Emanc.i.p.ation and Emigration.

by Anonymous.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH.

CAMBRIDGEPORT, Ma.s.s., Aug. 13, 1878.

_Fellow Citizens:_--If any apology for improving your condition were needed it may be found in the fact that a large portion of the last forty years of my life was spent, and many thousand dollars invested, in the terrible conflict with the slave power. It is _not_ necessary for me to remind you that the result of that conflict was your emanc.i.p.ation from American slavery by the Republican party, with such leaders and co-laborers as Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Senators Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D. D., and Rev. Wm. Goodell, all of whom have now pa.s.sed away, but whose life-long labors, with many who are still living, culminated in the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation of President Lincoln in 1863. But it _is_, as it seems to me, necessary to remind you that the Republican party of to-day is a very different thing from then--that your liberties and citizenship have now become the stock in trade of corrupt politicians--that your political rights have been bartered away for the _promises_ of your old masters, which they never meant to perform when they made them, and for which they now subst.i.tute _demands_ for your return to slavery, with the pecuniary interest of one to two thousand dollars in each able-bodied man _left out_; consequently when they shoot a man they do not lose that amount of investment in his body. Among the demands of the "dominant race" is the repeal of the const.i.tutional amendments which made you citizens and gave you the ballot. Of course they did not ask the Republican party to do it _directly_. They only asked them to put the political power of the nation into the hands of the Democratic party, and the second and third rate politicians now at the head of affairs at Washington were stupid enough to do it, for the poor privilege of occupying the White House for a short time. But when another Congress a.s.sembles with a Democratic majority in both houses (if such a calamity should overtake us), that will be done as sure as water runs down hill. Now what we propose to do is to open a door to the "better land" of this country, into which every freedman, who has had enough of slavery, both _legal_ before the war, and _practical_ since, and who has enterprise enough to desire to better his condition and that of his family, if he has one, may enter. It is the most practical, sensible, and scientific "labor reform" yet proposed; with neither the blatherskite of Kearney, nor his blasphemy, profanity, nor blarney, to mar and jeopardize the movement.

It has been known in Washington for some time, that "The Principia Club Papers, No. 9," soon to be issued, will contain a plan of emigration for the freedmen and their families of the Southern States, and their settlement upon the government lands of the Northern and Western States and Territories, where they can cultivate their own farms and sit under their own vine and fig-tree. The club will appoint a board of trustees in whom the public can have the utmost confidence, whose duty it shall be to a.s.sist the freedmen in the selection, purchase, and payment of their farms, and the removal of their families and outfits.

More full explanations and descriptions will be given in the pamphlet, which will contain also specific directions to individuals or colonies how to proceed in the matter. While arrangements are being made with the government, the club will be glad to receive any suggestions from any one interested in the movement, and especially the leading colored men in the country.

Concerning this movement, any information desired may be had by addressing the president of the club,

J. W. ALDEN,

No. 9 Hanson Street, Boston, Ma.s.s.

EMANc.i.p.aTION AND EMIGRATION.

When emanc.i.p.ation took place, in 1863, it was not thought, by the n.o.ble army of philanthropists who had labored more than a quarter of a century for its accomplishment, that it would ever be necessary for the freedmen to flee their native States, in order to enjoy their civil and political rights and privileges under the Const.i.tution.

Nor was it ever dreamed by the voting Republicans of 1876, that the administration they were putting into power could ever become so stupid as to surrender the national power into the hands of the rebel States, under so thin a guise as the old exploded humbug of South Carolina nullification--State rights, home-rule doctrine; and then stand by with folded arms and see the freedmen deliberately turned over to the tender mercies of the political trinity of despotism, to be stripped of their civil and political rights under the Const.i.tution, and to be refused protection by the national government. It made no difference that the robbers were _rebels_ and the robbed _loyal_ citizens. The hollow promises of the rebels who had fought four years to destroy the government, it seems, were better currency at Washington than the protests of the loyal people who had saved it.

