Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-05-22
A STIRRING ADDRESS.
The Appeal Of the COIOred Men
of Louisiana.

We, the representatives OF the people
of African descent, of Louisiana, in con-
vention assembled, solemnly and truly
swear before God and the country, that
we are denied the freedom of the ballot
and equality before the law, and that in
the unholy prosecutions visited upon US
for our political opinions, the utmost
limits of endurance have been reached.
Our grievances, which we have pa
tiently and hopefully borne, have been
numerous and cruel.
We have suffered OstraciSm in viola
ton of divine precepts.
We have been denied our civil rights
in utter disregard of the laws of the
Commonwealth.
The courts have aggravated our
wrongs by mocking our repeals for re-
dress.
Our school houses, churches and
homes have been reduced to ashes with
limpunity.
We have been Systematically cheated
and plundered by planters and country
merchants until starvation stares us in
the face
By !, wicked combination We are
forced to rent land at SO an acre per
year, which could not be sold in fee sim
pie for S5 per acre.
Our representative men have been
driven from their homes and forced to
abandon their property and household
goods because of their Republicanism.
Our people have been whipped, mur-
dered and outraged when they would
not be seduced and could not he coerced
from the party which emancipated them.
ind f01- halrN for
tion and against political asSasSinatiOns
has been shamefully ridieuled by our
guilty enemies, as the waiving of the
l"bloody shirt, without any foundation.
If we are illiterate, it is because white
men made it crime to teach us to read
the Bible.
4 If we are poor, it is becsuse we have
been denied the rights of property, life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Our past in the South has been an ex-
istence of sorrow, tears and blood, and
under the unchristian and despotic SEN
timent, the future is without ray of
hope.
We have almost been driven to des-
IperatiOn through the combined calami-
ties at the same time of yellow fever,
the Southern policy, and political mas
sacres.
For these and other reasons, which
are a matter of record, we appeal for ma
terial aid to the official and moral influ-
ences of the President of the United
States, for whom many persons of Afri-
can descent, rather than he false to prin-
Iciple, willingly sacrificed their lives.
We appeal to Congress for favorable
consideration i'll behalf of the suffering,
hunted, prosecuted and starving exiles.
We appeal, in our necessities, to the
Republican party, to which we have
iconscientiously and faithfully adhered,
add for which we have been ScOurged
and maSSacred.
We appeal to the liberaIity of good
men in the Democratic party who are
opposed to the wicked method practiced
upon defenceless people for political
Opinions. sfE
We appeal to the hearts of the Chris
tian public; to the churches and all other
organizations which have observed our
patience and endurance under the reign
of terror.
i We appeal with confidence to the loyal
sentiment which saved the Republic, be-
cause much of the bitterness and hostil-
ity visited upon our people was inten-
siiied by our devotion to the Union in
the struggle with rebellion.
1 We appeal for aid from the old anti
slavery apostles, who never failed us in
the past when we fled from the house of
bondage, and upon we now rely in our
enforced exile from the spirit of oppres-
tsion.
We appeal for succor to the Society of
Friends in this our journey through the
wilderness of Southern hate to the land
of promise, where we may live in happi-
ness. s
We appeal in our distress to the coun-
try at large, which has authentic and
historic evidence of the outrages and
massacres visited upon us with mpuni-
Ity, for no other reason than attempting
Ito exercise our rights as American citi-
Zens.
We appeal to these and all other class
es and conditions who sympathiZe with
us in our wrongs, who are willing to
help us in our flight to save our lives
and enjoy our liberty, to respond to our
vail for moral and material aid to mi
CRATE to State where political assassi-
nations are unknown, and where the
IbulldoZer can not reach us.