EfiE 277 
 
- x C |K&? >PI %< 
 
jjs^afcc* ii^v^4^;sfetM, 4^4 
 
 
I 
 
 I *& 
 
 K* ""*"" 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 JEROME R. RILEY, M. D. , 
 
 AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. 
 WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 
 1897. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1895 
 BY JEROME R. RILEY 
 
 {All rights reserved) 
 
BeDlcateD to abtnhtng Men anfc Women. 
 
CORRECTIONS. 
 
 On page 26, line 14, for "principal," read "principle." 
 On page 28, third line from bottom, for "David B. Hill," 
 
 read "W. R. Hearst, proprietor New York Journal. " 
 
 On page 29, first line, for "Palmer and Turpin," read 
 
 " Teller and Turpie." 
 
 On page 60, line 12, for " our race," read " both races." 
 On page 68, fourth line from bottom, for "it does," read 
 
 " they do." 
 
 On page 102, first line, for "adding," read "affording." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN dedicating this work to thinking men and 
 women the author desires it to be understood that 
 he lays no claim to literary pretentions or distinction. 
 His only purpose being to supply, as fully as he may 
 be able, as a result of his observation and experience, 
 some of the apparent discrepancies, which to his mind 
 exist in the publications of well-known negro leaders 
 and writers, and to supply some of the essential points, 
 thus enabling thinking men and women to comprehend 
 more accurately our true status. It has been the ob 
 ject of the author to base, as far as possible, his con 
 clusions upon original investigations and experience, 
 and trusts that the work may accomplish, in some 
 degree, the purpose for which it is designed. 
 
 JEROME R. RILEY. 
 
 (5) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Philosophy of Negro Suffrage, . . .11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Suffrage in the District of Columbia, . . 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Negro Suffrage in the Southern States Some of 
 the Evil Results Pointed Out The Remedies 
 Suggested The Cause of its Failure The 
 Negro Leadership Miss Ida B. Wells and her 
 Crusaders Criticised, 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Atlanta Exposition and the Benefits to Accrue 
 Therefrom to the Negro Race, and Our Duty in 
 Connection Therewith, . . . .68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Labor Question Discussed The Benefits 
 Which Must Come to the Negro Through This 
 Field, .... .73 
 
 (7) 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Logical Results of Investigation Comments on 
 Prominent Colored Officials of Approved Char 
 acter, both Democrats and Republicans, of the 
 District of Columbia, and Comments on Race 
 Leadership, 80 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Civil Service Touched Upon, ... .89. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A Word of Counsel to the Negro Voters of Mary 
 land and Kentucky Seeking Strength from 
 Those Best Able to Render It, . . 92 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Social Equality Discussed A Manifest Difference 
 Shown between Social and Common Public 
 Rights, . . . . . . .96 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A Discussion of the Public Schools of the District 
 of Columbia Suggestions as to their Improve 
 ment A Lack of Discrimination of the Negro 
 not yet Fully Developed, ... . 101 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Afro-American Free Silver Club Changed from 
 Palmer to Bryan Club Dr. Riley Defends His 
 Position, . .... 109^ 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Hon. John R. McLean Commended to the Colored 
 Voters for Their Support as Against Hon. M. A. 
 Hanna A Few of His Many Claims on Their 
 Support Set Forth Points in the Democratic 
 and Republican Platforms Contrasted Refer 
 ence Made to the Late Elections in Maryland and 
 Kentucky, and Hons. Blair Lee] and Cabel 
 Breckinridge Mentioned, . . . . .115 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Reference to a Personal and Private Letter of That 
 Great Democratic Leader and .Champion of the 
 People s Cause, Hon. William J. Bryan;^of 
 Nebraska, to the Writer Referred to Intelli 
 gence of Colored Bimetallists Complimentediby 
 Him, ..... . 125 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. A UFO 
 
 JTJHE genius and intrepidity of American 
 ^ manhood and vigor is to begin at the 
 beginning de novo, as often as it 
 becomes necessary, in order that a proper 
 starting a proper basis may be secured. 
 This proposition the writer holds in much 
 estimation, as primarily essential. Moreover, 
 he hopes and believes that through such a be 
 ginning we shall be better able and equipped 
 to realize some of the blessings of American 
 citizenship, with a fuller measure of popular 
 privileges all along the line. With no record 
 back of us demonstrating our capacity for 
 successful self-government, the most philo 
 sophic question for us to consider is : how we 
 
12 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 can the better show ourselves competent to 
 render assistance in placing the common and 
 popular rights of the race upon a sure and 
 safe foundation, making, however, no mistake 
 as to our real purpose and ultimate object. 
 
 The most casual and ordinary observant of 
 .human affairs, since our emancipation from 
 the institution of American slavery, could not 
 have failed- to note that whatever may be said 
 of parties, respecting their interest in and feel 
 ing for us as suffragants, its unpopularity has 
 always shown itself through the cracks in 
 every section of this country, whatever the 
 exterior pretensions might have disclosed. 
 
 If such contentions be true and we be 
 lieve them susceptible of proof true philoso 
 phy at once suggests careful investigation as 
 to its cause and a possibility of its improve 
 ment. 
 
 At this late day we deem it unnecessary 
 to discuss, as is common among most of our 
 writers, whether or not Mr. Lincoln was in 
 favor of saving the Union with or without 
 slavery, or how many soldiers who went into 
 the army to fight for the Union were demo- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. i 
 
 6 
 
 crats or republicans, or whether it was their 
 patriotism, their love for the Union, or their 
 dislike for the institution of American slavery 
 as it then existed. The present, the passing, 
 and the future are what we have to deal with. 
 Our best energies and capabilities are to be 
 exerted in this direction. 
 
 In launching the Great Eastern it was 
 found difficult to set her afloat, when her 
 captain cried out, " Who can push a pound?" 
 Such are our feelings in entering into this dis 
 cussion, regardless of party bias or affiliation. 
 What can we, as a democrat, do, however 
 feeble, to aid in a successful launching of our 
 
 o 
 
 race interest ? 
 
 It must be borne in mind that one of the 
 great causes operating against us reaches fur 
 ther back even than our lono; servitude during 
 
 o o 
 
 American slavery, antedating, which must 
 carry us to our ancestral development and 
 traditional history in search of some record 
 upon which to found basic principles upon 
 which to build a structure which shall stand 
 the wear and tear of ages. If, however, our 
 great great ancestors have left us no record 
 
14 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 to speak of for civilization and improvement, 
 our plain duty, therefore, is to set about as 
 best we may to make a record for ourselves. 
 It should be such a one as to gain us standing 
 before the people, the Court of Last Resort, 
 bearing in mind that the dominant race in 
 this country is very nearly evenly divided 
 between the two great parties. In order to 
 attract the attention of the Supreme Bar, our 
 case must be fully made up, and well too, 
 from every point of view. Moreover, our 
 conduct must be of such a marked character 
 as not only to attract the attention of this 
 Court, but such as to gain its sympathy and 
 interest as well, that an abiding and lasting 
 faith in our integrity and honesty of purpose 
 may be established. 
 
 Let us show clearly to this Court that we 
 are quite capable of rising to the superb level 
 of independent and logical thinking men and 
 women. This done, the initial step will have 
 been taken looking to the practical solution 
 of the race problem. Thereafter we can trust 
 much to the natural growth of time and at 
 tendant circumstances as they arise. If, in 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 15 
 
 our daily intercourse, our daily avocations, 
 business or political affiliations, we may be 
 brought into a closer touch with any member 
 of this Court, it can be of no detriment to us 
 if by this contact we shall show that we will 
 bear close scrutiny and inspection. 
 
 In the study of European history, especially 
 that of Russia, the student has doubtless been 
 struck with the remarkable fertility and re 
 sourcefulness of that great empire, the great 
 variety of its products, the diversity of its 
 climate as well as its soil, making it, through 
 its great natural advantages and resources, 
 independent, practically, of its great rivals and 
 neighbors, thus enabling her to solve many 
 problems, even perplexing ones. A growl 
 from the Russian Bear often causes her 
 rivals to halt and even subside, her inherent 
 strength, power, and greatness being at all 
 times manifest from her own resources and 
 resourcefulness. If diversity in one direction 
 will solve problems, why not give its suf 
 ficiency a trial in another ? 
 
 We feel, reasoning from cause and effect, 
 that it should accomplish much in another 
 
1 6 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 toward giving us standing and security both 
 in the industrial and political fields, for the 
 reason that it is more likely to bring us into 
 contact with the various shades of sentiment, 
 primarily favorable or unfavorable, through 
 out the country ; but the sentiment which we 
 seek to interest in our behalf most is the 
 dominant sentiment of that section where we 
 reside, rather than that where we do not live. 
 Through the failure of negro suffrage in 
 the District of Columbia and in every repub 
 lican southern state as well, bringing repres 
 sion to our energies and discouragement to 
 our industries, and, very properly, distrust of 
 our capable management of affairs requiring 
 real qualities of head and heart to successfully 
 cope with the intricate affairs of municipal 
 government, in order that civilization might 
 not digress, but its momentum be preserved. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF 
 COLUMBIA. 
 
 W E 
 
 find that a popular error seems to 
 pervade the minds of many which 
 does an injustice to the present colored 
 republican leaders in the District of Columbia, 
 Mr. Carson and Mr. Chase. These gentlemen 
 can not and should not be held responsible for 
 our failures here, in that, at that time, they 
 were mere followers. The real gilt-edged 
 leaders of that clay were the late Hon. Fred 
 Douglass, Hon. John M. Langston, Capt. O. 
 S. B. Wall, Carter Stewart, Sr., Randall 
 Bowie, Henry Johnson, and others. What 
 ever responsibility attaches to our failure in 
 this direction must be charged to the leaders 
 of that clay and not to the leaders of to-day. 
 Their leadership is but the legitimate legacy 
 left them. Speakers and essayists of our race 
 A (17) 
 
1 8 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 seem to deplore our lack of leadership that 
 we have none. We are, perhaps, a little im 
 patient of results in this direction. Our con 
 ditions have not been favorable for develop 
 ment of the real qualities of leadership. In 
 this we mean no reflection on our development 
 and progress since freedom nor yet any notions 
 we may have obtained during slavery along 
 this line. It is quite common for our great 
 leaders to refer to our loner servitude as a 
 
 o 
 
 reason or excuse for not knowing and doing ; 
 being blind to the fact that whatever we are, 
 much or little, and under whatever degree 
 of suffering we may have endured, has been 
 developed under the system of American 
 slavery, for back of us we find our ancestry, 
 on one side or the other, more often on both, 
 though kings and princesses of the realm, 
 were but barbarians. 
 
 We are making no criticism upon our an 
 cestry, for in their disposing of their sons and 
 daughters, whether through trade or barter of 
 whatever character, they acted, perhaps, under 
 the best light as they understood things. 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 19 
 
 We, however, to-day understand better than 
 they. 
 
 While undergoing tutelage, the writer, from 
 many years of observation and contact, 
 believes that the most successful leadership 
 should be those who are the most capable of 
 leading regardless of party predilection or 
 color. My own experience has been that 
 white leadership is preferable, in that it is the 
 most capable from its long training, especially 
 when it possesses the strong sense of fairness, 
 freedom, and equality under the law. What 
 I wish to convey is better illustrated by the 
 action of Governor Garland of Arkansas when 
 he was governor of that State. Mr. Furbush, 
 a colored man, having been elected sheriff 
 of Lee County, as an independent but a 
 strong supporter of the governor, some white 
 democrats, after the Garland government was 
 safely launched, while he was handling the 
 race problem with signal ability and success, 
 called upon him and urged him to remove 
 Furbush from the office he held. His first 
 inquiry was : "Is there anything against his 
 moral character or capacity?" Receiving a 
 
2O PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 negative reply, promptly responded, " I can t 
 remove him ; he was our staunch supporter, 
 during our whole trouble ; he had, necessarily, 
 to make some sacrifices and bear reproaches 
 from his own people, and I shall sustain him." 
 As enrolling clerk of the legislature, we 
 happened, at that time, as we often were 
 during that session, to be near him and heard 
 the above conversation. From such a man as 
 Governor Garland, we neither expected nor 
 received any ante-election or catchy epistles, 
 which are too often meaningless and decep 
 tive, even if weighty, relying rather upon 
 post-election performances, which were never 
 wanting. 
 
 What is true of Governor Garland can 
 truthfully be said of many statesmen through 
 out the South who are desirous of aiding us 
 and securing a proper basis in solving the 
 problem of a harmonious and satisfactory 
 relationship. 
 
 The vote of the Hon. Clifton R. Breckin- 
 ridge in the Board of Aldermen of Pine 
 Bluff, Arkansas, once made Col. Ferd. Havis, 
 by reason of his character and ability and 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 21 
 
 knowledge of municipal affairs, acting mayor 
 for the time being, which was a very high 
 compliment to that gentleman, differing, as he 
 did, in politics from our American Minister 
 to Russia. 
 
 We all partake, largely, of our early im 
 pressions and environments. When a lad at 
 school in Canada, in the study of political 
 economy and the science of government, we 
 were led to observe the gradations through 
 which their leaders and statesmen passed. 
 First, we had the common councilman, next 
 the deputy reeve, then reeve, after which 
 legislative and parliamentary honors were 
 considered in order. Acting under such con 
 victions, we submit that it is a small wonder, 
 therefore, that some of us should reject party 
 policy and leadership which sprung up spon 
 taneously, almost, leading us away from the 
 safety line and landing us too uncomfortably 
 near the clanger line. 
 
 We have no disposition to turn back the 
 dial of the clock, but we do desire that it shall 
 report accurately the time of the clay. If it 
 be five in the morning let the clock strike, the 
 
22 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 same when it is midnight, and at whatever 
 hour, so that no one need cry out, " Watch 
 man, what of the night ?" 
 
 Reasoning from this point of view, the 
 conclusions of the writer we deem fully 
 justified. 
 
