Viewing page 14 of 16
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
798 D O U G L A S S S' M O N T H L Y. FEBRUARY, 1863 [[horiz line across page]] [[start column 1/3]] OUR FREE COLORED PEOPLE. [[horiz line]] Amongst the colored population of Washington are numbers of old residents, many of them natives to the place, and many of them persons of property, whose propriety of conduct and honest characters have won for them the general esteem and good will of all our respectable white citizens. A number of these worthy people, most of whom we have long known, have asked of us the favor to give a place in our paper to the annexed article respecting their social interests, and we cheerfully grant their request. In the Social, Civil and Statistical Association, which met on Tuesday evening, December 2nd in the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church Mr. Syphax submitted the following resolutions which were unimonsly adopted : Whereas, the practice has become general for mock lecturers and political agitators to repair to this city for no other purpose than the consideration of speculative and individual motives the furtherance of which can but annihilate every element of unity, peace, and that friendship which should, if possible, be the characteristics of our fellow-citizens ; and whereas, while we are ready and willing at all times to encourage a more full diffusion of education, including all its elementary parts : Therefore be it Resolved, That we recommend to our people of this city such considerations the adoption of which will serve to exclude these ignoble impostors who are trying to infuse in our midst unprofitable and fruitful elements of discord, rather than the encouragement of such principles and professions by which we may be benefitted, and at the same time effect that friendship and good feeling towards our fellow men among whom we are situated. Resolved, That we shall at all times be prepared, through a select committee of our own membership, to tender a cordial and respectful invitation to such orators and teachers in the cause of religion, morality, literature and science as may be disposed to benefit us by their kind and generous services; and that we commend the observance of this rule to all other organizations of our people, as in accord with our duty as members of the general welfare. On motion of Mr. Stewart, the Secretary was directed to present a copy of these resolutions to each of the colored associations in this city SAMPSON NUTTER, Secretary. Washington, Dec. 3, 1862. [[horiz line]] MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. [[horiz line]] ——The slaves throughout Mississippi are flying away in every direction ; those that remain have flatly refused to work, and they are only kept from open demonstration by a promise, on the part of their masters, to pay them for their labor. ——At Port Royel there is a negro under Gov. Saxton's tuition, 106 years old, who has just learned his letters. He belonged at first to a Governor of South Carolina, and was presented by him, when sixteen years old, to Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary memory, and was his personal servant as long as he (the General) lived. ——The Boston Post states a fact very creditable to Gov. Andrew, viz : that on Thanksgiving day he dined with Louis Hayden, the black man who holds the office of messenger at the State House. Twenty-five guests were present, the Governor and his Secretary, being the only white men. ' We dare say,' says the Springfield Republican, 'the Governor had a good dinner and pleasant companions, and there is no reason why he should not dine with Hayden, or invite him to his own table, for Hayden is a sensible fellow and quite up to the State House average of respectability, to say the least.' [[end column]] [[start column 2/3]] ——That eloquent champion of freedom, George Thompson, Esq., is laboring constantly, and with great success, to enlighten the British public in relation to the American war. The London Dial of Dec. 27 says: 'During the last fortnight, Mr. Thompson, in addition to attending several meetings in the metropolis, called for the purpose of expressing sympathy with the anti-slavery policy of the United Stated government and Congress, has held similar meetings in Hanley, Burslem and Newcastle, Staffordshire ; also at Basingstoke, Hamshire ; Stratford, Essex ; and Bambury, Oxfordshire. The audiences have been large and enthusiastic and without exception have expressed warm approbation of the measures adopted by the United States for promoting the emancipation of the slave population. On the 31st instant a great meeting of the working classes will be held in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, to adopt resolutions and an address to Presid ent Lincoln ; and on the same day Mr Thompson will address a similar meeting in Sheffield.' From the same paper we copy this: 'A large audience assembled in Surrey Chapel on Monday to hear addresses from Geo. Thompson, Esq., and William Andrew Jackson (ex-coachman to Jefferson Davis) on American slavery. The Rev. Newman Hall, LL.D., presided. The audience was most enthusiastic on the side of freedom and the Northern States ; tevery mention of Mr. Lincoln's name and his anti-slavery proclamation eliciting loud applause.' ——Governor Robinson's message to the Legislature of Kentucky, extracts from which were sent over the wires a few days since, furnishes a very fair exhibit of Border State Unionism. He says that "the whole