LETTER TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF COLORED CITIZENS AT COLUMBIA,
SOUTH CAROLINA, OCTOBER 12, 1871.
This letter was read in the Convention October 24th, the sixth
day of its sitting, and received a vote of thanks.
BOSTON, October 12, 1871.
DEAR SIR,--I am glad that our colored fellow-citizens are to
have a Convention of their own. So long as they are excluded
from rights or suffer in any way on account of color, they will
naturally meet together in order to find a proper remedy; and
since you kindly invite me to communicate with the Convention, I
make bold to offer a few brief suggestions.
In the first place, you must at all times insist upon your
rights; and here I mean not only those already accorded, but
others still denied, all of which are contained in Equality
before the Law. Wherever the law supplies a rule, there you must
insist on Equal Rights. How much remains to be obtained you know
too well in the experience of life.
Can a respectable colored citizen travel on steamboats or
railways, or public conveyances generally, without insult on
account of color? Let Governor Dunn of Louisiana describe his
journey from New Orleans to Washington. Shut out from proper
accommodation in the cars, the doors of the Senate Chamber
opened to him, and there he found that equality which a railroad
conductor had denied. Let our excellent friend, Frederick
Douglass, relate his melancholy experience, when, on board the
mail-boat of the Potomac and within sight of the Executive
Mansion, he was thrust back from the supper-table, where his
brother Commissioners were already seated. You know the outrage.
I might ask the same question with regard to hotels, and even
the common schools. A hotel is a legal institution, and so is a
common school, and as such each must be for the equal benefit
of all. Nor can there be any exclusion from either on account
of color. It is not enough to provide separate accommodations
for colored citizens, even if in all respects as good as those
of other persons. Equality is not found in any pretended
equivalent, but only in equality; in other words, there must be
no discrimination on account of color.
The discrimination is an insult, a hindrance, a bar, which not
only destroys comfort and prevents equality, but weakens all
other rights. The right to vote will have no security until
your equal rights in the public conveyances, hotels, and common
schools are at last established; but here you must insist for
yourselves by speech, by petition, and by vote. Help yourselves,
and others will help also.
The Civil Rights Law needs a supplement to cover these cases.
This defect has been apparent from the beginning, and for a
long time I have striven to remove it. A bill for this purpose,
introduced by me, is now pending in the Senate. Will not colored
fellow-citizens see that those in power no longer postpone
this essential safeguard? Surely here is an object worthy of
effort. Nor has the Republican party done its work until this is
accomplished.
Is it not better to establish all our own people in the enjoyment
of equal rights before we seek to bring others within the sphere
of our institutions, to be treated as Frederick Douglass was on
his way to the President from San Domingo? It is easy to see that
a small part of the means, the energy, and the determined will
spent in the expedition to San Domingo, and in the prolonged
war-dance about that island, with menace to the Black Republic of
Hayti, would have secured all our colored fellow-citizens in the
enjoyment of equal rights. Of this there can be no doubt.
Among cardinal objects is Education, which must be insisted on;
here again must be equality, side by side with the alphabet. It
is vain to teach equality, if you do not practise it. It is vain
to recite the great words of the Declaration of Independence, if
you do not make them a living reality. What is a lesson without
example?
As all are equal at the ballot-box, so must all be equal at the
common school. Equality in the common school is the preparation
for equality at the ballot-box. Therefore do I put this among the
essentials of education.
In asserting your rights, you will not fail to insist upon
justice to all, under which is necessarily included purity in
the Government. Thieves and money-changers, whether Democrats
or Republicans, must be driven out of our Temple. Let Tammany
Hall and Republican self-seekers be overthrown. There should
be no place for either. Thank God, good men are coming to the
rescue. Let them, while uniting against corruption, insist upon
Equal Rights for All,--also the suppression of lawless violence,
whether in the Ku-Klux-Klan outraging the South, or illicit
undertakings outraging the Black Republic of Hayti.
To these inestimable objects add Specie Payments, and you will
have a platform which ought to be accepted by the American
people. Will not our colored fellow-citizens begin this good
work? Let them at the same time save themselves and save the
country.
These are only hints, which I submit to the Convention, hoping
that its proceedings will tend especially to the good of the
colored race.
Accept my thanks and best wishes, and believe me faithfully yours,