The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-03-08
THE co1oRBD CONVENTION.
WILL HINTON & co. SHOW THEIR
HAND.

HOW THE BFBLWETHE Frs OF THE COL0RFD
SHEEP IN 1RE FLOCK ARE TRYING TO
SCI II UP ON THE MIN AND BRETHREN.
To the Editor OF the Sentinel:
SIR: As tbs time draws near for the
election OF ds,egs:es 10 represent the col
cred psople Of Indiana III the forthcoming
national convention of co!ored men to be
held In Nashville, Tenu., April 5, few
large number of the intelligent think
ing portion OF them on the subj CT,
may not be uu;imely. There Is
40 evident lack of enthusiasm
among the people on the subject of calling
amesting, probably because they lave been
taken in and done for, for and in the rsms
OF convc ntions so often, and like the burnt
child they fear fire, or else, for some unex-
piainable reason no effort has been made
By those assuming to have the mater In
hand to aCquaint the masses with all the
facts In the case. These p rsors pretend
to have been appointed rs an executive
committee by Peter II. Clark. Where Mr..
Clerk derived his authority to so appoint
them does not appsar. As a p sople the
passage of the supplemental civil rights
DILL took us from our elevated
position in the politics of this
country, and landed Us on level among
citizens we do not favor class legislation
only so far as is necessary to secure equal
POLITICAL AND CIVIL PRIVILEGES
to all. Such legislation has been done, or
much valuable time was lost in congress
over the passage of the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments to the constitution.
II In the South they have failed to serve
as the panacea for all evils, the
political body there existent is
heir to, it is because the persons whose
duty il was, and is, to see that the very
letter of the law was obeyed, have been
recreaut to their trusts rather than that
the laws are insufficient for the purpose
they were framed, and 1t is high time for
colored people to cease the hue and cry OF
white supremacy in the South, tor CON-
mon sense shows 1t to be nothing more
than intelligence, which, for time, ignor-
ance prevailed over-essumiDg her wonted
position at the head of affairs
and crowding ignorance, superstition, etc.,
the result OF slavery, in the back ground.
As fast as colored men possess themselves
of talent sufficient to entitle them TO
preference over their fellow, that fast will
they get It, and every honest endeavor to
acquire education or wealth, in any por-
ton of the country, save in a few isolstsd
magnified many fold, is sure to meet with
encouragement. But ss a people we have
so many would-be leaders, men weak in
principle, weak Intellectually, and weak
in all they should possess In order to
properly hll the important positions they
aspire to. IL is evident then, that since as
race of people We have nothing separate
from what the mass of
AMERICAN CITIZENS HAVE, TO DEMAND
of the government, it Is evident, say,
that some one has sold his birthrlght.
These would be leaders in airy flights of
rhetoric, delude their country men (tor it
must be delusioD, else why,this change p
with talk of how fast the colored people
would come to the front, was the color
line not drawn in this country, and then
they lend their aid and Influence to a pur-
pose which can effect no good, but
If carried into effect will serve
to perpetuate and render more clear the
very condition of things whose existence
in this country they pretend so much to
deprecste. The sooner colored people be-
come merged in and among the great fam
lily of American cItizsns and, in political
sanse, lose their identity, the sooner will
they begin TO reap the benefits OF such q
course-in the meantime, as our name de-
notes, wa ara AcRIBUs.