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to enaugurate a series of antagonistic mass meetings which I did my utmost to discourage; publishing far and wide my opinion that there would be no election, & that, by all means, it was best to let this furor among the whites expend itself; after which it would be time enough to organize for a political campaign.

My motive in all this was to prevent a masacre of unarmed blacks by whites, (almost universally supplied with revolvers) on the first vague rumor of a "negro resing" the bug bear that is chronic in the minds of [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] whites educated as they [[strikethrough]] themselves [[/strikethrough]] have been — to a life of wrong & the exercise of habitual violence towards their helpless slaves; & now that the latter had became free they could hardly be expected to tolerate hostile political meetings from such a people. They would not deliberately plan a masacre, but the atmosphere being full of the most absurd rumors which their excited fancies were constantly tempting them to give evidence to; and as there