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 THE 
 
 REVIEW 
 
 OP THE 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY ELEMENTS 
 
 AND OP THE 
 
 ASPECT OF RECONSTRUCTION; 
 
 WITH A PLAN TO RESTORE HARMONY BETWEEN THE TWO RACES 
 IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 BY -A. COLORED MA.N. 
 
 BROOKLYN, L. I. 
 OCTOBER 1868.
 
 SRLE 
 JJRl 
 
 To the People of the United States, 
 
 The design of the Review, as indicated by its title, is to note 
 with care the new birth of the Republic and to bring the colored 
 people into the foreground where they may be seen as the advocates 
 of the union between the two races, and upon the basis that will 
 secure freedom and elevation on one hand and peace and good-will 
 on the other. 
 
 But while it may be right that the colored people should stand 
 back until the position for them is established through the genius 
 and the magnanimity of the dominant race, yet the sublimity of the 
 work, to build up the Republic with the new materials at hand, 
 and the necessity of testing their skill and usefulness in the new 
 field where the destiny of the nation has placed them, will fully 
 justify the attempt to create such ideas in the history of the times 
 as will make a profound impression in their favor in the minds of 
 the American people. As the time has arrived to redeem the 
 "solemn pledge" of fidelity made to the friends who first led the 
 author into the mission, and the fact that the purpose of the declar- 
 ation as written contained the principles which aimed at the eleva- 
 tion of the colored people of the United States, it will be sufficient to 
 strip it of all assumption and at the same time show the grandeur of 
 the subject, and the overwhelming effect that will follow from the 
 development of the plan for the accomplishment of that object. 
 Yiewing it at that time as the initiative to the reformation in the 
 institutions that were organized for the management of the philan- 
 thropy of the nation, and make the result redound to the glory of 
 the American people by the elevation of the proscribed race of the 
 country, it will present a feature sufficiently grand to command the 
 approbation it will aim to secure by the publication of this work. 
 
 If the philanthropists and the statesmen were guided by the 
 spirit of justice in the attempts to represent the colored man at any 
 time in the history of the country previous to the war, or if they 
 had a clear conception of the requirements of the nation, there 
 would have been no necessity for the efforts made by me to overturn 
 the policy by which they were governed until the solution of the
 
 
 several questions were reached by the Rebellion. But the fact that 
 through their apathy or want of appreciation, the people of the 
 United States lost the opportunity to realize the benefit of the plan 
 written by the colored man to shield the country from civil war, 
 and the fact that its existence was known to a leading member in 
 the Cabinet and to others in Congress, and was resorted to at the 
 eleventh hour to conciliate the border States, will make it an im- 
 portant feature in the efforts to establish the position for the repre- 
 resentative men of my race. 
 
 In rising to the surface from the depth where the author was 
 buried by those who were struggling to occupy the position they 
 were unqualified to fill, the first duty is to proclaim the solemn fact 
 that the time has come to assume the duty and secure a general 
 recognition of the mission in the name of his race and country. It 
 will be sustained by the magnitude of the work that has been 
 accomplished for that purpose, and to make up a record sufficiently 
 brilliant to maintain the integrity of the projector of the revolution 
 that was designed to sweep out of existence the powerful but useless 
 benevolent institutions that stood in the way to control the sympathy 
 of the public in behalf of the colored people, without conferring 
 upon them any corresponding benefit. While the ulterior object 
 of this grand movement was hid from the public, yet it was fully 
 known to the leading managers, who made the most decided efforts 
 to shield themselves from the consequences of its development, but 
 as they have lost the power to command the situation, it is impor- 
 tant that the result should be announced as the first victory of the 
 pen of the colored man over the genius of the dominant class ! 
 
 It was the basis of the plan for the extinction of the " peculiar 
 institution of the Southern States," as it will be seen, by the exposi- 
 tion of the secret history of the efforts to inspire prominent men of 
 the two sections of the country with the spirit adequate for the ac- 
 complishment of the work with the agency of Congress, and thereby 
 save it from the terrible civil war it has undergone. But in spite 
 of their brilliant intellect in other things, yet, in this field of labor 
 they were not only powerless in the attempt to stay it, but there are 
 contingencies that must be provided for with other remedies than 
 those indicated in any of the plans for the restoration of the Union. 
 " As one born in due season" to labor in the name of the colored 
 people without exciting the sensibility of the dominant race, it is
 
 necessary that the claims upon the attention of all should be estab- 
 lished free from any party proclivity, and without concealing the 
 ulterior purpose. To this end, the plan will be submitted with the 
 details indicating its ramifications, and with the proof of the inflex- 
 ible integrity with which the mission has been sustained it will 
 carry with it sufficient weight to justify the dedication of this work 
 to the people of the United States by 
 
 Their obedient servant, 
 
 L. H. PUTNAM. 
 BROOKLYN, L. I., April 13, 1868.
 
 6 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY ELEMENTS OF THE REBELLION CAREFULLY 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 As nothing can be submitted to the country, that ought to com- 
 mand a greater degree of attention than the complications that have 
 followed the measures for the adjustment and for the restoration of 
 the union, it is important that the subject should be carefully con- 
 sidered from the necessities of the general knowledge and the har- 
 mony that should prevail in the minds of the people of the two sec- 
 tions. For while the work for the political regeneration of the 
 Southern States has been carried forward with the greatest vigor, 
 yet, the elements that underlie the strata of reconstruction must 
 either be considered at this juncture, or be met at a disadvantage, 
 when the means to deal with them will be out of existence. 
 
 The first supposition is, that the work upon the battle field having 
 been accomplished, that the spirit that led to the commencement of 
 the strife is paralyzed ,leaving the people in no other condition than 
 that of submission ? If the means to ascertain the fact as to how far 
 the feelings of the secessionists have been trained into loyalty by the 
 bayonet of the Union soldier, and that the acceptance of the situation 
 will be realized in the stability of civil government ushered into 
 existence under the new order of things ; then, indeed, the time is 
 at hand when fraternity and industry will consolidate the interests 
 of the two races into a common union under the Federal Govern- 
 ment. But this is the bright side, with nothing to sustain the hopes 
 that reconstruction will be successfully carried out without infusing 
 into the resources of the Southern States the vitality contemplated 
 by the people under the teaching of their leading men and by 
 whom they were driven into the rebellion. 
 
 The chief stone of the corner of the Confederate Government 
 was Slavery ; and the edifice erected upon it, adorned as it was with 
 all the glittering hopes of the builders, now lies buried beneath the 
 ruins ! The grand idea now is, to aid in hewing out another through 
 the genius of freemen and place it under the Federal Government, 
 that its strength may be increased to the extent necessary to support 
 freedom in the entire country with the concurrence of the people.
 
