[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 emancipation of President Lincoln in the year 1863, about four million of colored people were emancipated from American slavery; and whereas, by the subsequent amendments to the Constitution of the United States, passed by Congress and ratified by more than three-quarters of the States of the Union, nearly a million of said emancipated slaves, of lawful age and sex, were enfranchised and made citizens; and
Whereas, said amendments to the Constitution 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 constitutional 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 assistance as will enable their emancipated 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 citizenship, and be protected by the government which has thus far failed to render them protection from bull-dozing, assassination, 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 assist 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 emancipation from American slavery being practically nullified, therefore, emancipation from home rule as understood and practised at the South, becomes a necessity, and emigration to a civilized community a consequence.