THE AFTERMATH 
 OF SLAVERY 
 
THE AFTERMATH 
 OF SLAVERY 
 
 A STUDY OF 
 
 THE CONDITION AND ENVIRONMENT 
 OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM A. SINCLAIR, A.M., M.D. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, LL.D. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 MCMV 
 
Copyright, 1905, by 
 Small, Maynard <^ Company 
 
 (Incorporated) 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published April, 1905 
 Second edition July, 1905 
 
 The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A. 
 
TO ALL AMERICANS 
 WHO BELIEVE THAT THE FLAG SHALL BE 
 
 THE SYMBOL OF LIBERTY UNDER LAW 
 
 AND OF EQUAL RIGHTS BEFORE THE LAW 
 
 FOR ALL AMERICANS 
 
 500245 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 A Biographical Note ix 
 
 Introduction (by Thomas Wentworth Higginson) ... xi 
 
 I The Institution of Slavery and its Abolition . . 3 
 
 II Reconstruction and the Southern "Black Code" . 37 
 
 III Southern Opposition to Reconstruction .... 74 
 
 IV The War on Negro Suffrage 104 
 
 V The False Alarm of Negro Domination . . . . 153 
 
 VI The Negro in Politics 183 
 
 VII The Negro and the Law 215 
 
 VIII The Rise and Achievements of the Colored Race 259 
 
 IX The National Duty to the Negro 291 
 
 C 
 
 X Public Opinion Omnipotent 330 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 WILLIAM A. SINCLAIR, the author of this book, 
 was born in slavery at Georgetown, South Carolina. 
 When about four years of age, in the early part of 
 the Civil War, he was sold with his mother, from his home ; 
 but about a year after the close of the war, after many trying 
 experiences, they returned to his native place, where a partial 
 reuniting of the family was effected. William s father died 
 shortly after this, and the widowed mother became responsible 
 for the boy s maintenance and education. He attended the 
 local schools and prepared himself to enter upon a higher course 
 of study at Clafiin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina. 
 Thence he went to the well-known South Carolina College at 
 Columbia, that venerable institution of learning, which, in the 
 days of slavery, had been patronized by the aristocracy of the 
 state including Haynes, Rhett, McDuffee, Bamwell, and Cal- 
 houn, and which, under Republican administration of the state 
 after the close of the war, had been thrown open to colored as 
 well as white students. Colored students were debarred from 
 this college in 1877, and Mr. Sinclair entered Howard Uni 
 versity, Washington, D. C., where he graduated from the 
 college and tfieological departments and where he later received 
 the degree of Master of Arts. The next step in his educational 
 development was post-graduate study at Andover Theological 
 Seminary, where he won a prize for a dissertation and delivered 
 an address at the commencement exercises. 
 
 For six years he devoted himself to missionary work, under 
 the auspices of the American Missionary Association, at Nash 
 ville, Tennessee, and here he improved the opportunity to study 
 medicine at the MeHarry Medical College of Central Tennessee 
 University (now W olden University of Nashville), where he 
 took his medical degree, being also the salutatorian of his 
 class. 
 
 ix 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 During his college vacations Mr. Sinclair taught school, 
 and he has Jilled, with credit and success, the positions of 
 principal of the graded school at Georgetown, South Car 
 olina, and professor of natural sciences in Livingstone College, 
 Salisbury, North Carolina ; and for the past sixteen years he 
 has been Jinancial secretary of Howard University, Washing 
 ton, D. C. 
 
 Throughout the period of his education he displayed unusual 
 powers of oratory, and in his labors for Howard University he 
 has been heard in the pulpit and on the platform throughout 
 the United States, and in the United Kingdom as well. In this 
 Jield his natural abilities and his evident learning have every 
 where procured him distinctive recognition among thinking 
 people. 
 
 Throughout his travels Dr. Sinclair has discussed the race 
 question, publicly and at the Jireside, with persons of every 
 degree and station in life, and in the following pages he gives 
 to a wider circle than he can reach by personal discourse the 
 information that has been required of him concerning the con 
 dition and environment of the American negro. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 NO W that so many authors, Southern and Northern, have 
 suddenly broken out into the discussion of the so-called 
 negro problem, it is nothing more than fair that an 
 other negro author should have his word to say. The very 
 fact that these Southern contributions cover a very wide range 
 in quality, from, the really high-toned and enlightened work 
 entitled Problems of the Present South, by Edgar Gardner 
 Murphy, down to the demagogic glorification of the Ku Klux 
 Klan by the Reverend Thomas Dixon, Jr. this range of 
 thought makes it only right to recognize the effort of a colored 
 man to be fair and plain-spoken in doing justice to his side of 
 the house. 
 
 The attempt to do this, at least, is visible in every page of 
 the book to which this is a preface. One who like myself 
 has visited within nine months the heart of the former slave 
 states, who has seen the strong effort made by so many of 
 the Southern whites to do justice to the negro and who has 
 talked freely with Southern public men in my own case, for 
 instance, with the governors of three different states must 
 needs feel an impulse to take a hand when a colored writer 
 enters on a manly and courageous argument for his own side, 
 such as may be found in the volume which follows ; and I 
 cannot decline his request to write a preface for him. 
 
 Reading the book with some care, I could point out a few 
 passages with which I disagree, .but surprisingly few ; and 
 in some of these cases the disagreement proceeds from the fact 
 that I am a man old enough to recall a time when there existed 
 all around us at the North instances of the same kinds of in 
 justice of which we now properly complain when we see it at 
 the South. It seems like a bit of Egyptian darkness to Dr. 
 Sinclair for those states to have entirely separate schools for 
 the two races, but that does not seem so hopeless an evil to me, 
 who more than fifty years ago in two different cities in New 
 
 xi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 England took a hand in abolishing just such schools. The 
 first great step is to have public schools at all, either for white 
 or black. In the same way men justly complain of the " Jim 
 Crow" cars, as they call them ; but I, who can remember the time 
 in my childhood when a colored woman was taken out of a 
 stage-coach opposite what is now Cambridge Common, because 
 other passengers objected to her color, cannot feel the evil to be 
 so hopeless as he does. The South is merely passing through 
 a period such as Massachusetts passed through long ago, and 
 the great fact of importance is that it is being passed through 
 and men will get beyond it sooner or later. 
 
 I can remember, in the same way, when every Boston Di 
 rectory separated the two races, putting the colored families at 
 the end of the book ; and I can remember when the very editor 
 whojirst made the change told me of it beforehand, begging me 
 to keep it secret that the newspapers might not get hold of it. 
 " When the people once see it done," he said, " they will soon 
 forget that it ever was otherwise." Thus much I say of the 
 execution of the book, which is in almost all respects admirable 
 and shows much more thoroughness in dealing with both sides 
 than any book recently produced by a Southern white man, 
 except that of Mr. Murphy, which is a model to all in its tone, 
 though even that, I think, does here and there a little less than 
 justice to the negro. 
 
 Even this book does not fully bring out the utter injustice 
 done by Mr. Thomas Nelson Page when he ignores plain 
 facts in the following charge against the Southern negro : 
 " In 1865, when the Negro was set free, he held without a 
 rival the entire Jield of industrial labor throughout the South. 
 Ninety -five per cent of all the industrial work of the Southern 
 States was in his hands. And he was fully competent to do it. 
 Every adult was either a skilled laborer or a trained mechanic. 
 It was the fallacious teaching of equality which deluded him 
 into dropping the substance for the shadow." (Pagers The 
 Negro : The Southerner s Problem, p. 127.) Mr. Murphy 
 
 xii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 himself incautiously says : " TJie South has sometimes abridged 
 the negroes right to vote, but the South has not yet abridged 
 his right) in any direction of human interest or of honest effort , 
 to earn his bread" (Murphy s The Present South, p. 187.) 
 
 Yet if the reader of the present volume will turn to Chapter II 
 he will find many pages showing, on the authority of Mr. Elaine 
 and of Vice-President Henry Wilson, that there was a long period 
 of years when the legislation of state after state prohibited 
 every black citizen from earning his living by these higher 
 forms of labor which Mr. Page now blames a generation of 
 negroes for having lost from their grasp. Were it for these 
 pages only^ the perusal of the present work may be urged 
 upon every fair-minded man. It is nothing less than ludi 
 crous to complain of a generation of negroes for not bringing 
 up their boys to be mechanics when, as in South Carolina, the 
 legislature enacted that no person of color should pursue any 
 work other than husbandry without a special license from the 
 judge of the district court, this license being good for one year 
 only, and the boy aiming at it having to pay a license fee of ten 
 dollars. No such fees had ever been exacted from white men, 
 nor even from the free black man during the days of slavery. 
 
 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIQOINSON. 
 Cambridffe, Mass., Jan. 11, 1905. 
 
 Xlll 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY 
 AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 THERE is to-day a New South, and the colored people 
 are a material part of it. The Old South, with its 
 gruesome and unholy institution of human slavery, has 
 passed out of existence, never to return. It has, however, 
 left a heritage of complicated and vexatious problems, the 
 just and righteous solution of which will tax to the utter 
 most the resources of the statesman, the fidelity of the church, 
 and the patience and firmness of the nation. It is of prime 
 importance to note that the existing blighting evils which 
 are an infliction to both the white and the colored people are 
 not inherent in either people, but have their roots in the 
 essential barbarism of the slave system. 
 
 The Proclamation of Emancipation issued by the immortal 
 Abraham Lincoln was intended to break the fetters of the 
 slave ; but now it can be seen that it was also an emancipa 
 tion of the white people of the South. For slavery manacled 
 the conscience of the master as completely as it did the body of 
 the slave. Unhappily, neither the white nor the colored people 
 are yet fully set free from the brutalizing evils of the system. 
 It would seem that emancipation of the body can be more 
 readily accomplished than the emancipation of the conscience. 
 
 In the spirit of liberty, however, the colored people are 
 farther removed than the whites from the old regime. To 
 the colored people freedom came as a boon from heaven, a 
 special gift of God, an answer to the agonizing prayers of 
 centuries. It was a treasure above all price. But the white 
 people of the South took a different view of it. They loved 
 freedom for themselves and would die in defence of it ; un 
 fortunately, however, they regarded the freeing of the colored 
 man as a wrong to the white man. The virus of slavery was 
 
 3 
 
OF SLAVERY 
 
 present in the brain ! And so the chief efforts of Southei A 
 leadership have been to curtail the freedom of the colorfed 
 people, to minimize their liberty and reduce them as nearly 
 as possible to the conditions of chattel slaves. These efforts, 
 unremitting and sometimes violent, tremendously affect every 
 phase of Southern life. 
 
 In general, a spirit of cruel intolerance dominates the 
 * white population of the whole Southland. Its church life, 
 despite the many excellent and truly Christian members, both 
 men and women, betrays strange deformities and inconsist 
 encies ; in large measure ignoring alike the golden rule, 
 the Sermon on the Mount, the divinely beautiful lesson of 
 the Good Samaritan, and, in short, the more vital and cen 
 tral truth of the entire teaching of Jesus himself the 
 fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Christ s 
 saying, " All ye are brethren," is not interpreted with suffi 
 cient breadth to include the negro. 
 
 f " Free government " in the South means, in the attitude of 
 the whites toward the negro, disregard of the law, the repudi 
 ation of the orderly processes of the Courts of Justice, the 
 rule of the mob, and cruel proscription.^/ President Lincoln 
 declared that " those who would deny liberty to others are 
 not worthy of it themselves/ The white people of the 
 South, still clinging to the traditions of the slave system, have 
 continued to deny liberty to the colored man ; and to this 
 attitude is due the existence in that section of a state of law 
 lessness with its long train of evils. 
 
 It has thus come to pass that mobs torture human beings and 
 roast them alive without trial and in defiance of law and order ; 
 mobs shoot down women and children who have never been 
 charged with crime, and against whom there is no suspicion, 
 it is enough that they are negroes. Mobs take possession 
 of the streets of great cities and assault and shoot down inno 
 cent colored people, driving them from their homes and burn 
 ing their property, in one instance more than a thousand 
 
 4 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 colored people, men, women and children, being driven from 
 their homes in a single day. Mobs intercept and hold up 
 the regularly constituted officers of the law, take prisoners 
 from their possession and shoot them to death. Mobs break 
 into jails and take out prisoners and hang them, sometimes 
 in the jail yard, and riddle their bodies with bullets. Mobs 
 even invade the sacred precincts of the court-room, and 
 during the actual process of the trial, take prisoners from the 
 custody of the lawful authorities and shoot them in the very 
 temple of justice, or hang them in the court-yard in the pres 
 ence of judge, jury, and court officers, amid the shouts and 
 cheers of hundreds, and, at times, thousands of people. In 
 one instance sixteen colored men were shot to death on the 
 floor of the court-room in Mississippi, during the actual proc 
 ess of the trial of two colored men charged with a minor 
 offence. And these things are done, not in a corner, but 
 under the full glare of the noonday sun. 
 
 The white people of the South have taken pains to declare 
 through their public press and public men as if to mitigate 
 national indignation and forestall condemnation that all 
 these things were committed by their " best citizens." This 
 is a most startling indictment of the South, and by the South 
 itself, and is an apt illustration of the saying, " Who excuses, 
 accuses." It is not contended in these pages, however, that 
 all the white people of the South, or the most of them, or even 
 the " best " of them, are given over to unrighteous or riotous 
 proceedings. For the whole, or even the majority of a people 
 are not bad. There are always men and women, true and 
 good, as honest as the day is long, who " love mercy, do jus 
 tice, and walk humbly" as in the sight of God. 
 
 But that there is a prevalence of inconsistencies and barbari 
 ties and a reign of terror and blood which darken the sky of 
 the Sunny South, the land where 
 
 ** Everlasting spring abides 
 And never withering flowers," 
 
 5 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 is as clear as the light of the sun. The white people of the 
 South, however, are descended from noble and honored ances 
 tors, who were imbued with the highest ideals of liberty, 
 humanity, righteousness, and orderly government. Many of 
 these were originally opposed to the introduction of the insti 
 tution of human slavery, while others were sceptical or indif 
 ferent about it, and still others accepted it in the spirit of 
 liberal toleration. It is a generally acknowledged fact that 
 slavery at first existed in a mild and not very offensive form, 
 practically devoid of the barbarities and brutalities which 
 later characterized it, the slave owner being somewhat like a 
 feudal lord of more or less power and dignity, and the slave 
 holding a relation not far removed from that of a liege. It 
 is indisputable that the white people of the South carried on 
 among themselves for years an agitation for the abolition of sla 
 very, and that they probably would have abolished slavery, or 
 eliminated it by colonization or some other means, but for the 
 determined minor element composed of slaveholders, whose 
 influence was greatly reinforced by the invention, in 1793, of 
 the cotton gin, which while a most useful invention yet has 
 proved a curse and scourge as well as a profit and blessing 
 to mankind. This invention gave a tremendous impetus to 
 the demand for slave labor by vastly increasing its commercial 
 value : it put new life and vigor into the slave trade, creating 
 a limitless demand for slaves, and making the abolition of 
 slavery practically impossible save by a national upheaval. 
 
 Through the extension of the interests in the slave trade 
 and slave labor, and the realization of the enormous profits 
 resulting from these sources, came the Southerner s dream of 
 wealth, power, and dominion, which turned any general senti 
 ment for the abolition of slavery in the South into a demand 
 for more slaves. Thenceforth the white people of the South 
 dedicated themselves, not to the development of their free 
 institutions, but to the building up of a slaveholding oli 
 garchy, overbearing and cruel, which was yet to challenge 
 
 6 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 the nation itself to mortal combat, to cover the land with 
 mourning, and to redden a continent with blood. 
 
 This invention of the cotton gin raised the Cotton Indus 
 try to such supreme importance that cotton became king of 
 the products in the world s market. And King Cotton, like 
 Satan in the temptation of the Christ on the Mount, said to 
 the Southern whites : " All these things will I give thee, if 
 thou wilt fall down and worship me, the kingdoms of the 
 world and the glory of them." The white people of the 
 South did not resist this appeal to their greed and love for 
 gilded luxury ; this promise of untold wealth, power, and 
 dominion that was held forth to them. They betook them 
 selves to the worship of King Cotton. 
 
 Truly COTTON was KING. It became their worshiping 
 fetich. They were lured from their high ideals, and even 
 threw to the winds those basic principles, those very funda 
 mental truths of Christianity, the fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man. 
 
 "Am I my brother s keeper?" asked one of old. The 
 white people of the South were no longer their " brother s 
 keeper,"" certainly not the keeper of their " brother in black." 
 
 The institution of slavery increased and expanded by leaps 
 and bounds, and became more and more debasing to the 
 whites and blacks alike. The slave trade was stimulated as 
 never before, and those engaged in it became brutal beyond 
 description. The appalling sacrifice of human life, and the 
 wide-spread desolation incident to its operation were matters 
 of public knowledge. Scores of African villages might be 
 laid waste, fire and sword work havoc, and thousands of old 
 and young people killed in order to secure one cargo of slaves ; 
 but what of that ? It was not worthy of a moment s consider 
 ation that to deliver a single slave on a plantation might cost 
 the lives of half a hundred of Africans. What concern was 
 it to them if a thousand lives were sacrificed, since they ob 
 tained that one slave ? 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The ghastly horrors of " the middle passage " ; the clanking 
 of chains ; the wild and deep groans of men ; the heart 
 rending weeping and wailing of women and children ; the 
 cruel floggings ; the agonizing cries of despair from the dying, 
 to whom the visit of death was as the visit of an angel ; the 
 dumping of the dead into the sea by hands dyed with human 
 blood ; the crowding of these ill-fated and hapless creatures 
 of all ages and both sexes into the dark and filthy pest holes 
 of slave ships, and all the terrible, unspeakable agonies of body 
 and anguish of spirit which they endured all this and more 
 caused the slaveholder no worry, no loss of sleep. The con 
 science was seared. Remorse was dead. 
 
 They had no time for maudlin sympathy. Slaves they 
 wanted. Slaves they must have. The cost in horror and 
 blood ; life, pain, and devastation ; ruin and desolation were 
 as nothing. The cotton fields must be developed, extended, 
 and expanded ; the malarial swamps and marshes must be 
 redeemed and made to yield their harvest of golden sheaves 
 laden with the pearly grains of rice ; all the land, the field 
 and forest, and even the earth beneath must be made to yield 
 their increase, and the labor of slaves must accomplish this. 
 So the white people of the South cried out for slaves and 
 more slaves AND STILL MORE SLAVES. 
 
 It was impossible that these things could have other than 
 a disastrous effect on public morality. The white South had 
 indeed fallen from its high estate. Its great ideals had 
 gradually faded away. 
 
 In an article in the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1901, 
 Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, speaking of the condition of the 
 South at the time of the War of the Rebellion, says that 
 the South was " without ships, without money, without 
 machinery that could produce a knife, a blanket, or a tin 
 cup ; without an ally, without even the sympathy of a single 
 nation, without knowledge of the outside world, or indeed of 
 her able and determined opponent." 
 
 8 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 Does he realize the cutting irony, the bald satire of his 
 own statement ? For he is pleading, as he always does, in 
 season and out of season, for the white people of the South ; 
 apologizing for, or justifying, the many hardships imposed 
 on the negro, and seeking always to discredit and prejudice 
 him in the eyes of the nation. His is indeed a pitiful de 
 scription of a pitiful civilization ; and the pity of the pity is, 
 that it is pitifully true. 
 
 The worse than ghoulish horrors commonly practised by 
 the brutal kidnappers, or African slave traders ; the ghastly 
 spectacle of the slave auction-block, where slaves, men, women, 
 and children were examined and sold as though they were 
 cattle, and the heartrending, inhuman, and disgusting scenes 
 attendant thereon, these things had caused throughout the 
 civilized world such a revulsion of public sentiment against 
 the institution of human slavery that the South in the mo 
 ment of its great extremity was indeed absolutely " without 
 an ally, without even the sympathy of a single nation." It 
 was these ghastly abominations of the slave auction-block, 
 which on one occasion Abraham Lincoln witnessed as a 
 young man when on a visit to New Orleans in 1831, that 
 moved him to declare eternal war against the system of 
 slavery. 
 
 The incident as reported is this : " He saw a slave, a 
 beautiful mulatto girl, sold at auction. She was felt over, 
 pinched, trotted around to show to bidders that said article 
 was sound. Lincoln walked away from the sad, inhuman 
 scene with deep feelings of unsmotherable hatred. He said 
 to John Hank, who was with him : If I ever get a chance 
 to hit that institution, 1 11 hit it hard, John. 1 " He got the 
 chance, and did " hit it " ; how hard, the world knows. 
 
 It is worth while to point out the cause of the backward 
 
 and pitiable condition of the South in 1861, which Mr. 
 
 Page, with lamentations, so accurately and pithily depicts. 
 
 The institution of slavery laid tribute on the talent, the 
 
 9 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 statesmanship, the loyalty, and all the vital forces moral, 
 spiritual, and material of the South.J It was the all- 
 absorbing topic ; it monopolized the brain and heart of the 
 South. All other subjects converged into it. 
 
 The South had for years devoted, even dedicated its genius, 
 its strength, its energies, to the institution of human slavery, 
 and to the development, protection, expansion, and perpetu 
 ation of the system. Its genius and talent for other things 
 simply shrivelled up. It devoted itself so completely to the 
 institution of slavery that the South made, what William 
 Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be, " an agreement with 
 death and a covenant with hell." It was death to the public 
 morals and conscience of the South ; and it was hell to the 
 ill-fated, helpless, down-trodden slave. 
 
 The institution of slavery, as bad and debasing as it was 
 for the negro in one way, was probably even worse for 
 the whites in another. It so stupefied the conscience of the 
 whites that even now, forty years after the destruction of the 
 system, they show but few signs of recovery from its baneful 
 effects. It so twisted and perverted their moral conceptions 
 that they cannot view rationally or with justice the simplest 
 question affecting the manhood rights of the negro. 
 
 This fact was demonstrated when President Roosevelt 
 simply recognized the eminence and worth of a colored 
 American citizen, in the person of Principal Booker T. Wash 
 ington, by inviting him to dinner. What was all the con 
 sequent furor, denunciation, and display of bad temper and 
 worse judgment but the manifestation of the entailed, un- 
 pitying consequences of the barbarism of slavery ? France 
 honors a member of the colored race as a general in her 
 army ; another has been vice-president of her Chamber of 
 Deputies ; others occupy high stations in the life of the 
 nation ; a number are in her leading schools. England s 
 gracious sovereign, the late Queen Victoria, repeatedly enter 
 tained colored persons at breakfast or luncheon, extending, for 
 
 10 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 instance, such courtesy to the whole company of the famous 
 Fisk University Jubilee Singers ; but there was not a person 
 in the whole British Empire who protested against it. 
 
 The most powerful emperors, kings, and rulers of Europe 
 have extended such courtesies without having public decency 
 shocked or violated by ribald protestations. Prince Henry, 
 the brother of the German Emperor, while on a visit to the 
 United States, and when every minute of his time was at 
 a premium, denying himself to many prominent people, 
 especially commanded that the Hampton Jubilee Singers, 
 colored, be presented to him at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. 
 Such instances render the more pitiable, if not ridiculous, the 
 spectacle that the South made of itself in regard to the Roose 
 velt-Washington dining incident. But this " may be set down 
 to the not yet closed account of " the barbarism of slavery. 
 
 This system of slavery, as it existed in the South, was as 
 black as moral turpitude could make it. The fond words 
 mother , home, and family were devoid of their high and real 
 meaning to the slave. For he lived, moved, and had his 
 being in the ever-present, dismal, and benumbing shadow of 
 the auction-block. His was a life approaching moral deso 
 lation ; a life in which the great moral incentives begotten 
 of the ties, honor, and blessedness of the family life, blood, 
 and name, were absent. There was next to nothing in the 
 family life of the slave to inspire him to noble purpose and 
 endeavor. There could be no legal marriage ; the constant 
 separation of those who had entered into the marriage rela 
 tion, by the sale of either husband or wife, made this impos 
 sible. For the wife or husband, if sold every day in a week, 
 could marry anew after each sale. 
 
 Uncle Tom s Cabin, that wonderful work of Mrs. Harriet 
 Beecher Stowe, did not depict, nor even scarcely hint at, 
 some of the grosser evils and barbarities of the system ; and 
 yet the white South winces over it. These people should not 
 be blamed for being so sensitive over Mrs. Stowed incisive 
 
 11 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and luminous protrayal of the life and civilization of the 
 South, although the worst was not told. Much in connection 
 with the treatment of slaves and the raising of them for the 
 home market was really unprintable. 
 
 The buying and selling, the separation and breaking up of 
 negro families were common all over the South. Neither age 
 nor sex were regarded. The infant was snatched from the 
 mothers arms ; the father and mother of a family were torn 
 from each other ; they were sold, each in a different direction, 
 never more to meet on earth. Strange, passing strange, that 
 it never dawned on the white people of the South that 
 
 * The black mother who rocks her boy 
 Feels in her heart all a mother s joy. " 
 
 It is unquestionably true that there were good and humane 
 masters. There were some, indeed, who were most consider 
 ate to their slaves ; and others who never even became recon 
 ciled to the system of slavery, but rather hated it to the end, 
 and rejoiced at its destruction. But this was the exception, 
 and did little to change the general conditions and lessen 
 the evils inherent in the system. Neither Washington, the 
 father of his country, nor Thomas Jefferson, the author of 
 the Declaration of Independence, believed in human slavery ; 
 Madison is credited with keeping the word slavery out of the 
 Constitution ; while Mason, Tucker, Randolph, and others 
 opposed the institution. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, the father of Democracy, both spoke 
 and wrote against slavery. He foresaw that there would be 
 a great national convulsion over it, and counselled its elimina 
 tion. He left on record these prophetic words, " Nothing is 
 more certainly written in the book of fate than that these 
 people shall be free." The South did not take heed. If 
 Thomas Jefferson were living to-day in the dawn of the twen 
 tieth century, with the immense strides of mankind taken 
 since his time, he would tell the white people of the South 
 
 12 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 that " nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate 
 than that these people shall enjoy equal rights and privileges 
 before the law. 11 The white people may disregard the warn 
 ing now as they did under the slave regime, but infidelity to 
 truth, justice, and good order, and the dragon teeth of un 
 righteousness and oppressive laws will bring a bitter harvest 
 to their children, and may long plague the land. 
 
 There were other Southerners, some notable ones, who from 
 time to time, because of their conscientious scruples against 
 human slavery, set their slaves free. Like Abraham Lincoln, 
 their souls burned within them with righteous indignation 
 against the unspeakable iniquities of the system ; and they 
 sincerely felt that " no man was good enough to own another 
 man. 11 Some even left the South to avoid identification with 
 the abominations of slavery, and took up their residence in 
 the free North. Some sent their children by colored mothers 
 North to be educated and to live, and also set the mothers 
 free and removed them to the North as well. There were, 
 and still exist, instances of tender and even affectionate regard 
 between the master class and the slave class. Since emanci 
 pation there have been some of the master class who have 
 been devotedly interested in the welfare of their former slaves, 
 and have been both a help and a protection to them ; in 
 some instances rescuing them from unjust treatment and the 
 fury of lawless mobs. Nevertheless, the plain, unvarnished 
 truth remains, that the great body of slave owners were either 
 inconsiderate or cruel themselves, or put their slaves into the 
 hands of heartless slave-drivers, overseers, and hard task 
 masters. And these made the life of the slaves a burden, 
 grievous and hard to bear. 
 
 Some apologists seek to gloss over the iniquities of this 
 system and even give it a patriarchal tinge with divine virtues ; 
 they would make it appear as though American slavery was 
 established for the " benevolent assimilation " of the African 
 negro. It is true that the white men of the South did ac- 
 
 13 
 
THE IAFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 complish a large measure of "assimilation,*" the manifold evi 
 dences of which are to be seen in every city, town, village, 
 and country district throughout the South ; but there are 
 grave, very grave reasons for doubt as to the " benevolent " 
 character of this "assimilation."" What good the milder 
 slavery actually did for the negro was in spite of its barbarity 
 and was due to his great powers for absorbing civilization. 
 Slavery was in no sense whatever a philanthropic or humani 
 tarian enterprise, but was developed and conducted on the 
 low plane of avarice, greed, and bestiality. There seem to be 
 no grounds on which it can be claimed that it was intended 
 for the good of the negroes, who in their low estate were but 
 chattels to be marketed and sold, and at their best were but 
 as beasts of burden to toil and moil in order that the master 
 class might live in comfortable ease and luxury. 
 
 The wide-spread and brutal floggings on the bare body 
 continued in some cases until the blood flowed ; the bathing 
 in salt water to increase the agony ; the general use of blood 
 hounds, in some instances making them lacerate the flesh of 
 the slaves to give them a taste for human blood and make 
 them more ferocious and thus a greater terror to the slaves ; 
 the devices for torture such as the stocks, the thumbscrew, 
 the pillory ; and the varied methods of stringing up, are 
 some of the " fascinations " and " beauties " of the slave s life 
 which the apologists of the system ignore. There are well 
 authenticated cases of slaves being whipped to death, and of 
 others dying from the effects of the floggings. But notwith 
 standing, to borrow the title of one of the beautiful planta 
 tion melodies, their " Hard Trials and Great Tribulations," 
 the slaves continued to increase in numbers. 
 
 They learned how to use the title of another of their sweet 
 melodies, to " Steal Away, Steal Away, Steal Away to 
 Jesus," and find strength, comfort, and sustaining help in 
 every time of need. They seem also to have demonstrated 
 that liberty is an instinct of the human heart; for in the 
 
 14 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 blackest hour of the long night of their gloomy bondage, 
 they sang most gleefully and with joyous, hopeful hearts, 
 another of their soul-inspiring melodies : 
 
 " One of these days I shall be free, 
 When Christ the Lord shall set me free. " 
 
 This song was forbidden by the slave owners, because its 
 spirit would tend to keep alive the thirst for liberty. It is 
 but another illustration of the wisdom of the man who said : 
 " Let me write the songs of a people, and I care not who 
 may write their laws/ 1 
 
 The negroes hoodwinked the master class by humming the 
 music of this particular song, while the words echoed and re 
 echoed deep down in their hearts with perhaps greater effect 
 than if they had been spoken. These melodies were to them 
 the Incarnation God with them ; and to their keen and 
 simple faith He seemed to be visible and tangible, ever 
 present and ever blessed. These songs had a meaning and 
 power which all men may appreciate, but which the negro 
 alone could fully comprehend. Songs are the heart-language 
 of a people ; and as the negro heart-language it is not sur 
 prising that these melodies should touch and melt human 
 hearts the world over. Queens, emperors, and potentates 
 of the Old World; the President in the White House; 
 the most cultured and fashionable audiences everywhere 
 have been moved and melted to tears by their rendition. 
 Of a truth as a heart-language they are at once the in 
 terpretation and exemplification of that wondrous touch 
 of nature " which makes the whole world kin." In them 
 was the secret of the sustaining power which enabled the 
 negroes to weather the storms of their bitter afflictions and 
 sing : 
 
 " Nobody knows the trouble I see, 
 Nobody knows but Jesus ; 
 Nobody knows the trouble I see, 
 Glory in my soul. 
 
 15 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " I m sometimes up, and sometimes down, 
 O ! yes, Lord ! 
 
 Sometimes almost to the ground, 
 O ! yes, Lord ! 
 
 " Nobody knows the trouble I see, 
 Nobody knows but Jesus ; 
 Nobody knows the trouble I see, 
 Glory in my soul ! " 
 
 It was this " glory in the soul " that enabled them not only 
 to withstand all the grinding experiences, tribulations, and 
 bestialities of the slave system, but even to flourish and mul 
 tiply. Only the strongest of races could have survived this 
 wasting and agonizing strain of centuries. 
 
 The following table shows the increase in slaves by 
 decades : 
 
 YEAR. NUMBER or SLAVES. 
 
 1800 1,002,037 
 
 1810 1,377,808 
 
 1820 1,771,658 
 
 1830 2,328,642 
 
 1840 2,873,648 
 
 1850 3,638,808 
 
 1860 4,441,830 
 
 A factor of great yet weird significance in Southern life 
 may be referred to here. During all the years of slavery, 
 the amalgamation of the races, though practically one-sided, 
 was going on with ever-increasing pace. The overwhelming 
 evidence of this widely diffused amalgamation which can 
 never be blotted out was written and bleached indelibly in 
 the faces and features of the servants in the dining-room, 
 in the chambers, in the nurseries, in the sewing-rooms, in the 
 laundries, in the kitchens, in care of horse and stables, of 
 servant gardeners, messengers, and plantation hands ; it 
 was to be seen in servants in every sphere and vocation in 
 Southern life. 
 
 The white men of the South had endowed and were still 
 endowing the negro slave with their best blood and greatest 
 
 16 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 names. Some of these slave owners, be it said to their 
 credit, did treat their own offspring of a negro mother with 
 consideration. But the great body of these slave owners 
 would sell their own offspring and their mothers, together or 
 separately, without the least show of compunction of con 
 science. For a man to sell his own children and the mother 
 of his children, even though they were not legitimate heirs 
 at law, into a bondage where hope hardly abideth, is a mon 
 strous act of hard-heartedness. But such monstrous acts 
 were common. 
 
 These slave owners well knew to what a horrible life their 
 own daughters of negro mothers would be subjected, a life 
 worse than death ; but this, too, was of little or no concern 
 to them. The touching lines of Longfellow s " The Quad 
 roon Girl" are painfully illuminating on this point. 
 
 In this connection, it may be remarked that an exceedingly 
 strange phenomenon, and one that will require the utmost 
 resources of the sociologists for a rational explanation, is 
 that the white people of the South, who under the degrad 
 ing influences of the slave regime sold their own children 
 and the negro mothers of their children into a bondage black, 
 bitter, and brutalizing, are to-day, forty years after the de 
 struction of slavery, and under the benign light of a more 
 advanced civilization, ostracizing and outlawing by legisla- 
 lative acts and otherwise disfranchizing, lynching, and burn 
 ing at the stake their own children of negro mothers, and 
 the children of their fathers and grandfathers and more 
 remote ancestors. 
 
 It is interesting to note, in connection with this thought, 
 that the three colored persons Principal Booker T. Wash 
 ington, who was invited to dine at the White House by the 
 President ; Dr. William D. Crum, who was appointed col 
 lector of the port of Charleston, South Carolina ; and Mrs. 
 Cox, the capable and accomplished postmistress at Indian- 
 ola, Mississippi, who was driven from her position and vir- 
 2 17 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 tually expelled from the town by a brutal and lawless mob 
 of the much-vaunted superior whites these three colored 
 persons, bearing the very best character, educated, cultured, 
 property-owners, and in all the essentials of life superior 
 to many white people of the South, have actually more 
 Caucasian than African blood in their veins. And not 
 withstanding which, their recognition by the President as 
 American citizens fit to hold office threw the people of the 
 South into hysterics, and brought about the most bitter 
 denunciation of them and the President ; and some South 
 ern whites have even publicly demanded their assassination. 
 For lack of a more intelligent and plausible reason, this, 
 too, " may be set down to the not yet closed account of" the 
 barbarism of slavery. 
 
