Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-07-22
FRED. DOUGLAS VIEWS.

The following extracts from the speech de-
livered by Fred Douglas, near Washington,
July 5, are very suggestive reading for both
races in the South:
Men cannot, ought not, and will not quarrel
and fight forever, even though outside parties
may be benefited by such quarreling and fight
ing. This is true even of contentious among
men of different races, and much more true
where men are of the same race. The Amer
lean people are essentially Of the same race.
They are of the same color United by blood,
by common origin, by common language,
by common literature, by common glory,
and by the same grand historic associations
and achievements So sure as the stars shine
in the heavens and the rivers run to the sea,
so sure will the white people North and South
abandon their quarrel and become friends.
The whole American horizon is already
fringed with the portents of the coming union.
Boston, Lexington and Bunker Hill have al.
ready sent forth their silvery notes of peace
and unity to the whole nation, and next year
Philadelphia, the birthplace of the declara-
tion of ofindependence, will lift to the sky its
million voices in one grand centennial hosan-
nah Of peace and good will to all the white
race of this country, from gulf to lakes and
from sea to sea.
Now, when this mighty quarrel has ceased l.;
when all the asperities and resentments have
gone, as they are sure to go; when all the
clouds that few years ago lowered about our
national house shall be in the deep bosom of
the ocean buried when this great white race
has renewed its vows Of patriotism and flowed
back into its accustomed channels, the ques-
tion for US is: In what position will this stu
pendous reconciliation leave the colored peo-
pie? What tendencies will spring out of it,
and how will they effect US? If war among
the whites brought peace and liberty to the
blacks, what will peace among the whites
bring? Has asjustice so deep hold upon the
nation a; has reconstruction on the basis oflib
erty and equality become so strong that the
rushing together of these mighty waves will
not disturb its foundations? These questions,
my friends make me thoughtful. The signs
of the times are not all in our favor. There
are even in the republican party indications
of disposition to get rid Of US. Men are
seeking new allies, and smiling in faces upon
which they never smiled before since the war.
A disposition is seen to shake off the negro
and accept the old masters class. Out of the
eight hundred thousand black voters of the
country We have only had about twenty black
clerks here in Washington, and these in the
last few days have been thinned out and re-
duced We have had few representatives
abroad and few in Congress the indications
are that we shall have fewer by and by. Am
bilious candidates for the presidency are al
ready casting about to see if they cannot be
elected in some way without the aid of the
black vote. Well, they have the right to do
all this, but the thing looks bad, and we at
least are called upon to look the matter full
in the face. Our shelter in the storms of the
past has been Ulysses S. Grant. The ques-
ton is as to who will shield US in the future.
Well indeed will it be for us if one as true,
Just and able shall come after him.