Canandaigua, Sept. 19th, 1848.

Messrs, Douglass & Delany:ーGeneral Dix having been nominated for Governor of the State of New York, by the Free Soil party, a question of no small degree of interest, is presented for the consideration of the colored voters of the State. Doubtless the most of them look with favor upon the free-soil movement, and intend to aid its progress by voting for the nominees of the Buffalo Convention.

However anxious they may feel to do this, I trust not one of them will vote for General Dix for Governor. For however plausible or conclusive their reasons may be for supporting Martin Van Buren for President of the United States, as the representative of the principles embodied in the National platform erected at Buffalo, they will not be held guiltless if they vote for Gen. Dix for Governor of the State of New York. Do you ask me why? I will endeavor in my feeble manner, to inform you. It is well known that Martin Van Buren, and nine-tenths of the prominent men among the Barnburners, voted against the extension of right of suffrage, and in all human probability, would do so again. Indeed, not a few of them have already declared that their sentiments upon this subject are unchanged; and that if they were called upon to vote upon the same question to day, they would again vote to fasten the chains of political thraldom upon the limbs of our suffering countrymen. This being the case, it is a question of vital importance to colored men. 1st, whether they can consistenly vote for a man to fill any office, who, if he had it in his power, would deny them the right to vote. I confess I have been much perplexed by this question, and am still in doubt, in regard to it. The only ground upon which colored men can justify themselves for voting for such a man to fill any office, is, in regard the great national question, and that he is to fill an office in which he will not, by virtue of such office, be called upon to act, in any way whatever, in regard to the extension of the right of suffrage; and furthermore, concurring with them upon all the questions upon which he can be called upon to act, by virtue of his office, it is all that can be required of such a candidate. It is upon this ground I propose to vote for Martin Van Buren; however pro-slavery his former acts may have been, but few will deny that he now stands upon the Buffalo platform. The only reasonable objection, then, that can be urged against voting for him is, that enough is not included in that platform. Candor requires me to admit, that many are of this opinion. Some are dissatisfied because the Free Soil party did not declare in favor of universal suffrage. With great deference, I must differ from these gentlemen. The Buffalo platform is of a national character—established as the basis of a great national partyーthe object of which is to act with refference to great national questions.ーA national question is one (in the sense in which I make use of the term) upon which Congress or other officers of the national government may be called upon to act, by virtue of their office. The suffrage question is not one of this nature. No one holding office in the national government, can be called upon in consequence of holding such office, to act in regard to the right of suffrage in the States. The most superficial observer must see at once, that the suffrage question instead of being a national is only a local question, confined to those States in which it may originateーand for the final settlement of which, each and every State alone must be held responsible, and not the nation at large. If this mode of reasoning be correct, what right has any one to complain because this question was not included in the national platform, erected at Buffalo?

The body that established that platform, was of a national characterーassembled to consider upon national questions. The suffrage question not being one of this nature, could not be included in the platform erected by that Convention. Having spoken in regard to the Buffalo platform, and endeavored to point out the relation we sustain to it, I now propose to confine my attention to Gen. Dix.

Whatever difference of opinion may exist among the colored voters of the State of New York, in regard to voting for Martin Van Buren for President of these United States, I am satisfied that, after a thorough investigation of the whole subject, but one opinion can exist among them in regard to voting for Gen. Dix, for Governor of the State of New York. The only dark spot that now stains the otherwise proud escutcheon of the empire State, is the invidious distinction made by its constitution, in regard to the exercise of the elective franchise. For several years we have been laboring to have this foul blot removed from the character of this great State. The anti-republican character and the withering effects of this proscriptive policy, have been time and time again, presented to the people of this State, but all to no purpose. Actuated by a spirit as mean as it is unjust, they have recently re-adopted this odious policy.

How Gen. Dix voted upon this question, we can better determine when we examine his great speech, on the bill to establish territorial government for Oregon, delivered in the United States Senate, on the 26th day of last June, in which he embraced the opportunity to express his hatred and contempt of colored men, by making a mean and unmanly attack upon our unfortunate race. So great was his anxiety to heap reproach upon us, that he even descended to the ineffable meanness of making statements that were palpably false, and which he must have known to be such at the time. If he did not know anything about the subject, then he ought not to have said anything about it. The General welcomes to our shores the swarming millions of the old world, (among whom are many paupers and felons,) and regards them as an element of strength to the body politic! And to use his own language, "if shades of variety exist in their intellectual and physical characters," he attributes it "to the influences which diversities of soil, climate and government have exerted upon them."

Forgetting that similar causes produce similar effects, he can find no such apology for us, but says, "our race is an inferior caste at the north, and counts nothing in the estimate physical or intellectual, in the body politic." After stating what will probably (as he thinks) be the result of the disabilities under which we labor, he makes the cold-blooded and heartless declaration, "nor is it the work of inhumanity or wrong; it is the slow but certain progress of nature, working out her ends by laws so steady and yet so silent, that their operations are only seen in their results." The feeling the Gen. Dix evinces towards us, proves that he has a heart as icy as the snow-clad mountains of Greenland. Such a sentiment is only worthy of the bloody demon of oppression. Again, after complaining that manumitted blacks come to our state, in spite of any discouragements it may oppose, he says, "all such additions to our number are in the highest degree undesirable. They add nothing to our strength moral or physical." He finally winds up by saying, "if the 50,000 free blacks were removed from the State, its strength and prosperity would be proportionally increased," &c. These extracts, taken from his speech, delivered on the 26th of June, prove what his sentiments were about two months since. There is no evidence before us to show that his views upon this subject have undergone any change. The presumption is, they have not. Can colored men, then, assist in elevating him to the office of governor of the State of New York, in which office he may be called upon to act on the suffrage question, and upon other laws that may affect us vitally? Every colored man must answer with an emphatic No.

If it be the duty of colored men to withhold their votes from Gen. Dix, for reasons which I have assigned, is it not also the duty of their professed friends, who are desirous of improving their condition, morally, mentally, and politically, to do the same? Have colored men, as members of the body politic, any duties to perform, which are not equally binding upon all other men? Certainly not. If, then, it be the duty of colored men to withhold their votes from Gen. Dix for Governor of the State of New York, (and no one will deny that it is,) because he would not only not extend to them their political rights, but, by declaring that our presence in the State is "in the highest degree undesirable," and by intimating that it would be a blessing to the State, if the 50,000 free blacks were banished from it, shows, that if he had it in his power, he would deprive us of those rights we already possess. If this be the case, I ask, Is it not the duty of Abolitionists (for I mean them,) our professed friends, to refuse to vote for him for the same reason? Let no man dare answer these questions in the negative. These propositions are self-evident; they need no arguments to sustain them.

I call upon the editors of the North Star, as faithful watchmen upon the wall, to sound the tocsin of alarm, and thunder into the ears of the colored voters of the State, what will be the fearful consequences of voting for Gen. Dix.

Let Ward and Garnet, Smith and Crummell, and all others, speak out, and endeavor to save our countrymen from the everlasting infamy of having voted for Gen. Dix, or any other man, under similar circumstances, for governor of the State. Our friends may tell us it was necessary for them to do so, for the purpose of securing the triumph of the free soil party; but let us prove to them, and the world if it can only triumph at the expense of the degradation and crushed hopes of our deeply wronged and injured countrymen, we would rather see the Buffalo platform sink to rise no more, into the deep, dark sea, where the waves of oblivion can roll over it forever.

In behalf of Freedom,

I remain yours,

H. W. JOHNSON.