EDITORIAL CAREER.
He returned to Pittsburg in the midst of the presidential campaign
resulting in the election of General Harrison. Finding political
feeling high, as it is always on such occasions, he speedily received
the infection, and threw himself forward in the political arena. Early
in 1843 he became too well aware, by sad experience, of the inability
of the colored people to bring their inflicted wrongs and injustices
before the public, in consequence of not having a press willing at
all times to espouse their cause. In many instances a paper which
would publish an article derogatory to their interest on one day, if
applied to on the next to publish for some colored person an answer or
correction, the applicant would either be told certain expressions must
be modified, the article is not respectful to the parties, or refuse
entirely on the plea that “it would not be politic.”
With these impediments he knew their progress would be retarded, and
to this end he began unassisted a weekly sheet under the title of the
Mystery, devoted to the interest and elevation of his race. Success
followed the movement; the first issue in all taken was one thousand in
the city; its circulation rapidly increased. For more than one year
he conducted it as editor. After sustaining it solely for nine months,
he transferred the proprietorship to a committee of six gentlemen, he,
meanwhile, continuing as editor for nearly four years.
It was well conducted, and held no mean position in the community,
especially where it originated.
The learned and lamented Dr. James McCune Smith, of New York, said “it
was one of the best papers ever published among the colored people of
the United States.”
The editorials of his journal elicited praises even from its enemies,
and were frequently transferred to their columns. His description of
the great fire of 1844, in Pittsburg, which laid a great portion of
that manufacturing city in ruins, was extensively quoted by papers
throughout the country. The original matter, so frequently copied, was
sufficient to determine the status of his paper.
During the Mexican war he bore his part in the field against the
knights of the quill, for his stand against the Polk administration
was so decided that on more than one occasion the subject was strongly
combated.
Much good was done through the influence of that little sheet, and it
is indisputable that to its influence originated the Avery Fund. Once,
on the subject of female education, through the columns of his paper,
he argued that “men were never raised in social position above the
level of women; therefore men could not be elevated without woman’s
elevation; further, that among the nations of the world where women
were kept in ignorance, great philosophers or statesmen failed to
be produced, as a general rule. And under the then existing state of
female education among the Americans of African descent, the hope of
seeing them equal with the more favored class of citizens would be
without proper basis.”
After reading his editorial on the social requirements of the colored
people, it is said that the Rev. Charles Avery determined to do
something tangible for them. The reverend gentleman, after consulting
some of the most prominent colored men, among whom was the Rev. John
Peck, established a school for males and females. This was the first
step towards that which is now known as Avery’s College, at the head
of which was placed, as senior professor, Martin A. Freeman, M. A.
(now professor of mathematics in the University of Liberia). He was
succeeded by George B. Vashon, M. A., a most accomplished scholar. The
Rev. Mr. Avery did not stop in the work so well begun. He died in 1858,
bequeathing in his will “one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the
education and elevation of the free colored people of the United States
and Canada, one hundred and fifty thousand for the enlightenment and
civilization of the African race on the continent of Africa,” all in
trust to the American Missionary Association of New York city; making
in all a grand bequest of three hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of
the college. We do not claim more than is evident--that the Mystery
deserves the credit of having brought these wants before the public,
and one humanitarian responded to the call most liberally.
While he was editor, on the Centennial Anniversary of Benjamin
Franklin’s birthday, he received from the committee an invitation,
among the editorial corps, to attend an entertainment given by the
Pittsburg Typographical Society at the Exchange Hotel. At the head of
this, as president of the occasion, was an honorable ex-commissioner to
Europe under President Tyler, and the position of vice-president was
filled by a judge of the County Court. This mark of courtesy to him,
in the days when Slavery held her carnival over the land, will serve
to indicate the standing of his paper and the triumph of genius over
brutal prejudice.
While editor of the Mystery, he was involved in a suit, the occasion
of which will serve the double purpose of showing the estimate placed
upon the merit of his paper, and the respect in which the ability and
character of the man were held in Pittsburg.
It happened, in the warmth of his zeal for the freedom of the enslaved,
that he, through the columns of his paper, charged a certain colored
man with treachery to his race by assisting the slave-catchers, who, at
that time, frequented Pennsylvania and other free states.
