I am touched by the appeal you make. It is true that I am the friend of your race, and I am glad to be assured that in your opinion I have held a consistent course in the Senate and elsewhere as the special advocate of your rights. That course, by the blessing of God, I mean to hold so long as life lasts. I know your infinite wrongs, and feel for them as my own. You only do me simple justice, when you add a belief that my counsel at this critical juncture of your citizenship “would be free from personal feelings and partisan prejudice.” In answering your inquiries I can have no sentiment except for your good, which I most anxiously seek; nor can any disturbing influence be allowed to interfere. The occasion is too solemn. Especially is there no room for personal feeling or for partisan prejudice. No man or party can expect power except for the general welfare. Therefore they must be brought to the standard of truth, which is without feeling or prejudice. QUESTIONS PROPOSED. You are right in saying that the choice for the Presidency is now “narrowed down” to President Grant or Horace Greeley. One of these is to be taken, and, assuming my acquaintance with both and my observation of their lives, you invite my judgment between them, asking me especially which of the two, “_judging from their antecedents as well as present position_,” would enforce the Constitution and laws securing your civil and political rights “with _the most heart-felt sympathy and the greatest vigor_.” Here I remark that in this inquiry you naturally put your rights in the foreground. So do I,--believing most sincerely that the best interests of the whole country are associated with the completest recognition of your rights, so that the two races shall live together in unbroken harmony. I also remark that you call attention to two things,--the “antecedents” of the candidates, and their “present position.” You wish to know from these which gives assurance of the most heart-felt sympathy and greatest vigor in the maintenance of your rights,--in other words, which, judging by the past, will be your truest friend. The communication with which you have honored me is not alone. Colored fellow-citizens in other parts of the country, I may say in nearly every State of the Union, have made a similar request, and some complain that I have thus far kept silent. I am not insensible to the trust reposed in me. But if my opinion is given, it must be candidly, according to my conscience. In this spirit I answer your inquiries, beginning with the antecedents of the two candidates. ANTECEDENTS OF THE CANDIDATES.