 The force by which the first link of the chain of the Union was 
 broken by secession, and by which the power of the general govern- 
 ment was destroyed for the time, is a subject that cannot be lost 
 sight of without committing a fatal mistake, when it is considered 
 that the feelings of the people were fired with a degree of hostility 
 that may still excite them to the extent that their opposition may 
 paralyze the power of the civil authority. How to deal with them, 
 is the question that every colored man must feel with sufficient 
 weight to justify the attention the subject will demand from the 
 standpoint it will be considered in their behalf. For while univer- 
 sal emancipation has come upon the country "from its military 
 necessity," and has opened the avenues to all the rights and immu- 
 nities necessary for the elevation of the freemen, yet, to incorporate 
 these principles in the organic laws and effectually change the 
 autonomy of the non-reconstructed States by virtue of the power of 
 the Federal Government, is the result that could only follow ifrom the 
 guidance of an unseen Jia/nd. This is the political avalanche that 
 has buried the traditional policy of one section, and it will recoil upon 
 the other and create a common level for every State of the Union. 
 But whatever may be the policy of the Loyal States in reference to 
 the equalization of the suffrage as a national measure, yet every- 
 thing that is sacred to freedom and would promote the prosperity 
 of the country, demands that there should be but one destiny and 
 that it should be fixed by the united efforts of the people. 
 
 The breaking up of the relations between the two races, resulting 
 in the general disorganization of society, without any landmarks to 
 guide to harmony ; and superinduced as it may have been by 
 causes over which the country had no control, yet it is a revolution 
 in the Eepublic that all good men must deplore, in spite of the re- 
 generating features it has brought with it. And why ? because the 
 rancor that has been engendered and the humiliation inflicted upon 
 the people upon whom the weight of the calamity has fallen, will 
 require the most earnest labor of the statesman to obliterate it. 
 
 For the Appomattox surrender was in itself more than an ordi- 
 nary incident in the fortune of war from the political consequences 
 it involved, and yet, in point of importance it will weigh next to 
 nothing in comparison with the disaster that has overwhelmed 
 the people by the extinction of the dogma of secession, and in the 
 elevation of the freedmen as the counterpoise to the principles that
 
 governed the statesmen of Secessia. If they had gone into that 
 0-reat struggle with the aid of the colored man and with the emblem 
 of Freedom emblazoned upon the banners that waved upon the 
 battle-fields, the impression is, that his support would have led to a 
 revision of the map of the United States. If, then, the fatal results 
 attending the want of affinity between the leaders in the rebellion 
 and the emancipation of the colored people, is fully established in 
 the minds of all intelligent men, then nothing can be fixed with 
 more clearness than the landmarks that will warn the country of 
 the dangers that would attend any reactionary measures against 
 equal liberty in the Southern States. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 
 
 THE LAST HOURS OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS AND THE 
 QUESTION or EMANCIPATION. 
 
 The key note which was sounded in the last hours of the sitting 
 of the Confederate Congress, when the question of emancipation 
 and the enrolment of colored men as soldiers to fight their battles, 
 was submitted for consideration by the statesmen who saw in that 
 measure their only salvation, must be taken as the true guide, and 
 will enable them to point out the future policy of the country with 
 an unerring hand. 
 
 It is universally admitted that the " Institution," which led to the 
 war for its preservation, was the source of weakness that was fatal 
 to the Confederate Government, and paved the way for the humilia- 
 tion that followed the terrible catastrophe as the sequel of the 
 rebellion. If the people can study anything from it, they will learn 
 that the first requirement of free government in the Southern 
 States is the extinction of caste, and is the sentiment that should 
 be diffused in that section of the country to enable them to work 
 with the earnestness by which they may rise again and lead in the 
 revolution inaugurated by the emancipation of the colored people, 
 and which underlies the measures for the reconstruction of the 
 Republic. While it is true that the work of freedom and eleva- 
 tion did not originate with the Southern people, yet it is equally
 
 9 
 
 true that it should have, and hence the necessity of a clear con- 
 ception of the situation which must be seized upon by them as 
 the basis to establish the union between the two races. 
 
 The fact that the military bill is insufficient in itself for the 
 accomplishment of the work, inasmuch as an important part will 
 fall upon those who are ostracised by that measure, will be fully 
 realized when it is considered that to secure a freehold interest in 
 the soil for the freedmen will depend upon the concessions that 
 may be made for that purpose by the planters, and without any 
 reference to their loyalty. 
 
 The Revolutionary Elements of the Rebellion which have fixed the 
 destiny of the Southern States, take their source from, the measures 
 adopted by the nation for the Reservation of the Republic, and may 
 be classified with the exploits upon the battle fields, where liberals 
 and conservatives stood side by side under the guidance of the power 
 created by the constitution, and called into requisition 7 by exigencies 
 that were wholly unprovided for by theframers of that instrument. 
 To consummate the work with the sword without the agency of the 
 national council was an impossibility, and yet, to reconcile the people 
 to the means employodfor that purpose, is the task which stands in 
 its magnitude equal to the efforts for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 But to look upon the destructive ideas that may exist in the 
 opposition to the enfranchisement of the colored people, is the duty 
 that must be considered in connection with the fact that all the 
 Northern planks used in the construction of the platforms to sustain 
 the " peculiar institution" of the Southern States, were split up and 
 broken into fragments by its weight and every thing lost to the 
 cause they were designed to support. 
 
 The next phase it presents in the regular order of things, is the 
 Civil Governments inaugurated by national legislation, which gives 
 the subject a novel aspect, and has infused into it a vitality far 
 greater than it could ever attain by any other means, and the ques- 
 tion is, will the acceptance of the situation by the people make it the 
 initiative to the measures for their relief, from the humiliation that 
 followed the downfall of the Confederate States, and reconcile them 
 to the enfranchisement of the freedmen ? "Was it a measure forced 
 upon the nation by the disorganized condition of things, which made 
 it the only safeguard against anarchy, and enables it to stand in the
 
 10 
 
 position to calm the minds of the people by its patriotic mediation ? 
 In the answer to this question, let the voice of the colored people be 
 heard ! 
 
 While nothing could be more grand and providential in its con- 
 ception than reconstruction upon the basis of equal liberty for all, 
 and while it will open the only field to reach the most elevated 
 position in the work to restore the freedmen to the soil as the agri- 
 cultural class, and thereby give emancipation its true value, yet 
 nothing but the irresistable decree by which it was forced upon the 
 country, has led to its acceptance, and enables the friends of free- 
 dom to proclaim in the language of the Declaration of Independence 
 that all men are free and equal. 
 
 Proclaim it far and near, that it is the result of the revojution 
 created by the rebellion .that is sweeping out of existence the pro- 
 slavery elements by which the nation was governed from its found- 
 ation, and that it is the great source of relief for the statesmen 
 whose genius was tarnished by the degrading labor imposed upon 
 them to delude the masses with the false impression that the dogma 
 which underlies republican institutions in this country that all are 
 free and equal, means politically the white man. It was by the 
 teaching of this heresy that the veneration for the constitution of 
 the United States was lost with the patriotism that gave it its 
 existence and reduced that instrument to the standard of the 
 Delphic enigma, making it the source of confusion in the minds of 
 the people. Therefor let all good men repudiate the chimerical 
 ideas which contaminate the mind, and let Democracy in its purity 
 rule the nation through the wisdom and unceasing vigilancy of the 
 people concentrated in the National Congress, where the divine 
 attribute, as manifested by the extension of equal suffrage to all, 
 will be maintained and radiate to every part of the great common- 
 wealth through the Legislatures of the several States. 
 
