FALSE IMPRISONMENT OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.
This heartless, cruel proceeding found a victim among our white fellow-citizens. An excellent merchant of Connecticut, praised by all who know him, was plunged into prison by Baez, where he was immured because it was feared that on his return to New York he would expose the frauds of the plotters; and this captivity was prolonged with the connivance of two agents of the President, one of whom finds constant favor with him and is part of the military ring immediately about him. That such an outrage could go unpunished shows the little regard of the President for human rights, whether in white or black.
I confess my trials, as I was called to witness these things. Always a supporter of the Administration, and sincerely desiring to labor with it, I had never uttered a word with regard to it except in kindness. My early opposition to the Treaty of Annexion was reserved, so that for some time my opinions were unknown. It was only when I saw the breach of all law, human and divine, that I was aroused; and then began the anger of the President and of his rings, military and senatorial. Devoted to the African race, I felt for them,--besides being humbled that the Great Republic, acting through its President, could set such an example, where the National Constitution, International Law, and Humanity were all sacrificed. Especially was I moved when I saw the indignity to the colored race, which was accomplished by trampling upon a fundamental principle of International Law, declaring the equality of nations, as our Declaration of Independence declares the equality of men.
This terrible transaction, which nobody can defend, is among the “antecedents” of President Grant, from which you can judge how much the colored race can rely upon his “heart-felt sympathy.” Nor can it be forgotten that shortly afterward, on the return of the Commission from this island, Hon. Frederick Douglass, the colored orator, accomplished in manners as in eloquence, was thrust away from the company of the Commissioners at the common table of the mail-packet on the Potomac, almost within sight of the Executive Mansion, simply on account of his color; but the President, at whose invitation he had joined the Commission, never uttered a word in condemnation of this exclusion, and when entertaining the returned Commissioners at dinner carefully omitted Mr. Douglass, who was in Washington at the time, and thus repeated the indignity.