Other things might be mentioned, showing the sympathies of the
President; but I cannot forget the Civil Rights Bill, which is the
cap-stone of that Equality before the Law to which all are entitled
without distinction of color. President Grant, who could lobby so
assiduously for his San Domingo scheme, full of wrong to the colored
race, could do nothing for this beneficent measure. During a long
session of Congress it was discussed constantly, and the colored
people everywhere hung upon the debate; but there was no word of
“heart-felt sympathy” from the President. At last, just before the
Nominating Convention, he addressed a letter to a meeting of colored
fellow-citizens in Washington, called to advance this cause, where he
avoided the question by declaring himself in favor of “the exercise
of those rights to which every citizen should be entitled,”[175]
leaving it uncertain whether colored people are justly entitled to
the rights secured by the pending bill. I understand that Horace
Greeley has been already assailed by an impracticable Democrat as
friendly to this bill; but nobody has lisped against President Grant
on this account.
Among “antecedents” I deem it my duty to mention the little capacity
or industry of the President in protecting colored people and in
assuring peace at the South. Nobody can doubt that a small portion
of the effort and earnest will, even without the lobbying, so freely
given to the San Domingo scheme, would have averted those Ku-Klux
outrages which we deplore,--thus superseding all pretence for further
legislation by Congress. But he is disabled both by character and
the drawback of his own conduct. After violating the Constitution
and International Law to insult the Black Republic, and setting
an example of insubordination, he is not in condition to rebuke
law-breakers.