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[image: Logo International Uplift League]

A PETITION
To the President of the United States of America for the GOVERNMENT by a
COMMITTEE of Citizens from THE INTERNATIONAL
UPLIFT LEAGUE

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1. About 400,000 colored American soldiers fought in
the recent WAR. Those who have died on the bat-
tlefield or otherwise from injury or disease in their
country's service have willingly contribated the high-
est priceless sacrifice upon the National Altar exacted
for democracy. White the precipitating CAUSE of
the War was due historically to the murder of Arch
duke Ferdinand II and his wife, June 28, 1914, by
Prinzip, a Servian anarchist, yet we are of the firm
belief and unalterable opinion that the War was RET-
RIBUTION imposed by Jehovah as His chastising
WHIP for the iniquities which have been committed
by Europeans in their exploitations upon defenseless
native Africans.

2. When the CUP of man's abominations becomes
FULL, the Almighty usually interposes. From the
depths of his great soul, like an inspired prophet, in
his second inaugural address, delivered March 4, 1865,
during that critical pertod of unparalleled national
turbulence, President Abraham Lincoln had the moral
courage, dauntless manhood, a fixed and unflinching
resolution, and that KEEN conception of NATURE'S
LAW of RETRIBUTION when he uttered these im-
perishable words: "Fondly do we hope, fervently
do we pray, that the scourge of war may speedily
pass away. But if God WILLS It to continue UNTIL
the WEALTH piled up by the BONDSMAN'S two
hundred and fifty years of UNREQIOTTED TPO;
shall be SUNK, and UNTIL EVERY DROP OF
BLOOD DRAWN by the LASH (of Slavery) shall
he PAID by another DRAWN BY THE SWORD, as
was said 3,000 years ago, that the JUDGMENTS of
the Lord are TRUE and RIGHTEOUS altogether."

These memorable words are synonymous in meaning
to those spoken by the Holy Nazarene—"Whatever
measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again."
For this REASON Christ enjoins it upon mankind
to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you." Read the awful atrocities the Belgians com-
mitted in the Congo upon Africans! Was not the
LAW OF RETRIBUTION made manifest when the
Belgians suffered similar atrocity and humiliation at
the hands of the Germans? To be sure. Read Kip-
ling's narrative of the Seven Sons and see what bane-
ful crimes it discloses ! Trace the EVIL to its origin
as SMOKE is traceable to FIRE, and you will see
how fittingly applicable is the Rev. William Sunday's
maxim—"The chickens come back to the roost."

Let us BEWARE, therefore, according to the in-
fallible words of Christ in conjunction with those of
President Lincoln's quoted above ! They reveal the
philisophical principle that RETRIBUTION is the
inevitable AFTERMATH as consequences for offenses
against God committed by man upon man. If Europe,
then, had to atone for the wrongs its civilized peo-
ple committed upon defenseless Africans, how can the
United States of America ESCAPE for similar
offenses? Therefore, for the love of our flag and
country, for the honor and dignity of this world-famed
Republic, which through its illustrious President is
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disseminating PRECEPTS of JUST PRINCIPLES for
other Nations to emulate, and formulating those ethical
codes of FAIR PLAY And JUSTICE for others
ABROAD, as consistency remains yet a jewel, may
we ask that the same GOLDEN RULE standard be
ESTABLISHED and upheld at HOME, so that the
Colored Race under the Stars and Stripes shall no
longer be denied their Constitutional Rights and priv-
iliges? JUSTICE is sweet to all. Rudyard Kipling
sings:

Across the world where all men grieve, and
grieving strive the more,
The great days range like tides, and leave our
dead on every shore.
Heavy the load we undergo, and our own hands
prepare,
If we have parley with the foe, the load our
sons must bear.
Before we loose the word that bids new worlds
to birth.
Needs must we loosen first the sword of JUS-
TICE upon earth,
Or else all else is vain since life on earth began,
And the spent world sinks back again hopeless
of God and man."

STATE VIOLATION OF FEDERAL. LA.
3. The United States Government cannot command
abroad the FULL respect it deserves, if it com-
tinues to stand aloof silently, under pretense of
STATE-RIGHTS, and allows its citizens to be satu-
rated with kerosene oil and burnt to death, butchered,
tortured, lynched or murdered by brutal mobs, with-
out reproving and calling the State to account, in
which the atrocity is committed, for VIOLATING the
Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, which says, "No
person shall be deprived of LIFE, Liberty or Property,
without DUE PROCESS OF LAW." According to
the Research Department of Tuskegee Institute, 62
persons were lynched in the United States of America
during 1918, or 24 more persons than in the year 1917.
Of the 62 victims of mob violence, 18 were murdered
in Georgia, the seat and hotbed of American barbarity.
Must these ontrafes forever continuee?

On the return of the American Delegates from the
Peace Conference at Versailles, France, the dominant
race in America should unfurl in the breeze that
EMBLEM upon which is inscribed—FAIR PLAY.
EQUAL RIGHT and EQUAL JUSTICE for all Amer-
ican citizens—man, woman, child; white, black, yel-
low: Mohammedan, Gentile and Jew, regardless of
color or descendants. With abiding FAITH in the
final TRIUMPH of RIGHT and JUSTICE for the
Colored Race in America, we call upon the Chief
Magistrate of our Nation, upon his Cabinet Officers,
upon the Senators and Members of the House of
Representatives, upon the while clergymen of all de-
nominations, upon all believers in the Fatherhood of
God and Brotherhood of Man, to assist in removing
the national STAIN and STIGMA of lynching and
assist in bringing about the necessary reforms. We
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