The Cleveland gazette. [volume], November 17, 1883, Image 1

About The Cleveland gazette. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1883-1892

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TETT^
Cleveland Gazette.
VOL. 1.-NO. 13.
\ 3 C SLATER
|NOW OR EVER
L-y Is yonr time to buy VINTER CLOTHING. The 3fs _,
will, for the NEXT SIX DAYS, Give Away
The Greatest Bargains
I
In Suits and Overcoats and Furnishing Goods,
Hats and Caps, ever seen in the *
State of Ohio.
LOOK AT THEM!
M ' MEN’S HEAVY OVERCOATS, - $l5O
J MEN’S WINTER SUITS, - - . - 325 S 7
MEN’S WINTER CAES, - • - .25
MEN’S CARDIGAN JACKETS. - . A - .60
MEN’S UNDERWEAR, (White or Colored), . . - j$
MEN’S ALL-WOOL UNDERWEAR, - - . - .75
MEN’S HEAVY WOOUSN BOCKS. - - - .10
And all the better grades in Overcoats and Suits for
Men and Boys at proportionately low prices.
FREE TICKETS
With all Purohaaee. no matter how small, for the HOUSE and LOT
Cand HORSE and HARNESS. Every Man and Woman and Child
in the City should get a Ticket for THESE MAGNIFICENT M '
GIFTS. They cost nothing, and they may wL
WIN A FOBTUNE.
[Cleveland Clothing Co.
/ Ol^lo^T. \
Just From the Press.
THE HEW AND REVISED EDITION
' —or THE—
Underground Railroad,
BY WILLIAM STILL, .
WITH A LITE OF THE AUTHOR.
A large, handsomely printed, highly illus
trated and beautifully bound book, which ex
plains the mysteries of The Underground
Railroad, and preserves the only records,
made at the time, of the escapes of slaves and
their heroic struggles to obtain freedom.
These records were faithfully taken from
the lips of fugitives. Their making and pre
servation would have cost the life of the au
thor had he been detected. They are therefore
history which would have been lost but for the
risk he took. And what wonderful, stirring,
thrilling history, too I How it rounds out and
completes the history of our country 1 How
momentous it is to the colored, race! It is their
oxode from Egypt, their grand march through
the wfiderne^’their entrance into Canaan.
All would know it. All will know it.
This new Edition contains much matter not
in the old, among which is a carefully pre
pared life of the Author, written and pub
lished at the request of many friends, and in
wrted in his book with the hope that it may
encourage his brethren everywhere to dowhat
men must do in order to succeed. This life
also contains many pleasant allusions to the
treat anti-slavery leaders, such as Sumner,
Wilson, Greeley, etc., sac similes of their hand
writing. In it are found, too, many bits of
history which have never before seen the
light, as, for instance, the escape of several of
oft John Brown's officers, and the way they
got passage on the Underground Bailroad to
^St^ther^s book is one which must prove
interesting and profitable to every reader; and
to the colored race, whose heroism helped to
make it, it must prove a history at once in
structive and inspiring.
A commanding volume of 800 pages and .0
illustrations. A work which sells readily.
Agents wanted, with whom liberal terms will
be made. There is money in it for energetic
canvassers, male and female.
Sold only by subscription. Price f 4.50.
For circular and terms, address
WILMAR STILL, Author and Publisher,
Mt South Twelfth Street,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
nnta urn
The undersigned, having established a Pur
chsMng Bureau by which means persona de
siring goods of any description can have them
purchased at the lowest cost price, solicits the
patronage of ladies especially. Address for
full particulars, MBS. RB. RICH ABDS.
153 Wert Mth St., New York Citv.
References by permission—W. Walter Samp
son and T. Thomas Fortune, of the N. Y. Qtobe.
JOB PRINTING!
THE GAZETTE
Is prepared to do
AU MBS OF JOB PRINTING.
DON'T FOBQET THIS.
•FVKA • « ••• K*el!< Avmm
MUSIC
—FOB—
WEISIM, ROMOS. PARTIES, ETC.