The accused entered a suit for _libel_, through advice, probably, of
some of his accomplices, who were whites, as it is evident his calling
would preclude the possibility of the individual to think himself
aggrieved.
The presiding judge, before whom the case was tried, having no sympathy
with abolitionists, and less with that class of negroes represented by
Martin Delany, took great pains to impress upon the minds of the jury,
in his charge to them, the extent of the offence of libel. After their
verdict of guilty was rendered, a fine of two hundred dollars, together
with the cost of prosecution, which amounted to about two hundred
and fifty dollars, was imposed. In view of a fine so unusually high
for that which was considered a just exposure of an evil which then
existed to the detriment of one class of the inhabitants, an appeal was
immediately made, by the press of Pittsburg, for a public subscription,
in order that it might be borne in common, instead of allowing it to
rest solely upon this faithful sentinel.
A subscription list was opened at the office of the Pittsburg Daily
Despatch, which led off first in the appeal.
The chivalric governor, Joseph Ritner, was in office then--him for
whom freedom’s sweetest bard invoked his muse to link his name with
immortality. About one week after the suit, and before the sum could be
raised, the governor remitted the fine. This was occasioned through a
petition originating with his able counsel, the late William E. Austin,
which was signed not only by all of the lawyers of the court, but it is
said by the bench of judges; thus leaving the costs only to be paid by
him.
The success of this suit, however, served to embolden the
slave-hunters; and again did this faithful sentinel give the alarm; but
this time his language, while it unmistakably pointed to the guilty
party, was carefully chosen, in order to avoid litigation. These,
determined to drive him from his post, so formidable to them, still so
valiantly held by him, again entered suit against him. Their former
success established no precedent for the second.
In the prosecution of this case, another jurist sat in judgment, the
term of the pro-slavery judge having expired. In his charge to the
jury, the eminent judge, William B. McClure, made special reference to
the position of the defendant, to his efforts in behalf of his race,
and his usefulness in the community. Then, addressing himself more
pointedly to the jury, he added, “I am well acquainted with Dr. Delany,
and have a very high respect for him. I regard him as a gentleman and a
very useful citizen. No Pittsburger, at least, will believe him capable
of willingly doing injustice to any one, especially his own race. I
cannot, myself, after a careful examination, see in this case anything
to justify a verdict against the defendant.” This resulted in a verdict
of acquittal without the jury leaving the box.
On another occasion, he was the recipient of forensic compliment,
facetiously given, because also of the source whence it emanated, and
because he was not present at the court to suggest the remarks of the
attorney in the midst of the pleading.
A highly respected colored man was under trial, charged with a serious
offence. His counsel, an influential lawyer, Cornelius Danagh, Esq.,
afterwards attorney general of the state, under Governor William T.
Johnson, of Pennsylvania, declared the prosecution as arising from
prejudice of color against his client. The prosecution was conducted by
the late Colonel Samuel W. Black, who served under General McClellan,
and fell in the seven days’ fight before Richmond. “They tell you,”
said he, in his peculiarly forcible style, “that we have brought on
this prosecution through prejudice to color. I deny it: neither does
the learned counsel believe it. Look at Martin Delany, of this city,
whom everybody knows, and the gentleman knows only to respect him.
Would any person in this community make such a charge against him?
Could such a prosecution be gotten up against him? No, it could not,
and the learned counsel knows it could not, and Delany is blacker than
a whole generation of the color of the defendant, _boiled down to a
quart_.”
It is probable that no portion of this reference to him pleased him
better than that which alluded to his blackness.
While conducting the paper, another production of his elicited much
discussion, and to which he still holds--that of the population of
the world. He claims that two thirds are colored, and the remainder
white; that there are but three original races--Mongolian, Ethiopian
or African, and Caucasian or European, as yellow, black, and white,
naming them in the order as given in the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, all others being but the offspring, either pure or mixed, of
the other three, as the Indian or American race of geography, being
pure Mongolian, and the Malay being a mixture of the three, Mongolian,
African, and Caucasian, the people of the last varying in complexion
and other characteristics from pure African, through Mongolian, to pure
Caucasian.
On the appearance of this article, containing the above novel
declaration of the preponderance of numbers of the colored races in the
world, a learned officer of the university was waited upon in the city,
on one occasion, and earnestly inquired of concerning the correctness
of the statement, desiring, if it were incorrect, to contradict it at
once. It was never contradicted.
