The national leader., 1889-02-02
Nat Turner and John Brown.

To tho Editor of the NATIONAL LEADER.
l have been reading with considerable
interest. the controversy going on for a
a few weeks past between your paper
and the Ne,o York Age, over sugges-
tion by Fred. Douglass. Jr., to the
colored people of the Country, looking
toward the erection Of a monument or
something of that nature, to the memory
of "OId John Brown" as he was
familiarly called.
That the Editor of the AGe, colored
man, and southern colOred man at
that, brought up under the influence of
the old slave-holding element, and whose
freedom is due to the late war,
such a proposition. and slurringly speak
of it as white man worshipping, is to say
the least surprising. 1 saw nothing In
the suggestion of Mr.. Frederick Doug
lass, Jr., that opposed, as is falsely as
serted by the Editor of the Age, the
erection of a monument to Nat. Turner.
or any other martyr to the cause of
freedom.-that was fiimsy pretext to
slur the man making the suggestion.
Frederick Douglass, Jr., now nearly
fifty, and whose hair is nearly as white
as bis fathers, although alluded to as
''young Douglass" enlisted in the cause
of the enslaved, and risked the penalties
of the Fugitive slave law by aiding in
their escape from bondage, while this
fiippant young colored Editor was at
the breast of his nanny ''away down
in Dixie.'' Talk about race pride, and
white man worship. Trashl
1t would be the highest exhibition
and evidence of races pride. to per-
petuate in any form, the memory of
the life and character of a man who
gave his life. and that of his family for
the freedom of that race.
For the cOlored people of this coun-
try to undertake to act in unison as a
distinct race, would be to find them
selves in about as chaotic state as the
Editor of the ''Age' has found himself
in politics. To what race does he be-
long? We hear men whose fathers are
white and mothers mulattoeS, talking
about race pride. Bah! They don't
mean it to begin with. They have
none themselves because they belong to
Pal AdOOs 1ebOO pA4uO 10 LII
nate. Read the editorials of these col
ored Editors who talk so much of color
and race, and like the one to which ]
am now referring, they are manly per-
sonal assaults against men of their own
color, and among whom they are iden-
titled as class. They make the basest
of insinuations against men OF their
own color, who, for half century
have led honorable and distinguished
lives in behalf Of truth, and justice to
their fellow man.
What we know Of Nat. Turner. we
got from white people. shareholders.
He was slave and inaugurated mea-
sures to gain his own and the freedom
of others of his kin. 1t was a praise
worthy attempt. John Brown was a
white man, free, in the enjoyment OF
every right as an American citizen. nc
motive other than that Of a love OF
! freedom for all could have prompted
him to sacrifice his all. his life and his
| family for the enslaved colored man,
| as he did. Shame on the negro, OF
half negro, or any part of a negro who
never struck blow for his own or any
body else's liberty to sneeringIy talk
about the erection of a monument ito
Old John Brown by colored people, as
"white man worshiping." VET.
Washington, D. c., Jany. 2Sth 1889.