<< COLORED ARTISTS>> . - Among the Daguerreotypists of Hartford,
Conn., is Augustus Washington, a colored man, who takes good likenesses and
enjoys a very liberal patronage from the white citizens. This fact shows that
the prejudice of color is not so strong as is generally supposed. Miss Greenfield,
as black as midnight, has been singing through the Free states, and has been
rapturously applauded by crowded audiences - of whites. And if a new Raphael
or Murillo or Canova should be developed among the Afric-Americans of our day,
who doubts that his genius would be generally recognized and heartily honored?
The Blacks of this country should neglect to opportunity at acquirement in Agriculture,
Science, Art, but especially in the Mechanic Arts. Let each youth among them
be trained a carpenter, blacksmith, wheelwright, cabinet-maker, or to some other
trade if possible; than let each proficient take as many colored apprentices
as he can instruct and employ. Let the whole Race give a preference to each
other's workmanship so far as possible, and so stimulate the tendency to mechanical
pursuits. The tools to him who can use them: Skill and industry are sure of
ultimate triumph. - N.Y. Tribune.
May 16, 1850
THE NORTH STAR
Rochester, New York
THE NORTH STAR FAIR.
I have occupied a considerable portion of my time, during the present week,
in attendance upon this Exhibition which is now in the full tide of successful
experiment. It is held in a very neat, though rather contracted Hall, on Grand
Street, four doors from Broadway - (quite a favorable location.) The collection
of articles for sale is much larger than we had expected to see, and it embraces
a very great variety. The New York ladies have displayed excellent taste and
judgment in the arrangement of the Hall, making the most of the narrow limits
in which they are placed. They have received valuable contributions from the
Ladies' Association of Philadelphia, and from the Western New York Anti-Slavery
Society. In addition to these, a large box of goods has been received from our
English friends, in reference to which more will be said hereafter, and due
acknowledgements be made by the N.Y. Association. We have only time to say that
the ladies of this city have done themselves marked credit by their industry
and perseverance in this effort. They have contributed largely in bead and worsted
fabrications, all of which are of a chaste and elegant description. We must
not omit to mention that a young << colored artist>> has presented
to the Association several finely executed pictures, which are tastefully exhibited,
and add much to the decoration of the room. Each evening of the Fair has been
enlivened by music, vocal and instrumental. Miss Greenfield of Philadelphia,
has charmed the assembled throngs with her sweet voice, accompanied by the piano,
while Professor Jackson fairly electrified the lovers of music by his wonderful
performances on the violin. I have never heard a violinist whose skill so nearly
resembled that of the great Norwegian master of that instrument.
I deeply regret to state that much gloom was cast over the early part of the Fair, by the sudden demise of Mrs. Crummell, a lady who had evinced from the first the liveliest interest in arrangements for the proposed Fair, and who had exerted herself beyond her strength to render the occasion successful. Her loss is keenly felt by the Association, and her example in good works will not soon be forgotten.
October 26, 1867
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Miss Edmonia Lewis, a young colored girl, was, through the assistance of Boston anti Slavery people, sent to Rome two years ago to pursue the study of sculpture. Before going abroad she had executed many beautiful things in clay, a bust of Colonel Shaw being perhaps the most remarkable of her works. She has just sent to American's marble bust of Dr. Dio Lewis, which is on exhibition at Messrs. Childs & Jeneks' gallery in Boston. It is not only an accurate likeness, but she has given the attitude and expression of the physical education most happily. This is the first work of the kind sent from Europe to America from the hands of a << colored artist>> .
May 18, 1867
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
REV. STEPHEN SMITH.
On the occasion of the presentation, by Bishop Payne, on behalf of the colored
citizens of Baltimore, of the portrait of the late Hon. Henry Winter Davis,
(which was the work of an eminent << colored artist>> ,) to the
widow of the distinguished statesman, Rev. Stephen Smith, of our city, was chosen
President, while among the Vice Presidents were some of the wealthiest white
citizens of the State. Mr. Smith has been visiting Baltimore for forty years,
and is almost claimed as a distinguished fellow-townsman, by the people of that
city.
July 28, 1866
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PERSONAL ITEMS.
Mrs. Emily Rodney, a female missionary who has been laboring in Virginia, is now in this city soliciting aid to build a Church, (A.M.E.,) at Stanton, Va. The congregation has purchased a lot for two hundred and fifty dollars, and have laid the corner-stone of the church. Sister Howard is recommended by Rev. W.D. Harris, Elder of the Third St. A.M.E. Church, Richmond, Va., and Rev. John M. Brown, Cor. Sec., P.H. & F.M. Society. We trust that our friends will favorably consider the cause she presents.
Rev. William Moore of Trenton spent a few days in our city this week.
Rev. W.D.W. Schureman passed through our city last week.
The General Book Steward is on a visit to the West, he will attend the Convention
at Louisville and also the Conferences.
Rev. W.H. Hopkins (Baltimore Conference) was in this city last week accompanied by his lady. Bro. Hopkins had been on a visit to his mother-in-law in New Jersey.
Mr. W.B. Scott of The Colored Tennessean, is at present a welcome visitor in
our city, and is at the residence of our good friend Still.
Mrs. Frances E.W. Harper is in our city. She has been invited by Rev. R.H. Cain to go to Charleston and deliver a course of lectures.
The Colored Citizen. We learn from a gentleman recently from the West, that Mr. J.P. Sampson of the Colored Citizen, is about to sever his connection with that journal, and that he will make a tour in Europe exhibiting a panorama, painted by an eminent << colored artist>> . The panorama is said to be one of the finest in the country, and most accurately describes the great civil war in America.
Mr. George Ruby, of Portland, Me., a colored teacher of Freedmen's schools in Louisiana, and we think at one time a Superintendent a New Orleans, has been terribly whipped and otherwise maltreated by lawless whites in that State. The Military have arrested the desperadoes, and we trust that simple justice will be dealt out. For Mr. Ruby we wish a speedy recovery, as his services in the cause of education in Louisiana are invaluable.
August 12, 1865
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
LETTER FROM CLEVELAND.
NO. II.
Our city has lately been enlivened by several excellent concerts, given by a
troupe of << Colored artists>> .
The troupe consists of two young ladies and two gentlemen. Miss Alice Sherman,
the "Prima Donna" and the chief attraction, has a rich, melodious
voice, of peculiar sweetness and delicacy. Her singing has elicited the warmest
applause from her admiring and appreciative audiences - who have bestowed upon
her the sobriquet of "The Nightingale."
Mr. W. Russell is the "tenor," and Mr. Geo. Burris "basso."
Both of these gentlemen have excellent and cultivated voices and harmonize admirably
with the Nightingale.
The troupe is accompanied by Rev. J.A. Warren, pastor of the A.M.E. Church in this city, who lends additional interest to the concerts by his pithy and entertaining addresses.
The party, with the exception of Burris, contemplate making a tour through the West, giving entertainments in the principal towns and cities.
We bespeak for them a cordial reception by all the lovers of good music, and all who are interested in the elevation and improvement of our race.
R. HARRIS.
November 18, 1847
THE NATIONAL ERA
Washington, D.C., Vol. I No. 46 p. 3
J.B. WHEATON, Wholesale and Retail Druggist, keeps constantly on hand a well-selected
assortment of drugs and medicines, chemicals, paints, oils, dye stuffs, window
glass and putty, large glass for pictures, artists' prepared << colored>>
, << artists'>> brushes, pencils, crayons, water colors, &c.
Also, a few choice Groceries.
Corner of Broad and High streets, Columbus, Ohio.
December 7, 1882
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Personal.
-The Pittsburg Colored Citizen has severed its connection with R.C.O. Benjamin.
-Mr. Robert Church, of Memphis, Tennessee is said to be the richest colored man in the State.
-The editor of the Cairo Gazette, Mr. J.J. Bird, has relinquished his connection with that paper.
-Professor Virchow has in his laboratory at Berlin a collection of 6,000 skulls, representing all races and times.
-Rev. J.W. Asbury came within 180 votes of defeating Mr. Blackburn, the silver tongued orator, for congress.
-Rev. W.H. Brooks, has recently been installed pastor of the Nineteenth street Baptist Church at Washington, D.C.
-Messrs. W.H. Anderson and R.T. Hill, formerly of New York, have gone into business as booksellers and stationers at Richmond, Va.
-Messrs R.B. and E.R. Ragby, of the able Indianapolis Leader, have returned to Washington, D.C., not exactly pleased with the way things went in Indiana.
-The speeches of the Hon. Jno. M. Langton, Minister to Hayti, will soon be published, with an introductory by Rev. J.E. Rankin, D.D., of Washington, D.C.
-As pastor of Emanuel Church and Mt. Zion also, both of Charleston, S.C., the Rev. N.B. Sterrett has more souls to look after than the whole of the New England Conference.
-Rev. Wm. Lewis, pastor of the Southside A.M.E. Church, of Norfolk, Va., died on the 17th instant, leaving an estate of $10,000. He was a well known and respected citizen.
-A crayon picture entitled, “Charge of the Scott's Grave,” on exhibition at American Institute, New York, is the center of attraction and is the work of a << colored artist>> , Mr. S.T. Bostick.
-Geo. C. Sample, Esq., has been elected to the lower House of the Colorado Legislature by a handsome majority, though he was scratched by a good many of the old colored citizens.
-It is reported that Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll has received an offer of $1,000 and expenses for a series of twenty five lectures to be delivered in Australia, but has declined the proposition.
-With Rev. Richard Ricketts in West Kansas and Rev. Jno. Turner in East Kansas City, we expect to see a great interest manifested in the church circles this winter.-Kansas City Enterprise.
-The Rev. Joseph Cook arrived in Boston last week. His time until late in April will be devoted to filling lecture engagements. The Monday lectures will not probably be resumed until next fall.
-Madam Selika, when last heard from, was pleasing the Scotch. Both her voice and that of Mr. Sampson Williams, her husband, are said to be improving wonderfully. The Madam is studying the opera of Aida.
-Rev. J.W. Braxton returned from Cheyenne last Monday evening, where he had
been to hold quarterly meeting, it being the only change over which he is to
preside this year. The five churches in Colorado in the A.M.E. connection have
become within the last year self-sustaining, and four have pastors who are elders.
There value of their church property is $25,000, and they raised for all purposes
last year $7,000. This certainly speaks well for our people in Colorado.-Denver
Weekly Star.
September 9, 1880
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“LIFT UP THE STANDARD.”
This is the cry of the prophet Isaiah. He speaks of lifting up a standard; but that that was in his mind was pre-eminently the standard. But the standard in our mind has no reference to the standard of the prophet, be it a or the. We are referring to the absolute necessity of lifting up the standard of the colored ministry. At present it is altogether too low; if indeed it be not too often seen trailing in the very dust. We have no especial reference to the ministry of our church, whose standard is quite as high as is the standard of any of our neighbors. But the necessity is general for a lift up of the standard of the colored ministry all along the line. The standard of the average colored preacher, be he Methodist or Baptist, be he Presbyterian or Episcopalian, though these two last are so few in number when compared to the others, that it were not to be wondered if the standard among them the intellectual, the moral and the religious standard be not decidedly higher – the standard of the average colored preacher, we say, is altogether too low. It must be lifted up. Paul tells Titus: “Let no man despise thee.” The colored ministry of today is altogether too greatly despised, and the reason is the standard is too low. The colored school etcher is respected; as is also the colored lawyer, the colored physician, the << colored artists>> , the colored professional man in general. But come you to the colored ministry and the moment it is known but a man is a “colored preacher,” that moment he falls fifty percent in the estimation of the thoughtful, sensible public. Wherefore? Plainly because the standard of the ministry is too low. Any Tome, Dick and Harry can enter, if only he says he is “called,” just as though He who made the ear did not see, and He who made the intellect did not think. Surely the time has come to lift up the standard educationally, morally and religiously. Brother ministers, we need more of an esprit de corps. It is high time for us to get tired seeing the badge of our calling trailing not only in the dust, but too often in the mire and in the filth. What say you?
July 18, 1878
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A << COLORED ARTIST>> .
-----
We had the pleasure this week of meeting Mr. J.F. McGraw, a young man of more than ordinary ability as an artist. His home is in Milwaukee, whose he has been at study for one year. He has several portraits in oil and one in crayon. They give evidence of decided talent. The oil paintings are well finished. One of himself is in every respect an artistic piece of work. The crayon sketch is equal to any exhibited by our city artists in our last Exposition. When we consider the gentleman has been a student only one year and that be is not yet 17 years old, we feel warranted in predicting a successful future for him. He secured an order from Mr. Harvey, the lawyer. After finishing it, he will call upon our citizens. We are glad to attest of his merits, and hope they will receive their mood of appreciation. -The Conservator.