QrtlMGAMrrraOMo',
TEACHERJDF MUSIC.
Mrs. J. F. Lightfoot,
28 WEBSTER STREET,
PIANO IMMN GIVEN.
TAKEN
as well as
ADVANCED SCHOLARS.
TERMS:
SIO.OO per Quarter, 24 Lessons a
Term.
C O A. L 1
11. C. QI'IGLKY
SELLS THE
Best Hard: Soft Coal
IN THE CITY.
Ttlephont 32, at 132 Seneca St.
ESTABLISHED 1860.
HENRY BECKMAN,
FINE CLOTHING
GENTS FURNISHING GOODS.
Merchant Tailoring a Specialty.
204 SUPERIOR STREET,
CLEVELAND, - - - OHIO.
FOREST CITY SHOE STORE I
Boot and Shoe Dealer*.
Reasonable Prleea.
SAMUEL GLENN & CO.,
130 Ontario Street. ,
JOHNSON A CKDIH
We take pleasure to inform the public that
we have fitted up a first-class
SHAVING EMPORIUM’
IN THAT EM BLOCK.
No. 69 Michigan St., Up Stairs.
We promise to spare no pains with all those ■
who.wiU be kind (g favor US With their
patronage,
CLEVELAND, OHIO, SATUEDAV, NOVEMBER 17, ISB3.
COAL.
Now is the time lay in a winter supply of
HARD AND SOFT COAL.
We keep a complete assortment of the best
Domestic Coals stored in our sheds,
which are the most complete
in the city.
feW’ All Coal shall be well screened, promptly
delivered, and sold at popular prices.
J. A. Beidler & Co.,
EUCLID AVE. STATION.
Telephone I.SSV.
E. H. CORDAY,
238 GARDEN STREET,
Merchant Tailor!
Cleaning and Repairing, and also
a full line of
«EMB’ FIRMSinXG GOODS
Which will be sold cheaper than at any other
place in the city. Alf work guaranteed.
Call and satisfy yourself.
J. A. D. MITCHELE,
Teacher of Guitar, Cornet, &c.
ORCHESTRA MUSIC
FURNISHED FOR DANCING. ETC.
319 Superior Street, Room 7,
OWL CLUB,
64 Public Square, 149 Champlain St.
(Up Stairs.)
Billiard and Reading Parlors
Tonsorfal Department in charre of a
Competent Artist.
CHOICE BRAND® WINES A CIO A RS.
Special attention given to Club Dinners, etc.
The Gazette on sale here.
Respectfully, Chas. G. Stabkev.
John m. bush,
Teaming and Expressing.
ST. CLAIR STREET,
Next to “Sunda r Suu” Pudding.
HBH. MCI MIK
His Earnest and Eloquent
. _ Address
Delivered Before the National Conven
tion of Colored Men.
The Grandest Exposition That the
Country Has Had of the Exact
Condition and Portion
of the Negro.,
A Portrait of “The Old Mat Eloquent.’’
Fellow-Citizens—Charged with the
responsibility and duty of doing what
we may to advance the Interest and
firomote the generatavelfarfe of a people
ately enslaved, and who, though now
free, still suffer many of the disadvan
tages and evils derived* from their
former condition, not the least among
which is the low and unjpst estimate
entertained of their abilities and pos
sibilities as men, and theii4vahie as citi
zens of the Republic, instructed by these
people to make such representations and
adopt such measures as in our judg
ment may help to bring about a better
understanding and a more friendly
feeling between themselves and their'
white fellow-citizens, recognizing the
great fact, as we do, that the relations
of the American people bod those of
civilized nations generally depend
more upon prevailing ideas, opinions
and long established usages for their
qualities of good and evfi than upon
courts of law or creeds of religion.