 As slavery became more intrenched in the South, the op 
 position to it became more pronounced and determined in 
 the North. The people of the North, having voluntarily set 
 free their own slaves, were practically united against the 
 institution of slavery, or at least were uncompromisingly 
 opposed to its further extension. Thus, the North and 
 the South faced each other on the slavery question ; the 
 South demanding an extension of the system, and the 
 North its limitation, if not destruction. Robert Toombs 
 of Georgia, a leading slave owner and statesman of the 
 South, declared that he would never be contented "until 
 he could call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker 
 Hill monument in Massachusetts." Slavery became the para 
 mount issue in national politics, in great religious bodies, 
 social circles, at the fireside, everywhere. It was the all- 
 absorbing subject. 
 
 While many of the antislavery leaders stood firmly and 
 unequivocally upon a broad foundation of liberty, humani- 
 tarianism, or the ethics of the gospel of Christ, yet it 
 should not be overlooked that they were strongly urged by 
 the fact that the slave labor at the South had already ex- 
 
 18 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 erted a degrading influence on the white free labor at the 
 North and was an ever-increasing menace to it. The white 
 free labor of the North, in order to maintain its own dignity, 
 and preserve its rewards, must perforce join in the crusade 
 against slave labor at the South. This positive peril of the 
 great masses of white toilers in the North being reduced to 
 conditions approaching those of the slave in the South 
 became a factor of great importance. Moreover, the aggres 
 sions and intolerance of Southern leaders and their plainly 
 expressed contempt for the laborer greatly increased sectional 
 animosities and augmented the ranks of the abolitionists. 
 
 In the fierce and bitter conflict of words that arose, the 
 South scored signal victories. 
 
 It obtained the Missouri Compromise, but repudiated the 
 compact when it served its interest to do so. 
 
 It obtained the Fugitive Slave Law, which imposed on 
 Northern white men, under heavy penalties, the duty of 
 hounding down the fugitive slave, a fellow-man who was 
 guilty of no crime save that of fleeing a bondage which was 
 as black as midnight and more cruel than the grave. 
 
 It obtained the Dred Scott decision from the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. Chief Justice Taney, speaking 
 for the Court, declared that negroes " had no rights which 
 the white man was bound to respect." 
 
 It obtained, through Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, 
 the silencing of slavery s greatest foe, and humanity s greatest 
 advocate, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, not by argu-. 
 ment, but by blows of a loaded cane stealthily given on the 
 floor of the United States Senate. 
 
 Various counties in the State of South Carolina presented 
 Brooks with gold-headed canes for his chivalrous and gallant 
 act of thus assaulting, in behalf of his State and people, a 
 man who was unsuspectingly writing at his desk. 
 
 It brought John Brown to the gallows, but " his soul goes 
 marching on."" 
 
 19 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The slaveholders were aggressively domineering. They 
 seemed to be " spoiling for a fight," and yet they felt sure 
 that there would be no fight. Was cotton not king ? Be 
 sides, the South controlled other great staples of the world s 
 commerce, and millions of hardy and faithful slave laborers. 
 This was the source of their confidence and the strength of 
 their intolerance. 
 
 Mr. Hammond of South Carolina, in the United States 
 Senate on March 4, 1858, said : " Without firing a gun, 
 without drawing a sword, should the North make war on us, 
 we could bring the whole world to our feet. What would 
 happen if no cotton was furnished for three years ? I will 
 not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is 
 certain, England would topple headlong and carry the whole 
 civilized world with her. No, you dare not make war on 
 cotton. No power on earth dares to make war on cotton. 
 Cotton is King." War did, however, go on for four years, 
 but England did not topple. 
 
 These and other events of more or less national import 
 crowding thick and fast on each other fired into a white-heat 
 the two great sections of the country, the North and the 
 South. When the memorable year of 1860 came, it found 
 the nation a seething caldron of political, social, and relig 
 ious excitement. The time for the election of a President 
 was at hand. u The irrepressible conflict " was on : it was 
 to be a duel to the death between the pro-slavery and the 
 an ti slavery forces. 
 
 The forces of liberty and righteousness were triumphant. 
 Is it too much to say that God sent confusion into the 
 councils of the slaveholding oligarchy, which, instead of nomi 
 nating one candidate who might easily have been elected, 
 nominated four candidates and was defeated? 
 
 " Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." 
 
 The course of events solidified the antislavery forces, and 
 served to crystallize the antislavery sentiment. These forces 
 
 20 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 and sentiment found expression through the Union Repub 
 lican party, a new organization with potentialities for 
 achievements far beyond the ken of the men who stood spon 
 sors at its birth : a party born unto grand moral ideas, and 
 reviving and holding fast to the fundamental principles of 
 liberty, equality, fraternity, to which the republic was dedi 
 cated. This was a party whose supreme services to the 
 nation and whose beneficent and lasting work for humanity 
 and the cause of liberty, could hardly have been conceived by 
 its founders. It was a party ordained of God not only to 
 break the galling fetters of the slave, crowning him with 
 manhood, and emancipating the conscience of the master, 
 freeing him from blood-guiltiness, but also destined to lift 
 the nation itself out of its circumscribed provincialism into 
 the sphere of the broadest nationality, giving the republic a 
 foremost place among the great nations of the earth. It 
 was destined even to carry the blessings of liberty to other 
 peoples and climes. Cuba and Porto Rico now rejoice, as 
 the Philippines certainly will later on. 
 
 The standard bearer of this party in this historic campaign, 
 Abraham Lincoln, was raised up, equipped, and called to the 
 Presidency of the republic, as providentially as Moses was 
 called to lead Israel out of Egypt. He was the ideal man 
 for the hour. 
 
 The slaveholding oligarchy interpreted Lincoln s election 
 to mean that their power was broken, their dominion over 
 thrown, and that the institution of slavery was no longer safe, 
 within the Union. The reasoning was swift and direct. But 
 slavery must be saved at any price ; if not in the Union, then 
 out of it ; peacefully if possible, by war if necessary. It was 
 but a step to the plunge into the dark abyss of secession. 
 Secession and the founding of a great slaveholding empire, 
 which had been an open threat for decades, now seemed im 
 minent. The clouds of war were gathering. The murmurs, 
 rumblings, and heated utterances were so foreboding that it 
 
 21 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 was deemed wise and prudent for President-elect Lincoln to 
 go secretly a portion of the way from his State of Illinois to 
 the seat of government at Washington, because of well- 
 grounded fears of assassination. 
 
 Lincoln s inaugural address was pacific, but firm. He de 
 clared that his most solemn obligation and paramount duty 
 was to enforce the Constitution and preserve the Union. 
 Whether the leaders of the South did, or did not commit 
 treason when they took up arms and sought to overthrow the 
 government of their country is not a part of this discussion. 
 There seems to be no ground for doubt, however, that many 
 who had taken the oath of office to uphold and defend the 
 Constitution and government of the United States were 
 actively engaged in planning and plotting to overthrow the 
 Constitution and to destroy the government to which they 
 had plighted their word and honor. It is enough to say that 
 the secession of Southern States followed the inauguration of 
 Lincoln. These leaders plunged the nation into the bloodi 
 est internecine conflict that history records. Amid the loud 
 diapason of the cannonade the institution of human slavery 
 went down forever, "and the government at Washington 
 still lives. 1 
 
 The storm and stress of the antislavery agitation devel 
 oped many magnificent characters who lend lustre and renown 
 to the American name. Men and women of never dying fame, 
 Charles Sumner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, 
 Wendell Phillips, Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, Fred Douglass, Henry 
 Highland Garnet, Lucretia Mott, Owen Lovejoy, Robert 
 Morris, Ben Wade, Peter S. Porter, Henry Ward Beecher, 
 John Greenleaf Whittier, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William 
 Henry Furness, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and others 
 gave intellectual and moral splendor and grandeur to the 
 cause, and quickened and lightened up the smoldering con 
 science of the people. They shared the feelings and were 
 inspired by the brave words of William Lloyd Garrison, who 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 said : " I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not 
 excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard. 
 I solicit no man s praise, I fear no man s censure. The 
 liberty of a people is the gift of God and Nature. Neither 
 God nor the world will judge us by our profession, but by 
 our practices." 
 
 In the great transformation which such persons wrought in 
 public sentiment, they approach unto those, " who through 
 faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained 
 promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence 
 of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were 
 made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
 armies of the aliens." 
 
 Purely as a matter of history and not in a censorious spirit, 
 it may be said that in the discussion of the prosecution of the 
 war, the South can hardly escape free from blame for much 
 that was rash, and some things that were needlessly cruel and 
 inhuman. Its treatment of Union prisoners was often cruel, 
 and sometimes deliberately and purposely so. The account of 
 Andersonville, Libby, and other prison pens, where captured 
 Union soldiers were held, disclosed an awful and most shock 
 ing story of their experiences and treatment. Mr. Elaine, in 
 an address in Congress on this point, said : " I have read over 
 the details of those atrocious murders of the Duke of Alva in 
 the Low Countries, which are always mentioned with a thrill 
 of horror throughout Christendom. I have read the details of 
 the massacre of St. Bartholomew, that stand out in history as 
 one of the atrocities beyond imagination. I have read anew 
 the horrors untold and unimaginable of the Spanish Inquisi 
 tion. And I here before God, measuring my words, knowing 
 their extent and import, declare that neither the deeds of 
 the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew, nor the thumb-screws and engines of tor 
 ture of the Spanish Inquisition begin to compare in atrocity 
 with the hideous crime of Andersonville." 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The South s attitude towards colored soldiers and the white 
 officers commanding them was indefensible. When a nation 
 clothes a man with the uniform of its soldiers and puts a rifle 
 into his hand, and sends him to the firing line, it is bound to 
 protect him in all the rights of a soldier. To put a money 
 reward on the head of white officers of colored troops, or 
 to threaten to shoot or hang such soldiers, and shoot or 
 punish their officers if captured is scarcely justifiable. The 
 Confederate Congress enacted this extreme law : " That every 
 white person, being a commissioned officer or acting as such, 
 who, during the present war shall command negroes or mulat- 
 toes in arms against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, 
 train, organize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military 
 service against the Confederate States, or who shall volun 
 tarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, 
 attack, or conflict^n such service, shall be deemed as inciting 
 servile insurrection, and shall, if captured, be put to death or 
 otherwise punished at the discretion of the Court." The law 
 also provided for hanging or shooting colored soldiers cap 
 tured, or for selling them into slavery. 
 
 But neither the colored soldiers nor white officers were 
 daunted or terrified. The best exemplification of this is the 
 favorite camp song of the Black Regiments, which ran in 
 part as follows : 
 
 " Fremont he told us, when the cruel war begun, 
 How to save the Union, and how it must be done ; 
 But Old Kentuck swore so hard, father Abe had his fears, 
 And wondered what to do with the colored volunteers. 
 
 " Jeff Davis said he d hang em if he should catch em armed. 
 That s a mighty bad thing, but they ain t at all alarmed ; 
 First he s got to catch em live, fore to hang is clear, 
 And that s what will save the colored volunteers. 
 
 " Then give us the flag all free without a slave, 
 We 11 fight and defend it, as the fathers did so brave ; 
 So, forward, boys, forward ! t is the year of Jubilee . 
 God bless America, we 11 help to make her free. " 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 The desecration of the body of Colonel Robert Gould 
 Shaw was a dreadful mistake. This gallant young hero fell 
 at the head of his black troops, the immortal 54th Massa 
 chusetts Regiment, on the parapet of Fort Wagner, near 
 Charleston. When information was sought as to his body, 
 the curt reply was : " He is buried with his niggers." 
 
 Colonel Norwood P. Hallowell of the 55th Massachusetts 
 Regiment, in an address before the Military Historical 
 Society of Massachusetts, says : " The manner of Colonel 
 Shaw s burial has been circumstantially related by two 
 Confederate officers, Major McDonald, Fifty-first North 
 Carolina, and Captain H. W. Hendricks, both of whom were 
 present at the time. Colonel Shaw s body was stripped of 
 all his clothing save his undershirt and drawers. This dese 
 cration of the dead was done by one Charles Blake and 
 others. The body was earned within the fort and there 
 exposed for a time. It was then carried without the fort 
 and buried in a trench with the negroes." 
 
 Colonel Shaw fell on July 18, 1863, and of him Colonel 
 Hallowell further says : " Colonel Shaw was in the twenty- 
 sixth year of his age, how young it seems now ! and had 
 seen two years of hard service in the Army of the Potomac. 
 His clean-cut face, quick, decided step, and singular charm 
 of manner, full of grace and virtue, bespoke the hero. The 
 immortal charge of his black regiment reads like a page of 
 the Iliad or a story from Plutarch. I have always thought 
 that in the great war with the slave power the figure that 
 stands out in boldest relief is that of Colonel Shaw. There 
 were many others as brave and devoted as he, the humblest 
 private who sleeps in yonder cemetery or fills an unknown 
 grave in the South is as much entitled to our gratitude, 
 but to no others was given an equal opportunity. By the 
 earnestness of his convictions, the unselfishness of his charac 
 ter, his championship of an enslaved race, and the manner of 
 his death, all the conditions are given to make Shaw the best 
 
 25 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 historical exponent of the underlying cause, the real meaning 
 of the war. He was the fair type of all that was brave, 
 generous, beautiful, and of all that was best worth fighting 
 for in the war of the slave-holders 1 Rebellion. 1 " 1 
 
 This recently made estimate of Colonel Shaw s character 
 and place in history was shared by many notable Americans 
 who were in the heat of the fray, some of whom have been 
 gathered unto their fathers. 
 
 Charles Sumner said : " I know no soldier s death finer 
 than that of a young commander, at the head of his men, on 
 the parapet of an enemy s fort, which he had entered by 
 storm." 
 
 Thomas Hughes declared : " It was the grandest sepulchre 
 earned by any soldier in this century." 
 
 The New York Times said : " He was one of the young 
 gentlemen whom this war has developed as a soldier and 
 immortalized as a patriot and martyr. Of high social posi 
 tion, surrounded by everything to make life dear to him, he 
 accepted the position of colonel of a colored regiment to help 
 set at rest the question of respectability of that arm of the 
 service." 
 
 Charles A. Dana wrote to Colonel Shaw s parents : " From 
 the first I have watched his career as a soldier with a tender 
 presentiment that he was to fill a bright place among the 
 martyrs of liberty. With the grief of my love for him and 
 for you, there is mingled a noble consolation, a thrill of 
 almost joy, especially when I remember that he died a leader 
 of the outcast and the oppressed. Such a death of such a 
 man would renew my faith if I had doubted concerning the 
 end. God governs, and the lives of so many among the best 
 of his children are not offered up in vain." 
 
 Governor Andrew spoke of him in a message to the 
 Massachusetts Legislature as " that gallant young American 
 whose spotless life, whose chivalrous character, whose noble 
 death there is no marble white enough to commemorate." 
 
 26 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher wrote from Europe, where he was 
 upholding the cause of the Union : "I bear your burden 
 with you and yours, and I cease not to bear all your pierced 
 and sorrowing hearts to that wounded heart who consoles 
 evermore with wonderful love and tenderness."" 
 
 John Lothrop Motley wrote : " When we all of us have 
 been long gathered into the common granary, sculptors, 
 painters, and poets will delight to reproduce that beautiful 
 vision of undying and heroic youth, and eyes not yet created 
 will dwell upon it with affection and pride." 
 
 The New York World said : " The brutality which sought 
 to wreak its vengeance upon the senseless clay of what had 
 been a fearless foe, could not be more nobly chastised than it 
 is by this lofty and living pride." 
 
 This had reference to Colonel Shaw s father s statement : 
 " Our darling son, our hero, has received at the hands of the 
 rebels the most fitting burial possible. They buried him 
 with his brave, devoted followers, who fell dead over him and 
 arc Mid him. The poor, benighted wretches thought they 
 were heaping indignities upon his dead body, but the act 
 recoils on themselves, and proves them absolutely incapable 
 of appreciating noble qualities. They thought to give addi 
 tional pang to the bruised hearts of his friends ; but we 
 would not have him buried elsewhere if we could. If a wish 
 of ours would do it, we would not have his body taken away 
 from those who loved him so devotedly, with whom and for 
 whom he gave his life." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote tenderly of him, and dedicated 
 a poem to him, closing : 
 
 ** So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
 
 So near is God to man, 
 When duty whispers low, Thou must, 
 The youth replies, I can. " 
 
 James Russell Lowell said : " I would rather have my 
 name known and blessed as his will be through all the hovels 
 
 27 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 of an outcast race than blazing from all the trumpets of re 
 pute." And in a poem on the heroism of Colonel Shaw, 
 Mr. Lowell also wrote : 
 
 " Brave, good, and true, 
 I see him stand before me now, 
 And read again on that young brow, 
 
 Where every hope was new, 
 
 How sweet were life! Yet, by the mouth firm set, 
 And look made up for Duty s utmost debt, 
 
 I could divine he knew 
 
 That death within the sulphurous hostile lines 
 In the mere wreck of nobly pitched designs 
 Plucks heart s-ease, and not rue. 
 
 * Happy their end 
 
 Who vanish down life s evening stream 
 Placid as swans that drift in dream 
 
 Round the next river bend ! 
 Happy long life, with honor at the close, 
 Friends painless tears, the softened thought of foes ! 
 
 And yet, like him, to spend 
 All at a gush, keeping our first faith sure 
 From mid-life s doubt and eld s contentment poor, 
 
 What more could Fortune send ? 
 
 " Right in the van, 
 On the red rampart s slippery swell, 
 With heart that beat a charge, he fell 
 
 Foe ward, as befits a man ; 
 But the high soul burns on to light men s feet 
 Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet." 
 
 Why these splendid tributes to a young man not twenty- 
 six years of age ? It was recognized that he was " the 
 best historical exponent of the underlying cause, the real 
 meaning of the war"; "the figure that stands out in bold 
 relief," and dared all for liberty and country, justice and 
 humanity. 
 
 Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, waving his sword on the par 
 apet of Wagner at the head of the 54th Massachusetts Regi 
 ment, thrust an idea and a force into the mighty conflict 
 
 28 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 which neither side had reckoned on at the opening of hos 
 tilities, and which many competent to judge declared turned 
 the balance of the scales. It brought to the Union arms 
 about two hundred thousand colored soldiers, and as many 
 more colored men employed in various lines of labor and 
 service. 
 
 When the war began, the South regarded the slaves as the 
 strongest pillar of support in the Confederacy. These were 
 to raise crops for feeding the armies, to build fortifications, 
 to do other service in camp, and to care for the women and 
 children. But as the war progressed, it developed that the 
 negroes in the cotton fields, the rice swamps, the corn fields 
 were quite a different factor from the negroes in uniform, 
 with musket in hand and in battle array. What the South 
 counted its greatest strength was in fact its greatest weakness. 
 
 The North was quick to seize the advantage. The negroes 
 were equal to the emergency. " The grand historic moment 
 which comes to a race only once in many centuries came to 
 them, and they recognized it." The slaves were used most 
 effectively against the masters. So that Colonel Shaw s 
 larger service to his country and humanity was in demon 
 strating at a critical moment the availability and heroism of 
 the negro as a soldier. It was at a time when the cause of 
 the Union was wavering, and, as Colonel Hallowell says, 
 " when volunteering had ceased, when the draft was a partial 
 failure, and the bounty system a senseless extravagance. 11 
 While it is true that the negro had rendered invaluable ser 
 vices in the Revolutionary War, and later in the war of 
 1812, yet practically, for three quarters of a century he had 
 been under the lash of the heartless slave-driver, and had 
 ceased to be an object of consideration except to a remnant 
 of God-fearing philanthropists and courageous humanitarians. 
 The organized government was his oppressor. 
 
 It is just to say that Colonel Shaw gave to the colored 
 race a new status. He brought to the race the habiliments 
 
 29 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 of manhood, and the race crowned him with immortal fame. 
 He was the first to lead the negroes in large numbers into the 
 baptism of fire and to prove their mettle. Thenceforth 
 neither the North nor the South doubted. Colonel Shaw 
 himself was not without some realization of the magnitude 
 and glory of his mission, for in a letter to the lady he was to 
 wed, he wrote : " I shall feel that what I have to do is to 
 prove that a negro can be made a good soldier. . . . There 
 is great prejudice against it, but now that it has become a 
 government matter, that will probably wear away. At any 
 rate I shaVt be frightened out of it by its unpopularity. 
 I feel convinced that I shall never regret having taken this 
 step." 
 
 That he took great pride in his black troops and had full 
 faith in their soldierly qualities may be evidenced by a letter 
 he wrote of the first battle in which he led them against the 
 Confederates on James Island, Charleston Harbor, July 16, 
 1863. He said: "You don t know what a fortunate day 
 this has been for me and for all of us, excepting some poor 
 fellows who were killed and wounded. General Terry sent 
 me word he was highly gratified with the behavior of my 
 men, and the officers and privates of other regiments praise 
 us very much." He also wrote : " We hear nothing but 
 praise of the 54th on all hands." 
 
 Two days after this he led the charge on Fort Wagner, 
 saying to his friends these brave words : " We shall take the 
 fort, or die there. Good-by." 
 
 His life blood was poured out on the soil of South Carolina 
 and enriched it. His memory is a heritage to the nation. 
 
 The Shaw School at Charleston for colored youths was 
 named in honor of him. The Shaw University at Raleigh, 
 North Carolina, a flourishing institution for colored pupils, 
 also commemorates his memory. 
 
 Harvard College has a bust of him in marble, carved by 
 the colored artist Edmonia Lewis, once a slave, but now a 
 
 30 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 sculptor in Italy ; and in Memorial Hall at Harvard there 
 is also a life-size portrait of the hero of Fort Wagner. 
 
 Massachusetts has erected a monument in bronze and 
 marble, on the Boston Common, directly in front of her State 
 Capitol to perpetuate his memory, and that of " his brave 
 and devoted followers." The inscription, composed by Presi 
 dent Eliot of Harvard University, is as follows : 
 
 TO THE FIFTY-FOURTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 REGIMENT INFANTRY 
 
 THE WHITE OFFICERS 
 
 TAKING LIFE AND HONOR IN THEIR HANDS CAST IN THEIR LOT WITH 
 MEN OF A DESPISED RACE UNPROVED IN WAR AND RISKED DEATH 
 AS INCITERS OF SERVILE INSURRECTION IF TAKEN PRISONERS. BESIDES 
 ENCOUNTERING ALL THE COMMON PERILS OF CAMP MARCH AND BATTLE. 
 
 THE BLACK RANK AND FILE 
 
 VOLUNTEERED WHEN DISASTER CLOUDED THE UNION CAUSE. SERVED 
 WITHOUT PAY FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS TILL GIVEN THAT OF 
 WHITE TROOPS. FACED THREATENED ENSLAVEMENT IF CAPTURED. 
 WERE BRAVE IN ACTION. PATIENT UNDER HEAVY AND DANGER 
 OUS LABORS. AND CHEERFUL AMID HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS. 
 
 TOGETHER 
 
 THEY GAVE TO THE NATION AND THE WORLD UNDYING PROOF THAT 
 AMERICANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT POSSESS THE PRIDE COURAGE AND 
 DEVOTION OF THE PATRIOT SOLDIER. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY 
 
 THOUSAND SUCH AMERICANS ENLISTED UNDER THE UNION FLAG IN 
 (M.D.C.C.C.LXIII-M.D.C.C.C.LXV) 
 
 But above all Colonel Shaw will live in the hearts of all his 
 countrymen who appreciate noble manhood and the virtues 
 of heroism, and especially in the hearts of the multiplying 
 millions of colored people whose value and power as citizens 
 and as soldiers he first conspicuously and convincingly im 
 pressed on the nation. 
 
 31 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Of Fort Wagner, Colonel N. P. Hallowell says: "It 
 was armed with eighteen guns of various calibres, of which 
 number fifteen covered the only approach by land, which was 
 along the beach and was the width of scarcely half a company 
 front in one place. This approach was swept not only by the 
 guns of Wagner, but also by those of Battery Gregg on Cum- 
 ming s Point, the very northern extremity of the Island, and 
 by those of Sumter, and it was enfiladed by several heavily 
 armed batteries on James and Sullivan Islands. Our Fifty- 
 fourth Massachusetts (Colonel Shaw at the head) led the 
 column. In quick time that devoted column went on to its 
 destiny, heedless of the gaps made in its ranks by the relent 
 less fire of the guns of Wagner, of Gregg, of Sumter, of 
 James and Sullivan Islands. When within two hundred 
 yards of the fort, the rebel garrison swarmed from the 
 bomb-proof to the parapet, and to the artillery was added 
 the compact and destructive fire of fourteen hundred rifles at 
 two hundred yards * range, a storm of solid shot, shells, grape, 
 canister, and bullets, the two hundred yards were passed, the 
 ditch was crossed, the parapet was gained, and the State and 
 National Colors planted thereon." 
 
 The bearer of the State flag was killed and it fell into the 
 fort, and its possession brought about one of the fiercest hand 
 to hand struggles witnessed during the war. As the bearer 
 of the national flag was killed, Sergeant William H. Carney 
 sprang forward and grasped the flag. His valor was attested 
 by wounds in both legs, in the breast, and the right arm. He 
 won cheers from his comrades by shouting : " The old flag 
 never touched the ground." 
 
 Lewis H. Douglass, the son of Fred Douglass, was praised 
 by both white and colored for great heroism. He was among 
 the first to mount the parapet, and shouted : " Come on, boys, 
 and fight for God and Governor Andrew." Captain C. J. 
 Russell and W. H. Simkins were especially mentioned among 
 the brave officers killed. Among the officers wounded were 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel E. N. Hallowell ; Captains Appleton, 
 Jones, Willard, and Tope ; Adjutant James ; Lieutenants 
 Homans, Smith, Pratt, Tucker, and Emerson. Lieutenant 
 Emerson sheathed his sword, picked up a musket of a fallen 
 comrade, and used it effectively. 
 
 Private George Wilson was shot through both shoulders 
 and yet refused to go to the rear. 
 
 Captain Emilio, and Lieutenant-Colonel E. N. Hallowell, 
 in turn, succeeded Colonel Shaw in command. 
 
 Colonel N. P. Hallowell also says : " The regiment went 
 into action with twenty-two officers and six hundred and fifty 
 enlisted men. Fourteen officers were killed or wounded. 
 Two hundred and fifty-five enlisted men were killed or 
 wounded. Prisoners, not wounded, twenty. Total casual- 
 ities, officers and men, two hundred and sixty-nine, or forty 
 per cent. The character of the wounds attests the nature of 
 the contest. There were wounds from bayonet thrusts, sword 
 cuts, pike thrusts, and hand grenades ; and there were heads 
 and arms broken and smashed by the butt-ends of muskets." 
 
 General Hagood, the Confederate commander of the fort 
 said : " It was a dearly purchased compliment to let them 
 lead the assault. Their Colonel Shaw was killed upon the 
 parapet, and the regiment almost annihilated." Lieutenant 
 Iredel Jones, another Confederate officer, said: "The 
 negroes fought gallantly and were headed by as brave a 
 colonel as ever lived. He mounted the breastworks waving 
 his sword, and at the head of his regiment, and he and a 
 negro orderly sergeant fell dead over the inner crest of the 
 works. The negroes were as fine looking a set as I ever 
 saw large, strong, muscular fellows." 
 
 General Strong who, with the approval of General Sey 
 mour, offered the place of honor to Colonel Shaw and his 
 men in leading the attack on Wagner rode up to the 
 regiment just before the assault and encouraged them, say 
 ing : " Boys, I am a Massachusetts man, and I know you 
 3 33 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 will fight for the honor of the State. I am sorry you must 
 go into the fight tired and hungry. 11 They had marched all 
 night previously in a thunder-storm and had covered six 
 miles that afternoon, subsisting scantily on the hard tack and 
 coffee carried in their haversacks. 
 
 As a matter of history it must be stated that colored 
 regiments had already been formed in South Carolina, in 
 Louisiana, and in Kansas, and had been under fire, but on a 
 comparatively small scale as yet, and had attracted little 
 attention in the Northern mind. The First South Carolina 
 Volunteers, under Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 
 was the first colored regiment in the field. 
 
 The enlistment of Colonel Shaw s regiment was accom 
 panied with grave apprehension, and John A. Andrew, the 
 great war Governor of Massachusetts, voiced his deep concern 
 in presenting the colors. Many prominent people were pres 
 ent. Governor Andrew said : " My own personal honor, 
 if I have any, is identified with yours. I stand or fall as a 
 man and a magistrate with the rise and the fall in the history 
 of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. I know not, sir, when 
 in all human history to any given one thousand men in arms 
 there has been permitted a work at once so proud, so pre 
 cious, and so full of hope and glory as the work committed 
 to you. And may the infinite mercy of the Almighty God 
 attend you every hour of every day through all the experi 
 ences and vicissitudes of that dangerous life in which you 
 have embarked. 
 
 " May the God of our fathers cover your head in the day 
 of battle. This flag, sir, has connected with its history the 
 most touching and sacred memory. It comes to your regi 
 ment from the mother, sister, and family relations of one of 
 the dearest and noblest soldier boys of Massachusetts. I need 
 but utter the name of Lieutenant Putnam in order to excite 
 in every heart the tenderest emotions of fond regard or the 
 strongest feelings of patriotic fire." 
 
 34 
 
SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION 
 
 Happily indeed for the colored race, and for the republic, 
 the soldier boys of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment not 
 only met, but surpassed the highest expectations of friends, 
 and put to confusion doubters, critics, and detractors. 
 
 Mr. Ezra A. Cook, now a publisher at Chicago, but then 
 on the firing line says : " The bravery of this colored regi 
 ment was so conspicuous as to revolutionize the sentiment of 
 the Federal soldiers, a majority of whom had been opposed 
 to the colored soldiery up to that time. Those who had the 
 most fiercely denounced their employment previously, after 
 this assault expressed pleasure at being put into the same 
 brigade with the colored troops. 1 
 
 Fort Wagner opened a new epoch in American history. 
 It changed the thought and current of national life. It 
 showed and sanctified the chattel slave a MAN. 
 
 It only remains to be said that the broad mantle of charity 
 now covers all these harrowing events. The experience was 
 bitter, terrible ; the cost, staggering. But they are thought 
 of now only as matters of history. The lessons they teach, 
 however, are not to be minimized or forgotten by either the 
 North or the South. But the Civil War is a thing of the past. 
 It should be and is regarded as a by -gone event. No South 
 erner is judged to-day by the part he took in it. So is slav 
 ery a by-gone condition. There is and can be no place in 
 the life and government of this great republic for the retain- 
 ment of its barbarous traditions and brutal ideals. It would 
 make for the peace and well-being of the nation for the white 
 people of the South to come to this realization. The God of 
 the universe made the negro a man. The nation clothed 
 him with citizenship. His services in peace and in war con 
 firm unto him every right of an American. 
 
 Let the white people of the South cease to live in the past, 
 and rather let them profit by the awful lesson with all its 
 solemn and bitter warnings, that 
 
 35 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " Long trains of ills may pass unheeded, dumb, 
 But vengeance is behind and justice is to come. " 
 
 Let them with conscience void of offence toward God and 
 man face the future, and, " forgetting the things which are 
 behind, and looking forward to the things which are before," 
 let them establish law and order and demonstrate their 
 capacity for self-government by working out a government 
 which shall bestow no special favors or privileges on men 
 because God made them white ; and which shall do no injus 
 tice to men because God made them black. 
 
 Then indeed shall righteousness set up her habitations ; 
 truth and justice shall be enthroned ; and civilization, Chris 
 tianity, and government in the Southland shall stand redeemed, 
 regenerated, and disenthralled a glory forever. 
 
 86 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION AND THE 
 SOUTHERN " BLACK CODE " 
 
 THE close of the war was followed by the era of 
 Reconstruction. The war suppressed the rebellion; 
 reconstruction brought forth order out of the result 
 ing chaos. 
 
 This era of Reconstruction witnessed the issue of the 
 Proclamation of Amnesty by President Johnson, which 
 pardoned all who took part in the rebellion, except a few 
 thousands who held high civil or military or diplomatic 
 positions before and during the war, and made provision that 
 even these could obtain pardon by the mere asking for it and 
 swearing allegiance to the Constitution and Government of 
 the United States. This period also witnessed the enactment 
 of the " Black Code " by the legislatures of the seceding 
 states ; the enactment by the Congress of the United States 
 of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to 
 the Constitution ; the overthrow of the " Black Code ; " the 
 final annihilation of the institution of human slavery in the 
 South ; the fixing forever the status of American citizenship ; 
 the rehabilitation of the seceding states, and the resumption 
 of their autonomy in the Union ; the mustering out and re 
 turn to their homes and the marts of trade of more than 
 a million " citizen soldiers," 200,000 of them colored, crowned 
 with glory and honor, who counted it not dear unto them 
 selves to offer their lives a willing sacrifice on the altar of 
 their country, and who, by their deeds of valor and heroic 
 sacrifices, smothered the rebellion, preserved the republic from 
 dismemberment, and vindicated the sovereignty of the nation. 
 The era of Reconstruction was fraught with gravest solici 
 tude and crowded with vital, complicated, vexatious, and 
 far-reaching issues : issues that not only affected the status, 
 
 37 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 liberty, and rights of the colored people, but were of equally 
 supreme importance to the republic and to constitutional 
 government, and in fact of greatest concern to the whole 
 human family, since it seemingly involved the matter of the 
 life or death of the experiment of self-government by the 
 people. 
 
 It was an era which tried men^s souls. Fortunately for 
 the republic and the vast and far-reaching interests at stake, or 
 hanging in the balance, there were at the helm and standing 
 guard on the deck of the " Old Ship of State " men trained 
 in self-mastery and self-restraint ; men rooted and grounded 
 in the principles of liberty and republican government ; men 
 responsive to the dictates of humanity and Christianity, 
 sympathetic and charitable ; men who faced with calmness 
 and composure the passions within their own councils and the 
 defiance hurled at them from the South ; men broad in 
 learning and culture ; men with a genius for statecraft and 
 masters in statesmanship ; men who saw and knew the right 
 and dared to do it. 
 
 In the foundation of the republic, as laid by the fathers, 
 there was one radical, vital defect, which has ever remained a 
 peril to the majestic structure of liberty and self-government 
 which they built so well. It was the rotten stone of human 
 slavery, an ever present challenge and reproach to the 
 Declaration of Independence, and always a menace to the 
 peace and perpetuity of American institutions. 
 
 The leaders of the Reconstruction era dug out this rotten 
 stone, and replaced it with indestructible foundation-stone : 
 Equality of rights for all men before the law the only safe 
 and enduring foundation for the Temple of Liberty. Thus 
 they crystallized into law the most glorious sentiment of the 
 ages: "A government conceived in liberty and dedicated to 
 the principle that all men are created equal." In placing 
 the republic squarely, solidly, and for all time on this broad 
 foundation, " which time cannot wither, nor age decay," they 
 
 38 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 conserved the liberties won and progress achieved in centuries 
 of struggles, and revived the drooping hopes of mankind by 
 making it positive that " this nation, under God, shall have 
 a new birth of freedom." Unholy is the hand that would 
 
 J 
 
 remove this foundation-stone, hewn of Heaven, making all men 
 equal under the law of the land, as they are equal under the 
 law of nature and nature s God ! Vile is the tongue that 
 would assault the temple of the nation s liberty and the 
 world s hope built thereon ! 
 