But the fifteen years that have elapsed since emanc.i.p.ation, have demonstrated the fact that these loyal people who fought for and saved the government, and who voted for and elected the present administration, must be returned to practical slavery, submit to serfdom, or emigrate to more civilized States, where their civil and political rights will be cheerfully accorded to them.

The proof of this proposition lies in the fact that State after State, in the South, which had amended their ante-bellum const.i.tutions, so as to conform to that of the United States, preparatory to their readmission to the Union after the war, have, since their admission, remodelled the said const.i.tutions in the interest of the "dominant cla.s.s of white rulers." Moreover, the leaders of that same cla.s.s are now in hot haste to have the United States Const.i.tution made to conform to their own State laws, by the repeal of the amendments enfranchising the freedmen,--a specimen of sharp practice and unparalleled audacity, only equalled in the papal church, where the hierarchy made their system, and then a translation of the Bible to fit into it, instead of making a system to conform to the Bible, as originally written. (See Vaticanism Unmasked.)

If "the dominant race," as Mr. Gordon called them at the Revere House dinner, with the approval of Governor Rice and company, choose to put their carts before their donkeys, in their own States, they can do so, but when they call upon the nation to do it, the North may have a word to say about it.

If that "dominant race" we have heard so much about, and of which we have had such sad specimens in the present Congress, are expecting to get their potatoes dug, their corn hoed, and their cotton picked, for a peck of corn or so per week to each laborer, as their fathers have done for a couple of centuries past, we beg leave to differ from them, and suggest to their laborers a more excellent way for themselves. More than this: we propose to a.s.sist those who desire a better condition, to obtain it quietly, where each can enjoy the fruits of his own labors, and sit with his family under his own vine and fig-tree, man fashion, and where their wives and daughters will not be stripped and receive upon their bare backs, for some petty offence, as many lashes as the "dominant race" may please to inflict, as was the practice under the old slave code, and is still continued.

The whipping-post is as yet an inst.i.tution of the slave oligarchy, if we may credit the following telegram:--

"At Hampton, Virginia, the other day, a white girl of fourteen years received fifteen lashes at the whipping-post for stealing a pair of shoes."

If the "white girl of fourteen years" had stolen, instead of a pair of shoes, the a.s.sets of a bank, railroad, or any other corporation, she would have been wined and dined according to the present moral code of the solid South, which is being copied all over the country.

If our Northern readers feel that we have overdrawn the picture, and "flaunted the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt," we beg them to remember that the Southern press furnishes the material for that article. The last Boston paper we happened to take up while writing, has the following quotation from the "Oskolona (Mississippi) Southern States":--

"The future belongs to us and ours. Davis and his Cabinet and his soldiers will rank with the Washingtons, the Hampdens, and the Tells in the Pantheon of history, while Grant and his horde of b.l.o.o.d.y hirelings will be cla.s.sed with the Vandals, Goths, and Huns."

We will refer the reader to the "Appendix" of this, No. 9, for further evidence of the public sentiment at the South, which goes to show that the freedmen must EMIGRATE, FIGHT, or PERISH.

While the churches of the North are sending missionaries to educate them up to the point of Christian citizenship and an educated ballot, the "dominant white race" are robbing them of their political rights, shooting them down, if they dare to a.s.sert them, and making them "hewers of wood and drawers of water," as in the olden times of American slavery. (See Appendix for evidence of this.)

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.

The following preamble and resolutions, with plan of operations, will indicate the work we propose to be done, or at least entered upon.

PREAMBLE.

