TO% ^ ^1 - ^ <= l,'^ r V r-SOl^ %a3AINfl3WV ^OFCAIIFO/?^ I ' 4 21 ^^ i H ^ ^V\[ UNIVERS/^ ^lOS-ANCEIf/., colored people than they will ever learn of them from the stand-point from which they were seen by the statesmen of the country. " BEDFORD, L. I. October 31, 1860. " To his Excellency GOVERNOR GIST. " SIR : Hoping that your excellency will carefully consider the subject of this letter and weigh its contents for the benefit of the people of South Carolina, I deem it important to submit it to you. It is the first of the series of documents that will be submitted to the Governors, and to the Legislatures of the several States, to un- fold the principles by which the nation may be governed to escape the danger to which it is exposed, from the cause of the commotion in the public mind. The distance which the Statesmen of the Southern and Northern States have been led from each other, will preclude them from originating any plan to control the country upon principles that would command the approval of the people in both sections with the means they have employed for that purpose. If this point is well taken, the necessity for a remedy to relieve the people from the suspense created by the intensity of the excite- ment in the public mind, will be admitted by your Excellency, and if I should succeed in establishing the position of the arbitrator to settle the sectional contest on the question of slavery and emancipa- tion, it will enable me to command the attention of those to whom I will make the appeal in behalf of my own people. " My complexion as a colored man, will be a guarantee for the sincerity of my intention, and the efforts I have made to serve the people of the Southern States, with the plan to relieve them 33 from the danger of the policy by which they are governed ; and if continued in it can lead to no other result than the overthrow of the very principle it is intended to protect. To deal with this sub- ject intelligently, two things must be considered by your Excellency and the honorable members of the legislature of South Carolina, upon whom it will devolve to fix the principles by which the people of that State will be governed in the future, in reference to the sub- ject of emancipation as a southern measure with a national basis. " The mathematical considerations that must be gone into to comprehend every phase the subject will undergo, whether it assume an extreme Southern aspect in all its ramifications or developments, be made to make it harmonize with the interests of the country without any injustice to the people in either section. That this attempt on my part may be useful to the efforts to preserve the peace of the country, the position and the intention of the people of the Southern States at the present time must be considered in connection with the principles by which they were governed at the formation of the government, and if it can be seen that there is a departure from the line of policy established by the delegates in the convention in 1787, the extenuating cause must be reviewed without any disguise. ' If it is admitted that the African slave trade continued twenty years in compliance with the demand of the delegates from Georgia and South Carolina, and that the time fixed upon for its termination was sanctioned by them, then it is very important to know whether the people of these two States will stand by the compact to protect the dignity of the nation or whether they will abandon it without any regard to it ! This is the question that must be answered in har- mony with the views of the people who are opposed to the slave trade, or it must assume an aspect that will accord with the dispo- sition to favor it regardless of the consequences which may follow. The gravity of the subject will be fully developed if considered in connection with the progress of public opinion in the free States which is sweeping before it every effort that tends to favor the slave trade as an issue before the people of this country. If the convention surrendered to it in 1787, the position the Southern States will assume at this crisis will show the magnanimity and the loyalty of the people to the Union. 34 " The fact that the legislature of South Carolina will be called upon to deal with this subject with a view to abandon the ultra Southern policy by which her statesmen have been controlled, is of the highest importance, as the safety of that section of the country depends upon the wisdom and the forbearance of the people who must sacrifice principles which cannot be sustained without expos- ing them to an extremity that may lead to the gravest consequences. The necessity for guarding against creating any suspicion in the mind of Southern men, led me to suppress the subject of my mis- sion until the exigencies of the times would enable me to make the eifort to submit it to the legislatures of the several States with the approval of the people of this country. The impression that I could make it useful to the nation and promote the interest of my own people, was too deeply fixed in my mind to permit me to look with indiiference upon the efforts of the statesmen in the develop- ment of principles against the peace of the country and its internal relations, if not revolutionary in their tendency, without carrying with them any benefit to the colored people. " That your Excellency and the honorable members of the legislature may fully comprehend the magnitude and the gravity of the subject and the necessity of submitting it at this juncture, I will reveal the policy I have followed in my appeals to the legisla- tures of some of the Southern States to make agriculture the basis of emigration to Africa. If it was the intention to remove the free colored people