December 13, 1877
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
OWING to the straightened circumstances of our Publication Department and the
immediate want of funds to meet the obligation us now pressing upon it, the
employees of the Department are preparing to give one of the finest musical
entertainments ever given in this city by << colored artists>> .
No pains are being spared in its get up, and eminent musical talent of this
and other cities has been engaged. New, original and novel music will be given.
Will our city ministers popularize it in their congregations, as the object is a worthy one. IT WILL BE GRAND.
March 18, 1875
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
THREE << COLORED ARTISTS>> .
Mr. C.L. Bernays, a well known German-American gentleman, at present sojourning
in Germany, writing to the Anzeiger des Westens, gives some account of three
remarkable musicians with whom he became acquainted at Leipzig. The director
of the conservatorium in that city, Herr Schleinitz, introduced them to Mr.
Bernays as among the best scholars of the institution in which they had received
their musical education. These musicians are Senior Jimenez and his two sons,
Jose Julian and Nicasio Jimenez. They are pure negroes, of the distinctively
negro type. Jimenez, the father, was formerly a slave in Trinidad de Cuba. How
he was first taken to Europe we are not told, but he learned the violin in Leipzig
Conservatory under Mendelssohn's direction, and then returned to Cuba, where,
by giving concerts and playing at balls, he earned money enough to enable him,
four years ago, to take his two sons to the institution in which he had himself
been taught. All three are now good musicians, says Herr Bernays: all three
really great musical artists - Nicasio and his father, the violoncellist and
the violinist, being the more elegant, feeling performers. The younger of the
sons, Jose Julian, is a pianist. Though he plays with astonishing facility,
there is apparent, it seems, a certain coarseness or inefficiency in the execution
of strong passages, betraying manifest lack of genuine sensibility. The two
former accompany their instruments with the voice with wonderful effect, and
when these colored men play trios together the listener is enraptured. Mr. Bernays
is unmistakably a connoisseur in music, and does not express admiration without
reason. He states that these negro musicians are received just like white people
in Leipzig society.
March 10, 1887
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
Personal.
- Rev. George Hunter, of the North Carolina Conference, has been very sick recently.
-----
- Alexander, one of the colored cadets at West Point, will graduate this year,
if they will let him do so.
-----
- Mr. Powhattan Beatty has been appointed Superintendent of the Young Men's
Blaine Club of Cincinnati, Ohio.
-----
- Prof. P.H. Clark is a candidate for the position of Superintendent of Mail
Carriers in the Cincinnati post office. - Ex.
-----
- Madame Marie Selika, the renowned vocalist, will shortly remove from Boston,
Mass., to reside in Columbus, Ohio.
-----
- Mr. H.L. Livingston, colored, of Mississippi, has been promoted to a $1,40-
clerkship in the Pension Office, at Washington, D.C.
-----
- Miss Fannie Richards, a colored teacher in the mixed schools of Detroit, Mich.,
has been promoted, for merit, from the third to fifth grade.
-----
- Strangers going to Boston will do well to call on Brother Trim Lee, at his
dining room, 234 Pleasant street, near Boston & Providence Depot.
-----
- Mr. C.O. Jacko, a << colored artist>> of Little Rock, Ark., made
a crayon of Gen. Grant, which adorns the walls of the House of Representatives
in that city.
-----
- Bishop Turner has appointed Rev. Daniel W. Culp, D.D., to Harrodsburg, Ky.
Dr. Culp is a graduate of Princeton College and ranks as one of the finest linguists
in the land.
-----
- Samuel H. Holland, colored, formerly of Cincinnati, has held the office of
sheriff and tax collector of Chicot county, Ark., for twelve years. He owns
a fine plantation of 500 acres.
-----
- In Augusta, Ky., Henry Dodson, a white man, charged with vagrancy and being
considered a nuisance, was, by order of court, ordered sold to the highest bidder
for a term of seventy days.
-----
- The coincidences in two appointments made by two of our Bishops last year
are striking. Bishop Cain appointed Rev. J.M. Cargile to Newport, R.I.; Bishop
Ward appointed Rev. E.M. Argyle to Newport, Ark.
-----
- Miss L.C. Fleming, of Florida, late of the Florida Templar, who has been attending
a course of lectures in the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, leaves
next week for the Congo Valley to remain three years.
-----
- A sketch of the life of President I.M. Burgan appears on our first page. This
gives but a single instance of what it costs to develop educational work among
our people. Brethren reading it may apply it to our educators generally.
-----
- A letter from Hon. John M. Langston was published in the Herald of February
25th, in which he gives his opinion that if the democrats want the colored vote,
nothing short of a cabinet position will obtain it. It is thought by many that
Langston would not object to being a cabinet officer. - Ex.
-----
- The Rev. Horace Talbert, of Owego, N.Y., has been mentioned very favorably
for the Liberian mission. Brother Talbert is an able, upright, scholarly gentleman,
whose representation of the United States on the African continent would be
entirely satisfactory and gratifying to a great number of colored Americans.
-----
- Mr. Arnett's bill requiring that the effects of alcoholic drinks upon the
human system shall be taught in all public schools, also requires officers in
control of schools to see that the law is enforced, or if they do not that they
be removed; also that after Jan. 1st, 1888, applicants for certificates to teach
shall pass satisfactory examination in regard to effects of alcoholic drinks
upon the human system. - Xenia Gazette.
-----
- Miss Helen D. Handy has been appointed to a copyist's position in the office
of Recorder of Deeds. This is one of the very best appointments ever made in
that office, and whatever we may have said with respect to the appropriateness
of the appointment or confirmation of Mr. Matthews, there can be no question
as to the representative character of the appointment of Miss Handy. - People's
Advocate.
December 27, 1883
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
Personal.
-----
- Rev. W.B. Derrick has become a member of Thaddeus Stevens Post.
-----
- Frank F. Barnes, born in Georgia, now in New York City, is a << colored
artist>> of much ability.
-----
- Fred. D. Anderson has been appointed to a clerkship by Cincinnati's Republican
Comptroller, Mr. E.O. Eshelby.
-----
- Bishop Dickerson presided over the recent conference of the A.M.E. Church
at Forsythe, Ga. We hear that the assemblage was one of the most intelligent
that has been held in Georgia for years. - Augusta People's Defense.
-----
- Fourteen colored men are elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Adams furnishes one, Warren one, Madison two, Hinds three, Panola one, Coahoma
one, Bolivar one, Sharkey one, Issaquena one, and Washington two. G.W. Gayles,
of Bolivar, will be the only colored man in the Senate.
-----
- The owner of the farm at Lindenville, O., upon which John Brown established
an arsenal preparatory to his raid at Harper's Ferry, is still living. His name
is E.O. Forbes, and he is a man of superior intelligence, highly esteemed by
his neighbors. He retains a vivid recollection of Old Ossawatomie and of the
circumstances under which the ammunition and arms were stored.
-----
- Monsignor Savarese, doctor of civil and canon law, and until recently the
Pope's domestic prelate, has left the Roman Catholic Church. December 9th he
was received into the communion of the Episcopal Church by Dr. Nevin, in St.
Paul's American Church, on his confession of the Nicene Creed and his abjuration
of t he dogmas of the immaculate conception and Papal infallibility. He asks
for the guidance and protection of the Anglican episcopate against the usurpations
of the Bishop of Rome.
-----
- Anna Dickinson said to a Chicago Herald reporter last week: “I think
I was born to live in a warm climate, read novels, and only talk when I feel
like it - I mean to make some speeches before long. But this is to be no personal
controversy with Monsignor Capel. He, a foreigner, comes to this country, and,
after laying a platform of declarations, asks certain questions. I think I would
like to try to answer them. Of necessity I cross the track Monsignor Capel has
laid down. But there will not be any Capel-Dickinson controversy, for I am going
to make a good-natured speech - if I can --- Since slavery no subject has stirred
me as does this.”
-----
- The Rev. George Washington Nolley, who died last week at Ashland, Va., age
eighty years, had performed fifty-eight years' active service in the Methodist
ministry. He it was who led a charge of the Confederate troops in the battle
at Brook Church, near Richmond. In the midst of the fight, as the story is told
on “Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia,” a voice was
heard, shouting, “Where's my boy? I'm looking for my boy!” Soon
the owner of the voice appeared - tall, slim, aged, with silvery-gray hair,
dressed in a full suit of broadcloth. A tall silk hat and a clerical collar
and cravat completed his attire. His voice familiar to the people of Virginia,
was deep and powerful. As he continued to shout the men replied, “Go back,
old gentleman, you'll get hurt here; go back, go back!” “No, no,”
said he; “I can go anywhere my boy has to go, and the Lord is here. I
want to see my boy, and I will see him!” Then the order “Forward!”
was given, and the men, made once more for the enemy. The old gentleman, his
beaver in one hand, a big stick in the other, his long hair flying, shouting,
“Come on, boys!” disappeared in the depths of the woods, well in
front.
October 9, 1851
FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPER
Rochester, New York
HELP FOR THE PEOPLE OF COLOR.
-------
We extract the annexed letter from the Independent, and we commend it especially
to the attention of all the sincere friends of the colored people:
I see in a late number of your journal an article calling attention to the free
people of color; urging that their professed friends do something to counterbalance
the influence exerted by the Colonization Society, to prevent their elevation
here, and to relieve them from their present almost exclusively menial employments.
You will please permit one of those referred to, a hearing through your columns.
Whilst our improvement mainly depends upon our own efforts, yet there is much
that our friends can do for us besides expressing their abhorrence of slavery
and disapprobation of prejudice. They possess the capital and natural resources
of the country. Their forefathers possessed the lands and streams, when ours
did not possess the product of their own toil, but were themselves added to
the possessions of our white fellow-countrymen. And thus having the start in
the race cure their advantage. They hold possession of the agricultural, mechanical,
mercantile and professional interest of the country, from which we have been
almost entirely excluded. It is by opening these to us that we can be advanced.
Your correspondent speaks of this as an end, without detailing the means by
which it is to be arrived at. I shall endeavor briefly to define how capital
may be employed in opening these various pursuits to us.
Passing over the educational branch of his argument, to which the colored people
are bestowing considerable attention, and which they will fully attend to when
placed in favorable circumstances, we arrive at the other branch - the entering
into more desirable employments.
First, as to agriculture. Funds might be employed in assisting worthy, industrious
but poor colored men, desirous of becoming farmers, in purchasing stock and
implements to be paid for by them when their success would enable them; or in
the purchase of tracts of land to be cultivated under the direction of an association,
where colored men should be employed as laborers, and be allowed to purchase
by their industry parcels of land and implements of husbandry for individual
enterprise.
Second - mechanical branches. Shops and factories might be opened, if not exclusively
for colored operatives, yet open to them where those having trades can get employment,
and youth be skilled in the various arts. This would afford employment to both
sexes, and add much to the respectability as well as comfort of the colored
population.
Third - mercantile pursuits. Establishments might be opened with the view of
the employment of colored young men as clerks, and qualifying them as merchants,
and when they have exhibited the necessary traits of enterprise, frugality,
tact and attention to business, to afford them such assistance in enterprises
for themselves, as are now meted out to white young men who exhibit like qualities.
Fourth - the learned professions. When the colored people are secured a respectable
means of living, they will themselves provide their sons with the means of obtaining
these. All that is required of friends in the various professions, is to afford
them the same facilities that are extended to others.
These various objects can be carried out by the organization of an association
upon the plan suggested by "Philanthropos," viz.: comprehensive, like
the American Colonization Society, with auxiliaries in the states and cities,
where such can be organized - an association for the improvement of the condition
of the free people of color in the United States, for the collection of funds,
and their employment in the various enterprises hastily suggested above, with
a board of boards of directors to superintend their operation. - Indeed, funds
need not be given as charity, but subscribed as stock, and I will hazard the
opinion that it would pay in the course of ten years as well as any railroad
or canal stock in the States. I do not ask charity for the colored people, but
that they be afforded the means of employing their talents, skill and industry.
Capitalists can render us comfortable and themselves rich. I don't see why a
hundred barrels of flour or bushels of potatoes, produced by colored hands,
would not bring as much in the market as the same produced by others - or why
a thousand hats, or cases of boots, or a hundred pieces of domestic cotton cloth,
would not sell for as much when made by << colored artizans>> ,
as if made by others.
The experiment of colored clerks and bookkeepers, in a house established for
that purpose, would, I think, prove equally successful. I think the majority
of purchasers, either wholesale or retail, would have no more objection to colored
clerks than they have to colored porters, whom they so often meet in New York
and other commercial cities. Perhaps the novelty of the thing would attract
as many as colorphobia would repel. - If this is worthy of space in your columns,
I will resume the subject.
