National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-04-17

court or Cabinet Is uplifed 90 stay this tide Of
violence, blood and barbarian! Neither GOV.
ornors, Presidcuts nor statemei have yc.
decl0rodthatthcse barbaritics shalt be stopped
on the contrary, they all confess themsulvoS
powerlcss to protect our class; au thu you
aud l and all OF us are struck down, aud
| bloody treason ilourishes over us. In view OF
this confessed impotencyof tho government
ana this apparent insensibility OF the nation
| to the claims of humanity, do you ask me why
| l expend my time and breath in dcnounclng
| these wholesale murders when there Is no
seeming prospect of a favorable response? /
answer In turn, how can l. now can you, how
can any man With n heart In his breast do
otherwise when, louder THAI the blold of
Abel, the blood of his fellow man cries from
the ground7
"shall tongues bo mute when deeds arc
wrought
Which well might shame EXTREMIST he'll,
Shall freemen lock the indignant thought,
Shnll mercy's bosom cease TO swell.
Shall honor bleed, shall truth succumb,
| Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb2
BY all around, above, below,
BE ours the indignant answer, Nor
In q former address delivered on the occa.
| sion Of this anniversary l was at the palms of
showing that much of the crime attributed TO
| colored people, and for which they were held
responsible, imprisoned. aud murdered, was
| In fact, committed by white men disguised a.
negroes l affirmed that all presumptions In
against the negro, and that color was the siiesl
| disguise white man could assume In which
TO commit crime; that all he bad to do 10 com.
I1 MI ,he worst crimes with impuniiy was to
| negro, but even this disguise sometimes fails.
only few days ago a Mr.. j. II. Justls, au emf:
nent citizen OF Granger county, Tenn, at
ningly devised robbery aud have his oflenss
| fixed upon negro. All worked we'll till
bullet brought him to the ground and little
soap and water was applied TO his face. when
| he was found TO be no negro at all. but very
| respectable white citizen.
Dark, desperate, and forlorn as I have dc.
N.. A. 81 la.
description. In most OF the gull states and In
some parts of the border states, have some.
times thought that we should be about rs well
situated for tho purposes OF Justice III there
were no constitution OF the United States at
all; rs well Of ifthere were no law, or law
makers, no conslables no jails, no court of is.
ticc, and we were LETT entirely without tho
pretenoe Of legal protection, for we are now ut
the mercy OF midnight raiders, assassilis, nnl
murderers, and we should only be la the stne
condition " these pretended Safeguards ire
abandoned. They now only mock us. Other
men are presumed to be innocent until they
are proved guilty. We are presumed to be
guilty until we are proved TO be innocent
The charge Is often made that negroes are by
nature the criminal class Of America; that they
furnish larger proportion of petty thieves
deny that nature, race, or color has anything
to do with the fact. Any other race with tho
would show similar thieying propensity.
The American people have this lesson TO
learn: That where Justice Is denied where
poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails,
and where any one class Is made to feel that
society is an organized conspiracy TO oppr5ss
rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor
property will be safe. l deny that nature has
made the negro a thief or a burglar. Look at
those black criminals as they are brought into
your police courts; view and study their ficos,
their forms and their features, as have done
iS ior years as as marshal OF this District, aud you
ten all over them. Two hnndred
md fifty years of grinding slavery has done
It's work upon them. They stand before you
mutilated men. Many of their mothers aud
grandmolhers were lashed to agony before
their birth by cruel oyerseers, and tho children
have inherited in their faces the anguish and
resentment felt by their parents. Many of
these poor creatures have not been free long
enough TO outgrow tho marks OF the lash on
their backs, and the deeper marks on their
souls, No, mol II is not nature that has erred
in making the negro That shame rests with
slavery. i has twisted his limbs, deformod
his body, ilattened his feet, and distorted his
features, and made him, though black, no
longer comely. In infancy he slept on the
cold clay floor of his cabin with quick clrcu-
lation on one side, and tardy circulation on
unsymmetrical and Is no longer vertical.
well.rounded man, in body or in mind. Time,
education, and training will restore him TO
natural proportions for, though bruised and
blasted, nc IS yet a man.
