Dosabhai Faramji Cama had been to America on a voyage in 1862 and was very pleased to see the hard work, intelligence and reforms of the people there.
On July 23, 1865 Cama wrote a letter to the editor of The Evening Post, New York, under the pen name A Lover of Peace. The American Civil War to abolish slavery had ended. In his letter Cama suggested that the Northerners should forgive the Southerners and resume brotherly relations. The letter was sent through his agent along with US$ 500 for purchasing a large size portrait of the late President Abraham Lincoln.
Cama wrote: "However, extravagant or presumptuous you may consider the idea of a private man making free to address you from the other end of the world on questions of state policy, yet such is human nature that when impelled by sympathy or affinity of feeling, aided by an independent turn of mind and an offhand impetuous and firm zeal about action, he is pushed into individual exertion and in dealing with questions affecting the cardinal principles of men’s conduct and actions… I am an admirer of goodness, ingenuity, energy, free constitutions, civilized men and nations in the true acceptations of those terms. Among the foreign lands it has been my lot to visit, is included a portion of the United States.
"I visited it along with another companion of mine about the middle of the year 1862. I was struck with the institutions and the general aspect of the country. I was amazed at the energy, the accomplishments and the civilization of the people. Everything around me inspired me with lofty and exalted thoughts. War was even then raging in the land, but it had then made but little progress, it had not told anything upon the unprecedented prosperity of the country. Since then mighty events have befallen your cherished land, streams of blood have washed its soil. The arts of peace had fled for years and in their place had succeeded the unwelcome and dreadful avocation of strife and bloodshed. Once more peace has been restored. The sacred cause for which the conflict has been undertaken is now an accomplished fact. The Negro is a free man; slavery no more exists as a prevailing institution and the Almighty has blessed and crowned with victory, those who advocated the cause of righteousness and of oppressed humanity.
"It is, however, possible that the North may normally lose the brightest jewel from its victories, if a proper use is not made of them. The words of the late lamented President still ring fresh in my ears. His policy after the termination of the war was to be a policy of conciliation and peace. Revenge was to be set aside, the past was to be buried in oblivion, and they who fought one against the other were once more to clasp each other’s hands, with the fervor of love and affection.
"Feeling as I have a warm interest in the welfare of the United States I cannot resist the temptation of expressing… that the safest and the best policy of the present respected President would be to carry out what Mr Lincoln would have done if he were alive. The greatest merit of this administration will be if he tempers his justice with mercy. Though it cannot be denied that the Southerners have forfeited all claim to compassion and sympathy by their obstinacy and perverseness in prolonging an unjust conflict and upholding a cursed institution; now when they have been subdued and laid prostrate and are willing to forget the past it will redound to the credit of the Northern Government… if wholesale amnesty is given and the banner of forgiveness is waved in all directions. Friends as well as foes, loyal subjects as well as traitors, let them all come into your ranks once more your equals and your brothers..."
MARZBAN GIARA
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