Oldal 147 [147]
OCR
THE COLORED AMERICAN AND THE CANADIAN REBELLIONS Reform Society for including both blacks and whites as members. It criticized fellow Blacks for alleged shortcomings. Such stances alienated both subscribers and patrons. By 1842, it had folded. Ihough short-lived, it set a high bar for later Black newspapers. As is evident throughout the pages of The Colored American, Blacks saw the Declaration as the expression of principles whose fulfillment, though in the 1830s still wanting, was tantalizingly possible. That is, if only white Americans would recognize that natural rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness extended to all. For example, on July 8, 1837, on the heels of Fourth of July celebrations in the United States, The Colored American published an article which read: [Mlore than 60 years ago the different states of this Confederacy combined in publishing that very memorable document, “The Declaration of Independence” in which all men are declared to be free and equal and they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to support the holy principle. Yet, strange inconsistency! After the lapse of sixty odd years of light and improvement the same great Confederacy continue to hold more than two millions of slaves, in a bondage most cruel... (“Serious Reflections”). Further evidence reveals more Black reverence for the Declaration. In August 1838, the newspaper published a report of the (Black) Cincinnati Union Society’s meeting, at which a number of resolutions were passed. Resolution no. 9 read: “The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of Ohio — both on the side of Liberty and Equality when not misinterpreted” (“Cincinnati”). In a November 1839 piece, the writer(s) maintained that “Abolitionists seek nothing beyond what is contemplated in these honored declarations [the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence and the Kentucky Bill of Rights] that the blessings of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness may be left open to the enjoyment of all” (“Abolition Dying Away”). Editor Ray coauthored a speech at the 1840 Albany Colored People’s Convention in which its authors concluded: “We ask only for a living manifestation of belief in the above doctrine [the Declaration’s natural rights]; we already know too much of its dead letter” (Minutes 35). Like The Liberator, The Colored American opposed the tactics and goals of the Canadian rebels, while ignoring their appeals to the philosophy of the Declaration of Independence. It backed the United States government’s observance of neutrality regarding the conflict and urged punishment for American allies of Papineau and Mackenzie, describing them as “hotheaded, restless spirits on our frontiers” (“Canadas”). Clearly, its devotion to ‘republican morality’ came in second to more pragmatic concerns. + 145 +