from motives of philanthropy, the elaborate plan devised for that purpose by me is sufficient to carry it out to the fullest extent without exposing them to the penalty of confiscating the freedom of any. But if the object was the re-enslavement of my people I considered it my duty to stand between them and the State Legislatures as far as I could to shield them against any legislation without the real object being fully revealed. Three appeals were made to the legislature of Virginia during the last two administrations, two of which were very important to the free colored people of that State, as the question was pending each time to enact a law to enslave them if they did not leave within time limited for that purpose. In each case the proposition failed and the prompting of humanity was triumphant in the Legislature, which is the only refuge for that proscribed people. Appeals were 35 made to Maryland, Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia and Florida, and without expecting or having received any reply, yet the result of ray efforts to save the colored people with the plan of emigration were fully established by the proceedings of the legislatures where it was considered. The necessity of adopting it as a policy by which the people of the Southern States could lead the country was elaborately gone into, not only in the documents to the Legis- latures but in the letters written to influential 'men in that section of the Union. The fact that the South has lost the opportunity and is thrown back upon the people of the free States, upon whom it will depend to make the plan of emigration the limits to the efforts in behalf of the colored people until emancipation can be mutually considered, is the phase the subject must assume. The two-fold object I had in view having been developed as far as possible, it was not necessary, that I should lose any time with intelligent men who stood in a position to avail themselves of the useful aspect of the subject or ignore it if they had no disposition to apply it as the solution to the question for the elevation of the free colored people. The scale upon which it was submitted to the legislatures of New York and New Jersey will enable me to establish the non-sectional position upon which the claims of the race may be submitted to the country. The aspect it will assume in the free States will be very important, inasmuch as the philanthropy of the American people will lead to its adoption to save the colored people or it will prove itself insufficient for that object from the want of sincerity. If your Excellency will examine the subject it will be seen that the support of the people of the Southern States will give it the neces- sary force and make it precede any attempt to reach the question of emancipation which must be considered in connection with the demand for laborers in the South. If the modification of the laws of the several States can be carried with a view to make up the deficit with free labor, it would afford the necessary relief with far less danger than it would to seek it by opening the slave trade. Sooner or later this subject will develop itself to the States of the South and will be seen as a necessity that must be met for the relief of the people. To admit free labor in the Southern States whether colored or white, would not only be important to the planters, but it would be equally important to the colored people in the free States, who must seek a refuge somewhere. 36 " As desirous as I am for the emancipation and the elevation of my people, and believing that the dissolution of the Union would preclude the necessity of any legislation upon the subject, yet as I consider it a duty to humanity to urge a policy that will protect the innocent and lead to mutual efforts by the people of the United States to accomplish that object, I will submit it and trust to their wisdom for success. It would be a fatal mistake to suppose that the future of the colored people in this country can be known from their past history, for in spite of the degrading position they occupy they would not fail to seize up on any opportunity that would ena- ble them to prove their devotion to the cause of Freedom. The fact that the Union with the means to develop the resources, would be far more advantageous to the Southern States than could possibly be derived out of it, is a grave subject and cannot be ignored under any contingency that may occur, if the welfare of the people should govern the statesmen. Without reviewing the difficulties that would arise from the necessity of a foreign policy, I will leave the subject, believing that the people will not be driven from their loy- alty by mere apprehension. By a reference to the speech made at "Sleepy Hollow" by a distinguished Senator in South Carolina some two years since, the statement was made to the effect, " That the sympathy for" the free colored people " in the free States is not sufficient to cause any apprehension to the South." That is true, and while that address was condemned and repudiated in the South, yet its safety depends upon the policy embodied in it. For while the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the Executive of the United States will at no distant day be under the control of those who will be opposed to the slave trade, and to the extension of slavery, and will aim to place the government where it stood at the commencement of its existence, yet from the very nature of things, it will be harmless to the South. If the purity of the government is necessary to its existence to secure it by removing the cause of legislative conspiracy to sustain sectional issues, is an object that will commend itself to every considerate statesman of the