New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-04-09
A Big Bssgbear.

A Big Bugbear.
| 1t is the stock in-trade of a certain class
of mercenary adventures to cry, "Union,
union, over the grave of Charles Sumner"
"COlored men," il is said, "cannot afford to
disagree about so sacred thing as building
a monument to our great benefactOr :" and
this pretended reverence for the dead is made
the means of hoodwinking the living, and OF
lessening the prospects Of the erection Of
any monument, by the placing of funds to
build it, in the hands of certain self-elected
men, one Of whom sold his own color durn 9
the war by pocketing hundred dollars and
| upwards for every man he enlisted to fight,
willie he luXurated upon the money thus
secured. The people of Washington remem-
Der how Downing gave himself to this dis
gushing business, and everybody knows what
profit was made out of it by the coloref men
who nefariously sold their ignorant brethren
into the hardships of military service, which
they were too cowardly to enlist in them
selves. No wonder such men want union
over Charles Summers memory; no wonder
they want union on their own terms. What
are their terms? Their terms are the I'M
conditional acceptance by the people of the
charter of a so-called national monument as
sociation-formed by eight men, who elected
themselves to Office, and then denied the
public voice except upon the condition that
the speakers should join the so-called asso-
cin Hnc Iha; L.
This is union with q vengeance, Any kind
of dissention is better than this sort of
union.
The cry for union under such circum-
stances is about the biggest bugbear we ever
heard Of.
1t would seem that some of our white
friends who did not know the deep distrust
inspired among colored people by the bro
kerage in colorcd men practiced by some of
these wouid-be leaders during the war, have
fallen into the mistake of believing that the
colored people are quarrelng over statue
to Sumner. There is not a single colored
man, above the condition of beggar or
miser, in the Union who hesitates to give his
money and do his part to accomplish this
worthy object, and on account of this uni
versal desire and purpose to consecrate
negro gratitude in some enduring form of
memorial TO the great Senator, there is an
unalterable determination that no itching
desire for mere notoriety, no cunning plan to
advertise business, no bewtching temptation
to handle other peoples money, shall aid in
hoo Y,pcr ho odd Of
disgrace of leaving Charles Summers memory
where Abraham I.incoln's has been left
that is, without a national monument erected
by our race.
There is nO contention about the monu-
ment, the contest relates only to the method
of getting the money and the security which
should surround its handling and its expen-
diture, and to the certainty of having mon
ment built
The Capital, of this city, talks about the
incapacity of the negro race, as evinced in
this contest, and contends that We need the
guidance of white men. Well, we don't
deny that seven generations of oppression
practiced upon us by the class of white men
for whom the Capita, speaks, have left us
somewhat behind in the race of life !; but
even the barbarizing influences of that sys-
tenn which the Capital longs to see revived,
have not shOrn us of all intellectual vigor.
We do differ among ourselves on all sub
jects, and the more sacred the subject the
firmer are the opposing classes of opinions
held by those who have brains and con-
science enough to hold to any convictions at
all. And in this respect we are not unlike
our white fellow-ctizens. The Capital. for
instance, does not believe in the present
Administration, and the INSCRIPTIONS pen
of its editor glides with satanic subtilty
through the editorial pages of that journal
spreading personal spleen upon private char
acter, and inscribing upon the records of its
"lost cause" the evidence of still another
loss in the writer-the loss of all sense of
political honor and editorial fairness.
Why doesn't this doctor of the Capital take
his own medicine? What race of people
does he and his class need to guide them into
the pleasant pathways Of harmony and love
with the Republicans, who have whipped
released them from the penalty of their afro
cious crimes as rebels?
Let neither the friends nor the enemies of
the negro race fall into the mistake that col
ored people are bound to agree because they
have a certain texture of hair and color of
skin in common. Whenever these things
become our only bonds of union then will
the charge of negro inferiority be completely
sustained. The motto of every race, whether
black or white, should be the same as that
Of the greatest of Christian reformers
pure and then peaceable."
Said an old gentleman of our race once.
when asked if he did not believe that the
lion and the lamb would yet lie down to-
yether in peace, Eyes, sir, do; but the |
lamb will be inside the lion." We want no
such harmony as will allow the reverence Of |
The colored people for the memory Of Charles |