After the return of Mr. Frederick Douglass from England, in the
summer of 1846, he visited Pittsburg, where he concluded to form
a copartnership in a printing establishment with him. Disposing
of his interest in the Mystery, we next find him aiding, by means
of his talents and energy, the sustaining of a paper issuing from
Rochester, New York, known as the North Star, the early name of the
subsequent Frederick Douglass paper. To advance the interest of
this, he travelled, holding meetings, and lecturing, so as to obtain
subscribers, and endeavored to effect a permanent establishment of a
newspaper, as a general organ of the colored people, on a secure basis,
by raising an endowment for it, being convinced that this alone would
insure its successful continuance.
The winter of 1848-9 found him in the eastern part of Pennsylvania,
taking part in anti-slavery meetings and conventions, ably seconded
by the eloquent Charles L. Remond, to whom, he says, the anti-slavery
cause of New England is much indebted for the breaking down of
the stupid prejudice, which once existed on the land and water
transportations, against colored persons.
One of the means resorted to--so zealous were the colored people
to sustain the rising North Star--was the holding of fairs in
Philadelphia, supported by a number of the most influential colored
ladies of that city. At the first of these, December, 1848, it was,
that William and Ellen Craft, now in England, the first victims
selected under the atrocious Fugitive Slave Law (enacted later), made
their appearance, and under circumstances so peculiar as to become
historic on both sides of the Atlantic. They were introduced by him
to the visitors at the fair in an appropriate address, and in such
a way that their mode of escape was carefully concealed, but which
was afterwards communicated to the Liberator by an anti-slavery man.
Through this their whereabouts became known to Dr. Collins, of Macon,
Georgia, and as soon as the enactment was completed, a few years after,
he immediately, through his agents sent north, placed all Boston under
obligation to arrest them.
Hundreds of special or assistant marshals were appointed in the midst
of a government which thundered her volleys of welcome to the Hungarian
governor, a fugitive from Austrian tyranny! And now, in all our broad
free America, there was no place of security from southern slavery for
these.
For four long days these obsequious marshals, whom the slave power
doubtless rewarded in after years with starvation and death in their
loathsome prisons, prowled around the dwelling in which the brave Craft
resided, till at length that lion-hearted reformer and ever-devoted
friend of the negro, Wendell Phillips, persuaded the daring fugitive,
all things being prepared, to take passage on a vessel, his wife being
already on board; and thus they escaped to England, where they were
received under the auspices of the Baroness Wentworth, and are now
enjoying a fair share of prosperity and all the advantages of British
citizenship.
During his tour in behalf of the North Star, in July, 1848, when
America’s sympathy yearned towards the people of Europe, in the name of
whose freedom the thrones were trembling, a mob demanded his life in a
village of Northern Ohio.
They first demanded of him a speech, in a derisive manner, which
he refused. In revenge they circulated a report that he was an
abolitionist and amalgamationist. This had the desired effect, and soon
a mob, consisting of nearly every male in the village, and neighboring
farmers, attracted by a blazing fire which they had kindled of store
boxes and tar, in the middle of the street, gathered, shouting,
swearing, and demanding him of the proprietor of the hotel, who had
closed his doors on the appearance of the rabble.
A barrel of tar was contributed by some person, and it was decided to
saturate his clothes, set him on fire, and let him run! Interference
in his behalf was forbidden, and threats were made against the hotel
keeper, who refused to eject him. The movement to break the doors in
being threatened and attempted, the landlord addressed them from the
window to the effect that it was his own property, and that he would
not turn any well-behaved person from his house into the street, and if
his property was injured, as was threatened, he would have redress by
law. As the yells and threats became more deafening, he saw no retreat,
and determined to yield his life as dearly as possible. Against the
entreaties and advice of the proprietor and family, he found his way
into the kitchen: seizing there a butcher’s knife and a hatchet, he
returned, and placed himself at the head of the stairs: having within
his reach some chairs, he stood awaiting the issue with all the fire of
his nature aroused.