 In the Southern States, where all our inter 
 est lay, our republican leaders were making no 
 better showing for us than here in the District 
 of Columbia, giving no better guarantee for 
 the future than our republican leaders had 
 been able to vouchsafe for us here, besides 
 which, some medium by which a more har 
 monious relationship, which had become 
 greatly strained, was imperative. Under the 
 new conditions, as freemen and citizens the old 
 relationship of master and slave could not 
 exist. In the writer s best judgment and 
 opinion, a peace basis lay only in the direction 
 of diversity of suffrage along democratic lines 
 and under democratic auspices and leadership 
 with the hope of stemming the current of 
 popular disapproval then setting in so strong 
 against us, North, East, and West, as well as 
 in the South, where all our interest and hopes 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 23 
 
 lay, then and for all time. Moreover, we desired 
 our citizenship to become a positive reality a 
 living fact meeting the approval and respect 
 of the dominant race at our homes. It has 
 been a matter of surprise, even marvelous, that, 
 after the failure of negro suffrage here, and all 
 along the line through our iiicompetency, if 
 not downright dishonesty, that a thorough dis 
 cussion of the causes leading to such failure 
 was not had on the part of our leaders cast 
 ing up accounts, thereby relieving some serious 
 apprehensions engendered, as to our total un- 
 fitness for self government. 
 
 Believing as we do in that cardinal principle 
 of the democratic party, "home rule," we feel 
 that negro democracy in the District has had a 
 serious setback by reason of non-resident recog 
 nition in official appointments, and we venture 
 the assertion that such is the verdict of our 
 citizens regardless of race or party, save a very 
 trifling exception here and there scarcely worth 
 adverting to. However, here as elsewhere, 
 whether the appointment be that of a resident 
 or non-resident, character, integrity, and ability 
 receive their just reward through universal 
 commendation of official conduct. 
 
24 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 We commend the press of our city and our 
 
 nost efficient local civil service board for their 
 
 scrutiny of, and demand for, high character 
 
 ind integrity in official appointees in the Dis- 
 
 ;rict, and it has, we are happy to say, never 
 
 been on a color basis. Especially we desire to 
 
 commend Editor Chase of "The Washington 
 
 Bee, whose sting we have often felt, for his 
 
 determined, persistent, and consistent demand 
 
 that character and virtue be exemplified in 
 
 those selected for negro representation. Even 
 
 at great odds he has carried on his efforts, and 
 
 should always be gratefully remembered by 
 
 this moral community. 
 
 Adverting for a moment to our local civil 
 service board, we desire to commend that emi 
 nent divine, Rev. Dr. Alexander McKay Smith, 
 that inveterate foe of immorality and vice 
 wherever found, whether in high places or in 
 low places, for his efforts toward improvement 
 or removal of officials whose character is ques 
 tioned or suspected. The efficient secretary of 
 the board, P. L. Siddons, Esq., deserves special 
 mention in this connection. 
 
 The real purpose of negro democracy, as the 
 writer understands it, is to counteract and 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 25 
 
 divert a false basis, a wrong tendency leading 
 to false conclusions inimical to the true phi 
 losophy of suffrage. Our reliability and 
 stability is ofttimes questioned, and not wholly 
 without good reason on some occasions, as we 
 shall show. While the appointment of a very 
 honorable non-resident colored gentleman to 
 an important office in the district was being 
 considered by the Senate some seven or eight 
 years ago, one of our recognized great leaders 
 of that time, speaking of the appointment and 
 nomination, remarked with emphasis to the 
 writer that he was for home rule ; " besides, it is 
 embodied in your platforms. Whether it is or 
 not, I am for the principle of home rule." His 
 emphatic manner impressed us most strikingly 
 as to his sincerity, as much so as any such 
 statements made by Hon. James L. Norris or 
 Hon. B. H. Warner. Much to our surprise, a 
 few years later we found this same great leader, 
 for some not yet revealed reason, espousing 
 the claims of a man who was a non-resident, 
 to the same office. Our conduct should be such 
 as never to bring our integrity in question 
 
26 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 and divert a false basis, a wrong tendency 
 leading to a false conclusion. 
 
 Whatever sacrifices we may make we should 
 be amply compensated, if through our efforts, 
 with whatever talent, virtue, and morality we 
 may possess. 
 
 A single step taken, remedial and beneficial, 
 directed first of all to character establishment, 
 in order that our material prosperity might 
 follow and a firmer basis take a firmer hold. 
 The writer is far from believing that all the 
 virtue is reposed in any one party. Our plain 
 duty is, as far as possible, to keep interest and 
 principal together. By so doing we will be 
 the better able to become potent factors in 
 strengthening the force and purifying the 
 fountain of our political and material action. 
 Certainly our great republican negro leaders 
 cannot hope or even desire to see the great 
 mass of our race continue in this happy-go- 
 lucky state in which we are to-clay, for in 
 such relation we are merely drift-wood in 
 the great body politic going out with the 
 refluent tide with no harbor in view going 
 whither no one knows or cares. 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 27 
 
 When a lad in Canada, standing- on the 
 banks of Tiber creek, during a great freshet 
 at the North Buxton mill-dam, Mr. Peter 
 Straith, the Scotch owner of the mill, shouted 
 out to his men : " Raise the dam. It is only 
 driftwood that will go through." In an 
 instant came back the reply : " Fifty feet of 
 hewn timber has just gone through." The 
 owner quickly responded : " Shut down the 
 dam ! Shut down the clam ! " While we are 
 but driftwood we may go through and on to 
 the sea or where nobody cares, but as we 
 become hewn timbers, full-grown men, par 
 taking of all the vigor of real manhood, of 
 principal and interest, entering into the fabric 
 of our country s structure, will we be factors 
 worth considering. Some such legacy as this 
 we must leave to our children and those who 
 are to follow if we would do our duty to our 
 selves and the times in which we live. 
 
 Moreover, certain conditions are primarily 
 essential in the development of negro leader 
 ship time, circumstances, and conditions 
 which should apply with equal force to us as 
 with the Anglo-Saxon, if not a little more so,- 
 
28 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 lacking, as we do, many of the moral and 
 traditional elements which enter into true and 
 lasting civilization. Remembering" all the 
 
 o o 
 
 while, that whatever impressions we have 
 gained respecting civilization and improve 
 ment have had their origin in servitude and 
 attendant conditions which were, in many re 
 spects, too meager to count upon in a correct 
 and judicious rendering, consequently the 
 writer submits, that if these premises are true 
 and correct in fact, as he conscientiously be 
 lieves, the circumstances, the times, or condi 
 tions do not warrant the assumption of our 
 negro republican leaders, that as such they 
 are really needed. 
 
 Believing that white leadership, in the very 
 nature of things, is preferable, by reason of its 
 long and severe tutelage in this direction, rep 
 resenting long experience and great capabili 
 ties, every shade of political action and activ 
 ity, men of high moral standing and fairness, 
 whose leadership we might safely follow. 
 
 Why not such men as David B. Hill, ex- 
 Secretary Whitney, Speaker Crisp, Minister 
 Breckinridge, A. H. Garland, Arthur P. Gor- 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 29 
 
 man, Senators Palmer and Turpin, and many 
 others of this stand, representing the democ 
 racy. Among the republicans, such^ as ex- 
 Speaker Reed, General Harrison, Allison, 
 Col. Hepborn, Governors Morton and Mc- 
 Kinley, General Alger, all representing their 
 true party standards. Why not accept lead 
 ership from these gentlemen ? 
 
 Better no leadership at all, than one whose 
 reputation is notoriously tarnished should be 
 forced upon us from either side. 
 
 The almost fatal wounds which suffrage re- 
 
 o 
 
 ceived in this District, because of notoriously 
 bad leadership, after the lapse of nearly a 
 quarter of a century, have not been healed. 
 Here the damage was wrought ; here the re- 
 
 o o 
 
 pairs should take place. The curative effects 
 of remedial measures should be made strik 
 ingly apparent. This cannot be done, how 
 ever, by masquerading under the leadership 
 such as that which carried us down ; but a 
 new leadership, such as is embodied in the 
 high character and eminent ability and pro 
 fessional standing of Dr. Robert Reyburn. 
 Even he, for the next quarter of a century, 
 
o PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 cannot do more than ward off severe criticism, 
 against return to the suffrage period such as 
 obtained under former negro leaders. It is, 
 indeed, a heavy weight that Dr. Reyburn is 
 carrying. He needs every assistance from the 
 advocates of suffrage. They can aid him much 
 in making the burden lighter. Will they do 
 it? Indeed, he is making a sacrifice that few 
 men, with as little encouragement, would dare 
 undertake ; and were it not for his high char 
 acter and unblemished reputation, he long 
 since would have gone down with this load. 
 It would be a deserved compliment to him 
 were he unanimously named as a delegate to 
 represent his party to the next National Con 
 vention. Will they do it ? We find that there 
 are many colored men, as well as white, in 
 the District, who want suffrage only as it 
 shall come to them in a qualified form. 
 They seem to feel the necessity of some re 
 strictions as to its use and scope ; feeling 
 that restriction would bring us into closer 
 touch with the business interest and dom 
 inant sentiment of the community, thus dem 
 onstrating that the wound was such as to 
 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 31 
 
 require some reapproachment before a com 
 plete restriction was possible. Moreover, it 
 is apparently obvious that our negro repub 
 lican leaders must signally fail to meet the re 
 quirements and obligations of the hour. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN 
 STATES SOME OF THE EVIL RE 
 SULTS POINTED OUT THE REME 
 DIES SUGGESTED THE CAUSE OF 
 ITS FAILURE THE NEGRO LEADER 
 SHIPMISS IDA B. WELLS AND HER 
 CRUSADERS CRITICISED. 
 
 T F it be true that our ablest and highest type 
 of negro leadership has been largely cen 
 tered in the District of Columbia, and the 
 conditions being favorable for its highest de 
 velopment, and yet failed, what must be said 
 of the states where this leadership was rather 
 of a secondary and advisory character, yet of 
 paramount interest to all the citizens in the 
 maintenance of popular representative and 
 progressive government. 
 
 This brings us to consider negro leadership 
 during this period, carrying with it, largely, 
 all the responsibilities and requirements of 
 
 (32) 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 33 
 
 local self-government, state, county, and 
 municipal. Was their equipment sufficient 
 for so great an undertaking ? Let us see the 
 carrying capacity of our craft. Was it well 
 equipped, properly manned, well rigged - 
 was it, in short, seaworthy for so important a 
 voyage ? Where was it built ? When was 
 it launched ? True philosophy suggests and 
 demands such an inquiry. If, as has been 
 stated, our knowledge of government had 
 taken its origin in servitude, any contention as 
 to our competent control and management of 
 the craft would seem, on its face, absurd and 
 ridiculous. The ignorance displayed by those 
 claiming to be men of sense, holding, as they 
 did, the interest of eight million of our race 
 in their keeping, was remarkable and even 
 marvelous. 
 
 Especially was this true in their precipit 
 ous purpose to "go it alone," regardless of, 
 and, in fact, independent of moral, material, 
 and dominant intellectual forces with which 
 they had to deal, and this too without a sin 
 gle day s training for the duties in which our 
 
34 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 whole future and that of our children were 
 involved. Apparently, we were sowing to the 
 wind and but reaped the whirlwind. Our fail 
 ure, therefore, was humiliating and complete 
 all along the line. Our leaders had put into 
 our hands keen-edged tools which we knew 
 not how to use neither wisely nor well. Our 
 weapons of defense were illy chosen, good 
 for the day only. For these leaders to have 
 selected for us such weapons, weapons we 
 could not intelligently handle and use, only 
 magnified their own ignorance, leaving us, as 
 they did, to bear the ills and reproaches and 
 even violence incident to such leadership. 
 
 A leadership that taught and caused us to 
 neglect the cultivation of our corn, potatoes, 
 tobacco, and cotton, and incidental family re 
 quirements, in order that this leadership might 
 reach desired prominence and gain, while our 
 families suffered, was most reprehensible, if, 
 indeed, not criminal on their part ; for the 
 reason that some of them, at least, knew 
 better. Bringing into prominence and power 
 as state and county officials, members of the 
 legislature, often presenting sights such as to 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 35 
 
 cause the gods to smile, who were to make 
 laws for a proud people with hundreds of 
 years of civilization behind them, thereby 
 ruining, as they did, so many able-bodied men 
 who were better fitted for the fields, the 
 blacksmith shop, and the carpenter s bench. 
 How many able-bodied men were thus ruined 
 will never be accurately known. Now, as 
 then, our weapons of defense must be well 
 chosen and properly maintained. What was 
 good policy then is good policy still. Our 
 pathway under this leadership was being con 
 fined tovery narrow limits. 
 
 The favorable impressions made upon many 
 good people in every section of this and other 
 countries during our long servitude was seem 
 ingly taking on a sudden departure, to prevent 
 which, in our opinion, is the mission of the 
 negro democracy and all others seemingly 
 interested in the promotion of our well-being. 
 The apparent severance of the ties which 
 existed between master and slave necessitated 
 a re-approachment upon other lines, the basis 
 of which should be peace founded upon citi 
 zenship, mutual confidence, and hearty good 
 
36 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 will, - one which shall stand the wear and 
 tear of ages. Through our citizenship and 
 intelligence we seek to give honest impres 
 sions as to our present needs and passing- 
 requirements in our effort to evolve a higher 
 state of civilization. The co-operation and 
 support of our white friends in this effort must 
 ,be secured. The best elements entering into 
 our make-up as good citizens must be made 
 manifest. In this we will strengthen that 
 essential reapproachment, making it easy of 
 accomplishment. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that it is any 
 neck-and-neck race between us and that of 
 the dominant race of the Southland, with the 
 whites rapidly tiring. A number of years 
 ago, when in Nebraska, an enterprising young 
 woman from the Eastern States requested my 
 self and father to assist her in locating a 
 homestead, carrying with it the conventional 
 dirt house and the driving of stakes. Reach 
 ing the point selected by her, while in the act 
 of setting the stakes, we were surprised by a 
 farmer who, after finding out our mission, told 
 us to move further down the line, remarking 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 37 
 
 that his line reached beyond the visible stake ; 
 that the next vacant homestead was further 
 beyond and a little below. The young lady 
 not being satisfied with his mere statement, 
 he at once requested us to accompany him 
 below a bluff where we were brought into full 
 view of a cultivated homestead, a substantial 
 dirt house, stables, and other improvements, 
 a good growing crop, satisfying and convinc 
 ing to the most skeptic, not only of his priority 
 right of preemption, but the improvement and 
 development of a long and progressive resi 
 dence. Precisely in such relation do we stand 
 to the dominant race at the South and else 
 where, whatever we may think or however we 
 may feel respecting this or that class of white 
 citizens of one section or the other ; their 
 record, as a race, for civilization, statesman 
 ship, and of progress, is made up, safely an 
 chored, and must stand. 
 