Yours, respectfully,
JOSEPH C. HOLLY.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 25, 1851.
July 31, 1869
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PERSONAL.
-----
-The Editor of the Church Union pays the following compliment to the one armed
hero of the war. Howsoever glowing this tribute is to Gen. Howard, yet indeed
may we say of him, “the half has not been told.” When the glory
even of a Grant shall have died away, as will all military glory in the “good
time coming,” the glory of Howard will stand imperishable.
-'Our poet Whittier, in 'HOWARD AT ATLANTA,' has already crowned one of our
bravest generals with that tender glory which does not rise from victory in
war, but from the love of God and good-will to men. Seldom it is (and also it
is so seldom) that such a halo encircles the brow of a famous soldier. Is it
because the cross and the sword are not natural allies in the same hands? Howard
has made his name, which was already noble, nobler than ever, in the annals
of Christian philanthropy. Goodness, which is the very essence of immortality,
is the best preservative of fame. Here is an example for the young men of the
Republic! Ah, when will we learn that the true chivalry, the knighthood of the
Cross, respects manhood in whatever guise, believes in human progress, pities
and helps the weak, sees in the suffering of whatever race, color, or clime,
Him whose 'visage was so marred more than any man,' and hears always that heavenly
voice, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have
done it unto Me?' The chivalry which rises over the helpless to break a lance
for a fair lady or a breath of applause, is cowardly, as well as devilish at
the bottom.”
-“The Christian Statesman” calls Pres. Grant to account for appointing
Gen. Sickles minister to Spain. It says: The President cannot be ignorant of
what Gen. Sickles was in both public and private life from early manhood till
the breaking out of the rebellion. Whatever his services in behalf of the country
since then might have been, and whatever his sacrifices and sufferings, the
old records of those former years of crime and infamy can never be effaced.
-Prof. Wm. Howard Day is lecturing throughout Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
His address is 824 French Street, Wilmington, Del.
-A number of Hicksite Quakers have joined the Unitarian church in Wilmington,
presided over by Rev. Fields Israel.
-Miss Sallie Daffin, after another year's arduous labor in the South, is at
home on a visit.
-Hon. J. Willis Menard through the columns of his Radical Standard thus pronounces:
We have entered the field with a quart bottle, well charged with good ink, and
we intend to empty it in praises for those who do right, and in short words,
for those who are tired of the negro and wish to sell him out.
-Gen. Howard is to read a paper before the National Convention of Educators
next month in Trenton. Theme: “Education in the South, with reference
to the colored population.”
-President Grant, Gen. Sherman, ex-Sec. Seward and Mrs. Lincoln have been the
recipient of valuable presents in the shape of silver sets for the part each
took in the abolition of slavery.
-Horace Greeley returns $20,800 income for 1868.
-John bull, a Kroo African, has just got a bronze medal from the British Humane
Society, for saving two lives within six months.
-Jas. Simmons, corporal, and Robert, Roberts, private, members of Co. K., 25th
Reg. U.S. Infantry, were lately arrested and lodged in jail because they wouldn't
go on the deck of a Mississippi steamboat at the bidding of the rebel captain.
Where is the Commanding General of the District?
-Miss Edmonia Lewis, now on a short visit to the United States, has recently
executed a colossal bust in plaster, of our great poet, Henry W. Longfellow.
The model is at her studio in Rome, and is considered by all Americans, who
have seen it, to be a fine specimen of art, as well as a most excellent and
truthful likeness of her subject. She proposes to execute the bust in marble.
It is one, which should find a place in Harvard University, and the friends
of our renowned scholar will do well to obtain this work of art from Miss Lewis
for that purpose. The cost of the bust in marble will be about seven hundred
dollars. Professor Childs says: “I have seen the photograph of Miss Lewis's
bust of Professor Longfellow, and should consider a copy in marble a very desirable
acquisition for Harvard College. The college at present possesses no portrait,
of any sort, of Professor Longfellow.”
A subscription has been started to raise the required sum. This is headed by
some of our well-known citizens prominent in good works.
Our readers perhaps, need not be told that Miss Lewis is a << colored
artist>> , and has been studying for five years in Rome to perfect herself
in art. She also proposes that if any society will raise a hundred dollars towards
this object, and will send the sum to Fields, Osgood & Co., she will give
them, for a present to their pastor, a copy of the bust in terra cotta.
-Senators Pinchback and Antoine, of the Louisiana Senate, and Alex Barbour,
Harbor Master of N.O., all colored, were lately in Louisville, and made some
telling speeches to the unreconstructed Kentuckians.
-Kamehameha V. of the Sandwich Islands, is a model farmer and a good judge of
horses and sheep.
-George B. Vashon, colored, was admitted to practice as a lawyer in the Criminal
Court at Washington on Saturday.
-O! Dr. Whedon, why did you tell our Southern Methodist brethren to drop the
new phrase, “church stealing,” from their vocabulary, and in the
very next sentence charge it upon them? That was cruel.
-Mrs. Jane Miller, a colored woman well known at Blandford, VT, as “Aunt
Jeaney,” died on Sunday, aged ninety-one years. She was the oldest person
in town, and had lived in the same neighborhood for seventy years. Her funeral
was attended, at North Blandford, on Tuesday by a large concourse. She was a
native of Norwich, Conn.
-Wm. Whipper, Esq., has been elected a Trustee of Howard University.
-Gen. Howard has called Dr. Torsey, of Kent. Hill, to the Presidency of Howard
University at Washington.
June 2, 1866
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EDITORIAL ITEMS.
SCHOOLS IN GEORGIA.- We learn from the official report of Superintendent Eberhart, that there are for the colored people in Georgia, at the present time, 71 schools, 104 teachers, with 6,991 pupils. 45 of the teachers are colored. 28 of the schools are sustained entirely by the freedmen themselves, and 76 by northern societies.
A << COLORED ARTIST>> .- MR. LOGUEN.- The following acknowledgment
of the artistic skill of a young colored man is made by the Syracuse Daily Standard,
which has the following:
“One of the most elegant pen-portraits we have ever seen, has just been
finished by a young colored man, son of Rev. J.W. Loguen, of this city. The
picture is a life-like portrait of that noble man and eminent philanthropist,
Gerrit Smith, and is intended to be presented to him by the artist, as a token
of gratitude for the interest which Mr. Smith has always exhibited in the advancement
of the colored race. The picture is copied from a well-executed photograph,
and is a perfect copy of the original, on a larger scale. The flowing beard
and benevolent countenance of the venerable gentleman are very lifelike, and
wonderful specimens of artistic skill and graceful penmanship. The portrait
is surrounded by a floral wreath, with birds of several varieties perched among
the branches, and an occasional bird's nest half-hidden by the leaves- all executed
with the most consummate skill and the most exquisite beauty. Underneath the
portrait is inscribed the following quotation from Gerrit Smith:- “When
I see my fellow-man reduced to a slave, I demand his deliverance simply because
he is a man.” And on a scroll at the foundation of the wreath is the presentation
address, as follows:- 'Executed with a Pen, and presented to Hon. Gerrit Smith,
by Gerrit S. Loguen, with his profound respect.' The whole is inclosed in a
plain, but handsome frame, and forms one of the most appropriate and elegant
tributes that could be offered by a colored man to the eloquent and noble champion
of his race.
“Young Mr. Loguen, the author of this splendid Pen-Picture, is a pupil
of Ames Commercial College, and this specimen speaks well for the teachings
of that institution.”
COLORED PEOPLE AND THE BALTIMORE CITY RAILROAD CO.- A.A. Bradley, Esq., of Boston, recently made an unsuccessful effort to test the right of the Baltimore City Railroad Company to exclude colored person from their passenger cars. An agitation of the matter has thus commenced, and we believe it will end in securing colored persons the right to ride in the street cars unmolested.
REV. JAMES A. SHORTER of the A.M.E. Church and agent for Wilberforce University
called on President Johnson, about two weeks since, and solicited of him a contribution
for the rebuilding of Wilberforce University.
The President kindly received him, and promised to do something in the future.
JUDGE FIELDS of the U.S. District Court addressed the Philadelphia Annual Conference
of the African M.E. Church at Princeton, N.J. on last Monday morning.
He commenced by expressing his high appreciation of the remarks of the Rev.
John M. Brown, who had just closed an able address in regard to our southern
work of evangelization and education. The Judge said he rejoiced that the members
of the Conference were citizens of the same country as himself- that he and
they had a common destiny. That powerful influences were at work to bring about
the development and acknowledgment of our manhood, victory was certain.
THE action of the “Reconstructed” ones in impeding the colored people of Augusta, Ga., in honoring the graves of Union soldiers buried in that city, has excited much indignation at the North. No newspaper justifies or excuses it, except those that were jubilant when Robert E. Lee led his army to the environs of the capitol of Pennsylvania.
THE STEWARD OF PRESIDENT Johnson's house is a colored man.
THE COLORED BAPTISTS of the North and South are moving on successfully, and in harmony with each other to an extent that commands our highest admiration. Associations are being formed, societies organized, and ministers educated. Their oneness of feeling and purposes is a good example for many to follow.
GEN. O.S. FERRY, who is said to be a Radical Republican, has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Connecticut, and will succeed Senator Foster. This State is certainly making progress.
PETER H. CLARK, the able instructor of colored youths, and principal of one of the colored public schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, is calling attention to “their faults and the remedies,” by a series of strongly written articles, full of common sense, which are published in one of the journals of that city. We hope some one will confer a similar benefit on us here in Philadelphia. There is room for improvement in our common school system.
JUSTICE AND GENEROSITY.- The publication of a note from a distinguished gentleman
with this heading, over the nom de plume of “Traveller,” in the
Christian Recorder about three weeks since, seems to have so charged our Baltimore
cotemporary with excitement, that he required a two column communicator, in
the shape of a “leader,” to work it off. Well, the excitement is
communicated! to whom, we know not, but trust that the receiver will survive.
The real name of “Traveller” will be given to our Baltimore cotemporary
whenever he desires it.
October 12, 1882
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Delighted weather.
Comet still in view.
For the week ending October 7th, there were 332 deaths in Philadelphia, as compared
with 343 for the previous week and 367 for the corresponding week of last year.
The main causes were: Cholera infantum, 12; consumption of the lungs 51; convulsions,
17; croup 16; diphtheria, 24, heart disease, 13; [ ] , 15 and old age, 17.
The night schools, opened last Monday evening in all parts of the city, ought
to prove of great advantage to ambitions young man and women. Including the
artisans school, there will be forty-four schools provided, and these should
afford ample accommodations for all who are likely to attend. Remember those
schools are not “colored” and “white” as formerly. On
the contrary they are public schools. Let there of our readers who wish to attend
drop into the one connected with their word.
The Nellie Brown Mitchell Concert was financial failure. Nor did the singers
do as well as we can very readily believe they would had not so many seats been
vacant. There is no enthusiasm in empty seats, even though they be finely cushioned.
As it was, however, the honors of the affair were largely given to Mrs. Mitchell,
the “star.” Mrs. S.E.M. Lewis, however, sang with her usual acceptability.
The German Quartette seemed to be disgusted at the show of benches. It is to
be regretted that the public do not more generally appreciate the efforts of
Manager Baxter. His aim is a most laudable one.
The second exhibition of << colored artists>> under the auspices
of the Workingmen's Club, is soon to open. In some quarters there is a tendency
to criticize the expediency of such exhibitions. If colored men have really
the artistic skill, why not push ahead and exhibit where recognized art is displayed.
What the good of showing in a corner; especially as art draws no color line.
We ourselves are the first to cry out against such line, and yet it is jus possible
that no portion of the American people is doing so much to perpetuate it. Would
it not be well to transfer the exhibition from Eleventh Street to Broad?
Allen Chapel, Sunday, Oct. 8th, Rev. C.T. Shaffer, pastor. Third quarterly meeting,
Rev. B.T. Tanner preached in the morning from Heb. Xi: 6. “But without
faith it is impossible to please him,” &c. In the afternoon Rev. Wm.
H. Yeocum spoke from the words: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou
hast given me, he with me where I am,” St. John, xvii: 2d, after which
the sacrament was administered. The Elder preached in the evening. Subject,
“God as revealed to us in the Scriptures.” He took for a basis,
St. John xvii: 1-3, also Jeremiah x: 10. The attendance of the congregation
was excellent all day. Collection during the day amounted to $73.
Quarterly meeting at Zion Mission on Sunday last was all that could be desired.