Allowing the existence of a magnan
imous disposition on your part to
listen candidly to an honest appeal for
fair play, coming from any class of
yonr fellow-citizens, however humble,
who may have, or may think they have,
rights to assert or wrongs to redress,
the members of the National Conven
tion, chosen from all parts of the Unit
ed States, representing the thoughts,
feelings and purposes of colored men
generally, would, as one-means of ad
vancing the cause committed to them,
most respectfully and earnestly ask
yonr attention and favorable consider
ation to the matters contained in the
present paper.
At the outset we very cordially con
gratulate you upon the altered condi
tion both of ourselves and our common
country. Especially do we congratu
late you upon the fact that a great re
proach, which for two centuries rested
on the good name of your country, has
been blotted out; that chattel slavery is
no longer the burden of the colored
man's complaint, and that we now
come to rattle no chains, to clank no
fetters, to paint na honors of the old
plantation to
to humble your pride, excite your pity,
or to kindle your indignation. We re
joice also that one of this stupendous
revolution in our National history, the
Republic which was before divided and
weakened between two hostile and ir
reconcilable interests, has become
united and strong, that from a low
plane of life, which bordered unon bar
barism, it has risen to the possibility of
the highest civilization; that this change
has started the American Republic on
a new departure, full of promise, al
though it has also brought you and
yourselves face to face with problems
novel and difficult, destined to impose
upon us responsibilities and du
ties, which, plainly enough, will
tax our highest mental and mor
al ability for their liappy solution.
Born on American soil in common
with yourselves, deriving our bodies
and our minds from its dust, centuries
having passed away since our ancestors
were torn from the shores of Africa, we,
like yourselves, hold ourselves to be in
every sense Americans, and that we
may, therefore, venture to speak to
you,tn atone not lower than that which
becomes earnest men and American
citizens. Having watered your soil with
our tears, enriched it with our blood,
performed its roughest labor in time of
peace, defended it against enemies in
time of war, and at all times been loyal
and true to its best interests, we deem
it no arrogance or presumption to man
ifest now a common concern with you
for its welfare, prosperity, honor and
glory.
OPPONENTS OF THE CONVENTION AN
SWERED.
If the claim thus set up by us be ad
mitted, as we think it ought to be, it
may be asked what propriety or neces
sity can there be for the Convention, of
which we are members ? and why are
we now addressing you in some sense
as suppliants asking for justice and fair
play? These questions are not new to
us. From the day the call for this Con
vention went forth this seeming incon
gruity and contradiction has been
brought to our attention. From one
quarter or another, sometimes with ar
gument and sometimes without argu
ment, sometimes with seeming pity for
our ignorance, and at other times with
fierce censure for our depravity, these
questions have met us. With apparent
surprise, astonishment and impatience
we have been asked: “What more
can the colored people of this country
want than they now have, and what
more is possible to them?” It is said
they were once slaves, they are now
free; they were once subjects, they are
now sovereigns; they were once outside
of all American .institutions, they are
now inside of all and are recognized
part of the whole American people.
Why, then, do they hold Colored Na
tional Conventions and thus insist upon
keeping up the color line between them
selves and their white fellow-country
men? We do not deny the pertinence
and plausibility of these questions, nor
do we shrink from a candid answer to
the argument which they are supposed
to contain. For we do not forget that
they are not only put to us by those
who have no sympathy with u.%’but by
many who wish us well, and that in any
case they deserve an answer. Before,
however, we proceed to answer them,
we digress here to say that there is only
one element associated with them which
excites the least bitterness of feeling in
us, or that calls for special rebuke, and
that is when they fall from the lips and
pens of colored men who suffer with us
/ \
/ \
. I \
SOBT. FR£ED£3TI.XOX£. X>OT7<a-Xj^.SS,
U. H. REGISTER OF Z>EE»M
—AND—
President of the National Convention ot Colored Men held at
Louisville, Ky.
and ought to know better. A few such
men, well known to us and the coun
try, happening to be more fortunate in
the possession of wealth, education and
position than their humbler brethren,
have found it convenient to chime in
with the popular cry against our as
sembling on the ground that we have
no valid reason for this measure or for
any other separate from the whites;
that we ought to be satisfied with
things as they are. With white men
who thus object to the case it is differ
ent and less painful. For them
there is a chance for charity.