 Prudence, therefore, suggests that we should 
 regulate ourselves accordingly. The intre 
 pidity of the Anglo-Saxon race has been the 
 wonder of this and of all ages. We verily 
 
38 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 believe that if the North Pole shall ever be 
 discovered he will be found astride of it. 
 
 The fittest in government and for govern 
 ment must and should survive. Truth and 
 candor, on the part of the writer, compel the 
 admission of this proposition. Capital and 
 intelligence may, at all times, be relied upon 
 to take care of themselves. Not even supe 
 rior numbers, backed by ignorance and pov 
 erty, can be reckoned upon to make a formi 
 dable resistance to their progress. This we 
 believe, upon general principles, to be correct. 
 Hence the survival of the fittest in govern- 
 
 > 
 
 ment as in individuals is best for each and all 
 and will always prevail. Let us, then, as a 
 race, choose wisely and well our weapons of 
 defense. They might well be both offensive 
 and defensive so long as they aid us in all 
 laudable efforts in securing for ourselves a 
 right beginning. Strength is most necessary ; 
 strength on the right of us, strength on the 
 left, and in the center. 
 
 While negro leadership in the Southern 
 States, as in the District of Columbia, to 
 which we have already alluded, was a signal 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 39 
 
 failure, yet, in the South there has been less 
 disposition to deal harshly with us than in 
 the District, where, under a republican con 
 gress and president the abolition of suffrage 
 was most effective and complete. 
 
 Apologists in the District, who do us harm 
 and seek to conceal the real facts and merit of 
 the case, tell us that in taking away suffrage 
 from the negro it was taken away from the 
 whites as well, and that on race lines it was 
 impartial. Precisely so, if one does not wish 
 to consider below the surface ; but a hasty 
 glance at the District pay-roll displays the 
 fact unmistakably that the whites manage to 
 take good care of themselves, suffrage or no 
 suffrage. Let us admit that suffrage in the 
 District was taken away from us because of 
 irresponsible negro voting. All this time, we 
 in the South have been reaping some of the 
 advantages of suffrage ; especially so through 
 the advice and action of negro democracy, in 
 their encouragement of diversity in suffrage 
 on lines suggested by dominant and demo 
 cratic leadership ; which to us is a point gained, 
 meeting as it does the approval of the court 
 
40 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 before which we are pleading. We must not 
 lose sight of the fact that our real purpose, 
 through our well-chosen weapons of defense, 
 is to secure to ourselves a peace basis, honor 
 able alike to both races. Such achievement, 
 through a successful reapproachment, should 
 be considered as always being in order, which 
 through time and the logic of events, will bring 
 its own reward. We, by this discussion, are 
 seeking to bring no alarm, but to state facts 
 and conditions which history and our judg 
 ment must approve. 
 
 A colored member of Congress, in the pres 
 ence of the writer once stated to a friend that 
 Mr. Boutelle of Maine had applauded him on 
 account of some remark he had just made in 
 a speech on the floor of the House. We re 
 marked to this friend, after the departure of 
 the colored member, that he might have, per 
 haps, said something clever and apt, since from 
 our point Maine issues no certificate of elec 
 tion to negro members of Congress, not even 
 showing a disposition of encouraging an influx 
 of negro labor into her borders ; that it would 
 have been more apt and better statesmanship 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 41 
 
 to have timed his remarks in such a manner 
 as to have brought applause from a member 
 from North or South Carolina, Louisiana, or 
 Mississippi, rather than the one from the 
 Maine member ; and yet, perhaps, he was ex 
 cusable, because our horizon of vision is yet 
 limited, our discernment or discrimination is 
 not enlarged to a degree sufficient to deal 
 logically with difficult and delicate points, 
 though involving our own present and future 
 well-being, yet, in putting ourselves in certain 
 positions, we should be able to perform a 
 man s or a statesman s part. In advancing 
 our interest we should be able to take advan 
 tage of whatever circumstances or conditions 
 that may arise, through which our interest 
 might be advanced and some strength gained, 
 though counting only one in our favor, which 
 is a good count, since it oftentimes determines 
 the result. 
 
 Many of us have doubtless observed, espe 
 cially in our younger days, that in handling 
 a new gun we are never quite certain of the 
 accuracy of our aim until we have charged and 
 discharged it a few times, notwithstanding 
 
42 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 our expert use and familiarity with the old 
 fowling piece, experience and practice, there 
 fore, being essential in this as in other matters. 
 In the acquisition of this knowledge much time 
 is required both for its practice and a correct 
 study of its effect. As in small matters, so in 
 great ; reaching even to legislative functions 
 where much greater responsibility centers. 
 
 Our dependences and responsibilities, our 
 present and future hope alike bid us so to adjust 
 our home, material, and living relations as to 
 gain for us more strength, strength of character, 
 giving us anchorage, defensible, safe, and 
 secure, at once relied on and reliable. In the 
 enlargement of our ideas and a readjustment 
 of our basis of action, intelligence is the focus 
 and must regulate them. It possesses all the 
 material forces. If, therefore, as many of our 
 leaders practically assert, we have no other 
 or higher privilege than to follow these self- 
 styled leaders, then we have no need of intelli 
 gence ; no proper claim to individual responsi 
 bility in governmental affairs, and had as well 
 now bid farewell to our schools ; that learn 
 ing is a myth. The writer, however, believes 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 43 
 
 differently. In order to outride the storm 
 which we are necessarily forced to encounter, 
 through our relations to society as freemen 
 and citizens, the highest capabilities of each 
 individual must be brought into action from 
 
 o 
 
 every point of view we may philosophically 
 reason. 
 
 It is claimed that in some states there exists 
 an abridgment or restriction, in a sense, in 
 the free exercise of the ballot. If this be true 
 that such a restriction does obtain, let us seek 
 to find the cause, if there be one. We cannot 
 have great difficulty in finding one, if we rea 
 son correctly --from cause and effect; tracing 
 it, directly, to the period of our control in the 
 South, especially in a state like South Carolina, 
 where we were absolute in every way, from 
 alderman to governor ; hence, if suffrage has 
 been seriously wounded, through our own acts, 
 improvement and security must take place 
 there and by those who played a part or 
 assisted in bringing suffrage into disrepute. 
 If, under the then leadership and our blind 
 following, we have disgraced suffrage and 
 who will say we did not a duty we owe to 
 
44 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 ourselves and to society, as well, compels a 
 frank avowal of the truth and a setting about 
 on our part to make amends, to make proper 
 reparation, which must be clone where the 
 wound was inflicted and from whence com 
 plaints are made. 
 
 It is only necessary to enquire into the pre 
 sent value of the state bonds and other securi 
 ties where we held undisputed sway, and com 
 pare that with the values of those times to 
 convince us of our own misrule and misman 
 agement. It is no wonder that the day of 
 reckoning came and came swiftly. 
 
 Reformation in civil government is as nee- 
 
 o 
 
 essary to one party as to the other. It is, 
 therefore, to our interest to enter into the 
 same spirit, through a diversity of our suffrage, 
 in order to repair the damage we have 
 wrought. The conditions for our improve 
 ment and development are more favorable in 
 the South than in any other section. What 
 ever set-back that may have come to us has 
 been through our own fault and the teachings 
 and leadership of those who led us, some of 
 whom, although remote from these times, 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 45 
 
 might be cited as characterless scoundrels, 
 their prominence at all times being prejudi 
 cial to our progress and growth, and the de 
 velopment of that friendly relationship be 
 tween the races capital and labor of those 
 sections. Hence the manifest propriety of a 
 successful reapproachment was most urgently 
 demanded, looking to a full and fair establish 
 ment of a permanent peace basis and a proper 
 and correct selection of our weapons of de 
 fense. We repeat, that the fittest in govern 
 ment should and will always survive. We 
 cannot hope to attain to the full capacity 
 of leaders through a hop-skip-and-jump fash 
 ion, nor yet by league strides. Our prog 
 ress must be steady, steady by easy strides 
 step, step, step by step. The same routes 
 traversed by white leaders must be gone over 
 by us, else what will our leadership be ? A 
 miserable failure. 
 
 An old colored man asking for a quart of 
 whisky from his merchant on Saturday night, 
 was asked if less would not do him, when he 
 replied : " No, I want to keep the Sabbath to 
 morrow. * "So you could not keep it on less," 
 
46 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 was suggested. "Oh, yes," he replied, "but 
 how would it be kept?" In the same way we 
 can produce leaders, but what kind would 
 they be ? No better than the former under 
 the same conditions. 
 
 In following the negro leadership of those 
 times we found ourselves environed with diffi 
 culties which our ignorance and poverty was 
 unable to compass. The writer has felt, for 
 some time, that Miss Ida B. Wells and her 
 crusaders are doing us much harm in bringing 
 us into more or less hostility and antagonism 
 with the dominant race, where we are to live, 
 die, and be buried, without bringing to us the 
 slightest equivalent, which, to our notion, 
 renders the whole crusade of doubtful pro 
 priety so far as anything beneficial accrues to 
 us. Long since we went on record against 
 and touching every species of lawlessness 
 and violence, and at the proper place, where 
 the complained-of wrongs existed. If we 
 really seek redress, our grounds and reasons 
 must be set forth with all the discretion and 
 discrimination at home, and not away from 
 home. 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 47 
 
 While boards of trade and other commer 
 cial bodies, and many white presbyteries and 
 other Christian bodies, have, by their action, 
 deprecated and deplored violence in every 
 form and in every section, yet I do not recall 
 of having seen or heard of a single minister 
 of a negro church or from our colored leaders 
 calling upon the negro men of the race to so 
 live and conduct themselves that no suspicion 
 can attach to them of the crimes alleged to 
 have been committed. Miss Wells could, we 
 think, better devote her time and talents to a 
 much better cause, than trying to, from long 
 range, stir up strife among the whites of the 
 South against the colored people of that 
 section. 
 
 If she would start a crusade against the 
 crimes and immoralities which we know too 
 well exist among our race ; if she would de 
 vote her energies in teaching better and high 
 er morals among us, in our homes and in the 
 communities where we are in large numbers, 
 she would be doing a service much needed. 
 
 In any community where a low state of in 
 dustry prevails, a low state of morals obtains, 
 
48 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 thus proving demoralizing to our inherent in 
 terest, growth, and the development of our 
 best qualities. 
 
 The action of Miss Wells and those en 
 gaged in this uncalled-for crusade, is more 
 liable to occasion greater mischief, resulting 
 in more harm and permanent injury to us than 
 those they seem to desire to check, without, 
 at any time, suggesting a single possible rem 
 edy, or the bringing to us strength at home, 
 where most needed and most desired. 
 
 We doubtless have grievances, in many 
 respects embarrassing, oppressive, and of a 
 serious nature, exasperating and offensive. 
 These, however, are found to exist in almost 
 every state in the Union, being allied to and 
 interwoven in the adjustment of a proper re 
 lationship which should obtain between races. 
 
 The late Right Reverend Bishop John M, 
 Brown, of the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, informed the writer that even the 
 church, through its pulpit, had been used as 
 an instrument of political tyranny against 
 those who had chanced to differ from repub 
 lican negro leaders as to methods of proce- 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 49 
 
 dure, looking to the betterment and improve 
 ment of the mass of our race. 
 
 We have, however, reason to hope that such 
 malign influences, whether religious or polit 
 ical, or of whatever character, will, under the 
 operation of more liberal and enlightened 
 teachings, soon and forever cease. This can 
 be done, very largely, through negro democ 
 racy and independent thinking men and wo 
 men, who should be developing, as a heritage 
 of human progress. 
 
 In seeking the co-operation and good will 
 of the dominant race in all our laudable 
 efforts to attain to higher civilization, let us, 
 in their willingness to go with us a furlong, 
 meet them half-way rather, go a mile, if 
 needs be, and by every honest endeavor, for 
 the good of each and of all, the softening of 
 race hostilities as one of the greatest factors 
 in the formation of a proper and lasting senti 
 ment, which will, by reason of its strength, 
 most commend itself to friend and foe alike ; 
 so that in the phenomena of our make-up, no 
 cloud or mystery can obscure it. 
 
50 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 Having no distinction of ancestry on our 
 own account, our plain duty is to follow a 
 leadership which represents the higher quali 
 ties of law and order, else we must be left to 
 live or die as the fates might decree. 
 
 Right here it strikes the writer to suggest 
 that some of our negro republican leaders are 
 laying claim to ancestral distinction a little 
 mite too early, placing us in an attitude of 
 awkward and doubtful defense. The mere 
 dealing in fancy flights of refinement and 
 aristocratic notions scarcely meets the require 
 ments. 
 
 The feeling being yet opportune for a favor 
 able reapproachment, any act on our part 
 which subverts or reverses this sentiment is 
 harmful and operates to our detriment. The 
 community standing we must seek can only 
 be secured through the confidence the domi 
 nant race may have in us. Without this con 
 fidence the progress of the negro race in this 
 country must and will be retrograding. Our 
 own efforts must be brought into requisition 
 if we would surmount these and like formid 
 able difficulties. What we are to be in this 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 51 
 
 country is in our own hands, we can make it 
 what we would ; but it cannot be done on the 
 lines laid down by our negro republican lead 
 ers or by Miss Wells and those who are assist 
 ing- her in her " mission " of stirring up strife 
 between the races, which will require time to 
 obliterate. 
 
 We have been reproached and even ridi 
 culed by the negro republican leaders on 
 account of our defense of and long continu 
 ance in the democratic party ; even by party 
 friends of both races on account of the lack 
 of recognition received by us from President 
 Cleveland. 
 
