National Republican., 1883-05-21
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
To NE Editor.

To he Editor.
SIR: In your paper Of this morning l OBJ
serve an article signed al" which might
have been more appropriately signed Liar"
rejecting upon my integrity as republican,
and charging me with the purpose of trading
off the oolored vote of tho country for office.
l need not tell you, Mr.. Editor, that no man
is safe in these days from tue attacks of
anonymous falsifers, and you will bear mo
witness that l seldom notice such attacks. If
my record Of moro than forty years Of service
to the colored raco does not protect me from
the vile iusinuations Of such writer's as j."
nothing that | can now say will silence
them. What the convention, to the call of
which my name is attached, may or may
not do, IL is no business Of mine to predict.
l can only speak for myself now and here,
that l expect to go into that convention and
come out of IL tho same inilexible ropubli-
con that / have over been, and shall be
very much surprised ifI find myself alone in
this respect. l hope, Mr.. Editor, that your
readers will not attach more Importance to
the clamor against holding tho convention
than IL really deserves There are traitors
and informers among all oppressed and un-
fortunate people. ColOred mon arc not an
exception TO tho rule. There arc those
among them who arc never doing anything
for the race themselves, but arc ready to
anything is attempted by others. / am not
at all surprised when somo of those for whom
1have lived and labored lift their heels against
me. Since tho days of Moses such has been
tho fate of all men earnestly endoavoring to
servo the oppressed and unfortunate. But
this infrmity of oppressed peoples, just now
conspicuous in the conduct of the opponents
of the proposed national convention, will not
deter me, or those associated with me, from
going forward with the convention in ques-
ton.
agree with Daniel Webster, that tho right
to canvass the policy of public men aud pub
lie measures is u homebred right and a fire.
side privilege, belonging to private life as q
right and public life as a duty; that IL is never
to bc more inhexibly and deiiantly asserted
than when IL is called in question God help
the poor colorod race in America, when they
may not boetrusted to meet in convention
in tho open light of day with tho argus eye
of tho press upon them, q press that will
carry their every utterance to the remotest
parts Of the country. If there were anything
secret, underhanded, ominOus or malign in
the proposed convention could better under
stand why those calling it should be repudi.
ated aud held up to scorn and reprobation.
But as the matter now stands can SEQ at the
bottom OF this OPPOSITE OH only groundless ap-
prehension on the part of some of our white
friends, and every ambition and jealousy on
the part of most of the colored men who are
just now gaining little notoriety by assail-
ing the motives of better men than them
selves. Respectfully,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
WASHINGTON, d. C., May 1S, 1888.
Tho writer of the letter to which this Is a
reply says he has received good many let
ters complimenting Prof Greener for sound.
ing the alarm" &c. l think this remark
throws some light upon the authorship of the
letter, and is little amusing withal. How
| happens il that Mr.. 81" is in receipt Of let.
| ters OF thanks to Prof. Greener2 What bust
ness has he with Mr.. Greener's letters, or Of
letters of thanks intended for Prof. Greener
Is it not possible that the explanation is about
| this, that Mr.. al" and Prof. Greener are
| identical that they arc one and the same
person, and that when Mr.. IL" compliments
Prof Greener it is simply Prof Greener using
your columns to compliment himself, while
he would iain make the public believe he Il
| being complimented by some other person
which is after all very cheap compliment
THE FALL OF THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
| 10 the Editor.
During the past year an astronomical story
| has been going the rounds of the press to thu
effect that the "Star of Bethlehem" reap
pears and shines In great splendor once in 30C
years; that it is located in constellation o
| 'CasSiopela; thaU III reappearS suddenly ant
quite rs suddenly recedcs to an invisible dis
tance, and that now is the time to expect i
to again return to view.
| Why the Star of Bethlehem -" the sta
in the east should be located in constel
lation so far north as "Cassopeia," it Is i'm
possible to say One would suppose that i
there was such q star that it should rather
appear in n constellation not further north
than that of "Virgo." But then there is M
accounting for the many queer things in the
world.
On the morning of the eighteenth of May
was awakened by some spirit of good or evil
My window commands view of the east
aud to the north sufficiently to SEQ tho "Grea
Bear" "Cassiopeia," &c.
The clock had struck 3. laid looking a
the heavens. All of a sudden, about thre,
minutes past 3, there appeareHin the north
east bright meteor-like star, which left be
hind it u peculiar whip-like track--mucl
resembling "chain lightning" For better
view arose and looked out of tho window
The sky was clear and when the brigh
meteor-like star had shown the regular star
of "Cassiopeia" were shining with their &C
customed brightness.
The question was what was il / saw?
was unlike meteor, unlike u star; yet NOR,
like n falling star than meteor. Tn,
thought occurred to me, was IL not SOM
phenomenon like this that gave rise to tn
idea of the sudden appearance and disappear
anco Of q star Of intense brightness in thi
constellation? PHILo.