The morning was taken up with love feast and all who were in attendance call
truly the Lord in with us. At 2 PM, the Sabbath school was quite large and the
lesson interesting. At 3:15 Rev. J.S. Thompson, of Bethel preach a soul inspiring
sermon from Phil. 1:6. “Being confident of this very thing,” &c.
The sacrament was administered with much joy on the part of the communicate
and pastor. A prayer was offered for one who demanded it. At 7 ½, Rev.
J.W. Bechett preached from Phil. Iix. 19. “My God shall supply all young
needs,” &c. When the day closed the expression of the people was,
“Truly the Lord visited his temple to day.” The pastor, Rev. Combach,
certainly has need to be proud of his people. Collection during the day, $22.67.
September 14, 1882
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
Local News.
-----
Fall is here.
-----
Leaves are falling.
-----
Green grass departing.
-----
The pastors are all at their posts.
-----
The city is settling down for the winter.
-----
It is not too much to expect some thoroughly vigorous preaching after such a
pleasant vacation.
-----
The Sunday schools are all filling up. Church members often miss it by not stopping
in. The Sunday school of today is not what it was a quarter of a century ago.
-----
The Almshouse stealings still the talk. The crime of Major Phipps appropriating
to himself what was intended for the poor, in more frequent than many might
suppose. On a much smaller scale, of course, it is quite a common offence. At
last we are inclined to think so.
-----
The Sunday school of the Cherry street Baptist Church, Rev. T.D. Miller, pastor,
has reconvened after a month's vacation. The school is in charge of Mr. J.R.
Smith. The church was kept open during the warm weather and the pulpit, in the
absence of the pastor, supplied by different clergymen.
-----
In the death of Mrs. Douglass, Philadelphia loses one of its worthiest women.
For years she taught in the High School for Colored Youth, and when the weight
of years caused her to resign that position, unwilling to rust out, she gave
lectures on hygiene to a class of young ladies. She was buried last Monday in
Lebanon, Dr. Reeve officiating.
-----
A free Kindergarten, for the instruction of the poor children too young to attend
public school, has been organized at No. 2848 Jefferson street, in the Twenty-ninth
Ward. An appeal for assistance is made to the citizens of the Ward. If called
upon, contribute, and if you have a wee one, send it. Let there be no more holding
back by our people.
-----
One of the largest excursions that ever left this city was that of the Knights
Templar and [ ] over the West Jersey Railroad to Atlantic City, which took place
last Thursday. Fifty-nine cars were used to carry the excurtionists, who numbered,
it is estimated, about 4800. [?] Returning in the evening, a great number of
excursionists formed in line, and headed by a band of music, marched through
several streets.
-----
The Grand Concert to be given by Mrs. Nellie Brown-Mitchell, of Boston, [ ]
by Mrs. C.A. Wevill, Mrs. [ ] Lewis, Mr. H. Albert [ ] and other eminent talent,
promises to be of unusual interest. Manager Baxter is sparing no pains to make
it worthy the patronage of all. The mixing in of white and << colored
artists>> is worthy of commendation. It is to take place Oct. 5, 1882,
at Association Hall.
-----
There is to be held in Association Hall on Monday, September 18, at 3 P.M.,
a convention of all who favor the cause of temperance. Each church and society
favoring the ...
-----
The pastor at Union A.M.E. Church, Rev. J.W. Baskett, occupied the pulpit last
Sabbath for the first time since his summer vacation. The Elder spoke of 10:30
o'clock from 1 Psalms, 3. At 3 o'clock the Rev. S.P. Smith, of Washington, D.C.,
spoke to a very large audience from Isaiah xxxix., 31. “They that wait
on the Lord shall renew their strength.” After the sermon the sacrament
was administered, and from the expressions uttered by the pastor and people,
the spiritual strength of believers was renewed. At 8 o'clock Bishop J.P. Campbell
preached from 107th Psalm, 8, “Oh that men,” &c. The Bishop
was in one of his happy moods and gave the audience something upon which to
mediate for many days. The attendance throughout the day was quite large. Six
persons were received in church on probation.
-----
Our Continent is making itself very much at home in Philadelphia. It has just
purchased Potter's American Monthly, a magazine which has had a long and prosperous
existence in this city, thus merging in the youngest of our illustrated weeklies
one of the oldest and best known of Philadelphia publications. The most attractive
features of Potter's Monthly will be perpetuated and added to those of Judge
Tourgee's enterprising to those of Judge Tourgee's enterprising weekly. Out-of-town
magazines have recently turned their attention to “Picturesque Philadelphia,”
but full justice has never been done to the subject. In the current number of
our Continent, however, an extensive series of handsomely illustrated articles
oin the Quaker City is begun, including its early history, with portraits of
its founders; its churches, libraries, schools, charities and other public institutions;
homes, shop windows, means of locomotion, old wills and endowments, shipping
interests; its artists, literary celebrities, and other topics of special interest
to Philadelphians. The opening article, “A QUAKER SOLDIER,” tells
of William Penn, and is illustrated with numerous fine engravings, including
a copy of the portrait of Penn in armor, the property of the Philadelphia Historical
Society. During its comparatively brief career. Our Continent has won for itself
a place among the foremost of illustrated publications, and the promise made
by the new management at the beginning of the current volume has been amply
fulfilled. Its pages are, and will continue to be, a medium for the publication
of what is best in all the varied departments of literature and art.
July 27, 1882
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
-----
Personal.
-----
-Theo Gould, Jr. is to enter the University the coming Fall.
-The continued illness of Rev. C.C. Felts is the occasion of very great regret.
-Eben. Bassett, son of Prof. Bassett Haytien Council at New York, has sailed
for Germany.
-Veteran African missionary, Dr. Robt. Moffet, is still in good health, though
in his eighty sixth year.
-Prof, J.M. Naxwell has recently been appointed principal of the Louisville
Colored High School. An appointment fitly made.
-Mr. D.W. Bowley, agent of the Know Academy, is North collecting means. We take
pleasure in commending the effort he is making.
-Rev. W.J. Gaines, of Georgia, the entire church will be glad to know, has entirely
recovered, and is once more leading on the ranks of African Methodism in the
empire State of the South.
-Mrs. Lucy Cooper, formerly Miss Lucy Stevenson, of Wilberforce, has been in
our city for the last few days, and has zealously been using her powers of persuading
men to be reconverted to God.
-Bishop Ward and Rev. T.W. Henderson were at Alton and preached on Sunday of
July 16. Verily the martyr Lovejoy, slain three years ago, must have rejoiced.
They came to raise $600 and got $400 of it.
-The celebrated French Protestant Divine, Edward de Pressense, will deliver
a series of lectures at London. The Duke of Argyle will preside; the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the French Ambassador at London will be present.
-Cardinal de Lavigerie, the newest member of the Sacred College, is going to
Malta where he owns a large palace, there to establish an ecclesiastical seminary
for the training and [] of young priests destined to become missionaries in
Africa.
-Henry O. Tanner, the talented << colored artist>> of Philadelphia,
has sold four fine black and white crayons. They are to be used in illustrating
Our Continent. We call to mind no other << colored artist>> whose
work has found so high and valued a recognition. –Chicago Conservator.
-Cetywayo will arrive in London August 18th, but will return to Africa in September,
as it is thought that later in the year the climate of England would be injurious
to his health. During his stay in England the Queen will probably grant him
an audience at Osborne.
-The presentation of John Bright in commemoration of his twenty five years of
service as Representative of Birmingham, will consist of a portrait of himself
and a work of Birmingham art. The former will be painted by Mr. Holl, A.R.A.,
and the latter will be a silver desert service, enriched with gliding and enamel.
-To the Rev. Dr. J.T. Jenifer we are indebted for a pamphlet copy of the very
able paper he read at the Bishop Payne tri centennial Episcopal celebration.
Thoughtfully and intelligently prepared it is one of those productions that
will resist the tooth of time. To anyone wishing to know of “African Methodism
in Arkansas and the Indian Territory,” let them read “Jenifer's
First Decade.”
-The late Bishop Scott early in life learned the carpenter's and wheel wright's
trades, and, owing to poverty, was obliged to keep steadily at work, to the
neglect of his education. At the age of twenty he was converted as a prayer
meeting. He was then scarcely able to read and write, but immediately began
to study diligently, fixing his text book upon a bracket over his work bench.
Three years later he was ordained to preach, and when at the age of thirty eight,
he was made principal of the Dickerson College Preparatory School he was considered
to be the best Greek scholar in his denomination.
-The death of Joseph P. Scarlett in Philadelphia, Saturday, July 15th, recalls
an exciting episode of the days of slavery. Mr. Scarlett was, from his youth
up, an ardent friend to fugitive slaves, and did not hesitate at personal danger
in assisting them. In September, 1851, Edward, Joshua and Dickerson Gorach and
Dr. Thomas Pierce, of Baltimore County, Md., arrived in the neighborhood of
Christiana, Penn., in search of certain fugitive slaves. Their arrival was followed
by a riot, in which Edward Gorach was killed and the rest were wounded by colored
men. For hiding these colored men and giving them aid and comfort Mr. Scarlett,
two other white citizens of Christiana, Elijah Lewis and Castner Hanway by name,
and several Negroes were arrested on a charge of treason and committed to the
Philadelphia jail. The trial lasted several days, but the jury was out only
ten minutes, and then brought in a verdict of not guilty in the case of Hanway,
which was taken up first. The suits against the rest were then abandoned.
February 21, 1884
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
GRAND COMMEMORATION OF
BISHOP ALLEN'S BIRTHDAY
A SERIES OF BRILLIANT
ENTERTAINMENT'S HELD IN
BOSTON, MASS.
-----
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT)
BOSTON, MASS., Feb 16, 1884.
The colored citizens of Boston generally, and the A.M.E. connection particularly,
are fortunate in having as able and energetic a clergyman as Rev. Dr. J.T. Jenifer,
pastor of Charles street. Since the commencement of his pastorate of this church
he has demonstrated that Christian zeal, fidelity and progressiveness that has
won for him the universal esteem and co-operation of the white and colored citizens,
regardless of church creed, which augurs well for the future of his church and
its speedy freedom from debt.
With a view of decreasing his church indebtedness Dr. Jenifer, sometime ago,
conceived the idea of giving a series of entertainment's at the Temple, which
for quality (of merit) and grandeur (in proportions) should exceed anything
ever held in this city by the colored people. The object was, 1st, To commemorate
the birth of Richard Allen. 2nd. To offer the citizens of Boston a series of
first class varied entertainments. 3d, To raise one thousand dollars to meet
the pressing demands.
Pursuant to arrangements, the series opened on Sunday, Feb. 10th, by a sunrise
union love feast, under the charge of Rev. T.S. Dana and Elder A.S. Butler.
At 10:30 AM, Rev. W.H. Hunter, of New Bedford, Mass., preached, as he also did
at 7:30 in the evening. The Sunday school services were held as usual in the
vestry, at 1.15 PM, and were followed at 3 o'clock by a very interesting and
instructive sermon by Dr. Jenifer, his subject being, “Who was Richard
Allen? What did he do?” At 6 PM, a young people's prayer and praise meeting
was held.
MONDAY EVENING, FEB. 11TH.
Was devoted to a Christian re-union and sociable of all the members and congregations,
together with those of the sister churches. “Old Uncle Bob's Choir”
rendered appropriate music.
TUESDAY EVENING, FEB. 12th.
Was the “young people's night. Mother Columbia and her 38 daughters and
10 sons (representing the respective States and Territories in the Union) with
Uncle Sam and Brother Jonathan as special guests, held a very enjoyable tea
party. To demonstrate to the world the literary and musical ability of her colored
proteges, Mother Columbia introduced to her constituency, Mr. Andrew Chamberlain,
the accomplished elocutionist, and Misses Cecilia Washington and Mary Batoms,
contralto soloists of this city.
WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 13TH.
Was the banner night, and for this occasion Dr. Jenifer secured many of Boston's
most distinguished << colored artistes>> , which included Madame
Nellie-Brown Mitchell, the distinguished cantatrice, Mr. Frank S. Bland, tenor,
Prof. J.S. Roberts, musical director of the church, Mr. Louis A. Fisher, the
well-known baritone, Prof. S.W. Jamison, whose rendition of “Swanee River”
in answer to an encore, was particularly fine, Prof. G.W. Sharper, cornet soloist,
Mr. T.C. Scottron, the colored tragedian, Miss Addie G. Smith, Mrs. G.C. Harris
and the Walker Quintette, all of whom acquitted themselves in a highly artistic
a manner. Over 600 persons were in the audience. Prof. F.P. White ably presided
at the organ.
THURSDAY EVENING, FEB. 14TH.