 Some years ago, while the great post-office 
 at Glasgow, Scotland, was on fire and the 
 engines were playing upon the flames, a shrill 
 voice was heard to cry out from the crowd 
 below: "Play on the bag from Inverness! 
 Play on the bag from Inverness!" This was 
 startling. Upon inquiry it was found that 
 the mail-bag from Inverness contained a let 
 ter for this man. He was willing to see the 
 whole building, together with its great in 
 terests, consumed if the bag containing his 
 
52 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 letter was saved. So while we have felt and 
 do feel deeply wounded, and, we submit, not^ 
 without reason, owing to our attitude as 
 a negro democrat, being less able, without 
 assistance, to protect ourselves, our position 
 having brought us into direct antagonism 
 with the negro republican leaders and their 
 followers ; being forced to beg the crumbs 
 falling from their tables, this failure of recog 
 nition has brought to us great embarrassment 
 and done us great injustice. Yet the lines we 
 have traced for a quarter of a century we shall 
 seek to follow to the end, being thereby con 
 vinced that they carry along with principal 
 and interest of our future welfare, growth, 
 and development, regardless of our personal 
 welfare. 
 
 If personal recognition be contingent upon 
 the destruction or even impairing in any way 
 the structure we have sought to build, rather 
 let personal recognition go, perish the letter 
 from " Inverness," and save the great struc 
 ture and its contents of valuables. 
 
 Few politicians will place their allies, or 
 allow them to be placed, be they white or 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 53 
 
 black, in a false attitude, in order that they 
 may be the more easily assailed. No great 
 man, no great statesman, would do so. Their 
 sense of fairness, of justice, and humanity can 
 always be relied upon. With all great men, 
 all broad-minded men, the right of might is 
 always subordinated to the claims of the weak, 
 defenseless, yet friendly allies. 
 
 Our chief vocation in the past, without the 
 whys or wherefores, has been to follow our 
 negro republican leaders therefore, leading 
 us invariably to outside interests, rather than 
 to home influences, requirements, and duties. 
 
 The pacific nature of our moral and mental 
 characteristics should be brought into full 
 play, leaving nothing undone on our part not 
 only to correct the abuses and misfortunes of 
 the past, but lead us to a more promising 
 future. 
 
 In our opinion the great fame of Fred k 
 Douglass, which has safe anchorage and must 
 stand, rests, rather, upon his anti-slavery rec 
 ord than any subsequent leadership of his. 
 
 Some years ago the writer, on being re- 
 elected President of the John M. Palmer 
 
54 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 * 
 Democratic Club of tne District of Columbia, 
 
 the oldest negro club in : point of organiza 
 tion in the country, delivered the following 
 address, which may not be out of place in this 
 work : - 
 
 Dr. Jerome R. Riley, being elected presi 
 dent, spoke as follows : 
 
 " Members of the John M. Palmer Demo 
 cratic Club of the District, while thanking you 
 most heartily for this evidence of your confi 
 dence and esteem, I promise, God willing, to 
 do all in my power to further its interests and 
 promote its objects. 
 
 " Before touching briefly some of the causes 
 governing our past and present political action 
 and affiliation, you will, I trust, in the interest 
 of the cause we seek to promote and advance, 
 and of truth, which demagogues may seek to 
 pervert, pardon me a moment s personal refer 
 ence : 
 
 "Early in the year 1874, with a republican 
 President and Congress, overwhelmingly so in 
 both branches, under a republican state gov 
 ernment in Arkansas, and in a county largely 
 so, and is yet, I was holding the office as a 
 republican of county physician and acting cor 
 oner, which I endeavored to fill to the best 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 55 
 
 of my ability and to the satisfaction of the 
 people. How far F succeeded in this I am 
 willing to leave to prominent republicans who 
 were leaders in the political action and activi 
 ties of their party now living in this city. 
 Indeed, I am quite willing that all concerned, 
 of any party, shall render verdict on this 
 point. 
 
 " After a fair and conscientious study of men, 
 methods, and measures, governing the two, 
 parties in all their bearings, and with the sin 
 gle purpose of promoting peace and the wel 
 fare of both races, I was reluctantly forced to 
 sever the ties, and urged a division of our 
 votes on other than mere party lines, right or 
 wrong, as a necessity if negro suffrage were to 
 become not to say popular, but even tolerant, 
 which can only be brought about by a division 
 of the colored voters. A race problem, se 
 rious and unmistakable, had to be met. While 
 four-fifths of the people of the globe may or 
 may not be of darker hue than the able repre 
 sentative of our race, who makes this asser 
 tion, yet the conditions in this country are 
 such that the problem is here to stay until 
 solved, gainsay it as one may* 
 
 "The failure, yea, the total collapse of suf 
 frage in this district on the account of irre- 
 
56 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 sponsible negro voting under our highest and 
 ideal leadership, gave ample opportunity for 
 questioning our fitness for its use. The repub 
 lican administration came up promptly to the 
 relief of the people here by abolishing it. The 
 grievances in the South were more serious, 
 threatening, and urgent, but minus the remedy 
 that obtained here. 
 
 "The worst feature of the negro s trouble 
 has been from a false rating which has been 
 given us by our would-be friends, by valuing us 
 by our future possibility, or judging the whole 
 by a few lumps of leaven within our fold, 
 who have made most remarkable progress in 
 learning, literature, and even statesmanship ; 
 and as it is not the whole that need a physi 
 cian, neither is it such as these by which the 
 wants, capabilities, and needs of the whole 
 should be summed up, thus placing us in a 
 position where more is demanded than should 
 be expected of us. A forced growth, without 
 the proper means of self-reliance, self-suste 
 nance, or self-dependence. Our troubles may 
 all have arisen from his two-hundred years 
 servitude in this, and ages of barbarism in an 
 other country, as one of our number has lately 
 said, but they are just as real all the same, and 
 must be met. The situation demanded either 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 57 
 
 a change of political leadership on our part, 
 or a readjustment of political action, and upon 
 other principles had we been wise at that time. 
 Failing, then, we had to go it alone. The 
 old and weather-beaten refrain, * United we 
 stand, divided we fall, and the Negro who 
 votes with the democrats is an enemy of his 
 race, would not suffice. Something more was 
 wanted. We found that in our unity lay our 
 weakness ; that the mere strength of numbers 
 was brittle ; real strength could only come by 
 a diversion of our acts of suffrage. 
 
 " To illustrate further my ideas of a divided 
 or dual policy by our people, let me refer to 
 the division of leadership in celebrating our 
 Emancipation Day. Every close observer 
 must have noted a progress in the manner in 
 which that day has been celebrated since a di 
 versity of opinion has arisen, though sometimes 
 fierce and bitter, yet it has had a tendency to 
 eliminate some of the most objectionable fea 
 tures from that display. While one faction 
 has been watching the other with eager eye 
 to criticism, many a foolish custom has been 
 lopped off that always obtains without oppo 
 sition while under the guardianship of a one- 
 man power. Now more intelligent methods 
 
58 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 have crept in through the breach that a di 
 vided opinion has made possible ; for instance, 
 instead of having four queens in a pack, as 
 heretofore, this year there were none. 
 
 "The evolution of our social, political, and 
 industrial relations, therefore, are matters of 
 the gravest concern. A diversity in industrial 
 relations solves the problem for us or any 
 other people. Why not in the political 
 sphere ? While we do not ascribe mercenary 
 motives to our leaders, yet their leadership has 
 been mischievous, misleading, and disastrous. 
 Moreover, they must have read real history to 
 very little purpose not to know that intelli 
 gence and wealth dominated legislation and 
 commerce the world over. 
 
 " Let me give a single example of what was 
 the rule in the South, in the county of Jeffer 
 son, one of the richest in the state of Arkan 
 sas, in which was situated the city of Pine 
 Bluff, ranking, I believe, next to Memphis as 
 a cotton market. Here the varied interests of 
 legislation affecting a rich and populous com 
 munity came up for consideration. At the 
 head of the republican legislative ticket in 
 1875 was M r - Ned Hill, colored, who could 
 neither read nor write, but whose fighting 
 weight was two hundred pounds, drunk or 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 59 
 
 sober. His ticket was overwhelmingly elect 
 ed. At that time he, or even Judas Iscariot, 
 if branded with the party stamp, could just as 
 easily have defeated Gov. Garland or Major 
 Breckenridge, or any one else in the front 
 rank of statesmanship. Our friends tell us 
 that all white legislators are not statesmen. 
 Precisely so, but the white record is made. 
 Theirs is the civilization of the realm ; our 
 traditional and universal record was that we 
 were ignorant, indolent, and would steal, and 
 therefore incapable of self-government. The 
 contrary is what we had to prove, and refute 
 this accusation, a fact not yet learned, or, if 
 learned, not acted upon. 
 
 "The solution of the great race problem 
 was wholly in our own hands. In the South 
 it had to be solved, the essential conditions 
 being more favorable there than anywhere 
 else. The first prerequisite was peace and 
 mutual confidence, there being a commingling 
 of interests between races. The whites were 
 ready to receive fair proposals rather than dic 
 tate terms at that time. In our poverty and 
 ignorance we were not prepared for war, not 
 even friction with our white neighbor, 
 although we were often hoodwinked to be 
 lieve the contrary. We cannot deny the fact 
 
60 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 that the general government itself was not 
 more than prepared for war with the South. 
 These suggestions apply with equal force to 
 day. A peace basis was our only hope to 
 secure to us a public sentiment which would 
 insure a minority representation of value that 
 would be lasting and permanent. It was our 
 misfortune and not our fault that we were 
 ignorant and poor, yet nevertheless true, and 
 should have been taken into account during 
 that period. Even now this matter will bear 
 the close attention of our race. In a measure 
 we were unable to appreciate the dignity and 
 sovereignty of citizenship, and that the safety 
 of state depended upon its sovereign use. 
 We were swayed by passion and sentiment 
 rather than reason. To us party was sover 
 eign rather than the citizen. We emerged 
 from bodily to intellectual slavery. Our 
 actions, the policies of our leaders, often en 
 tangled us in the meshes of trouble from 
 which there was no escape. The white peo 
 ple of the South have their shortcomings, as 
 you and I and all do, but the same sentiment 
 of humanity actuate them that do other people 
 the world over. 
 
 "Some deny that democrats have ever 
 shown a willingness to have us cooperate on 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 61 
 
 any basis politically: True ; some opportuni 
 ties may have been neglected on their 
 part. Efforts and a willingness have been 
 shown, as in the state of Arkansas, by putting 
 the name of Mr. E. A. Fulton, colored, on the 
 democratic ticket for secretary of state, and 
 giving it their hearty support in 1872. The 
 same also in the case of Mr. T. W. Stringer, 
 colored, of Mississippi, for secretary of state 
 with the approval and support of the demo 
 crats. The democratic state ticket of South 
 Carolina in 1874 was headed by Judge Green 
 for governor, and Major Martin R. Delaney, 
 colored, for lieutenant-governor. The sup 
 port given him was not only loyal but intense, 
 as Senator Butler has said. Judge Samuel 
 Lee informed me that he received every dem 
 ocratic vote in his district for Congress against 
 Joseph H. Raney. 
 
 " I might multiply instances similar, but it is 
 unnecessary, as enough has been stated to show 
 that the party has not been backward in 
 this respect. But our tenderest corns have 
 always been hurt at the thought of voting with 
 the democrats. We should not continue as a 
 menace dangerous and intolerable to the peace, 
 harmony, and prosperity of the South by re 
 fusing to divide our suffrage. A free govern- 
 
62 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 ment is based on the intelligence of its voters ; 
 herein lies its safety. On this line the fittest 
 must survive. We have bred statesmen, but 
 of the undergrowth sort, with marvelous 
 rapidity. They have seemed indigenous with 
 the soil, yes, perennial. Indeed, they have 
 grown at the expense of other and more im 
 portant growths, namely, the value and dignity 
 of agricultural labor have been kept in the 
 background, in which vocation we have had 
 some training and experience and in which we 
 can be the peers of any race. We have been 
 dealing with the mint, anise, and cummin of 
 politics and have neglected the weightier mat 
 ters that develop the character of a race. In 
 this direction our moneyed men, especially 
 those who have reaped a full financial harvest 
 on the ground and strength of race representa 
 tion, should be our pioneers. What we had 
 hoped from a national- point of view was, 
 that the Republican United States Supreme 
 Court would have guaranteed to us in our 
 weakness the same protection that it did to 
 Mr. Justice Field ;. but they sent us to the 
 states, there to work out our own salvation. I 
 have always favored by word and deed a most 
 rigid execution of the laws against all violence, 
 political or otherwise, and clo still. In other 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 63 
 
 places besides the South are continually occur- 
 ing outbreaks between white laborers of differ 
 ent nationalities, resulting in bloodshed, due 
 to too close crowding on the labor field. We 
 are apt to have more or less crowding in the 
 political arena. Our misfortune has always 
 been in these political crowding contests, that 
 we have been all found on the one side. I 
 have known reckless republican politicians who, 
 for the sake of political gain, would fain 
 jeopardize the lives of our families at any 
 moment to serve their own political turn. 
 
 " I repeat again, we must have peace, that our 
 prosperity and progress may have their full 
 development and the real strength of our 
 character shown. The magnanimity shown to 
 colored office-holders by Mr. Cleveland and 
 his administration was without parallel and 
 will remain so, and a marked contrast to the 
 present administration, which removed the few 
 colored men whose republicanism was the last 
 engrafted, even those supposed to be protected 
 by the civil service. The colored Voters in Ohio 
 are being appealed to to save the state to Maj. 
 McKinley, but we doubt their willingness to 
 be hoodwinked and to follow as in 1888, es 
 pecially on the tariff issue. The action of 
 republicans in Ohio and elsewhere in the 
 
64 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 adoption into their platforms and speeches the 
 cardinal and time-honored principles of the 
 democrats, namely free sugar and freer trade, 
 or, as it is termed, reciprocity, but universally 
 known as freer trade. And this fact lends 
 peculiar significance to our espousal of the 
 democratic creed, because we believe that it 
 embodies principles more conducive to the 
 happiness of the masses as against the classes. 
 Why should not I, if agreeable to both of us, 
 be allowed to swap jack-knives with my old 
 school fellow, Jim Broaclbent of Kent County, 
 Canada ? Or to carry the suggestion still 
 farther, why not be allowed to exchange a 
 bale of cotton from the South for tin pans 
 in Liverpool without the government step 
 ping in and claiming a few of the pans ? 
 We have found the Canadian and English 
 people we have met a fair dealing folk, I 
 dare say, as much so as any South Americans. 
 " Many republicans to-day in their exuber 
 ance of spirit assert that, having stolen the 
 democrats thunder, confidently expect to elect 
 their president by it. A casual glance in states 
 where a high protection is demanded will show 
 that free-trade in foreign labor has been the 
 rule, and protection to American labor, white 
 and black, the exception. A more critical in- 
 
SUFFRAGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 65 
 
 vestigation will carry you still further, even to 
 the importation of foreign domestics. To the 
 cheapest market these protectionists have gone 
 for bone and sinew. A glance to our police 
 court record shows that we ourselves have 
 wrongs to right as well as rights to urge. 
 That a higher degree of morality, honesty, 
 sobriety, attention to manual labor, faithful in 
 its discharge, are needed. 
 