A gentleman friend travelling with him, by blood and complexion a
quadroon, was advised by Dr. Delany to leave him by making his exit
through the back door, as he would be mistaken for a white. His friend
refused to abandon him. The night was far spent; but, the clamor still
continuing, the mob might have executed their fiendish purpose, had
it not been for the timely arrival of one of their number, a veteran
soldier, whom they called Bill. “Stop!” he exclaimed, as he came up to
the spot in time to hear the final vote, “_to break into the hotel,
bring the nigger out, and burn him!_” “Do you see this arm?” said
he, pointing to the remaining stump of a lost arm. “I have fought in
Mexico, and I am no coward; but I had rather face an army in the field
than enter the room of that negro after the threats you have made in
his hearing, knowing the fate that awaits him. Didn’t you hear how that
black fellow talked? These are educated negroes, and have travelled,
and know as much as white men; and any man who knows as much as they do
won’t let any one force himself into their room in the night and leave
it alive! You may take my word for that! Now, gentlemen, I have told
you; you may do as you please, but I shan’t stay to see it.” During
this time they stood patiently listening to Bill; and as he concluded,
they shouted, “We’ll take Bill’s advice, and adjourn till morning.”
They gradually dispersed, after leaving a committee to watch and report
when the _niggers_ would attempt to leave. At the dawn, however, the
landlord had a buggy at the door for his guests, and the few young men
on the spot confined their vengeance to abusive epithets and threats if
they should ever attempt to enter the town again. The mob in New York,
during the war, showed the evil against which colored people were long
accustomed to contend.
One thing worthy of more than a passing notice occurred during this
editorial existence, which we will relate here.
It happened that, while travelling in behalf of the paper, he stopped
at Detroit, Michigan, and attended a trial in the Supreme Court,
Justice John McLean presiding, before whom Dr. Comstock, a gentleman
of respectability and wealth, and others of that state, were arraigned
on charge of aiding and abetting the escape of a family of blacks from
Kentucky, known as the Crosswaits. In the case it had been proven
satisfactorily that Dr. Comstock had nothing to do with their escape.
Having heard of the affair (being two or three miles distant), he
came to the scene of confusion just in time to hear the threats and
regrets of the defeated slave-hunter, Crossman. The doctor stood there
enjoying the discomfiture, and expressed himself to a friend that
he hoped “they would not be overtaken.” For this Judge McLean ruled
him guilty as an accomplice in the escape, stating that it was “the
duty of all good citizens to do all they could to prevent it; that
whether housing or feeding, supplying means or conveyances, throwing
himself or other obstructions in the way, or standing quietly by with
his hands in his breeches pockets, smiling consent, it was equally
aiding and abetting, hindering and obstructing, in the escape of the
slaves, and therefore such person was reprehensible before the law as a
_particeps criminis_, and must be held to answer.” This novel decision
of the judge of the Supreme Court was so _startling_ to him _at that
time_--for, alas! decisions more wounding to the honor of the nation
have since emanated from the Supreme Court--that he hastened to report
to the North Star the proceedings of the trial, which he had taken
down while sitting in the court-room. This publication, like a wronged
and angry Nemesis, seemed to reach various points in time to be made
available, especially by those attending the great Free Soil Convention
at Buffalo. Everywhere was the infamous decision discussed with more or
less warmth, according to the political creed of the debaters: then the
reliability of the writer received some attention. The North Star may
have been sufficient authority, had that correspondent who reported the
McLean decision been Mr. Frederick Douglass, who had both “credit and
renown.” While the initials of the undersigned could be known from the
title page of the paper (as the full names of each appeared as editors
and proprietors), “Who is he?” became the subject of inquiry among the
throng of delegates, who could not be censured for not knowing but one
black man of ability and character in the United States, and supposing
it to be impossible that there should be more than one.
The Mass Convention assembled outside, supposed to be forty thousand,
filling the public square, hotels, and many of the streets, about six
thousand of whom, occupying the great Oberlin tent, which had been
obtained for the purpose, and constituting the acting body of the Mass
Convention, while four hundred and fifty of the credited delegates were
detailed as the executive of the great body, and assembled in a church
near by, before whom all business was brought and prepared before
presenting it to the body for action.
The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, late minister to the court of St.
James, was president of Mass Convention. The Hon. Salmon P. Chase,
now chief justice of the United States, chairman or president of the
executive body. Strange to say, in an assemblage like this, so vast and
renowned, the report from the columns of the North Star found its way,
and, as subsequently appeared, was the subject of weighty discussion.
