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willne,indlie.LINCOLN MEMORIAL CLUB.The Lincoln (colored) Memorial Club held a highly creditable meeting in Cincinnati, on February 12, the sixty-second anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth day.The Cincinnati Commercial, of February 13, contains a full report of the proceedings, bat our space will not permit as to do more than copy one or two of the speeches; submit those of Messrs. T. N. C. Liverpool and Peter H. Clarke;5. “Kentucky, the native State of our hero—She cherishes the rotting corpses of Secession and Nullification, holding the sal volatile of States Rights to their nostrils. She refuses to believe them dead, though the civilized world is holding its nose because of the stench. We pity her hallucination, but after next November the carcasses must be buried, whether she be willing or not.Response by T. N. C. Liverpool. After speaking of the early life and *11 labors of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Liver-inS' pool spoke as follows:“It was while presiding over the destinies of this Nation that Abraham Lincoln formed an act whiohrchAnd in order that he might be distinctly understood and go down correctly on the reoards, he said that hnman ingenuity could not construct a bill on civil rights that he would vote for. In that declaration Mr, Davis fairly represented the feelings and sentiments of the people of his State.“By a singular course of reasoning Kentucky has reached the conclusion that the present order of things is to be reversed, that a return to the times when colored men had no rights worthy of respect is inevitable. Truly she is an object of pity, for she is doomed to a most bitter disappointment“The supplementary civil rights bill, introduced in Congress by Charles Sumner, the steadfast friend of the negro, which has received the approval of our Sherman, will, sooner or later, become the law of the land. There will be no backward steps taken in the affairs of the Government, bat movement onward and upward until the highest plane of civilization is reached. Of this fact the most skeptical will be assured after the November election. Then will the rotting corpses of secession andstands on the pages of history with- nullification, the stench from whichout a parallel. The issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation was an act of justice which challenged the admiration of the civilized world, and made jubilant an entire race, which had suffered the untold miseries of slavery for more than two centuries.“With a view of honoring the memory of this man, we have assembled here to-night. Lincoln— Abraham Lincoln! thou art resting now peacefully and happily with thy Maker; we will aver cherish thy name, and it will grow brighter and brighter as it is transmitted from one generation to the other.“Mr. President it is hard for onecauses the civilized world to hold its nose, he buried in a grave so deep tht Kentucky herself will despair of a resurrection.11. “David Jenkins—The old wheel horse. Many have labored more famously than he for his race, bat none more faithfully. May he live till and beyond that day when every American citizen shall be fully protected bylaw and public opinion in every social and political right”Response by P. H. Clark.Gentlemen — At a time when several of the members of this club were yet unborn, and others were infants, David Jenkins commenced working with an earnest, unselfishof politics, yet I am convinced that the -Legislature would have done itself credit, and the party no harm, had Mr. Jenkins , been elected to the office he soughtIt is true that men sometimes arise among us who gain much notoriety by haunting the offices of editois and of politicians, and of boasting of their influence among colored men, then seeking to be appointed to office on the strength of this assumed popularity, who are in no wise representative men. Ou.r community has been somewhat demoralized, and its political influences injured by the presence of one or two such men. Further, when the peoplo refuse to second the demand of these interlopers for office, politicians jump to the conclusion that we are too divided to stand unitedly by any man as our representative. They further conclude that colored applicants for office can be treated with contempt, without arousing onr resentment. In both of these things they are mistaken. There are principles and there are men around which the mass of the colored men of the State will readily unite, and David Jenkins is one of the men, and that color should be no bar to office is one of the principles. Had he been elected to fill the office for which he applied, every colored man in the State would have felt complimented; in the shame of his rejection we all share. I am quite sure that no officer in either house, the Lieutenant Governor excepted, is the representative of more votes than Mr. Jenkins.Concluding, I hope he may live I. till his aclor shall be no bar to offi- j; dal promotion, and that he may sit j, as a member of that body upon j, whose proceedings he has so longlooked.to understand how Kentuckv, a. his peopte.’ At tv rot htfln nstnstate which still cherishes tbe'rot- j At firet «nld be done in theting corpses of secession and nulli-! W“ * P?litk*:L1bu‘ ,there wero . schools to be established and main-cation, and is so hostile to theUnion and equal rights and winch ;tamed; tbe, “^erground railroad, has exhausted every means in her.W“,11* and demandedpower to disgrace and reduce to the' ®ondne,°rs who had nerve and level of chattels her colored citizens, heart- In ™ch work Mr. Jenkins can bo the mother State of one so IWOn “f “ honorable fame pure, and patriotic, and liberty lov-1 a“°”« hl* W* that‘ * ' intlnnnofl trlnob ha l»« cn — ——_ing os our hero was.influence which he has for so many . , . 1 years exercised, with honor to him-“Impressions received in youth j ^ for their benefit generally cling to persons through! Hig laborfi {ook a ^ life,'and usually influence and guide j than this. At eve CCDTention °of them in most ot there acts, but in coIored Iuen State or National, ho1*this instance they seem to havebeen thrown off before maturityi present aiding with counselwas reached, for there is nothing in his known acts to indicate the place of Mr. Lincoln’s birth. His native State has not learned yet that a permanent change has taken place in this Government; that its policy henceforward will be equal and exact justice to all; that a man shall be known, not by the color of his skin or the texture of his hair, but by his deeds and acta “The action of the Kentucky Leg-and purse in the organization ofthe people. In hundreds of addresses he sought to inspire the colored people with hope and self respect; he criticised the actions of the enemies of liberty; he circulated petitions for the abolition of slavery and for the repeal of the unjust laws which had been enacted to sustain it, and in many other ways sought to improve the condition of his people.In 1838 he established the Pal-islaturo, granting colored persons lodium of Liberty, the firstthe right to testify in the State Courts, strikes some as an evidence that she has thrown off her hallucination, and in a spirit of justice ispaper enterprise of the colored people of Ohio, and among the first in the country. As an editor he acquitted himself with credit, goingwilling to conform to the new order j faB beyond the mark of some more of things. Bnt I am of a different recent and much more praised edi-opinion. torial efforts of colored men.“Her controlling reason, in my j Ac ill odor attaches to the mem-judgment, was an economical one. j bers of the lobby of legislative Before the passage of that bill, as bodies, and perhaps justly, bntyou know, Mr. President, colored persons who had grievances of any magnitude brought suits in the United States Courts, where they ore allowed to testify. In a large number of cases the defendants to those suits have been greatly annoyed and their business has suffered immensely by their having to quit their homes and travel, in seme instances, over a hundred miles, to confront thejr accusers. Besides this, the expense of travel-David Jenkins as the very oldest member of the lobby of the Ohio Legislature can challenge investigation into every act he has performed in th»t capacity. He has inflaenced legislation much more than is generally supposed, and always with an unselfish purpose. He has watched with zealous care the presentation of every petition for the repeal of laws which bore oppressive !y upon his people, and whenever a motion looking to that ending, boarding, Ac., has been con- j was made, he was sure to be on siderable. These facts have been I hand encouraging and counseling the discussed and rediscussed in almost; champion of justice, every tavern and grocery in the' There may be some disposed to The only way out of these j sneer at Mr. Jenkins and underratetroubles was for the Legislature to pass the Testimony Bill, and it was done, not as an act of justice, but for the reason stated. If additionalhis labors. I, for one, wonld not be afraid to trust the championship of the colored man's cause to his hands. He has been tried by op-proof is needed to show that the j ponects of all sorts, and whether spirit of justice docs not dwell with-1 the contest was one of wit or wis-in her borders, it is fonnd in the dprn, he has come off victor, part she took in the discussion on j Mr. Jenkins was a candidate for the Civil Rights Bill in the United Sergeant-at-Arm s in one of theStates Senate. While speaking of that bill, a few days ago, Garrett Davis, a gentleman whom Kentucky has honored with two terms in thatHouses of the Legislature at its recent organization, and was, I regret to say, rejected.Now, I am far from believing thataugust body, stated that he was un-: the chief end of man is to attain of-qualifiedly opposed to that bUL! fice. I know, also, the exigencies
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Semi Weekly Louisianian
New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Thu, Feb 22, 1872
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OH, USA 07 Jun 2024
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