 "While we surfer from the effects of trade 
 unions that exclude our young men from en 
 tering, notwithstanding this we should do all 
 that our hands find to do, and do it well. Our 
 well-ordered homes, our schools, and our 
 churches have much to do through faithful 
 parents, intelligent and devoted teachers, and 
 ministers in this work of reform. And this 
 reminds me, during the ill-advised agitation in 
 favor of the force bill by a number of our 
 people, a prominent republican remarked to 
 me that the sharpest speech made against the 
 democrats and in favor of the equality of the 
 negro was made by a colored man, who never 
 attend our schools and churches because they 
 are colored, and yet urges a colored represen 
 tation whenever profitable. That is clever, of 
 course, and even sharp, and as Gov. Pinchback 
 
66 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 would put it, but cowardly, and I submit in 
 such cases, which are very rare, white repre 
 sentation would be preferable. It is very 
 essential so long as we bear race distinction, 
 race identity, and urge and receive race repre 
 sentation on behalf of race that we should 
 cultivate a larger race pride, especially in our 
 schools and churches. 
 
 " From the names given to our public 
 schools the gratifying idea is conveyed that 
 we do encourage a larger race pride. What 
 man, woman, or child of us that did not take 
 a personal pride in the professional standing, 
 the high sense of honor, dignity of character, 
 and great benevolence of the late Dr. Samuel 
 LeCount Cook. All remember with pride the 
 late Miss Briggs as an educator, and Miss Lucy 
 Moten, whose success has been most marked, 
 and as an educator has few equals. Of course 
 there might be here and there a trifling excep 
 tion. Independence of character and cash are 
 the great solvents of the problem. 
 
 " In conclusion let me say, let us in all these 
 questions have strength of character enough 
 to view them in all their bearings dispas 
 sionately, that we may determine which is 
 right and which is wrong and false, that we 
 may hold fast only to that which is good and 
 
SUFFRAGE ix THE SOUTHERN STATES. 67 
 
 true. And if by our organization we should 
 succeed in directing thought in independent 
 channels, unbiased by party prejudices, our 
 efforts will not have been in vain." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION AND THE 
 BENEFITS TO ACCRUE THEREFROM 
 TO THE NEGRO RACE AND OUR DUTY 
 IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. 
 
 THE first and only opportunity offered in 
 
 ^ this or any other country for the display 
 
 of our industrial progress or whatever 
 
 intellectual genius we may possess has been 
 
 given us through the Atlanta Exposition. 
 
 This opportunity coming to us as it does in 
 the best form and under most favorable 
 auspices from the responsible leaders of 
 government and civilization, among whom 
 we live unquestionably showing hope and con 
 fidence in our future. We can ill afford to 
 neglect to improve the chances held out to us, 
 showing as it does, that the initial step has 
 certainly been taken and in the right direction. 
 In this invitation we are made to feel and 
 comprehend philosophically that whatever 
 
 (08) 
 
THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION. 69 
 
 efforts we may have made toward the establish 
 ment of harmonious relations through a peace 
 basis are beginning to bear fruit. For the 
 scheme we bespeak great success which will 
 redound to our lasting credit and much bene 
 fit, in spite of the cold shoulder given it on 
 the part of the negro republican leaders, which 
 can be traced to political rather than material 
 reasons. This exposition has its origin in the 
 best sentiment and most popular representa 
 tives of those whose interest is advanced even 
 by that of our own and should meet with 
 our heartiest encouragement and best efforts 
 in its advancement. 
 
 The colored commissioners of the District 
 of Columbia are made up from the best, most 
 intellectual representative and progressive men 
 and women of our race. The zeal and energy 
 with which they have set about the task as 
 signed them is highly commendable and evi 
 dently knows no such word as failure. En 
 couragement of this commission should not be 
 confined to race lines but should extend to all 
 feeling an interest in our advancement, carry 
 ing, as it does, much concern to eight million 
 
70 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 citizens. This exposition is, at once, prospec 
 tive and retrospective, and whatever has been 
 mere speculation in the past respecting us 
 can and will now be made into history. To 
 our white fellow citizens, desiring the advance 
 ment of labor and the development of good 
 citizenship, an appeal, we feel, will not be in 
 vain. From this class the commissioners we 
 hope and trust will receive substantial aid. 
 
 We appeal to our white friends in this effort 
 of ours, feeling that it is one which gives 
 promise of good results, through the promo 
 tion of a more stable and harmonious rela 
 tionship, being an encouragement to labor, 
 its value and dignity as well, since any im 
 provement to negro labor brings greater com 
 pensation and its attendant benefits, resulting 
 to* our benefit and lasting gain. 
 
 Let us as a race contribute our full share 
 toward the success of this exposition. Let 
 our exhibits be varied, full, and complete. 
 We believe this should be made superior to 
 any former efforts in this direction, being de 
 signed to form a basis of race pride, and a 
 better citizenship. 
 
THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION. 71 
 
 To our mind, this effort should form a 
 grand and successful epoch in the history of 
 our race development, so that our brothers 
 and sisters, throughout the South especially, 
 will gratefully remember this work, which must 
 stand as one of the initial steps toward a 
 higher civilization ; then we shall, in race 
 mechanism, be encouraged ; then we shall, in 
 meritorious conduct of men and women, be 
 rewarded and habits of industry encouraged ; 
 then we shall for ourselves observe a system 
 of civilization inaugurated and good results 
 following, our children educated in a higher 
 and nobler life to their lasting benefit ; then 
 we shall obtain a knowledge concerning our 
 progress, and grounds for future hope will be 
 made practically apparent. 
 
 Since, as a race, we were given no chance, 
 certainly no encouragement, to participate in 
 the Columbian Exposition, that we might 
 show to the civilized world what progress we 
 had made since our emancipation, it doubly 
 behooves us, since the management at Atlanta 
 has made special efforts in our behalf, to clo 
 all in our power not only to show our appre- 
 
72 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 elation but to make as creditable a showing as 
 lies in our power. Hence to our minds this 
 opportunity is far-reaching in its consequences 
 and results. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LABOR QUESTION DISCUSSED - 
 THE BENEFITS WHICH MUST COME 
 TO THE NEGRO THROUGH THIS 
 FIELD. 
 
 rnHROUGHOUT America and civilized 
 r > Europe the chief concern of many of 
 the leading statesmen is the betterment 
 of labor. No statesman of note can be found 
 willing to go on record as championing any 
 cause inimical to labor and its highest devel 
 opment. 
 
 We, as a race, have no weapon of defense 
 which we can wield with greater effect and 
 force than labor, labor from the stumpage up. 
 Through the channels of labor the future of 
 our cause advanced, and the solution of the 
 race problem largely solved. Remembering 
 that not only is a race problem to be solved 
 but a great human cause to be subserved. In 
 
 4 (73) 
 
74 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 the field of labor our position can be made 
 commanding, as its principle and knowledge 
 may be said to enter somewhat into our tradi 
 tional history, always bringing strength and 
 value, progress and morality following most 
 certainly in its wake. In this field, under 
 proper conditions and leadership, we can be 
 more successful pioneers from start to finish. 
 Through this field the best forces we possess, 
 for our development, are brought into requisi 
 tion. 
 
 Embarking in this field, we believe it is one 
 of the most certain routes giving promise of 
 the achievement of success and insuring a safe 
 foundation upon which to stand. 
 
 Our negro republican leaders seem to be 
 unable to comprehend the great changes 
 which have been brought about in the fabric 
 
 o 
 
 of this government and to foretell future 
 events or to judge of consequences, so largely 
 dependent upon our own actions. We have 
 felt that these leaders have indulged us over- 
 
 o 
 
 much in what they are pleased to term our 
 liberties. 
 
 The real significance in the moral and 
 
THE LABOR QUESTION. 75 
 
 material growth of liberty is its rise and 
 progress toward a higher civilization, and just 
 in the proportion as we understand and com 
 prehend our duties, obligations, and respon 
 sibilities. In this direction lies the surest 
 guarantee to substantial liberty ; and above 
 all else, we cannot afford to be blind to the 
 real nature and power of our obligations. 
 Resting under liberty s call, one of the strong 
 est armors of defense which we possess is 
 labor. 
 
 This field is consistent with our power and 
 resources, giving us our best and most success 
 ful route along the line of our progress, the 
 one traveled by the dominant race in their 
 development of a civilization the world over. 
 
 Let this, then, be the channel through 
 which we shall travel. 
 
 Whatever diversity may follow along this 
 route, of whatever character it may be, so long 
 as it is honest, impressed as we are with its 
 value and dignity, let it be labor, honest labor. 
 We uncover our head to labor and stand in 
 reverence, when we fully comprehend it as 
 a potent factor in civilization. Labor brings 
 
76 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 us to the nearest possible approach to equal 
 terms with dominant civilization and its influ 
 ences everywhere. Especially is this true of 
 the South, bringing, as it does, more freedom 
 and peace, entering into the establishment of 
 a peace basis so much sought. 
 
 This is essentially our field ; in it we can 
 become the peer of the proudest. This we 
 can say from personal knowledge and experi 
 ence ; in this field we can hoe our own row, 
 and, if we will, own it, with none to dispute 
 our ownership. Through this field our most 
 practical benefits and advantages are worked 
 out, thus making us not only a potent factor 
 in that line, but reaching out in all directions 
 and into all avenues. 
 
 Moreover, after the unceremonious hauling 
 down of our colors in the matter of suffrage 
 in the District of Columbia, under the gilt- 
 edge chieftains in their attempt at leadership, 
 the indications were quite clear that in order 
 to extricate ourselves from the wreck of fail 
 ure all along the line, and in everything, 
 we should take anchorage seek a basis of 
 operation upon firm and approved ground, in 
 
THE LABOR QUESTION. 77 
 
 the field of labor. We have felt, and do still 
 feel, that in this field a safe basis could and 
 can be found for a common standing, reach 
 ing, ultimately, to an intelligent understanding 
 of the uses and abuses of manhood and citi 
 zenship ; but in this, as in other great fields 
 of human effort, looking 1 forward to securing 
 
 o o 
 
 the best average benefit to our race, number 
 ing eight millions in this country. And right 
 here let us say, and with emphasis too, that 
 one of the obstacles to our progress under 
 our new aspects and relation to society is a 
 want of inflexible test of truth and falsehood, 
 of right and wrong. These qualities and vir 
 tues are indispensable to our race. They are 
 especially so in our struggling, as we honestly 
 are, for a basic standing bearing the test of 
 the closest scrutiny ; thus aiding us in the 
 most patriotic manner to discharge, creditably 
 and acceptably, the high functions of the 
 citizen. 
 
 The result of both experience and observa 
 tion convinces us that we are most at home in 
 the fields of labor. 
 
 While residing in Western Canada with my 
 
78 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 parents, many years ago, we noticed with 
 great profit the successful founding and devel 
 opment of a negro settlement, and that, too, 
 under the most unfavorable auspices soil, 
 climate, and production were alike against us ; 
 notwithstanding all these we developed a 
 power, force, and aptitude, suitable not only 
 to the ordinary concerns of life but to the 
 higher duties of morality and citizenship. 
 This achievement was wrought out .in the 
 heaviest forest from the stump up, from gath 
 ering of the harvest to the better under 
 standing and proper use and value of its 
 proceeds. 
 
 This pioneering was under white leadership, 
 the Rev. Dr. King, the most patriotic gentle 
 man of Irish nativity I ever met. The sur 
 rounding country being made up with strug 
 gling Scotch, Irish, and English farmers, fair 
 and patriotic white leadership and exemplars, 
 by reason of their long training and experience 
 in civilization, is best and must stand until we 
 have made leadership possible through similar 
 processes of development of a successful peace 
 basis, and rearing thereon a structure of char- 
 
THE LABOR QUESTION. 79 
 
 acter and strength of character sufficient for 
 those and other responsible duties and obliga 
 tions. Therefore, making ourselves, through 
 
 o o 
 
 an honest and truthful regard for our employ 
 er s interest as well as our own, whatever may 
 be the kind or character of work performed, 
 making ourselves, thereby, indispensable, re 
 spected, protected, and sought. In this 
 field our strength, as citizens, may be com 
 puted in the great equation of valuable and 
 desirable citizenship. In this field a success 
 ful and beneficial reapproachment is made 
 easy and manifestly in order at any time, 
 which will cause us to be noted in history and 
 popular tradition. In this field Negro- Ameri 
 can labor may yet become one of the peaceful 
 arbitrators in peaceful and successful solution 
 of the labor system in this country, which 
 must and will redound to the lasting credit of 
 the race a credit that will bring to us inter 
 est compounded, which will add not alone to 
 our wealth in a material way, but in ever)- 
 thing that goes to make a race or a nation 
 strong and powerful. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOGICAL RESULT OF INVESTIGATION COM 
 MENTS ON PROMINENT COLORED OFFI 
 CIALS OF APPROVED CHARACTER, BOTH 
 DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS, OF THE 
 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND COMMENTS 
 ON RACE LEADERSHIP. 
 