Was Richard Allen's birthday, and it was justly appropriate that Dr. B.T. Tanner,
Editor of the CHRISTIAN RECORDER, should pay tribute to the Nestor of the A.M.E.
Connection. Dr. Tanner's “Richard Allen, and His place in History,”
was an eloquent dissertation on the qualities of the great Commoner, and portrayed
in faithful pen pictures the noble deeds and sacrifices of the father of African
Methodism. During the evening music was rendered by Madame Mitchell and the
Rex Quartette. The “Sons and Daughters of Allen” were present in
a body.
FRIDAY EVENING, FEB. 15TH.
A unique juvenile entertainment, consisting of tableaux, readings, recitations,
solos and choruses was held on the above evening, and the
“Jug-Gang” and “Card Crew” were present with banners.
The returns from the jugs were very gratifying, financially.
SUNDAY, FEB. 17TH.
A large congregation assembled during the entire day, as the eloquent and distinguished pulpit orators Revs. W.B. Derrick and B.T. Tanner, D.D., preached the former clergyman at 10:30 AM, and 7:30 PM and the latter at 3 o'clock. During the work the aggregate attendance at the Temple has been at least four thousand, and it looks probable that Dr. Jenifer will realize nearly, if not all, of the desired $1,000, besides having so ably managed the grandest series of entertainment's ever held among the colored people of Boston.
HOWARD.
September 8, 1887
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
PROGRAMME OF THE GREAT CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE A.M.E. CHURCH TO BE HELD
IN ALL THE CHURCHES IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, 1887.
-----
1. In all the cities where there are two or more A.M.E. Churches; as in Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, Wilmington, Charleston, Nashville, Savannah, Atlanta,
Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, etc., etc., we earnestly recommend a grand union
opening meeting on Wednesday night, November 9th, or on the night of the 16th,
uniting all the choirs of the city in one grand sacred concert. Local committees
will see to it that the exercises are made lively and effective - a real time
of gladness, choirs and officers be all thoroughly alive to the occasion.
2. On Thursday or Friday night a public oration or several addresses on the
independence and successful work of our Church. We urge that this meeting be
made free of charge, and that tickets therefore be given to all respectable
persons who will attend.
3. On Friday, or on the same night of addresses, prepare a “Centennial
Banquet.” Make it a season of congratulation and pleasure for al.
4. On Sunday morning a Centennial prayer-meeting from 5 to 7 A.M. At 10 o'clock
a sermon on the rise and progress of the Church. Text, Acts 13, 41: “Behold,
ye dispisers and wonder, (and perish), for I work a work in your days, a work
which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Collect
your envelopes)
5. At 2 P.M. Sunday school concert with short addresses. (Collect your envelopes).
6. At night, a eulogy on the life and influence of Richard Allen. Collect your
envelopes. Conclude with the prayer of thanksgiving. (See evening prayer, Ritual
of the A.M.E. Church, page - ), and then repeat the Creed and sing: “From
all that dwell below the sky,” etc., ending with the doxology, “Praise
God from whom all blessings flow,” and benediction.
II PART.
Programme of the grand concluding celebration to be held in Philadelphia, commencing
on Wednesday, November 23d.
1. Wednesday night, Union Sacred Concert, at ---- hall, ---- street, Philadelphia.
2. Thursday night (Thanksgiving Day) Centennial Banquet at each of the churches,
or such other exercises as each pastor and his committee may decide to have.
3. Friday night, Grand Literary Meeting, with speaking by the following named
gentlemen, at ----- hall, ---- street.
Speakers: Prof. T. McCants Stewart, of N.Y.
2. Rev. ---- -----, of Fla.
3. Rev. C.S. Smith, of Tenn.
4. Rev. William J. Laws, of the Iowa Conference.
5. Portrait of Bishop Allen, life size, executed by the << colored artist>>
---- to be presented to the connection by Rev. C.T. Shaffer, through Bishop
Payne. Address and reply.
III PART.
1. On Sunday morning, a centennial prayer meeting at 5 o'clock.
2. At 10.30 A.M., centennial sermon on the rise and progress of the Church -
text, Acts 13, 41. Collection of envelopes.
3. At 2 P.M. Union Sunday School concert, with short addresses, by chosen persons.
Collect envelopes. Philadelphia Sunday schools to be united as follows: Bethel,
Zion Mission and Murray Chapel Sunday schools together at Bethel; Allen Chapel
and Mt. Pisgah Sunday schools together at Allen; Union Church and Morris Brown,
at Union.
4. At night, hymn, O, God our help, etc. 701, Ritual 16. A eulogy on the life
and influence of Richard Allen. Conclude with the prayer for the clergy and
people. Ritual of the A.M.E. Church, page 160. The prayer for all men, and the
general thanksgiving, page 162. Sing the hymn 862, Ritual No. 12, and doxology,
“Praise God,” etc., Ritual No. 26. Collect envelopes, and report
the amount. The creed and benediction.
November 24, 1887
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PROGRAM OF THE GREAT
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
OF THE A.M.E. CHURCH TO
BE HELD IN ALL THE CHURCHES
IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER 1887.
-----
1. In all the cities where there are two or more A.M.E. Churches, as in Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, Wilmington, Charleston, Nashville, Savannah, Atlanta,
Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, etc., etc., we earnestly recommend a grand union
opening meeting on Wednesday night, November 9th, or on the night of the 16th,
uniting all the choirs of the city in one grand sacred concert. Local committees
will see to it that the exercises are made lively and effective-a real time
of gladness, thanksgiving and praise. Let pastors, choirs and officers be all
thoroughly alive to the occasion.
2. On Thursday or Friday night a public oration or several addresses on the
independence and successful work of our Church. We urge that this meeting be
made free of charge, and that tickets therefore be given to all respectable
persons who will attend.
3. On Friday, or on the same night of addresses, prepare a “Centennial
Banquet.” Make it a season of congratulation and pleasure for all.
4. On Sunday morning a Centennial prayer meeting from 5 to 7 AM. At 10 o'clock
a sermon on the rise and progress of the Church. Text, Acts 13, 41: “Behold,
ye dispisers and wonder, (and perish), for I work a work in your days, a work
which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Collect
your envelopes).
5. At 2 PM Sunday school concert with short addresses. (Collect your envelopes).
6. At night, a eulogy on the life and influence of Richard Allen. Collect your
envelopes. Conclude with the prayer of thanksgiving. (See evening prayer, Ritual
of the A.M.E. Church, page-), and then repeat the Creed and sing: “From
all that dwell below the sky,” etc., ending with the doxology, “Praise
God from whom all blessings flow,” and benediction.
II PART.
Program of the grand concluding celebration to be held in Philadelphia, commencing
on Wednesday, November 23d.
1. Wednesday night, Union Sacred Concert, at ----- hall, ----- street, Philadelphia.
2. Thursday night (Thanksgiving Day) Centennial Banquet at each of the churches,
or such other exercises as each pastor and his committee may decide to have.
3. Friday night, Grand Literary Meeting, with speaking by the following named
gentlemen, at ----- hall, ----- street.
Speakers Prof. T. McCants Stewart, of NY.
2. Rev. ----- -----, of Fla.
3. Rev. C.S. Smith, of Tenn.
4. Rev. William J. Laws, of the Iowa Conference.
5. Portrait of Bishop Allen, life size, executed by the << colored artist>>
----- to be presented to the connection by Rev. C.T. Shaffer, through Bishop
Payne. Address and reply.
III PART.
1. On Sunday morning, a centennial prayer meeting at 5 o'clock.
2. At 10:30 AM, centennial sermon on the rise and progress of the Church-text,
Acts 13, 41. Collection of envelopes.
3. At 2 PM Union Sunday School concert, with short addresses, by chosen persons.
Collect envelopes. Philadelphia Sunday schools to be united as follows: Bethel,
Zion Mission and Murray Chapel Sunday schools together at Bethel; Allen Chapel
and Mt. Pisgah Sunday schools together at Allen; Union Church and Morris Brown,
at Union.
4. At night, hymn, O, God our help, etc. 701, Ritual 16. A eulogy on the life
and influence of Richard Allen. Conclude with the prayer for the clergy and
people. Ritual of the A.M.E. Church, page 160. The payer for all men, and the
general thanksgiving, page 162. Sing the hymn 862, Ritual No. 12, and doxology,
“Praise God,” etc. Ritual No. 26. Collect envelopes, and report
and the amount. The creed and benediction.
November 17, 1887
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PROGRAM OF THE GREAT CENTENNIAL
CELEBRATION OF THE A.M.E. CHURCH TO
BE HELD IN ALL THE CHURCHES IN THE
MONTH OF NOVEMBER 1887.
-----
1. In all the cities where there are two or more A.M.E. Churches; as in Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, Wilmington, Charleston, Nashville, Savannah, Atlanta,
Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, etc., etc., we earnestly recommend a grand union
opening meeting on Wednesday night, November 9th, or on the night of the 16th,
uniting all the choirs of the city in one grand sacred concert. Local committees
will see to it that the exercises are made lively and effective-a real time
of gladness, thanksgiving and praise. Let pastors choirs and officers be all
thoroughly alive to the occasion.
2. On Thursday or Friday night a public oration or several addresses on the
independence and successful work of our Church. We urge that this meeting be
made free of charge, and that tickets therefor be given to all respectable persons
who will attend.
3. On Friday, or on the same night of addresses, prepare a “Centennial
Banquet.” Make it a season of congratulation and pleasure for all.
4. On Sunday morning a Centennial prayer meeting from 5 to 7 AM. At 10 o'clock
a sermon on the rise and progress of the Church. Text, Acts 13, 41: “Behold,
ye dispisers and wonder, (and perish), for I work a work in your days, a work
which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Collect
your envelopes)
5. At 2 PM Sunday school concert with short addresses. (Collect your envelopes).
6. At night, a eulogy on the life and influence of Richard Allen. Collect your
envelopes. Conclude with the prayer of thanksgiving. (See evening prayer, Ritual
of the A.M.E. Church, page-), and then repeat the Creed and sing: “From
all that dwell below the sky,” etc., ending with the doxology. “Praise
God from whom all blessings flow,” and benediction.
II PART.
Program of the grand concluding celebration to be held in Philadelphia, commencing
on Wednesday, November 23d.
1. Wednesday night, Union Sacred Concert, at ----- hall, ----- street, Philadelphia.
2. Thursday night (Thanksgiving Day) Centennial Banquet at each of the churches,
or such other exercises as each pastor and his committee may decide to have.
3. Friday night, Grand Literary Meeting, with speaking by the following named
gentlemen, at ----- hall, ----- street.
Speakers: Prof. T. McCants Stewart, of NY.
2. Rev. ----- -----, of Fla.
3. Rev. C.S. Smith, of Tenn.
4. Rev. William J. Laws, of the Iowa Conference.
5. Portrait of Bishop Allen, life size, executed by the << colored artist>>
----- to be presented to the connection by Rev. C.T. Shaffer, through Bishop
Payne. Address and reply.
III PART.
1. On Sunday morning, a centennial prayer meet at 5 o'clock.
2. At 10:30 AM, centennial sermon on the rise and progress of the Church-text,
Acts 13, 41. Collection of envelopes.
3. At 2 PM Union Sunday School concert, with short addresses, by chosen persons.
Collect envelopes. Philadelphia Sunday schools to be united as follows: Bethel,
Zion Mission and Murray Chapel Sunday schools together at Bethel; Allen Chapel
and Mt. Pisgah Sunday schools together at Allen; Union Church and Morris Brown,
at Union.
4. At night, hymn, O, God our help, etc, 701, Ritual 16. A eulogy on the life
and influence of Richard Allen. Conclude with the prayer for the clergy and
people. Ritual of the A.M.E. church, page 160. The prayer for all men, and the
general thanksgiving, page 162. Sing the hymn 862, Ritual No. 12, and doxology,
“Praise God,” etc., Ritual No. 26. Collect envelopes, and report
the amount. The creed and benediction.
December 28, 1882
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA
Local News.
-----
The Fair of Zion Mission A.M.E. Church is progressing grandly.
-----
The Young People's Concert, given at Musical Fund Hall, on Tuesday evening,
26th, was a decided success.
-----
A grand New Year Entertainment at Wesley Zion M.E. Church, Lombard street below
Sixth, Thursday, January 4th, 1883.
-----
March 22, 1883
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Personal.
-----
-Bishop James A. Shorter was in the city this week. –Springfield, O.,
Weekly Review.
-To the Rev. H.H. Lucas we are indebted for a copy of the Leadville, (Col.)
Herald.
-Daniel Seales, of California, rather of Cleveland, passed through the city
and called.