 The precipitancy with which universal freedom in its reality 
 was launched upon the country by the surrender at Winchester, and 
 paralyzed the minds of those who were wholly unprepared for the 
 duty it imposed upon the loyal and patriotic masses to accept with 
 sincere serenity the ideas of equality and fraternity, yet, it is the 
 pre-requisite to the recognition of that class of American citizens 
 who were elevated to the exalted position by the power of a higher 
 law than that of man. But to suppose that that sublime principle
 
 11 
 
 will become universal with the agency of the bayonet or by the 
 amendment of the Federal constitution, is to hope against hope, as 
 long as a large portion of the people are only convinced against 
 their will. 
 
 The counterpoise to all reactionary measures is in the mission 
 of the colored man, who has been brought upon the political surface 
 and stands erect in the position where he was placed by the destiny 
 of the nation, and to approach the contending parties, made up 
 with the loyal and patriotic liberal and conservative minds in one 
 section in connection with the Union men, and the secessionists of 
 the Southern States, to take counsel for the adjustment of the 
 differences that neutralize the efforts to promote the fraternal rela- 
 tions that make up the unity of the republic, is the first and the 
 most important duty that will be t performed in their behalf by 
 Congress. 
 
 The first point submitted in behalf of the race, is, that as the 
 constitution of the United States was no barrier to the commence- 
 ment of the civil war, and that its force was paralyzed by the 
 belligerent measures employed for that purpose on one side, and as 
 the existence of the republic on the other was only sustained by the 
 loyalty of the government and the people under the law of self- 
 preservation, therefore, no adjustment is possible under its provisions 
 which makes it necessary that all should agree to establish the 
 basis of the reunion by the acceptance of the situation as indicated 
 and accepted by the conventions arid the legislatures of the several 
 States. 
 
 The second point is, that emancipation and the enfranchisement 
 of the citizens by virtue of the military plan ol reconstruction as a 
 national measure should be recognized and the principles embodied 
 in the organic laws of every State in either section of the country, 
 to maintain the consistency and the dignity of the nation, and 
 inspire the people of the Southern States with the necessary energy 
 to work fully up to the requirements of the new condition of things.
 
 12 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE NATIONAL ASPECT or RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The critical view of the subject in its national aspect at this junc- 
 ture, may afford the means to see how far the loyal States will go 
 into the measures imposed upon the country. For, as nothing could 
 be more serious in its tendency to undermine the Republic than the 
 repudiation of the suffrage bill adopted by Congress, in the 
 face of the fact that its force must be the same in every 
 State, it is of the highest importance that the attempt should 
 be made to draw the attention of the people to it, as they 
 must see the justice of the demand it will impose. The 
 necessity for the legislation by which the inherent rights of State 
 legislatures and conventions to control the suffrage, were surren- 
 dered to meet the exigincies of the nation by the adoption of the 
 military bill, will sink far deeper into the vitals of the Republic 
 than the mind can penetrate through the confusion the subject pre- 
 sents at this juncture. The sacrifices the people are called upon to 
 make by the prompting of their patriotism to- preserve the govern- 
 ment of the country, by the efforts to purify the organic Laws of 
 every Loyal State of the proscriptive provisions which stands as the 
 barrier to the political elevation of the colored man, not merely as 
 an act of justice "to him, but to increase the sublimity of the work 
 of their Representatives to fix the destiny of the Southern States. 
 For it cannot be supposed by any thinking mind, that the validity 
 of the measures of enfranchisement, will only apply to one section 
 and not to the other, for that would constitute a discrimination 
 wholly incompatible with the rights of these commonwealths, when 
 the position in which these States will stand in the Union, is con- 
 sidered. This has come upon the country by the centralization of 
 power in the Federal Government that was exercised previous to 
 the war by the States, that constitutes the revolution, and its mag- 
 nitude will only be seen by the proceedings of the people in the 
 Conventions and the Legislatures where the suffrage question as a 
 national measure must be considered. The first phase in the advance 
 to centralization, is in the consolidated efforts to crush the rebellion 
 with the sword, and as that catastrophe is the result of the work of
 
 13 
 
 all who filled their position in the ranks of the Union armies, or 
 contributed material or moral means for their support upon the 
 battle field, therefore, for weal or wo it must redound to the 
 nation. From that point, none who have survived the great 
 contest can recede or pause to exhibit any sympathy for the Southern 
 people, that could not be extended to them in the hour of need 
 without the betrayal of a degree of weakness that is neither useful 
 nor dignified. In the dispersal of the Confederate armies, the people 
 were again made subjects of the Government of the United States, 
 but to what extent they are loyal, is the grave question, and on its 
 solution the stability of the Republic will depend. Driven as they 
 were, from every position of any political importance, and thrown 
 back upon their own vigor, and upon the internal resources of the 
 seceded States, they cannot fail to learn the true value of the only 
 allies among them that will serve the purpose for their elevation. 
 For they have tried the strength of the planks of the platforms upon 
 which their hopes .were concentrated, and the fact, that the frag- 
 ments lie scattered in every direction, while the power they had in 
 others, is lost, will warn the South of the delusion of the future. 
 
 Let it be proclaimed from every house-top, and be re-echoed 
 through the valleys of the country, that the true friends of the 
 Southern States will labor for the equalization of the principles 
 imposed upon them by the incorporation of the same in the organic 
 laws of every State of the Union. Let it be proclaimed again and 
 again, that the most sacred and solemn task that makes up the 
 political existence of the several States have been performed in 
 the conventions by the white man and the colored man for the 
 first time in the history of the nation, in compliance with the will 
 of the people as expressed by their Representatives in Congress, and 
 that the grand spectacle shall make up the new era in the 
 Government of the United States. Force upon the country the 
 consideration of the fact that political equality and fraternity to exist 
 in one section of the country, will destroy all the opposition to 
 it in the others. 
 
 The supposition that the colored man was born for servitude 
 and to labor in the cotton field exploded on the field of battle in 
 the great struggle with the rebellion, where the proof was exhibited 
 that bravery is a natural instinct in him as it is in the Caucasian 
 race. Hid as it was by oppression for 240 years in this country,
 
 yet, with the light of liberty to guide him through the darkness 
 created by prejudice against the race, they will move forward with 
 all the vigor with which they are inspired by patriotism. Sneer 
 who may at any deformity, whether of the heel, nose, the lips, head 
 or hair of the colored people, yet it will fail to extinguish the fact 
 that they are framed as they were intended to he by the God of 
 Mature, and that they are hound by all that is sacred in Heaven to 
 stand up in its defence or gloriously fall in the effort to do their 
 duty as Freemen at any cost. If the betrayal of freedom will be 
 the downfall of the Republic, let those who would restrict the suf- 
 frage by any discrimination that would extend to one race and not 
 to the others, take heed. The true value of this right lies in its 
 use as the extinguisher of discontent in the minds of the people," 
 and makes it the safeguard of free institutions. While the colored 
 people in the Northern States, who form nothing more than mere 
 cyphers in the political world, the time is at hand when the Empire 
 State, with Pennsylvania and Ohio, will be equal with Massachusetts 
 in the elevation of their sable citizens to positions of honor and 
 trust. .For the danger that underlies this subject will be seen in 
 the tendency to consolidate freedom in the Southern States, where 
 their hopes will be fully concentrated under leaders who will be 
 governed by circumstances without any reference to any sympathy 
 for the Union. For in spite of the inflexible loyalty of any people, 
 the irresistible power of wealth and education must be considered 
 as the controlling elements in the government of the State and its 
 destiny. 
 
