubt shouting the day is ours ! and
wis commanding the rebels to surrender ?
He was negro.
Negroes largely swclled the motley host
of raw but gallant patriots suddenly col
lected around Boston by the tidings of Lex
ington, Concord and Bunker Hill.
TO come down to n later period. Whose
blood mostens the soil Of forts Picket. Wag-
ner and Oluste? Are the gallant exploits of
the brave old 54th and 55th colorcd rcgi-
ments forgotten? No, they are not forgot
ten they can never be forgotten as long as
the rebellion is remembered. Who filled
Louisiana with CONSERVATION, and carried the
ensign colors triumphantly through that
rebel State ? 1t was the American negro
and the name of benjamin +. Butler and his
gallant negroes shall 60 down the annals of
time forever.
Yet the negro is subjected to insults of the
lowest nature. lie is insulted even in the SEN
ate chamber he is considered the property
of the white man to be treated and disposed
of as he may deem best.
If in travelling he enters steam car with
other respectable citizens he is rejected; 1t
is in vain that he cries, am an American
citizen. This is brutal, it is abominable,
and must be abolished. Shall man with
those sacred words, am an American citl-
zen, OH his lips be refused decent accommo'
datiOns on a steam car, steamboat, in hotels
and the like, merely because he is a negro
No; Heaven forbid.
Shall the negro be considered Of an inferior
nation when he can show such representa-
tiyes as Hon. Frederick Douglass, Hon. IL
d. Elliott, Hon. Richad Cain and great
many others No never. And l do say
that with such of our men together with oul
good old friends, Charles Summon and BenJa'
min +. Butler, we shall march steadily on to
laureled victory-tO glory-and uncontaml'
mated equality.
Yes; for we will never give up the strug'
Gle; and the names of John Brown, Charles
Sumner, Benjamin +. Butler, Frederick
Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Wen
dell Phillips, all champions of freedom, shall
be rs lasting rs monumental brass-names