country. In connection with this letter, I will send a copy of my pamphlet which contains the text of the subject in all its ramifications, and I will supply copies for the members of the legislature as soon as I can. It is not my intention to submit to the legislature the plan of emigration to create a neutral position upon this subject which 37 may be very important to the people, until the new order of things are fully developed in favor of emancipation. " Hoping that this will be considered as an object worthy of the attention of your Excellency and the people, it is respectfully sub- mitted by your obedient servant" " L. II. PUTNAM." Looking to the objects to be obtained from the success of this as 4 national work, will preclude the necessity of seeking from any higher source the right to speak as by authority, and taking as the text, the subject by which the way to the legislature of South Carolina was fully prepared previous to the war. For as the sequel has brought with it all the consequences referred to in the appeal submitted as a warning by one of that proscribed class, it is impor- tant to confront the people at the point where the first shock to the Union was felt, that the remedy for the calamity that has fallen with equal force upon the other States of the rebellion may be applied. For what they failed to learn with the aid of their superior intelligence in the first place, they will fully comprehend from the reflex of the light which the minds of black men may emit in the struggle to maintain the ideas proinulgated by the framers of the Declaration of Independence. The first point of any importance that will present itself to the reflecting mind, will be seen in the want of appreciation and in the condemnation of the speech made at " Sleepy Hollow" by an ardent supporter of State sovereignty, and which will go very far to fix the impression that nothing but the stern results that have followed the catastrophe of the battle-field, could in the slighest degree arrest . the designs of those who were guiding the destiny of the south with- out any reference to the power, and the higher laws that governs the universe. 38 For it was too true, as stated by the distinguished Senator of South Carolina, that there was nothing to show that any sympathy existed for the colored people in the free States, sufficient to alarm the South, and it was from a similar conviction created in the mind of the writer of the document that prompted him to take part in the efforts to arrive at a solution of the questions by which the country was agitated, and aiming at results directly opposite to the policy by which public men were governed. The second point is the value of the document as an indication of the disposition to shield from danger those who were aiming to perpetuate the oppression of the colored people, and the secret his- tory and the magnitude of the work "written for that purpose will fix for all time to come its grandeur and the design to guidejthe , efforts for emancipation and elevation in this country. But while the developments that will be made upon this subject will be more than sufiicient to indicate the inflexible devotion of the author to the cause of universal liberty, yet it is proper that some reference should be made in this connection to other branches of the subject extending to the Russian Empire, and to Dahomey in Africa, and will form part of the great work that must be performed for the benefit of the human family. The first is the efforts to devise a plan to fix the relations of the emancipated in Russia to the soil, and to show the fact that it was accomplished at the time when it could not fail to be useful, as an object that would merit some attention in that country. The means employed to have the plan submitted to the Emperor, would have been ample in either of the two channels fixed upon for the purpose, as the civility of the Baron, as a member of the Legation at Washing- ton,was only equal to the attention given to the subject by- the Ameri- can Minister previous to his return to St. Petersburgh. At the interview with the latter at the St. Nicholas Hotel in the City of New York, a full exposition was made to show the feasi- bility of elevating the emancipated above the condition of tenants at will, which is slavery in the second degree, by securing for every family the right in fee to homesteads on the estates of tlife nobles. 39 The reference that may be made to the plan as an agency to emancipation in the Brazillian Empire, and also in the Colonies of Spain, seems to be sufficient in its magnitude to make a serious im- pression in the minds of the people, and upon the two governments, from the necessity by which they will be led by the force of circum- stances, sooner or later to maintain the relations of the emancipated with the soil by a freehold interest the same as will be demanded by the agricultural interests in the Southern States. To those who are in need of information, let them seek it in the result of the transition of twenty millions, (20,000,000) of persons in the Russian Empire, from the condition of serfs to the elevation of freemen. But while the plan was not published as contemplated, yet the adoption of the principles by the command of the Emperor will afford all the con- solation that could be derived from the effect of the measures that will lead to a complete revolution in the social relations of the peasantry of that country as the agricultural class, and upon the unborn millions who will enjoy the blessings it will confer upon them. The communication written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the purpose of submitting to the government of her Majesty the Queen of England, the plan for the suppression