Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878) to Bradford R. Wood
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06631.01 Author/Creator: Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 23 February 1866 Pagination: 8 p. ; 20.4 x 12.9 cm. Order a Copy
Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post, replies to a letter from Wood, former Representative from New York. Discusses black suffrage: "I utterly detest the narrow principles of that party which denied equal rights to any of our fellow men on account of race. The right of suffrage is the due of the negro as well as of the white man... But it does not follow from this, that we may employ any means we choose in conferring this right." Regarding black suffrage, advocates the opinions of Trumbull and Fessenden (probably Senators Lyman Trumbull and William Pitt Fessenden) as opposed to the ideas of Charles Sumner. Remarks, "We should... make it the interest of the late slave states to concede negro suffrage." Supports the creation of a Freedman's Bureau and homesteads for blacks on public lands in the south. Discusses the Conkling Amendment (most likely referring to the Fourteenth Amendment, which Roscoe Conkling supported and helped draft). Writes, "By slavery the whites were brutalized- take away the cause and the effect, if no untoward circumstance intervenes will diminish. While the whites become less ferocious, the blacks will rapidly acquire intelligence and self respect, and surround themselves with the comforts ant refinements of life."
Wood held various political and civic posts in the State of New York, and was active in the Republican Party.
Bryant worked as a lawyer in Northampton, Plainfield, and Great Barrington, Massachusetts until 1825 when he married and moved to New York City. He worked for the New York Review and then the New York Evening Post. First an associate editor, he later became editor in 1829 and remained in that post until his death. As the driving force of this liberal and literate paper, he was strongly anti-slavery.
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