Page:Why colored people in Philadelphia are excluded from the street cars.djvu/15

 Trinity, been subjected to such an outrage as this,—one at any time likely to be repeated, and which is, in fact, regularly kept up by continued exclusion. There can hardly be a doubt that, had this been the case of a white clergyman, a meeting would have been called, a protest made, and a deputation, lay and clerical, appointed to wait on Mr. Dropsie, the President of the company, or some other vigorous measures taken, to exact redress for present, and guarantees against future injuries. This would be due, not only to the outraged brother, but to themselves, outraged in him. The preservation of their influence with, and the respect in which it is necessary they should be held by, society, would imperatively demand such a course; and the only conceivable reason why it was not pursued in the case of the Rev. Mr. Allston is, that except by a sort of ecclesiastical fiction, the Episcopal clergy of Philadelphia do not consider him of their order, nor feel that, in the eyes of this community, their reputation is in any manner identified with him; and therefore it was not necessary to their common interests that they should pursue it. But there is a symptom of public opinion on this subject worse than the foregoing. The very Committee appointed for the special purpose of securing to the colored people their rights, failed to be true to their trust when tried by the test of party politics. At a meeting of the said Committee, held not long before the last municipal election, a resolution was offered, the purport of which was, to ask of the present Mayor, when a candidate, a statement in writing as to the course he intended to pursue in regard to this question, if elected. But the Committee deprecated the very thought of jeopardizing the success of the Republican candidate, by a committal on such a question as this. The resolution was voted down by a majority of more than ten to one of the members present. This action is to be regretted, not only on account of its immediate effect on the work in hand,—for it was at once reported to the Board of Presidents, and showed them that the Committee was not in earnest,—but because it established the fact of weakness in that part of society in which, of late, we have most looked for strength; and that is in the part which consists of our able and leading