 WE have learned that some surprise exists 
 on the part of one or two gentlemen 
 of the adverse attitudes of negro dem 
 ocrats, and other citizens, as well as negroes 
 throughout the country, toward a certain 
 appointment made by the President in the Dis 
 trict of Columbia, designed, doubtless, to rep 
 resent negro democracy in particular and a 
 race of eight millions in general. 
 
 In all racial appointments (receiving so few 
 as we do in proportion to our numerical 
 strength), we very naturally and properly scru 
 tinize and investigate their worth, merit, and 
 weight, not merely avoirdupois, or bulk, but 
 
 (80) 
 
RACE LEADERSHIP. Si 
 
 intellectual weight. Our investigations reveal 
 such worthy and efficient appointees that have 
 served the District of Columbia as the follow 
 ing: Hon. John F. Cook, for many years Col 
 lector and later Assessor of the District; Hon. 
 B. K. Bruce, Recorder of Deeds; Hon. Fred 
 Douglass, who held the last-named office for 
 several years, and was also United States Mar 
 shal for the District; Colonel Perry Carson, 
 the very efficient District Inspector ; W. Calvin 
 Chase, Esq., who was also an efficient District 
 Inspector; all of whom were republicans, 
 and all of them men whose character was above 
 reproach and whose standing was very high, 
 both in the District and country. Their con 
 duct in office was that of careful, honorable, 
 and painstaking officials, meriting high com 
 mendation at all times. 
 
 Of the two democratic appointments in the 
 District that have stood scrutiny and investi 
 gation on the lines above laid down, one is the 
 Hon. J. C. Matthews as Recorder of Deeds, and 
 at present recorder of the capital city of the 
 great State of New York, an office of great 
 honor and responsibilit}^, which carries with it 
 
82 PHILOSOPHY or NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 high judicial functions. We can form a pretty 
 fair estimate of the character of Judge Mat 
 thews by considering that he has been elected 
 to this high office by a constituency composed 
 almost wholly of white voters. The circum 
 stances and conditions under which he has 
 reached his present elevated position render it 
 difficult to estimate the value of the service he 
 has rendered and is rendering his race. The 
 significant verdict when he surrendered the 
 office in Washington was that his conduct of it 
 had never been surpassed, if ever equaled, by 
 his long line of predecessors; and we may 
 safely say that the verdict will be the same 
 when he surrenders the office he now holds; 
 and it can be relied on that he will serve out 
 his full term, and well done, approved, will be 
 for him no extravagant verdict. Judge Mat 
 thews has reached his present position through 
 his strict adherence to true democratic princi 
 ples and through his belief that the best inter 
 ests of his race lay in the division of their 
 suffrage, and through their integrity and high 
 moral principles, which must win. 
 
RACE LEADERSHIP. 83 
 
 The other democratic appointment referred 
 to was that of Hon. James M. Trotter, also 
 Recorder of Deeds for the District. He brought 
 with him from his home in Massachusetts an 
 irreproachable character, which he maintained 
 through his term, and no suspicion of immor 
 ality clouded his official career, and his official 
 conduct was above reproach. 
 
 Respecting the Hon. Mr. Cheatham, a repub 
 lican recently appointed Recorder of Deeds for 
 the District, his advent into office shows him 
 to have an appreciable conception of his duties 
 and moral obligations to the community, and 
 prove him a competent and trustworthy man- 
 one who will reflect credit on his race ; and of 
 him, as well as of all the above-named gentle 
 men, it can be truthfully said that any lady, be 
 she white or colored, could enter his office 
 without the slightest insult being offered her 
 either directly or by implication. 
 
 Again adverting to Judge Matthews as a 
 democrat, it is very suggestive of the consider 
 ation shown the race by the democratic party. 
 We have taken no little pains to investigate 
 the amount of recognition shown the race by 
 
84 PHILOSOPHY, OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 both of the great political parties in northern 
 constituencies and fail to find any snch recog 
 nition shown the race by the republican party 
 as that shown it by the democratic party in the 
 election of Judge Matthews to the position he 
 now holds. Even the late Fred Douglass, 
 during his long residence in Rochester, N. Y., 
 never received such honor and recognition. 
 This affords food for deep thought to thinking 
 men and women, and shows plainly that their 
 best interests lie in a division of suffrage. 
 Such a leader as Judge Matthews can be relied 
 on to resist the assumptions of characterless 
 scoundrels and made-to-order leaders whenever 
 found in the ranks of negro democracy. The 
 same can be said of Geo. T. Downing, of Rhode 
 Island; of Lloyd G. Wheeler, of Chicago, 111.; of 
 Peter H. Clark and J. Milton Turner, of Mis 
 souri; of C. A. Ridout, of the State of Wash 
 ington; of James Ross, of Iowa; of Archie 
 Grimke, of Massachusetts ; and numerous other 
 colored democrats of character and intelligence. 
 We desire race leadership possessing the 
 highest conception of duty and lofty apprecia 
 tion of moral character and approved capability 
 
RACE LEADERSHIP. 85 
 
 whenever possible, but where such cannot be 
 obtained we prefer fair-minded white leadership 
 representing equality under the law, especially 
 a leadership that does not shrink from the 
 espousal of truly Jeffersoiiian principles and 
 doctrines. To illustrate our position : At the 
 meeting of the National League at Indian 
 apolis, Ind., we favored the election of General 
 Upshur as president of a Negro Democratic 
 National League if a new organization was to 
 be formed, for the reason that his successful 
 formation and management of our campaign 
 league, operating in the close Northern and 
 Eastern States, made us feel in honor bound 
 to make him a tender of its presidency, even if 
 he would not accept it. For the signal ability 
 displayed by him in the management of that 
 campaign (referring of course to the campaign 
 of 1892), and his knowledge of the men upon 
 whom he relied for the work, well fitted him 
 to say who should lead the new organization if 
 one was to be formed. 
 
 General Upshur being (as we all knew) in 
 different to the bitter opposition attacks for his 
 services in this direction never swerved to the 
 
86 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 right or left and made a division of the negro 
 votes in these close States a positive reality as 
 well as a determined factor. 
 
 Let us say right here, we least of all ca:c 
 afford to sanction or encourage the pretensions 
 of self-constituted leaders in whom we may 
 discover a characterless monstrosity. We have 
 doubtless suffered overmuch from improper 
 leaders, and we should have no place for them. 
 Should such leaders be forced on us against 
 our will and protest, to satisfy personal obliga 
 tions regardless of moral requirements and a 
 keen appreciative sense of their maintenance, 
 we cannot afford to lower the standard of citi 
 zenship to which we aspire, and which can only 
 be reached and attained along the line of true 
 character. 
 
RACE LEADERSHIP. 87 
 
 INTEGRITY OF SUFFRAGE. 
 
 It is not now, nor has it ever been, our pur 
 pose to write simply as a critical partisan, but 
 rather with a sincere desire to promote and 
 elevate the standard of negro citizenship in 
 this republic. The true philosophy of suffrage 
 lies in its integrity. "Out for the stuff" or 
 "for what there is in it" are remarks fre 
 quently heard by both white and colored 
 voters, and most reprehensible and defenceless 
 remarks they are, which we, especially as a 
 race, can least afford to make or act out, for 
 the reason that we are only making a record 
 especially with reference to our new relation to 
 the body politic. Our actions must deserve 
 approval before our claims to proper recogni 
 tion will be fully conceded. Moreover, such 
 sentiments or expressions of this character are 
 grievously wrong even in the whites, and does 
 violence to proper citizenship notwithstanding 
 their accepted record for civilization. Ours 
 being still in embryo, so to speak, such re 
 marks would be still more harmful. On the 
 
88 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 whole, coming from any race, they should be 
 rebuked as being detrimental and destructive to 
 good citizenship. Ours being an imitative 
 race, when asked why we do thus and so, our 
 answer invariably is, "the whites have done 
 it," "the whites do the same." Precisely so; 
 but we submit as a logical proposition that 
 simply because raw meat is sold in the market 
 is no reason why it should be eaten raw at the 
 table ; on the contrary, it would be better when 
 cooked and seasoned. Hence, when we imitate 
 it should be the more mature and sincere of 
 white sunragants. Aside from this, let us es 
 tablish a character line based upon an elevated 
 and ideal standard. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 CIVIL SERVICE TOUCHED UPON. 
 
 I 
 
 E favor civil service to the extent of its 
 giving security to employes during 
 specific terms, according to grades, 
 always selecting the most meritorious, and 
 enlarging it if necessary. 
 
 Some four or five years ago, in speaking 
 with the Hon. Clifton R. Breckinridge and 
 Hon. W. J. Bryan, who were always interested 
 to know how our people felt, whether the 
 law operated favorably or unfavorably to us, 
 we gave as our opinion that the merit system 
 shouH be retained ; that the life tenure was 
 un-American, un-democratic, and pro-aristo 
 cratic, and would lead to class distinctions ; 
 a proper grading from a nine-hundred-dol 
 lar clerkship up; -a fixed tenure according to 
 grade would always keep the maximum of 
 
 the force and vigor to the minimum of old 
 
 (89) 
 
90 PHILOSOPHY OF NKGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 age ; and inefficiency through rotations. We 
 oppose the one-man power in making appoint 
 ments, rather feeling that divided responsi 
 bility should obtain between the political 
 leaders of their respective sections and the 
 chief executive. We believe firmly in party 
 accountability and responsibility being essen 
 tial to hearty party life and activity and the 
 best good of the country ; otherwise a sub 
 version and reversion of party zeal checked. 
 Patriotism is never confined exclusively to 
 any certain individual or class. Whatever 
 stimulates our commanding general also stim 
 ulates the staff officers and line men as well. 
 Oftentimes there is as much patriotic heroism 
 displayed on the part of the private on the 
 field of battle as on the part of the com 
 manding general and staff officers. Where 
 the one-man power is paramount, power and 
 responsibility is too often selfish and personal. 
 Appointments are very often made regardless 
 of public requirements and patriotic party 
 service, and regardless of public approval -> 
 too often in the face of both. We deem it 
 unfair to reproach an honest, fair, rugged, and 
 
CIVIL SERVICE. 9 1 
 
 sincere party man as a spoilsman on account 
 of his seeking to obtain office from his party, 
 whether it be the highest place or reaching 
 down to the lowest place within its gift of 
 bestowal. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A WORD OF COUNSEL TO THE NEGRO 
 VOTERS OF MARYLAND AND KEN 
 TUCKYSEEKING STRENGTH FROM 
 THOSE BEST ABLE TO RENDER IT. 
 
 T^ifTE are sure winners this time in both 
 y y states," was the remark of an en 
 thusiastic republican, in speaking 
 of the approaching elections in Maryland and 
 Kentucky. From his reasoning a solid negro 
 vote is to be cast for the republican ticket re 
 gardless of issues or men. 
 
 Remarkable as this statement may seem, 
 that we as a race, after thirty and more years 
 of freedom, are still unable to assume the 
 functions of thinking American citizens, and 
 that our right to exercise suffrage has seem 
 ingly become perpetual and hereditary, con 
 tingent, however, upon voting the republican 
 ticket. 
 
 (92) 
 
A WORD OF COUNSEL. 93 
 
 The decision of the United States Supreme 
 Court in remanding us to the several states 
 for the enjoyment and security of our civil 
 rights should not be lost sight of ; hence in 
 the preservation of freedom and citizens rights 
 every possible advantage should be taken to 
 make them most effective, ascertaining who 
 constitute the dominant citizens in short, 
 "where are we at?" And if they are not to 
 be found on both sides, or even a preponder 
 ance on the one side or the other, then our 
 action should be wisely taken ; leaving no 
 pretext of a menacing character to be attrib 
 uted to us, scrupulously evading which, must 
 lead to a proper consideration of men on both 
 sides. In this way we gain for ourselves 
 and families standing and perpetual freedom 
 through our independent action and diver 
 sified suffrage. In the past the fetishness of 
 the Irish voter bred much antipathy toward 
 him for a time, from one of the great political 
 parties, which, through a diversity of suffrage, 
 has happily now disappeared. In this respect, 
 seeking to maintain a common basis for safety, 
 let us make the Irish our exemplars, which will 
 
94 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 give us strength and security where and when 
 most needed. 
 
 In our position and relation to the body 
 politic in the two states, constituting, as we do, 
 a large proportion of the labor element, we 
 cannot easily escape our proper responsibility 
 and welfare ; considering men and measures 
 on both sides, and to do it in the most intelli 
 gent and philosophic manner within our com 
 prehension. Our home and best interest are 
 here brought prominently to the front. The 
 load we carry, and the responsibilities we as 
 sume, cannot be met without assistance. We 
 must cultivate a friendly feeling, and thus grow 
 in favor with the people most able to aid us in 
 the promotion of our common rights and wel 
 fare. In doing this, it may become necessary 
 to make individual sacrifices. Any leader un 
 willing to do this is seeking to sow the seed of 
 discord and mischief for individual gain. We 
 should not ask from such approved men as 
 Senator Gorman and General Hardin, the re 
 spective leaders in their respective states, ante- 
 election and catchy letters, which are too often 
 meaningless and deceptive, but from their char- 
 
SOCIAL EQUALITY. 97 
 
 there may be others who entertain the same 
 erroneous notions, it would not, perhaps, be 
 out of place in this connection, to state what 
 we know to be the true attitude of our people 
 in this regard. 
 
 By what process of logical and honest 
 reasoning could we place ourselves in such 
 an obnoxious and absurd position without 
 giving the lie to the contention of our 
 great negro leaders, who have claimed or 
 affected to claim for us the highest powers 
 and capabilities for development p If they 
 are honest their actions should show it ; if 
 dishonest, they should publicly disavow any 
 such contention. From our own experience 
 and observation we assert that there is no 
 desire on the part of the negroes in this 
 country to assume any such false attitude ; 
 being as we are susceptible of improvement, 
 and improving as we are, why should we 
 wish for anything so absurd and unrea 
 sonable ? 
 
 The statement of Governor O Ferrell of 
 Virginia, that in the transaction of public 
 business he knew no difference between citi- 
 
98 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 zens, should stand. There is no ground, 
 really, for the criticism of the governor s ac 
 tion in the Teohms incident in the executive 
 mansion on social grounds. At the mansion 
 the governor is king it is his citadel he 
 has a right to draw the line there as in his 
 private residence : indeed, it is his private 
 residence, just as the White House is the 
 president s private residence. 
 