Educated as they are and have
been for centuries, taught to look
upon colored people as a lower order
of humanity than themselves and as
having few rights, if any, above domes
tic animals, regarding them also
through the medium of their beneficent
religious creeds and just laws—as if
law and practice were identical—some
allowance can, and perhaps ought to,
be made when they misapprehend our
But no such excuse or apology can be
properly framed for men who are in
any way identified with us. What may
be erroneous in others implies either
baseness or imbecility in them. Such
men, it seems to us, are either deficient
in self respect or too mean, servile and
cowardly to assert the true dignity of
their manhood and that of their race.
To admit that there are such men among
us is a disagreeable and humiliating con
fession. But in this respect,as in others,
we are not without the consolation of
company; we are neither alone nor sin
gular in the production of just such
characters. All oppressed people have
been thus afflicted.
It is one of the most conspicuous
evils of caste and oppression that they
inevitably tend to make cowards and
serviles of their victims, men ever
ready to bend the knee to pride ami
power that thrift may follow fawning,
willing to betray the cause of the many
to serve the ends of the few; men who
never hesitate to sell a friend when
they think they can thereby purchase
an enemy. Specimens of this sort may
be found everywhere and at all times.
There were Northern men with
Southern principles in the time
of slavery, and Tories in the
revolution for independence. There
are betrayers and informers to
day in Ireland, ready to kiss the hand
that smites them and strike down the
arm reached out to save them. Con
sidering our long subjection to servi
tude and caste, and the many tempta
tions to which we are exposed to betray
our race into the hands of their ene
mies, the wonder is not that we have
so many traitors among us as that we
have so few.
The most of our people, to their
honor be it said, are remarkably sound
and true to each other. To those who
may think we have no cause to hold
this convention, we freely admit that,
so far as the organic law of the land
is concerned, we have indeed nothing
to complain of, to ask or desire. There
may be need of legislation, but the or
ganic law is sound?
Happily for us and the honor of the
Republic, the United States Constitu
tion is just, liberal and friendly. The
amendments to that instrument, adopted
in the trying times of reconstruction of
the Southern States, are a credit to the
courage and statesmanship of the lead
ing men of that crisis. These amend
ments establish freedom and abolish all
unfair and invidious discrimination
against citizens on account of race and
color, so far as law can do so. In their
view citizens are neither black nor
white, and all are equals. With this
a I mission and this merited reproof to
trimmers and traitors, we again come
ito the question, W T hy are we here in
I this National Convention? To this we
answer, first, because there is a power
iin numbers and in union; because the
m my are more than the few; because the
i voice of a whole people, oppressed by a
common injustice is far more likely to
command attention and exert an influ
ence on the public mind than the voice
s of single individuals and isolated organ
i izations; because, coming together from
all parts of the country, the members
of a National Convention have the
m**ans of a more comprehensive knowl
edge of the general situation, and may,
therefore, fairly be presumed to con
ceive more clearly and express more
fully and wisely the policy it may be
' necessary for them to pursue in’ the
I premises, Because conventions of the
people are in themselves harmless, and
when made the means of setting forth
grievances, whether real or fancied,
they are the safety-valves of the Repub
lic, a wise and safe substitute for vio
lence, dynamite and all sorts of revolu
tionary action against the peace and
good order of society. If they are held
without sufficient reason, that fact will
be made manifest in their proceedings,
and people will only smile at their weak
ness and pass on to their usual business
without troublingjhemselves about the
empty noise they are able to make.