 CHAP. IY. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OVER THE SEVERAL 
 
 STATES. 
 
 'As the amendment to the constitution of the United States, and 
 the civil rights bill adopted by Congress, have made the government 
 the custodian of freedom, it is important to take a view of the 
 means that may be employed to enable it to fulfil the mission. If 
 it was possible to bring out a decision from the Supreme Court to
 
 15 
 
 settle the question in reference to the duty of the States that are 
 not under the operation of the military bill, that would force them 
 to be governed by its spirit the same, and that a ready compliance 
 would be accorded by Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri ; then the 
 work of regeneration would, in effect, be accomplished, and would 
 serve as a shield against the exigency that would require means 
 more weighty to carry it out. The extinction of State Sovereignty, 
 where it conflicts with the power of the Federal Government, 
 seems to be an accomplished fact, or at any rate the scope of the 
 power it has attained is sufficient to secure compliance in every 
 case where the general interests of the country may require 
 it. But to resort to harsh measures, would be so clearly 
 incompatible with the existence of the civil government of the 
 States, that it is worth while to examine with care the remedy at 
 hand. The first object is, to fix upon a clear and comprehensive 
 line of policy to protect the people without infringing upon their 
 rights, and yet this will depend upon the vigor of the Legislatures 
 in the reorganization of the judiciary and the militia of the State 
 upon the basis that must be sufficiently firm and complete -to pre- 
 clude the necessity for any extra aid from Congress or the military 
 of the departments. The stern reality that exists in the predomi- 
 nant portion of the population in many of the localities in every 
 one of the non-reconstructed States, is made up of that class that were 
 suddenly transformed into manhood, and is well calculated to perplex 
 and paralyze the judgment of those who have either controlled or 
 regarded them with such a degree of indifference as to lead to the 
 impression that this people have no rights that white men are 
 bound to respect. To recognize and surrender to the new element 
 in the body politic from the necessity of the case, is the true test of 
 the loyalty upon which the strength of the country will depend. 
 The rapid .advance that has been made up to this line of duty by 
 eminent men of the two sections, is the most sublime aspect that 
 the new order of things could present, and to cherish the principles 
 by which they are governed is essential to the success of the work 
 that- must be performed to overcome all antagonism that would 
 impede the union between the two people. 
 
 But to overcome the difficulties that stand in the way of the 
 measures necessary to create a regular system for the operation of the 
 judiciary and for the administration of equal and exact justice to all,
 
 16 
 
 is no ordinary task, for it is the success of that object that will relieve 
 the military of the duty imposed upon it by the present disordered 
 condition of things. It is this stream that flows through all civil- 
 ized communities, and takes its source from Divine teaching for the 
 control of the moral government of man, and its pollution from 
 whatever cause will lead to anarchy and demoralization. No class 
 of people could ever be exposed to greater danger from it than the 
 freedmen, who may become the victims of imposition with no other 
 dependence than the court of justice which may be to them a source 
 of injustice for years to come, from those who may have no sym- 
 pathy with Freedom. For whether situated in the immediate 
 neighborhood of large communities, or in the remote localities in 
 the agricultural districts, justice is due to all, from the highest to 
 the humblest. To secure this blessing, it is within the power of the 
 National Government to infuse its spirit into the Legislatures, and 
 to watch over the people until the judicial system shall attain the 
 vigor that will make it equal to the duty that lies before it. To 
 organize the militia of the several States and bring it up to the 
 perfection that will make it equal to any emergency, is the most 
 serious part of the work, and will be fully appreciated by the 
 South and the Federal Government. Any reluctance to approach it 
 will only indicate the want of information in reference to the vital 
 principles the nation must inculcate in the public mind by the 
 prompting of the laws of self-preservation. The attempt to shun this 
 duty will not avail or relieve it from the responsibility it has as- 
 sumed in instituting free Government, which points to the future 
 when the battalions of infantry, the squadrons of cavalry and the 
 batteries of artillery will exist and be governed by the same rules 
 and regulations for all, and. with no special privilege for any. The 
 stern necessity that demands it can only be understood by keeping 
 in view the fact that all proscription by the action of the Federal 
 Government will be at an end. The right to the spur was won 
 during the rebellion, but not awarded to any of those who were 
 considered worthy of it by some of the disciples of West Point and 
 others high in rank in the army. But the true policy of the nation 
 will be fully developed in carrying out the plan for the organization 
 of the national guard, and will test the spirit that controls its efforts 
 to break down caste in the United States. It will present the 
 grandest spectacle of the time when the million of sable sentinels of
 
 17 
 
 Freedom will watch over the Goddess of Liberty and at the same 
 time aid in maintaining the peace of the country by their neutrality. 
 It is to carry this, the last entrenchment of the prejudice of the 
 country, that the rally will be made to secure the triumph that will 
 constitute them the custodians of Freedom, therefore, let the pur- 
 pose be proclaimed far and near, that the exercise of this right by 
 all freemen will be the finality of the struggle to break down the 
 barrier to their elevation. 
 
 CHAP. Y. 
 THE DUTY OF THE FKEEDMEN IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. . 
 
 While it is proper and right that all the privileges belonging to 
 the colored people should be presented to the country in the strongest 
 light, and in every phase of the transition in which they must be 
 seen, yet, there is an important duty connected with the subject 
 that should be considered with a view to make some reference to 
 the paramount object that lies before them in the relations they are 
 called upon to sustain to the community at large. The sudden 
 transformation, effecting the social condition of four millions of peo- 
 ple, and the chaos resulting from the breaking up of their relations 
 with the soil, is sufficiently grave to justify the attention that will 
 be devoted to it under the caption selected for that purpose. There 
 would be less cause for apprehension at this time, if the people were 
 actuated by the disposition to follow the demands of justice in ref- 
 erence to the destiny of the colored people in this country, but the 
 fact that the nation as governed by the force of circumstances in all 
 things that make up its policy on the subject of Freedom, cannot 
 but create the impression that they may stop short of the line of duty 
 to their posterity. 
 
 The first part of the work before the colored man, is to make such 
 an impression upon the minds of the American people as will create 
 the weight he will employ to control the sentiments of the public. 
 The half and half measures by which the nation entered into the 
 design to settle' the suffrage question, was paralyzed by rejecting the 
 constitutional amendment by the States it was intended to affect,
 
 18 
 
 and which, if adopted, could not but extinguish the only ray of light 
 in the political horizon of the colored people. It was an attempt to 
 abandon coercion and impose it upon the people to legislate the 
 principle into existence for the relief of the nation from the most 
 important duty that could devolve upon it by the demands of free- 
 dom and self-protection. Its acceptance by the legislatures of the 
 Loyal States made up for the time the policy they were ready to 
 adopt and extinguish the spark of liberty, but it was rekindled by 
 those who were opposed to emancipation, and to the military 
 necessity that gave it an existence. 
 
