Xxi.
A convention of delegates representing the Negro population of the country had been held in St. Louis, on the 27th of September, which, among other Resolutions, passed one asking all the State Legislatures to enact a compulsory law compelling all children between seven and twelve years of age to attend school. Another Convention representing all the Negro population in the late slave-holding States, was held at Columbia, South Carolina, on the 24th of October. It was a manly and noble address which the delegates adopted to be sent out to the people of the United States, a portion of which was as follows:—While we have, as a body, contributed our labor in the past to enhance the wealth and promote the welfare of the community, we have as a class been deprived of one of the chief benefits to be derived from industry, namely, the acquisition of education and experience, the return that civilization makes for the labor of the individual. Our want in this respect not only extends to general education, and experience such as fit the man to adorn the society of his fellows, but to that special education and experience required to enable us to enter successfully the departments of a diversified industry. We ask that your Representatives in Congress may be instructed to afford such aid, in extending education to the uneducated classes in the States we represent, as may be consistent with the financial interests of the nation. Although we urge our unrequited labors in the past as the [510] ground of this appeal, yet we do not seek these benefits for ourselves alone, but for the white portion of the laboring-class in our States, whose need is as great as ours. In order to secure the promotion of our industrial interests, you can render us assistance. It is true we have no demands to make of the national government in this respect; but it is in the power of the people of the United States to aid us materially. In order to advance our knowledge and skill in the industrial arts, it is necessary that we should have the advantage of the means employed in the country at large for those purposes. That in preparing for industrial pursuits and in putting our skill in operation, we should come in contact with educated and experienced workmen, and be put in possession of the result of their skill and knowledge. If the trades and workshops are shut against us, we cannot reach that point of excellence to which we desire to attain. We ask your aid and sympathy in placing us on the same footing in reference to the pursuit of industry, as that enjoyed by other citizens. If, after having access to the means of becoming skillful workmen, we fail to attain that standing, we are content to take rank among the industrial classes of the country according to the degree of our proficiency. Should we be excluded from these benefits, a state of things will arise, most prejudicial to the interest of skilled labor, namely, the existence of a great body of workmen ready to supply the market with poor work, at cheap rates. While slavery existed, the Northern States were not affected by the low state of the industrial arts in the Southern States; but labor being now free to find the best market, it is, beyond question, the interest of the artificers of the North to raise the standard of proficiency at the South. It is clearly the interest of the great industries of the North to strengthen themselves by alliance with those at the South. This result would be practicable to the fullest extent, if those of our color throughout the North could be placed in a position to bring among us the best knowledge and skill in the departments of trade to which they belong.
