As showing the representative character of the delegates, the diversity of occupations, employment and the professions followed, the fact was developed that there were printers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, engineers, dentists, gunsmiths, editors, tailors, merchants, wheelwrights, painters, farmers, physicians, plasterers, masons, college students, clergymen, barbers, hairdressers, laborers, coopers, livery stable keepers, bath house keepers and grocers among the members of the convention.
But of all the conventions of the period, the largest, that in which the ability of its members was best displayed in the broad and statesmanlike treatment of the questions discussed and the practical action which vindicated their right to recognition as enfranchised citizens, and the one to which the attention of the American people was attracted as never before, was the one held in the city of Rochester, N. Y.
With greater emphasis than at prior meetings, this convention set the seal of its opposition against any hope for permanent relief to the conditions under which the colored freeman labored by any comprehensive scheme of emigration. Because of this, it directed its energies to affirmative constructive action.
In the enunciation of a philosophy able, far-sighted and statesmanlike, contained in the address to the American people, we behold the wisdom of a master mind—one then at the prime of his intellectual and physical powers, Frederick Douglass, the chairman of the Business Committee.
Among the important things done by the convention might be enumerated. It says:
“We can not announce the discovery of any new principle adopted to ameliorate the condition of mankind. The great truths of moral and political science upon which we rely, and which press upon your consideration, have been evolved and enunciated by you. We point to your principles, your wisdom and your great example as the full justification of our course this day. That all men are created equal; that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the right of all; that taxation and representation should go together; that the Constitution of the United States was formed to establish justice, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to all the people of the country; that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God—are American principles and maxims, and together they form and constitute the constructive elements of the American government.”
1. The plan for an industrial college on the manual labor plan, was approved, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was about to make a visit to England at the instance of friends in that country, was authorized to receive funds in the name of the colored people of the country for that purpose. The successful establishment and conduct of such an institution of learning, would train youth to be self-reliant and skilled workmen, fitted to hold their own in the struggle of life on the conditions prevailing here.
2. A registry of colored mechanics, artisans and business men throughout the Union, was provided for, also, of all the persons willing to employ colored men in business, to teach colored boys mechanic trades, liberal and scientific professions and farming, also a registry of colored men and youth seeking employment or instruction.
3. A committee on publication “to collect all facts, statistics and statements. All laws and historical records and biographies of the colored people and all books by colored authors.” This committee was further authorized “to publish replies to any assaults worthy of note, made upon the character or condition of the colored people.” This was in keeping with what had actually been done by the colored people of the State of New York the year previous, after its Governor, Ward Hunt, had substantially recommended the passage of black laws which would have forbidden the settlement of any blacks or mulattoes within its borders and placed further restrictions on those at that time citizens. The charge of unthrift against the Negro was utterly disproven by a comparative statement showing that in those places in which the conditions were the worst, New York, Brooklyn and Williamsburg, the Negro had increased 25 per cent in population in twenty years and 100 per cent in real estate holdings.
In thirteen counties the amount owned by colored persons was ascertained to be $1,000,000.