 We remember that President Grant in en 
 tertaining the Santa Dominion Commission 
 did not see fit to include the late Fred k 
 Douglass, who was a member of the Com 
 mission as its Secretary. 
 
 We were surprised that any one possess 
 ing ordinary intelligence should have allowed 
 themselves to be placed in such a compromis 
 ing position as Teohms did. 
 
 In the matter of public rights public ac 
 commodations is something entirely different, 
 dependent on our civility, requirements, and 
 ability to pay for them. There are public 
 rights and really the common rights of the 
 citizen. While en route to Chicago, the Hon. 
 Clifton R. Breckinridge, accompanied by two 
 
SOCIAL EQUALITY. 99 
 
 ladies with their colored maids, intelligent 
 and neat in appearance, sitting across the 
 aisle in the dining car, was noticed by him 
 as not having been served by the colored 
 waiters ; he at once beckoned them to serve 
 them their breakfast ; they were hungry as 
 well as were the other travelers. There was 
 no social equality in this ; it was simply 
 a matter of common public rights of the 
 traveler. 
 
 While a student in Canada, Lord Spencer, 
 the first Lord of Admiralty in Mr. Gladstone s 
 and Lord Rosebcrry s Cabinet, known then as 
 Lord Althrop, dined at the same table, on a 
 public occasion, with the writer and the other 
 students. Neither did Lord Spencer nor any 
 body else regard the incident as one of social 
 equality. It was simply dinner time, and the 
 boys and girls were placed at the same table. 
 It did not affect the sensibilities of his Lord 
 ship in the least, as he made a happy address 
 to us on the occasion, and has since made in 
 quiries concerning us and our progress since 
 we left the institution. Minister Breckenridge 
 and Lord Spencer are broad-minded men, and 
 
ioo PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 can comprehend the difference between a 
 social and public right. To the mind of 
 the writer this distinction seems so clear 
 that any argument upon the subject is ab 
 surd and unnecessary. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA- 
 SUGGESTIONS AS TO THEIR IMPROVE 
 MENTA LACK OF DISCRIMINATION 
 OF THE NEGRO NOT YET FULLY DE 
 VELOPED. 
 
 JT[HE casual observer, noting our excellent 
 ^ school system in the District of Colum 
 bia, would be led to believe that no sug 
 gestion relative to its improvement would be 
 in order, touching its management. Through 
 the courtesy of the very efficient supervising 
 principal, Dr. J. H. N. Waring, in whose dis 
 trict we reside, we have been enabled to exam 
 ine the work done, from the first to the eighth 
 grades, coming under the management of three 
 most competent lady principals, Miss M. P. 
 Shadd, Mrs. M. E. Tucker, and Miss Laura 
 Dyson. Without any criticism, but rather in 
 the line of suggestion or observation, with the 
 
 (101) 
 
102 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 hope of adding additional strength between 
 these grades, and to these principals. While 
 they are thoroughly competent, owing to 
 conditions Which they cannot control, it is 
 not within their power to give out all they 
 could under improved conditions which should 
 be had, bearing the responsibilities, as they do, 
 of the seven lower grades below them, make 
 the duties for them too great. Their assist 
 ants should be selected from the best in the 
 corps. Great care and circumspection should 
 be had in the adjustment and re-adjustment of 
 the lower grades, selecting teachers in point 
 of fitness and adaptability, for each respective 
 grade ; a fifth-grade teacher should not teach 
 a first-grade school, and vice versa. 
 
 Since the great majority of the children 
 never go beyond the eighth grade, it becomes 
 necessary that they should receive all that it 
 is possible for them to obtain. This can only 
 be done by affording them every facility, even 
 to increasing the pay of these principals, con 
 sistent with their responsibilities. With this 
 view of the case we should at once lop off 
 some of the high school top paraphernalia as 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 103 
 
 being unnecessary and superfluous, and center 
 our energies where the greatest practical good 
 can go to the greatest number, thereby better 
 meeting the necessities of the hour. 
 
 Scientific accomplishment and development 
 will take care of themselves as we reach 
 these points in the line of special selections. 
 Instead of spending so much time and money 
 in the superfluous appendages in the high 
 school, let us devote that time and money 
 to the industrial department, thus bringing 
 it in closer touch with those grades which 
 are really our graduating point. We know 
 of the efficiency of some of the high school 
 teachers who could, with profit, be utilized 
 practically there. 
 
 It is no logical argument that the whites 
 have this or that in their high school, and 
 therefore we must ; the whites have greater 
 needs, greater opportunities, better openings 
 in the future. Ours are less ; they must be 
 made and met as we go along, great or 
 small, just in the proportion to our capacity 
 and developing power, only in such proper- 
 
104 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 tion will our high school requirements be 
 manifest. 
 
 We have often heard our negro leaders 
 and some of our school officials in the past 
 declare that our schools are as good as the 
 whites schools, that as such they could not 
 be made any better than they are. This 
 statement will not bear the test of truth 
 and logic. Schools are just what the people 
 are from which they draw ; in the very nature 
 of things can be no better. The whites have 
 
 o 
 
 behind them centuries of civilization, culture 
 in their homes, good home training to begin 
 with, while we have but little of these and 
 in a large number of homes none at all ; 
 hence for a long time to come our schools, 
 from the very conditions, must be far in 
 the rear. 
 
 In proof of what we say, the record of 
 the police court in the District shows to 
 our discredit. While we represent less than 
 one-third of the population we constitute 
 forty-three per centum of the crimes com 
 mitted, which is a conclusive argument that 
 our schools can not be equally as good a? 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 105 
 
 the white schools ; if as good, then the 
 effects produced are entirely different. 
 
 To be convinced of the class from which 
 our schools must largely draw for their 
 patronage, let a band of music strike up 
 and in swarms they appear as if by magic ; 
 from whence they issue it is difficult to tell, 
 lining the avenue, three and four deep, from 
 the Peace Monument to the President s man 
 sion, presenting a spectacle humiliating and 
 distrusting. 
 
 o o , 
 
 While we are opposed to sumptuary meas 
 ures yet it seems to us that, through our lead 
 ers and ministers, there should be some effort 
 on their part looking to the regulation and 
 manner of these parades, our appearances as 
 well as our conduct afterwards ; and right 
 here let us say, that we can boast of as 
 intelligent a ministry as in any State in 
 the Union. 
 
 We are inclined to make a too formidable 
 display of toggery dress on a scale quite in 
 compatible with our incomes. A reformation 
 en these lines is much needed. We spend 
 
io6 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 too much in dress ; we spend too much in 
 parades and picnics ; too much in building 
 churches. Let us have fewer churches and 
 more homes, more frugality. It is not what 
 we earn but what we save that lends weight. 
 Being forced to live in alleys is often our own 
 fault, the result of our extravagances. 
 
 We seem to lack the power or sense of a 
 proper discrimination, which will grow and 
 develop as we advance in civilization en 
 abling us to draw the line between morality 
 and immorality between virtue and vice ; 
 that approved character should first enter our 
 basic consideration for preferment. This ap 
 plies with double force and meaning to our 
 schools and churches and in all our higher 
 relations of life. We have not yet quite 
 learned the sanctity of the home and the ob 
 ligations and limitation which the marriage 
 relations carry and impose. 
 
 For the lack of discrimination, a friend of 
 mine was caused to remark to me : " Do you 
 see that fellow there with that woman across 
 the street ? I once took them both off from 
 whipping her husband. She is now this fel- 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 107 
 
 low s wife. This husband they were whipping 
 was finally driven from home and died in a 
 stable. This couple, doubtless, now consider 
 themselves leading members of one of our ad 
 vanced churches." A single inquiry as to 
 how this could be, caused him to remark : 
 " Oh, they have some belongings and can 
 occasionally give a good feed." 
 
 Until we shall have learned to make dis 
 crimination in these things, we have much to 
 
 o 
 
 learn and much to improve upon, in order 
 that our weapons of defense may be wisely 
 and well chosen. 
 
 That we may show the philosophy of negro 
 suffrage and the advantages growing out of 
 the proper use of it, we must convince the 
 American people that we are susceptible of 
 improvement in all those qualities which go to 
 make up character and strength of character. 
 
 The recent praiseworthy effort of Prof. Geo. 
 W. Cook of Howard University in reclaiming 
 the lads in his section of the city from vice 
 will be watched with much interest. He 
 should be encouraged and aided. 
 
 The successful management of the steam- 
 
io8 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 boat enterprise by a company composed of 
 negroes, headed by Mr. Webster, Mr. Keys, 
 and others, giving as it does employment to 
 a large number of colored men, demonstrates 
 the real power and force of interested race 
 advancement. 
 
 The successful management of the Freed- 
 men s Hospital under the management of that 
 eminent surgeon, Dr. Daniel H. Williams, 
 ably assisted by the executive officer and able 
 physician, Dr. John R. Francis, demonstrates 
 our capabilities under proper conditions and 
 surroundings of which they have been able to 
 surround themselves. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE AFRO -AMERICAN FREE SILVER CLUB 
 CHANGED FROM PALMER TO BRYAN CLUB 
 -DR. RILEY DEFENDS HIS POSITION. 
 
 TT7HE "John M. Palmer Colored Democratic 
 ^ Club," the oldest colored democratic club 
 in the United States (organized origi 
 nally in 1875), met September 10, 1896, and 
 changed its name by unanimous vote to "The 
 William J. Bryan Club." The president of 
 the club, Dr. Jerome R. Riley, an old citizen 
 and tax payer of Washington, the author of a 
 work on the race problem, entitled "The Phi 
 losophy of Negro Suffrage," which is conceded 
 to be the greatest work of its kind ever pub 
 lished, addressed the club as follows : 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I hold that this change of 
 name to the "William J. Bryan Democratic 
 Club" is at once timely and suggestive, and 
 most appropriate in view of the fact that Gen 
 eral Palmer is now opposing the regular nomi- 
 
 109) 
 
no PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 nees of the National Democratic party in con 
 vention assembled. 
 
 For the General s personality I have the 
 highest regard. 
 
 A few months ago the Chief Executive of 
 this nation issued his edict serving due notice 
 upon Great Britain and the world that the 
 Monroe doctrine should be maintained on this 
 continent, notwithstanding such maintenance 
 might involve many millions of money and 
 great sacrifice in flesh and blood of the com 
 mon people. That edict was applauded and 
 sustained with patriotic unanimity, regardless 
 of race or condition ; and this, too, without 
 even a hint or suggestion of by your permis 
 sion "John Bull," as being in any way requi 
 site or essential. Indeed, any such hint or 
 suggestion, I daresay, would have been regarded 
 as lunacy. By common consent the chief issue 
 in this campaign is the money question the 
 free and unlimited coinage of silver, as of gold, 
 at legal ratio. I make no pretense of being 
 specially versed in economic science, or even 
 the principles of civil government; but if we 
 can maintain the Monroe doctrine, although 
 
BRYAN FREE SILVER CLUB. in 
 
 involving the expenditure of millions of treas 
 ure and great sacrifice in flesh and blood, surely 
 the United States is able to regulate its own 
 monetary system in the interest and for the 
 promotion of the well-being of the toiling 
 masses of our own people, through peaceful 
 methods and measures, without the permission 
 of Great Britain or any foreign power. Must 
 the American people be forced to say of con 
 sistency, thy name is Humbug? This propo 
 sition from my point of view is both logical 
 and fair and of value. Therefore, without 
 begging, borrowing, or stealing, for any pur 
 pose of discussion, beyond personal investiga 
 tion which forces conviction and conclusion, 
 the free and unlimited coinage of silver would 
 result in swelling the volume per capita circu 
 lation of money, either directly or indirectly. 
 If this conclusion is founded in truth and good 
 reasoning, it must certainly result in affording 
 a better opportunity for the toiling masses to 
 obtain a living share. 
 
 If we can, then we will take the chances cf 
 its cheapness, although, as is often asserted, 
 it never vanishes nor hides, which is too often 
 
ii2 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 the case with confidence which vanishes, and 
 gold which hides. This is not a party or a 
 race question, but one involving the life and 
 benefits of the masses against over-fed and 
 domineering money changers. 
 
 Before the issnes of this campaign had been 
 joined, or the discussion had been properly 
 brought to the attention of the people who were 
 seeking more light on the subject, Mr. John R. 
 Lynch, as reported, hurried off to Canton to 
 inform Major McKinley that the colored voters 
 of this country were all for him, and to a man 
 would vote for him. Later Congressman Mur- 
 ?a.y, of South Carolina, assured the National 
 Republican Committee, as reported in the 
 public press, that the colored voters of his State 
 were all for the gold standard. Gold bugs 
 were they all of them whether they practi 
 cally knew the color of the money or not. Such 
 statements might be amusing, but for their 
 supreme ridiculousness, reflecting alike upon 
 our past progress and future possibilities. 
 When as a farmer s boy, herding sheep many 
 years ago, I depended in corralling them upon 
 the "old bell wether"; if he leaped the bar 
 
BRYAN FREE SILVER CLUB. 113 
 
 I felt perfectly safe in corralling the entire 
 herd. Their action was due to instinct alone. 
 Do these gentlemen, in these assertions, as 
 sume the attitude of "bell wether," and thus 
 place the whole race in the attitude of a herd 
 of so many sheep, moving by instinct, void of 
 all reasoning faculties, without independence 
 and courage, which ought to be the heritage of 
 all human beings? I do not believe that the 
 race as a part of the great body politic is satis 
 fied to occupy such a humiliating attitude in 
 this country. Indeed, I can assure you of the 
 contrary, knowing as I do personally of colored 
 democrats, colored republicans, colored popu 
 lists, even middle of the roadsters free silver 
 men all of them thus refuting any such 
 ignorant and reflecting assumption. 
 