 The white people of the South, wherever dominated in the 
 main by unbalanced, superheated leadership, have been 
 wrought into a frenzy, a frenzy dangerous to themselves 
 and to the best interests of their fair land ; dangerous to 
 civilization and to the peace and prosperity of the nation. 
 Reason, common-sense, and the nobler instincts of humanity 
 seem to have left them for the time. Primarily, this is 
 due to the influences begotten of the barbarism incident to 
 the institution of human slavery ; for the barbarism of slavery 
 has not even yet exacted its last penalty. 
 
 The nation accepted and nurtured slavery, and it is still 
 suffering the consequences of its noxious poisons. Let the 
 nation be warned of the more serious consequences which 
 would follow the obliteration of the liberty and hope of the 
 colored people, and the consignment of them to practical 
 serfdom. It is an adage hoary with age that " the dancers 
 must pay the fiddlers." Great wrongs are sure to bring great 
 retributions. But it ought to be plain to every one, includ 
 ing the white people of the South, that the ideals and 
 standards of the defunct slaveholding oligarchy can never 
 again prevail in this land over the holy principles of liberty 
 and free institutions. 
 
 The violent Southern leaders trace their grievances back 
 to the events of the Reconstruction era. They make many 
 misleading and mischievous declarations about the " damn 
 able crime " committed on the white people of the South by 
 
 39 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 giving the negro the ballot, and restoring to him the rights 
 of " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the heritage 
 of every human being. They exercise extraordinary care, 
 however, to omit absolutely all reference to the causes and 
 conditions which made negro suffrage a possibility, namely : 
 
 First, the war which the South waged against the nation 
 in its desperate struggles for four years to rend and destroy 
 it. 
 
 Second, the enactment by Southern legislatures com 
 posed entirely of ex-Confederates, after the war had closed, 
 and the white people of the South were given an absolutely 
 free hand under the proclamation of President Johnson to 
 reconstruct their respective States of the " Black Code," 
 the most barbarous series of laws ever written by a civilized 
 people. 
 
 Third, the flat, defiant refusal of the white people of many 
 Southern states to reconstruct their state governments in 
 harmony with the changed conditions produced by the war, 
 as embodied in the Proclamation of Emancipation and the 
 Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States, which abolished slavery. 
 
 Fourth, the curt and indignant refusal of the white people 
 of some Southern states even to participate in such recon 
 struction unless they were permitted to have their own way 
 in re-establishing a new form of slavery, to be in some 
 respects even worse than the system which the war had 
 overthrown. 
 
 But if a crime was committed on the white people of the 
 South, there must have been criminals who committed the 
 crime. Who were these criminals? Among the great 
 leaders of this era who had more or less to do in formulating 
 and completing the measures of reconstruction, there may be 
 mentioned, without any attempt at invidious distinction, 
 Charles Sumner, Henry Winter Davis, William Pitt Fessen- 
 den, Benjamin F. Wade, Henry Wilson, Lyman Trumbull, 
 
 40 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 James G. Elaine, George S. Boutwell, Zachary Chandler, 
 James A. Garfield, N. P. Banks, Lot M. Merrill, Roscoe 
 Conkling, John Sherman, James W. Grimes, Ira P. Harris, 
 Jacob M. Howard, Thaddeus Stevens, Elihu B. Washburn, 
 Justin S. Morrill, John A. Bingham, Henry T. Blow, 
 George F. Edmunds, Oliver P. Morton, Schuyler Colfax, 
 Benjamin F. Butler, H. L. Dawes, W. B. Washburn, W. D. 
 Kelley, Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Shellabarger, James 
 M. Ashley, S. M. Cullom, John A. Logan, Thomas W. 
 Ferry, W. B. Allison, Ignatius Donnelly, Philetus Sawyer, 
 William Windom, G. M. Dodge, William Lawrence, C. C. 
 Washburn, John A. Kasson, Russell Thayer, George F. 
 Hoar, James Harlan, Matt. H. Carpenter, Hannibal Hamlin, 
 Carl Schurz, Eugene Hale, O. D. Conger, Timothy O. Howe, 
 and Noah Davis. Here is a roster of American statesmen 
 the equal of any that ever faced a great crisis in the history 
 of the nation. Shall the memory of these men and their 
 compeers rest under the black imputation of criminality? 
 What serious citizen would think of mentioning in the same 
 breath these devoted patriots, well-poised and self-contained, 
 with the leaders like Tillman, Money, McHenery, Vardaman, 
 not to mention " Tray, Blanche, and Sweet-heart," et al., 
 who to-day seek to dominate the fair Southland? 
 
 The Northern leaders of this era were supported in every 
 step taken by the great commanders who suppressed the 
 rebellion : Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Hooker, 
 Howard, Hartranft, Chamberlain, Cox, Burnside, Meade, 
 Miles, Hawley, Gresham, Anderson, Thomas, Birney, and 
 their comrades of the land forces, and Admirals Farragut 
 and Porter and others of the naval forces. The movement 
 was also supported by the great leaders of public sentiment 
 in the nation, headed by Henry Ward Beecher ; the whole 
 being reinforced by the twenty millions of loyal Americans 
 who willingly contributed the treasure and blood which 
 saved the Union and emancipated the slave. 
 
 41 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 If the Northern civil leaders of this era were criminals, or com 
 mitted a crime against the South, then the great commanders 
 of the army and navy and the vast majority of the people of 
 the loyal States were sharers in the crime. In such a case 
 virtue and patriotism resided only with the men who used 
 their might and main to destroy the republic, and after 
 wards to re-establish slavery. To lay the taint of criminality, 
 directly or indirectly, by inference or otherwise, on the 
 leaders of reconstruction, the saviors of the republic, the 
 master builders who launched it on its " new birth of free 
 dom " is in itself a shocking offence to the patriotic citizen. 
 Within a brief period General Sherman has been referred to 
 by Southern leaders as the " brute who burned Columbia, 11 
 and General Canby as the 4< scoundrel who fastened carpet 
 bag government on the Carolinas ; " John Brown as " an old 
 fanatic and murderer," and General Sherman s army as 
 composed of " chicken thieves, robbers, bums, and the scum 
 and filth of Northern cities," who preyed on the people of 
 the South. 
 
 These charges are false. The memory of the great states 
 men and leaders of the Reconstruction era, and as well the 
 brave men who risked all on land and sea to save the 
 nation s life, lies embalmed in the hearts of a grateful and 
 loyal people, and should be held as a sacred legacy, free from 
 detraction and defamation. They not only did not commit 
 a crime against the white people of the South, but on the con 
 trary displayed a gracious magnanimity and generosity in 
 dealing with the people of that section ; and in handling the 
 delicate, perplexing issues of their day, they showed a con 
 servatism that is unmatched in recorded history. Gen 
 erously they offered the olive branch of peace and good- will ; 
 but the South rejected it with scorn and contempt. 
 
 Says Mr. Elaine, in his " Twenty Years of Congress " : "A 
 great opportunity was now given to the South. Only a few 
 weeks before, they had all been expecting harsh treatment, 
 
 42 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 many, indeed, anticipated punishment, not a few were de 
 jectedly looking forward to a life of exile and want. The 
 President s policy, which had been framed for him by Mr. 
 Seward, changed all this. Confidence took the place of 
 apprehension, the fear of punishment was removed, those 
 who, conscious of guilt, had been dreading expatriation 
 were bidden by the supreme authority of the nation to stay 
 in their own homes and to assist in building up the waste 
 and desolate places. Never in the history of the world had 
 so mighty a rebellion been subdued ; never had any rebel 
 lion been followed by treatment so lenient, forgiving, and 
 generous on the part of the triumphant government. The 
 great mass of those who had resisted the national authority 
 were restored to all their rights of citizenship by the simple 
 taking of an oath of future loyalty, and those excepted from 
 immediate reinstatement were promised full forgiveness on 
 the slightest exhibition of repentance and good works." And 
 this before the ballot was given to the colored people and 
 before the nation was ripe for its bestowal. 
 
 For a clearer understanding of this matter it may be well 
 to explain here that there were three distinct efforts at 
 reconstruction : 
 
 First : the effort at reconstruction during the war, directed 
 by President Lincoln. 
 
 Second : the attempt at reconstruction immediately after 
 the close of the war, directed by President Johnson, who suc 
 ceeded Lincoln after the latter s assassination. 
 
 Third : reconstruction proper, when the Congress took 
 the whole matter in hand, and not rashly or hastily, but 
 after serious and extended deliberations, full and free debates 
 in both Houses, and repeated endorsements by the people at 
 elections, covering a period of over five years from the 
 adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution 
 to the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, brought to a 
 righteous and irrevocable settlement all of the pressing, com- 
 
 43 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 plex, and absorbing questions involved in the war, in slavery, 
 and in our constitutional government. 
 
 As indicating the easy stages and progression of recon 
 struction legislation, it may be stated that the Thirteenth 
 Amendment was passed by the Congress January 30. 
 l86sL: the enlargement of the powers of the Freedmen s 
 Bureau, July, 1865 ; the Act protecting the civil rights of the 
 colored people, April 9, 1866 ; the Fourteenth Amendment, 
 June 13, 1866 ; the famous Reconstruction Act, March 
 2, 1867 ; and the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified March 
 30, 1870. 
 
 We will now consider these three attempts at reconstruc 
 tion, in the order named. 
 
 At the very opening of hostilities President Lincoln 
 adopted the eminently sagacious and statesmanlike policy of 
 cultivating, by every possible means and concessions, the 
 friendship and loyalty of those slave states and parts of 
 slave states bordering on the free states, including Mary 
 land, West Virginia, East Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri. 
 By his wonderful tact and strategy he succeeded in hold 
 ing them from open revolt against the Union, although 
 the great body of their citizens sympathized with the Con 
 federacy. This policy was invaluable, in that it nerved the 
 loyalists in the South, kept many hesitating ones in line, 
 brought valuable support to the Union arms, kept up 
 representation from some of the slave states in Congress, and 
 thus maimed the Confederacy. In furtherance of his policy 
 to reconstruct the seceding states so far as possible and 
 encourage the loyalists and hamper the Confederacy, he 
 issued a proclamation to the effect that, in any state where 
 ten righteous men out of a hundred could be found, where 
 " one tenth of the legal voters " were loyal to the Union, 
 they might reconstruct and reorganize the state government, 
 and that such government would be recognized. Military 
 commanders were instructed, wherever feasible, to assist 
 
 44 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE 1 
 
 and even to take the initiative in reconstructing such 
 governments. 
 
 The state of Virginia adopted its ordinance of secession on 
 the 17th of April, 1861. And in less than a month after 
 wards, on the 13th of May, the loyalists of the Old Domin 
 ion, residents largely of the western part of the state, met at 
 Wheeling, and " denounced the ordinance of secession and 
 pledged their loyalty to the national government and their 
 obedience to its laws. 11 It was but a little more than a month 
 later that a delegated convention met, reconstructed the 
 state government by the election of the usual officers, and 
 senators and representatives were sent to Congress and were 
 admitted ; and the reconstructed government of Virginia was 
 recognized as the legal government of the state. But as the 
 loyalists were domiciled almost entirely in the western section 
 of the state and had no control or power outside of that sec 
 tion the remainder of the state, and the great body of the 
 people being hopelessly in the Confederacy, the claim that 
 they really represented the state of Virginia did not seem, as 
 time went on, to be wholly tenable or satisfactory. So the 
 loyalists went through the usual form and organized a new 
 state, and there rose phoenix-like the progressive, prosperous, 
 and rapidly developing commonwealth of West Virginia 
 which thus owes her existence as a sovereign state to the 
 loyalty of her sons to the republic in this great crisis. 
 
 And so it came to pass that Virginia, the historic Old 
 Dominion, in her gigantic efforts through her masterful Lee, 
 her chivalric " Stonewall " Jackson, her redoubtable Johnson 
 and Johnston, and her fighting legions, ever ready for the 
 fray, was the most important factor in the attempt to dis 
 member the Union ; but she alone, of all the states of the 
 Confederacy, was dismembered. Much of the hardest fight 
 ing and wear and waste of war was on her soil ; she probably 
 lost a larger proportion of her sons ; and the loss by the 
 " partition " which carved out of her territory the great state 
 
 45 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 of West Virginia probably represents a greater money value 
 to-day than was placed on all the slaves in the South at the 
 outbreak of the war. Is not this an impressive retribution ? 
 
 The policy of reconstruction under Lincoln was also ap 
 plied to Tennessee with such good recompense that one of 
 her loyal sons, Andrew Johnson, was nominated for Vice- 
 President by the Republican convention in 1864. Efforts at 
 reconstruction were also made under his direction in Louisi 
 ana, with promising results, and in Arkansas and Florida 
 with tentative though not very substantial results. To 
 Governor Hahn of the reconstructed government of Louisiana, 
 Lincoln wrote in March, 1864, advising that the ballot should 
 be given to the colored men : " Let in, as for instance, the 
 very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gal 
 lantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some try 
 ing time in the future to keep the jewel of liberty in the 
 family of freedom." 
 
 This was probably the first utterance from a responsible 
 source in favor of bestowing the ballot on the colored people 
 of the South. It shows to splendid advantage Lincoln s great 
 and noble heart. For the war was still in progress and des 
 tined to last, no one knew how long. It did continue for 
 over a year longer. Lincoln s renomination and re-election 
 were hanging in the balance. Serious reverses in the field 
 might have defeated either or both. He was far in advance 
 of the public opinion of the nation. For at this time it was 
 not at all likely that a single Northern state could have been 
 carried on the simple question of negro suffrage. Yet he 
 plainly, positively, unmistakably indicated suffrage for the 
 colored man as a part of his policy in reconstructing the 
 Southern states. His generous nature, his great and noble 
 heart, would have it known that the colored men " who have 
 fought gallantly in our ranks " can be trusted to " help in 
 some trying time in the future to keep the jewel of liberty in 
 the family of freedom. 11 
 
 46 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 These words of Lincoln are dwelt upon because they are of 
 deep significance and add to our opinion of his greatness, his 
 fame, when it is considered that the validity of the Emanci 
 pation Proclamation was at that time a much debated ques 
 tion. Many strong and learned loyal men in the North 
 doubted the legal right or power of the President alone, even 
 as a war measure, to destroy or confiscate property by pro 
 clamation, especially when that property was beyond the 
 control of the government. The slaves were at that time 
 property ; they were also, with unimportant exceptions, with 
 in the bounds of the Confederacy and beyond the control of 
 the government. Could the President alone, by mere proc 
 lamation, legally destroy and confiscate property which his 
 government did not possess ? Would Congress, the people, 
 and the Supreme Court finally sustain him ? 
 
 This question, pressed by influential sources in the North, 
 weighed heavily on Lincoln. But he was equal to this, as 
 he was to every emergency in the greatest conflict in history. 
 He found strength and comfort in the "higher law" that 
 " the negro was a man, and that no man was good enough to 
 own another man and appropriate the fruits of his labor." 
 And there was the feeling "that slavery drew the sword 
 against the nation and that it should perish by the sword." 
 To the realization of this " higher law " he hoped to bring 
 the nation. 
 
 So important and pressing was this question that Lincoln 
 dealt with it in his message to the Congress in December, 
 1864. In this message the President said : " While I remain 
 in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or 
 modify the Emancipation Proclamation. Nor shall I return 
 to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that Proc 
 lamation or by any of the Acts of Congress. If the people 
 should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive 
 duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be 
 their instrument to perform it." 
 
 47 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Here is more than a veiled threat, it is an open defiance. 
 Lincoln had just been re-elected to the presidency in No 
 vember, a month before the message was sent to Congress; 
 and he distinctly tells Congress and the people that he would 
 give up the presidency rather than relinquish the principles 
 of his Emancipation Proclamation ; that he would resign his 
 office rather than " return to slavery any person who is free 
 by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the Acts of 
 Congress. 1 1 
 
 Up to this date the Emancipation Proclamation was the only 
 charter of liberty for the colored people in the South ; and 
 the all-important point is, that Lincoln regarded this as suffi 
 cient to enable the negroes to wear the uniform of a United 
 States soldier, to be commissioned as officers, to be treated 
 the same as white soldiers, to be protected as prisoners of 
 war, to have common rights, and to vote at the ballot-box. 
 
 President Lincoln s deep solicitude for the colored soldiers, 
 his profound interest in them, his unqualified respect for and 
 appreciation of their invaluable services, and his determina 
 tion that they should receive their full mete of justice, are 
 made manifest in his state papers, public addresses and letters. 
 In his message to Congress in December, 1863, less than a 
 year after the first enlistment of colored soldiers, he said : 
 " Full one hundred thousand of them are now in the United 
 States military service, about one half of which number actu 
 ally bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage 
 of taking so much labor from the insurgents 1 cause and 
 supplying the places which otherwise might be filled with 
 so many white men." In a speech at Baltimore, April 18, 
 1864, he said : " Upon a clear conviction of duty, I resolved 
 to turn that element of strength to account ; and I am re 
 sponsible for it to the American people, to the Christian 
 world, to history, and on my final account to God. Having 
 determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no way but 
 to give him all the protection given to any other soldier." 
 
 48 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 In a letter of April 4, 1864, he says : " More than a year 
 of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none 
 in our home popular sentiment, none in our white military 
 force, no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, 
 it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand sol 
 diers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about 
 which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. We have the men, 
 and we could not have them without the measure, 1 meaning 
 the Emancipation Proclamation. At a public meeting in 
 Baltimore he said : " The black soldier shall have the same 
 protection as the white soldier. 1 
 
 He threatened retaliation, should the Confederates shoot 
 black soldiers when captured, instead of treating them as 
 prisoners of war. He refused to exchange a single Confed 
 erate soldier until colored soldiers were recognized by the 
 Confederate government. Again, in a public address he de 
 clared : " Negroes, like other people, act from motives. Why 
 should they do anything for us, if we do nothing for them ? 
 If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by 
 the strongest of motives, even the promise of freedom. And 
 the promise, being made, must be kept. 11 
 
 In a general order, issued July 30, 1863, Lincoln said: 
 "It is the duty of every government to give protection to its 
 citizens, of whatever class or color or condition, and especially 
 to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public ser 
 vice. . . . The government of the United States will give the 
 same protection to all its soldiers ; and if the enemy shall sell 
 or enslave any one because of his color, the offence shall be 
 punished by retaliation upon the enemy^ prisoners in our pos 
 session. It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the 
 United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel 
 soldier shall be executed ; and for every one enslaved by the 
 enemy, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the 
 public works. 11 
 
 In defence of the Emancipation Proclamation in a letter, 
 4 49 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 August 26, 1863, he said : " You are dissatisfied with me 
 about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opin 
 ion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly 
 wish that all men could be free. . . . You dislike the Eman 
 cipation Proclamation. . . . You say it is unconstitutional. 
 I think differently ; I think the Constitution invests its Com- 
 mander-in-Chief with law of war in time of war. . . . The 
 slaves are property ; ... by the law of war property, both 
 of the enemies and friends, may be taken when needed. 
 Armies, the world over, destroy enemies 1 property when they 
 cannot use it, and even destroy their own to keep it from the 
 enemy. . . . But the Proclamation, as law, either is valid or 
 is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it 
 is valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can 
 be brought to life. . . . The Emancipation policy and the 
 use of colored troops constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt 
 to the Rebellion." / 
 
 Replying to an address from the workingmen of Man 
 chester and London, England, who wished him success in 
 conquering the rebellion, as by it slavery would be destroyed, 
 and indicated their willingness to bear with patience all pri 
 vations and sufferings, for not only great hardships but even 
 starvation faced many in England, owing to the fact that the 
 blockade of Southern ports prevented the shipment of cot 
 ton, Lincoln said : " It has been often ostentatiously rep 
 resented that the attempt to overthrow this government, 
 which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to 
 substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the 
 basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain favor in Europe. 
 I cannot but regard your decisive utterance upon the ques 
 tion as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which has 
 not been surpassed in any age or country. It is indeed an 
 energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of 
 truth and the universal triumph of justice, humanity, and 
 freedom." 
 
 50 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE 11 
 
 To a Western delegation he said : " There are now in the 
 service of the United States nearly 200,000 able-bodied colored 
 men, most of them under arms defending and acquiring Union 
 territory. The Democratic strategy demands that those forces 
 be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restor 
 ing them to slavery. The black men who now assist Union 
 prisoners to escape are to be converted into our enemies in 
 the vain hope of gaining the good-will of their masters. . . . 
 Abandon all the forts now garrisoned by black men ; take 
 200,000 from our side and put them in the battle-field or 
 corn-field against us, and we would be compelled to abandon 
 the war in three weeks. We have to hold territory in sickly 
 places. . . . There have been men base enough to propose 
 to me to return to slavery our black warriors of Port Hudson 
 and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they 
 fought. . . . Come what will, I will keep faith with friend 
 and enemy. . . . Freedom has given us 200,000 men raised 
 on Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it 
 has abstracted from the enemy." 
 
 To a colored delegation at Baltimore, presenting him with 
 a handsomely bound copy of the Bible, he said : " I can only 
 say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a 
 sentiment with me that all mankind should be free. ... I 
 have always acted as I believed was just and right, and done 
 all I could for the good of mankind. ... In regard to the 
 great Book, I have only to say, it is the best gift which God 
 has ever given to man. All the good of the Saviour of the 
 world is communicated to us through this Book. . . . All 
 those things desirable to men are contained in it." 
 
 In his inaugural address, March, 1865, President Lincoln 
 said : " These slaves constitute a peculiar and powerful inter 
 est. ... To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest 
 was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union 
 by war. ... It may seem strange that any men should dare 
 to ask a just God s assistance in wringing their bread from 
 
 51 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the sweat of other men s faces. . . . Fondly do we hope, fer 
 vently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may 
 speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue 
 until . . . every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be 
 paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three 
 thousand years ago, so, still, it must be said that the judg 
 ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 1 n 
 
 A fact of considerable interest is that the Confederate 
 leaders, who dragged the South into secession with the al 
 leged purpose of establishing a government whose very foun 
 dation-stone should be human slavery, should themselves 
 have turned their eyes to these very enslaved negroes to save 
 their cause. They were ever ready to use the negro for their 
 selfish ends. 
 
 The Honorable Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State for 
 the Confederacy, in a public speech at Richmond, advocating 
 the arming of the negroes, said : " There are 700,000 males 
 among the slave population capable of bearing arms set 
 them free and arm them and let them fight the Yankees." 
 On the recommendation of General Lee and President Davis 
 of the Confederacy, a bill to arm the slaves passed one House 
 of the Confederate Congress, and lacked only one vote of 
 passing the other House. Nevertheless, this same Confed 
 erate Congress actually passed a law to shoot white union 
 officers commanding colored soldiers, and shoot colored 
 soldiers when captured. 
 
 President Lincoln, in a public address in Washington, 
 true to that humor and irony characteristic of him, said : 
 " As they need only one vote, I would be glad to send my 
 vote through the lines to help them out. 11 He felt that 
 they would certainly have so many more soldiers shooting 
 at them. The well-grounded fear that the armed negroes 
 would desert to the Union side defeated the measure. But 
 if these 700,000 slaves had been thrown into the breach on 
 the Confederate side, and had fought loyally, under promise 
 
 52 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE 11 
 
 of freedom, it does not seem possible that the Union could 
 have been saved. But it was not to be so. God was 
 leading on ! 
 
 The feeling of love, gratitude, and reverence engendered 
 towards President Lincoln by his championing of the negro 
 cause is shown by the following incident. The Confederate 
 government had scarcely evacuated Richmond before Lincoln, 
 unheralded and unannounced, and accompanied by his young 
 son and Admiral Porter, besides a few sailors from a man-of- 
 war, entered the city and " like any other citizen, walked up the 
 streets towards General WeitzePs headquarters, in the house 
 occupied two days before by Jefferson Davis. 11 The Atlantic 
 Monthly thus describes the scene of the colored people coming 
 from all sides to see their deliverer : " They gathered round 
 the President, ran ahead, hovered upon the flanks of the little 
 company, and hung like a dark cloud upon the rear. Men, 
 women, and children, joined the constantly increasing throng. 
 They came from all the by-streets, running in breathless 
 haste, shouting and hallooing and dancing with delight. 
 The men threw up their hats, the women waved their 
 bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their hands and sang 
 4 Glory to God ! Glory ! Glory ! 1 rendering all the praise 
 to God, who had heard their wailings in the past, their 
 moanings for wives, husbands, children, and friends, sold 
 out of their sight ; had given them freedom, and after long 
 years of waiting, had permitted them thus unexpectedly 
 to behold the face of their great benefactor. I thank 
 yon, dear Jesus, that I behold President Linkum ! was 
 the exclamation of a woman who stood upon the thresh 
 old of her humble home, and with streaming eyes and 
 clasped hands gave thanks aloud to the Saviour of men. 
 Another, more demonstrative in her joy, was jumping and 
 striking her hands with all her might, crying Bless de 
 Lord ! Bless de Lord ! " as if there could be no end to the 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 53 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " The air rang with a tumultuous chorus of voices. The 
 street became almost impassable on account of the increasing 
 multitude, till soldiers were summoned to clear the way. . . . 
 The walk was long, and the President halted a moment to 
 rest. May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum ! 
 said an old negro, removing his hat and bowing, with tears 
 of joy rolling down his cheeks. The President removed his 
 own hat and bowed in silence ; but it was a bow which upset 
 the forms, laws, customs, and ceremonies of centuries. It 
 was a death-shock to chivalry, and a mortal wound to caste. 
 Recognize a nigger ! Faugh ! A woman in an adjoining 
 house beheld it, and turned from the scene in unspeakable 
 digust." 
 
 From this scene Lincoln returned to Washington, and on 
 the llth of April, 1865, just four days before his death, and 
 two days after General Lee^s surrender, he made his last 
 public address, favoring, as a start in the right direction, 
 the reconstructed government which the loyalists had organ- 
 i/ed in Louisiana, abolishing slavery, adopting the Thirteenth 
 Amendment, providing schools for black and white alike, 
 and providing for the franchise for the colored people. 
 
 In a letter April 4 he said : " I am naturally anti- 
 slavery. If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong. . . . 
 I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of 
 either surrendering the Union and with it the Constitution, 
 or of laying strong hands upon the colored element. I 
 chose the latter." And the colored element did respond 
 with great heartiness, and answering President Lincoln s 
 call, they joyfully sang: 
 
 " We are coming, Father Abraham, 
 Two hundred thousand strong." 
 
 If Lincoln was willing, as he proved to be, to use the 
 great power of the United States government to guarantee 
 that " the black soldier should have the same protection as 
 
 54 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 the white soldier,*" then it defames his hallowed memory, 
 and libels his nobility of heart to insinuate that he would 
 not use the same powers to guarantee to the black citizen 
 the same protection under the law as the white citizen. To 
 him the Emancipation Proclamation meant freedom for the 
 colored people ; and freedom meant citizenship ; and citizen 
 ship the ballot. 
 
 In his general order issued July 30, 1863, President Lin 
 coln said : " It is the duty of every government to give 
 protection to its citizens, of whatever class or color or 
 condition. " 
 
 In this general order, officially promulgated, he made 
 direct intervention in behalf of colored men, and secured 
 their protection by the exercise of governmental sovereignty 
 in obliterating class distinctions. On this question his record 
 is unmistakably clear. Sad, sudden, unexpected, and over 
 whelming as was the death of Lincoln, there were two events 
 which immediately preceded it that must have been of 
 supreme satisfaction and happiness to him.. There were two 
 overmastering emotions in his heart : one was to see the 
 Union saved, and its supremacy made sure forevermore ; the 
 other was to see slavery dead, and dead beyond a resurrection. 
 
 The God in whom he believed, whom he trusted, to whom 
 he prayed, who sustained and led him " amid the encircling 
 gloom " when he was weighted down to the earth with bur 
 dens greater than it seemed possible that man could bear, 
 was merciful, gracious, and kind unto him. His eyes beheld 
 the salvation of his country ! He saw the imperious, cruel, 
 slaveholding oligarchy, which drew the sword against the 
 nation, totter to its ruin ; its dreams of an empire on 
 the Gulf of Mexico shattered and buried in the dust ; the 
 Union saved. 
 
 He signed the death-warrant of slavery, which was em 
 bodied in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
 the United States, and passed by the necessary two-thirds 
 
 55 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 vote of both Houses of Congress : " Neither slavery, nor 
 involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
 in the United States, or any place subject to their juris 
 diction." The final passage of this amendment, probably 
 the most momentous legislative Act passed up to that time 
 in the whole history of the American Congress, was not re 
 ceived in the rancor of party-spirit, nor with the huzzas of 
 partisan triumph, but on the contrary with most profound, 
 aye, holy emotions. Mr. Ingersoll of Illinois said : " Mr. 
 Speaker, in honor of this immortal and sublime event, I 
 move that this House do now adjourn." 
 
 Mr. Blaine said : " The action was of transcendent impor 
 tance lofty in conception, masterful in execution. Slavery 
 in the United States was dead. To succeeding and not dis 
 tant generations its existence in a republic for three-quarters 
 of a century, the duration of the organized government of 
 the United States up to that time, will be an increasing 
 marvel." 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln was waited upon to be apprised of its 
 passage, and was congratulated, he said : " In the midst of 
 your joyous expressions, He from whom all blessings flow 1 
 must first be remembered." Here is a true exhibition of 
 the real spirit of the man ; his eyes beheld salvation for the 
 negro; the salvation of a race from a bondage of despair, 
 black, bitter, brutal ; slavery dead and entombed and he the 
 master of the ceremonies. His joy was full, complete. So 
 ever shall he wear the " crown, a martyr s diadem, his jewels 
 millions of ransomed slaves." 
 
 Still strong he stood among the crowd, 
 
 His head above the clamor loud, 
 
 Unmoved by trial or dismay, 
 
 The sunshine on his face alway. 
 
 Like some firm cliff that guards the strand, 
 
 So Lincoln stood to save the land." 
 
 56 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 With the elevation of Andrew Johnson to the presidency 
 after the death of Lincoln, there began the second effort 
 at reconstruction. General Lee surrendered at Appomat- 
 tox, April 9, 1865. President Lincoln, the beloved of all 
 hearts,"" expired on the 15th of the same month; Mr. John 
 son took the oath of office just a few hours after Lincoln s 
 death. 
 
 It was on the 29th day of May, 1865, that President John 
 son issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to all 
 who took part in the Rebellion, except the few thousands 
 who held high official positions in the civil, military, or diplo 
 matic service of the United States at the breaking out of 
 the war, or held similar positions in the Confederacy; but 
 providing that such persons may receive full pardon by 
 applying for the same to the President. Thus the rank and 
 file of Southerners were let in, and the door kept ajar for the 
 exceptions. The conditions imposed on the white people 
 of the South were that they would henceforth " faithfully 
 support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
 States and the Union of the States thereunder ; abide by and 
 faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have 
 been made during the existing Rebellion with reference to 
 the emancipation of slaves." Could there have been greater 
 magnanimity, wiser generosity to the white people of the 
 South ? 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation had been endorsed and 
 confirmed by an overwhelming vote of the people of the 
 loyal states, and by the sweeping and triumphant re-election 
 of Lincoln in the preceding November. 
 
 The Thirteenth Amendment had passed both Houses of 
 Congress by more than the necessary two-thirds vote, and had 
 been signed by President Lincoln. The white people of the 
 South were commissioned to reconstruct the seceding states 
 and bring them back into their proper and normal relations 
 with the Union. They were given an absolutely free hand ; 
 
 57 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 their oath bound them to respect the changed conditions 
 "with reference to the emancipation of slaves." But how 
 did they use this high prerogative, this unfettered power, so 
 graciously restored to their hands ? They held, with light 
 ning-like rapidity, state conventions, and their legislatures, 
 composed entirely of ex-Confederates, were summoned in 
 special sessions, within a few months immediately following 
 the war; and they proceeded forthwith to enact a Black 
 Code of Laws, with reference to the colored people who were 
 emancipated, and whose emancipation their Amnesty oath 
 bound them to respect, that is the scandal and shame of 
 civilization. Not a single right dear to a freeman did these 
 men respect, " with reference to the emancipation of slaves."" 
 Not a single law or proclamation did they honestly observe. 
 These men, in the language of one of old, practically said to 
 the colored people : " My little finger shall be thicker than 
 my father s loins. For whereas my father put a heavy yoke 
 upon you, I will put more to your yoke ; my father chastised 
 you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."" 
 
 We come now to the consideration of the specific points in 
 this code of laws that the Southern whites considered proper 
 for the government of the emancipated negro. 
 
 Mr. Blaine, in his " Twenty Years of Congress," gives such 
 a masterly review of the Black Code of Laws passed by 
 Southern legislatures after President Johnson s Amnesty 
 Proclamation and when the ex- Confederates had unfettered 
 power to reconstruct the Southern states, that it is repro 
 duced here, as follows : 
 
 " That which was no offence in a white man was made a 
 misdemeanor, a heinous crime, if committed by a negro. 
 Both in the civil and criminal code his treatment was differ 
 ent from that to which the white man was subjected. He 
 was compelled to work under a series of labor laws appli 
 cable only to his own race. The laws of vagrancy were 
 so changed as, in many of their provisions, to apply only 
 
 58 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 to him, and under their operation all freedom of movement 
 and transit was denied. The liberty to sell his time at 
 a fair market rate was destroyed by the interposition of 
 apprentice laws. Avenues of usefulness and skill in which 
 he might specially excel, were closed against him, lest he 
 should compete with white men. In short, his liberty in all 
 directions was so curtailed that it was a bitter mockery to 
 refer to him in the statutes as a 4 freedman. The truth was 
 that his liberty was merely of form and not of fact, and the 
 slavery which was abolished by the organic law of a nation 
 was now to be revived by the enactment of a state. 
 
 " Some of these enactments were peculiarly offensive, not 
 to say atrocious. In Alabama, which might indeed serve as 
 an example for the other rebellious states, stubborn or re 
 fractory servants and servants who loiter away their time 
 were declared by law to be c vagrants, and might be brought 
 before a justice of the peace and fined fifty dollars; and in 
 default of payment, they might be hired out, 1 on three days 
 notice by public outcry, for the period of 4 six months. No 
 fair man could fail to see that the whole effect, and presum 
 ably the direct intent, of this law was to reduce the helpless 
 negro to slavery for half the year a punishment that could 
 be repeated whenever desired, a punishment sure to be desired 
 for that portion of each recurring year when his labor was 
 specially valuable in connection with the cotton crop, while 
 for the remainder of the time he might shift for himself. 
 By this detestable process, the master had the labor of 
 the servant for a mere pittance ; and even that pittance 
 did not go to the servant, but was paid into the treasury 
 of the county, and thus relieved the white men from their 
 proper share of taxation. There may have been more cruel 
 laws enacted, but the statute books of the world might be 
 searched in vain for one of meaner injustice. 
 
