The bee., 1883-07-28
DIR. r.. S. LAWS ON THE Ma
TIONAL CONVENTION.

Doctor, good morning, and how do
you feel since the great contest
Oh | am feeling all right. feel
just Us | felt before, that is, If the
great city of Washington, which is so
small in the eyes of the National Gov
eminent, needed my services; she
would say SD in the City Convention !;
and she having said that she needs it.,
| shall say now, that / will give it. In
what way will you meet our needs
through the convention?
- shall say to the million and a half
Of colored voters in this country,
through the colored National Conven=
tiOn, to he held at Louisville, Ken
tucky, what we are entitled to, claim
and need l shall say it on behalf of
nearly eight millions of colored people
in this country, including the six mil
lions and more accounted for in the
census of 1880, and | shall say what
we need, both as great city within a
country, and as IA great race within Il
| nj iUtls''
The BEE; you seem to have q gen
eral idea of your honorable mission,
! will YOU state some of the rights which
you claim for us as one of our repre-
sentatives? "Welll in the first PLACE, |
claim for the citizens of this District,
the right of suffrage; and further
claim, that in that merciless and un-
| justiliable act of national legislation,
which took from the MASSES the popu-
lar suffrage through the advice and in
luence of our moneyed element 1or
the benefit Of Il favored few, was
almost an irreparable WRONG commit
ted against the people of this District,
as | said in IN interview, had by the
Post on Monday the 10th inst. And a
wrong too, by the majority party
whose Cohstant howl Is that the col
orcd citizens are too easily intimidated
by threats and promises to he entrusted
with the ballot The iwholc country
Was captured by the threats and
promises of the moneyed portion Of Il
siiigie city, wto have since Submitted
to Il political bondage tinkItOWii iet0to
to American civilization, in order to
rreveiitthe colored American equality"
The DEt-, Htt the convention may
decide against you on the ground that
the people of the District are too dis
orderly to he commissioned with So inn
portant trust, then what? Answer
well. it will he then, that the end
is not YET But ! have as vet. ia l,e
convinced that such matchlesS assem-
bly, of colored citizens, with so high
calling" a calling which involve all of
human rights so far us the colored race
in this coitntis is concerned, would rG-
fuse to give us the most careful atteii-
ton, and all the time possible to place
before them such local grievances for
correction at the present, which, if
allowed to exist, are bound to become
national in the end
The BEE. In what respect could
they beColHe national
Mr.. Laws. They could become
national in this respect in the first
place, when suffrage was here, a Citi
zenS committee Of one hundred of
white men formed from the moneyed
class alone, followed congressman day
after day, from door to door, in and
out of committee rOJnls. and III and
cut of regular sessions Until the sut-
trage Of this District was taken away
anu Ior WnaL dILrI h11 experience Ur
N2) Seventy-two years, could have III
duced them to such nefariouS attempt,
but their gross objection to suffrage
in the hands of the coluredI citizens"
"And an acceptance of their reasons
here, with a quiet submission, would
make them reasonably admissible else
where, to wit: that the colored people
are ignorant. and hence incapable to he
entrusted with such power; that they
are paupers, and should not he permit
ted to oppress the property-holders, the
whites, of course
Now, if these are plausible In the |
Judgment of Congress, here at the seat |
OF government, where all are intelli- |
gent from daily associations, say Doth- |
ing about the Superio: educational fa-
cllities, certainly they must be in the
States. and especially in the rural dis
trIcts where the people are not provid
ed the means of general information"
Again. SHOULD this state of things !
he allowed to exist, every man who
comes to Washington as a resident
citizen, comes into his political bond
age
And when they learn first that the
suffrage was taken away on account of
the colored vote, second, that effects
our rights elsewhere; and third, that it
will apply as much to others who may
come here us it does to us.
they will take steps to prevent any
mans election who will not first con-
sent to correct this political boil"
''ln the first place, this act was a ma
tional infraction of their constitutional
faith and doctrine, and prevents for
ever the admission of Il candid fact of
suffrage SO long aS nearly
100000 of its citizens are disfran-
,hised.
In the second place, every citizen
who may feel disposed to change his
from the country community
If agricultural pursuits, or from an
'ther city to the city of Washington,
must understand that he is entirely
so far as his political citi-
enship is concerned, whic his the only
Weapon to civil protection"
The BEE.-What are your views rel
tive to bringing the young men to
he 'front.'"
Mr.. Laws.-"Well, | believe they
'ught to 60 to the front. and young {
women too; but not by killing out or
nunincr tho nlI IL, c,rInr L., -