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298 Just as the President was on the point of putting the resolutions to a vote the following letter from Waldeck, Virginia, was read to the convention by the Secretary:

Dear Countrywomen:

I am a born American, although no true Caucasian. My mother was a native of Africa, and only my father, whose slave she was, belonged to the Caucasian race. Now if I address you as countrywomen I do it because my husband is a German, or because I look upon you as Americans, or because we all belong together as cosmopolitans. I hope you place as little importance upon the merely external differences in men as I do. But if I am to make a difference for once, and choose a place for myself, I want to be a German. I shall tell you why.

My poor mother was dead, and I grew up with the white daughters of my father, who were younger than I, partly as a sister, partly as a nurse. Then the war broke out. My father went as colonel. (He fell later at Richmond.) When he was gone his wife thought it advisable to have her slaves taken further south for security. She could never endure me and therefore wanted to send me away first, to an acquaintance in South Carolina, who had formerly offered $3,000 for me. I knew what that meant, and determined to fly to the North. I was then only eighteen years old, but strong and courageous, and so I started on my way at night with an old slave, a