 The principles that were concealed under the assumed magnan- 
 imity, were not only void of any national dignity from the want 
 of ingenuousness, but it was only useful as a measure for self-stultifi- 
 cation by its adoption. 
 
 It was the impression that the Civil Rights bill aimed at the 
 elevation of the citizens of all the States to the level where they 
 would be recognized as the custodians of freedom, under the 
 government of the United States, and with the co-operation of the 
 legislatures of the several States. This must either be the result of 
 reconstruction, or the germ of future commotion between the two 
 sections of the country. To make a clear discrimination between 
 the duty that rightfully belongs to the several States, and the relations 
 of the masses to the Union, is a delicate task, and yet it must be per- 
 formed with a view to fix their allegiance without any dependence 
 upon mere party machinery for its existence, for whatever may be the 
 danger of internal war, it will only come from this source, although 
 there need be no apprehension if the power necessary for the regu- 
 lation of civil government could be judiciously directed with the 
 concurrent efforts of influential minds of all shades of opinion. It 
 would afford a far better field for the developement of public senti- 
 ment, which, if concealed at this juncture, may show itself in the 
 future, with a degree of violence that may be strong enough to 
 neutralize the entire work of reconstruction, for, if it was possible 
 to punish any portion of the people for treason against the United 
 States, those who would be the subjects of judicial proceedings 
 should be known, and all others should or may be exempt from the 
 disabilities. But under the present plan of proceedure there 
 seems to be chances for committing very grave mistakes by the 
 exercise of discretionary power by subordinate officials, who may
 
 19 
 
 be very honest in their intentions, and jet, from mere presumption, 
 they may proscribe and inflict punishment, by the adoption of 
 measures that should only be the result of the decision of a 
 regular tribunal. But while the oath of allegience to the 
 Government may be an important relief to those who may 
 comply with its requirements, it will not shield those who may 
 refrain from availing themselves of its benefits, from any scru- 
 ples they may have as ex-secessionists. But is it right to put in 
 any plea for them as citizens of the United States, that it may be 
 seen how far all loyal men may respect them in their situation ? It 
 is to make some use of this class why a regular system to 'organize 
 civil government should be adopted to infuse the same degree of 
 vitality into the minds of the people in each of the unreconstructed 
 States, as will enable them to move on in the direct line of action 
 in the conventions and legislatures, as will be similar in every case 
 where the purpose is to consolidate and build up such principles for 
 the commonwealth as will preclude the antagonism that would 
 otherwise exist, by excluding one class of citizens from the enjoy- 
 ment of privileges that were exercised by the other. 
 
 The position of the colored people as supporters of the work of 
 reconstruction, seems to be mixed up with so many extraneous ideas 
 that the efforts to define and give them a direction that will be 
 more comprehensive, is essential and paramount as their success will 
 depend upon it ; for however useful they may have been to the 
 Union cause during the rebellion, and the fact that the spirit of the 
 principles that they are called upon to support at the ballot box, 
 takes its source from the same necessity, and yet the social status 
 of this people is the same in either section of the country. From 
 this standpoint the question must occur, that the answer may show 
 how far the people will be prepared to realize the danger that 
 would result from the attempt to use the colored man as a mere 
 straw upon the political surface for the benefit of the Union, at the 
 expense of his interest in the Southern States. 
 
 Will this nation take heed from the fatal mistake committed by 
 the sacrifice of the great dogma that was proclaimed to the world 
 in 1776, that " all men are born free and equal," while the conven- 
 tion of 1787 recognized property in man and made it the germ of 
 the rebellion ? The want of a holy purpose in the policy of the 
 Government of the United States on the subject of Equal Liberty
 
 20 
 
 for all, seems to be very seriously felt in all its measures, and if the 
 disposition to shun the responsibility of the crisis should be mani- 
 fested as it was in the adjustment at that time, it will be impossible 
 to maintain the peace of the Republic. 
 
 The introduction of the necessary measures for the guidance of 
 the colored people in the midst of the transition and the vigor with 
 which the developments will be made, will be sufficient to give all 
 the animation they may require to enable them to make the impres- 
 sion that with them freedom is sacred. To date the rights of these 
 people as citizens of this country from the issuing of the proclama- 
 tion of emancipation, would be simply a subterfuge and an indignity, 
 and would indicate the deceptive intent of those who are only half-way 
 men, and who will stop short in the midst of the work, at the first mo- 
 ment that will serve as the opportunity. The fact that there should be 
 no cause for any hostility between the two people in the Southern 
 States, ought to be clearly seen, and every measure resorted to to 
 devise the means to subdue the prejudices by which they are sepa- 
 rated from each other. To accomplish this vital object, all the sac- 
 rifices that can be made without debasing the dignity of the man, 
 or endangering the holy cause, must be resorted to for that purpose. 
 The view of the grand flank movement upon the entire line of the 
 opponents of Freedom from the point contemplated, will not only 
 be highly important to the colored people, but the salvation of the 
 Southern States will depend upon its success. It will give a degree 
 of force to the energies of that section of the country, far greater 
 than it has ever had, and create the means for self-dependence to 
 the extent that will be fully sustained by the development of its 
 resources. Mixed up as this irresistible purpose is with the existence 
 of those who now lie postrate by the power that extinguished the 
 rebellion, they cannot but see in it the means of the deliverance 
 they must seek in the alliance of the people of the South. There- 
 fore, to drive out the Freedmen is an impossibility, for they were 
 planted among the people by the laws that gave the power to the 
 peculiar institution, and by their natural rights, and owing allegi- 
 ance to no other country they are citizens of the United States, 
 and any hostile design carried into operation against them, could 
 not fail to recoil upon the nation. 
 
 The several congresses held by the people of the Southern States, 
 from time to time, some years before they seceded, it is known that
 
 21 
 
 the labor question was the most perplexing to their public men, and 
 whatever power they may possess to carry on the industry of the 
 country in the future, the very first and the main object will be to 
 secure the aid of the Freedmen as a class that they never will sup- 
 plant. It is not only necessary to shield them from the life and 
 death struggle that would follow from any attempt to drive them 
 out, but it is necessary for the preservation of the Eepublic. The 
 means by which the solution of the grand problem will be reached 
 to indicate the fraternal relations of the people to each other, will 
 be clearly manifested by touching the leading points of the plan 
 of reconstruction. 
 
