The Ku-Klux Law.

17

sentiments. They were colored men and white men, and when they went to sleep at night they had no guarantee that they would not be taken out of their beds at the dead hour of night; taken out and scourged, or else balls put through their bodies. This action on the part of President Grant was not taken until the Legislature of South Carolina passed resolutions and sent messengers to him calling upon him to send the forces of the United States Government there to give them protection. With reference to this KuKlux law President Grant had to execute the law. It was in the statute-book, and he was called upon to execute it by that tribunal which had the right to call upon him.

Governor Richard J. Oglesby of Illinois spoke next, and in turn was followed by William H. Grey, a colored delegate from Arkansas, who said:

Gentlemen of the Convention: For the first time, perhaps, in the history of the American people, there stands before you in a National Convention assembled, a representative of that oppressed race that has lived among you for two hundred and fifty years, lifted by the magnanimity of this great nation, by the power of God and the laws of war, from the degradation of slavery to the proud position of American citizenship. Words fail me, upon this occasion, to thank you for this evidence of the grandest progress in civilization, when a people of such magnitude, the grandest and greatest nation upon the face of the earth, not only in the recognition of the merits and of the glory of the war which her noble sons waged so successfully, have, in convention assembled, been willing to listen not only to the greatest of her orators, but to the humblest citizens of this great Republic.

I scarcely know where to begin upon an occasion like the present. If I raise the curtain of the past, then I open the doors of the sarcophagus from which we have but just emerged. If I should go back to the primary history of my race in this country, I would open up, perhaps, to discussion things and circumstances that would make us blush, and the blood in our cheeks tingle in view of the evidences of the shameful and horrible condition - such in its degradation as the American people have never thought of from which we have just escaped.

But this is scarcely necessary. We are ready to say in the words

VOL. II.-2.

of the Good Book, Let the dead Past bury its dead." While we remember these errors, while we remember all these degradations, there is no vengeance, thank God, found in our hearts. No revengeful feelings, no desire of retaliation. But God has given us a heart to thank the American people for the position in which we stand to-day, and we are willing, as I said before, to "let the dead Past bury its dead," and to go on in our progress and fit ourselves to become what we have been made by law, American citizens in deed and in fact. It is the wonder of the world, the miracle of the nineteenth century, that in this tremendous struggle which rocked this great country from centre to circumference, that amid the debris of two hundred and fifty years, a living people were found by this great nation and lifted from degradation, as it were, by the strong arm of power, and at once, without preparation and without forethought, placed upon the broad plane of American citizenship. If we have failed somewhat in the sanguine expectation of our friends yet, upon the whole, I think we have fairly worked out the problem so far as we have gone.

To-day, for the first time, God has pleased me with the sight of that grand, noble old man, Gerrit Smith, who stood by us and for us when we could not stand for ourselves. The sight of him repays me for all the toil, all the suffering, all the pain of years. The sight of him renews my faith in that humanity which is divine. We are here to-day, gentlemen, a part and parcel of this great people, an integral part of the great body of this country, and here for the purpose, in harmony with you, of entrusting the reins of power into the hands of that hero who led us through a great and bloody struggle of years into the bright sunshine of liberty; led us out to citizenship and who, when the war ended and he was nominated for President, in 1868, said, "Let us have peace." The solving of the problem of our citizenship has been the work of years. No one knew how that position was to be brought about. But few men could comprehend the situation or the political position of affairs in the South. Few men knew.

I happened to be present on that occasion, in Chicago, in 1868, when General Grant was nominated, and I know very well, and there are men here who can attest it, that through that political contest it cost the lives of over three hundred black men in Arkansas to carry the State for Ulysses S. Grant. To-day the problem is being worked out to further solution. The Ku-Klux

The Negro's View.

19

problem is being worked out. The Ku-Klux situation is settled, and the peace of the country secured. But, had it not been for the passage of the Ku-Klux law and the man at the helm who had the nerve to execute it, that organization would be to-day in full venom in that section of the country. Therefore we urge upon the American people to give us Ulysses S. Grant for our candidate, for his name is a tower of strength at the South, and the only name that unrepentant rebels respect. He is the man who is to work out the great problem now being solved in this country by the great Republican party;-as has been truly said, that problem has not yet been solved;-its duties are not entirely fulfilled; its organization must not yet be disintegrated. The full measure of our citizenship is not yet complete. We stand, many of us, in a prominent position in the Southern States; but right among the people where we hold these positions the law is so weak and the public sentiment so perverse that the common civilities of a citizen are withheld from us. We want the Civil Rights bill. We ask of the American people as the natural result of their own action that we shall be respected as men among men, and as free American citiWe do not ask that for any small reason. There are always two classes of people we have to be afraid of: that class who love us too well and that class who hate us too bad.

zens.