 " The foregoing, a process for restoring slavery in a modi 
 fied form, was applicable to men or women of any age. But 
 
 59 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 for minors a more speedy and more sweeping method was 
 contrived by the law-makers of Alabama, who had just given 
 their assent to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitu 
 tion. They made it the duty of all sheriffs, justices of the 
 peace, and other civil officers of the several counties, to report 
 the names of all minors under the age of eighteen years, 
 whose parents have not the means, or who refuse to support 
 said minors, and thereupon it was made the duty of the 
 Court to apprentice said minor to some suitable person, on 
 such terms as the Court may direct. 1 Then follows a sug 
 gestive proviso, directing that if said minor be the child of 
 a freedman (as if any other class were really referred to !), 
 the f owner owner of said minor shall have the preference ; 
 and the judge of probate shall make a record of all the 
 proceedings, for which he should be entitled to a fee of one 
 dollar in each case, to be paid, as this atrocious law directed, 
 by the master or mistress. To tighten the grasp of owner 
 ship on the minor, who was now styled an apprentice, it was 
 enacted in almost the precise phrase of the old slave code 
 that whoever shall entice said apprentice from his master 
 or mistress, or furnish food or clothing to him or her, with 
 out said consent, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 " The ingenuity of Alabama legislators in contriving 
 schemes to re-enslave the negroes was not exhausted by the 
 odious and comprehensive statutes already cited. They passed 
 an act to incorporate the city of Mobile, substituting a new 
 charter for the old one. The city had suffered much from 
 the suspension and decay of trade during the war, and it 
 was in great need of labor to make repairs to streets, culverts, 
 sewers, wharves, and all other public property. By the new 
 charter, the mayor, aldermen, and common council were em 
 powered to cause all vagrants, . . . all such as have no 
 visible means of support, . . . all who can show no reason 
 able cause of employment or business in the city, . . . all 
 
 60 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 who have no fixed residence or cannot give a good account 
 of themselves, 1 . . . or are loitering in or about tippling 
 houses, 1 . . . to give security for their good behavior for a 
 reasonable time and to indemnify the city against any charge 
 for their support, and in case of their inability or refusal to 
 give such security, to cause them to be confined to labor for 
 a limited time, not exceeding six calendar months, which said 
 labor shall be designated by the said mayor, aldermen, and 
 common council, for the benefit of said city. 1 
 
 " It will be observed even by the least intelligent that the 
 charge made in this city ordinance was, in substance, the 
 poverty of the classes quoted a poverty which was of course 
 the inevitable result of slavery. To make the punishment 
 for no crime effective, the city government was empowered 
 4 to appoint a person or persons to take those sentenced to 
 labor from their place of confinement to the place ap 
 pointed for their working, and to watch them while at labor 
 and return them before sundown to their place of confine 
 ment ; and, if they shall be found afterwards offending, such 
 security may again be required, and for want thereof the like 
 proceeding may again be had from time to time, as often as may 
 be necessary. The plain meaning of all this was, that these 
 helpless and ignorant men, having been robbed all their lives 
 of the fruit of their labor by slavery, and being necessarily 
 and in consequence poor, must be punished for it by being 
 robbed again of all they had honestly earned. If they stub 
 bornly continued in their poverty, the like proceeding (of 
 depriving them of the fruit of their labor) 4 may again be 
 had from time to time, as often as may be necessary. 1 It 
 would, of course, be found necessary, 1 just so long as the city 
 of Mobile was in need of their labor without paying for it. 
 
 "It has been abundantly substantiated, by impartial evi 
 dence, that when these grievous outrages were committed, 
 under the forms of law, by the joint authority of the Ala 
 bama legislature and the city government of Mobile, the 
 
 61 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 labor of thousands of willing men could be hired for the low 
 wages of twenty-five cents per day, with an allowance of a 
 peck of corn meal and four pounds of bacon for each man 
 per week. It does not change the character of the crime 
 against these humble laborers, but it certainly enhances its 
 degree that the law-makers of Alabama preferred an oppres 
 sive fraud to the honest payment of a consideration so small 
 as to be almost nominal. A man must be in abject poverty 
 when he is willing to work an entire week for a sum usually 
 accorded in the Northern states for the labor of one day. 
 But only a community blind to public justice and to public 
 decency as well could enact a ]aw that in effect declares the 
 poverty of the laborer to be a crime, in consideration of 
 which he shall be deprived of the beggarly mite for which he 
 is willing to give the sweat of his face. 
 
 " Apparently fearing that the operations of the law already 
 referred to would not secure a sufficient number of laborers 
 for the work required in the city, the law-makers of Alabama 
 authorized the municipal government of Mobile to restrain 
 and prohibit the nightly and other meetings or disorderly 
 assemblies of all persons, and to punish for such offences by 
 affixing penalties not exceeding fifty dollars for any one 
 offence ; and in case of the inability of any such person to 
 pay and satisfy said fine or penalty and the cost thereof, to 
 sentence such person to labor for said city for such reason 
 able time, not exceeding six calendar months, for any one 
 offence, as may be deemed equivalent to such penalty and 
 costs, which labor shall be such as may be designated by the 
 \ mayor, aldermen, and common-council men of the city/ 
 
 " Power was thus given to consider any evening meeting 
 of colored persons a disorderly one, and to arrest all who were 
 participating in it. Nothing was more natural than that the 
 negroes, with their social and even gregarious habits, should, 
 in their new estate of freedom, be disposed to assemble for 
 the purpose of considering their own interests and their 
 
 62 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 future prospects. It is eminently to the discredit of the 
 state of Alabama and of the city of Mobile that so innocent 
 a purpose should be thwarted, perverted, made criminal and 
 punished. 
 
 " The fact will not escape attention that in these enact 
 ments the words master, 1 mistress, 1 and servant are con 
 stantly used, and that under the operation of the laws a form 
 of servitude was re-established, more heartless and more cruel 
 than the slavery which had been abolished. Under the 
 institution of slavery a certain attachment would spring up 
 between the master and his slave, and with it came a certain 
 protection to the latter against want and against suffering in 
 his old age. With all its wrongfulness and its many cruel 
 ties, there were ameliorations in the slave system which soft 
 ened its asperities and enabled vast numbers of people 
 possessing conscience and character to assume the relation of 
 master. But in the treatment of the colored man now pro 
 posed, there was absolute heartlessness and rank injustice. 
 It was proposed to punish him for no crime, to declare the 
 laborer not worthy of his hire, to leave him friendless and 
 forlorn, without sympathy, without rights under the law, 
 socially an outcast and industrially a serf a serf who had 
 no connection with the land he tilled, and who had none of 
 the protection which even the autocracy of Russia extended 
 to the lowliest creature that acknowledged the sovereignty 
 of the Czar. 
 
 " These laws were framed with malignant cunning so as not 
 to be limited in specific form of words to the negro race, but 
 they were exclusively confined to that race in their execu 
 tion. It is barely possible that a white vagrant of excep 
 tional depravity might, now and then, be arrested ; but the 
 negro was arrested by wholesale on a charge of vagrancy 
 which rested on no foundation except an arbitrary law 
 specially enacted to fit his case. Loitering around tippling- 
 shops, one of the offences enumerated, was in far larger 
 
 63 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 proportion the habit of white men, but they were left un 
 touched and the negro alone was arrested and punished. In 
 the entire code this deceptive form, of apparently including 
 all persons, was a signally dishonest feature. The makers of 
 the law evidently intended that it should apply to the negro 
 alone, for it was administered on that basis with rigorous 
 severity. The general phrasing was to deceive people outside, 
 and, perhaps, to lull the consciences of some objectors at 
 home, but it made no difference whatever in the execution of 
 the statutes. White men who had no more visible means of 
 support than the negro were left undisturbed, while the 
 negro, whose visible means of support were in his strong 
 arms and his willingness to work, was prevented from using 
 the resources conferred upon him by nature, and reduced not 
 merely to the condition of a slave, but subjected to the de 
 moralization of being adjudged a criminal. 
 
 "In Florida the laws resembled those of Alabama, but 
 were perhaps more severe in their penalties. The vagrant 
 there might be hired out for full twelve months, and the 
 money arising from his labor, in case the man had no wife 
 and children, was directed to be applied for the benefit of 
 the orphans and poor of the county, although the negro had 
 been declared a vagrant because he had no visible means of 
 support, and was therefore quite as much in need of the 
 avails of his labor as those to whom the law diverted them. 
 Among the curious enactments of that state was one to 
 establish and organize a criminal court for each county, em 
 powered to exercise jurisdiction in the trial of all offences 
 where the punisment did not affect the life of the offender. 
 It is obvious that the law was originated mainly for the 
 punishment of negroes; and to expedite its work it was 
 enacted that in the proceedings of said court, no present 
 ment, indictment, or written pleading shall be required, but 
 it shall be sufficient to pub the party accused upon his or her 
 trial, that the offence and facts are plainly set forth with 
 
 64 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 reasonable certainty in the warrant of arrest. 1 It was further 
 provided that where fines were imposed and the party was 
 unable to pay them, the county commissioner may hire out, 
 at public outcry, the said party to any person who will take 
 him or her for the shortest time, and pay the fine imposed 
 and the cost of prosecution. 1 The fines thus paid went into 
 the county treasury for the general expenses of the county. 
 The law was thus cunningly contrived to hurry the negro 
 into an odious form of slavery, and to make the earnings 
 which came from his hard labor pay the public expenses, 
 which were legitimately chargeable upon the property of the 
 county. 
 
 " Accompanying the act establishing this court was a law 
 prescribing additional penalties for the commission of offences 
 against the state ; and this, like the former, was framed 
 especially for the negro. Its first section provided that 
 where punishment of an offence had hitherto been limited to 
 fine or imprisonment, there should be superadded, as an 
 alternative, the punishment of standing in the pillory for one 
 hour, or whipping, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, on the 
 bare back. The latter punishment was reserved expressly for 
 the negro. It was provided further that it shall not be 
 lawful for any negro, mulatto, or person of color to own, use, 
 or keep any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, firearms, or ammunition 
 of any kind, unless he first obtain a license to do so from the 
 judge of probate for the county in which he is a resident. 1 
 The judge could issue the license to him only upon recom 
 mendation of two respectable white men. Any negro at 
 tempting to keep arms of any kind was to be deemed guilty 
 of a misdemeanor, compelled to * forfeit the arms for the use 
 of the informer, stand in the pillory 1 (and be pelted by the 
 mob) for one hour, and then whipped with thirty-nine lashes 
 on the bare back. 1 The same penalty was prescribed for any 
 person of color 6 who shall intrude himself into any religious 
 or other public assembly of white persons, or into any rail- 
 5 65 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 road-car or other vehicle set apart f >r the accommodation of 
 white persons ; and with a mock show of impartiality it was 
 provided that a white man intruding himself into an assem 
 bly of negroes, or into a negro-car, might be subjected to a 
 like punishment. This restriction upon the negro was far 
 more severe than that imposed in the days of slavery, when, 
 in many of the Southern states, the gallery of the church 
 was permitted to be freely occupied by them. A peculiarly 
 atrocious discrimination against the negro was included in 
 the sixth section of the law from which these quotations are 
 made. It was provided therein that if any person or persons 
 shall assault a white female with intent to commit rape, or 
 be accessory thereto, he or they, upon conviction, shall suffer 
 death ; but there was no prohibition and no penalty pre 
 scribed for the same crime against a negro woman. She was 
 left unprotected by law against the brutal lust and the vio 
 lence of white men. 
 
 " In the laws of South Carolina the oppression and injustice 
 towards the negro were conspicuously marked. The restric 
 tion as to firearms, which was general to all the states, was 
 especially severe. A negro found with any kind of weapon 
 in his possession was punished by a fine equal to twice the 
 value of the weapon so unlawfully kept, and, if that be not 
 immediately paid, by corporal punishment. * Perhaps the 
 most radically unjust of all the statutes was reserved for this 
 state. The legislature enacted that no person of color 
 shall pursue the practice, art, trade, or business of an artisan, 
 mechanic, or shopkeeper, or any other trade or employment 
 besides that of husbandry, or that of a servant under contract 
 for labor, until he shall have obtained a license from the 
 judge of the district court, which license shall be good for 
 one year only. If the license was granted to the negro to 
 be a shopkeeper or peddler, he was compelled to pay a hun 
 dred dollars a year for it; and if he wished to pursue the 
 rudest mechanical calling he was compelled to pay a license- 
 
 66 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 fee of ten dollars. No such fees were exacted of white men, 
 and no such fees were exacted of the free black man during 
 the era of slavery. Every avenue for improvement was 
 closed against him ; and in a state which boasted somewhat 
 indelicately of its chivalric dignity, the negro was merci 
 lessly excluded from all chances to better his condition 
 individually, or to improve the character of his race. 
 
 " Mississippi followed in the general line of penal enact 
 ments prescribed in South Carolina, though her code was 
 possibly somewhat less severe in the deprivations to which 
 the negro was subjected. It was, however, bad enough to 
 stir the indignation of every lover of justice. The legisla- 
 lature had enacted a law that if the laborer shall quit the 
 service of the employer before the expiration of his term of 
 service without just cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that 
 year up to the time of quitting. 1 Practically the negro was 
 himself never permitted to judge whether the cause which 
 drove him to seek employment elsewhere was just, the white 
 man being the sole arbiter in the premises. It was provided 
 that every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest 
 and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, 
 free negro or mulatto, who shall have quit the service of his 
 or her employer before the expiration of his term of service 
 without good cause, and said officer shall be entitled to 
 receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting em 
 ployee aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile 
 from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and these 
 sums shall be held by the employer as a set-off for so much 
 against the wages of said deserting employee ; provided that 
 said arrested party, after being so returned home, may appeal 
 to a justice of the peace, or a member of the board of police, 
 who shall summarily try whether said appellant is legally 
 employed by the alleged employer." 
 
 " It requires little familiarity with Southern administration 
 of justice between a white man and a negro to know that 
 
 67 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 such appeal was always worse than fruitless, and that its 
 only effect, if attempted, would be to secure even harsher 
 treatment than if the appeal had not been made. The pro 
 visions for enticing a negro from his employer, included in 
 this act, were in the same spirit and almost in the same 
 language as the provisions of the slave-code applicable to the 
 negro before the era of emancipation. The person giving 
 or selling to any deserting freedman, free negro, or mulatto, 
 any food, raiment, or other things, shall be guilty of a mis 
 demeanor, 1 and might be punished by a fine of two hundred 
 dollars and costs, or he might be put into prison, and be 
 also sued by the employer for damages. For attempting to 
 entice any freedman or free negro beyond the limits of the 
 state, the person offending might be fined five hundred dol 
 lars ; and if not immediately paid, the court could sentence 
 the delinquent to imprisonment in the county jail for six 
 months. The entire code of Mississippi for freedmen was in 
 the spirit of the laws quoted. Justice was defied, and injus 
 tice incorporated as the very spirit of the laws. It was 
 altogether a shameless proclamation of indecent wrong on 
 the part of the Legislature of Mississippi. 
 
 " Louisiana probably attained the worst eminence in this 
 vicious legislation. At the very moment when the Thirty- 
 ninth Congress was assembling to consider the condition of 
 the Southern states and the whole subject of their Recon 
 struction, it was found that a bill was pending in the Legis 
 lature of Louisiana providing that every adult freed man or 
 woman shall furnish themselves with a comfortable home and 
 visible means of support within twenty days after the passage 
 of this act? and that 6 any freed man or woman failing to 
 obtain a home and support as thus provided shall be imme 
 diately arrested by any sheriff or constable in any parish, or 
 by the police officer in any city or town in said parish where 
 said freedman may be, and by them delivered to the Recorder 
 of the parish, and by him hired out, by public advertisement, 
 
 68 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 to some citizen, being the highest bidder, for the remainder 
 of the year/ And in case the laborer should leave his em 
 ployer s service without his consent, he shall be arrested and 
 assigned to labor on some public works without compensa 
 tion until his employer reclaims him. The laborers were 
 not to be allowed to keep any live-stock, and all time spent 
 from home without leave was to be charged against them at 
 the rate of two dollars per day, and worked out at that rate. 
 Many more provisions of the same general character were 
 contained within the bill, the whole character and scope of 
 which were forcibly set before the Senate by Mr. Wilson of 
 Massachusetts. It was not only a proof of cruelty enacted 
 into law, but was such a defiance to the spirit of the Eman 
 cipation Amendment that it subjected the legislature which 
 approved the amendment and enacted these laws to a charge 
 of inconsistency so grave as to make the former act appear in 
 the light of both a legal and moral fraud. It was declaring 
 the negro to be free by one statute, and immediately pro 
 ceeding to re-enslave him by another. 
 
 " By a previous law Louisiana had provided that all agri 
 cultural laborers should be compelled to make contracts for 
 labor during the first ten days of January for the entire 
 year/ With a demonstrative show of justice it was provided 
 that wages due shall be a lien on the crop, one-half to be 
 paid at times agreed by the parties, the other half to be 
 retained until the completion of the contract ; but in case 
 of sickness of the laborer, wages for the time shall be de 
 ducted, and where the sickness is supposed to be feigned for 
 the purpose of idleness, double the amount shall be deducted ; 
 and should the refusal to work extend beyond three days, the 
 negro shall be forced to labor on roads, levees, and public 
 works without pay. The master was permitted to make 
 deductions from the laborer s wages for injuries done to 
 animals or agricultural implements committed to his care, or 
 for bad or negligent work, he, of course, being the judge. 
 
 69 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 For every act of disobedience a fine of one dollar shall be 
 imposed upon the laborer ; and among the cases deemed to 
 be disobedience were impudence, swearing, or using indecent 
 language in the presence of the employer, his family, or his 
 agent, or quarrelling or fighting among one another." It has 
 been truthfully said of this provision that the master or his 
 agent might assail the ear with profaneness aimed at the 
 negro man, and outrage every sense of decency in foul lan 
 guage addressed to the negro woman ; but if one of the help 
 less creatures, goaded to resistance and crazed under tyranny, 
 should answer back with impudence, or should relieve his 
 mind with an oath, or retort indecency upon indecency, he 
 did so at the cost to himself of one dollar for every outburst. 
 The agent referred to in the statute was the well-known 
 overseer of the cotton region, who was always coarse and 
 often brutal, sure to be profane, and scarcely knowing the 
 border-line between ribaldry and decency. The care with 
 which the law-makers of Louisiana provided that his delicate 
 ears and sensitive nerves should not be offended with an oath 
 or with an indelicate word from a negro, will be appreciated 
 by all who have heard the crack of the whip on a Southern 
 plantation. 
 
 " The wrongs inflicted under the name of law, thus far re 
 cited, were still further aggravated in a majority of the re 
 bellious states by the exaction of taxes from the colored men 
 to an amount altogether disproportionate to their property. 
 Indeed, of property they had none. Just emerging from a 
 condition of slavery in which their labor had been constantly 
 exacted without fee or reward of any kind, it was impossible 
 that they could be the owners of anything except their own 
 bodies. Notwithstanding this fact, the negroes, en masse, 
 were held to be subjects of taxation in the state governments 
 about to be reorganized. In Georgia, for example, a state 
 tax of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars was levied 
 in the first year of peace. The property of the state, even 
 
 70 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 after all the ruin of the war, exceeded two hundred and fifty 
 million dollars. This tax, therefore, amounted to less than 
 one-seventh of one per cent upon the aggregate valuation 
 of the state, equal to the imposition of only a dollar and 
 a half upon each thousand dollars of property. The legis 
 lature of the state decreed, however, that a large proportion 
 of this small levy should be raised by a poll-tax of a dollar 
 per head upon every man in the state between the ages of 
 twenty-one and sixty years. There were in Georgia at the 
 time from eighty-five thousand to ninety thousand colored 
 men subject to the tax ; perhaps, indeed, the number reached 
 one hundred thousand. It was thus ordained that the 
 negroes, who had no property at all, should pay one-third 
 as much as the white men, who had two hundred and fifty 
 millions of property in possession. This odious and unjust 
 tax was stringently exacted from the negro. To make sure 
 that not one should escape, the tax was held as a lien upon 
 his labor, and the employer was under distraint to pay it. 
 In Alabama they levied for the same purpose two dollars on 
 every person between the ages of eighteen and fifty, causing 
 a still larger proportion of the total tax to fall on the negro 
 than the Georgia law-makers deemed expedient. 
 
 " Texas followed with a capitation tax of a dollar per head, 
 while Florida levied upon every inhabitant between the ages of 
 twenty-one and fifty-five years a capitation tax of three dollars, 
 and upon failure or refusal to pay the same the tax-collector 
 was authorized and required to seize the body of the de 
 linquent, and hire him out, after five days* public notice 
 before the door of the court house, to any person who will 
 pay the said tax and the costs incident to the proceedings 
 growing out of said arrest, for his services for the shortest 
 period of time. As the costs as well as the capitation tax 
 were to be worked out by the negro, it is presumable that, 
 in the spirit of this tax-law, they were enlarged to the 
 utmost limit that decency, according to the standard set up 
 
 71 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 by this law, would permit. It is fair to presume that, in any 
 event, the costs would not be less than the tax, and might, 
 indeed, be double or treble that amount. As a negro could 
 not, at that time, be hired out for more than seven dollars 
 and a half per month, the plain inference is that for the sup 
 port of the state of Florida the negro might be compelled to 
 give one month s labor yearly. Even by the capitation tax 
 alone, without the incident of the costs, every negro man was 
 compelled to give the gains and profits of nearly two weeks 
 labor. 
 
 " A poll-tax, though not necessarily limited in this man 
 ner, has usually accompanied the right of suffrage in the 
 different states of the Union, but in the late rebellious 
 states it conferred no franchise. It might be supposed that 
 ordinary generosity would have devoted it to the education 
 of the ignorant class from which it was forcibly wrung, but 
 no provision of the kind was even suggested. . . . 
 
 " It was at once seen that if the party which had insisted 
 upon the emancipation of the slave as a final condition of 
 peace should now abandon him to his fate, and turn him 
 over to the anger and hate of the class from whose ownership 
 he had been freed, it would countenance and commit an act 
 of far greater wrong than was designed by the most ma 
 lignant persecutor of the race in any one of the Southern 
 states. When the Congress of the United States, acting 
 independently of the executive power of the nation, decreed 
 emancipation by amending the Constitution, it solemnly 
 pledged itself, with all its power, to give protection to the 
 emancipated at whatever cost and at whatever sacrifice. No 
 man could read the laws which have been here briefly re 
 viewed without seeing and realizing that, if the negro were 
 to be deprived of the protecting power of the nation that 
 had set him free, he had better at once be remanded to 
 slavery, and to that form of protection which cupidity, if not 
 humanity, would always inspire.* 
 
 72 
 
THE SOUTHERN "BLACK CODE" 
 
 " The objectionable and cruel legislation of the Southern 
 states examples of which might be indefinitely cited in 
 addition to those already given " fairly and forcefully illus 
 trates the spirit and temper of the white people of the South, 
 and their utter contempt for the unexampled generosity 
 on the part of the nation which gave them commission, 
 carte blanche, to reconstruct their states. They responded 
 with a cruel and barbarous code which was an affront to 
 Christian civilization. 
 
 73 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO 
 RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 THE white people of the South thus took the whip hand 
 in carrying out reconstruction, free and unhampered. 
 They did not improve the opportunity ; rather they 
 shamefully abused it. In the same spirit they elected mem 
 bers, senators and representatives, to the Congress, every 
 one of them former leaders in the Confederacy. These mem 
 bers presented themselves as early as December, 1865, but 
 the Senate and the House of Representatives each refused to 
 receive or admit the Southern delegations. Thus an issue 
 was raised. A great struggle was on. Who can say that 
 God was not leading a people? For out of this issue and 
 struggle the ballot finally came to the negro. The ballot 
 probably would not have been bestowed upon him, certainly 
 not at the time nor in the way and manner it was, if the 
 South had been lenient toward him and had shown a dispo 
 sition to respect the Emancipation Proclamation and the 
 Thirteenth Amendment as accomplished results ; and pro 
 tected him in life and property, the right of contract, mar 
 riage relations, locomotion, the privileges of schools, and 
 other just and equitable relations, irrespective of the ballot, 
 which make for the peace, prosperity, and well-being of the 
 community. 
 
 But the determination of the Southerners to suppress the 
 colored man and take vengeance on him for their defeat on 
 the field of battle, and by Black Codes make his condition 
 worse under emancipation than it was under slavery, depriv 
 ing him of every protection, making him an outcast, with 
 every man s hand against him, fired the hearts of the people 
 of the North and aroused their keener sense of justice and 
 deeper feelings of humanity as nothing else could have done. 
 
 74 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the Black Code of laws, 
 partially outlined above, was only the first instalment of 
 oppressive measures against the negro. Other and more 
 cruel laws would certainly have followed the admission of the 
 Southern delegates to seats in Congress. Besides, the ad 
 mission of the Southern delegates at this time would have 
 intrenched the doctrines of state lights in their most obnox 
 ious and menacing forms. The ex-Confederates would have 
 been masters of the situation. The solid South combined 
 with a few scattering Northern votes would have ruled. The 
 conquered would have dictated terms to the conqueror. 
 The hands of the nation would have been tied hard and fast. 
 The insistence on state rights would have prevented any 
 legislation by the Congress which might have interfered with 
 the Black Code. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend 
 ments to the Constitution of the United States, would, ob 
 viously, have been impossible. The Black Code would have 
 been enlarged, and the Thirteenth Amendment legislated out 
 of existence. The cry would have been, " Slavery is dead ! 
 Long live slavery ! " The barren victory of crushing the 
 rebellion would have gone to the North, the fruits of the 
 victory to the South. The very extremity to which the arro 
 gance of the South carried it in the enactment of the Black 
 Code, its open defiance, saved the situation. 
 
 The rejection of the Southern delegations by Congress, and 
 the universal condemnation of the Black Code throughout 
 the North, and as well by the whole civilized world, were 
 to the Southerners like the throwing of a lighted match into 
 a powder magazine. They w$re enraged beyond expression. 
 They inaugurated the reign of violence, terrorism, and blood 
 letting, which has continued under different guises, in full 
 force and without lapse, until the present time. Their ven 
 geance was visited without mercy on those white men who 
 were known to be loyal to the Union, murdering or driving 
 them from their homes ; and as for the colored people, they 
 
 75 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 were nobody s property, so they were often killed for the 
 sport of the killing. These two classes they blamed for their 
 woes, and on them they heaped their wrath with ruthless and 
 indiscriminate slaughter. 
 
 On September 3, 1866, just a little over a year after Pres 
 ident Johnson s Amnesty Proclamation, the Southern loyal 
 ists, all whites, met in national convention at Philadelphia 
 and issued an address to the nation, appealing for protection 
 and denouncing the outrages and murders inflicted on the 
 loyalists of the South. In this address they said : " Our 
 last hope under God is in the unity and firmness of the states 
 that elected Abraham Lincoln and defeated Jefferson Davis. 
 . . . Every original Unionist in the South . . . has been 
 ostracized. . . . More than one thousand devoted Union 
 soldiers have been murdered in cold blood since the surrender 
 of Lee, and in no case have their assassins been brought to 
 j udgment." 
 
 More than a thousand negroes also had been slaughtered. 
 
 On July 20, 1866, at New Orleans, the Union men 
 were holding a state convention. This was raided and 
 broken up by ex-Confederates, and over two hundred Union 
 men were killed and wounded. It is very important to bear 
 in mind that when these harrowing occurrences were taking 
 place, when this unrestrained violence and blood-shedding 
 was sweeping over the South like a " prairie fire," the Southern 
 whites themselves, the ex-Confederates, had control of the gov 
 ernment of every one of the Southern states. They had the 
 state legislatures and all other offices ; and their senators 
 and Representatives, all ex-Confederates, were knocking at 
 the doors of Congress. Not a single negro in the South 
 was a voter ; not a " carpet-bagger " was in office in all the 
 land. 
 
 The South thus threw away its opportunity. By the en 
 actment of the Black Code, the practical nullification of the 
 Thirteenth Amendment, and the inauguration of the reign of 
 
 76 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 terrorism, violence, and bloodshed, the South openly defied 
 the nation, struck it a hard blow, spurned its magnanimity 
 and clemency, and challenged the further assertion of its 
 sovereignty. This introduces the third effort at recon 
 struction. 
 
 Events were moving rapidly. There was much heat and 
 estrangement, not only between the North and the South, 
 but between President Johnson, who sided with the South, 
 and Congress, backed by the great body of the people of the 
 North. The great masses of the American people are 
 humane, and have an innate love for justice and fair play, 
 and in the long run are sure to assert these principles with 
 irresistible force. 
 
 It was soon discovered that, as President Johnson upheld 
 the contention of the ex-Confederates, any reconstructionary 
 measures passed by Congress would have to run the gantlet 
 of his veto. And as a matter of fact, all such measures of 
 reconstruction were vetoed by him and had to be repassed 
 over his veto by a two-thirds vote. 
 
 The Republican party that had brought the war to a 
 successful termination saved the Union and freed the slave 
 was in control of the government. Its line of duty was 
 plain. It neither doubted nor faltered. It knew that 
 " to doubt would be disloyalty, to falter would be sin." 
 There were some internal dissensions, it is true, and some few 
 members or followers dropped by the wayside ; but the party 
 as a whole responded to the call of duty and faced the issues 
 with firmness and determination. It was admirably led by 
 Charles Sumner, William Pitt Fessenden, Benjamin F. Wade 
 in the Senate, and Thaddeus Stevens, Lyman Trumbull, 
 Henry Winter Davis, and Samuel Shellabarger in the House. 
 They made haste slowly. Their measures of reconstruction 
 were taken gradually by easy stages. No more was under 
 taken than the circumstances and necessities of the case 
 actually required, and the public sentiment of the North 
 
 77 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 would approve and justify. A joint committee on recon 
 struction was appointed. The Freedmen s Bureau was es 
 tablished, and General O. O. Howard, who had lost an arm 
 in the Virginia campaign at Fair Oaks, and also had hurled 
 back the flower and chivalry of the South at Cemetery Ridge in 
 the battle of Gettysburg, and had rendered other distin 
 guished services throughout the war, was placed at its head. 
 He was distinctively a Christian soldier, the Havelock of the 
 American army. The Bureau " was primarily designed as a 
 protection to the freedmen of the South, and to the class of 
 white men known as refugees, 1 driven from their homes by the 
 rebels on account of their loyalty to the Union." Its powers 
 were enlarged so as to not only enable it to protect these 
 two classes in life, but all property and civil rights. 
 
 The Congress now applied itself to the more serious question 
 of the reconstruction of the lately rebellious states. On the 
 30th of April, 1866, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in behalf of the 
 Committee on Reconstruction, reported a joint resolution 
 proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 The amendment as finally adopted constitutes the Four 
 teenth Amendment to the Constitution, and is as follows : 
 
 SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
 and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
 States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall 
 make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or 
 immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State 
 deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due pro 
 cess of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
 equal protection of the laws. 
 
 SECT. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the seve 
 ral States according to their respective numbers, counting the 
 whole number of persons in each, excluding Indians not taxed. 
 But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of 
 electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, 
 
 78 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of 
 a State, or members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any 
 of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of 
 age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, 
 except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of 
 representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which 
 the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number 
 of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. . . . 
 
 The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
 legislation, the provisions of this article. 
 
 The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was 
 passed by Congress on the 13th day of June, 1866. The 
 principles of this amendment had been presented and debated 
 in one form or another from the early part of this session 
 until finally formulated and passed as it stands to-day and 
 will stand forever. 
 
 The South had trampled the Thirteenth Amendment under 
 its feet and treated with scorn the national good-will. The 
 Fourteenth Amendment was the nation s answer to the South 
 ern Black Code. Other legislation made it incumbent on 
 each of the seceding states to accept and adopt this amend 
 ment before they would be recognized as assuming their 
 practical and proper relations with the Union. But neither 
 this amendment nor any other legislation of Congress dis 
 franchised the masses of ex-Confederates. Amnesty was open 
 to all. 
 
 It is the chief complaint of leading Southerners that " the 
 white people of the South were suppressed and that the ballot 
 was given to the negro over their heads and for the purpose 
 of perpetuating the Republican party in power." This charge 
 is not tenable. He who says that the Republican party " was 
 playing politics " and gave the negro the ballot with sinister 
 motives speaks without knowledge of the facts in the case, or 
 states what he knows to be untrue. The Fourteenth Amend- 
 
 79 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 ment simply assured to the negro the ordinary natural rights 
 of citizenship which belong to every member of the state, such, 
 for instance, as belong to women and children, but it did not 
 bestow the ballot. 
 
 The ballot, the exercise of the election franchise, still rested 
 with the state. Each Southern state could give it or with 
 hold it as it might please. But no Southern state withhold 
 ing the ballot from the colored people could count the colored 
 population in the matter of representation in Congress or for 
 presidential electors. 
 
 The Fourteenth Amendment did destroy the Southern 
 Black Code and gave the colored people a legal status, and it 
 made the ballot possible. It did not actually make a single 
 negro voter in all the South. Was this " playing politics " ? 
 How could this in any way tend " to perpetuate the 
 Republican party in power " ? 
 
 At this time neither Congress nor the people of the 
 North contemplated bestowing suffrage on the negro. But 
 the minds of both were fully made up to preserve the fruits 
 of emancipation and protect the colored people in all their 
 civil and natural rights and prevent all discrimination against 
 them on account of " race, color, or previous condition of 
 servitude," " at any sacrifice." And on this issue they held 
 that there was no ground for compromise. 
 
 The white people of the South received the Fourteenth 
 Amendment with a wild tempest of rage. Every Southern state 
 still in the hands of ex-Confederates, except Tennessee, re 
 jected it. Outrages, murders, and violence on Unionists and 
 especially on the colored people, increased. 
 
 In the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment the South 
 threw away its second opportunity to reconstruct the seced 
 ing states in harmony with the changed conditions and yet 
 without bestowing the ballot on the colored people. Its 
 acceptance of the Fourteenth Amendment would have made 
 unnecessary the Fifteenth Amendment. 
 
 80 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 The Congress, however, was imperturbable. It knew its 
 power. It dared to do. It met the defiance, hostility, 
 and violence of the South with the mailed hand of martial 
 law. It promptly accepted the gage of battle laid down 
 by the South. It divided the ten seceding States into five 
 military districts and General Grant by direction appointed 
 for each district a commander of the rank above a brigadier- 
 general. These commanders were empowered to arrange for 
 the registration of citizens above the age of twenty-one 
 "without regard to race or color, 11 and without prejudice 
 to the masses of ex- Confederates, who should vote for a 
 constitutional convention. This convention should adopt 
 a state constitution, prohibiting slavery and recognizing the 
 results of the war, and it should establish a complete ma 
 chinery of state and local government and provide for 
 the election of senators and representatives to Congress. 
 The course of events in the South in the meanwhile, the 
 indecent haste in enacting the Black Code, with its barbarous 
 inflictions, the reign of violence and murder on helpless 
 colored people and u refugee" Unionists, the defiant rejection 
 of the Fourteenth Amendment by every Southern state except 
 Tennessee, the general scorn of the nation s good-will and 
 clemency, and the open hostility to national authority, had 
 the effect of ripening public sentiment in every Northern 
 state in favor of negro suffrage. The South had shown its 
 hand. It was perfectly apparent that it could not be trusted 
 to do justly or even act humanely towards the colored people 
 or the white " refugees " who were loyal to the Union. The 
 critical point was reached, the hour had struck when the 
 nation must look to others than the ex-Confederates and 
 their sympathizers to reconstruct the lately rebellious states 
 " with reference to the emancipation of slaves " and bring 
 them into harmonious relations with the Union. 
 