 The importance of a definite conception of the work as it is, should 
 be understood by colored men to enable them to perform their duty 
 to the country with all the intelligence necessary to show the spirit 
 with which they will be governed as supporters of the Union, and it 
 can not be too carefully considered, for they must have a position 
 strong enough to guard against any invasion of their rights. For 
 whatever may be the views of others in reference to reconstruction, 
 with the colored people their plan must be fixed in the supervision of 
 the nation which would not only be extended to the adoption of 
 the constitution by the several States and the organization of the 
 Legislatures, but it will include civil Government and the estab- 
 lishing of an effective police system, and the organization and the 
 equipment of the militia free from all proscription, and thereby put 
 every branch in a complete working order before the surrender to 
 the people of the power assumed during the war in behalf of the 
 Republic. It will be the only effective protection against mere 
 paper concessions in behalf of Freedom, and will neutralize the fa- 
 cilities to cheat at the ballot box and paralyze the entire labor of 
 the statesmen with the sacrifices made upon the field of battle, as 
 would be the case as soon as those who are now in the back ground 
 shall have come to the front. 
 
 It is to guard against the provocation that would excite them to 
 any re-actionary measure, either against Freedom or the Policy of 
 the Government, why the suggestion is made to commit them to the 
 work of reconstruction, which, if carried out under its guidance, 
 and in accordance with the principles that may be embodied in a 
 general plan to be followed by the conventions and the legislatures 
 of the several States, it could not be regarded as the triumph of one
 
 22 
 
 party over the other, which in either case, may carry with it a pro- 
 scription that would he felt "by the minority with a degree of keen- 
 ness that would necessarily engender antagonism. The object is 
 to extinguish the fire of Secession, and to reconstruct society with the 
 new materials, with a view to its permanency by the removal of the 
 volcanic elements that underlie the strata of the work of the poli- 
 tician who labors with no ambition to reach the elevation of the 
 statesman. Therefore, it is not the special duty of the colored man 
 to study the difference and learn something of the seriousness of the 
 danger that should be avoided if possible, but it is for the entire 
 people of this country, who will control its destiny at the ballot box, 
 that must go into it with a clearness of conception far greater than 
 they have evinced up to the present time. 
 
 Those who are in favor of peace, let them show their plan and 
 the method by which they will work to promote it. For the public 
 men who have no other stock in trade than the force of the oppo- 
 sition .they can array against each other, by exciting the feelings of 
 the masses without having any principles to inculcate to advance the 
 general interest of the State or the Nation, will never make anything 
 else of themselves but mere agitators. It is the category that every 
 intelligent colored man should avoid, and if they would be useful 
 to this generation, let them study the means, and learn the true 
 value of political economy as a science, that they may labor with 
 credit to the race and for the good of the country. But while it is 
 the duty of all good Citizens to cultivate the means to live in peace 
 with each other, and only learn the art of war for the protection 
 of Freedom or the defence of the country, yet in case of any attack 
 on either from any scource, let it be the religious duty of every col- 
 ored man to fill his place in the rank of his regiment, and be ready 
 to move forward at the command and strike with all the vigor that 
 God and nature may supply to carry on the sacred work.
 
 23 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 THE PLAN TO RESTORE HARMONY BETWEEN THE TWO RACES IN THE 
 SOUTHERN STATES, AND FOR SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT ON THE BASIS 
 OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 % 
 
 The future of the United States, or of the Southern States, will 
 present no subject that will be more important t6 the happiness of 
 the people, than the science of agriculture, whether considered as 
 the field for speculation, or for the elevation of the race that stood 
 before the nation as the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. 
 Its grandeur will be seen in the fact that the polluted stream of 
 politics will be subordinate to it in every phase, which enable them 
 to realize the power it will exert to control the efforts to consolidate 
 freedom, and restore the relations of the freedmen to the soil as the 
 agricultural class. The antagonism that has taken such a wide 
 range between capital and labor in this country, requires a solution 
 that will lead to a reciprocity of interests, that will be more perma- 
 nent, at the same time have the inherent means to regulate itself 
 without being exposed to the discordancy that effects, to a greater 
 or less degree, the great interests of the manufactories of the New 
 England States and elsewhere; for, notwithstanding the redun- 
 dant population which makes up the masses in all the cities, 
 and the constant flow of the tide of emigration from Europe, yet 
 the struggle continues under the various organizations to the detri- 
 ment of the mutual relations that should be sustained between 
 the employers and the employees. 
 
 But in turning to the Southern States, where the principle of 
 the social revolution will prevail, it is necessary to examine the 
 field that the future of the two races will present not only to the 
 people of the United States ; but with the view to make it equally 
 as useful to the Brazilian Empire, as to the colonies of Spain, where 
 the transition from 'slavery to freedom will follow the light kindled 
 in this country. For whatever may be said or written in re- 
 ference to the regulation of labor, by the law of supply and de- 
 mand, in the sense in which it may be considered in large com- 
 munities, and in the agricultural regions in the Eastern, Northern 
 or Western States, yet nothing would be more useless to the freed- 
 men than the theory of the philosophers of the day, who, with their
 
 24 
 
 ancient ideas, which leads them to the conclusion that these people 
 will be safe as tenants-at-will, and that you must " let them alone 
 to root or die." But while there can be no doubt but what a large 
 portion of the freedrnen will, by their industry, become free-holders 
 under the usual process of the law of trade, nevertheless, as the 
 relations between them and the soil were broken up by the sov- 
 ereignty incidental in the government of the United States, and 
 exercised to meet the great contingency of the war, it is important 
 that it should in some way guard against the disorder that would 
 follow from the surrender to the respective States of the charge it 
 assumed for their protection ; for it is not the freedmen alone that 
 requires the protection, but it is a society, made up as it is of the 
 incongruities, which is the result of the education which carries 
 with it no power of cohesion. 
 
 To leave the people in such a situation to depend upon what 
 may be called the drifting policy, to restore every thing to their 
 normal condition as indicated by the class of men who have nothing 
 to suggest, would be a calamity equal in its tendency to the defeats 
 they suffered upon the battle field, inasmuch as it would leave 
 them to struggle with the chaotic elements of the war, that were 
 created to a very great extent by the operations carried on in behalf 
 of the United States. To teach all classes of the people how to live 
 for the mutual benefit of society under the present condition of 
 things, is a necessity that will not admit of any delay by those who 
 feel the force of the exigency to the extent that will urge them on 
 in the efforts to comply with its demands as benefactors of that por- 
 tion of this country that has experienced to a limited degree the 
 benign influence of civilization, or the blessings of Republican Insti- 
 tutions. In this connection, the demoralization of the financial re- 
 sources of the country must be considered, to ascertain the extent 
 of the necessity for national aid to the people, to enable them to re- 
 cuperate from the prostration under which they are suffering, with- 
 out making any sacrifices of their lands, and thereby give the spec- 
 ulators the advantages that should only be enjoyed by those who 
 may enter into the spirit of the design to make agriculture the basis 
 of elevation in the Southern States. 
 