-Two of the principal jewelers of Augusta, Ga., are colored –Messrs.
E.J. Crane and R. Lowe.
-Mr. W.A. Ridley stands at the head of Augusta tailors. Besides him, there are
a half dozen others.
-Bishop J.M. Brown is at home resting, having given his entire district quite
a general supervision.
-Rev. A.L. Stanford has been elected a judge in Liberia. We should not be surprised
if he made an intelligent judge.
-Revs. Lewis and Simpson, of Cincinnati, with their congregations, sent help
to the Rev. J.A. Jordan and his congregation, sufferers by the flood.
-Prof. H.T. Kealing, in charge of Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas, writes: “The
spirit of the Lord is working mightily among the students.”
-President Gardener, of Liberia, is ill. The little Republic has lost so many
prominent men of late that really its future has become cloudy thereby.
-Wm. Anderson, a graduate of the Detroit High School, has in seven years risen
from a porter to a cashier in the great business house of Newcombe, Endicotte
& Co., Detroit, Mich.
-Rev. E. Winston Taylor, of the Princeton charge, N.J., has had a year of rare
success. Under his management African Methodism may be said to lead off in the
college city.
-Alfred Trouman is the name if the colored gentleman appointed by the Governor
of Tennessee one of the School Commissioners of the State. He is said to be
gentlemanly and well educated.
-The Rev. Benj. W. Arnett (or young man eloquent) preached to a large congregation
at Brown Chapel last Sunday. Subject, “Be strong in the Lord and in the
power of his might.” –Weekly Review.
-Bishop Turner preached at Big Bethel last Sunday night, and the church room
was not sufficient to seat the audience. Better have open meetings, brother
Gaines, when he comes –The Vindicator.
-The Recording Clerk of the Ohio Senate is Walter S. Thomas, a position he has
reached through dint of great energy, and which he is said to fill to the perfect
satisfaction of that august body of legislators.
-R.E. Primus is superintendent of the Texas Commercial and Mercantile Joint
Stock Company, an organization on Mexia, Texas, that gives promise of donating
a great work in the training of our people for business.
-Bishop H.M. Turner is in Washington city. The suddenness with which the Bishop
has become gray is the surprise of all. We are of the mind that scoring the
great South-east as he does, is calculated to make almost any one gray.
-Rev. G.M. Elliot, Principal of Know Academy, Selma, Ala., writes of his school:
“Our school is very large. We have students from various parts of the
State and they continue to come in every week. We have now enrolled four hundred
and fifty.”
-Mr. T.F. Cassells, of Memphis, recently appointed by President Arthur as Surveyor
of Customs, was educated at Oberlin, Ohio, taught school at Trenton, practiced
law at Memphis, was Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Court, was a
member of the Legislature, elected in 1880.
-The South Louisiana Annual Conference of the A.M.E. Church met in Franklin
yesterday morning, with Rev. Bishop Cain in the chair. The St. Mary Herald says
that the Bishop has been invited by the pastor, Rev. F.K. Faunt Leroy, and is
expected to preach at the Methodist Church, South, in Franklin, next Sunday.
–Southwestern.
-The Countess de Bardi, a neice of the Compte de Chambord, recently urged her
uncle to re-enter Paris on horseback, surrounded by Legitimist cavaliers, and
wearing the white plume of Henry IV. “My niece,” he said, “you
speak like a heroine; but it would never do for the king of France to be arrested
by a policeman and taken to the lock-up.
-We clip the following from a recent issue of The Bulletin, Louisville, Ky.:
“Rev. J.W. Early, pastor of St. John's Church was pounded last evening
by quite a number of friends. The gifts were quite numerous. The reverend seemed
highly delighted.” Many brethren, and in many sections of the church,
will rejoice to hear that this venerable father still lives in the hearts of
the people.
-President Gardner, of Liberia, had been compelled to resign his office, owing
to extreme ill health and disability from paralysis. The Legislature granted
him $1,000 and the expenses of removal to his home, in Grand Bassa County. Vice
President Russell was sworn in as President on Jan. 20th. Steps are being taken
for the removal of the Liberian College to the banks of the St. Paul's River.
-Miss Edmonia Lewis has completed at her studio in Rome a fine bas-relief in
white marble for a white church in Baltimore. It is pronounced to be one of
the very best of her productions. It represents the three kings from the East
adoring the infant Jesus, and of the three the African is given greater prominence
than either the Caucasian or Asiatic. Miss Lewis recently found a patron in
the famed Marquis of Bute, the Lothair of D'Israeli's novel of that name. She
sent him from her studio a statue of the Virgin Mary. No other men, hold a position
in the world of art equal to this << colored artist>> .
-The coronation of the King of the Sandwich Islands overshadowed an event of
greater importance which occurred about the same time. This was the unveiling
of a fine bronze statue of Kamehameha I., the Conqueror, who unite the Sandwich
Islands under one sway. The statue is intended as a memorial of the centennial
anniversary of the discovery of the Islands by Captain Cook in 1776. The sculptor
was T.R. Gould, of Boston, who states that it does not pretend to be a portrait,
as materials for such a work were wanting; nevertheless, the face and hand correspond
very well with the portrait of the great chief, taken in his old age, which
hangs in the Government buildings here. He is depicted as he may be supposed
to have stood on the bluff at [], when drilling and reviewing his warriors in
their canoes before his last invasion of Maul. One hand grasps the [] which
is at rest, the other is [], and the whole figure bends slightly forward upon…
June 16, 1848
THE NORTH STAR
Rochester, New York
CINCINNATI, June 4, 1848.
DEAR DOUGLASS: - I send you my last epistle from this city for the present. Since I last wrote you, I have held several meetings, all of which, like the preceding, were full of interest, by the presence of numerous anxious listeners - the ladies, as usual, forming the largest part of the assembly.
I have also been to Ripley, 50 miles above Cincinnati, in Brown country, where I held one meeting in the church of the famous Dr. John Rankin, long and favorably known to the friends of humanity in this country as a firm friend of the panting fugitive. His house has been made the resting place for the way-worn and weary for years, to the great chagrin of the slaveocrats of his neighborhood, and the slaveholders of Kentucky. - One friend informs me, and it certainly appears like an over-estimate, that he has known as many as forty to be there at a time! "packed away" in the underground depot. - This depot, as a matter of course, is not in the house of Dr. Rankin, but situated in a cavern about two miles south, of the whereabouts of which none but abolitionists are aware. This accounts for the great mistake on the part of the soul-seekers, who frequently, or at least have at different times, by brute force, entered the house of this aged gentleman, when they knew him to be unprotected - his eldest son being absent, and none but children and females at home - in search of their victims, but without success. 'Twas well it was the house of Rev. John Rankin they dared enter, and not some I wot of - yea, very well!
In Ripley, though a small village, there reside several colored families, all of whom are industrious and well-doing, one of whom is an undertaker, one had a rope-walk, another a brick-yard, in which many hands are employed; several carpenters, stone-masons, and brick-layers, all of whom are industriously employed at their several vocations. They are nearly all freeholders, and have, or are in the act of building neat and comfortable little cottages, which do them much credit. - With the assistance of an excellent and talented young gentleman of literary qualifications, who recently left Cincinnati and has taken up his residence there, much good may and will be done among the faithful few of Ripley. They have a church and a literary society there, and colored and white children go to the same schools.
Our professed anti-slavery friends at Ripley are not prepared to hear the "declaration of the whole counsel," and the "truth spoken as it should be in God;" and I am much inclined to think, with perhaps but one or two exceptions, their anti-slavery finds currency at par, on the credit of Rev. Mr. Rankin, whose solvency in that particular I believe to be beyond a controversy; and the old gentleman faithful, being absent at the time, may reasonably account for the detection on my part of the fictitious article, which only required his presence to give it credit. I called at his house, and saw his sons and daughters - frank, familiar and intelligent, though plain and unpretending. I should have been pleased to see and shake hands with the old gentleman faithful.
I return again to speak of Cincinnati, in which place I find many things of interest. - There are more, many more, mechanics in this city than I was aware of; and it requires time to find out the facts. Indeed, there are many of the most intelligent citizens of both classes who are not aware of it, and the reality is only known when an interested stranger or public man comes into the city, whose business it is to make such investigations.
In addition to other mechanical and professional enterprises named in my last, there are some colored men engaged in chemical establishments - one in particular, in which the principal chemist in the establishment is a colored man. There is also an extensive blacksmithing establishment carried on by an aged colored gentleman in Walnut street, who has a number of hands, white and colored, working for him, he standing at one "fire," who has contracts on hand with the first responsible men of the city, of from one to six hundred dollars. Occupations such as these bring men into intercourse with the first business men of the place, and establish an acquaintance and secure a confidence that nothing else will. It gives men a credit for both money and means, or articles of trade and business commodities. Men of business, merchants and others, will seek an acquaintance with men of this description, because, according to business policy, and the laws of commercial economy, an interchange of trade being necessary for the sustenance of the system, it is their interest to do so, as well as duty.
There is also, I learn, about to be established a large and fashionable staple and fancy shoe store, by a large capitalist and very active gentleman of business tact and habits, associating with him a competent mechanic, and one of the best workmen in the city - both colored of course. All this to me is news the most cheering. It is that which will raise the colored class in this country, as by enchantment, from degradation to entire manhood and actual equality with those who now dispute their susceptibility for the higher attainments.
The young women of Cincinnati, of the colored class, are far in advance of those of any other place that I have visited. - Nearly the whole of them have trades, and have continually as much employment as they can attend to. Those who are not employed by others, and do not employ, take business into their own houses, and thus gain a respectable livelihood, with all the advantages of domestic comfort and social happiness. - There is scarcely such a class to be found as colored servant girls in Cincinnati, from the fact that nearly all have trades. The white girls, such as those of "oriental" extraction, are the complete monopolists of female menialism in this city. Nor do the young women find any difficulty in getting employment in establishments controlled and owned by white persons. There is one establishment, in particular, perhaps the largest and finest in the city, for the manufacture of linen and corsets, and all kinds of linens and muslin gowns, where there are some twelve or eighteen young colored women, constantly and profitably employed. How many places may be expected to follow the praiseworthy example of the young colored ladies of Cincinnati? Cannot every place measurably come up to this standard? Determination and self-resolution only are necessary - determination to do - to "act, act, in living presence act."
To an already elevated, and refined, and enlightened people, there might appear, in this notice and encomium upon mechanics, tradesmen, and the course of the young colored women, scarcely aught to applaud or merit notice in an editorial correspondence; but when it is borne in mind that we are but in a primitive State - a people, as it were, who, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, when visited by the literati and philosophers of Africa, are just beginning to receive the germs of enlightened civilization; then the appropriateness of the course will readily be acknowledged. A practical precept of one sentence is worth a page of unintelligible jargon. The elevation of our race in general, and class in particular, is the ultimatum of our aim, and whatever respectfully and honorably contributes to this end, is among the means to be used for its accomplishment. I cannot agree with some writers, that great matters, or in other words, great things, expressed by great words, are alone worthy of great minds, or the notice of great persons. We are a small people - occupy a small sphere - constituting a small number compared with those by whom we are surrounded; also, the greater part of whom, at present, have but a small conception of things. Now, to my mind, the greatest effort that can be made is, to suitably adapt ourselves to their understanding, imparting to them a correct knowledge of things, though the language may appear homely and void of refinement, but proper. You know I care little for precedent, and therefore discard the frivolous rules of formality, conforming always to principles, suggested by conscience, and guided by the light of reason.
The Cincinnatians, I mean the colored, are a highly susceptible and very interesting people. They have been misrepresented in many particulars, and it requires an actual acquaintance with them before their true character can be known.
They have themselves a wrong conception of the people in many other places, especially their Pittsburgh neighbors, all for the want of an actual acquaintance. There are some of the noblest and best spirits to be found among our people in this city, and they only want the encouragement and approbation of the leading minds and master spirits of other places, to give them an impulse, which, like the ushering of bodies into space, shall continue forever in motion. I believe and expect much good will be accomplished among the colored citizens of Cincinnati, and they are fully determined that nothing on their part shall be wanting. They are willing and ready to bear the expenses of competent persons to come and counsel with them. Indeed, I found myself much disappointed. Instead of that spirit of selfishness and bigotry with which the Cincinnatians have been charged, I found, to the contrary, that they are kind, hospitable, sociable and unassuming in the extreme, always ready and willing to give merit its due, and, indeed, they extend their courtesies to the utmost extent of the desires of the most insatiable for such favors. Perhaps from the kindness of their hearts, they sometimes extend it where it is not due - at least, where it may not be merited. They are indeed a very grateful people, and this I conceive to be saying much. I opine, and that not without the best of reasons for saying so, that if the North Star continues to be conducted as I know it will, as a useful and instructive organ, that its conductors will always meet with a most hearty welcome from the citizens of the "Queen."