 Mr. Elaine, touching this point, said : " The South had 
 its choice, and it deliberately and after fair warning decided 
 81 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 to reject the magnanimous offer of the North and to insist 
 upon an advantage in representation against which a common 
 sense of justice revolted. The North, foiled in its original 
 design of reconstruction by the perverse course of the South, 
 was compelled, under the providence of the Ruler of nations, 
 to deal honestly and justly with the colored people. ... A 
 higher than human power controlled these great events. 
 The wrath of man was made to praise the righteous works 
 of God. Whatever were the deficiencies of the negro race 
 in education for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, 
 they had exhibited the one vital qualification of an in 
 stinctive loyalty and, as far as lay in their power, a steadfast 
 helpfulness to the cause of the national Union, ... his 
 race contributing nearly a quarter of a million troops to 
 the national service." 
 
 The famous Reconstruction Act, placing the South under 
 martial law, was passed on March 2, 1867. It embodied 
 negro suffrage. Under God, justice had come. The ex-Con 
 federates had been exercising full control over the govern 
 ment of every Southern state for two years after the war, and 
 had defied the national laws and authority, and had per 
 sistently thwarted the work of reconstruction. 
 
 In debating this act in Congress, placing the South under 
 military law, Mr. Garfield, afterwards President of the 
 United States, said : " I call attention to the fact that from 
 the collapse of the Rebellion to the present hour, Congress 
 has undertaken to restore the States lately in rebellion by 
 co-operation with their people, and that our efforts in that 
 direction have proven a complete and disastrous failure. . . . 
 The constitutional amendment (the Fourteenth Amendment) 
 did not come up to the full height of the great occasion. 
 It did not meet all I desired in the way of guarantees to 
 liberty, but if the rebel States had adopted it as Tennessee 
 did, I should have felt bound to let them in on the same 
 terms prescribed for Tennessee. I have been in favor of 
 
 82 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 waiting to give them full time to deliberate and act. They 
 deliberated. They have acted. The last one of the sinful 
 ten has at last, with contempt and scorn, flung back in our 
 teeth the magnanimous offer of a generous nation. It is 
 now our turn to act. They would not co-operate with us 
 in building what they destroyed. We must remove the 
 rubbish and build from the bottom. 1 
 
 Mr. Brandegee of Connecticut said : " The American 
 people demand that we shall do something, and quickly. 
 Already fifteen hundred Union men have been massacred in 
 cold blood (more than the entire population of some of the 
 towns in my district), whose only crime has been loyalty to your 
 flag. ... In all the revolted states, upon the testimony of 
 your ablest generals, there is no safety to property or lives of 
 loyal men. Is this what the loyal North has been fighting 
 for ? Thousands of loyal white men, driven like partridges 
 over the mountains, homeless, houseless, penniless, to-day 
 throng this capital. They fill the hotels, they crowd the 
 avenues, they gather in these marble corridors, they look 
 down from these galleries, and with supplicating eye ask 
 protection from the flag that hangs above the Speaker s 
 chair, a flag which thus far has unfurled its stripes, but 
 concealed the promise of its stars." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence of Ohio said : " For myself, I am ready to 
 set aside by law all these illegal governments. They have 
 rejected all fair terms of reconstruction. They have rejected 
 the constitutional amendments we have tendered them. They 
 are engines of oppression against all loyal men." 
 
 Mr. Boutwell of Massachusetts said : " To-day there are 
 eight millions or more of people, occupying six hundred and 
 thirty thousand square miles of territory in this country, who 
 are writhing under cruelties nameless in their character, and 
 injustices such as have not been permitted to exist in any 
 other country of modern times. ... It is the vainest delu 
 sion, the wildest of hopes, the most dangerous of aspirations, 
 
 83 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 to contemplate the reconstruction of civil government until 
 the rebel despotisms enthroned in power in these ten States 
 shall be broken up."" 
 
 Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania said : " The passage of this bill 
 or its equivalent is required by the manhood of this Congress, 
 to save it from the hissing scorn and reproach of every South 
 ern man who has been compelled to seek a home in the 
 by-ways of the North, of every homeless widow and orphan 
 of a Union soldier in the South, who should have been 
 protected by the government." 
 
 Mr. Allison of Iowa, now United States Senator, said : 
 "Believing as I do that this measure is essential to the 
 preservation of the Union men of the South, believing that 
 their lives, property, and liberty cannot be secured except 
 through military law, I am for this bill." 
 
 Mr. Elaine s amendment to the bill provided that " the 
 elective franchise shall be enjoyed equally and impartially by 
 all male citizens of the United States twenty-one years of age 
 and upwards, without regard to race, color, or previous con 
 dition of servitude." He said : " I believe the true inter 
 pretation of the election of 1866 was that, in addition to 
 the proposed constitutional amendment, impartial suffrage 
 should be the basis of reconstruction. Why not declare it 
 so ? Why not, when you send out this military police 
 through the lately rebellious States, send with it that im 
 pressive declaration ? " 
 
 It was even so. The declaration was sent. Under these 
 circumstances the ballot came to the negro. The Congress 
 and the nation now had to look to others than ex-Confed 
 erates to do the work of reconstruction. The negro was 
 commanded to share in it. How otherwise could these 
 states have been reconstructed in accordance with the national 
 sentiment and the emancipation laws ? It was plain that 
 the ex-Confederates would not do it. It was equally clear 
 that the colored people composed the only possible large 
 
 84 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 constituency in the South to be depended on ; and that by 
 giving them the ballot, and enlisting the support of the 
 loyalist and of the more conservative Southerners, and the 
 assistance of the Union soldiers who had settled in the South, 
 the work of reconstruction could be carried out ; but even 
 then only under the protection of martial law. 
 
 These three elements the large colored populations, the 
 Union soldiers who had settled in the South after the close 
 of the war, more than two years before, and the loyalists and 
 conservative Southerners who accepted the new situation 
 constituted the agency through which the Southern states 
 were reconstructed and brought back into their practical and 
 proper relations with the Union. They gave the Southern 
 states constitutions in harmony with the changed conditions 
 and the emancipation laws. They established orderly gov 
 ernments, and because of their necessary participation in 
 these governments, there arose the cry of " negro domina 
 tion, 1 " carpet-baggers, 11 and " scalawags. 11 
 
 It is quite pertinent to remark here that, notwithstanding 
 all the protest of the Southern whites, no one has yet shown 
 not even Senator Tillman or Senator Money how the seced 
 ing Southern states could have been brought back into their 
 normal and proper relation with the Union by the formal 
 acceptance of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to 
 the Constitution of the United States and the guaranties for 
 the protection of life, liberty, and property, " without regard 
 to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, 11 otherwise 
 than through this very agency which they and others so heat 
 edly and intemperately denounce. 
 
 The reconstruction which proceeded under martial law 
 was a necessity. It was an unusual as well as undesir 
 able resort, but there was no alternative ; the attitude 
 of the ex-Confederates made it necessary it is a full 
 justification. 
 
 The business and financial interests of the country and 
 
 85 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 every other interest demanded a settlement of the questions 
 growing out of the war. The nation, righteously, would not 
 have the Black Code and its accompaniments ; the South, 
 unrighteously, would have nothing else. And yet recon 
 struction must be accomplished. To put the whole South 
 under martial law indefinitely or until its passions were cooled 
 down was far more objectionable and dangerous than to put 
 it under martial law for a limited period and until the states 
 could be reconstructed with the assistance of the colored vote 
 and the conservative and loyal elements. The American 
 people will not tolerate martial law save as a temporary 
 necessity. Suppose the ex-Confederates had said to Congress 
 and the nation, " Put us under martial law, if you choose. 
 We will stay under your martial law forever before we will 
 strike one line from the Black Code, before we will accept 
 your Fourteenth Amendment or any other law objectionable 
 to us. Do your worst. We defy you." And that was the real 
 position taken by the South, declared in its press and by its 
 leaders on the rostrum, that they " would never submit to 
 the Fourteenth Amendment." What then? A little child 
 can lead a horse to the water, but a giant can t make it drink. 
 There was no power by which the Congress could coerce the 
 ex-Confederates to reconstruct the Southern states against 
 their will. 
 
 Let it be observed here that, as in the course of the 
 war the Emancipation Proclamation, as a war measure, was 
 necessary to save the Union, increasing as it did its material 
 and moral forces at home and abroad, and correspondingly 
 decreasing the material and moral forces of the Confederacy 
 and destroying with a few strokes of the pen its mightiest 
 pillar of support, just so, in the course of reconstruction, the 
 bestowal of the ballot on the negro, as a reconstruction meas 
 ure, was absolutely necessary to restore the seceding states 
 to their former relations in the Union. The enforcement of 
 martial law for an indefinite period would have proved most 
 
 86 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 injurious to the national cause, and increasingly so every day 
 after the South had been normally pacified. 
 
 For the Southern leaders would have temporarily desisted 
 from acts of violence and murder, until they gained their 
 point, the recognition of their states and the admission of 
 their members into Congress. Then, fortified by the heresies 
 of state rights, they would have " turned loose the dogs of 
 war "on the helpless colored people, and the fugitive white 
 Unionists, and the lives of these people would have been 
 made intolerable. The cruelty and brutalism inflicted on 
 the colored people to-day when they are equal citi/ens show 
 what might have been expected without the protection of 
 the constitutional amendments ; and are likewise an ample, 
 a complete vindication of the wisdom, justice, and humanity 
 of reconstruction legislation. 
 
 The Southern people could have appealed to the nation 
 and to the Supreme Court of the United States for autonomy, 
 declaring that disorder had ceased in their states, that there 
 was no resistance to any national law, that the Black Code 
 rested upon the rights of the states to regulate domestic 
 affairs, and that rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment was 
 not resisting the national authority, as that amendment was 
 not a law of the land until approved by three-fourths of all the 
 states. What then ? The Southerners, finally, would have 
 won. The waiting policy would have acted tremendously in 
 their favor. They could have forced a compromise, demand 
 ing pay for the slaves ; reimbursement for certain losses by 
 the war ; refused to pension Union soldiers unless Confeder 
 ates were also pensioned ; declined to accept the national 
 debt unless certain debts of the Confederacy were also ac 
 cepted; legislated as to the colored people according to their 
 own capricious will ; and, intrenched behind the doctrines of 
 state rights in their most objectionable and dangerous forms, 
 they could have hampered and harassed the national govern 
 ment without limit ; and the world would have beheld the 
 
 87 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 amazing and bewildering spectacle of a great and powerful 
 nation, triumphant in the greatest war of history, standing 
 utterly limp and helpless in the presence of the conquered, 
 and meekly yielding to their dictation. For the Fourteenth 
 Amendment not only gave the negro a legal status, but its 
 fourth section made inviolable the public debt, provided 
 for pensions, prohibited payment for slaves, and made void 
 all debts of the Confederacy. Without negro suffrage, these 
 would remain open questions. 
 
 It was the ballot in the hands of the negro that saved the 
 nation from unspeakable humiliations, established beyond 
 question its supremacy and sovereignty, destroyed forever 
 the menacing and dangerous forms of state rights, and 
 preserved "the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom," 
 thus fulfilling in a most signal^ unexpected, and remarkable 
 manner Lincoln s prophecy that " they would probably 
 help in some trying time in the future to keep the jewel of 
 liberty in the family of freedom." 
 
 Under the desperate and chaotic conditions existent in 
 the South at this time, it is not surprising that in the 
 selection and election of men to carry out the work of recon 
 struction serious blunders were made ; that some thieves and 
 plunderers forged to the front and filled some of the offices. 
 It is the universal experience in governmental affairs that 
 under normal conditions, in times of profound peace, bad 
 men and thieves have been elected to offices and have be 
 trayed their trusts. It was unavoidable, it could not have 
 been otherwise during the Reconstruction era. The cir 
 cumstances were propitious for this. The South had gone 
 far beyond her financial ability in the prosecution of a 
 disastrous and wasteful war. She had no public moneys, 
 and her private fortunes were wrecked ; a billion dollars in 
 slave property had evaporated. Money was needed to 
 operate state and local government. Taxes were assessed. 
 Bonds were issued. From 25 to 75 per cent of the par value 
 
 88 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 of these bonds remained in the safes and lockers of the 
 bondholders in the North ; in fact, the Northern bondholders 
 got a larger proportion of money which should have been 
 used to run these state governments than it was possible for 
 the " carpet-baggers " to steal. 
 
 Those Southern leaders who attribute the poverty of the 
 South following the war to the stealings of " carpet-baggers " 
 are unwise in their utterances. This poverty was due more 
 to the waste of war, the unsettled conditions, and the low 
 price of Southern bonds than to the stealings of the " carpet- 
 baggers. 11 Much stealing has been done since the passing of 
 these conditions ; millions have been stolen in later years by 
 defaulters, embezzlers, grafts, and boodlers. 
 
 But after all that may be charged against the blundering 
 and plundering of the carpet-bag governments in the South, 
 it is probably true that the Tweed ring in New York City 
 actually stole and squandered more of the peopled money 
 than all the " carpet-baggers " in the South combined. 
 
 It is also noteworthy that some of the seceding states were 
 never under the so-called carpet-bag government ; such were 
 Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas ; others were so controlled 
 for only a short time, as, for instance, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
 Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas, for three or four years ; 
 North Carolina for about six years ; and only Florida and 
 South Carolina for about eight years. So it will be seen at 
 a glance that the so-called carpet-bag government of the 
 South was neither so general nor so extended in time as 
 Southern leaders pretend. 
 
 But the rank and file of the Northern men who settled 
 in the South after the close of the war were not unworthy 
 men, nor were they thieves ; nor were the rank and file of 
 the loyalists, and those conservative Southerners who ac 
 cepted the changed conditions, unworthy men or thieves ; 
 and as to the colored people, they were far too inflated with 
 the ideas of freedom, too happy in their new life of liberty, 
 
 89 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 too deeply impressed and concerned about the " sovereignty 
 under the hat," too busily engaged in trying to trace the 
 members of their families husband, wife, daughter, son, 
 sister, brother, father, mother, and other kindred who had 
 been scattered to the four corners of the earth by the in 
 human and brutal system of the slave-pen and the slave 
 auction-block to give even a thought about money making 
 in politics. 
 
 These Northern men who had settled in the South, and 
 whom the ex-Confederates called " carpet-baggers," responded 
 to the call of their country to assist in reconstructing the 
 Southern states in the same spirit of patriotism which they 
 displayed when Sumter was fired on. The loyalists of the 
 South, who had borne contumacy and outrage during the 
 four years of the war and the two years following it, and 
 whom the ex-Confederates called " scalawags," applying this 
 term also to those Southerners who accepted the situa 
 tion, responded to the call to assist in reconstructing the 
 Southern states, because they rejoiced that the day of judg 
 ment had come to the South, and with their help Old Glory 
 would flutter over a restored Union. 
 
 And the colored people ! They bubbled over with re 
 joicings ; there was nothing that they would not have 
 done for " the Lincoln government " and to sustain the 
 North. There was not a colored man in the South who 
 would not have borne arms in defence of the nation. If 
 the South had tried " guerilla warfare " after General Lee s 
 surrender, then the very last guerilla would have been driven 
 to cover, simply by arming the 700,000 colored men. 
 
 These three classes rendered the nation services of in 
 estimable value in a most critical and perilous hour, 
 services for which the nation owes a lasting and incalculable 
 debt of gratitude. There has been entirely too much ran 
 dom abuse of " carpet-baggers " and " scalawags." It is time 
 to call a halt to these indiscriminate denunciations. Vilifi- 
 
 90 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 cation and abuse are not arguments. The services which 
 they rendered at a grave crisis were as necessary and indis 
 pensable in reconstructing the Southern states as were the 
 march of Sherman to the sea, the triumphs of Grant at 
 Vicksburg, Banks at Port Hudson, Meade at Gettysburg, 
 Farragut at New Orleans and Mobile Bay, the " Monitor " 
 over the " Merrimac " in Hampton Roads, and Sheridan s 
 famous ride down the valley of the Shenandoah, in strangling 
 and stamping out the Rebellion. The perplexing problem 
 of reconstruction was as threatening to the nation s sove 
 reignty as the war to the nation s life. The white people 
 of the South themselves are responsible for the so-called 
 negro domination and carpet-bag governments. They threw 
 away two opportunities to reconstruct, and for a third time 
 refused even to share in the work of reconstruction. If 
 some stealing and plundering accompanied the performance, 
 theirs was the blame. 
 
 Among the so-called "carpet-baggers" and "scalawags " 
 there were men as pure in purpose, as lofty in patriotism, 
 as bright In intellect, as unselfish in the discharge of public 
 duties, and as honest, courageous, and noble in spirit as 
 America has ever produced. Because the Southerners could 
 not rule, or because they were not permitted to work ruin, 
 they sulked ; and their sulking brought about the very 
 evils of which they so loudly and bitterly complain. For it 
 should always be borne in mind that, while there was a 
 sufficiently numerous constituency in the large colored popu 
 lation of the Southern states, augmented and supported bv 
 the strong and important body of Northern settlers and 
 reinforced by the large number of loyalists and pacified 
 Southerners, to achieve their reconstruction, yet there was no 
 inhibition against the great mass of white Southerners par 
 ticipating in the reconstruction of their respective states. 
 The great masses of the ex-Confederates could freely register 
 and vote under the provisions of the same act which be- 
 
 91 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 stowed the ballot on the colored people. In deliberately 
 choosing to sulk and defy the nation, and in large measure 
 allow the elections to pass by default so far as they were 
 concerned, they became even more responsible for all the 
 evils which followed. 
 
 In the meantime, nevertheless, the work of reconstructing 
 the Southern states proceeded under the law authorized by 
 the Congress. The " voters of twenty-one years of age and 
 upward " were registered " without regard to race or color, 11 
 and without prejudice to the great masses of ex-Confederates, 
 who for a third time spurned and rejected the nation s good 
 will. Elections were held ; constitutional conventions as 
 sembled; constitutions were framed and submitted to the 
 electorate as registered in the several states for their ap 
 proval ; complete machinery for state and local governments 
 was put in operation ; senators and representatives were 
 elected to the Congress. Tennessee had already abolished 
 slavery, ratified the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, 
 and had resumed her place in the Union, July 23, 1866 ; 
 Arkansas was restored to her place in the Union June 22, 1868 ; 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, 
 and Georgia, June 25, 1868 ; Virginia, January 26 ; Mis 
 sissippi, February 23; and Texas, March 30, 1870, the 
 delay being due to non-fulfilment of requirements. The 
 state of Georgia expelled the colored men elected to her 
 legislature, and this raised the question of the right to 
 hold office. Whereupon Congress took action and passed a 
 bill December 16, 1869, declaring that " the exclusion of 
 persons from the legislature upon the ground of race, 
 color, or previous condition of servitude would be illegal and 
 revolutionary and is hereby prohibited." Georgia s senators 
 and representatives were denied admission to Congress until 
 the colored members were reinstated. Thus the question of 
 the right of colored men to hold office was promptly met 
 and settled. 
 
 92 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 The reconstruction of the Southern states was now com 
 pleted, all the seceding states being restored to their autonomy 
 in the Union, under a bill providing in each case that the 
 said state "is entitled and admitted to representation in 
 Congress, as one of the states of the Union upon the follow 
 ing fundamental condition : that the Constitution of [naming 
 the state] shall never be so amended or changed as to deprive 
 any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the 
 right to vote, who are entitled to vote by the Constitution 
 herein recognized, except as a punishment for such crimes as 
 are now felonies at the common law, whereof they shall have 
 been duly convicted." 
 
 It was under this solemn compact that the lately rebellious 
 states were declared admitted to the Union. The question 
 pertinently arises: Has not each of those Southern states, 
 adopting new constitutions with the "grandfather clause" 
 or other device to deprive the colored people of their right to 
 vote, violated, both in letter and spirit, this solemn compact, 
 and broken faith with the nation ? And again, if South 
 Carolina and Louisiana can violate the " fundamental con 
 dition " in relation to the ballot, upon which they were ad 
 mitted to the Union, what is to prevent Utah and other 
 states that may choose to do so, from violating their solemn 
 compact with the nation in relation to polygamy ? A state 
 is in honor bound to respect and observe its compact with the 
 nation. The violation of such a compact is an act of bad 
 faith which the people of a state cannot afford to uphold ; 
 and in case the compact is violated the nation, through 
 Congress or the courts, may make intervention. The nation 
 may sometime wake up to realize that what is " sauce " for 
 the South Carolina " goose " to-day will be " sauce " for the 
 Utah "gander" to-morrow. 
 
 The success attained in organizing these governments did 
 not have the effect of softening the animosities or allaying the 
 bitter resentment and hostility of the white people. It greatly 
 
 93 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 aggravated them. The South had now suffered two defeats, 
 and in each the negro was an important factor. In the war, 
 the negro as a soldier was potent. In reconstruction, the 
 negro as a voter was indispensable. 
 
 In suffering and blood, the white people of the South have 
 exacted a staggering price from the colored people for their 
 loyalty and service to the nation. And the end is not yet. 
 
 The Confederate army was practically reorganized into a 
 secret, oath-bound society the Ku Klux Klans covering 
 all the Southern states. They made onslaughts on the 
 governments established, and war on their supporters. They 
 killed and murdered, by day and by night, loyalists, pacified 
 Southerners, and negroes without discrimination and without 
 mercy. Mr. Blaine said : " In prosecuting their purposes 
 these clans and organizations hesitated at no cruelty, were 
 deterred by no considerations of law or humanity. They rode 
 by night, were disguised with masks, were armed as freeboot 
 ers. They whipped, maimed, or murdered the victims of 
 their wrath. White men who were co-operating with the 
 colored population politically were visited with punishments 
 of excessive cruelty." " Over two thousand persons were 
 killed, wounded, and otherwise injured in " Louisiana " within 
 a few weeks of the presidential election of 1868 ; " . . . the 
 state " was overrun by violence, midnight raids, secret mur 
 ders, and open riots. " In one parish " the Ku Klux killed 
 and wounded over two hundred Republicans, hunting and 
 chasing them for two days through fields and swamps." 
 " Over twenty-five bodies were found at one place in the 
 woods." 
 
 The horrors and cruelties of the Ku Klux Klans in Louis 
 iana were fully rivalled in Mississippi, and more or less largely 
 sustained in each of the Southern states. It is estimated by 
 persons well acquainted with the situation that from forty to 
 fifty thousand colored people, white loyalists, and Northern 
 men were murdered in cold blood during this era. The blood 
 
 94 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 of these martyrs to liberty and the Union cries out from the 
 ground ! 
 
 Some of the members of the Ku Klux Klan were captured, 
 indicted, and put on trial. A number were arraigned before 
 the United States Court in South Carolina. The white people 
 of the state engaged the most eminent counsel for their de 
 fence. Their leading lawyer was the noted and learned Rev- 
 erdy Johnson of Maryland, who, after hearing the evidence, 
 much of it confessions by the Ku Klux themselves, his honest 
 nature revolting, refused to make a plea for his clients, but 
 left them to the mercy of the Court, saying : " I have listened 
 with unmixed horror to some of the testimony which has been 
 brought before you. The outrages proved are shocking to 
 humanity ; they admit of neither excuse nor justification ; 
 they violate every obligation which law and nature impose 
 upon man ; they show that the parties engaged were brutes, 
 insensible to the obligations of humanity and religion. The 
 day will come, however, if it has not already arrived, when 
 they will deeply lament it. Even if justice shall not overtake 
 them, there is one tribunal from which there is no hope. It 
 is their own judgment ; that tribunal which sits in the breast 
 of every living man ; that small, still voice that thrills through 
 the heart, the soul, and the mind, and as it speaks gives happi 
 ness or torture ; the voice of the conscience, the voice of God. 
 If it has not already spoken to them in tones which have 
 startled them to the enormity of their conduct, I trust, in the 
 mercy of Heaven, that that voice will speak before they shall 
 be called above to account for the transactions of this world ; 
 that it will so speak as to make them penitent, and that 
 trusting in the dispensations of Heaven, whose justice is dis 
 pensed with mercy, when they shall be brought before the 
 bar of their great tribunal, so to speak, that incomprehensible 
 tribunal, there will be found in the fact of their penitence or 
 their previous lives some grounds upon which God may say, 
 Pardon/" 
 
 95 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 When it is considered that Reverdy Johnson was a South 
 erner by birth and education, that his sympathies were 
 with the Southern people in their contentions, and that lie 
 strongly opposed the Fourteenth Amendment and denounced 
 the great Reconstruction Act, his language constitutes as 
 strong an indictment as can be brought against a civilized 
 people. 
 
 Governor Daniel H. Chamberlain of South Carolina, one 
 of the ablest of the so-called 4< carpet-baggers," in appealing 
 to President Grant for military assistance to guarantee a fair 
 and peaceful election in South Carolina, after detailing the 
 ruthless slaughter of colored citizens in the Hamburg riot, 
 said : " My first duty is to seek to restore and preserve public 
 peace and order, to the end that every man in South Carolina 
 may freely and safely enjoy all his civil rights and privileges, 
 including the right to vote. . . . But I deem it my solemn 
 duty to do my utmost to secure a fair and free election in 
 this State, to protect every man in the free enjoyment of his 
 political rights, and to see to it, that no man or combination 
 of men of any political party, shall overawe, or put in fear or 
 danger, any citizen of South Carolina, in the exercise of his 
 civil rights. ... I understand that an American citizen has 
 a right to vote as he pleases ; to vote one ticket as freely and 
 as safely as another ; . . . and I know that whenever, upon 
 whatsoever pretext, large bodies of citizens can be coerced 
 by force or fear into absenting themselves from the polls, or 
 voting in a way contrary to their judgment or inclination, 
 the foundations of every man s civil freedom is deeply, if not 
 fatally, shaken." 
 
 Replying to this letter, President Grant wrote to Governor 
 Chamberlain to go on in the discharge of his duties, and that 
 he would have the full sympathy and co-operation of the 
 national government. Commenting on the general condi 
 tions prevailing in the South, General Grant used these strong 
 and forceful words : " The scene at Hamburg, as cruel, blood- 
 
 96 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 thirsty, wanton, unprovoked, and as uncalled for as it was, is 
 only a repetition of the same that has been pursued in other 
 Southern states within the last few years, notably in Missis 
 sippi and Louisiana. Mississippi is governed to-day by offi 
 cials chosen through fraud and violence, such as would scarcely 
 be accredited to savages, much less to a civilized and Christian 
 people. . . . How long these things are to continue, or what 
 is to be the final remedy, the Great Ruler of the Universe 
 only knows. . . . Nothing is claimed for one state that is 
 not freely accorded to all the others, unless it may be the 
 right to kill negroes and Republicans without fear of pun 
 ishment, and without the loss of caste or reputation. This 
 has seemed to be a privilege claimed by a few states." 
 
 Concerning the Ku Klux Klan, it may be said that " mur 
 der with them was an occupation, and perjury was a pastime. 1 
 Many of their bloodiest and blackest crimes on the colored 
 people have been sealed in the stillness of the death of their 
 victims. 
 
 The Southland in some respects and at many points had 
 now become a charnel-house and chamber of horrors. The 
 foul and bloody work so relentlessly carried on by the 
 whites, and the general demoralization consequent thereto 
 caused the Congress to divine that additional guarantees to 
 preserve the civil and political liberties of the colored people 
 were necessary. There was no ground for hope of just or 
 humane treatment for them on the part of the whites. Up 
 to this time suffrage rested in the states, but the adoption 
 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States, which was ratified March 30, 1870, made suffrage 
 national and impartial. 
 
 So far as the organic law of the land is concerned, the 
 civil and political rights of the colored people are safe and 
 secure forevermore. The right of suffrage in this republic- 
 is now and forever national. It is now and forever im 
 partial. Its abrogation is morally inconceivable, practically 
 7 97 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 impossible. The words of this great charter of liberty 
 are: 
 
 " The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not 
 be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, 
 on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." 
 
 The leaders of the South have been protesting so loud and 
 long about the " crime " committed in this Reconstruction 
 era that the great masses of its people have probably fully 
 persuaded themselves that a crime really was committed. 
 And because of the bitter and continuous denunciation of 
 " carpet-baggers, 1 " scalawags " and " negro domination " 
 some good people in the North, who have not taken the 
 trouble to investigate the facts in the case, have been almost 
 persuaded that a serious blunder was made in the bestowal 
 of the ballot on the negro. 
 
 The Reverend Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, a most distinguished 
 divine and the pastor of a wealthy and influential church in 
 the city of New York, representing this class, in a public 
 address says : " The instance of the convict is in principle 
 exactly what occurred in the case of the blacks. Emancipa 
 tion pushed the bolt for them. There was a great deal of 
 heroism in the course of the war, North and South, but there 
 was not much statesmanship in the construction of the peace, 
 and one of the radical mistakes made was in supposing that 
 altering the colored man s condition altered the colored 
 man ; that letting a wolf out of a cage domesticates the 
 wolf; that substituting coat and trousers for swaddling 
 clothes makes an infant a man, and that emancipation not 
 only relieved the slave of his fetters, but qualified him to be 
 a citizen." Dr. Parkhurst also says through the public 
 press : " Since my return from the South, I have been in 
 formed that some of my critics have accused me of expressing 
 regrets that slavery days are over. That is not true. I 
 have merely said that most of the niggers are unfit for the 
 responsibilities of citizenship. 
 
 98 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 " The niggers ** will never be assimilated by the nation. 
 They never, never will contribute, in any part, toward form 
 ing the national type of the Americans of the future. They 
 grow blacker and blacker every day. Their color forms a 
 physical barrier which even time, the great leveller, cannot 
 sweep away. 
 
 " Persons who talk of assimilation in connection with the 
 race problem do not understand what they speak of. Future 
 generations of our race will be very much as we are. The 
 physical barrier that separates the blacks from the whites 
 to-day will be just as broad and as high throughout all the 
 centuries to come." 
 
 Aside from the unparliamentary and unchristian language 
 of this minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 the decisive answer is forthcoming that the Proclamation 
 of Amnesty, pardoning the ex-Confederates, had quite as 
 little effect in altering their condition, or lessening in the 
 least degree their animosities, or transforming them into 
 law-abiding, liberty-loving, patriotic American citizens ; and 
 that moreover the ex-Confederates had actually demonstrated 
 their unfitness to legislate with wisdom, to deal justly or 
 even humanely with either the freedmen or with white men 
 who were loyal to the Union, or to accept in good faith the 
 clemency of a magnanimous nation. And the further argu 
 ment is conclusive, that the people of " the North believed, 
 and believed wisely, that a poor man, an ignorant man, and 
 a black man who was thoroughly loyal, was a safer and a 
 better voter than a rich man, an educated man, and a white 
 man who in his heart was disloyal to the Union/ 1 
 
 The Honorable Carl Schurz, who was appointed by Presi 
 dent Johnson after the close of the war as a Commissioner 
 to visit the South and examine into and report upon the 
 condition of things there, in his report says : The loyalty 
 of the Southern people " consists in submitting to necessity." 
 There was generally " an entire absence of that national 
 
 99 
 
THE AFTERMATH OP SLAVERY 
 
 spirit which forms the basis of true loyalty. ... It will 
 hardly be possible to secure the freedmen against oppressive 
 legislation and private persecution unless he be endowed 
 with a certain measure of political power. . . . The exten 
 sion of the franchise to the colored people, upon the develop 
 ment of free labor, and upon the security of human rights in 
 the South, being the principal object in view, the objection 
 raised upon the ground of the ignorance of the freedmen 
 becomes unimportant. . . . The only manner in which the 
 Southern people can be induced to grant to the freedmen 
 some measure of self-protecting power, in the form of suf 
 frage, is to make it a condition precedent to readmission." 
 
 Contemplate this report, made in 1866, in the light of the 
 attitude of the South to-day, with all the wrongs imposed on 
 the colored people, and Carl Schurz will at once take rank as 
 a wise seer with the gift of a prophet. 
 
 Some of Dr. Parkhurst s friends might do well to inform 
 him that assimilation is not necessarily of blood ; that a 
 people may thoroughly, through the course of the years, 
 assimilate the civilization of another people and become a 
 most pronounced type of that civilization, and yet not be of 
 the same blood. As a matter of fact, the assimilation of a 
 civilization is far more important than the assimilation of 
 blood. It is the former, and not the latter that makes the 
 type. There are many thousands of colored people in the 
 South who have already assimilated American civilization ; 
 who are thorough -going, patriotic, law-abiding Americans 
 in every tissue and fibre of their being. There are also in 
 the South many thousands of whites who are unassimilated 
 and are as alien to the standards and ideals of American 
 civilization as if they had not been born and raised in a land 
 where the gospel of the Christ is preached from every hill 
 top and in every valley, and where the chief glory of the 
 people is their dedication to the principle that all men are 
 equal before the law. The color of a man s skin can no 
 
 100 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO IlECONSTH ACTION 
 
 more affect " the national type of the American of the future " 
 than will the color of his hair, the heaviness of his eyebrows, 
 or the size of his feet ; but, rather, he will be marked by the 
 quality and achievement of his intellect, the purity and good 
 ness of his heart, the nobility of his soul and purpose, the 
 strength and breadth of his patriotism, his loyalty to the 
 truth and to his God, and his love and services for man 
 not white man, not black man, but Man. Race barrier or 
 no race barrier, he will best represent the type who best 
 represents the civilization, whether he be as white as the 
 driven snow or as black as the ace of spades. 
 
 As to " the national type of the American of the future," 
 the colored people can well afford to leave that in the hands 
 of Almighty God, whom Dr. Parkhurst may perhaps regard 
 as being abundantly able to rule over it wisely, beneficently, 
 to the well-being of the human family and to His own glory 
 and hoi. or. Dr. Parkhurst s ungracious insult, unprovoked 
 and unwarranted, to the colored people who have served 
 their country nobly in war and faithfully and well in peace, 
 by stigmatizing and applying to the whole race the offensive 
 and degrading epithet, the " niggers," and comparing them 
 with " convicts " and " wolves," belittles him and impeaches 
 his own right to be regarded as a consistent disciple of 
 the Christ, or a faithful preacher of righteousness. Much 
 learning, great eloquence, and a pure white skin, good and 
 helpful as they are, yet are not the only nor the chief 
 requisites of a Christian minister. These, without the spirit 
 and mind of the Christ, are " as sounding brass and a tinkling 
 cymbal." Would it not be a happy event for Dr. Parkhurst 
 to go into his closet and wrestle with his God, and himself 
 "assimilate" the mind and teachings of Jesus, the Christ; 
 giving heed to the injunction of the Apostle Paul, the great 
 apostle to the Gentiles : " Let this mind be in you, which 
 was also in Christ Jesus." Without this spirit all preaching 
 is in vain. 
 