 The despondency in the minds of some of the people at this junc- 
 ture, may afford rare opportunities to the modern Shylocks to pur- 
 chase lands from those who in too many instances, will be ready to
 
 25 
 
 eat up all that they may have, and shut themselves out for all time 
 to come from the high position they could occupy among the plan- 
 ters under the new system of support to agricultural developments. 
 But as useful as private capital may be to the commercial world, 
 yet it would be wholly inadequate to meet the demands necessary 
 to give a vitality to agricultural interest equal to the requirements 
 of that great branch of industry. From this view of the subject, 
 the question that must recur and press itself upon the attention of 
 the political economists, is, will it be the duty of the nation to advance 
 as a loan the sum of $50,000,000, to be increased to $100,000,000 if 
 necessary, for the relief of the planters in the non-reconstructed States, 
 upon the condition herein stated ? The $40,000,000 of the surplus 
 revenue deposited with the several States some years since, was 
 thrown away in comparison with the great results that would follow 
 from the application of the proposed loan, by which the people of 
 the Southern States could be placed in the position to realize the 
 leading objects contemplated by the Statesmen in their reflections 
 upon the felicity under the Empire they aimed to establish in that 
 section. 
 
 The V amour propre that may develop itself from the first im- 
 pression that may be created in the minds of those who may be strug- 
 gling with their early convictions, would to some extent paralyze the 
 principles that underlie the plan for national aid, but the fact that there 
 must be some means to overcome sectional prejudices, and fire the 
 fraternal feelings of the people of the two sections of the country 
 and from the force of its application sway their judgment in the right 
 direction. The thirty years' training that was necessary to bring 
 them up to the labor they have undergone during the last six years 
 will become obsolete from the rapidity with which they will advance 
 in the new ideas which leads to peace and prosperity, instead of 
 strife and rapine. The people will learn something from the sacri- 
 fices made by the South when considered in the light in which they 
 can be seen and will show that all the materials to establish Free- 
 dom in this country were furnished from that section, and at the 
 cost of more than $1,200,000,000 of dollars and add to this sum 
 $3,000,000,000 lost by investments made in Confederate Bonds and 
 $4,200,000,000 by the depositors of greenbacks issued during the war, 
 and the aggregate will be fully equal to the expenditure of the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States. What will they receive in return for the
 
 26 
 
 vast outlay, except from the increase in the value of the lands ? The 
 answer to this question lies far deeper than can be imagined by 
 many of the statesmen who only see everything from the surface. 
 But, view it as you may, it is the Pandora box of Secession, and if it 
 should be opened, the agitation for compensation would be the first 
 fruit of the poison 'that it would emit. 
 
 But as the connecting link between the two races must depend 
 upon the agricultural developments as the life of the industry of 
 the future, it demands an elaborate exposition to illuminate as far 
 as possible the minds of those who are satisfied to follow the con- 
 dition of things under which the colored people have struggled 
 since emancipation in the State of New York and elsewhere in the 
 Northern States. For while the impression exists in the public 
 mind, that they must necessarily enjoy all the rights of labor in 
 common with the dominant class in this section of the country, yet, 
 in view of the fact that the combination against them is carried to 
 the extent where nothing is seen of them as mechanics, it ought to 
 be sufficient to dispel the delusion that must be overcome to open 
 the way for the acceptance of the principles that will be submitted 
 to the nation in their behalf. If from that cause and their rigid ex- 
 clusion from all the avenues of general industry as opened to others, 
 the degradation of this people can be clearly traced, then the case 
 will be made up in accordance with the facts, which shows, that 
 notwithstanding the sympathy and the liberality extended to them 
 in connection with their equality before the law, their condition is 
 not far removed from that of servitude ! 
 
 With all the gratitude that should be manifested by them for 
 the sympathy of those who are opposed to oppression, yet the 
 colored people must have something more substantial to stand upon 
 than what they have realized from freedom in the State of New 
 York or elsewhere in any of the free States, where they are the 
 victims of an intolerable proscription as a powerless minority. 
 Trained up as they are in the school of experience, with no affinity 
 to the community at large, they are fully prepared to turn their 
 faces southward to seek the means where they may establish for 
 themselves and their posterity the system of employment by which 
 they will be able to exclude themselves from poverty by inculcating 
 the habits of industry and soberness. In the field of husbandry 
 proscription will cease to harrass those through whose labor the
 
 27 
 
 development of the resources of the soil will depend, and open to 
 them the avenues for social improvement in all the departments 
 where the colored man will be measured in the circle of social ele- 
 vation according to the standard of the mind by which the intelli- 
 gent community will be governed. 
 
 t 
 
 THE BASIS OF THE UNION BETWEEN THE Two RACES. 
 
 Having exhausted the general principles that underlie the lead- 
 ing features of the several subjects that involves the destiny of the 
 colored people in this country, let the proposition emanating from 
 them be submitted to the statesmen and the philanthropists that 
 they may examine the basis upon which the happiness of the two 
 races may be^ fully established under the guidance of the Unseen 
 Hand that controls the existence of nations and the human family 
 without any aid. 
 
 The following will be considered as the protocol, with the points 
 to indicate with some clearness the subject they will be called upon 
 to give their support in behalf of posterity and the welfare of the 
 nation. 
 
 1st. Let the appeal be made to every planter in the non-recon- 
 structed States to grant alotments of not more than ten (10) acres 
 to constitute a homestead for every family on the plantations where 
 they were formerly held, and the same, with the right in fee, when 
 acquired as herein provided, will exist in the family and their pos- 
 terity forever, and will be exempt from all the disabilities, of every 
 nature, by which the title of the lands could in any way be alienated 
 under any process resulting from the decision of any court of law, or 
 otherwise. 
 
 2d. As the object is to restore the relations of the freedmen to 
 the soil as the agricultural class, and establish them in the position 
 that will be permanent, and with the means to be useful among the 
 planters, it is essential that they should labor for those who may 
 extend the concession that will give to every family on any planta- 
 tion a freehold interest in the land they may occupy, therefore let 
 them render service under a mutual contract, in lieu of cash pay- 
 ment for the purchase. 
 
 The guardian of the nation as assumed over this people, imposes 
 upon it the responsibility of making the necessary provisions to
 
 28 
 
 surrender it to the keeping of the States respectively, that their 
 protection may become the duty of citizens at large to each other. 
 For nothing would tend to demoralize the two races to a greater 
 degree, than to throw them into a sudden contact without any fixed 
 principles to govern them in cases where the struggle for the su- 
 premacy would form any part of the antagonism that would exist 
 from the want of the regulations that should clearly point out the 
 fraternal duty imposed upon them by the new relation in which 
 they will stand to each other. 
 
 3d. To infuse into the agricultural interest in the Southern 
 States the necessary vigor, and enable the people to re-establish 
 their prosperity within the limits of the time they were engaged in 
 destroying it, and reach a higher position than they c4uld possibly 
 attain by the ordinary means of recuperation, it is proper to extend 
 to those who may have the disposition to rise above their present 
 condition, such relief from the national treasury as may be necessary 
 to enable such persons to cultivate the land, and give employment 
 to the freedmen as occupants of grants made to them by virtue of 
 the obligation that will be assumed in every case where the aid is 
 extended. 
 
