This letter was extensively circulated. The New York Herald printed it in an editorial article entitled “The Chase-Sumner Political Movement—Social War Threatened,” where it said:—
“As soon as Mr. Johnson assumed the reins of the Government, Mr. Sumner made an effort to control his official action and secure his assistance in carrying on this appendix warfare to the Abolition question, and thus plunge the country into a sanguinary social war. Finding it impossible to draw President Johnson into his schemes, he at once plants himself in opposition.…
“This letter, although short, is explicit and unmistakable in its meaning. Its purpose is evident to the most casual observer. Knowing, as he must, at the time, that the President held that the question of conferring the privilege of suffrage upon the colored people of the South rested exclusively with the States, he endeavors to stir up a feud and create a dissatisfaction among this class. Like the speech of Chief Justice Chase, its whole tendency is to incite the negroes to insurrection, by giving them the impression that the Government is against them. There is not a word in the communication counselling obedience or respect to the laws of the Government. They ask him for direction, and he, in response, counsels them to take part in the organization of the Government,—that it is their right and duty. In the face of the fact that there is no law in their State or in the Constitution of the United States recognizing that right, he tells them that those who oppose them are usurpers and impostors.”
HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR COLORED FELLOW-CITIZENS.
Letter to the Editor of “The Leader,” in Charleston, S. C., May, 1865.
The following brief note appeared in the first number of The Leader, a weekly paper which began at Charleston, 1865.