 101 
 
THE. AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Would Dr. Parkhurst dare to apply offensive and degrad 
 ing epithets to all the white people of the South ? Why did 
 he gratuitously and grossly insult every self-respecting colored 
 man and woman in the United States ? He knew that the 
 negro is prostrate and helpless, and he felt that he might 
 " dance a jig " on the negro s chest with entire safety to him 
 self. He may continue his jig dancing on the chest of the 
 prostrate negro, but it may yet come to him that he owes 
 the colored people who have never done him aught of harm 
 and against whom he has no grievance an apology for thus 
 stigmatizing them ; and as long as that apology is withheld 
 considerate thinking people not only in the North and South 
 but the world over will regard him as unmanly, and as not com 
 porting himself with the dignity and honor of the scrupulous 
 citizen, the punctilious man, or an ambassador of the Christ. 
 
 No one would, perhaps, challenge the correctness of the 
 principle that wars are unusual occurrences and therefore 
 they call for the exercise of unusual powers, not only in con 
 ducting them but also in the settlement of complex and per 
 plexing questions growing out of them. A nation s life or 
 sovereignty is paramount. 
 
 So it was with the Civil War, and so it was with recon 
 struction. And with reference to negro suffrage, it is 
 all-important to consider the fundamental truths connected 
 therewith. 
 
 The giving of the ballot to the negro became the necessary 
 means for the accomplishment of the rehabilitation of the 
 Southern states ; and the use of the ballot in the hands of 
 the negro was effective in achieving the following results : 
 
 First : It established the sovereignty of the nation. 
 
 Second : It utterly destroyed all that was vicious, mis 
 chievous, and menacing in the doctrines of state rights. 
 
 Third : It made effective the Thirteenth Amendment, and 
 enacted the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the 
 Constitution of the United States giving rise to the 
 
 102 
 
SOUTHERN OPPOSITION TO RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 strange paradox, unique in the history of the world, that 
 the ballot of the ex-slave had become necessary to save the 
 face of a conquering nation, preserve the fruits of victory, 
 and assist in the enactment of laws which made his own 
 freedom secure ; and it wrote his own citizenship inefface- 
 ably into the Constitution, the organic law of the land. 
 
 Fourth : It was effective in causing the adoption of free 
 constitutions for the Southern states, the establishment of 
 orderly government in them, and, in a word, rehabilitating 
 them and restoring them to practical and proper relations 
 with the Union. 
 
 Fifth : It gave the South its first system of Free Public 
 Schools, a benefaction and blessing of incalculable value. 
 
 It is not, therefore, too much to say that the glory and 
 the power of the republic to-day the foremost and most 
 powerful nation in the world may be traced to the effec 
 tive use of the negro as a soldier and as a voter in the 
 most stormy and perilous hour of its existence. He was 
 unquestionably the deciding factor. " The truth is delight," 
 and in the light of the truth these facts blaze forth. 
 
 It must, therefore, appear evident to every serious, patri 
 otic American who has more regard for liberty and Union 
 than for race hatred and caste prejudice, that the bestowal of 
 the ballot on the colored people, under the circumstances, and 
 at the time, and in the manner that it was bestowed, was not 
 only not a crime, but, on the contrary, was perhaps the 
 sublimest act of enlightened statesmanship. 
 
 All the specious pleas, vituperation, and misrepresentations 
 on the part of Southern leaders and their Northern sym 
 pathizers cannot efface or darken the light of this blazing 
 truth, which shines forth, and will shine with increasing and 
 resplendent glory 
 
 * Until seas shall waste, 
 And the sky in smoke decay. " 
 
 103 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 THE ballot in the hands of the colored man this 
 is the crux of the Southern problem. 
 The ballot is the citadel of the colored man s 
 safety ; the guarantor of his liberty ; the protector of his 
 rights ; the defender of his immunities and privileges ; the 
 savior of the fruits of his toil ; his weapon of offence and 
 defence ; his peace maker ; his Nemesis that watches and 
 guards over him with sleepless eye by day and by night. 
 
 With the ballot the negro is a man ; an American among 
 Americans. 
 
 Without the ballot he is a serf, less than a slave ; a thing. 
 
 It is not at all singular, therefore, that his ballot, this 
 fortress of his power, should be beleaguered and stormed 
 by all who would oppress, or degrade, or out-law him, or 
 alienate him from human society. 
 
 The negrophobists of the South thoroughly understand 
 that, in order to annul him as a factor to be reckoned 
 with in American life and civilization, his ballot, which keeps 
 open " the door of hope, the door of opportunity," must 
 first be demolished. 
 
 For this reason the dominant Southern leaders, from the 
 reconstruction day to the present time, have been discharg 
 ing their heaviest artillery, oratorically speaking, at negro 
 suffrage ; their Maxim, machine, and Gatling guns have kept 
 up an incessant roar, through the public press, against 
 negro suffrage ; their repeating rifles and small arms, through 
 stump-speakers and otherwise, have been turned upon it 
 without intermission. All this has been accompanied by 
 the ruthless murder of many thousands of innocent colored 
 people as a bloody feint and demonstration. So common 
 has the killing of colored people become that the murder 
 
 104 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 of half a dozen or more, or the driving out of a score, an 
 hundred, or even a thousand, from their homes, and the loot 
 ing and burning of their property provokes scarcely more 
 than a perfunctory protest here and there and fails to arouse 
 public attention in any part of the country. 
 
 It is one of the most serious aspects of the Southern 
 question that the determination to destroy the negroes 
 ballot by violence and keep the colored people in subjec 
 tion is encouraged by many of its " best citizens." Senator 
 Tillman of South Carolina has recently advocated the killing 
 of thirty thousand colored men in that state. Is there not 
 " a better way " to secure good government in South Caro 
 lina? Is not Senator Tillman himself a greater menace to 
 all that is decent in politics, orderly in government, laudable 
 in citizenship, praiseworthy in manhood, pure in Christianity, 
 and humane in society than the worst negro in his state ? 
 It is not a difficult matter in the South to deal with a negro, 
 man, woman, or child, whether there are any evidences of 
 crime or not. In public lectures Senator Tillman has re 
 peatedly boasted of the part he took in shooting down 
 " niggers." For instance, in a lecture in Detroit, Michigan, 
 he said : " On one occasion we killed seven niggers ; I don t 
 know how many I killed personally, but I shot to kill and I 
 know I got my share." Not one of these unfortunate colored 
 people had committed, or had even been charged with any 
 offence. They simply attempted to exercise their rights as 
 American citizens and cast their ballots. For this they were 
 shot to death. 
 
 The desideratum of any nation is good government and 
 the preservation of liberty. Sometimes this may be secured 
 by a government of the few; sometimes by a government 
 of the many ; and sometimes by a government of the whole 
 people. 
 
 The special value of republican institutions is that good 
 government can be more safely fostered and assured and 
 
 105 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 liberty made impregnable by a government of the whole 
 people. 
 
 This does not mean government by the ignorant and 
 vicious, or by revolutionists, or by those who believe in 
 killing negroes to get rid of their votes, any more than by 
 anarchists who believe in assassinating rulers to get rid of 
 established governments. It does mean the rule of the 
 people ; the sway of their opinion, expressed through the 
 ballot-box, in the establishment and enforcement of laws 
 under which all the people shall find equal protection of life, 
 liberty, and property and in the pursuit of happiness, and all 
 who measure up to a fixed standard, and that a reasonable 
 one, shall have a common share in the government. 
 
 It does not follow that the whole people, or even most 
 of them will always vote wisely ; no, not even in the best 
 governed communities. On the contrary, experience has 
 shown that they have often made serious mistakes. But the 
 redeeming element in republican government is that, despite 
 all defects, more of good comes to the people, and liberty is 
 better safe-guarded, when they are collectively their own 
 master and can elect rulers and enact laws at regular in 
 tervals, than by other methods ; and that although unscru 
 pulous leaders may fool the people some of the time, 
 they can t fool them all the time. It is not conceivable 
 that the body of the white people of the South will stay 
 fooled all the time, for this would mean the failure of 
 civilization. 
 
 The nobler and more Christian manhood and womanhood 
 of the South must surely arouse themselves and cast out the 
 evil spirits which have possessed the corporate body dominat 
 ing Southern life and have produced the present intolerable 
 conditions. Never among any civilized people has there 
 existed a condition wherein oppression was so heartless and 
 wide-spread ; the denial of liberty and the simplest of human 
 rights so general; justice such a mockery; humiliations and 
 
 106 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 gross injustices so atrocious ; withering wrongs so multiplied, 
 and human life held so cheap. The leaders aim at the 
 destruction of the ballot in the hands of the colored man, and, 
 as a necessary sequence, his elimination as an entity in Amer 
 ican life, his relegation to serfdom. 
 
 To compass this end the most reprehensible methods have 
 been employed. Notwithstanding the two hundred and fifty 
 years of patient and profitable labor which the negro race 
 gave to the South ; notwithstanding the four years of splen 
 did service which they gave to the whites in guarding their 
 families and protecting their property during the war, the 
 Southern leaders have done their utmost to prejudice man 
 kind against this race. They press with great vigor and mal 
 evolence against the race three specific charges: first, Poverty ; 
 second, Ignorance ; third, Immorality. 
 
 If it were strictly true that the negro is poor, and ignorant, 
 and immoral, this certainly is not a sufficient reason for his 
 further debasement ; it ought rather to elicit sympathy for 
 his misfortune. For these are not inherent qualities ; they are 
 incidental conditions in the evolution of a people. Outlawry 
 is not a remedial a^ent. 
 
 If the white people would respect and protect the black 
 man s home, and set a worthy example for him, reinforce 
 the school facilities, and encourage the Church to do its holy 
 work unfettered, these evils would largely disappear. 
 
 If the white people of the South will go back far enough 
 in history they can behold their race in a far worse condition 
 than the negro is to-day. But would that have constituted 
 a just ground for their oppression, and denial of the right 
 to rise to the full height of manhood ? Even at the present 
 time are there not many thousands of whites in the South, 
 who are actually as poor, as ignorant, as immoral as are some 
 negroes, and without the excuse of the latter ? On the other 
 hand, are there not many thousands of negroes, possessors 
 of property, who are educated and clean in character ? 
 
 107 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Not all the unfortunates and the degraded are on the 
 negro side of the race lines. The Southerners cannot afford 
 to impeach the negro race on these grounds. After de 
 spoiling the negro race absolutely of all the fruits of its toil 
 for two hundred and fifty years, it is not becoming for these 
 people to taunt the negro with his poverty. 
 
 After enforcing ignorance on the negro race for two and 
 a half centuries, making it a punishable offence for a negro 
 even to be caught with a spelling-book in his possession, 
 these people are not in a position to sneer at the negro 
 because of his ignorance. 
 
 After claiming complete ownership of the negro for eight 
 long generations and after enforcing on him day by day 
 object lessons of immorality of the most debasing kind, as 
 the enormous amount of Anglo-Saxon blood in negro veins 
 abundantly testifies, it is the height of inconsistency for these 
 people to reproach the negro race on the ground of immoral 
 ity. All that is true in these charges makes for the greater 
 misfortune of the colored people, and for the shame of the 
 whites. 
 
 Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in an article in the 
 Atlantic Monthly* says : " Supposing, for the sake of argument, 
 that there is to be found in the colored race, especially in 
 the former slave states, a lower standard of chastity than 
 among whites, it is hard to imagine any reasoning more 
 grotesque than that which often comes from those who claim 
 to represent the white race there. 
 
 " For my own part, I have been for many years in the 
 position to know the truth, even on its worst side, upon this 
 subject. Apart from the knowledge derived in college days 
 from Southern students, then very numerous at Harvard, 
 with whom I happened to be much thrown through a South 
 ern relative, my classmate, I have evidence much beyond this. 
 I have in my hands written evidence, unfit for publication, 
 but discovered in a captured town during the Civil War, 
 
 108 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 evidence to show that Rome in its decline was not more 
 utterly degraded, as to the relation between the sexes, than 
 was the intercourse often existing between white men and 
 colored women on American slave plantations. How could 
 it be otherwise where one sex had all the power and the 
 other had no means of escape ? 
 
 "It may be assumed, therefore, that there is no charge 
 more unfounded than that frequently made, to the effect that 
 the negro was best understood by his former masters. This 
 principle may be justly borne in mind in forming an opinion 
 upon the very severest charges still brought against him. 
 
 " It was only the Abolitionists who saw him as he was. 
 They never doubted that he would have human temptations 
 to idleness, folly, wastefulness, even sensuality. They 
 knew that he would need, like any abused and neglected 
 race, education, moral instruction, and, above all, high ex 
 ample. They knew, in short, all that we know about him 
 now. They could have predicted the outcome of such half- 
 freedom as has been given him, a freedom tempered by 
 chain-gangs, lynching, and the lash/ 1 
 
 Colonel Higginson also refers to Rufus Choate as among 
 the most conservative men of his time and quotes him as 
 saying that, " for the colored woman, the condition of slavery 
 was simply hell. 1 "" 
 
 It is instructive to note certain stock phrases in use in the 
 South, phrases that are used with the purpose of increasing 
 race animosities. Among these are " social equality, 11 " white 
 man s country, 11 " negro inferiority, 11 u negro domination, 11 , 
 "race prejudice. 11 Such phrases are "the bloody shirt " of 
 the South. Their effect has been to nullify, for the time 
 being, the benefits guaranteed by the Constitution of the 
 United States. 
 
 Since these are weapons aimed at the ballot of the negro 
 they invite close examination. Race prejudice is the most 
 elastic of them. It can and does cover a multitude of sins. 
 
 109 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The leaders depend much upon it. Senator Money of 
 Mississippi, in a speech in the United States Senate, declared 
 with great bravado, " I am glad we have race prejudice, I 
 rejoice in it, I thank God for it." But the Holy Scriptures 
 tell of a Pharisee who lived some centuries before him who 
 was also glad and thanked God that he was not as other men. 
 The Saviour of the world, however, did not send him away 
 justified. 
 
 Race prejudice is variously designated, and is thus made 
 into a handy five-chamber weapon. Sometimes it is called 
 inborn race prejudice, and then again it is labelled inbred ; 
 and some declare it is taken in with the mothers milk, while 
 others heatedly contend that it is an instinct ; but all agree 
 that it is ineradicable and must therefore control in Southern 
 life. 
 
 This inborn, inbred, motherVmilk, instinctive, ineradi 
 cable race prejudice is set forth as the chief, and sometimes 
 as the sufficient cause for the mistreatment of the colored 
 people, and the denial to them of civil and political rights 
 and the protection of the law. 
 
 The New York World says : " Deeper than the question 
 of suffrage, of education, or of political privilege is this ques 
 tion of "racial instinct" or prejudice. If it is to prevail 
 and dominate our land, where is it to stop? Is it compatible 
 with the precepts of a religion based upon the fatherhood 
 of God and the brotherhood of man ? Can it be reconciled 
 with the principles of a government founded upon the 
 inalienable rights of all men, and ordaining in its Con 
 stitution equal rights and equal privileges for equal citizens ? 
 If, for example, Booker Washington, with his heart and 
 brain and capacity for elevating his race, cannot enter the 
 front door of the White House without arousing a clamor 
 of unreasonable protest, or hold any public office, simply and 
 solely because he is black, is not the republic a mockery to 
 nine millions of its citizens ? 
 
 110 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 " There was something more than rhetoric or sentiment in 
 President Roosevelt^s pregnant phrase, the door of hope 
 for the negro. When this door leads to education, to in 
 dustry, thrift, and the patriotism that inspires men to fight 
 and die for their country, as our negroes did in Cuba, must 
 the usual rewards of such character and conduct be denied 
 to them because they are black ? This is the real negro 
 question. 1 " 
 
 The contention for inborn, inbred, motherVmilk, instinctive, 
 ineradicable race prejudice is itself not only dangerous to the 
 social organism, but it is also fallacious. It lacks the saving 
 grace of even a half-truth. It is a Gibraltar of straw to be 
 destroyed by the first volley from the battery of Common- 
 Sense. 
 
 In the darkest day of slavery, the colored children of 
 household and other servants played and romped freely with 
 the children of the masters ; they as freely took " bites " in 
 turn from the same apple, and sometimes from the same 
 cherry. They never knew the difference in station except as 
 they were taught. The colored nurse would shower her 
 kisses on the white child, cool its food with her breath, and 
 taste it with her tongue. The important question with the 
 parents was not the race or color, but the health of the 
 nurse. Nurses frequently slept with the children, and cared 
 for them with a tenderness and devotion which won their 
 affections forevermore. Many were the instances in which 
 the white child showed preference for the attendance and 
 companionship of the colored nurse to that of the white 
 mother. And this is not unusual even to-day. 
 
 Kindness wins, and always will win the hearts and confi 
 dence of children without regard to race prejudice of which 
 they know nothing and care less. Many of the very best 
 white women in the South never failed to bestow praises and 
 kisses on their black " mammies " who had fondled them in 
 childhood, and whom they loved and venerated. 
 
 Ill 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 More significant still, many of the children of the leading 
 Southern families drank the milk of their black "mammies 1 
 alone ; and many in maturity, like the late Henry W. Grady 
 of Atlanta, Georgia, never ceased to express their love and 
 veneration for these black " mammies " who nursed them with 
 a mother s solicitude and guided their early footsteps. If 
 race prejudice is an instinct, inborn, and inbred, how could 
 the whites drink and thrive on the milk of these black 
 " mammies " in childhood, and in the maturity of manhood 
 and womanhood lavishly display such glowing respect and 
 devotion to these black "mammies "? 
 
 There are numbers of authenticated cases of white children 
 being raised entirely by colored families, who never recog 
 nized any difference between themselves and the colored 
 children, notwithstanding, " inborn, inbred " race prejudice. 
 For obvious reasons they had been given over to colored 
 " mammies " to be raised, and they were most happy in these 
 relations during childhood ; and in maturity, when apprised 
 of their identity and offered privileges, some of them in 
 dignantly refused to give up their colored "mammies " who 
 had always shown them a mother s care, fidelity, and love. 
 Some such continued to live, and married, among the colored 
 people, and became to all intents members of that race. 
 
 The case is too plain for cavil that any white child raised 
 entirely in a colored family may grow to old age without 
 recognizing its race identity. And the prejudice would be 
 against the whites, and not the colored. How is it to be 
 explained that this "inborn, inbred, motherVmilk, instinctive, 
 ineradicable" race prejudice does not reveal itself to its own 
 possessor ? And it may be pertinently asked, of what value 
 is it if it cannot reveal itself? 
 
 Conductors of railway trains and street cars in the South 
 are of course supposed to have this race prejudice, and they 
 are paid to enforce it. But they have repeatedly caused 
 awkward and sometimes ugly situations by mistaking white 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 persons for colored persons and colored persons for white 
 persons producing a "comedy of errors." 
 
 Race or color does not necessarily affect the peace or happi 
 ness of a child, or of an adult. Men and women of different 
 races have mutually reciprocated good offices and enjoyed 
 friendly relations, cherishing the highest respect for each 
 other ; while men and women of the same race, sometimes of 
 the same family, have despised one another. The white child 
 smiles as radiantly with the colored coachman or gardener as 
 with its father. It will coo alike to its father, the colored 
 nurse, the cat, or rubber doll. 
 
 Race prejudice is largely a matter of teaching and training. 
 Any people can teach their children to hate or despise an 
 other people, or even to hate and despise a branch of the 
 family of their own blood relations. Also parents can indoc 
 trinate the young in the principles of the Sermon on the 
 Mount and the teachings of the lowly Nazarene, and the 
 result will be as different as day from night. 
 
 Again, there are other cases, fully authenticated, of per 
 sons possessing African blood and yet passing for white. 
 Some are doing so to-day in the North as well as in the 
 South. 
 
 It is a great pity a lamentable evil that race preju 
 dice should so operate as to compel a man to conceal his race 
 identity, and pose as a member of another race in order to 
 secure fair or decent treatment or a chance to make an honest 
 living. In this particular race prejudice not only harms the 
 negro, but it injures the entire social organism. It is most 
 creditable to the negro race, to their growing self-respect and 
 race pride that only a few of their numbers in sheer despera 
 tion resort to the trick of passing for what they are not. It 
 should be noted in this connection that in South Carolina 
 and other Southern states there are certain settlements of 
 persons possessing African blood who, nevertheless, are not 
 treated as a part of the black race, but as whites. When 
 8 113 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 they remove away from their homes, passing for whites, they 
 live and move among whites and even marry among them. 
 And no one is the wiser. 
 
 Senator Tillman on the floor of the Constitutional Conven 
 tion of South Carolina, more specifically called for the purpose 
 of disfranchising the colored people, made a special plea for 
 these particular settlements of people with African blood in 
 that state, but who were passing for and accepted as white 
 people, saying : " Some of them owned slaves before the war, 
 all of them sympathized with the Confederacy, and many of 
 them fought in its army ; therefore they should be regarded 
 and treated as whites." Is this not a cruel blow to " inborn, 
 inbred, motherVmilk, instinctive, ineradicable " race preju 
 dice? Does not the logic of it expose the fallacy of the 
 contention ? 
 
 The whole case falls to the ground ; for here the " ineradi 
 cable " is eradicated. But Senator Tillman s specious plea is 
 worthy of more than a casual glance. Those for whom and 
 in whose interest he made it were admittedly colored people, 
 possessing African blood. But they in most instances were 
 set free by their white fathers before the war of the Rebel 
 lion ; and some of them inherited their father s slaves and 
 thus became slave owners. They intermarried among white 
 and colored ; and because some of them were slave owners, 
 and because all of them sympathized with the Southern Con 
 federacy, and because many of them fought in the Confeder 
 ate army, therefore all of them were transformed from 
 "niggers" into white folks. 
 
 Here is the plain enunciation of the doctrine that loyalty 
 to the late Confederacy shall count as paramount in fixing 
 the status of citizenship in the South, and can even metamor 
 phose a " nigger " into a white man. 
 
 But there were four millions of other colored people who 
 were " true-hearted, whole-hearted, faithful, and loyal " to 
 the Union and responsive to its martial music. None of these 
 
 114 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 owned slaves ; all of these sympathized with the Union ; and, 
 momentous fact, 200,000 of these rushed to the national 
 defence and faced the chivalry of the South. 
 
 Shall not the republic show as much concern in the pro 
 tection of the lives and liberty of those who freely offered 
 themselves on its altar as the ex-Confederates and their sons 
 show in protecting the handful of mixed-bloods who joined 
 with th9in in the effort to " shoot the government to death ? " 
 
 The " motherVmilk, instinct," argument to bolster up race 
 prejudice is worthless. Instinct acts spontaneously, and not 
 by promptings ; naturally, and not by moral force or suasion ; 
 independently, uniformly ; it peremptorily rejects the incom 
 patible. But there has been no uniformity of race prejudice 
 in the South against the colored people. On the contrary, 
 there have been many relations, in some cases of the closest 
 kind. 
 
 The deplorable conditions existing in the South are not 
 natural or spontaneous, but artificial. They are the direct 
 result of the vicious and mischievous teachings of the leaders. 
 As to the " mothers-milk " end of the argument, this is 
 sure to put some veiy good Southerners into a very bad 
 dilemma. For if " logic is logic," the prejudice should trend 
 in favor of the source of the milk. Natural-motherVmilk 
 prejudice should be in favor of the natural mother. 
 
 u Black-mammy s "-milk prejudice should be in favor of the 
 "black mammy." 
 
 CowVmilk prejudice should be in favor of the cow. 
 
 Goafs- milk prejudice should be in favor of the goat. 
 
 No milk, then no prejudice. 
 
 And as to " Prepared Food," " that is the question " which 
 will command all the acumen and store of legal lore of the 
 proverbial Philadelphia lawyer to solve, as to whether prej 
 udice should run in favor of some one manufacturer, or 
 what particular component element of his "Food." 
 
 "Logic is logic," that is all. 
 
 115 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 It is plain, however, that the milk or other food which 
 nourishes the child has no more to do in creating race prej 
 udice in the child than corned beef and cabbage, the juicy 
 bivalves, Boston baked beans, or Chinese " Chop Suey " have 
 in producing race prejudice in the full-grown man. 
 
 Ineradicable, race prejudice ! What hypocrisy ! A greater 
 proportion than three out of every five negroes met casually 
 in the street or seen in public gatherings will show traces of 
 Anglo-Saxon blood. 
 
 A matter of very great importance and one not to be over 
 looked herewith is that the negro race in the United States 
 is practically a new race. The race in America is far removed 
 from the ancestral African in language, in method of 
 thought, in religion and civilization. Its basic element is in 
 the strong and virile blood of the fatherland, but built upon 
 by the blood of all the great races. It is sure to become a 
 strong and powerful people in the future. It will not seek 
 close affiliations with the white race, for the reason that it 
 will have all the colors and blendings of every race within 
 itself, from the fairest Caucasian to the darkest ebony mak 
 ing it truly the Colored Race. As a rule, the law of race 
 pride and clan allegiance will be the law of natural selection. 
 To the simple question of prejudice no great importance is 
 to be attached. The history of ages record its existence. 
 There is abundant prejudice between white and white ; 
 colored and colored ; white and colored ; English and Irish ; 
 French and German ; English and French ; Irish and Ger 
 man ; and the Jews and the rest of the world. 
 
 But it should be borne in mind that there is prejudice and 
 prejudice. Every man has prejudices ; and these may control 
 his personal habits, his recreations, his associations, his friend 
 ships, his politics, his religion, and all his relations of life. He 
 may wear shoes without socks, or go barefoot if his prejudices 
 lead him to do so ; but he would not be tolerated if he tried 
 to compel a neighbor to become a " Sockless Simpson." The 
 
 116 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 white people of the South are at liberty to have and to hold 
 their prejudices against the colored people or against Yankees ; 
 and against this liberty it is not for public opinion to protest 
 nor for the government to make objection. 
 
 To eliminate prejudice from the hearts of men and emanci 
 pate the people from its evil effects is a work generally dele 
 gated to the doctrinaires of religion. But when the white 
 people of the South convert their prejudice into an engine of 
 hostility, a force of oppression and destruction to others, it 
 then becomes the imperative duty of public opinion to protest, 
 and the obligation of the government to intervene. 
 
 The Honorable Carl Schurz, writing in McClure s Magazine^ 
 referring to this attempt to subjugate the negro race, says : 
 " And now the reactionists are striving again to burden the 
 Southern people with another peculiar institution, closely 
 akin to its predecessor in character, as it will be in its inevitable 
 effects if fully adopted by the Southern people, that is, if 
 the bulk of the laboring class is again to be kept in stupid 
 subjection, without the hope of advancement and without the 
 ambition of progress. For, as the old pro-slavery man was on 
 principle hostile to general negro education, so the present 
 advocate of semi-slavery is perfectly logical in his contempt 
 for the general education of the colored people, and in his 
 desire to do away with the negro school. What the reactionist 
 really wants is a negro just fit for the task of a plantation hand 
 and for little, if anything, beyond. 
 
 " Therefore, quite logically, the reactionist abhors the edu 
 cated negro. In fact the political or social recognition of the 
 educated negro is especially objectionable to him for the 
 simple reason that it would be an encouragement of higher 
 aspirations among the colored people generally. 
 
 " The reactionist wishes to keep the colored people, that 
 is, the great mass of the laboring force in the South as igno 
 rant as possible, to the end of keeping it as submissive and 
 obedient as possible. . . . And now imagine the moral, intel- 
 
 117 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 lectual, and economic condition of a community whose prin 
 cipal and most anxious I might say historic care is the 
 solution of the paramount problem 4 how to keep the nigger 
 down, 1 that is, to reduce a large part of its laboring popu 
 lation to stolid brutishness. . . . That is not all. The reac 
 tionist fiercely insists that the South must be let alone 7 in 
 dealing with the negro. 
 
 " This was the cry of the pro-slavery men of the old ante 
 bellum time. But the American people outside of the South 
 took a lively interest in the matter, and finally the South was 
 not let alone, . . . they can hardly hope to be let alone. 
 Thus it may be said without exaggeration that by striving to 
 keep up in the Southern States a condition of things which 
 cannot fail to bring forth constant irritation and unrest, 
 which threatens to burden the South with another peculiar 
 institution by making the bulk of its laboring force again a 
 clog to progressive development, and to put the South once 
 more in a position provokingly offensive to the moral sense 
 and the enlightened spirit of the world outside, the reac 
 tionists are the worst enemies the Southern people have to 
 fear." 
 
 The white people of the South would hotly resent any sug 
 gestion of their incapacity for self-government. But their 
 policy is their own condemnation. For if they cannot rise 
 above the low level of race prejudice and vulgar assumptions 
 in the making and the enforcement of the law, is it not self- 
 evident that they fail in the vital requisites and capacity for 
 self-government? A people who cannot, or will not, main 
 tain orderly government in their local affairs invite distrust 
 in broader or national affairs. The law of the spiritual life 
 prevails here, he who is faithful over a few things shall be 
 made ruler over " many things." 
 
 The republic is governed by law, and not by race preju 
 dice. Race prejudice is not law. Its operation is akin to 
 anarchy. To give it the sanction, prestige, and force of law 
 
 118 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 is to subvert American institutions and to destroy liberty and 
 civilization. The result is certain. If once justified as law, 
 where and when is it to end ? If the colored people are to 
 be the victims of it to-day, who are to feel its fell and ruinous 
 blow to-morrow ? Shall liberty, truth, and righteousness be 
 sacrificed to race prejudice? Is race prejudice everything, 
 and the Constitution of the United States and the laws of 
 God nothing? 
 
 Good citizenship measures up to the Constitution. The 
 Constitution does not and cannot contract to the narrow 
 confines of local prejudices, "inborn, inbred," or otherwise; 
 for this would mean the ruin of all that has been gained, as 
 well as all that is hoped for in the evolution of man and the 
 march of civilization. 
 
 When the white people of the South set themselves delib 
 erately and with the purpose aforethought to the work of 
 reducing the colored race, as Mr. Schurz says, " to stolid 
 brutishness," and keep them "in stupid subjection without 
 the hope of advancement and the ambition of progress, 1 and 
 plead as a justification therefor " inborn, inbred, motherV 
 milk, instinctive, ineradicable" race prejudice, they trans 
 gress against the moral sentiment of Christendom. 
 
 That they should demand that the strong arm of the Fed 
 eral government shall be brought into requisition to aid them 
 in consummating so diabolical a work by turning every col 
 ored person out of every Federal office, and discharging every 
 colored man from the army and navy, and forcing every 
 colored person into inferior relations in every walk of life 
 and into serfdom, this but accentuates the folly and frenzy 
 which has possessed the head and heart of the South. That 
 the white people of the South are practically united in 
 this reactionary, an ti -Christian policy does not lessen its 
 heinousness. 
 
 That some well-meaning men in the North look upon it with 
 sympathy or approval does not add one glimmer of virtue to 
 
 119 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 it. By condoning oppression and outlawry, such apologists 
 encourage further disorders and violence. The policy of the 
 South is wrong. No number of adherents and advocates for 
 it can make it right. Its consummation in the dawn of the 
 twentieth century and after forty years of heroic struggle 
 against the most tremendous odds, and in the light of the 
 wonderful, unsurpassed progress and achievements of the 
 negro race in civilization, would be the crime of these 
 centuries. 
 
 God Almighty did not grant to the white people of the 
 South a perpetual lien on the labor and toils of the colored 
 people, nor the right to rule, oppress, and outrage them to 
 their hearts content. If the whole South approves, then the 
 whole South is wrong. But the evidence is not conclu 
 sive that the whole South does approve. There are more 
 than murmurs of emphatic dissent from many noble-hearted 
 Southerners, who see the blistering disgrace and burning 
 shame which overshadow their fair land and discredit its 
 civilization. But, at any rate, even the whole South should 
 not be permitted to commit the republic to the nefarious 
 policy of destroying the hope of millions of its own citizens. 
 Many people who approved of slavery, endorsed the hanging 
 of John Brown whose "soul goes marching on," and ac 
 claimed secession with joy and enthusiasm, now regret with 
 pangs indescribable the existence of one and the occurrence 
 of the others. 
 
 Some good men have gone wrong on every great moral 
 issue of the past, and some good men are sure to go wrong 
 on every great moral question of the future. This seems to 
 be inevitable. But in the end the Right will win. The 
 Right leads the trek of humanity, and God leads the Right. 
 Furthermore, the white people of the South themselves dis 
 play grave suspicions of the durability of this race prejudice. 
 If this prejudice is all that they claim, why is it necessary 
 to hedge it about, buttress it around, prop it up, shield it 
 
 120 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 over, and hostile it over with prescriptive, oppressive, and 
 unlawful laws? Why inaugurate a reign of terror and 
 bloodshed to cultivate it? 
 
 After all, to every serious American it will be manifest 
 that all the smoke and noise and deadly work of this five- 
 barrel weapon this " inborn, inbred, mothers-milk, in 
 stinctive, ineradicable" race prejudice are intended to cover 
 the enactment of a tragedy in the Southland : the over 
 throw of the ballot of the colored man, the despoiling and 
 subjugation of a people. 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, who fills the 
 Plymouth pulpit at Brooklyn, New York, made famous by 
 Henry Ward Beecher, in a recent sermon said : " Just now 
 the whole country is suffering from a reaction on the negro 
 question, and the colored race have known a month of such 
 depression and sorrow and heartache as they have not known 
 in forty vears and there is reason for the depression. 
 Consider the Presbyterian preacher in New York who last 
 week said that the emancipation of the slaves was like the 
 release of criminals from the penitentiary, and that the 
 future of the nigger 1 was blacker and blacker and more 
 hopeless. Consider that editorial in the Richmond paper 
 that, commenting on the speech of a Southerner and of a 
 great religious editor in New York, said that the two men 
 evidently might have exchanged addresses. Think of the 
 Southern soldier who insists in his article that the negro is 
 an animal ; that, like the dog and horse, he has by associa 
 tion borrowed some of man s characteristics, but that he is 
 without soul, and that he fears like the animal and never 
 can have a home. 
 
 " In 1866 Mr. Beecher said here that we must insist on 
 suffrage for the negro ; that races, like children, are trained 
 by responsibility ; that the poorest government of an ignorant 
 man who governs himself is better than the best government 
 that is imposed upon him from without. Mr. Beecher also 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 said that in view of two centuries of injustice and slavery it 
 might take a century before we would see the outcropping of 
 an occasional orator, an occasional colored educator. What 
 if Mr. Beecher could return to-day ? He would find that 
 the greatest orator, from many points of view, in the country 
 is a negro, and a black man to-day receives $150 to $300 a 
 night, and there is only one other man in the country who 
 receives as much. 
 
 " The colored people are needlessly alarmed. The reaction 
 is an eddy from the South itself. All the enemies of liberty, 
 whether they want to or not, have to help the forces of 
 liberty." 
 
 True words these ! " All the enemies of liberty, whether 
 they want to or not, have to help the forces of liberty. " 
 The violent outburst of Southern wrath on the colored 
 people and the extreme and cruel persecution of them " will 
 help the forces of liberty. " Intended for evil, they " will 
 work together for good. 1 These things will not be without 
 value as an object lesson exposing the mind and purpose of 
 the South, an object lesson of which the nation will not 
 fail to take note ; an object lesson which will serve to rally 
 " the forces of liberty," and assure the decisive defeat of the 
 conspiring " enemies of liberty." 
 