 Yiewing it as the imperative duty of the people of the loyal 
 States to take up the subject with sufficient vigor to show its econo- 
 my when considered from the national standpoint from which it 
 will be seen by the statesmen who feel the gravity of the proposi- 
 tion to supply homes for 4,000,000 of persons made free by virtue 
 of the actions of the Federal Government, it is essential that the 
 demand should be made upon the nation for 50,000,000 of dollars 
 to carry out the plan of restoration and recuperation. It contem- 
 plates no discrimination on account of the political proclivities oi 
 any who may make the demand for relief, as the object is to seek 
 the same liberality for the Freedmen on the plantations, who, from 
 the relations they will sustain as citizens, and as cultivators of the 
 soil, shall be free to follow their convictions without offending any 
 one in the community. 
 
 4th. The organization of a Bureau of Agriculture in each of the 
 several States by the legislatures, will give the people control of the 
 measures by which homesteads should be arranged on the planta- 
 tions where the owners will make the concession a voluntary act,
 
 29 
 
 with the co-operation of the Commissioners of Freedmen who would 
 represent the Government of the United States in the performance 
 of the duty that would be required to restore these people and secure 
 certificates of title for every homestead and register the same in 
 the county where located, which will constitute a deed of con- 
 veyance for all time to come. The purpose is to secure by legisla- 
 tion the exemption for the planters, and protect them to the extent 
 required for the freedmen and keep them and their descendants 
 together, and thereby afford the opportunity to trace the sublimity 
 of the transition and the union between the two races for the gene- 
 rations to come, who will see in the spectacle the glorious results of 
 the efforts to unite them through the industry of the country, and 
 realize in the United States in a higher degree the blessings that 
 were sought for by Solon in behalf of the Athenians* 
 
 To perpetuate the happiness of the people of the agricultural 
 districts as far as human laws can promote it, it should not be law- 
 ful to issue any writ of attachment, excepting against the product of 
 the plantations, and only so far as it may affect the planter in his 
 special interest, and thereby protect the lien of the freedmen from 
 the knavery that could be practiced upon them. If the loan is ex- 
 tended and judiciously employed in the improvement and in the 
 cultivation of the land, with the use of the same for five years with- 
 out any interest, it would give all the support that could be required 
 for the accomplishment of the grand object contemplated by the 
 demand upon the nation for .that purpose. 
 
 In the purchase of lands for the freedmen the limit for pay- 
 ment should be extended to five years without any interest, which 
 will enable them to relieve themselves of all incumbrances by the 
 expiration of the time to refund the national loan, which will leave 
 the two people in the condition to promote their prosperity and 
 secure a lasting inheritance for their posterity, through the mag- 
 nanimity by which the Federal Government will be prompted to 
 come to the rescue. 
 
 5th. Brings the people of the United States to the consideration 
 of another grave subject, and in which the claims of the widows and 
 the orphans in the Southern States, upon whom the weight of the war 
 has fallen with an irresistable force, and leaving them far beyond 
 the reach of any succour from the source from which it should come
 
 30 
 
 for their relief. It has been shown, how necessary it will be to the 
 peace of the country to ignore the political proclivity of the people 
 in the agricultural field, and what may be demanded in this case in 
 compliance with the exigency of the nation will be fully sustained 
 where the claims of humanity will justify it in another in behalf 
 of the class of suiferers for whose benefit the national loan could 
 be applied as a donation when collected through the Bureau of Agri- 
 culture in the several States. When their condition is considered as it 
 was before the war and compare it with their present situation, it 
 seems to be the severest calamity that could possibly overtake the 
 widows and the orphans, while the State through which they are suf- 
 ering is powerless and can afford them no relief. The law of humanity 
 that justifies the succour extended to the wounded enemy upon the 
 field of slaughter, points with more force to the duty of the com- 
 munity to build up institutions for the protection and the education 
 of the fatherless children. But there is another phase that must be 
 reached to make the subject as comprehensive as possible, for while 
 th nation may never be in the situation to extend its pensicfn roll 
 to the Southern States, as those who would seek its benefits were 
 employed against the Federal Government, yet as it is impossible 
 to leave the decrepid in the misery entailed upon them by the in- 
 cidents of the struggle, therefore the duty of the people of the 
 several States ought to be very clear in reference to all of that class 
 and especially where they have no resources to fall back upon. 
 But what would stand in the way of the legislatures making the 
 necessary provision for them if the gravity of the subject should 
 have sufficient weight to Tyring out the approval of the Government 
 and the people of tlie loyal Slates, is the question that will come up 
 for consideration. If it is universally conceded that without seces- 
 sion there would have been no emancipation in the Southern States, 
 then it will be seen in the general result how far the good will pre- 
 ponderate against the evil of the mission it has performed for the 
 nation ; therefore let the entire country submit to the contingencies 
 and heal up the breach that all may rejoice together. 
 
 To employ the fifty millions of dollars, ($50,000,000) in estab- 
 lishing homes for the invalids and in building up other institutions 
 for the widows and orphans, would give it a two-fold character and 
 make the benefits ramify through every circle of society in that 
 section of the country, and when the sacrifice the amount in green-
 
 31 
 
 backs would cost the United States in materials and in the jnanu- 
 factory is carefully considered, it seems to be impossible for the 
 proposition to fail without carrying with it the dignity of the 
 Republic. 
 
 As the last point of the protocol has been considered, it will now 
 afford the opportunity to take a retrospective view of the subject to 
 enable the people of this country to comprehend more fully the 
 nature and the magnitude of the plan, and the efforts of the colored 
 man to supply the means to arrive at the solution of the questions 
 by peaceful means, that have cost the nation the vast sacrifice of 
 blood and treasure, while it presents not a single feature that could 
 not be reached without it. It is decidedly more pleasant to enter 
 upon this field of labor, for it is here where the evidence at hand 
 will give the necessary force to the subject, and carry it above the 
 criticism to which it may at any time have been exposed from the 
 want of information in reference to the secret purpose of the plan 
 submitted to many of the'leading statesmen who were called upon 
 to review it. 
 
 But it is worthy of note, that no party in this country could 
 have adopted the plan without entering into the revolutionary 
 policy it aimed to infuse, by making the emancipation of all the 
 females in the several States, by compensation, the leading feature, 
 and by the development of the utility of free labor elsewhere than 
 in the Territories, and neutralize the theory of the class of public 
 men who were " the representatives of white men," and consequently 
 ignored the interest of the colored people entirely. 
 
 * 
 
 But as they have been driven from the position by the develop- 
 ment of the principles which makes them the representatives of 
 the American people, it will afford them the means to study and 
 learn something from the fallacy which neutralized their usefulness 
 and carried the country to the verge of disruption. 
 
 The vigor with which the pen of colored men may be employed, 
 in compliance with the duty imposed upon them by their elevation 
 in the scale of manhood, will preclude the necessity for any apology 
 for the course that will be pursued, without any reference to the 
 views of others, to fix the destiny of the race among the people of 
 the United States.
 
 32 
 
 THE DANGER OF SECESSION CONSIDERED IN THE -APPEAL TO THE 
 PEOPLE or SOUTH CAROLINA IN BEHALF OF THE UNION. 
 
 Having carefully considered the tendency and the danger of 
 secession in advance of the developments that led to its inaugura- 
 tion, the copy of the document, as preserved, will show the correct- 
 ness of the premises and will give those whom it was designed to 
 serve, a better opportunity to study the > 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.
 
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