The school of the negro since leaving slavery
has not been much Of an Improvement on his
have here and there enjoyed large benefits
from emancipation, and the result Is seen in
their conduct. but the mass have had their
liberty coupled with hardshps which tend
strongly to keep them n dwarfed and misera-
BILE class A man who labors ten hours n day
with pickaX, crowbar, and shovel, GIsl has II
family TO support aud house rent TO pay, and
receives for his work but a dollar day, and
what Is worse still. he is deprived of labor a
large part of his timc by reason of sickness
and the weather. IN his poverty, easily falls
lpfDTp Hungry
men will cat. Desperate men Will commit
crime, outraged men will seek revenge. II Is
said TO be hard iJr rich man to enter the
Kingdom OF heaven. have sometimes thought
II harder still for a poor man TO enter the
Kingdom of heaven. Man Is so constituted
Het sf' Il 9H ynG for sn Gs T
devil snid of job "All that man hath win
he give for his life." Oppression makes even
wise men mad aud reckless. for illustration /
pray look at East st, Louis.
in the southern states to-day a landlord sys.
TEN is In operation which keeps the negroes
ofthat section in rngs and wretchedncSs al
own land. There Is, to be sure, no law for
bidding the selling of land to the colored peo-
the full effect of law. That understanding is
that the land must be kept in the hands ofthe
old master class. The colored people can rent
land Il is true, and many OF them do rent
many acres and find themselves poorer at the
end OF the year than at the beginning, because
they are charged more year for ront per
acre than the land would bring at auction
sale. The landlord and tenant system of Ire
land, which has conducted that country to
the Jaws of ruin, bad us 1t is. is not worse than
that which prevails at this hour, at the SOUTH
and yet the colored people of the south are
constantly reproached for their poverty. They
nre asked to make bricks without straw. Their
hands are tied, and they asked TO work. They
ar! arc are forced TO bepoor, and laughed at for
/ am speaking mainly to colored men tonight
but want my words TO find their way TO the
eyes, ears, heads, and hearts OF my white
fellow countrymen, hoping that some among
them may be made to think, some hearts
among them will be made TO feel, and some of
their number will be made TO act. appeal to
our white fellow-eountrymen. The power to
protect is in their hands. This is and must be
practically the white mans government He
has tho numbers and the intelligence to control
AM, direct. To him belongs the responsibility
OF its honor or dishonor, its glory or its shame,
its salvation or its ruin. II they can protect
the rights Of white mel, lhey can protect the
rights OF American citizens abroad, they can
defend them at home: If they eau use the
army to protect the rights OF Cinnamon. they
ored men. The only trouble is the will the
viii the will Here, as elsewhere. "Where
there Is willthere Is q way" ..'-..
.. haye now said, not all that could be said,
existing between the white and c6lored peo.
pie Of this country, especially the relations
subsisting between the two classes of the late
ElaveholdIng states. Time would fail me TO
trace this relation in all Its ramincations but
that labor is neither required by this audience
nor by the country. The condition OF the
emancipation class Is known alike TO ourselves
and 10 the government to pulpit and press,
and to both'of the great political parties. These
have only TO do their duty and all Will be we'll,
One use OF this annual celebration Is to keep
the subject of our grievances before the people
and government and 10 urge both to do their
respective parts in tho happy solution of the
race problem. The weapons OF our warfare
for equal rights are not carnal but simple
truth addressed to hearts and sense of Justice OF
the American people, If this IA lis we are lost.
We have no armies or generals, no swords or
cannons to enforce our claims, and do not
want any,
We are often asked with an air OF reproaoh
hNyt fta Nha, 1