of the slave trade, and the annual custom of the King of Dahomey, with an elaborate exposition of the views, and indicating the means by which the en- tire people could be led to conform to the principles of civilization, and at the same time avoid the system of absorption that would tend to make the country an English Colony, will fully repay in r the labor it cost. The declaration made in the British Parliament by Lord John Russell the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the effect, that the in- tiuence of England was ample to control the King, opened the way for the attempt to show the necessity of employing it in behalf of civilization in the section of the continent of Africa, which was known to be the great mart of the sla\ r e trade. In looking at the* subject of the labor to promote the happiness of mankind, let us pause here and contemplate upon the grandeur and the effect of the change upon the social condition of society from the adoption of the homestead system in other countries, where 40. hostility against color is not carried to tlie extent to which it prevails in the United States, and where a large portion of those who are friends of freedom have yet to reach the point to enable them to favor the elevation of the Freedmen with the aim to break up caste. But the extraordinary rapidity with which the country is driven will be sufficient to change the spirit of the people and enable them to see in the colored man an ally on whom they must depend. To confound those in their schemes against freedom, and neutralize their designs would indeed be an object of the highest importance, but to accomplish it, it will depend upon the ability of colored men to suggest measures that will merit the approval of all who are dis- posed to recognize the power they must exercise to rise to any position of distinction in the Republic. For if it is possible to make the commencement at any time, let us try to do it from this point, by throwing out the planks for the construction of a national plat- form in the Southern States, and cover the ground others would occupy, to the injury of our race if they had the materials at hand. The first object to be accomplished by the development of the principles embodied in this work, is to make it the precursor of the elements by which the colored people will be carried to the elevation that will be made for them by the surrender of the pretension to superiority that cannot be sustained by other means than the assump- tion by which the dominant class have been governed in this coun- try. Therefore it is the duty of the leading men to enter the field, not as advocates of any exclusive class, but to demonstrate their abilities to deal with the questions, of the day with dignity and intelligence and thereby command the attention and the respect of public opinion. While the labor will fall on the few who are educated up to the times, yet under the guidance of Providence, they must make themselves equal to the requirements of the untutored mass who are exposed to the criticism of those who will struggle to the last to resist the current of the revolution by which the nation is carried onward in its new mission. Programme is : 1. The enlargement of the work by adding to it documents and important letters to leading statesmen in the Southern and Northern States. \ 4:1 2. The issue of the second number of the pamphlet for distribu- tion, with the history of the mission from its origin, with the neces- sary reference to those wio inspired the author with the ideas that led him to assume it, and enable them to learn that all the attempts to " withdraw" from it, have increased the vigor by which they were held as the repository of the plan of the revolution in behalf of Freedom, and of the reputation of the man who had no other dependence as the shield excepting in the merits of the work, for his elevation in the public mind. 3. The labor in the Southern States with the design to reach the people at large, without any reference to their views on the topic of the day, and infuse the spirit of the work in the minds of the colored people that they may comprehend the purpose of the union between capital and labor, and perform as freemen the duty of citizens of the Republic. 42 APPENDIX. The intention is to revise and enlarge the review by adding to it a document on the financial policy of the nation as a criticism on the subject of specie payment. The want of a comprehensive plan for the management of the question cannot fail to create the impression that it has completely overwhelmed the ideas of those who are struggling to reach a solution that will settle the basis for the currency of the country. This is a grave subject, inasmuch as it involves the integrity of the government of the United States through the measures of the statesmen who must show that they are equal to the requirements as managers. They are bound to bring to an end the policy by which gold and silver were transformed from a currency into a commodity for speculation, with the Treasury Department as the centre. It must be shown that the exigency that forced the greenbacks into use has ceased and the system fixed upon for the withdrawal of these pro- mises and if not, then a fiscal agency should be established to sus- tain it upon a specie basis. While the theory of the Ohio statesman in favor of the exten- sion of the issue of this circulating medium is sustained by the views advanced in the same direction by the members of the House from Massachusetts and other leading minds of the country, and is not without its plausible features, and yet the fatal mistake they have made by not making a distinction between the provisional use of the greenbacks and the want of a