But if held with good cause and by wise,
sober and earnest men, that fact will
be made apparent and the result will
be salutary. That good old maxim,
which has come down to us from rev
olutionary times, that error may be
safely tolerated, while truth is left free
to combat it, applies here. A bad law
is all the sooner repealed by being ex
ecuted, and error is sooner dispelled by
exposure than by silence. So much
we have deemed it fit to say of
conventions generally, because our
fesort to this measure has been treated
by many as if there were something
radically wrong in the very idea of con
vention. It has been treated as if there
were some ghastly secret conclave, set
ting in darkness to devise strife and
mischief. The fact is, the only serious
feature in the argument against us is
the one which respects color. We are
asked not only why hold convention,
but, with emphasis, why hold a colored
convention? Why keep up this odious
distinction between citizens of a com
mon country and thus give countenance
to the color'line? It is argued that, if
colored men hold conventions, based
upon color, white men may hold white
conventions based upon color, and thus
keep open the chasm between one and
the other class of the citizens, and keep
alive a prejudice which we profess to
deplore. We state the argument
against us fairly and forcibly, and will
answer it candidly and we hope conclu
sively. By that answer it will be seen
that the force of the objection is, after
all, more in sound than in substance.
No reasonable man will ever object to
white men holding conventions in their
own interests, when they are once in
our condition and we in theirs, when
they are the oppressed and we the op
pressors. In point of fact, however,
white men are already in convention
against us in various ways and at many
important points. The practical con
struction of American life is a conven
tion against us. Human law may know
no distinction among men in respect of
rights, but human practice may. Ex
amples are painfully abundant.'
The border men hate the Indians: the
Californian, the Chinaman; the Moham
medan, the Christian, and vice versa.
In spite of a common nature and the
equality framed into law, this hate
works injustice, of which each in their
own name and under their own color
may justly complain. The apology for
observing the color line in the composi
tion of our State and National conven
tions is in its necessity and in the fact
that we must do this or nothing, for if
we move our color is recognized and
must be. It has its foundation in the
exceptional relation we sustain to the
white people of the country. A f imple
statement of our position vindicates at
once our convention and our cause.
It is our lot to live among a people
whose laws, traditions and prejudices
have been against us for centuries, and
from these they are not yet free. To
assume that they are free from these
evils simply because they have changed
their laws is to assume what is utterly
unreasonable and contrary to facts.
Large bodies move slowly. Individu
als may be converted on the instant
and change their whole course of life,
nations never. Time and events are
required for the conversion of nations.
Not even the character of a great polit
ical organization can be changed bv a
new platform. It will be the same old
snake, though in a new skin. Though
we have had war, reconstruction and
abolition as a Nation, we still linger in
the shadow and blight of an extinct in
stitution. Though the colored man is
no longer subject to be bought and
sold, he is still surrounded by an ad
verse sentiment which fetters all
his movements. In his downward
course he meets with no re
sistence, but his course upward is re
sented anti resisted at every step of his
progress. If he comes in ignorance,
rags and wretchedness lie conforms to
the popular belief of his character, and
jin that character he is welcome. Jiut
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
if he shall come as a gentleman, al
scholar and a statesman he is hailed asj
a contradiction to the National faith!
concerning his race, and his coming is i
resented as impudence. In the cmei
case he may provoke contempt and de
rision, but in the other He is an affront^'
to pride and provokes malice. Let him'
do what he will there is at present, i
therefore, no escape for him. The
color line meets him everywhere and;
in a measure shuts him out from all re
spectable and profitable trades and!
callings. In spite of all your religion,
and laws he is a rejected man.
He is rejected by trade unions, ofi
every trade, and refused work while he
lives and burial when he dies, and yet
he is asked to forget his color and for
get that which everybody else remem-,
bers. If he offers himself to a builder’
as a mechanic, to a client as a lawyer,;
to a patient as a physician, to a college;
as a professor, to a firm as a clerk, to a
Government department as an agent,
or an officer, he is sternly met on the*
color line, and his claim to considera
tion in some way is disputed on the
ground of color. *
Not even our churches, whose mem
bers profess to follow the despised Naz
arine, whose home when on earth was
among the lowly aud despised, have yet
conquered this feeling of color madness,
and what is true of our churches is also
true of our courts of law. Neither is
free from this all-pervading atmosphere
of color hate. The one prescribes the
Deity as impartial, no respecter of per
sons, and the other the Goddess of Jus
tice as blindfolded, with sword by her
side and scales in her hand, held evenly
between high and low, rich and poor,
white and black, but both are the im
ages of American imagination, rather
than American practices.