The whites, in the main, of this place are kind and courteous, and the principal reason of the distance between them and the colored citizens, is, as expressed by an intelligent colored gentleman, because the colored people themselves have never taken advantage of the opportunities they have of being sociable with them. This I believe mainly to be true, and is an eggregrious error on the part of the colored citizens. They must come forward, confront opposition, and manfully, though prudently it may be, maintain their rights in every particular. This being done, the Cincinnatians must become among the greatest and foremost in our country. The miserable influence of those Kentuckians across the river, is fast losing effect among the Cincinnatians.
One word more to the young men. I mentioned in my last that they were not doing their part. It is true that there re some - yes, an honorable few - who are found at the cabinet, in the carpenter's shop, at the shoemaker's bench, the anvil, and so on; and these I respect as honorable exceptions; but by far the greater part content themselves with inferior situations to these. Many of them have steamboating as a principal occupation, and after having worked studiously for several months, they come off the river with money sufficient to keep them respectably until they could qualify themselves in penmanship and arithmetic, sufficient for counting-house purposes, or sufficient to purchase themselves a hundred and fifty acres of good land, in Michigan or elsewhere, or to set them up in a respectable small trading business of some kind, or support them comfortably for two years at Oberlin; but instead of this, the most they appear to think about is dress and pleasure - almost discarding the young industrious mechanic of coarse clothes and plain habits; while they do nothing but buggy-ride day after day, until their capital is exhausted, and probably before their business season returns; and thus they get into debt for boarding and washing, and out of credit with everybody.
The sequel of the matter is, that they in all probability put five hundred dollars into the hands of an oppressor, who is rendered that much stronger, and consequently enabled to use an influence against them or their class; and sneeringly rebukes them by giving utterance to the fact, that a "Fool and his money soon part."
Great efforts are being made in behalf of the colored Orphan Asylum. A fair for the purpose is to commence on Monday, in a large hall in the city. The ladies and gentlemen are all very active, and determined to do their duty.
A musical soiree was held on last Friday evening by the musical band of young << colored artists>> , of but three months' standing. They did great credit to themselves, and manifest great taste and susceptibility for the "fine art" of music. On this occasion they had a fine audience, the spacious hall being well filled. The young men are very generous, tendering their services without charge on all benevolent occasions. May they grow great and good, as they most certainly will efficient and skilful in their profession!
I leave on Monday for Drayton.
Yours for God and humanity,
M.R.D.
August 22, 1863
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ANNIVERSARY
OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE RELIEF OF CONTRABANDS
IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Last evening the first anniversary of the Relief Association for the contrabands
of the District was held at the Fifteenth street Presbyterian church, and the
proceedings were of an unusually interesting character. The church was densely
filled with ladies and gentlemen, and the large number of white citizens present
indicated the interest taken in the commendable object of relieving the wants
of a class who have heretofore been regarded as degraded beings. One of the
principal features of the evening was the presentation of an elegant and expensive
regimental flag to the First colored regiment of U.S. Infantry, under the auspices
of the ladies of the Association. The proceedings were enlivened with most eloquent
music by the ladies and gentlemen composing the choir of the church.
The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. Mr. Tanner, colored, after which
the President of the Association, Mrs. Keckley, made a few remarks, giving an
account of the operations of the Association, the substance of which is embodied
in the subjoined reports of the Treasurer and Secretary of the Association.-
It will be perceived that the flag was not purchased from the proceeds of the
treasury of the Association, but from means collected separately by the ladies
from various sources.
FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CONTRABAND RELIEF ASSOCIATION.
This Association had its origin in sympathy with destitute and suffering freedmen.
One year has passed away since the ladies of Washington, being deeply impressed
with their deplorable condition, which was made known to us by their appeals
to our sympathies, at the suggestion of our President, met at the house of a
friend on the evening of the 9th of August, 1862, to devise some plan to ameliorate
their condition. It was then agreed to form themselves into an association.
Officers were elected, consisting of a president, two vice presidents, two secretaries,
a treasurer, a board of directors, and a visiting committee.
The address of the constitution adopted briefly sets forth its objects in the
following words:
As the fluctuations incident to human life subject all to changes in their conditions,
so the present state of affairs existing in this country having caused many
of the hitherto oppressed people of a portion of God's race to be cast among
us in a most deplorable condition, our hearts have been made to sympathize with
them, and we have pledged ourselves to do all we can to alleviate their sufferings.
We propose to visit them to inquire into their wants, and relieve them as far
as we are able to advise with and counsel them, feeling it to be our duty to
assist them toward a higher plane of civilization.
We meet on this the anniversary of our association to lay before those who have
kindly sustained us in our labour of love and mercy and the manner in which
we have disposed of the various contributions placed in our hands, adding that
we have not by any extraordinary method solicited donations, yet every appeal
made by us to a generous and human public has been responded to. We have, also,
by our own exertions greatly added to our treasury, and we are happy to say
that every effort made by us to obtain funds to alleviate in any way the distresses
of our afflicted brethren has been crowned with success, and a widely-extended
sympathy has been manifested toward us by our friends at home and abroad, resulting
in donations of money and clothing from the following quarters:
From Freedmen's Relief Association of District of Columbia, $5; Baptist Church
of Boston, $24, Fugitive Aid Society of Boston, $25; Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn,
$24; Waiters of Metropolitan Hotel, New York, $23; Young Misses of Baltimore,
$23; Union Progressive Association of Boston, $65; Mrs. President Lincoln, $200;
Concerts given by the Association in Presbyterian Church, $249; Festivals given,
$108.64; monthly contributions from members and individual donations, $6. Total,
$885.64.
Of this amount we have expended for clothing, fuel, freight on donations of
clothing received from the North, for bed clothes, nourishment for the sick,
&c., $663; leaving a balance of $172.
In addition to the clothing purchased by us, we have received from friends at
the North, and from individuals the following:
Received of Mrs. President Lincoln, 15 boxes of clothing and $10 worth of groceries;
Fugitive Aid Society of Boston, 13 barrels of clothing; Rev. Mr. Grimes' church,
of Boston, 12 barrels of clothing; Ladies' Relief Association of Boston, 9 barrels
and one box of clothing; Israel Church, of Washington, 2 boxes of clothing;
Mr. Seedham, of Washington, 1 box of goods; Mr. Breman, of New Haven, 6 barrels
of clothing; Mr. J. Bowers of Philadelphia, 1 box of clothing; American Freedmen's
Society, of New York, 1 barrel of clothing besides very many articles from individuals
of this city, all of which have been faithfully distributed by the visiting
committee, Mrs. Sands, President, who has been untiring in her efforts to do
her utmost for the welfare of this people, and who had rendered to the Association
most faithful and efficient service. We have not accomplished as much during
the last year as we had desired, yet there is satisfaction in knowing that,
as we have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and ministered to the wants of
the suffering, we have been instrumental in doing some good.
Thus far our work, owing to our limited means, has been chiefly relieving their
more immediate wants, and which, of course, claimed our first attention. Next
year we hope to accomplish much more, and trust that our friends at home and
abroad, who have so generously reposed confidence in us and in our plans, during
the past year, will continue to assist us, thus enabling us to carry on the
good work in which we are engaged, and aid us in extending the field of our
labours for the benefit of all who shall come within our reach.
At a meeting of the Contraband Relief Association, held Monday, June 3, the
president suggested the propriety of raising a flag for the First District regiment
colored volunteers.- All were willing to do what they could. We wished to inspire
with zeal and courage those who were to go forth and battle with the enemy,
that they might distinguish themselves, not as cowards, but as men, as valiant
and brave as any who marched to the field during this dreadful struggle. We
felt it to be our duty to do something, and were glad that an opportunity had
presented itself. If these men are to go forth in defence of Union and liberty,
surely it is the least we can do to sympathize with, encourage and assist them,
however feeble our efforts may be, and insignificant they man seem. A festival
was proposed, which was agreed to; also, subscription papers for the purpose
of raising the necessary money for the purchase of this flag, the result of
which was $218.51.
Arrangements were entered into with Mr. D.B. Bowser, a << colored artist>>
of Philadelphia.- The design and appropriate motto were sent; the flag is before
you to-night at a cost of one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Its workmanship
cannot fail to attract attention. On one side is the representation of the American
eagle; on the other side is depicted a scene that must enliven the latent spark
of patriotism, and thus inspire the hearts of this [ ] race of mankind. The
Goddess of Liberty, with her foot on the serpent's head, is represented in the
act of handing a musket to a colored man.- Her very eyes seem to flash with
patriotism; the lips, though dumb, seem to speak the motto above her, "God
and Liberty." Do we not hear the echo from East, West, North, and even
from the South, "God and Liberty?" God, the Giver of every good and
perfect gift, among which is liberty to all men. The fetters of slavery are
already broken and lie at His feet; the cloud of oppression grows brighter,
though not yet entirely passed away. He grasps the musket, and with a look of
deep earnestness on his manly face, he seems to say, "God bless you."
The sum of money raised being more than enough to pay for the flag, it was proposed
to use the surplus money for the benefit of the families of our colored soldiers.
We have also received through Mr. S----," from several gentlemen in the
Treasury Department the sum of $81.94, which, added to the money left from the
flag, makes $205.45.
After the reading of the above reports, Mr. J.F. Cooke presented the flag on
behalf of the donors. He said:
If the doctrine of the equality of man was announced by the American people
in 1776, its adoption has been left for 1863. 1776 and 1863 in glory, in moral
significance, in practical effects upon Christianity, civilization and humanity
must ever grace the pages of history, ever illume and adorn the annals of America,
and stand forth prominent among the world's most favored years. How grand, how
noble the scene when we scan the long succession of years between these periods.
How during this long time America has been deriving so large a source of wealth,
so much of her greatness from unrequited toil, and has been building the fabric
of so vast and powerful an empire upon and at the expense of human misery. Yet
these, the very victims of constant injustice, spontaneously offered her their
lives, their all, when peril first presented itself at her doors, and she refused.
But now, rebuffs forgotten, the past buried, with patriotism never to be eclipsed,
with ardor, devotion, and courage, they promptly throw their all upon her altar
and swear "for her to live, with her to die." A people subjected for
centuries to the most abject bondage, with all its terrible, cruel concomitants.
Soldiers, in this strife from the existing state of things, your must be the
part of true exalted heroism. To you is assigned as noble a part to play as
history has recorded. Upon you are centered the eyes of friends and foe- of
friends that you may, by the nobleness, the magnanimity of your action, by the
valor of your arms, claim and gain for yourselves the respect and admiration
of the world, and gain from your foes the position of true freemen. Bravely
and patriotically go forth to the strife. Others, America's favored sons, have
gone there with full consciousness that their deeds, their memories will be
cherished by a grateful people, and that those dear to them they leave behind
will be the cherished objects of a country's care. You, America's outcasts,
go forth to do battle for your country, with but little positive reliance that
your deeds will receive even their just reward. And while you do battle for
the noble cause of country, remember that you fight for the still nobler cause,
"God and Liberty." There is much controversy respecting your present
and future. Soldiers, let not this stanch your ardor and enthusiasm, affect
your bravery and patriotism. You go forth to make your fortune. From your patience,
constancy, and perseverance in the hardships and trials of military life, in
the stern necessities of war, from the nobleness and manliness of your bearing,
from the prowess of your arms, from your laurels of victory over the haughty
traitorous hordes of oppression, from the full assertion and vindication of
your manhood upon the bloody field of strife shall come forth your glorious
future. For the present give to the winds the wrongs, the unrequited services
of 1776. Dwell not upon the faithlessness of 1812, but build your hopes, your
faith upon the nature of the present strife. Draw your conclusions from the
real cause of this bloody scene, from the most reasonable and probable ultimate
consequence. The conflict is not between the North and South, it is of nobler
aspect, of transcendently higher nature. It is of freedom the equality, and
of slavery, the oppression of man. A strife between civilization and barbarism,
truth and error, right and wrong. Upon our side are arrayed the conquering hosts
of universal human freedom; upon the other the insolent God-defying hordes of
human oppression.
To-day we are making our own history- history that will bid defiance to prejudice
and partiality- history of such imperishable material as Kansas and Florida,
as Milliken's Bend and Indian Territory, as Port Hudson and Battery Wagner.