 A white man s country ! This phrase is often pressed 
 into service, and it has the effect chiefly of exciting race 
 intolerance. It has been used with great detriment to 
 the colored people, causing many of them to be driven 
 from their homes ; and some to be killed because they stood 
 on the principle that " a man s home is his castle." 
 
 It would deny them the right of domicile on American 
 soil. And if they have not the right of domicile, it would 
 follow that they have not the right of citizenship nor the 
 ballot, nor the protection of the law. It would place 
 the race in the position of interlopers, subject to expul 
 sion at the whim of any party, at any place or at any 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 time, or to be driven helter-skelter by the blind fury of 
 the mob. 
 
 A little incident, indeed a very little one, occurred recently 
 at Washington City, which throws a flood of light on 
 this pretension and dissolves its logic. It happened in 
 this wise : A prominent Indian chief went from the Western 
 prairies to visit the President at the White House. He was 
 received and entertained in the cordial and hearty manner 
 characteristic of Mr. Roosevelt. The Indian chief was 
 greatly delighted. After the conference with the Great 
 Father, he left the White House and soon after this en 
 countered a leading Southerner. In the conversation which 
 followed, the Southerner inquired of the Indian chief if 
 he did not think it would be a good thing to send all the 
 negroes back to Africa. Without a moment s hesitation 
 the great chief bluntly replied, " Yes, all the negroes ought 
 to be sent back to Africa," and added with true Indian 
 sternness, "and all the Chinese to China, and all the 
 Germans to Germany, and all the French to France, and 
 all the English to England, and all the Italians to Italy ; 
 and all the other people too should be sent back to their 
 own countries, and America should be given back to the 
 Indians to whom it rightfully belongs."" 
 
 This was truly a rebuff to the Southerner. He got his 
 answer, and with it a corollary which he had not expected. 
 He found that the Indian chief was no respecter of persons. 
 The rugged common-sense, the innate honesty, and the irre 
 sistible logic of the answer of this noble son of the plains will 
 be applauded by every one. And the probability is that the 
 Southern leaders will attain as little success in proving at the 
 bar of public opinion that the colored people have no right to 
 a domicile in this country as this particular Southerner had 
 in demonstrating it to the satisfaction of the Indian chief. 
 
 As a matter of history the white Southerners have barely 
 eight years of priority on American soil over the colored 
 
 123 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Southerners. So that if the colored people were obliged 
 to make their departure in this year of grace, or at any other 
 time, the white Southerners, to be chronologically consistent, 
 would have to pack their "carpet-bags " and vacate the 
 country just eight years later. 
 
 As a matter of history also, the negroes were here even 
 before the ever memorable and historic settlement at Ply 
 mouth Rock which has crowned this country with honor and 
 glory. 
 
 A country rightfully belongs to its inhabitants. All in 
 common, whatever their race, have vested interests in the 
 soil. If the colored people have no such rights, then none 
 of the heterogeneous peoples inhabiting the country possess 
 them. 
 
 If long and continued residence establishes the right, the 
 colored people possess it, for they have been here practically 
 as long as the whites. If an entrance which was not an in 
 trusion or a trespass would give the right, the colored 
 people have a much stronger claim than the whites, for they 
 were not only the unwilling, but the forcefully entreated and 
 detained occupant guests. 
 
 If centuries of hard and faithful toil, the toil which 
 develops the natural resources of a country, and which 
 causes " the wilderness to bloom as the rose," would make 
 perfect such a right, the colored people would have a claim 
 superior to that of Southern whites. 
 
 If the loyalty and patriotism which move men to offer 
 their services, spill their blood, and fight and die in defence 
 of their country, would seal the right of inheritance and 
 vested interests in the soil, here too the colored people would 
 have peculiar advantages over many of their white neighbors 
 and would take at least equal rank with any class of the 
 population. 
 
 The blood of Crispus Attucks, a negro, was the first blood 
 that was shed in the Revolutionary War. He was the first 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 to fall from the volley of the " red coats " in the " Boston 
 massacre." Thus a negro s blood actually sealed American 
 Independence. 
 
 The City of Boston has erected on her Common, a monu 
 ment to the first martyrs of American liberty, and at the 
 head of the list is a negro, the selfsame Crispus Attucks. 
 Peter Salem, a negro, fought side by side with Warren and 
 his comrades in the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 Colored men fought under Washington in several of his 
 campaigns. General Greene, in writing to Alexander Ham 
 ilton, the 10th of January, 1781, from the vicinity of Camden, 
 South Carolina, said : " There is a great spirit of enterprise 
 among the black people, and those that have come out as 
 volunteers are not a little formidable to the enemy."" 
 
 The negro was with Perry in his great victory on Lake 
 Erie. 
 
 Andrew Jackson, whom the South has delighted to honor, 
 fought with negroes at the battle of New Orleans, and 
 praised their heroism in his official report. The colored 
 soldiers held the extreme right of the American lines and 
 drove back the British at the point of the bayonet. 
 
 There is certainly no room for equivocation or doubt as to 
 the meaning of these words which General Jackson, in his 
 proclamation to the negroes dated September 21, 1814, 
 used : " To every noble-hearted, generous freeman of color 
 volunteering to serve during the present contest with Great 
 Britain and no longer, there will be paid the same bounty, 
 in money and lands, now received by the white soldiers of 
 the United States, namely, one hundred and twenty-four 
 dollars in money, and one hundred and sixty acres of land. 
 The non-commissioned officers and privates will also be 
 entitled to the same monthly pay and daily rations and 
 clothes furnished to any American soldier. To assure you 
 of the sincerity of my intentions, and my anxiety to engage 
 your invaluable services to our country, I have communicated 
 
 125 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 my wish to the Governor of Louisiana, who is fully informed 
 as to the manner of enrolment, and will give you every 
 necessary information on the subject of this address." 
 
 Furthermore, on December 18, 1814, General Jackson, in 
 an address to his colored soldiers, said: "To the men of 
 color. Soldiers ! From the shores of Mobile I collected you 
 to arms ; I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the 
 glory of your white countrymen. I expected much from you ; 
 for I was not uninformed of those qualities which render you 
 so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you could 
 endure hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war. 
 But you surpassed my hopes. I have found in you, united to 
 these qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to great 
 deeds. Soldiers ! The President of the United States shall 
 be informed of your conduct on the present occasion ; and the 
 voice of Representatives of the American nation shall applaud 
 your valor, as your General now praises your ardor." 
 
 That foremost patriot and expounder of the Constitution, 
 Alexander Hamilton, in a letter to John Jay, March 14, 
 1779, said : " I have not the least doubt that the negroes 
 will make very excellent soldiers with proper management ; 
 and I will venture to pronounce that they cannot be put 
 into better hands than those of Mr. Laurens [Colonel Laurens 
 of South Carolina]. . . . 
 
 " An essential part of the plan is to give them their free 
 dom with their muskets." 
 
 The Honorable Henry Laurens, father of Colonel John 
 Laurens of South Carolina, a great figure in the Revolutionary 
 War, writing to General Washington, March 16, 1779, says : 
 " Had we arms for three thousand such black men as I could 
 select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of success in driv 
 ing the British out of Georgia and subduing East Florida 
 before the end of July." 
 
 A fact of transcendent interest may be recorded here, to 
 wit : that the Congress of the United States on March 29, 
 
 126 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 1779, passed a series of resolutions (see " Secret Journals of 
 Congress," pages 107-110) in part as follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That it be recommended to the States of 
 South Carolina and Georgia, if they shall think the same 
 expedient, to take measures immediately for raising three 
 thousand able-bodied negroes." . . . And further " Resolved^ 
 That Congress will make provision for paying the proprietors 
 of such negroes as shall be enlisted for the service of the 
 United States during the war a full compensation for the 
 property at a rate not exceeding one thousand dollars for 
 each active, able-bodied negro man of standard size, not ex 
 ceeding thirty-five years of age, who shall be so enlisted and 
 pass muster." 
 
 Congress also passed on the same day the following reso 
 lution : " Whereas John Laurens, Esq., who has heretofore 
 acted as aid-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, is desirous 
 of repairing to South Carolina, with a design to assist in 
 defence of the Southern States : 
 
 "Resolved, That a commission of Lieutenant-Colonel be 
 granted to the said John Laurens, Esq." 
 
 Thus Colonel Laurens of South Carolina, who was commis 
 sioned by special resolution of the Congress, was foremost in 
 " carrying the plan of the black levees into execution." 
 
 The Honorable William Eustis of Massachusetts, who was 
 a soldier through the Revolutionary War and afterwards Gov 
 ernor of Massachusetts and member of Congress, in a speech 
 in the Congress, Dec. 12, 1820, said : " At the commencement 
 of the Revolutionary War, there were found in the Middle 
 and Northern states many blacks, and other people of color, 
 capable of bearing arms ; a part of them free, the greater- 
 part slaves. The freemen entered our ranks with the whites. 
 The time of those who were slaves was purchased by the 
 states ; and they were induced to enter the service in conse 
 quence of a law by which, on condition of their serving in 
 the ranks during the war, they were made freemen. 
 
 127 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " In Rhode Island, where their numbers were more consid 
 erable, they were formed under the same considerations into 
 a regiment commanded by white officers ; and it is required, 
 in justice to them, to add that they discharged their duty 
 with zeal and fidelity. The gallant defence of Red Bank, in 
 which this black regiment bore a part, is among the proofs of 
 their valor. 
 
 "Among the traits which distinguished this regiment was 
 their devotion to their officers ; when their brave Colonel 
 Greene was afterwards cut down and mortally wounded, the 
 sabres of the enemy reached his body only through the limbs 
 of his faithful guard of blacks, who hovered over him and 
 protected him, every one of whom was killed and whom he 
 was not ashamed to call his children. 
 
 " The services of this description of men in the navy are also 
 well known. I should not have mentioned either, but for 
 the information of the gentleman from Delaware, whom I 
 understood to say that he did not know that they had served 
 in any considerable numbers. 
 
 " The war over and peace restored, these men returned to 
 their respective states ; and who could have said to them, on 
 their return to civil life, after having shed their blood in com 
 mon with the whites in the defence of the liberties of the coun 
 try, You are not to participate in the rights secured by the 
 struggle, or the liberty for which you have been fighting ? 
 
 " Certainly no white man in Massachusetts." 
 
 Straight to the point are the positive utterances of the Hon 
 orable Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, who, in a speech 
 in the Congress, December, 1820, said : " They [the negroes] 
 were, as they still are, as valuable a part of our population 
 to the Union as any other equal number of inhabitants. 
 They were in numerous instances the pioneers, and, in all, 
 the laborers, of your armies. To their hands were owing the 
 erection of the greatest part of the fortifications raised for 
 the protection of our country ; some of which, particularly 
 
 128 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 Fort Moultrie, gave, at that early period of the inexpe 
 rience and untried valor of our citizens, immortality to Ameri 
 can arms ; and in the Northern states numerous bodies of 
 them were enrolled into, and fought by the sides of the 
 whites, the battles of the Revolution." 
 
 The conclusion is unavoidable that these brave and much 
 praised black patriots, whose u invaluable services " were un 
 grudgingly acknowledged by leading men North and South, 
 were, with their descendants, gradually forced back into 
 slavery. And as the institution grew and flourished they 
 were lost in it and their identity and services forgotten. 
 
 The great services of the negroes on land and at sea in the 
 War of the Rebellion are well known. Admiral Porter, in 
 his Naval History of the Civil War, says : " A remarkable 
 instance of patriotism on the part of the colored people was 
 evinced in the bringing out of the armed steamer Planter 
 from Charleston and delivering her over to the naval officers 
 blockading that port. . . . [This act] would have done credit 
 to any one, but the cleverness with which the whole affair 
 was conducted deserves more than a passing notice. 1 1 Robert 
 Smalls, a mulatto, was the pilot of the Confederate steamer 
 " Planter." Seizing the vessel while the white officers were 
 on shore, with the assistance of the negro crew he cast off 
 the hawser under the very eyes of a sentinel, steamed down 
 the bay performing the proper salutes, passed Fort Sumter, 
 and proceeded to sea before the Confederates realized that 
 the vessel was bound for the blockading fleet. Smalls 1 heroic 
 services were recognized by Congress, and he afterwards 
 became a member of Congress from South Carolina. 
 
 Colonel Le Grand B. Cannon, in a volume entitled " Per 
 sonal Reminiscences of the Rebellion," makes this most inter 
 esting recital : " Some little time after the duel in Hampton 
 Roads, early in the month of April, four big steamships 
 the " Vanderbilt," the " Arago," the "Ericsson," and the 
 " Illinois " came down to Fort Monroe, to be in the harbor 
 9 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 in readiness to attack the "Merrimac" if she came out, and 
 to destroy her by running her down. Captain Gadsden of 
 the " Arago," a merchant ship chartered for this service, on 
 reaching Fort Monroe and opening his orders, found that his 
 ship was to be a ram. His crew in some way got to know 
 the nature of the mission their ship was in, and the danger 
 ous character of the work in which they were to engage, and 
 promptly deserted in a body. 
 
 " The next morning Captain Gadsden found he had not a 
 man aboard his ship except his officers. He went to the 
 admiral of the fleet and stated his dilemma. The admiral 
 said he had not a man to spare. General Wool (of the land 
 forces) brought Captain Gadsden to me, and the latter re 
 lated to me the condition of affairs. He said negroes \vould 
 do for his purposes quite as well as white men, and asked me 
 if I would give him fifty negroes. 
 
 " Yes, I answered, I will let you have all the negroes you 
 want under certain conditions. 
 
 " What are they ? asked Captain Gadsden. 
 
 " They must be volunteers, I said. 
 
 " What will be the pay, I asked. 
 
 " Thirteen dollars a month and rations, he answered. 
 
 " All right, I said, you come to me at 12 o clock. 
 
 "At 12 o clock Captain Wilder had three hundred and 
 fifty sturdy negro stevedores drawn up in double lines. I 
 addressed them saying : I do not know what the result of 
 this war will be in regard to your condition. I hope it will 
 result in your freedom. Some have got to shed their blood, 
 and others to lay down their lives. You have seen the battle 
 which has been fought between the " Merrimac " and our 
 vessels of war. We have brought down four big ships to 
 destroy the " Merrimac " by ramming her. The enterprise 
 is a hazardous one, but it is one of glory. From on board 
 one ship the white sailors have deserted because of the hazard 
 of the service. It is my privilege to offer to fifty of you the 
 
 130 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 opportunity to volunteer to go on that ship. Every man 
 who survives will be a hero, and those who fall will be mar 
 tyrs. Now, those boys who will volunteer to go on board 
 this fighting ship will move three paces to the front. 1 
 
 "And the whole line moved up in a solid column, as 
 though actuated by a single impulse. It was a thrilling 
 response, and the most remarkable and impressive scene I 
 ever witnessed. We picked out fifty of the most likely men, 
 and they were sent at once on board the "Arago." They 
 were escorted down to the boats by all the negroes round 
 about, with shouting, singing, and praying, and every demon 
 stration of exultant joy. It was a most exciting and inspir 
 ing sight. 
 
 "The volunteers put aboard the "Arago" proved them 
 selves most apt and willing workers, and soon proved their 
 value and justified our confidence. A week or two after this 
 incident Captain Fox, First Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 came down to Fort Monroe. I told him what we had done, 
 and he was greatly pleased and interested and saw the men, 
 and inquired fully as to their capabilities and value. Shortly 
 afterward he issued an order that the fleets should be re 
 cruited entirely from negroes. Thus were negroes, fugitives, 
 slaves, enlisted in the naval service of the United States, as 
 free men and free agents, on the same footing as the white 
 volunteers, nine months before the Proclamation of Emanci 
 pation by President Lincoln." 
 
 Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Boston, who in 
 turn commanded both white and colored soldiers, in a recent 
 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, of the colored soldiers says : 
 " As to the general facts of courage and reliability, I think 
 that no officer in our camp ever thought of there being any 
 essential difference between black and white ; and surely the 
 judgment of these officers, who were risking their lives at 
 every moment, month after month, on the fidelity of their 
 men, was worth more than the opinion of the world besides. 
 
 131 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 As the negroes were intensely human at these points, they 
 were equally so in pointing out that they had more to fight 
 for than the white soldier. They loved the United States 
 flag, and I remember one zealous corporal, a man of natural 
 eloquence, pointing to it during a meeting on the Fourth of 
 July, and saying with more zeal than statistical accuracy, 
 Dar s dat flag, we hab lib under it for eighteen hundred 
 and sixty-two years, and we 11 lib and die for it now. 1 But 
 they could never forget that, besides the flag and the Union, 
 they had home and wife and child to fight for. War was a 
 very serious matter to them. They took a grim satisfaction 
 when orders were issued that the officers of colored troops 
 should be put to death on capture. It helped their esprit de 
 corps immensely. Their officers, like themselves, were hence 
 forward to fight with ropes around their necks. Even when 
 the new black regiments began to come down from the North, 
 the Southern blacks pointed out this difference, that in case 
 of ultimate defeat, the Northern troops, black or white, must 
 sooner or later be exchanged and returned to their homes, 
 whereas, they themselves must fight it out or be re-enslaved. 
 All this was absolutely correct reasoning and showed them 
 human. And further, no matter how reckless in bearing they 
 might be, those negroes were almost fatalists in their confi 
 dence that God would watch over them ; and if they died it 
 would be because their time had come. If each one of us 
 was a praying man,"* said one of my corporals in a speech, it 
 appears to me that we could fight as well with prayers as with 
 bullets, for the Lord has said that if you have faith even as a 
 grain of mustard seed cut into four parts, you can say to the 
 sycamore tree "Arise," and it will come up." And though 
 Corporal Long s botany may have got a little confused, his 
 faith proved itself by works, for he volunteered to go many 
 miles on a solitary scouting expedition into the enemy s 
 country in Florida, and got back safe after he had been 
 given up for lost." 
 
 132 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Roy, now residing at Oak Park, 
 Illinois, in an article in The New Englander and Yak Review, 
 on " ( )ur Indebtedness to the Negroes for their Conduct dur 
 ing the War, 1 speaks of Wagner, Port Hudson, the " Tragedy 
 of the Crater" at Petersburg, and Fort Pillow as giving the 
 severest test of these black soldiers and as winning the favor 
 and the admiration of the army and of the country. 
 
 He quotes the opinions of General Grant, General Burn- 
 side, Captain Jewett, Colonel Bassett, General Hunter, 
 Captain Pease, Governor Rush of Wisconsin, and others, who 
 were in touch with colored soldiers and knew their value. 
 He then proceeds : " It would be edifying to our patriotism 
 to follow them through the two hundred and forty-nine bat 
 tles and engagements in which they participated, down the 
 Atlantic coast, down the Mississippi, and along with the 
 armies of the Potomac, the James, and Cumberland. In such 
 a tour we would find them at Ship Island successfully resisting 
 the assault of Confederate veterans twice their number ; we 
 would find them at Milli ken s Bend, whipping the enemy that 
 came yelling, No quarter ! at Fort Powhatan, where the 
 ex-slaves met three charges from the Virginia masters under 
 Fitzhugh Lee and held out for a five hours 1 fight, carrying 
 the day ; at Bermuda Hundred, where they took six redoubts 
 with their connecting rifle-pits and captured seven pieces of 
 artillery ; at Decatur, capturing a battery with a loss of six 
 officers and sixty men ; at Dalton, where an inspecting cap 
 tain reported to General Steedman, The regiment over 
 there is holding dress parade under fire "* ; at Honey Hill, 
 where in a battle that had twenty-three hundred union sol 
 diers killed or wounded, as Captain Jewett tells me, his men, 
 lying down to protect a battery, would beg permission and 
 go out, a few at a time, to join in the fight, only a part of 
 them coming back ; and at Nashville, where a negro division 
 was put forward to open the battle, and where, as Captain 
 Lyman told me, his colored regiment, in making the sixty 
 
 133 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 rods to capture a bastion, had fifty-six men killed and one 
 hundred and twenty-eight wounded. 
 
 " Captain H. V. Freeman, of Chicago, addressing the stu 
 dents of Hampton upon the bravery of the colored troops, 
 said : It was the second day of the battle of Nashville that 
 the charge on Overton Hill occurred. Three regiments of 
 General Thomas s brigade the 12th, 13th, and 100th 
 were colored troops. These were put in with a division of 
 colored troops General Wood s 4th Army Corps for the 
 charge on Overton Hill. The first charge was not successful, 
 owing to the wounding of General Post of the 4th Army 
 Corps, and also to the difficulty of crossing the ploughed 
 ground. You know what Tennessee clay soil is when it gets 
 wet there seems no bottom to it. Going through that 
 corn field, it seemed as if there was no bottom to it, and as 
 we pulled our feet out all the while the cannons playing 
 on us from the hill each foot seemed to weigh a ton. At 
 the bottom of the hill we got over a rail fence all that were 
 left of us and found ourselves on good turf. It seemed then 
 as if we could fly ; but there were tree tops cut down and as 
 I saw my men struggling through them, they seemed to be 
 sticking to them like flies in a spider s web, the rebel cannon 
 sending in grape shot and canister upon them. The result 
 was that the only men who reached the ramparts were men 
 of the colored regiments. They scaled the ramparts, and 
 every man who did was shot down. The first charge, as I 
 said, was not a success, but the regiments did not retreat. 
 Those left lay down at the foot of the hill, and at the next 
 order to charge, with the whole line they swept over the 
 ramparts/ " 
 
 Dr. Roy also quotes General S. C. Armstrong, as follows : 
 " At the siege of Richmond, I received an order to push my 
 regiment the 9th U. S. Colored Infantry to the flank of 
 General Terry s division, which was being hard pressed. 
 Standing there in line we were harassed by an unseen foe 
 
 134 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 hidden in the bushes. It was impossible to hold the position 
 and I ordered my men to fall back, and, to avoid a panic 
 and stampede, I ordered them to walk ; and they did so the 
 whole distance shot at by the unseen enemy as they went, 
 and having to climb over fallen trees and go through rough 
 ground. They got back panting with fatigue and lay down 
 exhausted. As they lay there the order came from our 
 brigade commander to go back over the same ground and 
 retake the position. I knew that meant death for every one 
 of us, but a soldier has only to obey, so I gave the order and 
 we started. But General Terry saw us going, and under 
 standing the position, ordered us back and saved us. What 
 struck me was that every man went forward. Exhausted as 
 they were, knowing as they did the difficulty of the way and 
 the certainty of death before them, not one man faltered." 
 
 At Fort Harrison, within five miles of Richmond, where 
 the rebel garrison cried out, " Come on, darkies, we want your 
 muskets ! " they did come on, shouting, " Remember Fort 
 Pillow ! " to capture those taunting cavaliers and their strong 
 hold ; of which exploit General Butler, on the floor of Con 
 gress, said : " It became my painful duty, sir, to follow in 
 the track of that charging column, and there, in a space not 
 wider than the clerk s desk, and three hundred yards long, 
 lay the dead bodies of five hundred and forty-three ebony- 
 colored comrades, slain in the defence of their country, who 
 had laid down their lives to uphold its flag and its honor as 
 a willing sacrifice. 
 
 " Our indebtedness to these people for their conduct during 
 the war who can reckon it up ? We early set about 
 discharging a part of that obligation. We gave them their 
 freedom. We clothed them with citizenship. We conferred 
 upon them the suffrage. The Government is in covenant, 
 before God and the nations, with these allies, whose late 
 coming was like that of Blucher to our Waterloo. It main 
 tains the rights of only an intended citizen everywhere 
 
 135 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 around the globe. Will it keep faith with ten millions 
 of native Americans, whose citizenship has been sealed in 
 blood ? 
 
 " They are Americans, baptized as such by the sprinkling 
 of blood. We must honor their rights of inheritance and of 
 baptism." 
 
 The testimony of two other important witnesses may be 
 inserted here. 
 
 Gdneral George H. Thomas, the hero of the battle at 
 Nashville, Tennessee, after riding over the field and viewing 
 the bodies of white and colored soldiers mingled together, 
 said : " This day proves the manhood of the negro. " 
 
 And President Lincoln said : " I was, in my best judgment, 
 driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union and 
 with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hands upon the 
 colored element. I chose the latter. 1 
 
 He also said : " Take 200,000 [black soldiers] from our 
 side and put them in the battlefield or cornfield against us 
 and we would be compelled to abandon the war in three 
 weeks."" And again : " Then there will be some black men 
 who can remember that, with silent tongue, with clinched 
 teeth, with steady eye, and with well poised bayonet, they 
 have helped mankind on to this great consummation [the 
 preservation of free institutions], while I fear that there will 
 be some white men unable to forget that with malignant 
 heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it." 
 
 In the Spanish- American war the negro soldier won renown 
 for American arms. 
 
 Mr. James Creelman, the war correspondent, reported in 
 the New York Journal as follows : " A perfect storm of shot 
 and shell swept the hillside. There was a moment of hesi 
 tation along the line. Then the order was, Forward, charge ! 
 Roosevelt was in the lead waving his sword. Out into the 
 open and up the hill where death seemed certain, in the face 
 of the continuous crackle of the Mauser, came the Rough 
 
 136 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 Riders with the Tenth (colored) Cavalry alongside. Not a 
 man flinched, all continuing to fire as they ran. Roosevelt 
 was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yelling like a Sioux, 
 while his own men and the colored cavalry cheered him as 
 they charged up the hill. There was no stopping as men s 
 neighbors fell, but on they went faster and faster. 
 
 " It was something terrible to watch these men race up 
 that hill with death. Fast as they were going it seemed 
 that they would never reach the crest. . . . We could 
 clearly see the wonderful work the dusky veterans of the 
 Tenth were doing. Such splendid shooting was probably 
 never done under these conditions. As fast as the Spanish 
 fire thinned their ranks the gaps were closed up, and after 
 an eternity they gained the top of the hill and rushed the 
 few remaining yards to the Spanish trenches. The position 
 was won. Across the gulch the soldiers wildly cheered the 
 gallant Tenth. The Tenth gave tongue with an answering 
 cheer and rush on to drive the enemy further. Over the 
 Spanish trenches they tore, passing the Spanish dead." 
 
 Associate Justice Curtis, of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, in his dissenting opinion from Chief Justice 
 Taney in the celebrated Dred Scott case, says : " At the time 
 of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, all free 
 native-born inhabitants of the states of New Hampshire, Mass 
 achusetts, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, though 
 descendants from African slaves, were not only citizens of 
 those states, but such of them as had the other qualifications 
 possessed the franchise of electors, on equal terms with other 
 citizens. It has already been shown that, in five of the 
 thirteen original states, colored persons then possessed the 
 elective franchise, and were among those by whom the Con 
 stitution was ordained and established. If so, it is not true, 
 in point of fact, that the Constitution was made exclusively 
 by the white race. And that it was made exclusively for the 
 white race is, in my opinion, not only an assumption not 
 
 137 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 warranted by anything in the Constitution, but contradicted 
 by its opening declaration, that it was ordained and es 
 tablished by the people of the United States for themselves 
 and their posterity. And as free colored persons were then 
 citizens of at least five states, and so in every sense, part of 
 the people of the United States, they were among those for 
 whom and whose posterity the Constitution was ordained 
 and established." 
 
 Thus it is absolutely indisputable that the colored man 
 not only fought for American independence but also assisted 
 as a voter in ordaining and establishing the Constitution of 
 the United States. 
 
 In view of these and many other things, it may appear, 
 after all, that the negro can establish a very clear title to his 
 rights and domicile on American soil a title as clean and 
 as perfect in every respect as that of his persecutors and 
 oppressors. 
 
 A white man s country forsooth ! There is but one step 
 further for these Southern leaders to take, and that is to 
 claim that the God of the universe is a white man s God ; the 
 Redeemer of the world is a white man s Redeemer ; the sun, 
 moon, and stars are the white man s possession ; the cooling 
 zephyr, the air that is breathed, the mighty deep, and all the 
 waters which bear the traffic and commerce of the world on 
 their bosom, and all the bountiful gifts of nature belong to 
 the white man. After this these leaders can wrap them 
 selves in the mantle of their vast and superb superiority and 
 wait and watch and even weep for other claims to stake. 
 
 It will seem, however, to rational people, and there are a 
 great many such in the South, that this " white-man s-coun- 
 try" argument is so monstrously stupid, so silly and inane, 
 that the mere statement of its logical inferences is sufficient 
 to destroy it. 
 
 Social equality ! This is the bogy-man of the South. 
 And it appears that he is nowadays frightening, not the 
 
 138 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 children, but the old folks ; and doubtless many are in a state 
 of perturbation bordering on hysteria. 
 
 Some twenty years or so ago, when the white people of the 
 South first displayed this bogy-man, Mr. George W. Cable, 
 himself a Southerner, a man gifted with the courage of his 
 convictions, killed the bogy-man with this simple short, 
 piercing sentence, " Social equality is the dream of a fool."" 
 
 The nation instantly accepted this declaration as a verity. 
 The poor old bogy-man was laid away in his grave and had 
 almost gone "out of the memory of man." But lo, and 
 behold, the leaders of the South have dug him up, taken 
 off his grave clothes, put strange robes on him, electrified 
 him, and made him all over into a most " horrible fright, 1 
 and now present him once more like an automaton to the 
 public. By the deft touch of the Southern magicians, he is 
 made to pose first this way, and then that way, and still other 
 ways, creating wild and violent excitement among the whites 
 and carrying violence and death to the colored people. 
 
 The gyrations of the galvanically manipulated old bogy- 
 man have been so industriously and effectually worked by 
 the Southern leaders that the white people of the South have 
 themselves been thrown into a strange panic ; while the 
 people of the nation at large, self-possessed, are either hot 
 with indignation, or are grimly humorous over the excite 
 ment of the leaders of this movement, with their ravings and 
 comical and crazy antics, regarding it as a free show by the 
 hysterical, frenzied social-equality Southern leaders. 
 
 Social equality ! It is fitful, transient, elusive. Shall this 
 visionary, fleeting, intangible thing, with its many-sidedness, 
 dominate the life of the republic? Is it to be a new test of 
 American manhood and citizenship ? If so, then who is to 
 act as judge in regard to it? The social-equality man of 
 to-day is the convict in the prison cell on the to-morrow. 
 Shall not character, good citizenship, competencv, talent, 
 honest manhood, faithful service, and patriotism outweigh 
 
 139 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the fooFs dream of social equality ? What matters it, 
 whether the prime virtues and graces of life are found under 
 the white or the ebony skin ? Did not the same God make 
 both ? Does He not plant His divinity in both alike ? Can 
 the color of the skin lessen the character and merit of the 
 man ? 
 
 Is it not true that 
 
 " All men are equal in God s sight ; 
 There is no black, there is no white " ? 
 
 In the constitution of human society social equality has 
 never existed anywhere, it does not exist anywhere, and it 
 never can exist anywhere. There are circles, and circles 
 within circles; there are sets and grades and cliques and 
 clans within sets and grades and cliques and clans. Which, 
 then, is the real thing ? 
 
 What are the lines of differentiation which would shut out 
 every colored person for this is the plain purpose of the 
 Southern leaders from consideration as a member of the 
 social organism which would not be an impeachment of 
 common-sense, Christianity, and civilization ? Members of 
 the same family and household are not necessarily social 
 equals ; one member may be good, and another bad ; one 
 talented and refined, and another ignorant and coarse ; one 
 magnificent and glorious in usefulness to the world, and 
 another a curse to humanity. 
 
 What of social equality? Human life does not move 
 smoothly on a dead level. Its course is up, down ; down, up. 
 Many born to station, luxury, and wealth have died in 
 poverty, in the slums, and in the gutter. 
 
 What of social equality? Many have risen from the 
 ranks of the lowliest, the most destitute, and even from the 
 abandoned classes, to the highest walks of life, and some 
 such have been crowned with a people s respect, love, and 
 homage. 
 
 140 
 
THE WAR ; ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 What of social equality ? The lowly born do not always 
 remain lowly. The high born do not always stay on top. 
 Each rank is continuously recruiting the other. What of 
 social equality ? 
 
 Alexandra Dumas with his strain of negro blood is counted 
 an honor to France. There are thousands of colored people 
 in the South who in every one of the essentials of life 
 in intelligence, education, refinement, culture, industry, as 
 holders of property and tax-payers, as good citizens living 
 orderly and decent lives, as public-spirited and useful mem 
 bers of the community, in moral worth are superior to 
 some thousands of whites. Why should these people be 
 crushed and offered as a sacrifice to the social-equality bogy ? 
 
 Are free institutions, "government of the people, for the 
 people, and by the people 11 to give place to government of 
 social equality, for social equality, and by social equality ? 
 The glory of the republic is that it has been governed by 
 the people. No social-equality set has ever ruled it. It is a 
 presumption for these leaders to mark dividing lines and say 
 that an American citizen shall not rise beyond them in life, 
 in honor, in the respect of his fellows, in usefulness, in the 
 service of the nation. The idea is alien, extremely vicious, 
 pernicious, mischievous, hideous. 
 
 If this cry of social equality at one time destroys the 
 liberty and rights of the colored people, what is to prevent 
 it at another time from crushing out the liberty and rights 
 of the Jews, or the Irish, or the Italians, or the Poles, or the 
 Swedes, or any other people ? Tyranny or oppression grows 
 by what it feeds on. It ever seeks a victim. This nation 
 is cosmopolitan, embracing representatives of all the peoples 
 of the world. At many places or localities these representa 
 tives may be few, or may not be influential. What is to 
 save their liberties and rights from destruction ? Just and 
 equal laws for all the people are the only safety of all the 
 people. 
 
 141 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 If the republic were in peril, and called on its citizens for 
 its defence, who would dare to raise social equality as a test 
 or standard for service ? All who are competent to bear 
 arms and face the enemy would be welcomed. Many were 
 the loyal and patriotic citizens who responded to the call of 
 their country in 1861, and who never so much as heard of 
 such a thing as social equality. They went in with muskets 
 on their shoulders, and as unknown quantities. Many came 
 out rich in the affection, and amid the glare of trumpets and 
 the cheers and shouts, of a great and free people, who will 
 never forget their deeds of valor, nor allow the fruitage of 
 their sacrifices to be destroyed. 
 
 When the republic is at peace it savors of effrontery for 
 any one to presume to make social equality a passport to the 
 public service. Are there not men of high social standing 
 who are absolutely unfit for the duties of the public service ? 
 And on the other hand, are there not men without such 
 standing who are qualified to discharge the most delicate 
 and arduous duties of the official life? 
 
 The question naturally arises, Are all the white Southern 
 office-holders men of the equality type ? If they are, then 
 some facts generally known bespeak a condition of social order 
 among them which cannot be regarded as encouraging. 
 
