CAMBRIDGEPORT, MASS., Aug. 13, 1878.
_Fellow Citizens:_--If any apology for improving your condition were
needed it may be found in the fact that a large portion of the last
forty years of my life was spent, and many thousand dollars invested, in
the terrible conflict with the slave power. It is _not_ necessary for me
to remind you that the result of that conflict was your emancipation
from American slavery by the Republican party, with such leaders and
co-laborers as Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Senators Charles Sumner
and Henry Wilson, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D. D., and Rev. Wm. Goodell, all
of whom have now passed away, but whose life-long labors, with many who
are still living, culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation of
President Lincoln in 1863. But it _is_, as it seems to me, necessary to
remind you that the Republican party of to-day is a very different thing
from then--that your liberties and citizenship have now become the stock
in trade of corrupt politicians--that your political rights have been
bartered away for the _promises_ of your old masters, which they never
meant to perform when they made them, and for which they now substitute
_demands_ for your return to slavery, with the pecuniary interest of one
to two thousand dollars in each able-bodied man _left out_; consequently
when they shoot a man they do not lose that amount of investment in his
body. Among the demands of the "dominant race" is the repeal of the
constitutional amendments which made you citizens and gave you the
ballot. Of course they did not ask the Republican party to do it
_directly_. They only asked them to put the political power of the
nation into the hands of the Democratic party, and the second and third
rate politicians now at the head of affairs at Washington were stupid
enough to do it, for the poor privilege of occupying the White House for
a short time. But when another Congress assembles with a Democratic
majority in both houses (if such a calamity should overtake us), that
will be done as sure as water runs down hill. Now what we propose to do
is to open a door to the "better land" of this country, into which every
freedman, who has had enough of slavery, both _legal_ before the war,
and _practical_ since, and who has enterprise enough to desire to better
his condition and that of his family, if he has one, may enter. It is
the most practical, sensible, and scientific "labor reform" yet
proposed; with neither the blatherskite of Kearney, nor his blasphemy,
profanity, nor blarney, to mar and jeopardize the movement.
It has been known in Washington for some time, that "The Principia Club
Papers, No. 9," soon to be issued, will contain a plan of emigration for
the freedmen and their families of the Southern States, and their
settlement upon the government lands of the Northern and Western States
and Territories, where they can cultivate their own farms and sit under
their own vine and fig-tree. The club will appoint a board of trustees
in whom the public can have the utmost confidence, whose duty it shall
be to assist the freedmen in the selection, purchase, and payment of
their farms, and the removal of their families and outfits.
More full explanations and descriptions will be given in the pamphlet,
which will contain also specific directions to individuals or colonies
how to proceed in the matter. While arrangements are being made with the
government, the club will be glad to receive any suggestions from any
one interested in the movement, and especially the leading colored men
in the country.
Concerning this movement, any information desired may be had by
addressing the president of the club,