All we ask is a fair chance in the race of life. Give us the same privileges and opportunity that are given to other men. I hope the action of this Convention will be such that we may be able to go home rejoicing. So far as the colored people of the South are concerned, they are a unit to-day for Ulysses S. Grant. I know they told us after the Cincinnati Convention that "you niggers can now go for the father of Republicanism, Horace Greeley." When we objected to this on the ground that he was not the Republican nominee they said, "He is the father of Republicanism." Said I: "Very well; if that is so I thank him for having been the father of such a brood of illustrious and loyal men, but I fear, like Abraham of old, he takes Hagar instead of Sarah, and we cannot afford that."

This is the inheritance of the free woman. This is the legitimate inheritance; these are the legitimate offspring, and we are going to keep the boys at home. I am very much afraid that, like Hagar and Ishmael, the old lady will have to hunt water in the wilderness. The black people stand solid together. They know intuitively who

is their friend; they know full well there is no standing for them outside the Republican party. They know they cannot afford to vote for men who say to them when they desire to vote, "You have got your rights now; what more do you want?" They cannot afford to vote for men who have refused to acknowledge or carry out the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. They cannot afford to vote against their own manhood, and they will not do it. Thank God, the colored men are Grant men with scarcely an exception to-day. God grant that the Republican party may close up its ranks and solidly march together, and victory will perch on its banners in the coming contest.

R. B. Elliott, a member of Congress from South Carolina, and a Mr. Harris of North Carolina, both colored delegates, followed in short speeches. Before the close of the day's proceedings the Committee on Organization presented the name of Thomas Settle of North Carolina for permanent chairman of the convention, and General H. H. Bingham of Philadelphia as permanent secretary. Judge Settle briefly addressed the convention as follows:

Gentlemen of the Convention: I thank you for the distinction of presiding over the deliberations of the greatest party in the greatest power on earth; and I accept it, not so much as a personal tribute to myself, as the right hand of fellowship extended from our magnanimous sisters of the North to the erring, wayward, punished, regenerated patriotic sisters of the South.

We have high duties to perform. We have assembled to name the man who shall administer the laws of the great Republic for the next four years; but our duties are plain. We shall be recreant to every trust and fail to respond to the vibrations of every patriotic heart if we do not, with one voice, name the soldier and patriot, Ulysses S. Grant, for the next President.

We of the South recognize and demand him as a necessity for law and order in that portion of the country and for the freedom of all men. It is not proper that I should detain you with extended remarks this evening. I shall therefore assume the duties which you have imposed upon me and I shall be very glad if an opportunity is afforded me to address you at greater length later in the session and when our labors shall have closed.

The Union League View.

21

On the second day a communication from the Union League of America was presented to the convention, on motion it was consented that the communication be read, which was as follows:

PHILADELPHIA, June 5, 1872.

To the President and Members of the National Republican Convention: Agreeably to the action of the National Council of the Union League of America, at its meeting in this city on the 4th instant, we have the honor to present to you the accompanying paper, expressive of the views and principles of the organization which we represent.

T. G. BAKER, Secretary.

Respectfully,

JOHN W. GEARY, President.

JAMES BUCHANAN, New Jersey,
W. J. P. WHITE, Pennsylvania,
T. L. CARDOZA, South Carolina,
WILLIAM A. Cook, District of Columbia,
C. C. PINCKNEY, New York,

J. H. HARRIS, North Carolina,
J. H. JOHNSON, Arkansas.

Committee.

The members of The Union League of America, in National Council assembled, do hereby affirm their adherence to the following sentiments and principles :

First. We reject, as utterly unfounded, the idea that the mission of the Republican party has been accomplished, and that no necessity exists for its continuance. By its principles and actions the nation was saved during the period of the late rebellion, and by them must it be preserved and exalted in coming time.

Second. Whatever may be its pretences, the Democratic party remains unchanged in character and ultimate purposes. What it was from April, 1861, to April, 1865, it still is, and will continue to be. Incapable of reform or improvement, it will always be unfit to direct or govern the nation.

Third. In the so-called Liberal Republican party we find no at