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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 325

to the unselfish devotion of the noble army who rest in these honored graves
all around us."

In the month of April, 1872, I had the honor to attend and preside over
a National Convention of colored citizens, held in New Orleans. It was a
critical period in the history of the Republican party, as well as in that of the
country. Eminent men who had hitherto been looked upon as the pillars of
Republicanism had become dissatisfied with President Grant's administra-
tion, and determined to defeat his nomination for a second term. The leaders
in this unfortunate revolt were Messrs. Trumbull, Schurz, Greeley, and
Sumner. Mr. Schurz had already succeeded in destroying the Republican
party in the State of Missouri, and it seemed to be his ambition to be the
founder of a new party, and to him more than to any other man belongs the
credit of what was once known as the Liberal Republican party which made
Horace Greeley its standard bearer in the campaign of that year.

At the time of the Convention in New Orleans the elements of this new
combination were just coming together. The division in the Republican ranks
seemed to he growing deeper and broader every day. The colored people of
the country were much affected by the threatened disruption, and their lead-
ers were much divided as to the side upon which they should give their voice
and their votes. The names of Greeley and Sumner, on account of their long
and earnest advocacy of justice and liberty to the blacks, had powerful
attractions for the newly enfranchised class; and there was in this Convention
at New Orleans naturally enough a strong disposition to fraternize with the
new party and follow the lead of their old friends. Against this policy I
exertcd whatever influence I possessed, and, I think, succeeded in holding
back that Convention from what I felt sure then would have been a fatal
political blunder, and time has proved the correctness of that position. My
speech on taking the chair on that occasion was telegraphed from New
Orleans in full to the New York Herald, and the key-note of it was that there
was no path out of the Republican party that did not lead directly into the
Democratic party—away from our friends and directly to our enemies.
Happily this Convention pretty largely agreed with me, and its members
have not since regretted that agreement.

From this Convention onward, until the nomination and election of
Grant and Wilson, I was actively engaged on the stump, a part of the time in
Virginia with Hon. Henry Wilson, in North Carolina with John M. Langston
and John H. Smyth, and in the State of Maine with Senator Hamlin, Gen. B.
F. Butler, Gen. Woodford, and Hon. James G. Blaine.