Deeds that crush prejudice, defy oblivion, and chronicle themselves. Ask you
for examples? Need we rake the far past for a Hannibal? the nearer for the soldier
and statesman of San Domingo, Toussaint L'Overture; for the sable martyrs of
1776 and 1812; for the intrepid Turcos of the Austrian-Italian struggle? Shall
we come to the eventful days of the great American rebellion and point you to
the bleaching remains of the swarthy braves before Port Hudson, denied by a
merciless, inglorious foe even the right of sepulture; to the bold dashes and
brilliant charges in Kansas and in the land of the red man; to the brave, soldierly,
and heroic victims of rebel torture, disfigurement, massacre, and slavery in
the Palmetto State?
And now, soldiers, I have accepted the honor, but I can assure you with no small
sense of unworthiness, of presenting in behalf of the ladies of the Contraband
Relief Association, through you, to the First District Columbia Volunteers,
this battle flag. With it, accept their highest consideration for your welfare
and happiness, expressions of their greatest admiration for your prompt response
to your country's call, your ready acquiescence in the behests of liberty, your
ardor and determination to assert your own manhood, the manhood of 4,000,000
of your oppressed countrymen, and for the great blow you go forth to strike
of the equality and fraternity of man, the cause of universal liberty, with
the wish that the same patience, the same forbearance, characteristic of you
in oppression may attend you in the possibly prolonged struggle for the existence
of your country and for liberty, and with their incessant prayers for your safe,
but victorious return to the bosoms of your relatives and friends and the extended
arms of a grateful country.
Accept this, and let its future be blended with that of the stars and stripes,
the nation's emblem. By the side of it let it be borne in triumph over every
foe. Let it by its association nerve you with firmer purpose, fire you with
greater ardor for that emblem, in whose vindication, for whose defence you go
forth with stalwart frames to lay bare your manly bosoms to the storm of battle,
to pour out your life's fount until every field of strife be crimsoned with
its blood, if necessary, even to its last drop.
The flag was received on behalf of the regiment, a detachment of which was present,
by Captain James J. Ferree, of Pennsylvania. He said, as the officer temporarily
in charge of the colored soldiers, he would accept the flag, and promised that
they would carry it to the field of battle, and they would remember when there
that the scroll in the head of the goddess of liberty was the "Proclamation
of emancipation, January 1st, 1863." (Applause.) Though the bullets of
the rebate might riddle that picture rebel cannon and rebel forces should never
cause the withdrawal of that proclamation. Before that should be done every
drop of their blood would mingle with the waters that percolate the earth, and
they would live only in memory. (Applause.) The colored and white races are
now fighting in the same cause- the cause of human liberty. The despised, degraded,
outraged the African race have patiently endured their wrongs for two hundred
years; but now, in the providence of God, the time has come to strike a blow
for their freedom, and they have sprung at the first call. They know that if
taken in warfare, slavery or immediate death in cold blood shall be their fate;
yet they gladly give their lives, for they know they are fighting for all humanity
and for liberty for all the races. (Applause.) Never since the world began has
there been manifested a spirit so perfectly, so sublimely triumphant over all
human prejudice, over all indignities, over all wrongs.
Men have often wondered why the colored people have borne their wrongs for two
hundred years. But the hour has at last arrived. They go forth in their strength,
and shall feel yet stronger when they carry that beautiful flag and rush to
the "imminent deadly breach," beneath its folds. We expect to die,
but our example shall enrich history, and shall be a heritage to all humanity.
(Applause.)
Ladies of the Contraband Relief Association, we thank you; and permit me to
say that the colored brother represented on the beautiful flag you have given
us, with a musket in his hands, is the emblem of the salvation of the white
race.
The efficiency of colored regiments has been tested at Port Hudson, Milliken's
Bend, and yet more recently and more gloriously at Fort Wagner, and the speaker
felt assured that the regiment of soldiers which he now represented, would cover
itself with glory.
Mr. Ferree's speech was loudly and rapturously applauded. At this conclusion
loud cries were made for Colonel Forney, who was observed in the audience. Colonel
Forney made a few remarks in response. He said he had not expected to be called
on to make a speech, and trembling as he was under the excitement produced by
the speech of Captain Ferree, he was scarcely able to utter the thoughts that
were swelling in his bosom. He was there to return thanks. He had been one of
those who, during nearly twenty years, had been swayed by political prejudice
against the colored race, and yet since the opening of this grand drama, so
significant to us and to our people, so decisive of the destinies of all the
human race, he had come to the conclusion that if liberty is to be secured to
us, permanent and practical liberty, it must be by the aid of the colored races
upon this continent. When the gentleman who spoke last, and who, he was glad
to know, bore a name very dear to him, and was a native of the old State of
Pennsylvania, he felt glad that a representative of that Commonwealth, and a
descendant of a great family there, had spoken the glorious truths which had
fallen from his lips. He could only say that all the powers left to him, whether
of voice or pen, were dedicated to this great struggle for our Union. It was
extraordinary to look at the disenchantments of the last two years.
But nothing marks the change more than this demonstration. Who would have believed
three years ago that such a radical and progressive speech as that of Captain
Ferree could have been made in the District of Columbia- in the very hot bed
of slavery- here, where for fifty years slavery has dominated? We have heard
a white man daring to say things which three years ago would have consigned
for him to a common prison. These are marvellous changes, but God has determined
that there are to be still more marvellous changes.
God has determined that the great question of human freedom must be decided
in this contest, and the greatest to happen in this, that any of the seceded
states hereafter to be readmitted into the Union, must furnish such guarantees
as will prevent any further rebellion, and any further secession. Colonel Forney,
after again thanking the audience for their attention, retired.
The choir sang another beautiful piece, after which the meeting adjourned.
January 19, 1855
FREDERICK DOUGLASS' PAPER
Rochester, New York
JAS. M'CUNE SMITH VS. THE STANDARD.
We are requested by Dr. Smith, to copy into Frederick Douglass' Paper, the following
article from the Anti-Slavery Standard:
In Frederick Douglass' Paper of Dec. 29th our answer to the mendacious assault
of Dr. James McCune Smith (publisher) in the Standard of Dec. 23 rd, is followed
by a rejoinder form the Doctor, as follows:
(See Communipaw's reply in our paper of Dec. 29th.)
To the personal abuse so liberally bestowed upon us, in this new chapter of
blunders, falsehoods and groveling innuendoes, we offer no reply. Dr. Smith
is welcome to all the laurels he may win in that sort of warfare. We must consult
our taste, if not our self-respect, and decline a contest in which victory would
be even more disgraceful than defeat. If the reputation we have won by our connection
with the anti-slavery cause, from its first organization till the present hour,
is not proof against assaults of such a character, from such a source, it surely
is not worth our while to defend it. So far are we from being disturbed by this
personal vituperation, that we regard it as the best testimony to our fidelity
to the cause that could emanate from such a quarter. It is, moreover, a virtual,
though ungracious, confession of judgement, on the part of Dr. Smith, in respect
to every essential point at issue. It is only when a party to a controversy
is smarting under conscious defeat, and knows that his cause has no footing
either in truth of justice, that he substitutes abuse for argument, and low
insinuations for manly blows. It is not pleasant to be sure, to have your garment
bespattered with filth by a baffled assailant; but in a just cause, one may
endure the infliction with a good degree of patience.
Whatever doubts an unenlightened charity may have been able to suggest in respect to the animus of Dr. Smith's first attack, his present tirade reveals his unscrupulous malignity to Old Organization too plainly to leave any room for question, thus fully justifying the tone of our former article. The malinger having essentially unmasked himself, nothing remains for us but to speak, as briefly as we may, on a few points, in respect to which silence on our part might, in some quarters, subject the cause to injury and ourselves to misinterpretation.
1. Dr. Smith asserts, with impudent positiveness, that “Mr. Gay's salary
is $1,200 per annum.” We cannot see that it is any of Dr. Smith's business
who has never contributed a penny to the funds of our Society whether the salary
in question is large or a small one. But a falsehood is none the less a falsehood
for being well struck to; an it is due to truth to say that Mr. Gay's salary
is, and always has been, much short of the sum named.
2. The talk about “single women” having to pay $3 to attend the
Anti-Slavery Lectures, or “degrade themselves by hiring some man to go
with them"”(!!! is little better than ribaldry.) Of course, women
in a city like this, do not often go to lectures unattended by a male friend,
though such cases do sometimes occur. And if often happens that two women wish
to go with the same man. To accommodate both these classes half tickets have
been furnished at half price. The first application for such a ticket was declined
only for the moment, to consul the committee, the chairman of which immediately
afterwards ordered a message to be sent to the applicant that the desired half-ticket
would be furnished. If Dr. Smith had not been seeking occasion for fault-finding,
and utterly reckless of truth, he would never have made any complaint in regard
to this matter. One would suppose that a colored man, writing to a colored man's
newspaper, might find something to commend in a Course of Anti-Slavery Lectures
like that which the Old Organizationists have instituted in this city; but Dr.
Smith had non word of commendation in his heart. With a ticket, bought at half
price, in his pocket, he could only abuse the managers of the lectures, accusing
them of being governed by complexional prejudice, because they did not invite
a betrayer of their cause and a bitter personal enemy to their platform, instead
of a trusted fried. Mr. Brown's complexion does not suit Dr. Smith. His epidermis
has no stain of treachery!
3. In regard to the payment of lecturers last year, let us silence cavil by
stating the exact truth. With two exceptions (Messrs. Hale and Beecher) the
lecturers were all engaged with the understanding that they should receive $25.
Mr. Hale, having delivered the opening lecture, was, according to the general
custom, paid a larger sum, while Mr. Beecher was not asked to lecture for less
than his usual price. Mr. Garrison was asked to write out his lecture for publication
as a tract, and was paid accordingly, the committee choosing to compensate him
for that labor rather than a reporter. The ten other lecturers were all offered
the equal compensation agreed upon; some of them accepted the amount and others
gave a part or the whole as a free-will offering to the treasury of the Society.
Among those who very properly took the fee was Horace Greeley, who, “Communipaw”
says, took nothing; while Wendell Phillips, whose general rule it is to receive
no compensation, to even his expenses, for an anti-slavery lecture, was, on
this occasion, among those who accepted his expenses. Do Dr. Smith's “whispers”
need further notice?
4. Dr. Smith sneers at the intimation that tickets to the Anti-Slavery Lecturers
are given to the poor. On this point we will simply say, that form seventy-five
to one hundred season tickets have been given to persons unable to purchase
them, while many tickets for single admissions are thus distributed every week,
the managers taking pains to seek out proper objects for such attention. In
other cases, as in that of the Doctor himself, tickets have been sold at less
than the regular price. It not the meanness of the Dr.'s sneer sufficiently
apparent.
5. Dr. Smith having first declared that Douglass, Pennington and others were
“excluded from the platform of lectures” “because they are
colored,” now seeks to change the issue, pretending that he was speaking
only of invitations to colored men out of the ranks of the Old Organization!
The language of the first assault utterly defies this interpretation, which
comes as an after thought, to enable him to escape from a dilemma. His declaration
was, that “there is no room for black men” not Old Organized black
men, but black men “on the Old Organized platform.” He remembers
to forget, moreover, that Mr. Langston, who is not a member of the Old Organization,
was invited to lecture in the New York course. The real point which he attempts
to befog is just this: that the American Anti-Slavery Society, in its dealings
with black men as well as whites, discriminates between its friends and its
enemies between those who only differ from it in opinion on some question of
fact or of policy, and those who have betrayed the cause and proved treacherous
to its friends. When Dr. Smith finds us inviting to our “platform of lectures”
any of those false-hearted white men who have been libeling the American Anti-Slavery
Society and its managers for years past, declaring us to be infidels and disorganizers,
we will give him leave to insist that we should treat colored men of the same
sort in the same way. At present, however, we are not quite so poorly furnished
with colored associates as to be under the necessity of seeking for them among
our enemies.
6. We come now to the “real charge” of Dr. Smith, “that American Abolitionsist do not, as organizations, treat black men as men, and therefore do not regard them as such.” Observe, the charge is not against individual Abolitionists, but against anti-slavery organizations. We shall not be expected to speak for any other organizations than those with which we are immediately identified; and in respect to those we repel the charge as without any foundation in truth, as the suggestion of a morbid jealousy, or the offspring of an invidious and hostile spirit. Dr. Smith says, “that of the half-million of free colored persons in the United States, there are not two hundred men who can be named as adhering to Old Organization.” This, of course, like almost every other statement of the Doctor, is untrue. But we have a right to hold him to his own estimate, and we affirm that, according to it, the Old Organization has employed as agents, or otherwise, far more than an equal proportion of properly qualified colored men, in comparison with the whole number of that class who cooperate therewith. The Anti-Slavery Society was formed, not to afford employment to any body, black or white,