 In all my reading of current and contem 
 poraneous literature touching the money ques 
 tion, the Indianapolis convention people and 
 Congressman Murray, of South Carolina, in 
 their representative capacity, are the first and 
 only ones to declare unequivocally for the 
 single gold standard. Even the republican 
 platform declares for both gold and silver just 
 
ii4 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 as soon as England and other nations will per 
 mit us to have it. Mr. Bryan says in the 
 interest of the toiling masses we should have 
 it now, that silver should never have been 
 struck down at the instance of the money 
 changers of this country and Europe. More 
 over, the history of government proves that 
 with all advancement in civilization through 
 political evolution new conditions have arisen, 
 giving rise to new parties, a readjustment of 
 old ones suitable to the new order of things. 
 Indeed, we find that there is no such thing as 
 perpetuity of political parties among white 
 people. 
 
 Hence our presence here to-night in support 
 of that veritable and intrepid leader of his 
 party and the people, William J. Bryan a 
 gentleman, a scholar, a lawyer, an orator and a 
 statesman, whose breadth of statesmanship 
 embraces the area of our common country and 
 all the races. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HON. JOHN R. MCLEAN COMMENDED TO THE 
 COLORED VOTERS FOR THEIR SUPPORT 
 AS AGAINST HON. M. A. HANNA A FEW 
 OF HIS MANY CLAIMS ON THEIR SUPPORT 
 SET FORTH POINTS IN THE DEMOCRATIC 
 AND REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS CON 
 TRASTEDREFERENCE MADE TO THE 
 LATE ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND AND 
 KENTUCKY, AND HONS. BLAIR LEE AND 
 CABEL BRECKINRIDGE MENTIONED. 
 
 f^T AM a true believer in the Jeffersonian 
 doctrine of equality under the law," was 
 the remark made in our hearing by the 
 Hon. John R. McLean, of Ohio, the gentleman 
 who is the subject of this chapter of commen 
 dation to the colored voters of that State, in 
 his office in Cincinnati nearly a quarter of a 
 century ago. We have been at some pains to 
 ascertain how far his subsequent actions have 
 tallied with the above remark in his dealings 
 
 (115) 
 
n6 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 and relations with our race. Several colored 
 citizens of that State, of good character and 
 well acquainted with Mr. McLean, have assured 
 the writer that his actions have not only 
 tallied, but have gone, if possible, several bow 
 shots beyond in his assurances of his truly 
 democratic feeling toward us. Such would 
 seem to be his inherited and traditional senti 
 ments. 
 
 By common consent he stands to-day before 
 the people of Ohio as the recognized opponent 
 of the Hon. M. A. Hanna as a candidate for 
 United States Senator. It is our duty as 
 thinking men and intelligent citizens to in 
 quire in what direction our interests lie, and 
 our voting strength should be thrown in this 
 contest. It is not sufficient to say simply how 
 we have always voted, but how should \ve vote 
 at the present time. While changes in our 
 economic relations are taking place and being 
 wrought out every day, we \vith infantile sim 
 plicity have followed our republican leaders 
 without why or wherefore, too timid to investi 
 gate and revolutionize if necessary and change 
 tenets and creeds in order to bring us in har- 
 
HON. JOHN R, McLEAN. 117 
 
 mony with present economic conditions and 
 requirements. 
 
 Wordsworth has written, "The child is 
 father of the man." This is a truism. Why 
 may not we, like St. Panl, put away some of 
 the belongings of our childhood, and infantile 
 voting impressions, if we are ever to reach 
 the plane of independent voters consistent 
 with the duties, interests, and requirements of 
 to-day. 
 
 A study of the Ohio democratic platform, 
 which has Mr. McLean s unqualified endorse 
 ment and approval, is in marked contrast to the 
 republican platform of the same State, on which 
 Mr. Hanna stands, especially in respect to 
 labor and its requirements. Our position must 
 ultimately be taken with labor and the produc 
 ing classes. Whatever interests white laborers 
 and producers, equally interests us. We are 
 in no sense interested in capitalistic organiza 
 tions, as under their system trusts and com 
 bines have been formed controlling all that we 
 eat, drink, and wear; regulating the prices of 
 all necessaries of life. We do not belone 
 
n8 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 there, as experience, through back and belly 
 requirements, has shown. 
 
 The most striking plank in the platform, 
 one which is in marked contrast to that of the 
 republican party and in strict accord with the 
 demands of organized labor, relates to our 
 money basis in this country, which, as set 
 forth, should be gold and silver bimetallism. 
 For this constitutional basis of money Mr. Mc 
 Lean has labored and stands, and as laborers 
 and producers our true interests lie in rallying 
 to his standard. Indeed, we have already 
 heard expressions from a number of the lead 
 ing colored citizens of the State of their pur 
 pose to support the democratic ticket and Mr. 
 McLean as a friend of labor as against Mr. 
 Hanna and the republican platform of "gold 
 and confidence," "gold and courage," "gold 
 and prosperity on the way," "gold and feel it 
 in the air," a platform more remarkable for 
 its euphony than for its staying qualities, for 
 the reason that the gold gets out of sight, 
 and the confidence and the courage too often 
 vanish. 
 
HON. JOHN R, McLEAN. 119 
 
 Gold and silver, says Mr. McLean, must be 
 the basis of our money standard, as best for 
 the American people and in their interest, and 
 on which our prosperity for all time depends. 
 We fail to see the consistency of the gold demo 
 crats in electing Mr. McKinley, a bimetallist 
 and high protection republican, some of them 
 still " pointing with pride " to their work. It 
 is the writer s special pleasure to note at this 
 moment, when so many of the colored voters 
 of Ohio seem to be aspiring to the realm of 
 independent political thought and action, in 
 the pending contest, that the true Jeffersonian 
 principles of Hon. A. H. Garland and Hon. 
 Clifton R. Breckenridge in Arkansas, nearly a 
 quarter of a century ago, commended them 
 selves to colored voters, and met their approval 
 and commanded their support, wliich we believe 
 to be especially true and marked in Ohio to 
 day under the leadership of that very able 
 representative, John R. McLean, of Cincinnati. 
 Aside from that, his great strength lies in his 
 fair dealing with and treatment of labor in 
 connection with his great printing establish 
 ment at his home city, or wherever his interests 
 
I2O PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 come in contact with labor and the producing 
 classes. No false promises were made, but a 
 strict observance of every obligation main 
 tained. Therein lies his great strength with 
 labor interests and the common people of Ohio, 
 who are to-day rallying to his support and 
 that of the democratic ticket. 
 
 This labor record of Mr. McLean seems to 
 be in marked contrast with the apparent facts 
 reported respecting the record of Mr. Hanna 
 in his dealings with labor and labor organiza 
 tions. If these reports are true he has failed 
 to concede to labor the fruits of honest toil, but 
 rather withheld and speculated on it. Hence, 
 doubtless, arises the strong opposition of organ 
 ized labor to him to-day. However, we hear 
 some criticism of Mr. McLean by a certain 
 "gold" democrat in Ohio on account of his 
 reputed wealth. Strange criticism, indeed, to 
 emanate from such a source, their God being 
 gold. Such a criticism, if true, signalizes him 
 as one wealthy man whose ears are not deaf to 
 the wants and necessities of common humanity 
 and labor s requirements, as the platform on 
 which he stands clearly sets forth. 
 
HON. JOHN R. MCLEAN. 121 
 
 As colored voters of Ohio, this opportunity 
 of supporting the nominees of the democratic 
 party in the State, standing as they do on a 
 platform broad-gauged and embracing the 
 absolute equality of rights, would seem oppor 
 tune, for the reason that it brings us in touch 
 with the defenders of the interests of the pro 
 ducing classes, which are our interests. Let 
 it be recalled that there was strong conflict of 
 opinion as to the propriety and wisdom of 
 granting our elective franchise on the ground 
 of our dense ignorance, lest it should be used 
 in an entirely partisan manner, under all con 
 ditions and circumstances, thus possibly becom 
 ing a menace to the public good. In many 
 instances this seems to have been done, as we 
 ourselves have heard the remark from promi 
 nent white republicans in forecasting results 
 before platform was really presented or an 
 issue discussed, "so many negro votes, so many 
 republican votes," which we are sorry to say 
 has too often been true, and has, we believe, 
 brought reproach to negro suffrage here and 
 elsewhere. 
 
122 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 The advice of our late friend and champion, 
 Charles Sumner, was to divide our suffrage, 
 and thus enhance our standing and strength 
 in the community advice which we should 
 heed. Moreover, the democratic platform, 
 with Mr. McLean s approval, has also de 
 nounced, in no uncertain terms, the failure of the 
 present State government to protect prisoners 
 criminally charged, especially so in the case of 
 the recent lynching at Urbana, where the pris 
 oner was easy of access to railroad and tele 
 graphic communication, no valid excuse can 
 be offered for its occurrence. 
 
 IN MARYLAND AND KENTUCKY 
 our votes have been thrown with remarkable 
 solidity for the republican ticket, making gov 
 ernors, senators, members of Congress, a 
 cabinet officer, and other good fat appointments 
 foreign and domestic. Our account of salvage 
 to date discloses five common laborers and six 
 messengers from those two States. Of course 
 cheap men are usually taken at their own price. 
 Our position in those" two States is that we are 
 
MARYLAND AND KENTUCKY. 123 
 
 largely dependent on our white fellow citizens 
 for the advantages of obtaining a livelihood, 
 for our school and church interests, and all the 
 advantages along the line of our improvement. 
 
 The majority of white voters in those two 
 States being largely democratic, it would be 
 well to inquire whether or not we advance our 
 material and community standing by thus 
 throwing a solid and massive vote for the 
 republican ticket. Of course, if we advance 
 our material relation and standing with the 
 white democrats on whom we are dependent 
 for family support, and church and school and 
 varied interests, let us continue our solidity; 
 but we believe the contrary to be true, that in 
 such solidity we invite severe criticism and 
 even hostility, and prevent neighborly com 
 munication on points of common interests. 
 
 We have the acquaintance of two leading 
 democrats in their respective States, Hon. 
 Blair Lee, of Maryland, and Hon. Cabel Breck- 
 inridge, of Kentucky, and unhesitatingly 
 affirm, from our political and personal acq.uaiiit- 
 ance with these gentlemen, that no republican 
 in any State in the Union would go farther in 
 
124 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 conceding, demanding, and defending our 
 rights as citizens tinder the law. We have 
 referred to these two States at an earlier 
 period, but through the action of the American 
 Publishing Company, of Hartford, Conn., the 
 publication of this work has been delayed to 
 the present moment, which makes it possible 
 and pertinent to refer to after-election results. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REFERENCE TO A PERSONAL AND PRIVATE 
 LETTER OF THAT GREAT DEMOCRATIC 
 LEADER AND CHAMPION OF THE PEO 
 PLE S CAUSE, HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, OF 
 NEBRASKA, TO THE WRITER REFERRED 
 TO INTELLIGENCE OF COLORED BIMET- 
 ALLISTS COMPLIMENTED BY HIM. 
 
 fTI HIS typical leader, with an ideal record, 
 r * indeed, a statesman without a blemish, 
 to-day stands before the people as the 
 uncompromising advocate of that constitutional 
 basis of money, gold and silver, the surest and 
 most reliable money basis for this country, 
 regardless of what outsiders or other countries 
 may think, has been denounced by dema 
 gogues and critics, as other great leaders and 
 reformers in the interest of the people have 
 been, as Sumner, Phillips, Garrison, and Lincoln 
 were. Hon. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, 
 in a private letter to the writer received only a 
 few weeks ago, complimented and commended 
 
 (125) 
 
126 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 the support given the cause by the intelligent 
 and thoughtful colored advocates of bimetallism, 
 their study of the question, and their ability 
 in reaching proper conclusions thereon, thus 
 showing his feelings toward all supporters of 
 the cause regardless of race. 
 
 Our freedom having been wrought out 
 through great conflict and agitation, we can 
 least afford to discourage or discountenance a 
 reform when carried 011 to promote the best 
 interests of the common people. We are a 
 believer in conflict whether in politics or 
 religion as being essential to the solution of 
 great problems and the production of the best 
 results. No thoughtful student of the history 
 of enlightened Germany can deny that the 
 agitation of the people through social democ 
 racy has wrought out and brought great 
 improvement to the masses. Under such a 
 leader as Mr. Bryan, standing on a platform of 
 equality before the law, what good reason can 
 we assign for not following him? From per 
 sonal acquaintance with and observation of 
 that gentleman, we unhesitatingly affirm that 
 no man lives who has a keener or more sin- 
 
HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 127 
 
 cere respect for the rights of all races, and 
 greater interest in their elevation. When 
 enlightened democracy chooses snch a leader 
 we can well afford to follow it, and not have it 
 said, as we have remarked before, in footing 
 up party strength and results in advance, "so 
 many colored votes, so many republican votes." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In closing this discussion for the present, 
 the writer desires it to be distinctly under 
 stood that in following the line on which he 
 embarked nearly a quarter of a century ago, 
 he has sought to deal philosophically with this 
 problem on its merits ; agreeable to the justice 
 of its proportions as we view it; in the hope 
 of ultimately, through a peace basis, of recon 
 ciling any feeling of enmity or hostility which 
 might have engendered since our changed 
 relations, as being inimical to popular interest. 
 
 The disadvantages under which we have 
 labored throughout this period precludes the 
 
128 PHILOSOPHY OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 possibility of vanity or any sordid personal 
 ambition on onr part. 
 
 Our only purpose, therefore, has been to 
 deal, as best we may, with freedom and the 
 obligations which it imposes. 
 
 NOTE. Respecting the delay in this publication, caused by 
 the American Publishing Company, of Hartford, Conn. Their 
 whole proceeding will be laid before the public at the proper 
 time, in the proper place, and in the proper manner. 
 
- > 
 
 
 RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 TO*- 202 Main Library 
 
 LOAN PERIOD 1 
 HOME USE 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405 
 
 6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books to Circulation 
 
 Desk 
 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 I AM 1 r v 1Q7Q 
 
 
 
 JAN !) Jf ^ 
 
 f^/r 13 
 
 
 
 EC. CI8, FEB 1 5 1 
 
 )79 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 FORM NO. DD6, 40m, 3/78 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
* > r *\a^ f _ ^.---, ~ V-? /^v flfts i/\> *^ 
 
 ^^m^.-^^. 1 .. . ^y^?^