Page:Why colored people in Philadelphia are excluded from the street cars.djvu/18

 of cunning, short-sighted and selfish politicians, which they are at present. The chief political value of such private men, in there associated capacity, and the special advantage they possess over all other bodies convened for consultation with a view to the public good, consist in their being free to discuss and advocate just measures, with simple directness and without side issues, and in their ability to enlighten, advance and fortify public opinion in respect to these measures. When they do this, they furnish to representative bodies—what they most need—firm and well cleared ground to stand and work upon. But they never can do this as mere appendages of State Central Committees, nor if, while they are free from the representative responsibilities of Congressmen, they are more timid than Congress and speak only in echo of it, and long after it. And whether they act as political or social reformers, there must be no distrust of justice, as always a safe guide, and no putting her aside for the lead of party hacks, as was unfortunately the case with the aforesaid Car Committee; and the colored people, when they saw their chosen champions thus postpone justice, in their case, to party expediency, might well ask where they were to look for staunch support in this demand for their simple rights. Aside then from the action of official and conventional bodies, it has been shown that large numbers of the laboring classes are opposed to the unreserved use of the cars by the colored people; and it must be inferred from the foregoing facts that but a small number of any class earnestly and actively advocate it. Between these extremes is the great body of respectable, intelligent and influential portion of the community, the members of which are generally self-restraining and above violence in speech or act, and who, at first sight, one might suppose to be indifferent on the question, or perhaps torpidly in favor of admission. A little friction, however, brings to the surface unmistakable evidence that this body also is permeated with latent prejudice sufficient to carry it, imperceptibly perhaps, and by dead weight, but still to carry it against the colored people. Many belong to this class who would take offence if told so. It is not hard to find old hereditary abolitionists—Orthodox and other Friends, and members of the late Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored