752 



UNITED STATES. 



earliest option of the Government in legal-tender 

 currency or lawful money of the United States, with- 

 out funding it in long bonds or any way increasing the 



gold-paying and untaxed obligations of Government. 



III. By preserving inviolate the p 

 actual settlers and tillers of the soil. 



IV. By a tariff revenue alone, believing as we do 

 that the reduction of interest to a just rate will do 

 more to increase the rewards of labor and encourage 

 the development of agriculture, mineral, manufac- 

 turing, and mechanical resources, than any system 

 of tariff ]a\vs that can be devised. 



V. By restraining, or, if need be, abolishing cor- 

 porate monopolies under it, interdicting class legis- 

 lation and confining national legislation to such ob- 

 jects, subjecting military to civil authority, and 

 reducing the army to a peace standard, and confining 

 its operations to national purposes alone. 



VI. By requiring in all future wars means neces- 

 sary for their prosecution, which shall as required be 

 collected from the wealth of the country and not 

 entailed on the future earnings of labor. 



VII. By adopting an Indian policy founded on 

 national justice, by which many valuable lives and 

 many millions of money may be annually saved. 



VIII. By holding legislators to a more rigid ac- 

 countability, by requiring submission of the annexa- 

 tion of territory^, and other fundamental laws affect- 

 ing the general interest of society, to the vote of the 

 whole people. 



IX. By prohibiting the importation of coolies or 

 other servile labor, and protecting labor from all un- 

 necessary burdens. 



X. By encouraging cooperative efforts and the 

 building up of manufacturing industries throughout 

 the country. 



XI. By granting a general amnesty and restoring 

 the Union at once on the basis of an equality of rights 

 and privileges to all classes and interests, an impar- 

 tial administration of justice being the only true bond 

 of union to bind the States together and engage the 

 affections of the people to the Government. 



XII. By the creation of a board of management of 

 the currency and revenue, to consist of such a num- 

 ber of intelligent business men as may be necessary 

 to transact the fiscal affairs of the Government, which 

 board shall be charged with the execution of all laws 

 relating to the collection of and disbursement of the 

 revenue and the regulation of the currency, and em- 

 powered to have the oversight of the clerical force 

 and other officers and agents required in the discharge 

 of all duties pertaining to this Department. The same 

 rule is to be applied to the Post-Office and Interior 

 Departments as far as may be practicable, the Secre- 

 taries of the Departments to be presidents of such 

 boards. 



A convention of delegates representing the 

 negro population of the country was held in 

 St. Louis on September 27th. A series of reso- 

 lutions was adopted, congratulating the coun- 

 try upon the successful career of the Republi- 

 can party, approving various public acts of that 

 party, the advocation of a fairly-adjusted tariif 

 that does not discriminate against one section 

 to the advantage of* another, favoring the an- 

 nexation of San Domingo, a modification of 

 the internal revenue system looking to reduc- 

 tion of taxation, indorsing heartily Grant's 

 Administration, and asking his renomination. 



A resolution was passed, asking all the State 

 Legislatures to pass a compulsory law compel- 

 ling all children between se Tr en and fifteen years 

 to attend school. That relating to woman's 

 suffrage was indefinitely postponed. Another 

 convention, representing all the negro popula- 

 tion in the late slaveholding States, was held at 



Columbia, S. C., on October 24th. An address 

 to the people of the United States was adopted, 

 in which the delegates say : 



While we have, as a body, contributed our labor in 

 the past to enhance the wealth and promote the wel- 

 fare of the community, we have as a class been de- 

 prived of one of the chief benefits to be derived from 

 industry, namely, the acquisition of education and 

 experience, the return that civilization makes for the 

 labor of the individual. Our want in this respect not 

 only extends to general education, and experience, 

 such as fit the man to adorn the society of his fel- 

 lows, but to that special education and experience 

 required to enable us to enter successfully the de- 

 partments of a diversified industry. 



We ask that your Representatives in Congress may 

 be instructed to afford such aid, in extending educa- 

 tion to the uneducated classes in the States we repre- 

 sent, as maybe consistent with the financial interests 

 of the nation. Although we urge our unrequited 

 labors in the past as the ground of this appeal, yet 

 we do not seek these benefits for ourselves alone, 

 but for the white portion of the laboring-class in our 

 States, whose need is as great as ours. 



In order to secure the promotion of our industrial 

 interests, you can render us assistance. It is true we 

 have no demands to make of the national Govern- 

 ment in this respect ; but it is in the power of the 

 people of the United States to aid us materially. In 

 order to advance our knowledge and skill in the in- 

 dustrial arts, it is necessary that we should have the 

 advantage 01 the means employed in the country at 

 large for those purposes. That in preparing for in- 

 dustrial pursuits and in putting our skill in opera- 

 tion, we should come in contact with educated and 

 experienced workmen, and be put in possession of 

 the result of their skill and knowledge. If the trades 

 and workshops are shut against us, we cannot reach 

 that point of excellence to which we desire to attain. 

 We ask your aid and sympathy in placing us on the 

 same footing in reference to the pursuit of industry 

 as that enjoyed by other citizens. If, after having 

 access to the means of becoming skilful workmen, 

 we fail to attain that standing, we are contentt o take 

 rank among the industrial classes of the country ac- 

 cording to the degree of our proficiency. Shoulcl we 

 be excluded from these^ benefits, a state of things 

 will arise, most prejudicial to the interest of skilled 

 labor, namely, the existence of a great body of work- 

 men ready to supply the market with poor work, at 

 cheap rates. While slavery existed the Northern 

 States were not affected by the low state of the in- 

 dustrial arts in the Southern States ; but labor being 

 now free to find the best market, it is. beyond ques- 

 tion, the interest of the artificers or the North to 

 raise the standard of proficiency at the South. It is 

 clearly the interest of the great industries of the 

 North to strengthen themselves by alliance with 

 those at the South. This result would be practicable 

 to the fullest extent, if those of our color throughput 

 the North could be placed in a position to bring 

 among us the best knowledge and skill in the depart- 

 ments of trade to which they belong. 



During the session of this convention the 

 following letter Avas read: 



BOSTON, October 12, 1871. 



DEAR Sin: I am glad that our colored fellow-citi- 

 zens are to have a convention of their own. So long 

 as they are excluded from rights or suffer in any 

 way, on account of color, they will naturally meet 

 together in order to find a proper remedy, and, since 

 you kindly invite me to communicate with the con- 

 vention, I make bold to offer a few brief suggestions. 



In the first place, you must at all times insist upon 

 your rights, and here I mean not only those already 

 accorded, but others still denied, all of which are 

 contained in equality before the law. Wherever tho 

 law supplies a rule, there you must insist upon equal 



