[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Barlaston, 29th August, 1865.
SIB,—Allow me as an American to protest against the statements of your New York correspondent in his letter of the 11th inst. being taken as in any sense the opinions of my countrymen upon the question of negro equality. I have no doubt he fully expres- ses his own views, views shared, it is true, by many of the residents in our Northern cities long connected by business with the South, and who, having thus become to Southern "faults a little blind," go on detesting the negro quite on the Dr. Fell hating principle of your correspondent, who at the close of his letter admits himself totally unable to furnish a single reason for his aversion. I deny, however, in toto that these are to-day the opinions of the majority at the North. Five years ago such a letter would have been an over-statement, although undoubtedly much nearer the truth than it is now. The war has brought about a change of opinion, and an enlightenment regarding the rights of the black man, that will show itself in our future, is showing itself to-day, when our strongest political party, under the leadership of Chief Justice Chase and Charles Sumner, stand pledged to extend to the negro the elective franchise and equal rights in the eye of the law ; and when such a man as William Lloyd Garrison, the oldest and hardest- working friend of the negro, feels that his task is accomplished, and that from the mere change of tone towards these people he can retire from the fight, leaving with safety the cause of the black in the hands of the people.
Allow me therefore to hbpe that in time we shall be judged by better fruits than the Irish assault at Greenwich, and the logical address of the village Dogberry cited by your correspondent.
A NEW-ENGLAND YANKEE.
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