Part 1 (2/2)

We will refer the reader to the ”Appendix” of this, No. 9, for further evidence of the public sentiment at the South, which goes to show that the freedmen must EMIGRATE, FIGHT, or PERISH.

While the churches of the North are sending missionaries to educate them up to the point of Christian citizens.h.i.+p and an educated ballot, the ”dominant white race” are robbing them of their political rights, shooting them down, if they dare to a.s.sert them, and making them ”hewers of wood and drawers of water,” as in the olden times of American slavery. (See Appendix for evidence of this.)

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.

The following preamble and resolutions, with plan of operations, will indicate the work we propose to be done, or at least entered upon.

PREAMBLE.

_Whereas_, by the proclamation of emanc.i.p.ation of President Lincoln in the year 1863, about four million of colored people were emanc.i.p.ated from American slavery; and _whereas_, by the subsequent amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States, pa.s.sed by Congress and ratified by more than three-quarters of the States of the Union, nearly a million of said emanc.i.p.ated slaves, of lawful age and s.e.x, were enfranchised and made citizens; and

_Whereas_, said amendments to the Const.i.tution were practically nullified and rendered a dead letter in the Southern States at the last presidential election, and ever since, by disfranchising the colored Republicans who would not put into the ballot-boxes Democratic tickets, shooting some and intimidating others; and

_Whereas_, the elements of despotism in the Democratic party are now clamoring for a repeal of the said const.i.tutional amendments, so that they may return the colored Republicans legally to their former condition, or a worse one, and use them for Democratic voters and ballot-box stuffers; therefore,--

RESOLUTIONS.

1. _Resolved_, That the Principia Club appeal to the government of the country, to render such a.s.sistance as will enable their emanc.i.p.ated people to take their families to the Northern and Western States and Territories, and settle on government lands, where they can enjoy their rights of citizens.h.i.+p, and be protected by the government which has thus far failed to render them protection from bull-dozing, a.s.sa.s.sination, intimidation, and other barbarisms to which they are now subjected by the elements of despotism in the South.

2. _Resolved_, That a board of trustees be appointed to a.s.sist the freedmen in obtaining their lands at government price, together with such an outfit as will enable them to remove their families and commence farming on their own account, to receive and disburse all moneys contributed for the above purposes, appoint such agents as may be necessary in the several States, to promote emigration and carry forward the following plan of operations, until the freedmen and their families who desire it, shall be removed to better homes and more civilized society, entirely away from the barbarism of slavery, and the pernicious doctrine that States rights are supreme and national rights are subordinate.

3. _Resolved_, That emanc.i.p.ation from American slavery being practically nullified, therefore, emanc.i.p.ation from home rule as understood and practised at the South, becomes a _necessity_, and emigration to a civilized community a consequence.

4. _Resolved_, That the President of the Principia Club be instructed to obtain from the Secretary of the Interior a list of the number of acres of unsold and unpre-empted lands in each of the Northern and Western States and Territories, from which the Trustees may select farms for their wards.

5. _Resolved_, That the same ascertain from the officers of the Pacific and other railroads, the best terms they are prepared to offer to settlers for the transportation of themselves, their families, and their outfits to the lands along their roads respectively.

6. _Resolved_, That the twenty-eight million acres of land contiguous to the Central, Union, Kansas and Denver Pacific roads, which the Secretary of the Interior has recently decided to open to actual settlers, at the government price of $1.25 per acre (the three years' limitation after the completion of said roads contained in the land-grant laws having expired), shall receive the special attention of the Trustees of this a.s.sociation in the selection of farms for applicants. But in case the decision of the Secretary of the Interior should not stand, or should be contested, then the government lands will be purchased instead.

7. _Resolved_, That the Republican party, to whom the country owes, under G.o.d, Emanc.i.p.ation, be called upon to finish the work so n.o.bly begun, by carrying out a provision of the United States Const.i.tution, Art. IV., Sect. II., Clause I., which reads, ”the citizens of each State shall be ent.i.tled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States,” and that this clause of the Const.i.tution, together with the amendments enfranchising the freedmen, be made test questions at the polls, until a solid North shall elect a government that will have backbone enough to see to it that every State in the Union shall strictly comply with the requirements of the United States Const.i.tution, or revert to a territorial condition.

THE PLAN OF OPERATIONS.

1. The Trustees shall be men of either known wealth, ability, financial strength, or business capacity, in whose honesty and integrity the community will have the most implicit confidence.

2. All moneys entrusted to them shall be appropriated in strict conformity to the directions of the donor or lender, whether for the general expenses or the purchase of lands.

3. The funds furnished the Trustees for the purchase of lands, shall be treated as loans or donations as the party may elect, the deed in each case to be taken in the name of the party furnis.h.i.+ng the money to pay for the land, which deed may be held by the Trustees, or pa.s.sed over to the owner as he may elect, as security, if for a loan.

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