WASHINGTON, July 29, 1873.
GENTLEMEN,--I am honored by your communication of July 26th, in
which, after congratulating me upon returning health, and expressing
your sincere hopes that I may resume my labors in the Senate, there
to take up again the cause of Equal Rights, you mention that the
colored citizens of Washington are now engaged in agitating what you
properly call “a common-school system for all children.”
I desire to thank you for the good-will to myself which your
communication exhibits, and for your hopes that I may again in the
Senate take up the cause of Equal Rights. Health itself is valuable
only as it enables us to perform the duties of life, and I know no
present duty more commanding than that to which you refer.
I confess a true pleasure in learning that the colored people are
at last rising to take the good cause into their own hands, because
through them its triumph is certain. But they must be in earnest.
They must insist and labor, then labor and insist again. Only in
this way can indifference, which is worse even than the stubbornness
of opposition, be overcome. The open foe can be met. It is hard to
deal with that dulness which feels no throb at the thought of opening
to all complete equality in the pursuit of happiness.
Permit me to remind you, Gentlemen, that, living at the national
capital, you have a peculiar responsibility. In the warfare for
Equal Rights you are the advance guard, sometimes the forlorn hope.
You are animated to move forward, not only for your own immediate
good, but because through you the whole colored population of the
country will be benefited. What is secured for you will be secured
for all,--while, if you fail, there is small hope elsewhere. Do not
forget--and let this thought arouse to increased exertion--that your
triumph will redound to the good of all.
The District of Columbia is the place where all the great reforms
born of the war have begun. It is the experimental garden and nursery
where all the generous plants have been tried. Emancipation, colored
suffrage, the right of colored persons to testify, and the right to
ride in the street-cars,--all these began here, and I remember well
how they were all encountered.
On the abolition of Slavery we were solemnly warned that riot,
confusion, and chaos would ensue. Emancipation took place, and not a
voice or sound was heard except of peace and gladness. I was soberly
assured by eminent politicians, that if colored persons were allowed
to vote there would be massacre at the polls. Then, again, colored
testimony was deprecated,--while it was insisted that the street-cars
would be ruined, if opened to colored persons. But all these changes,
demanded by simple justice, have been in every way beneficent.
Nobody would reverse them now. Who would establish Slavery again? Who
would drive the colored citizen from the polls? Who would exclude
him from the court-room? Who would shut him from the street-cars?
And now the old objections are revived, and made to do service
again, in order to defeat the effort for common schools,--being
schools founded on the very principle of Equal Rights recognized in
the elective franchise, in the court-room, and in the street-car.
If this principle is just for all the latter,--and nobody says the
contrary now,--why hesitate to apply it in education? How often we
are enjoined to train the child in the way he should go! Why, then,
compel him in those tender years to bear the ban of exclusion? Why,
at that early period, when impressions are received for life, impose
upon him the badge of inferiority? He is to be a man; therefore he
must be trained to that self-respect without which there can be no
true manhood. But this can be only by removing all ban of exclusion,
and every badge of inferiority from color.
As the old objections are revived, so again do I present the great
truth announced by our fathers in the Declaration of Independence,
“that all men are created equal.” Admitting this principle as a
rule of conduct, the separation of children in the public schools
on account of color is absolutely indefensible. In abolishing it we
simply bring our schools into conformity with the requirements of the
Declaration.
To the objection that this change will injure the schools, I reply
that this is contrary to experience in other places, where the
commingling of children according to the genius of republican
institutions has been found excellent in influence. And I further
reply by insisting now, as I always do, upon that justice to an
oppressed race which has been too long delayed, and which never fails
to be a well-spring of strength and happiness, blessing all who help
it and all who receive it.
Feeling as I do on this question, you will understand that I cannot
see without regret any opportunity neglected of advancing the cause,
especially among colored fellow-citizens. On this they should be a
unit. Wherever the question presents itself, whether in Congress, or
the Legislative Chambers of the District, or the popular assembly,
there should be a solid vote against every discrimination on account
of color. It is easy for lawyers and politicians to find excuses
according to their desires; but no fine-spun theory or technicality
should be allowed to prevail against the commanding principle.
Accept my best wishes, and believe me, Gentlemen,
Your faithful friend,