We give the marked circumstance. He says that “while quietly seated in
the midst of the great assembly, a tall gentleman in the habiliments
of a clergyman, and of a most attractive, Christian-like countenance,
was for a long time observed edging his way, as well as he could,
between the packed seats, now and again stooping and whispering, as
if inquiring. Presently he was lost sight of for a moment: soon a
gentleman behind him touched him on the shoulder, called his attention,
when the gentleman in question walked towards him, stooping with the
paper in his hand, pointed to the article concerning Justice McLean’s
decision, and inquired, “Are you Dr. M. R. Delany?”
“I am, sir,” replied he.
“Are you one of the editors of the North Star, sir?”
“Yes, sir, I am,” he answered, feeling, very likely, most uncomfortable
by this attention.
“Are these your initials, and did you write this article concerning
Justice McLean of the Supreme Court, in the case of Dr. Comstock and
others, and the Crosswait family?” continued his interlocutor.
“That is my article, and these are my initials, sir.”
“I’ve but one question more to ask you. Did you hear Judge McLean
deliver this decision, or did you receive the information from a third
party?” demanded the questioner.
“I sat in the court-room each day during the entire trial, and reported
only what I heard, having written down everything as it occurred,”
returned Dr. Delany.
“That is all, sir; I am satisfied,” concluded the stranger, departing
from the great pavilion, and going directly across the street to the
church, wherein sat the executive or business part of the convention,
leaving the corresponding editor of the North Star in a most aggravated
state of conjectures.”
The all-important business at the church, then under consideration
before them, was the nomination of a candidate for the presidency. The
session was long and important. No report of the proceedings or their
progress had been received during the day. Near sunset a representative
of the council entered the pavilion, and announced from the stage that
they would soon be ready to give the convention the result of their
deliberations. Soon after there was a great move forward, and, amidst
deafening applause, the Hon. Salmon P. Chase ascended the platform, and
announced that, for reasons sufficiently satisfactory to the executive
council, the name of Judge John McLean, of Ohio, had been dropped as a
candidate for the presidency of the United States, and that of Martin
Van Buren substituted; and he had been selected by the council to make
this statement, from considerations of the relationship which he bore
to the rejected nominee; so that his friends in the convention might
understand that it was no act of political injustice by which the
change was made.
Probably, apart from the executive body, none knew at the time the
cause of the withdrawal of the name of the judge. Whether or not his
statement, made doubly eloquent by this infamous decision, added its
weight to stay the march to the presidential goal of an ambitious,
soulless man, we know that he was rejected, and Martin Van Buren
received the preferment. And, as Martin Delany never claimed of him
a reward for the service unconsciously rendered, in the event of
his election, as is customary, it is likely he was forgotten, to be
remembered, however, in the better days of the nation, and by its
noblest president.
From the Free Soil Convention he and a number of the colored delegates
went directly to Cleveland, to attend a national convention of
colored men. They assembled in the court-room, granted to them by the
proper authority, the court and bar having generously adjourned for
the purpose--a mark of courtesy not often, if ever, recorded at the
conventions of this color. And, what was equally as remarkable, the
citizens, represented by gentlemen of position, on the last day of the
convention, took a vote in the house expressive of their satisfaction
with the entire proceedings of the delegates.
While travelling to advance the interests of his journal, a remarkable
political foresight on his part was manifested by the publication of a
letter in its columns. It established for him, ever after, a character
for observation of national and international polity, in which he
delights to search out and compare, not at that time accorded to one
of his race. This attracted the attention of many of the leading men,
and their inquiries led him to a conclusion which was soon verified
by action, as the following editorial letter to the North Star of
February 10, 1848, will show:--
_Letter to the North Star._
“The recent republication of the letter of the Duke of
Wellington to Sir John J. Burgoyne, a major general in the
British army, respecting the dangerous exposure of the English
coast to French invasion, has created quite an alarm, as
well as thrown into speculation the political world. Neither
is it hard for any who at all understand political economy,
especially the present history of the political world, to
determine the cause, at such a time as this, when ‘England
is at peace with all nations,’ and especially in friendly
relations with France, of the issue of such a document by the
duke.
“Louis Philippe, King of France, is certainly, in my
estimation, a great politician, having a great portion of
the shrewdness, with all the intrigue, of Talleyrand, and
inheriting a greater share of duplicity than most men living.