permanent system by which the nation may separate its financial management from the com- mercial interest as involved in its connection with the National Banks, by the organization of the necessary fiscal agency to sustain . it, therefore, they must fail. The innocency and the earnestness with which the subject has been submitted to the public seems to be wholly inadequate for the display of the brilliant ideas that should emanate from the minds of 'men of genius, inasmuch as the aim is to issue an amount of greenbacks far greater than it would be in the power of the govern- ment to control with any degree of honesty. The next object of the enlargement will be for the production of letters that were written to prominent men with the view to 43 bring out some action in behalf of the plan to promote free labor in the Southern States in connection with the efforts to make emi- gration a national question. The labor expended to make the sub- ject worthy of the attention of the managers of the colonization society and to carry it out through its agency will of itself present a record that will be as grand as it will be important to the public and to the class of friends who gave it their support. Organized as that institution was to represent the philanthropy of the nation in behalf of the colored people and under the control of some of the ablest minds of the country, and having assumed the position as a promoter of the cause, it is necessary that my relation with it should become the subject of criticism by the public. It will be seen that the danger of the absorption of the society by the opera- tion of the plan to make agriculture the basis of emigration, and the inroad upon the policy by which it was governed from its exis- tence w^fe fully developed upon a scale that completely neutralized the design of those who had given it their sanction and support. The cause of the hardship suffered by the emigrants seems to have been a subject of very little moment to the managers, or else the necessity for relief was concealed from them by the reports made from time to time in reference to the real condition of things in Liberia. The proposition to establish a farm in that country to culti- vate coffee, cotton, rice and indigo to demonstrate the necessity of an entire change in their plan of emigration was carried into operation with their knowledge by sending -out a person with a full supply of agricultural implements with ample provision for his support. To make it the personal property of myself and ;i uciate I propose to establish one hundred ten acre farms for as many families (free from any charge to them) out of the annual product under the direction or supervision of the board of managers. But the want of a comprehensive idea of the magnitude of the plan and its purpose at the outset was their misfortune, and the means resorted to to withdraw this influence as the remedy, was not only against their genius but it was a betrayal of the weakness in the management of the colonization society. The importance of this discovery, in connection with the result of the examination carefully made, into the commercial operations carried on with Liberia, was fully considered and the means adopted to make it known to the 44: public. It was the commencement of the work to dig under its foundation, and prepare the way for the absorption of the entire organization by the efforts to establish a board of five Commissioners in every State, under the supervision of the legislatures with the Governors as ex-qfficio members, to sustain emigration to Africa with the support of Congress. This was the plan to establish thirty-one districts through the agency of the government of Liberia, to represent for six hundred families in each of the several States, and to cost six million dollars ($'6,000,000). The plan was not only submitted to the managers of the New York State Colonization Society, and was the subject of debate during an entire sitting ; but it was transmitted to the annual meeting of the board of directors of the American Colonization Society in Washington, with an elaborate exposition of the commercial policy. These documents in effect were regular bomb-shells, and especially to the new delegation, and was the occasion of the most exciting session ever held by that body. As the adoption of the plan would have been the end of the New York board of managers, the cause of its resistance will be worthy of the most serious attention. The most important result was the abandonment of the commercial operation, as it was carried on in the name of the Colonization Society, which shows the disposition of the. Board to shield its honor, and the reputation of its members against the doings of its agents. This reference to .the secret history is to show that the society in this State was " driven on ly the law of self-preservation to struggle for its existence" It enables me to assume the position to defy the members of the Board of Managers individually and collectively, to make the attempt to occupy any other ground than that. For- tified as I am behind the three hundred pages of documents with twelve circulars hid away in the archives of the Board of Managers and of the Board of Directors of the American Colonization Society it is the point to which they must look. The confidence reposed in me by friends of my race, and the progress and the blessings bestowed upon me, good men were duly cherished, and by which I was sustained in the darkest hours of the struggle to overcome all opposition and stand before the coun- try as a worthy representative of the colored people, and an honor- able citizen of the Republic. ^l-UBBAfiYQr s v ' >. itUNIVI ./^ G> Of CAUFiJft :; 'i/H'INVV-J^ \\tt UNIV! ,\y^. i<^CS