Year: 1866

rebellion. But can you show that the
North was not pdrt'cTs riminis : Can
you prove that a single hand would
ever have been raised II the North
had been united in fealty to free in
sttutions ? Upon the outbreak of So
cessien who, coming from the South,
received the most honor among the
II asses of the North, the stakeholder,
err or the emaneipationistI Did not
the former receive obeisance and the
latter abuse Can you point to a
single instance in which a man from
the South who had taken the position
Of an honest and consistent opponent
of slavery, and made his home in the
North, who had any availability for
Office even in the most remotest ex-
tremities Of the North ?


You may not have forgotten the
case of one who like Mr.. johnson
was a stakeholder. but reaching the
conviction shat slavery as it then ex-
isted was opposed to the very essence
of our government, and that by pro-
longing it, they We're lowering down
the fundamental principles of our
happy institutions" set at liberty all
over whom he had any control, and
was under the necessity Of seeking
home in the north. Thirty years ago,
aud long before Mr. Seward did so in
the Senate, he announced the doctrine
of the "irrepressible conflict" when
he said freedom or slavery. one or
the other, must in the end gain the
entire ascendency." He was not a
fanatic, but mild and considerate.-
He was no bigot, but liberal and en-.
lightened, and by the admission of
even his opponents, was possessed in
an eminent degree, of the chararter-
istics of a scholar, gentleman and a
Christian.


Was he welcomed at the North p
{ MY indeed by despised few. When
lie asked for the peaceable exercise of
the constitutional right of free dis
tussion through the press. he was
met with determined resistance, and
could only exercise it in the face of an
unrestrained and lawless mob. He
was Of necessity compelled to be the
champion of free speech in confessed
ly free States.


The sentiment Of tho North as ef-
fectually disfranchised him from all
participancy in governmental matters
as though he had worn skin as
black as Louisiana slave.


And yet with such examples of
Northern treatment you expect South
erners just el merged from the dark
ness of slavery to attain at one bound
the full growth of Massachusetts,
abolitionist.


But you may say that such refer
ences are remote. The times have
changed. Not materially. There is
amoug the masses the ame hatred
for the enslaved race hat there ever
was. There was indeed most re-
markable revolution in public senti-
ment in regard to making soldiers of
negroes. But it was not a change in
opinion as to the manhood of the ne
gro, but was result effected by the
argument Of selfishness-that the loss
of neg oes would cause no greater
grief than that Of the loss of brothers
and sons. The rebels were nearly
brought to the same conclusion, before
the close Of the war.


You wou doubtless cite Michigan
as one of the States in which "if the
Radicals were expelled from the Re-
publican party-thcre would not be
enough left in that organization for
small tea gathering" The Republi-
cans have. indeed, carried the cleo
tons ever since the Wings went over
TO the Liberty party. And until sure
Of their position, they did nominate
occasionally, for office some one repre-
sentlng the earlier anti-slavery move
meDt-by way of propitiating what
they were pleased to call wing of the
party. But the last State Convention
showed what any close observer might
long before have understood, that the
conservative wing of the party was far
more potential than the radical


You expect President Johnson to
sustain the proposed measure of uni
yersal suffrage, but Michigan has not
q member in Congress, who would not
have been defeated at the last election
the time at which President John
son was made Vice President-if he
had gone before the people, on the af-
frmative of that issue.


Radical as Michigan may be, her
Legislature hasnot ventured to remove
the disabilities Of the black man. The
inspectors Of elections do not recog-
nize him at all.


You publish accounts of outrages
upon freedmen as proof Of the unfit
ness of Southern people to treat them
properly, without special Legislation.
But if as many were imported among
US at the North, can you give any cer-
tainty of assurance, that the outrages
would be fewer or less heinous? Turn
to the files Of your own paper Of only
9 Few months gone by, and peruse the
indiscriminate destruction Of life and
property that occurred in your well
ordered city. The innocent were made
to suffer in degree not surpassed by
the inquisition, and property of your
best citizens devastated, merely to gra-
tify prejudice, against few helpless
people of African descent. Not long
after one of your wealthiest citizens,
and to whom your city is much in-
debted for his public enterprise, might
have been heard apologizing before a
large assemblage, on the Campus
Martius, for having given employment
to men of color, upon his vessels and
in his warehouses.


lallude tosuch manifestation Of SEN
timent to show that prejudice against
color is not confined to the South