And, what no monarch of France, from Louis I. to the Emperor
Napoleon, was ever able to effect by political intrigue,
power, and the sword, Louis Philippe is about to accomplish
by duplicity, yet carried out in a manner the least to be
suspected.
“It is known that France has ever desired a universal mastery,
as shown by the Wellington letter, having at different periods
occupied every capital in Europe, save that of England. The
extension of a royal family over different kingdoms has, in
Europe, ever been regarded as a most dangerous precedent, and
more dreaded by rival powers than fleets and armies. For
the consummation of a project of such mighty magnitude, the
court at Versailles has resorted to means unparalleled, at
least in modern ages. This subtle monarch, who has neither the
propensity nor talents for military achievements, commenced
his rapid strides to power, first by the crusade of his
eldest son, the Duke of Orleans, in 1833, upon the northern
nations of Africa, whom, with little or no resistance, he
expected to subdue; and, this once being effected, would give
a pretext for a powerful fleet to cruise in the Indian Ocean
and Mediterranean Sea, and continually act as a check upon the
formidable naval force of Great Britain. But, contrary to his
expectations, the resistance met with from Abd-el Kader foiled
and baffled that great project. In the mean time, the duke was
killed, being thrown from his carriage.
“The next effort was in 1835, a demonstration upon the republic
of Hayti, for which purpose an expedition was fitted out, of
which his second son, Prince de Joinville, was the chief, aided
by Baron Las Casses, with whom it was left optional whether
that demonstration should be made by treaty or bombardment.
But the prince and baron, having before their minds’ eye the
fate of General Le Clerc, the greatest captain and military
tactician under Napoleon, considered it no disgrace to enter
into friendly negotiations with the warlike republic. Leaving
Hayti, without an opportunity of testing the military skill of
the prince, the next attack was in 1836, upon Vera Cruz, by
storming the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa. In this the squadron
was quite successful, the Mexicans, under Santa Anna, being
repulsed, with the loss of a leg or a foot by that chieftain.
“The prince having proved his military ability, the old king,
as the first link in the great chain by which the fidelity
of foreign powers was to be secured to France, manages to
consummate a marriage between his son, the Prince de Joinville,
and Clementina, daughter of the Emperor of Brazil. This great
link being welded in order to dupe England into an indifferent
observation of his rapid strides, the masterly step was to
effect the union of Prince Augustus Coburg, brother to Prince
Albert, husband to the Queen of England, with his second
daughter. Another link being completed, he leagues in the
ties of matrimony the Duke de Montpensier, his third son, to
Isabella, Queen of Spain. No sooner is this effected--the last
link of the great cable being complete--than the health of
the Infanta Isabella becomes impaired, or she, at all events,
grows weary of public life; and a proposition, is at once
made to abdicate the throne in favor of her spouse, Duke de
Montpensier. Of course, this at once gives Spain to the crown
of France, which will thereby not only hold the key of Europe,
but places Cuba, the key of the western hemisphere, also in her
hands.
“The last stroke of the hammer being struck, all France being
upon her feet, each officer at his station, and each man at his
post, Louis Philippe, looking upon his success as sure, as the
crowning scene in the drama, effects the appointment of Prince
de Joinville to the Lord Admiralty of the navy of France--an
office of the same import and rank, but called by another name.
All this is but a prelude to the design of France upon Europe.
Of course England would be the first point of attack; and there
is no man living more capable, and none who would so quickly
discover and effectually foil the designs of the crafty old
monarch as the invincible conqueror of Napoleon.
“But are we not interested deeply in these movements? Most
certainly we are. England, at present, is the masterpiece
of the world. Her every example is to promote the cause of
freedom; and, had she possessed the same principles during the
revolutionary period, in every place that she occupied, slavery
would have been abolished. Hence slavery in this country could
not have stood; for, the slave once tasting freedom, all the
powers of earth and hell could not have reduced him again to
servitude.
“But how with France? She is a slaveholding power, deeply
engaged in human traffic, favoring and fostering the
institution of slavery wherever she holds the power or
influence; and, with the able politician and learned statesman
Guizot at the helm of affairs, the cause and progress of
liberty would be retarded for years.
“Yours, in behalf of our oppressed and down-trodden countrymen,
“M. R. D.”