Year: 1876

NORTHERN POLITICS..


Shall the Cause Of Humanity Faile
BOSTON, June q, 1876.
The proceedings of the political conven.


ton now being held at St. Louis can not


effect materially the situation as estab-


lished by the recent action of the


Republican party at Cincinnati. In


that convention the Republican lead.


ers treated Southern reconstruction as a


finished work, and so ended the antago-


nism 80 long existing between the two


great parties of the country on that ques-


ton. This action Of the party of amancipa-


ton was in harmony with that of the Presi-


dent, who, in his last annual message to


the American Congress, studiously omitted
all reference to Southern affairs, to emanci-


patton, to the experiment Of negro citizen


ship, and to the principles involved in these


matters. The omission was noticed at


the time as significant. And now


we have Harpers Weekly proclaiming


that Southern reconstruction is finished


work." Other equally influential Repub-


ican papers echo these words, and Hayes


and Wheeler are urged upon Republican


voters because they stand for this 'conserv-


ative view" Of the Southern situation. This


leaves the Confederate Democratic party


without special capital, go far as the Issue


of the Cancellation is concerned, because it


makes the Republican party the party of


reconciliation also. The platform and


pledges of the St. Louis convention will, no
doubt, be found to be acceptable" to the


people. on the negro question, and the can
didates selected may, in many important
respects, be recognized as perfectly "safe, !"
so far as the control of the government is
concerned.


But this agreement of parties and of
leading men of all parties in regard to the
Southern situation and the government of
the nation can not alter the facts of the stu
alton itself. There remains, in spite of
party arrangement, two questions which
demand and will have answer.


One of these is, lis Southern recon-
struction indeed finished work!'


The other is, "What remains to be done
outside of and independent of all political
parties for the cause Of humanity as repre-
sented by the negro in American"


As to the first of these questions it is suf.
ficient to state that the late slave South is
thoroughly resecticna alized on the issue of
caste; that the caste issue enters the house
of God and asserts its power even there;
that it casts out the negro's body from the
cemeteries of the caste race as something
unholy and unclean; that it forms the ami
mating prejudice of Southern society. and
that this prejudice is reflected in the polit-
ical creed and fxed purpose of every
Southern State from Delaware to Texas
The silence of the Presidents message on
the negro question, and the glittering gen.
eralities of the platforms of the two great
political parties of the country can not alter
these facts. They can not obliterate them,
They can not even hide them for "a con-
venient season" from view. The Confederate
South, with its 1873 electoral votes,-now
controls the lower house of the Am erican
Congress. 1t needs but forty-two votes
more to make it the government. The
compact South is thoroughly unified on the
issue of caste, and thus negro subordina-
ton has become practically the corner
stone, after all, of Southern reconstruction.
Thus the policy of Andrew johnson, in
augurated with bloody violence in New
Orleans, is finally ratified by the North, so
far as party management can ratify such
an iniquity.


Over against all this is the other question,
what is to be done independently of all
parties and party compromises to make
good the cause Of humanity, as represented
in the life aspirations of the negro in
America And. first, We are willing to &C.
cept the conviction of Mr.. Curtis, White.
law Reid and others, that . conservative
Republican administration is imperative
ly needed at this time in order to
finish the work of emancipation, and
overthrow this very Southern section.
alism of which We complain. We are also
willing to accept in good faith the profes-
siOns of the Confederate Democratic lead
ers, that they will be found faithful to the
right of the emancipated race. But there
is something to be done outside of all this
for the cause Of humanity as involved in
the future OF the emsncipated race. The
sentiment of the country recog-
nizes this. This independent but "outside"
eminent begins already to
take shape in many different forms. Nor is
the movement cenfned to America. Influ-
ences from the Old World begin to converge
upon this negro problem in America, simply
because European statesmen see, if Amer.
leans do not, that this same negro power is
destined to determine not only the fate of
the republic of the United States, but the
future of the New World.


Ipropose in this letter, therefore, to con-
slider as matters of current interest two
phases of this outside anti slavery move
ment, as these now begin to take form. The
first of these is educational, the other is
Industrial. One applies to the South at
large, the other will localize itself In some
one Southern State and concentrate all of it's
influence on that one State.


First of the educational movement. The
friends of Charles Sumner have not lost in
terest in his memory, or in the cause to
which he dedicated his life. Some of these
friends are, therefore, already consulting as
to the proper action to be taken to keep
Summers memory alive as force in the
world to finish his life work az if he were
alive to direct it in person. The sug-
gestion has been made to raise Sumner
memorial educatiodal fund, the object of
which shall be to stimulate the highest pos
al