Taking advantages of the general
disposition in this country to impute
crime to color, white men color their
faces to commit crime, and wash off the
hated color to escape punishment. In
many places where the commission <4
crime is alleged against one of otfr
color, the ordinary processes of the law
are set aside as too slow for the impet
uous justice of the infuriated populace.
They take the law into their own
bloody hands and proceed to whip,
stab, shoot, hang or burn the alleged
culprit, without the intervention of
courts, judges, juries or witnesses. In
such case it is not the business of the
accusers to prove guilt, but it is for the
accused to prove his innocence, a thing
hard for any man to do, even in a court
of law, and utterly impossible for him
to do in these infernal Lynch courts.
A man accused, surprised, frightened
and captured by a motley crowd,
dragged with a rope about his neck in
midnight darkness to the nearest tree,
and told in the coarsest terms of pro
fanity to prepare for death, would be
more than human if he did not, in his
terror-stricken appearance, more con
firm suspicion of guilt than the con
trary. Worse still, in the pres
ence Of SUCH tn-H-Wnvk
the pulpit is usually dumb, and the
Eress in the neighborhood is si
mt or openly takes side with the
mob. There are occasional cases in
which white men are lynched, but one
sparrow does not make a summer. Ev
ery one knows that what is called
Lynch law is peculiarly the law for
colored people and for nobody’ else. If
there were no other grievance than thia
horrible and barbarous Lynch law cus
tom we should be justified in assem
bling as we have now done to expose
and denounce it. But this is not all.
Even now, after twenty years of so
called emancipation, we are subject to
lawless raids of midnight riders, who,
with blackened faces, invade our
homes and perpetrate the foulest crimes
upon us and our families. This condi
tion of things is too flagrant and noto
rious to re iuire specifications or proof.
Thus in all the relations of life and
death we are met by the color line.
We cannot ignore it if we would, and
ought not if we could. It hunts us at.
midnight, it denies us accommodation
in hotels and justice in the courts, ex-,
eludes our children from schools, re
fuses our sons the chance to learn, 1
trades and compels us to pursue only!
such labor as will bring the least re
ward. While we recognize the color
line as a hurtful force, a mountain bar
rier to our progress, wounding our.
bleeding feet with its flinty rocks at ev
ery step, we do not despair. We are a
hopeful people. This convention is a
proof of our faith in you, in reason, in
truth and justice—oiir belief that prej
udice, with al lits maligning accompani
ments, may yet be removed by peaceful!
means; that, assisted by time and<
events and the growing enlight
enment of both races, the color
line will ultimately become harm
less. When this shall come it will them
only be used, as it should be, i o distin
guish one variety of the human fami
ly from another.. It will cease to have
any civil, political or moral significance,,
and colored conventions will then be
dispensed with as anachronisms, wholly
out of place, but not till then. Do not
marvel that we are not discouraged.
The faith within us has a rational basis,
and is confirmed by facts. When we
consider how deep-seated this feeling
against ns js; the long centuries it has
been forming; the forces of avarice,
which have been marshaled to sustain;
it; how the language and literature of!
the country have been pervaded with it;
how the church, the press, the play
house, and other influences of the coun
try have been arraved in its support,
the progress toward its extinction must
be considered vast and wonderful.
If liberty, with us, is yet but a name,
our citizenship is but a sham, and our
suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery,
we may yet congratulate ourselves
upon the fact, that the laws and institu
tions of the country are sound, just and
liberal. There is hope for a people
when their laws are righteous, whether
for the moment they conform to the re
quirements or not. But until this Nation
shall make its practice accord with its
Constitution and righteous laws, it will
not do to reproach the colored people
of this country with keeping up the
color line—for that people would prove
themselves scarcely worthy of even
theroretical freedom, to say nothing of
practical freedom, if they settled down
in silent, servile and cowardly submis
sion to their wrongs, from fear of
(CWintwd on Third