South" will be fired by President Lincoln's Proclamation, "into one burning mass of inexhaustible hate." If this is true we rejoice that the Proclamation was issued. Loyal men North have no friendship for traitors, and are indifferent to their threats. ——Senator Sumner, on Tuesday night, 13th inst., says The Tribune, read to the President an eloquent letter from Mr. George Livermore of Boston, acknowledging the receipt of the steel pen, with an ink-bespattered, broken, wooden handle, with which the President signed the New Year's Proclamation. Mr. Livermore's claim to its possession is founded upon his "Historical Research" as to the opinions of the founders of the republic respecting negroes as slaves, citizens, and soldiers, a copy of which was presented to the President while he was engaged in writing the proclamation. ——A New Orleans letter in the New York World remarks: "It shows something of a change in public sentiment here when the newspapers can publish, as they do, a call for recruits in the 'John Brown Guards.' A bookstore window in Exchange alley displays lithographic portraits of Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner, and the glass is uncracked. ——The admirable speech "On the country," delivered by Mr. Smith at the Cooper Institute, Dec, 21, has been published in pamphlet form, and will be mailed. post paid, for a three-cent stamp sent to this office. ——On Thursday last, Massachusetts declared her undiminished confidence in her favorite stateman, by his re-election to the office of United States Senator. ——A gentleman just arrived from Georgia declares that the two men most bitterly hated by the rebels are Generals Butler and Rosecrans. ——There is at least one emancipationist among [[end column]] [[start column 3/3]] the regular officers of the army, an he is Col. Samuel Ross, of the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers. A few days since Col. Ross called his regiment together, and read the Emancipation proclamation to them, and after that made a speech to them, which was received with great enthusiasm. he said : 'As surely as the Lord liveth and reigneth forever, as surely as man dieth and returneth to dust, so surely this rebellion will never be crushed and peace be permanently restored so long as its cause shall live.' ——Free speech has been vindicated at West Troy,N. Y. Some days since it was announced that Wendell Phillips would lecture in that place, whereupon handbills were put into circulation warning ladies not to attend the lecture, and intimating that Mr. Phillips should not speak. The people however, took up the challenge thus given by the rowdy population, and though a dozen or so of roughs jostled into the hall, breathing all manner of violent things against Mr. Phillips, they were very quickly ejected, and the lecturer proceeded, unmolested, to perform the duty of the evening. ——The call for copies of 'The Anti-Slavery History of the John Brown Year' has been so considerable, that no more copies can be sent for the amount of postage, as heretofore offered. FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION.——The valuable and still timely tract, by Mrs. L. Maria Child. entitled, 'The Right Way the Safe Way, proved by Emancipation in the British West Indies, and elsewhere' (108 pags,) will be sent by mail to any person requesting it, and enclosing six cents in undefaced postage stamps. Address Samuel May Jr., 221 Washington Street Boston, ——The Charlestonians have been hanging negroes, nineteen in all, for bringing arms into their city, in coffins, instead of dead men. This indicates that the blacks are preparing for close quarters with their masters. Succes to them, and to all men who struggle for their natural rights ! ——Says the Washington correspondent of The Times : 'It is gratifying evident of the sincere determination of the President to carry out the policy of freedom, that the President has determined to dismis Gen. Steele from the service, for having violated the regulations and the law in returning fugitive slaves. [[horiz line]] THE WAR FOR FREEDOM. [[horiz line]] We are without any fresh intelligence from America, at the same time we have matter in connection with the American War in abundance for reflection and comment had we space, which we have not, in this issue of the Independent. Our reticence to day we the less regret in consideration of the important document we printed in yesterday's Independent, Frederick Douglass in his " Appeal to Great Britain" sets forth the actual American question so completely and powerfully as to leave nothing to be desired. We assert that his positions are unassailable, his arguments unanswerable; and that not to respond in the affirmative to his eloquent and heart-stirring appeal, is to confess, all subterfuge thrown aside, that sympathy with the South means approval of Slavery, and endorsement of "the sum of all villanies." We trust that the Anti-Slavery Society and other friends of Freedom will print and circulate Frederick Douglass's Appeal by hundreds of thousands. We feel sure that if read it will be received with responsive welcome by the great mass of the English people. We know the English working-classes, and we should not fear to read Frederick Douglass's appeal to an assembly of the most distressed and most unhappy of the workless operatives of the North. We are confident that they would receive its every sentence with shouts of concurrence and applause. The voice of the eloquent " African" is as the voice of [[end column]]
