RETURN TO AMERICA.
As Delany was desirous of contributing his aid to the suppression
of the rebellion, in various ways he offered to make his services
acceptable, which being of no avail, as northern ingenuity had not yet
discovered the latent powers of black muscles, he was forced to remain
an unwilling looker-on while others bore the part he believed assigned
to his race.
While thus unemployed, he accepted the advice of gentlemen of influence
and standing, among whom were the Hon. F. S. Gregory and the Rev. Dr.
Riddell, of Jersey City, Joseph B. Collins and Isaac Smith, Esqs., of
New York, to make a tour through the country, and lecture on Africa and
his researches there.
These lectures, beginning after the publication of his report, were
exceedingly popular. They were free courses, held generally in the most
prominent churches of various denominations, under the auspices of
their respective pastors; his book being sold to the audience at the
conclusion. These being attended by the most refined and influential
of society, he took occasion always to bring forward the claims of his
race to the war, endeavoring to create a popular feeling in favor of
arming the blacks. For as the huge monster of rebellion began assuming
its gigantic proportions with all its hideous deformities, all were
admitting the absurdity of its being “put down in a few months.” While
many then recognized that the blast from Sumter’s embattlement was but
a reverberation of that which rung out so clearly upon the midnight
air, a few short years back, at Harper’s Ferry, they scarcely saw the
blacks’ identity with the issue.
To these lectures there was no impediment offered by his political
enemies, on the score of color, to prevent his being heard, but on one
occasion; and the cause assigned being so novel and ill-arranged we
cannot help referring to the circumstance.
Being in Detroit, he was solicited by that distinguished and venerable
divine, Dr. Duffield, author of “The Christian Regeneration,” who
offered him his church, on the following Sabbath, to deliver a lecture
on any moral subject he should choose, before his congregation. The
doctor accepted the invitation; but at the precise moment of leaving
for the church, a gentleman called upon him, abruptly remarking, “It
was not known until this moment that _you_ are the person who improved
the opportunity to insult the American minister at the Court of St.
James. You need not come; we will not hear you!” This was of course
instantly denied, with an attempted explanation; but his accuser, for
some reason, persisting in the charge, and indignantly refusing to
hear an explanation, abruptly withdrew. Soon after a _committee_ of
_gentlemen_ called, stating that the church was crowded, determined to
hear him and give him an opportunity to explain the impolitic charge
against him. Thanking them, he peremptorily declined, lest he should
compromise the excellent pastor by the accusation most certain to be
made, that “the abolitionists of the church had forced a negro into it,
though protested against by the other portion of the congregation.”
Again, that Sabbath being the first after the attack on Fort Sumter,
he insisted to his friends, knowing the great issue at stake, that
it was no time to divide the feelings of the people. The point was
conceded by his friends, and they yielded, when one of them, a wealthy
manufacturer, rented the “Murrill Hall” at his own expense, where, on
the first evening, he made a satisfactory explanation of the alleged
offence, and lectured for four consecutive evenings.
A few days after this, while seated in the cars, dashing along the
Great Western Railway in Canada, listening to a discussion on the
probabilities of the war and its result, a gentleman stepped up,
addressing him by name, stated that he resided at Detroit, and was
there at the time the objection was raised against having him lecture
at the church, and, “although a Democrat, he did not sympathize with
the issue made against him, and that it was simple justice due to him
to state that the author of the charge was Colonel ----, recent charge
d’affaires at the Court of R----, who made the statement as being true,
he having been present at the International Congress at the time, and
knew the attack on the American minister to have been of the grossest
character and altogether unnecessary.” This, the major says, was the
first and only information he ever had of the conversion of that
incident into an attack by him upon the American minister.
He continued his course of lectures, and heard no more such absurd
charges, persons being perhaps too absorbed in the fearful struggle,
when a nation should be born anew, and old prejudices and hatred
forever buried, to repeat the slander.
At this time, too, there were endless speculations concerning the
course and determined policy of Mr. Lincoln, who, with few exceptions,
was being regarded with suspicion by the friends of the blacks as
well as by the blacks themselves, based upon his inaugural address
(to the first we allude, for the second lives forever), together with
the Central American Emigration scheme, which we now recognize as a
most successful _coup d’état_ of the president. It set the opinion at
rest forever that the colored people could be induced to emigrate from
_their home, and this their country_, _en masse_.
