George A. Johnson to Frederick Douglass, October 1860

THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE AGITATION IN ITHACA.

Friend Douglass:—In accordance with the desire of the Elective Franchise Club of Ithaca, I send you the subjoined report for publication:

On Monday evening, August 13th, agreeable to a published call, the colored citizens of Ithaca met at Stannard Hall for the purpose of organizing an Elective Franchise Club. Rev. Basil Mackall was called to the Chair, and Geo. A. Johnson was chosen Secretary. Mr. Henry Moore then briefly stated that the object of the meeting was to organize a club of working colored men, who would leave no stone unturned in their efforts to secure for their brethren the right of free suffrage. Geo. A. Johnson then followed in a short speech, in which he portrayed the injustice of the Property Qualification restriction upon the colored man, and urged every colored man to use all justifiable means to free their brethren from this grievous wrong. On motion, Messrs. Henry Moore, Geo. A. Johnson, Henry Jackson, Levi Smith and Zachariah Tyler, were appointed a committee to draft resolutions for the meeting. They retired, whereupon Mr. James Collins addressed the meeting upon the suffrage question. The committee returned and reported the following resolutions, which were adopted unanimously:

Whereas, The time is now near at hand when the people of the State of New York are to decide at the ballot box whether her colored citizens shall be wholly freemen, with the right of franchise, as others are of whatever class or clime: or nominal freemen with meagre political privileges, in which their manhood is entirely ignored, in the presumption that a certain quantity of dirt is necessary to constitute them MEN and VOTERS;— therefore,

Resolved, That we the colored citizens of Ithaca, do most earnestly call on the citizens of Tompkins County, and the State, irrespective of party, to award to us the privilege of Free Suffrage, which is our rightful heritage, in view of the heroic efforts made by our forefathers to secure the independence of this country, and free her people from the galling yoke of British tyranny—as shown in the person of Crispus Attucks, the first patriot martyr of the Revolution, and in the heroic conduct of hundreds of other colored Americans, on 'ship and

shore,' both in the first and in the struggle of America with the mother country.

Resolved, That the Property Qualification clause of the State Constitution is monstrous and atrocious, and is full of wrong and injustice, denying to us, natives of the soil, privileges that it gives to foreigners, even those who fought against the liberties of the American people; and in view of these facts, we ask the people of the Empire State, who believe with Jefferson that 'all men are created free and equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights,' to strike from the statute this glaring outrage upon the rights of active citizens which now dishonors it.

Resolved, That the law as it now exists is a blot upon the escutcheon of the State and is disgraceful alike to those who devised, and to those who sustain it, and is unfair, humiliating and degrading to the class of whom it applies, by drawing an unjust line of distinction between the fortunate and the unfortunate, by throwing aside intelligence and moral worth as qualities of no value, and by making the complexion God has given us a plea for injustice and oppression.

After the resolutions were adopted the club books were opened for membership, and twenty-five enrolled their names. The following gentlemen were chosen to act as the officers of the 'Ithaca Elective Franchise Club;'

President—Rev. Basil Mackall. Vice-President—G. A. Hayborn. Secretary—Geo. A. Johnson. Treasurer—Henry Moore.

GEO. A. JOHNSON, Sec`y.