Various - The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

Resolved, That this convention call upon the colored people here represented to contradict the false reports circulated among and impressed upon the more ignorant and credulous; to instruct them that no lands nor mules nor money await them in Kansas or elsewhere without labor or price and to report to the civil authorities all persons engaging in disseminating any such reports.

Resolved, That it is the constitutional right of the colored people to migrate where they please, and to whatever State they may select for their residence; but this convention urges them to proceed on their movement towards migration as reasonable human beings, providing in advance, by economy and effective labor, the means for transportation and settlement, and sustain their reputation for honesty and fair dealing, by preserving intact until completion the contracts for labor and leasing, which they have made. If, when they have done this, they still desire to leave, all obstacles to their departure be removed; all practicable assistance will be afforded to them, and their places will be supplied with other and contented labor.

Your committee believe that if the views employed in the foregoing resolutions are practically carried out by the people of both races, in good faith, the disquiet of our people will subside. We appeal to the people of both races, in the States here represented, to aid us in carrying these resolutions into effect, and to report to the authorities all violations of the laws and all interference with private rights.

Gov. Foote moved to amend by substituting other resolutions, and addressed the convention in support of his motion.

Speeches were made in favor of the original resolutions by Judge Simrall, Hon. James Hill, Capt. W. B. Pittman, Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas, and Col. Nugent.

At the conclusion of Col. Nugent's address the resolutions were adopted unanimously and the convention adjourned sine die.

Washington Letter to New York Herald .

Gorgeously illuminated chromo-lithographs of Kansas scenes have been distributed among the blacks. The gentleman who has seen some of these chromos writes that the most ravishing presentment of rural life in Kansas is depicted. The Negroes look on the State as a second paradise, compared with which old Canaan is a Florida swamp. One of these pictures, entitled "A Freedman's Home," represents a fine landscape, with fields of ripening grain stretching away to the setting sun.

In the foreground, illuminated by a marvelous sunset, stood the freedman's home. It was a picturesque cottage with gables, dormer windows and wide verandas. French windows reached down to the floor, and through the open casements appeared a seductive scene in the family sitting room. The colored father, who had just returned from his harvest fields, sat in an easy chair reading a newspaper, while the children and babies rollicked on the floor of the piazza. Through the open door of the kitchen the colored wife could be seen directing the servants and cooks who were preparing the evening meal. In the parlor, however, was the most enchanting feature, for at a grand piano was poised the belle of the household, and beside the piano where she was playing stood her colored lover, devouring her with his eyes while he abstractedly turned the leaves of her music. Just to one side of the dwelling appeared a commodious barn and carriage house and workmen busily engaged in putting in order their reapers and mowers for the following day.

In one of these pictures, "Old Auntie" sits on the veranda knitting stockings while she gazes on herds of buffalo and antelope, which are feeding on the prairies beyond the wheat fields. Approaching the gate a handsome colored man is seen coming in from the hunt, with a dead buck and a string of wild turkeys slung over his shoulders. These agricultural cartoons, in vivid coloring, the writer reports are doing much to influence the minds of the more ignorant Negroes.

Fred. Douglass, marshal of the District, is out in a very strong letter, published in the National View , the new Greenback organ here, vigorously opposing the emigration of Negroes from the South. He earnestly advises the colored men to remain at home.

The letter has caused a good deal of annoyance among the leading Republicans, who have been vigorously working up this movement, believing that it was a godsend to them and would be a strong issue in future campaigns.

Fred. Douglass winds up his letter as follows:

"I am opposed to this exodus, because it is an untimely concession to the idea that white people and colored people cannot live together in peace and prosperity unless the whites are a majority and control the legislation and hold the offices of the State. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will pour upon the people of Kansas and other Northern States a multitude of deluded, hungry, homeless people to be supported in a large measure by alms. I am opposed to this exodus, because it will enable our political adversaries to make successful appeals to popular prejudice (as in the case of the Chinese) on the ground that these people, so ignorant and helpless, have been imported for the purpose of making the North solid by outvoting intelligent white Northern citizens. I am opposed to this exodus, because 'rolling stones gather no moss;' and I agree with Emerson that the men who made Rome or any other locality worth going to see stayed there. There is, in my judgment, no part of the United States where an industrious and intelligent man can serve his race more wisely and efficiently than upon the soil where he was born and reared and is known. I am opposed to this exodus because I see in it a tendency to convert colored laboring men into traveling tramps, first going North because they are persecuted, and then returning South because they have been deceived in their expectations, which will excite against themselves and against our whole race an increasing measure of popular contempt and scorn. I am opposed to this exodus because I believe that the conditions of existence in the Southern States are steadily improving, and that the colored man there will ultimately realize the fullest measure of liberty and equality accorded and secured in any section of our common country.

Hearing of the commotion among the Negroes in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1879, Senator D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana, offered the following resolution which was accepted:

Whereas, large numbers of Negroes from the Southern States, and especially from the State of North Carolina, are migrating to the Northern States, and especially to the State of Indiana; and,

Whereas, it is currently alleged that they are induced to do so by the unjust and cruel conduct of their white fellow citizens toward them in the South; therefore,

Be it Resolved , That a committee of five members of this body be appointed by its presiding officer, whose duty it shall be to investigate the causes which have led to the aforesaid migration, and to report the same to the Senate; and said committee shall have power to send for persons and papers, compelling the defense of witnesses, and to sit at any time. 70 70 Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2d Session, X, p. 155.

Thereupon Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, offered the following amendment which led to the discussion of all sorts of phases of the race problem and finally to a majority and minority report on the exodus: 71 71 Ibid. , pp. 155-170.