Tri-Weekly Clarion clipping

Political Gospel according to Rev. James Lynch.

The following extracts of a letter from Rev. James Lynch, freely speaking his mind about men, parties and things generally, need but little comment. It was written more than a year ago: but it does not materially differ from the declaration which he published a short time ago, that the whites of the South do not seek to deprive the colored people of their political rights – that there is no issue between them – and that to create one, as the carpet-baggers are trying to do would be a curse to both races.

The salient points of this letter, are:

1st. That the North and the South are equally responsible for Slavery, and for the war.

2d. That the Republican party of the South contains but few white men, and they of small influence. (This remark is true as applied to the material composing the Ames menagerie.)

3d. That the Republican leaders are influenced in their acts, not by love for the negro, but by selfish motives. (The allusion was to the Bitter-Enders, as the Liberal Republicans had no separate organization at the time it was made.)

4th. That the Southern whites are “the best friends” of the colored people, and that the latter do not want to become alienated from them.

This is what we have always contended. The colored people yet obtain their employment and their support from the whites; and it is neither to their interest, nor is it in their hearts, when not tampered with by bad men, to deprive their “best friends” of their political and civil rights. Lynch has evidently read with profit a somewhat celebrated leader which appeared in THE CLARION, of March 9th, 1867, under the title of “negro suffrage.”

5th. That when the Southern whites declare in favor of Universal Suffrage and Universal Amnesty, the colored people will be with them to the end.

6th. That a political party “other than the Republican party” is to be charged with the work of restoration – meaning of course the party which then claimed and still claims to represent the regular organization, under the lead of Eggleston, Gibbs, Tarbell, Fisher & Co. (The “other political party,” must have been a prophetic revelation of the coming of the National Republicans.)

7th. That James Lynch will abide by these sentiments and take the positions therein indicated and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Democracy (by which terms he means the Southern whites) when they commit themselves to the advocacy of equal rights irrespective of race or color.

We recommend that this letter be read to the blacks who cannot read it for themselves; and we advise the colored people who have renounced the vassalage of their would-be carpet-bag masters, to hold it up as a light for their brethren who may be groping in darkness, or standing on the edge of “volcanic fires:”

EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER OF JAS. LYNCH, JUNE 23d, 1868.

There is no issue between Southern white men and myself because they are Southern, or have been in the Confederate army. The causes which led to the war are as old as the first compromise that was made between slavery and freedom in 1787. The North is equally responsible for slavery and the fratricidal war, as is the South.

The Republican party cannot expect to have an existence in the Southern States save in a few northern men and a very few Southern men of but very little influence, and a majority of the colored people. These three elements may hold a majority in numbers for several years, but against them will be arrayed the wealth, intelligence and respectability of the South, whose final triumph is only a question of time – SHORT AT THAT.

I want to see the formation of a party that will admit the black man to equal rights before the law, and at the ballot-box – that will cease the disfranchisement of men for mere partizan purposes. The Republican party legislates in behalf of the black man from a desire to secure party success, and it is not strange that the black man accepts the benefit regardless of the motive which prompts its proffer. But he does not want to alienate from him men who, despite our party ridicule, are his BEST FRIENDS.

Why will not the men of the South demand Universal Amnesty? Why will they not declare in favor of Universal Suffrage? Do this, and the black men will be with you, “shoulder to shoulder.”

Bread, meat and intellectual advancement are what we ask – this is the goal of our ambition.

I stand ready to declare these sentiments publicly whenever the Democratic party commits itself, in State or National organization, to the great doctrine of equal rights, irrespective of race or color. My solemn conviction is that a political party other than the Republican is to be charged with the great work of restoring to perfect peace the different sections, races or classes of our great country.

I hold, unalterably, that to secure the rights of the black man, at the expense of the white, is to ignite volcanic fires beneath the political surface.