UNITED STATES. 



775 



that this conduct is such as meets with our disappro- 

 bation and leaves a suspicion on the reputation of 

 those men that they were influenced in their action 

 by the mercenaries of either Grant or Greeley. 



Resolved, That under no circumstances \vill we 

 support either Grant or Greeley, for the reason that 

 neither of those men can fairly represent the inter- 

 ests of this party ; that we consider those men as so 

 closely identified with mere parties as to preclude all 

 possibility of either of them doing justice to the 

 working-people of this great republic ; and therefore 

 belt 



Resolved, That we proceed with the business of 

 this convention as will best serve our interests, and 

 take such action as will aid us in nominating candi- 

 dates for President and V ice-President of the United 

 States, or such further action as this convention in 

 its wisdom may suggest or adopt. 



The Colored National Convention assembled 

 in New Orleans on April 15th. It convened 

 in response to a call issued by the Southern 

 States Convention of colored men, which was 

 held at Columbia, S. C., on October 18, 1871. 

 Delegates were present from Arkansas, Geor- 

 gia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mis- 

 sissippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Khode Island, 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, 

 and the District of Columbia. 



Frederick Douglass, of Washington, was ap- 

 pointed chairman, and the following resolu- 

 tions were adopted : 



Eegrettingthe necessity which has called into ex- 

 istence a colored convention, and deeply^ sensible of 

 the responsibilities which have been intrusted to 

 our consideration, we hereby acknowledge our grati- 

 tude for past triumphs in behalf of equal rights, and 

 respectfully submit our peculiar grievances to the 

 immediate attention of the American people in the 

 following platform and resolutions : 



1. "We thank God, the friends of universal liberty 

 in this and other lands, the bravery of colored sol- 

 diers, and the loyalty of the colored people, for our 

 emancipation, our citizenship, and our franchise- 

 nient. 



2. Owing our political emancipation in this coun- 

 try to Republican legislation, to which all other par- 

 ties and political shades of opinion were originally 

 and bitterly opposed, we would be blind to our pros- 

 pects and false to our best interests did we identify 

 ourselves with any other organization ; and, as all 

 roads out of the ^Republican party lead _ into the 

 Democratic camp, we pledge our unwavering devo- 

 tion to support the nominee of the Philadelphia 

 Convention. 



3. We sincerely and gratefully indorse the Admin- 

 istration of President U. S. Grant in maintaining 

 our liberties, in protecting us in our privileges, in 

 punishing our enemies, in the dawn of recognition 

 of the claims of men, without regard to color, by 

 appointing us to important official positions at home 

 and abroad, in the assurance that he has given to de- 

 fend our rights ; and that, while we, in our grateful- 

 ness, acknowledge and appreciate his efforts in be- 

 half of equal rights, we are not unmindful of his 

 glory as a soldier and his exalted virtues as a states- 

 man. 



4. Our thanks are due, and are humbly tendered, 

 to President Grant for overriding the precedents of 

 prej udice in the better recognition of the services of 

 men, without regard to color, in some parts of the 

 country, and we earnestly pray that the colored Ee- 

 publicans of States where there are no Federal posi- 

 tions given to colored men may no longer be ignored, 

 but that they will be stimulated by some recognition 

 of Federal patronage. 



5. It would be an ingratitude, loathed by men and 

 abhorred by God, did we not acknowledge our over- 



whelming indebtedness to the services of the Hon. 

 Charles Sumner, who stood for a long time alone in 

 the Senate of the United States, the Gibraltar of our 

 cause, and the north-star of our hopes, who forfeited 

 caste in the estimation of a large portion of his coun- 

 trymen, by his unswerving devotion to equal rights ; 

 who has been maligned for his fidelity to principles ; 

 who has been stricken down by an assassin for advo- 

 cating liberty throughout all the land and unto all 

 the inhabitants thereof, and in whose giant body^ 

 rising as it were almost put of the grave, to marshal 

 the hosts of impartial justice to his mighty ideas, 

 going to the farthest part of the land and finding a 

 responsive eeho in the triumph of liberty over sla- 

 very, we have an assurance of this good, great, and 

 beloved patriot that he will be as faithful to the 

 Bepublican party in the future as he has been unfal- 

 tering in the past. 



6. That while men professing strong radical senti- 

 ment^, and who were elected to Congress by over- 

 whelming majorities of colored voters ? were found 

 voting against the Supplementary Civil Rights Bill 

 in the United States Senate, we honor that moral 

 exhibition of devotion to the principles of the Ke- 

 publican party which influenced the Hon. Schuyler 

 Colfax, Vice-President of the United States, to 

 honor the cause of justice by recording his casting 

 vote as President of the Senate in favor of equality 

 before the law, as indicated in the Supplementary 

 Civil Eights Bill, as it passed the Senate by virtue 

 of the aforesaid casting vote. 



7. Having been by solemn legislation of the Amer- 

 ican Congress raised to the dignity of citizenship, 

 we appeal to the law-abiding people of the States, 

 especially to those who, in the days of the Fugitive 

 Slave Law, exhorted obedience to the statutes, how- 

 ever offensive, to protect and defend us in the enjoy- 

 ment of our just rights and privileges upon all con- 

 veyances which are common carriers, at all resorts 

 of public amusements where tastes are cultivated and 

 manhood is quickened, and in all places of a public 

 character, or corporate associations which owe their 

 existence to the legislation of the nation or States, 

 against the spirit of slavery which attempts to de- 

 grade our standard of intelligence and virtue by en- 

 forcing our refined ladies and gentlemen into smok- 

 ing-cars amid obscenity and vulgarity, which humil- 

 ates our pride by denying us first-class accommoda- 

 tions on steamboats, and compelling us to eat and 

 sleep with servants, for which we are charged the 

 same as those who have the best accommodations ; 

 and which closes the doors of hotels against famish- 

 ing colored persons, however wealthy, intelligent, 

 or respectable they may be, while all other public 

 places and conveyances welcome and entertain all 

 white persons, whatever maybe their character, who 

 may apply. Now, in view of the disgraceful incon- 

 sistency of this affectation of prejudice, this rebel- 

 lion against the laws of God, humanity, and the na- 

 tion, we appeal to the justice of the American peo- 

 ple to protect us in our civil rights in public places, 

 and upon public conveyances, which are readily ac- 

 corded, and very justly, to the most degraded speci- 

 mens of our fellow-cit'izens. 



8. That wherever Eepublicans have betrayed a col- 

 ored constituency, we recommend that better men be 

 elected to succeed them, and especially do we pledge 

 ourselves to elect successors in Congress, wherever 

 we have the power, to every Kepubhcan who voted 

 against or dodged the Supplementary Civil Eights 

 Bill, recently introduced into the United States Sen- 

 ate by Hon. Charles Sumner, and also successors to 

 those who shall not show a satisfactory record on 

 the Civil Eights Bill now in the United States House 

 of Eepresentatives. 



The following letter from Senator Charles 

 Sumner was received by the convention : 



WASHINGTON, April 7, 1872. 



MY DEAR SIB: In reply to your inquiry, I make 

 haste to say that, in my judgment, the Colored Con- 