_Whereas_, by the proclamation of emanc.i.p.ation of President Lincoln in the year 1863, about four million of colored people were emanc.i.p.ated from American slavery; and _whereas_, by the subsequent amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States, pa.s.sed by Congress and ratified by more than three-quarters of the States of the Union, nearly a million of said emanc.i.p.ated slaves, of lawful age and s.e.x, were enfranchised and made citizens; and

_Whereas_, said amendments to the Const.i.tution were practically nullified and rendered a dead letter in the Southern States at the last presidential election, and ever since, by disfranchising the colored Republicans who would not put into the ballot-boxes Democratic tickets, shooting some and intimidating others; and

_Whereas_, the elements of despotism in the Democratic party are now clamoring for a repeal of the said const.i.tutional amendments, so that they may return the colored Republicans legally to their former condition, or a worse one, and use them for Democratic voters and ballot-box stuffers; therefore,--

RESOLUTIONS.

1. _Resolved_, That the Principia Club appeal to the government of the country, to render such a.s.sistance as will enable their emanc.i.p.ated people to take their families to the Northern and Western States and Territories, and settle on government lands, where they can enjoy their rights of citizenship, and be protected by the government which has thus far failed to render them protection from bull-dozing, a.s.sa.s.sination, intimidation, and other barbarisms to which they are now subjected by the elements of despotism in the South.

2. _Resolved_, That a board of trustees be appointed to a.s.sist the freedmen in obtaining their lands at government price, together with such an outfit as will enable them to remove their families and commence farming on their own account, to receive and disburse all moneys contributed for the above purposes, appoint such agents as may be necessary in the several States, to promote emigration and carry forward the following plan of operations, until the freedmen and their families who desire it, shall be removed to better homes and more civilized society, entirely away from the barbarism of slavery, and the pernicious doctrine that States rights are supreme and national rights are subordinate.

3. _Resolved_, That emanc.i.p.ation from American slavery being practically nullified, therefore, emanc.i.p.ation from home rule as understood and practised at the South, becomes a _necessity_, and emigration to a civilized community a consequence.

4. _Resolved_, That the President of the Principia Club be instructed to obtain from the Secretary of the Interior a list of the number of acres of unsold and unpre-empted lands in each of the Northern and Western States and Territories, from which the Trustees may select farms for their wards.

5. _Resolved_, That the same ascertain from the officers of the Pacific and other railroads, the best terms they are prepared to offer to settlers for the transportation of themselves, their families, and their outfits to the lands along their roads respectively.

6. _Resolved_, That the twenty-eight million acres of land contiguous to the Central, Union, Kansas and Denver Pacific roads, which the Secretary of the Interior has recently decided to open to actual settlers, at the government price of $1.25 per acre (the three years' limitation after the completion of said roads contained in the land-grant laws having expired), shall receive the special attention of the Trustees of this a.s.sociation in the selection of farms for applicants. But in case the decision of the Secretary of the Interior should not stand, or should be contested, then the government lands will be purchased instead.

7. _Resolved_, That the Republican party, to whom the country owes, under G.o.d, Emanc.i.p.ation, be called upon to finish the work so n.o.bly begun, by carrying out a provision of the United States Const.i.tution, Art. IV., Sect. II., Clause I., which reads, "the citizens of each State shall be ent.i.tled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States," and that this clause of the Const.i.tution, together with the amendments enfranchising the freedmen, be made test questions at the polls, until a solid North shall elect a government that will have backbone enough to see to it that every State in the Union shall strictly comply with the requirements of the United States Const.i.tution, or revert to a territorial condition.

THE PLAN OF OPERATIONS.

1. The Trustees shall be men of either known wealth, ability, financial strength, or business capacity, in whose honesty and integrity the community will have the most implicit confidence.

2. All moneys entrusted to them shall be appropriated in strict conformity to the directions of the donor or lender, whether for the general expenses or the purchase of lands.

3. The funds furnished the Trustees for the purchase of lands, shall be treated as loans or donations as the party may elect, the deed in each case to be taken in the name of the party furnishing the money to pay for the land, which deed may be held by the Trustees, or pa.s.sed over to the owner as he may elect, as security, if for a loan.