NYTimes Charles Blow Opinion

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Steve for sending these articles. Steve writes, "Firstly, its an article from page 1 of the 15 August 1862 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer about what happened at the meeting the previous day. Please note, which a lot of commentators miss that it says that it is only given as the substance of the President's remarks, not exactly what Lincoln said. Apparently, a reporter interviewed one or more of the delegation afterwards. Whatever they told this (white) reporter was filtered through his mind and meanings before becoming words on a page.

The second is a larger quote from the August 16, 1862 letter mentioned by David. It's not a letter from the committee itself, but a letter from the chair of the committee, Edward Thomas. Even though he uses "we" in his letter he's speaking for himself and the letter is only signed by him. All five members of the committee selected to go to the White House had opposed emigration schemes Apparently, Lincoln's talk was impressive enough that Thomas changed his mind and began to support an African American colony, at least in Central America. Another member of the committee, the Rev. John T. Costin, who would later go on to become a prominent Republican politician in Reconstruction Georgia, opposed Lincoln's colonization proposal. I don't have enough information on the other three members of delegation's initial opinion of the Lincoln meeting. They don't seem to have changed their negative opinions of emigration but they also seemed reluctant to have an official statement issued condemning the scheme. As a result there was no official response to Lincoln's proposal. Perhaps they were impressed enough of the President during the meeting where they didn't want to embarrass him or maybe they didn't want to alienate Thomas after his change of opinion.

I also have two other articles to post to the Forum, about the reactions of other African-Americans who were not part of the delegation. The first is from page 2 of the 12 September 1862 edition of the Liberator where a man named Robert Purvis strongly condemned the Central America emigration scheme. The second is from page 3 of the 11 October 1862 edition of the Pacific Appeal, itself reprinting the article from the Anglo-African newspaper. In the column, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, who would later become the US minister (ambassador) to Liberia during the Arthur administration, relates his opinion supporting the colonization plan.