Speculations were endless as to the tendency of the president’s course.
As it is not considered an assumption for a man of limited means to
have an opinion of his own, Dr. Delany had and claimed the right, after
much deliberation, to express his views concerning the policy of the
president. Many of his friends differed widely from him; he held his
own convictions with his usual tenacity, and endeavored to convince
them. He thought he could discern, in the course then being pursued by
Mr. Lincoln, a logical conclusion, and which, if not at first intended,
would ultimately result in accomplishing the desires of the friends of
freedom--emancipation to the slaves of the South, and the freedmen’s
rights as an inevitable consequence.
Said he on one occasion, “I thought I could see differently from my
friends, those truly talented men, and unswerving friends of their
race. Not that I know more than they, for I may not know as much. But
we, like white men, have our faculties and propensities, and are likely
to develop them in the prosecution of our course. In this I think it
may not be regarded as an unwarranted assumption or egotism to say
that in national affairs and in fundamental principles of government,
I claim to be at least not far rearward of my friends whose counsels I
sought. To inquire into the origin of races and governments, and the
rise and fall of nations, is with me a propensity I cannot resist.
This is not said for invidious comparison with my friends, because as
an orator (which I am not), anti-slavery historian, and portrayer of
black men’s wrongs, I would sink into insignificance in comparison
with Frederick Douglass, and would render myself ridiculous were I
capable of assuming to be equally learned with Dr. James McCune Smith.
While I considered him at the time of his death the most scientific
and learned colored man, as a scholar, on the American continent,
yet neither scholarship and splendid talents among black men ceased
to exist with Dr. McCune Smith, nor will end with the name of the
renowned Douglass. They are more numerous comparatively, than their
opportunities warrant.” He sought his friends, to devise with them the
means best adapted to meet the demands of the hour. The subject present
in his mind was that of the army. He argued strongly, always in favor
of separate organization, as the only means to give character to the
colored people, and promote their pride of race, thus crediting them in
history with deeds of their own. In this he was afterwards supported
by the late Dr. McCune Smith, and the lamented Thomas Hamilton of the
Anglo-African.
On one occasion he sought Mr. Frederick Douglass at his home at
Rochester, who was then restlessly impatient, as were a host of
others, at the slow, undefined steps of the president. It is not
for us to question whether or not those sad, patient eyes, from the
beginning of the struggle, discerned, amid the mists and shadows of
the future, the symbol of Union synonymous with emancipation, and,
rejoicing, quietly awaited the development of events, or if it was
indeed a “_military necessity_,” which occasioned its promulgation.
Since the many disclosures of party treachery and corruption in high
places, the pureness of action which marked his career forms a striking
contrast, on which the loyal heart contemplates with a pride mingled
with tenderness. That a signal providence directed his course, beset
as he was by false counsellors and foes, who hesitated at no measures
which subserved their purposes, it is evident. The fiery trials and
perplexities through which he passed but purified him for the halo of
martyrdom which ultimately encircled his furrowed brow, enshrining him
forever in the nation’s innermost heart.
Before his departure from Rochester he had the satisfaction of
hearing Mr. Douglass express himself more favorably editorially in
his able journal, and this before it went to press. Said he, “It was
to this change of opinion in my great-hearted friend that we date
the correspondence with the Hon. Montgomery Blair, asking the aid of
his great influence in behalf of the president in putting down the
rebellion, and which resulted in a special official request for Mr.
Douglass to visit Washington, and his subsequent conference with the
president and cabinet, including the able secretary of war.”
An incident is related in connection with his many arguments in
behalf of the government, believing its policy ultimately tended to
emancipation. In conversation once on this subject with some of his
friends, there was present an accomplished European lady, who professed
no respect for the Americanism of that date, and was by no means
favorably impressed with President Lincoln’s course. He sought to
disarm her of her prejudices against the administration, as his faith
was in the power behind the throne, which was greater than the throne
itself. She suddenly turned from his theories, telling him he did
not comprehend the great questions involved in the issue of the war.
Before he could recover from this abrupt stroke, Mr. Douglass came to
his aid, which timely relief saved him from a most terrible rout. Said
Mr. Douglass, “Madam, you do not know the gentleman with whom you are
conversing; if there be one man among us to whose opinion I would yield
on the subject of government generally, that man is the gentleman now
before you.”