We the undersigned members of a Convention of colored citizens of the State of Virginia . . . with scarce an exception, in our inmost souls espoused your cause, and watched, and prayed, and waited, and labored for your success. Well, the war is over, the rebellion is "put down," and we are declared free! Four fifths of our enemies are paroled or amnestied, and the other fifth are being pardoned, and the President has, in his efforts at the reconstruction of the civil government of the States, late in rebellion, left us entirely at the mercy of these subjugated but unconverted rebels, in everything save the privilege of bringing us, our wives and little ones, to the auction block We know these men- know them well- and we assure you that, with the majority of them, loyalty is only "lip deep," and that their professions of loyalty are used as a cover to the cherished design of getting restored to their former relations with the Federal Government, and then, by all sorts of "unfriendly legislation, to render the freedom you have given us more intolerable than the slavery they intended for us.

Explanation:

We the undersigned members of a Convention of colored citizens of the State of Virginia, would respectfully represent teats although we have been hem as slaves, and denied all recognition as a constituent of your nationality almost the entire period of the duration of your Government, and that by your permission we have been denied either home or country, and deprived of the dearest rights of human nature: yet when you and our immediate oppressors met in deadly conflict upon the field of battle- the one to destroy and the other to save your Government and nationality, we, with scarce an exception, in our inmost souls, espoused your cause, and watched, and prayed, and waited, and labored for your successWell, the war is over, the rebellion is "put down," and we are declared free! Four-fifths of our enemies are paroled or amnestied, and the other fifth is being pardoned, and the President has, in his efforts at the reconstruction of

the civil government of the States, late in rebellion, left us entirely at the mercy of these subjugated but unconverted rebels, in everything save the privilege of bringing us, our wives and little ones, to the auction block We know these men- know them well- and we assure you that, with the majority of them, loyalty is only "lip deep," and that their professions of loyalty are used as a cover to the cherished design of getting restored to their former relations with the Federal Government, and then, by all sorts of "unfriendly legislation, to render the freedom you have given us more intolerable than the slavery they intended for us.