 Fresh in the minds of the public are these happenings : A 
 lieutenant-governor of South Carolina presided over the 
 Senate with a brace of revolvers in his hip pockets, and went 
 straight from the Senate chamber to the streets and shot 
 down an unarmed and highly respected citizen ; a lieutenant- 
 governor of Louisiana was shot to death in a street brawl ; a 
 lieutenant-governor of Missouri was forced to resign from 
 his office, admitting under oath that he was a bribe taker 
 and bribe giver ; a United States senator and a congressman 
 battered each other in a curbstone fight in Arkansas ; two 
 United States senators from South Carolina tried conclusions 
 in a pugilistic encounter on the floor of the United States 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 Senate and in open session ; a United States senator from 
 Texas demonstrated his ability as an all-round " scrapper " 
 by the manner in which he "punched" a most reputable 
 member of that body ; a mayor of the leading city in Georgia 
 was repeatedly haled to court for intoxication ; a congressman 
 from Missouri assaulted and attempted to stab a street-car 
 conductor in the city of Washington rather than pay a five- 
 cent fare ; a governor of Alabama and a judge of a court in 
 that state argued their difference with the strenuosity of 
 fisticuffs ; a son of a governor of Kentucky who was also his 
 private secretary was shot to death for dishonoring a home, 
 and his victim with him ; grave senators and members of a 
 state legislature have confessed under oath to receiving 
 bribes and giving bribes for votes on matters of legislation ; 
 city aldermen and leading citizens more than a score have 
 been charged and convicted of betraying their trusts, re 
 ceiving and disbursing bribe money ; feuds have flourished, 
 thirty-eight citizens having been assassinated in one Kentucky 
 county in a brief period of time ; defalcations and embezzle 
 ments have been frequent Tennessee lost $500,000 by the 
 defalcation of its state treasurer ; Alabama lost $400,000 ; 
 three other Southern states also suffered heavy losses ; and 
 as to county treasurers, a long list of them have embezzled 
 the people s money and voluntarily exiled themselves from 
 their homes between the setting and rising of the sun. 
 
 And this is not the half that might be said along these 
 lines ; but it is enough to prick the bubble of Southern 
 nonsense that social equality shall be the test for holding 
 public office. The question is asked again, Do these men 
 for some of them are still in office represent the ideal of 
 Southern social equality ? 
 
 It is a false pretext to claim that the possession of a public 
 office establishes social equality. If it were true, the Bowery 
 and Fifth Avenue would fraternize ; and there would be no 
 difference socially between the typical east-side politician and 
 
 143 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Grover Cleveland, Judge Parker, or Mayor Low ; and the 
 dive-keeping alderman might lead the " Grand March " at 
 the most fashionable event of the season. Public office does 
 not and cannot establish social equality. The governor of a 
 state cannot go into a citizen s home and enjoy his social 
 board unless the citizen invites him to come. 
 
 If the appointment or election of a white man to office 
 does not make him the social equal of every other white per 
 son, by what species of logic can it be demonstrated that the 
 holding of office would make the colored people social equals 
 of the white people? It is a travesty on common-sense to 
 say that a man cannot transact any public, or even private 
 business with another man without offering his daughter 
 in marriage to him, or tendering him the hospitality of his 
 home. 
 
 Outside of the South, the world over, men have learned 
 how to treat a public official with becoming decency and 
 dignity without raising the question of social privileges or 
 proffering their daughters in marriage to such officials ; and 
 they have also learned how " to break bread " with a cultured 
 or reputable man of any race without suggesting a marriage 
 during or at the close of the meal. Truly, as Mr. Schurz 
 says, these leaders " are the worst enemies the Southern 
 people have to fear." 
 
 Again, is Southern social equality in public affairs so elas 
 tic that it can take under its protecting wings murderers, 
 brawlers, moral lepers, amateur pugilists, bribe givers, bribe 
 takers, drunkards, embezzlers, defaulters, and what not, since 
 they are white ? And is it yet so lofty in its own self-esteem 
 that it can afford to assassinate the liberty of a people, and 
 deny to such men as Lyons, Crum, Dancy, Allgood, and 
 Washington, the lawful rights of American citizenship because 
 of their color ? 
 
 It is of interest to note the attitude of the influential 
 Northern press in this matter. 
 
 144 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 The New York World asks these pointed questions : " But 
 why is the question of social equality never raised by the 
 appointment of white men to office or by their attendance 
 upon any public meeting no matter how ignorant, de 
 praved, or even dirty they may be ? When a man is 
 appointed Collector of the Port of New York does any body 
 think of his social equality ? Does any one feel obliged to 
 invite a white official to dinner, or does such a man consider 
 that his commission affects his social status ? " 
 
 The Boston Herald declares : " Americans are fond of 
 quoting Robert Burns 1 immortal line, A man "s a man for 
 a 1 that, for a" that. 1 His a" that meant more than poverty 
 and weakness. It was a noble soul s protest against all the 
 ignoble prejudices based on conditions of fortune. For sC 
 that means notwithstanding color as much as notwithstand 
 ing ignorance and humbleness. Manliness is a matter of 
 character, and does not depend on the color of the skin nor 
 on the strain of race. God has not made any race forever 
 incapable of it, nor any race forever incapable of recognizing 
 and honoring it. The habit of distributing humanity in fixed 
 castes according to the accident of birth, from which there 
 is no escape, is a trait of immaturity and unreason. Chris 
 tianity wars against it, enlightenment wars against it, de 
 mocracy wars against it. The tendency of civilization is to 
 break the arbitrary fetters of manhood, whether of fortune, 
 race, or color, and acknowledge and honor the virtues, in 
 whomsoever they are found. 1 * 
 
 And the Detroit (Michigan) Free Press uses the following 
 language: "This Southern childishness in relation to the 
 social side of the race question can hardly be treated with 
 patience. People of the North, who are quite as good as the 
 people of the South, sometimes meet negroes at receptions 
 without having the bloom rubbed off their social prestige. 
 The social standing of Theodore Roosevelt is, we think, quite 
 as good as that of any Southern congressmen, but Mr. 
 10 145 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Roosevelt is not constantly tormented by the fear that he 
 will be thought no better than a blue-gummed nigger if 
 a respectable negro happens to cross the sill of the White 
 House. 1 
 
 This alarm over social equality is a part of the stock in 
 trade of the Southern leaders, by which the whites are in 
 flamed and the colored people oppressed. That it should 
 scare so many good people in the South is amazing, in view 
 of the fact that for forty years colored men have been hold 
 ing offices and white men have repeatedly petitioned for their 
 appointment and have repeatedly voted for colored men in 
 local elections and have signed their bonds. 
 
 But the ascendency of the Tillmans, the Vardamans, the 
 Graves, the Walkers, the Aycocks, the Candlers, the Baileys, 
 Carmacks, Richardsons, and other reactionists has broken the 
 bonds of mutual regard between the races, and by their 
 wicked harangues they have confused the minds of the white 
 people on the race question. 
 
 These men are "the worst enemies the Southern people 
 have to fear/ It would be a day of jubilee to the Southland 
 and to the whole country if these fire-eaters could be deported 
 to some distant, uninhabited island in the Pacific ; there to 
 end their days. They would be alive but a short time ; for in 
 the absence of negroes to oppress and lynch and burn, they 
 would soon be oppressing and lynching and burning each 
 other, and it would not be long before the last of the brood 
 would be reaping what they have sown. But as this cannot 
 be done, the country will have to bear their shame, and the 
 negroes their violence, for some time to come, and until 
 returning reason " the moral sense and the enlightened 
 spirit " shall assert the true manhood of the South. 
 
 " Negro inferiority " is a phrase which appeals more to the 
 great masses than to the classes among the Southern whites, 
 and the lower the social strata, the more effective is the 
 appeal. One can readily see how it ministers to the pride 
 
 146 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 and vanity of the lowest element, " no matter how ignorant, 
 depraved, or even dirty they may be," to feel and be assured 
 that they are better than any negro. 
 
 Under other circumstances, the negro of character, educa 
 tion, and property would receive a degree of consideration 
 and respect from the whites who are less prosperous. 
 
 The better class of whites have always held in high esteem 
 character, education, and property ; and they would not 
 have gone to extremes in refusing all recognition to colored 
 people possessing these. Indeed, many among this class have 
 given public expression of their surprise and gratification at 
 the progress made by the colored people since their emanci 
 pation. There are notable instances of true and hearty 
 friendship and ungrudging appreciation between some of the 
 whites and colored people. 
 
 The former slave has in a number of instances provided 
 for the support of the family of the former master which was 
 in indigent circumstances. Some have willed their property 
 to the former master. And in many cases the former master 
 has been sympathetic and helpful to the former slave. 
 
 To destroy respect for the negro among the masses, and all 
 interest in the negro among the classes, the leaders boldly pro 
 claim the doctrine that the negro is necessarily an inferior 
 to the white man and that there can be no common inter 
 est between them; that the lowest white man is the supe 
 rior of the best negro, and should therefore receive greater 
 consideration. 
 
 This means that the white criminal or degenerate is above 
 the colored man of probity and standing. Is it true that 
 the mere tint of a man s skin makes him either superior or 
 inferior to another man ? The leaders know better, but it 
 serves their purpose to declare it. And such teaching has 
 brought incredible woes upon the negro. 
 
 There are many well known cases of white criminals and 
 degenerates who have been pardoned from the penitentiaries, 
 
 147 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and yet who have the freedom of the ballot, a privilege de 
 nied to colored men of moral and material value to the 
 community. 
 
 And these white criminals and degenerates have also other 
 privileges of a white man, while the same are denied to colored 
 persons. Even in the state prisons white criminals are 
 placed on an entirely different footing from colored criminals. 
 
 The idea of negro inferiority enters into the framing and 
 the execution of the law. It has been molded into custom 
 and unwritten law. It is enforced with fierceness and cruelty 
 unspeakably shocking. It permeates every phase of Southern 
 life, and the visible proofs of it are to be seen in every direc 
 tion in which one may cast the eye. 
 
 It has resulted in the passage of " Jim Crow " laws which 
 can be fitly described only when called barbarous ; and the 
 appropriate apellation for the makers of such laws would be 
 the "Jim Crow" politicians. These "Jim Crow" politicians 
 have "Jim-Crowed" all railway trains, stations, lunch-counters, 
 dining-rooms, waiting-rooms ; they have " Jim-Crowed " all 
 libraries, theatres, museums, art galleries, public parks, and 
 places of public resort and amusements ; they have " Jim- 
 Crowed" the street cars; they have " Jim-Crowed " all ferry 
 boats and steamboats ; they have " Jim -Crowed " some of the 
 trades and callings ; they have " Jim-Crowed " the churches 
 and schools and colleges and other institutions of learning ; 
 they have "Jim-Crowed" the elevators in stores, office build 
 ings, public buildings, and other places; they have "Jim- 
 Crowed " restaurants, cafes, ice-cream parlors, hotels, saloons, 
 and even the soda-water fountains ; they have " Jim-Crowed " 
 the courts, the making and the administration of the law ; 
 they have "Jim-Crowed" all offices, municipal, county, and 
 state ; they have " Jim-Crowed " the jury-box ; they have 
 " Jim-Crowed " the ballot-box. In short, they have " Jim- 
 Crowed " everything. They have " Jim-Crowed "the beauti 
 ful "Sunny South " into the "Jim Crow South." 
 
 148 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 And controlled by a perverted moral sense and a diseased 
 mind, a mania on the questions affecting the negro, some of 
 these leaders are now making a bold, desperate, even reckless 
 effort to "Jim-Crow" the President of the United States 
 and to "Jim-Crow" the government of the United States 
 and to " Jim-Crow " this great Christian nation of eighty 
 millions of free people into a " Jim Crow nation." Surely 
 the cup of iniquity of the "Jim Crow" politicans is not only 
 full, but is running over. Is it not time for the decent 
 public sentiment of the South to crystallize itself and, re 
 inforced by the irresistible public opinion of the nation, 
 call a halt to " Jim Crow " politicians, and strangle Jim 
 Crowism ? 
 
 This " Jim-Crowing " of the South by unequal laws, or by 
 statutes which contravene the spirit of the Constitution of 
 the United States, and by barbarous customs, is intended to 
 place all colored persons on a different footing from the 
 whites before the law and in every other relation of life, and 
 thus force the race into hopeless degradation. It means the 
 revival of the ante bellum doctrine that negroes have no 
 rights which white men are bound to respect. 
 
 Governor Aycock of North Carolina said : " We will force 
 every negro in the South to hold an inferior relation to every 
 white man ! " Perhaps so, perhaps not. For this work of 
 compulsion may encounter opposing forces which Mr. Aycock 
 has not taken into consideration, the opposition of honest 
 men ; the antagonism of Christian men ; the overruling 
 power of a just God "who loveth righteousness and hateth 
 iniquity." 
 
 Who would pretend to say that this frenzy for "Jim- 
 Crowing" promotes good government? It is destructive 
 to every incentive to good government. It is intended to 
 keep the whites inflamed against the colored. His eminence 
 Cardinal Gibbons writes to a leading citizen, saying : " In 
 reply to your letter of yesterday, I hasten to say that the 
 
 149 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 introduction of the Jim Crow bill into the Maryland 
 legislature is very distressing to me. Such a measure must 
 of necessity engender very bitter feelings in the colored peo 
 ple against the whites. 
 
 " Peace and harmony can never exist when there is unjust 
 discrimination, and what the members of every community 
 must constantly strive for is peace." 
 
 It may also be noted that the advocates of negro subjuga 
 tion have invaded the North and have been propagating 
 their principles in lecture tours, newspaper interviews, and in 
 the endless writing of letters to the press. Some have ob 
 tained positions in newspaper offices, in pulpits, and elsewhere, 
 and have used these as opportunities of injuring the negro. 
 This statement does not include the many excellent South 
 erners in the North, men of high character and who stand for 
 liberty and fair play for the negro. 
 
 Some of these emissaries have visited the annual and other 
 meetings of great organizations held under Northern skies 
 and have attempted to "Jim-Crow" them. And the mem 
 bers of some of these great organizations have sat as if in a 
 trance and meekly permitted themselves to be bulldozed 
 into taking the "Jim Crow " cure. It is a wonder that the 
 spirits of their fathers did not rise up before them ! 
 
 The Boston Evening Record, referring to the meeting of an 
 important organization held in that city, says : " Boston was 
 a curious place in the world for the stationary engineers to 
 meet in, if they expected endorsement or sympathy for their 
 action in barring the negro from membership. 
 
 "But that is what the association has just done. The 
 question was decided almost unanimously against the negro, 
 but not until after the delegates of the North, and especially 
 those from Massachusetts, had expressed themselves in a most 
 passionate manner. 
 
 " Grant of New Orleans made the demand to have the 
 word white prefixed to the word engineers in one of the 
 
 150 
 
THE WAR ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 
 
 articles of the constitution. Mr. Grant said that the busi 
 ness men in the South look upon the engineers 1 association as 
 one of standing ; and should the negro be allowed the social 
 equality which he does not deserve, the association would be 
 ruined in the South and the Southern branches would drop 
 out. This is the white man s country. Africa is where the 
 negro belongs, 1 he said. Grant was loudly applauded. 
 
 "Mr. Optenberg of Wisconsin upheld the negro. Mr. 
 Babbit of Worcester declared he would stand for the colored 
 man at all times. C. S. Howarth of Fall River, speaking for 
 the negro, was hissed for at least a full minute, and cries of 
 Put him out ! were heard all over the convention floor. The 
 speaker, after exalting the negro, said, Why, there are men 
 in this room whom I would rather discard than the negro. "" 
 
 So the " Jim Crowites " of the South are using the free 
 men of the North to strike down the negroes on the ground 
 of color alone ; and deny them the right to use their talents 
 to make an honest living. Such organizations control in 
 large measure the employment of workmen. 
 
 It is not a little amazing that great educational institu 
 tions in the North should invite to their lecture platform the 
 worst specimens, the most rabid and frenzied " Jim Crow " 
 leaders well knowing their reputation for abusive and 
 intemperate attacks on the negro ; and each attack creates 
 race antagonism. There were colored students in these uni 
 versities, young men and women of character, scholarship, and 
 promise. These students were compelled to sit quietly and 
 hear their race denounced in bitter and violent language. 
 This is not in keeping with the fitness of things. The efforts 
 of these emissaries are designed to break the bond of peace 
 between the negro and the Northern white man and stir up 
 race strife and Southernize the North. 
 
 The policy and methods of the reactionists are a direct 
 challenge to the Church. They are incompatible with the 
 essentials of Christianity. The Church will not assent to the 
 
 151 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 teaching that the color of the skin is superior to character, 
 intelligence, thrift, godliness ; that the tint of a man s skin is 
 sufficient reason to deny him the rights of citizenship in a free 
 republic, for the creation and preservation of which his blood 
 was spilled ; that this tint is a justifiable ground to deny 
 him manhood right and to bar every place against him in 
 the public service. " God moves in a mysterious way his 
 wonders to perform," and it may be that the very madness 
 of the policy and acts of the Southern politicians who are 
 bent on destroying the suffrage of the negro, and alienating 
 him from membership in human society, may be God s way 
 of bringing discomfiture to them, safety to the negro, and 
 peace and honor to the republic. 
 
 152 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO 
 DOMINATION 
 
 ALTHOUGH, owing to the entailments of slavery, a 
 majority of the white people of the South may, at the 
 present time, be opposed to negro suffrage, and al 
 though a few people of the North may sneer at it, neverthe 
 less, facts and figures will show that the ballot in the hands 
 of the negro has been of priceless value to the republic. It 
 is a national asset to be depended upon in emergencies. By 
 its service to the republic in trying ordeals it has demon 
 strated its right to exist. No element of the population is 
 so broadly and intensely national in character as the negro. 
 The Reverend E. F. Williams, D. D., of Chicago, recently said : 
 " We need the negro as much as he needs us. In war he 
 shouldered the musket and knew how to shoot straight. His 
 ballot has been cast, when allowed to be cast, for the good of 
 the nation. As we have needed him in the past, we shall 
 certainly need him in the future."" 
 
 There is no danger in negro suffrage. It is rather a safety- 
 valve. The cry of negro domination is a false alarm. 
 
 In the following table are given the states which may come 
 under the general designation of Southern states ; also the 
 total white and the total colored population of each, as well 
 as the total white and the total colored vote of each, accord 
 ing to the census of 1900. A glance at this table will show 
 the absurdity of the alarm of negro domination. It will be 
 seen that in the South as a whole there are more than two 
 white men to every colored man. So that the frightful 
 apparition of negro domination does not loom up with such 
 hideousness on the political horizon as the alarmists would 
 make one believe. 
 
 153 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 States 
 
 Total 
 White 
 Population 
 
 Total 
 Colored 
 Population 
 
 Total 
 White 
 Vote 
 
 Total 
 Colored 
 Vote 
 
 Alabama, . 
 
 1,001,152 
 
 827,307 
 
 232 294 
 
 181,471 
 
 
 944,580 
 
 366,866 
 
 226,597 
 
 87,157 
 
 Florida 
 
 297,333 
 
 230,730 
 
 77,962 
 
 61,417 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 1,181,294 
 
 1,034,813 
 
 277,496 
 
 223,073 
 
 Kentucky 
 Louisiana ...... 
 
 1,862,309 
 769,612 
 
 284,706 
 650,804 
 
 469,206 
 
 177,878 
 
 74,728 
 147,348 
 
 Maryland. ..... 
 
 952 424 
 
 235,064 
 
 260,979 
 
 60,406 
 
 
 641,200 
 
 907,630 
 
 150,530 
 
 197,936 
 
 Missouri ...... 
 
 2,944,843 
 
 161,234 
 
 809,797 
 
 46,418 
 
 North Carolina .... 
 South Carolina .... 
 Tennessee 
 
 1,263,603 
 .557,807 
 1 540,186 
 
 624,469 
 782,321 
 480,243 
 
 289,263 
 130,375 
 375,046 
 
 127,114 
 152,860 
 112,236 
 
 Texas 
 
 2,426,669 
 1,192,855 
 
 620,722 
 660,722 
 
 599,961 
 301,379 
 
 136,875 
 146,122 
 
 West Virginia .... 
 
 915,233 
 
 13,49-9 
 
 233,129 
 
 14,786 
 
 Special note should be made of the important fact that in 
 only two of the Southern states does the colored population 
 exceed that of the whites; that is in South Carolina and 
 Mississippi. In all the other Southern states, the white 
 population predominates over the colored. So that the cry 
 of negro domination is insincere. If the matter were, how 
 ever, reduced to the simple question of the procurement of 
 good government in the Southern states, no patriotic citizen 
 in the republic would utter a single protest against any law 
 treating all races alike. 
 
 Every intelligent colored man would allow that the race 
 can work out its destiny under equal laws, but would be 
 cruelly handicapped if they are made unequal and oppressive. 
 
 Under normal conditions Collector Crum, Register Lyons, 
 Recorder Dancy, Principal Washington, and the army of 
 negro school-teachers, preachers, professional men, mechanics, 
 and hardy toilers would all line up on the side of good 
 government. This has occurred repeatedly, in local elec- 
 
 154 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 tions : as in Atlanta, Nashville, and other places, when the 
 more reputable whites, men and women, were freely admitted 
 to address meetings in colored churches for the purpose of 
 rallying the colored voters to aid them in overthrowing " ring 
 government." This met with success in every case. 
 
 When the liberty of the colored man has not been at 
 stake, he has never failed to respond to the kindly entreaties 
 of the better class of whites. He wants good and just gov 
 ernment : it is his salvation. But when the Southern leaders 
 set themselves to the work of disfranchising by the whole 
 sale the colored race without regard to their merit, and grant 
 the franchise to every white man regardless of his demerit, 
 the immorality and unrighteousness of the act is without 
 question ; and a definite, a direct issue is joined between 
 justice and injustice, humanity and inhumanity, the friends 
 of liberty and the enemies of liberty. 
 
 Let us briefly analyze the statistics regarding the voters in 
 the states which have passed or are contemplating the enact 
 ment of wholesale disfranchisement. 
 
 In Alabama there are 232,294 white voters against 181,471 
 colored voters : the whites having a clear majority over the 
 negroes of 50,823. Any kind of a fair education or property 
 qualification, or both, would probably reduce the colored vote 
 not far from fifty per cent, while the white vote would not 
 be largely affected. What, then, becomes of the apparition 
 of negro domination ? Why resort under false pretences to 
 wholesale disfranchisement ? 
 
 In Louisiana the white vote is 177,878 ; against 147,348 
 colored voters : the whites having a clear majority of 30,530. 
 Here again, any kind of a fair education or property qualifi 
 cation, or both, would operate to cut the colored vote in half, 
 making the white vote at the ballot-box twice as large as the 
 the colored vote. What chance would one colored man in 
 Louisiana have in outvoting two white men ? Wholesale 
 disfranchisement is a subterfuge. 
 
 155 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 In North Carolina the white vote is 289,263 against 
 127,114 colored voters : the whites having a clear majority 
 over the negroes of 162,149 ; this majority itself being 
 35,035 more than the total colored vote. And under a fair 
 educational or property qualification, or both, the whites 
 would be impregnable, having at the ballot-box probably 
 not less than three white men to one colored man. In this 
 instance the cry of negro domination is a hollow mockery, 
 and wholesale disfranchisement is the perpetration of a fraud. 
 
 In Virginia the white vote is 301,379 against 146,122 
 colored voters : the whites having a clear majority over the 
 negroes of 155,257 ; this majority by itself being nearly 
 10,000 larger than the total colored vote. In this case too, 
 a fair educational or property qualification, or both, would 
 intrench the whites in power, giving them three white men 
 to one colored man, with some thousands to spare. The 
 evidence is cumulative that the alarm of negro domination is 
 a sham, and that wholesale disfranchisement is an outrage. 
 
 In Maryland, where the Southern " bloody shirt " is being 
 waved so vigorously by Senator Gorman, and where he is 
 making the effort of his life to destroy the liberties of the 
 colored people the total white vote is 260,979 against 
 barely 60,406 colored voters; the whites having a clear 
 majority of 200,573 over the negroes. There are actually 
 more than four white men in the state to every colored man. 
 Here disfranchisement is a crime. Senator Gorman is fas 
 tening a foul blot on the good name and honor of Maryland. 
 
 In Kentucky the Southern " bloody shirt " is also being 
 flaunted with even greater recklessness, and the liberty of the 
 negroes hangs in the balance. There are in this state 
 469,206 white voters against but 74,728 colored voters : the 
 whites having a clear majority of 394,478 over the negroes, 
 and there being about six white men in the state to every 
 colored man. In these latter two cases, the cry of negro 
 domination is too ridiculous for consideration, and the dis- 
 
 156 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 franchisement of the race is a proceeding of which a civilized 
 people ought to be incapable. May the nobler spirit of 
 " Old Kentucky " keep this stain from her proud escutcheon ! 
 
 As before mentioned, South Carolina and Mississippi are 
 the two exceptions where the colored population are in the 
 majority. 
 
 In South Carolina the total white vote is 130,375 against 
 152,860 colored voters : the colored having a clear ma- 
 ority over the whites of 22,485. But a fair educational 
 or property qualification, or both, would probably reduce 
 the colored vote below 75,000 ; thus giving the whites a 
 safe margin. 
 
 In Mississippi the total white vote is 150,530 against 
 197,936 colored voters : the colored having a clear majority 
 over the whites of 47,406 voters. But here again, a fair 
 educational or property qualification, or both, would proba 
 bly cut the total colored vote in half, giving the whites above 
 50,000 majority at the ballot-box. If the "district system " 
 which already applies to Mississippi should also be adopted 
 in South Carolina, white control would be absolutely cer 
 tain without the demoralizing evils and the deadly effects 
 on Southern conscience and public morality of wholesale 
 disfranchisement. Under this " district system " the " black " 
 counties are consolidated or formed into one " district, 1 
 with a limited number of representatives and senators in 
 the legislature, while the great bulk of representatives and 
 senators are elected from a number of other "districts." The 
 more important local officers, as the conditions require for 
 the good of all, are made appointive by the governor. 
 
 If in an honest effort it shall seem necessary in the case of 
 South Carolina and Mississippi to take precautionary meas 
 ures to secure good government, and laws are made which are 
 reasonable, and humane, and life and property are protected, 
 and the civil and political rights are respected of all, without 
 regard to race, who measure up to the fixed qualification, 
 
 157 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 then there can be no reasonable ground of complaint from 
 any person. As we have seen, in not one of the other 
 Southern states does the colored vote portend negro domina 
 tion. In most of them, it is but a minor fraction of the 
 whole vote. In all of them, under just and equal laws, good 
 government could be assured. 
 
 But wholesale disfranchisement has bearing on others be 
 sides the negro. 
 
 The New York World speaks most advisedly when it 
 says : " If the Southern Democrats who are forcing these 
 measures do not perceive their ultimate inevitable conse 
 quence they are lacking in political understanding. The 
 preponderating vote of the Northern states will not con 
 sent permanently to representation, in Congress and in the 
 electoral college, of millions of disfranchised inhabitants in 
 the Southern states. Especially is this true when the dis 
 franchising qualifications apply and are intended to operate, 
 not against illiteracy or shiftlessness or unworthiness, but 
 solely against color. 
 
 " In the few states of the dark belt where the colored 
 population outnumbers the white, precautions against negro 
 rule are justified, even by residents from the North living 
 there, by the higher law of necessity. But in border 
 states like Maryland and Kentucky, where white preponder 
 ance is overpowering, no such excuse can be urged. Nor do 
 the Democrats who are pushing these measures seem to have 
 calculated the possible effect upon their party in doubtful 
 Northern states of arraying solidly against it the very con 
 siderable negro vote. This issue may make the South solid, 
 but it has another side. 
 
 " Back, however, of the questions of political expediency 
 and of the inequality growing out of the representation of 
 non-voters, is the deeper question of constitutional guaranties 
 and of the anomaly and danger in a republic of an enormous 
 number of citizens disfranchised for their color alone." 
 
 158 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 " Disfranchised for their color alone " is the burning 
 shame, the condemning truth in this whole wretched affair. 
 And it is clap-trap to urge in justification that the negroes 
 pay but a very small fraction of the taxes. 
 
 The state of South Carolina has a total colored population 
 of 782, 321. To say that these negroes are not the tax-payers 
 of that state is the merest twaddle. They are more than the 
 tax-payers ; they are pre-eminently the tax-makers. And 
 the makers of the taxes are quite as important to the well- 
 being and prosperity of the state as the payers of the taxes. 
 
 The negroes are the producing element, the backbone of 
 every department of labor and industry. To still their hands 
 would bring about the paralysis and ruin of every business 
 interest in the state. For they represent the ^productive 
 and the industrial life. What would the Custom House in 
 Charleston amount to without the patronage of negro pro 
 ductivity ? How could the city of Charleston itself flourish 
 without the toil of the thousands of negroes within her 
 gates, and the hundreds of thousands of them in the state, 
 the fruits of whose labor, like a never ending stream, are 
 poured into her lap ? Without the negro productivity in 
 this state, the commercial and other great interests would 
 drop to nil. Further, the great educational system, and all 
 the charitable and benevolent institutions of the state are 
 dependent on negro productivity. It is not to be inferred 
 from this that there are no white toilers, for there are many ; 
 but neither in numbers, nor in the variety of work, nor in 
 the total fruitfulness of toil, do they approach unto the 
 colored people. If the resources of the state were limited 
 to the fruits of white labor, South Carolina would be in 
 hopeless, irretrievable bankruptcy. 
 
 The denial, then, of the colored man s liberty, the refusal to 
 allow him any share in the government under which he lives 
 and of which he is a copartner and to the support of which 
 he is not only the largest, but the indispensable contributor, 
 
 159 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 is a wrong which must invoke the condemnation of honest 
 men and the frowning displeasure of a righteous God. 
 
 What has been related herewith in reference to South 
 Carolina would hold true also as regards Mississippi, with 
 her total colored population of 907,630. The negroes are 
 the mainstay of her productivity, the tillers of her soil, 
 the makers of her taxes, the guarantors of her prosperity, the 
 supporters of her institutions. Without the fruitfulness 
 of the negroes * toil Mississippi would be in stagnation as a 
 commonwealth, helpless, beggared. 
 
 In the several other Southern states, while the proportion 
 of the negroes is not so large, yet their vast productivity 
 and their varied labors, especially as the tillers of the soil, 
 are generally regarded as the factors of paramount importance 
 in the development and prosperity of the South. Agricul 
 ture is the life of the South, and negro labor is the life of 
 agriculture. 
 
 But in the wholesale disfranchisement of the colored race, 
 a question of greater gravity and far wider scope is involved 
 than that of cheating the Constitution of the United States 
 in order to destroy the liberty of the negro. This other 
 issue affects the constitutional rights of great states and all 
 their people. It destroys representative government. For 
 the wholesale disfranchisement of the colored race in the 
 South necessarily results in the "partial disfranchisement 
 of every state in the North, by lessening the propor 
 tional share of every Northern man in the government of 
 his country. 
 
 Concerning this, the New York Press says : " The fraudu 
 lent misrepresentation, in Congress and the electoral college, 
 of the 10,000,000 American blacks, chiefly resident in the 
 Southern states, is no more a question to be hushed up and 
 put off than was that of the felonious servitude of their 
 4,000,000 predecessors. Northern manhood revolted then 
 at the spectacle of a great party paltering with a national 
 
 160 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 sin because it was the darling of a powerful section. North 
 ern manhood will revolt again if the spectacle is repeated. 
 
 " It has stood for a good while the glaring violation of its 
 rights by which one vote between the Potomac and the Gulf 
 counts for two between the Potomac and the Lakes. But it 
 will not stand much longer, we verily believe, the gag that 
 chokes in the old Calhoun fashion all utterance upon a 
 peculiar institution of the South in the halls of Congress." 
 
 The Wisconsin Evening Journal, of Milwaukee, speaks to 
 the point in saying : " Henry Watterson, of Louisville, . . . 
 addressed the Hamilton Club of Chicago, last night. . . . 
 
 " Watterson s whole speech was directed to the point that 
 the negro should be disfranchised in the Southern states as 
 unfit for the privilege of suffrage. There are many white 
 men throughout the country who are unfit for the ballot, and 
 they are permitted to vote merely because they have a white 
 skin. While Watterson was urging the disfranchisement of 
 the Southern blacks he did not say a word in favor of reduc 
 ing the Southern representation in Congress on account of the 
 diminished vote in the Southern states. Watterson ignored 
 the paramount principle, which is this : The disfranchisement 
 of the negro is a gross injustice to white people in the North, 
 for one white vote in South Carolina or Virginia is equal to 
 five white votes in Wisconsin. This establishes a permanent 
 Southern aristocracy to rule the Union. Watterson affects 
 to be a Democrat, but he is certainly a false one, because 
 such inequality of suffrage cannot be permitted in a republic. 
 
 "The South will find before it gets through with this 
 matter that it will be sorely punished by the reduction of its 
 representation in Congress. The North begins to wake up 
 on this question. The Union League Club of New York, 
 one of the strongest and most influential organizations in the 
 United States, perceives that by the disfranchisement of the 
 negro the nation is drifting into the condition which brought 
 on the great Civil War. Cornelius N. Bliss, one of the first 
 11 161 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 citizens in the great metropolis, and Secretary of the Interior 
 under President McKinley, has taken hold of the matter and 
 has issued a thousand circulars to the leading political organi 
 zations in the United States pointing out the dangers that 
 will inure to our country if the Southern blacks are disfran 
 chised. This disfranchisement will not only be a gross viola 
 tion of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, but 
 will establish an aristocracy of white voters in the Southern 
 states which will rule the nation as despotically as did the 
 slaveholders before the Civil War." 
 
 When the South disfranchises the negro, and at the same 
 time appropriates to itself the full quota of representatives 
 in the Congress and members in the electoral college based 
 on negro citizenship, it does by this act unduly increase its 
 power in the government and destroys the equality of repre 
 sentation which should exist among the people of all the 
 states. 
 
 But more significant still : when the South denies the 
 negro his rights as a citizen, and at the same time counts 
 the very last one of them to increase its representation 
 thus offsetting the entire negro population against an 
 equal number of Northern white people is this hot equiv 
 alent to saying that, while the negro shall not be the equal 
 of the Southern white man at the ballot-box, he shall be 
 the equal of the Northern white man and shall offset his 
 vote ? 
 
 The South is thus using the negro to increase her propor 
 tional representation in the national council, in order ulti 
 mately to accomplish the Southern domination of the republic 
 and intrench the traditions of a barbarous system of slavery. 
 For instance, the state of Connecticut has a white popula 
 tion of 892,424 ; the state of Mississippi has a colored popu 
 lation of 907,630; thus Mississippi, by playing its colored 
 population against the white population of Connecticut, 
 completely offsets and neutralizes the power of this great 
 
 162 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 state in the House of Representatives and in the electoral 
 college. 
 
 The state of Maine has a white population of 692,226 ; 
 the state of Virginia has a colored population of 660,722 ; thus 
 Virginia, by playing its colored population against the white 
 population of Maine, puts the quietus on every white man 
 in that state, and makes the voice of that state of non-effect 
 in the House and in the electoral college. 
 
 The state of Minnesota has a white population of 1,737,036 ; 
 the states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida have a combined 
 colored population of 1,708,841 ; thus Alabama, Louisiana, 
 and Florida, by playing their colored population against the 
 white population of Minnesota, neutralize the voice and power 
 of this great state in the House of Representatives and in 
 the electoral college. It is hardly necessary to continue 
 these comparisons further, as it must be apparent that the 
 wholesale disfranchisement of the negro in the South, in its 
 practical effects, may be the wholesale disfranchisement of 
 great states in the North. It is beyond question the partial 
 disfranchisement of every Northern state. 
 
 The colored people are either citizens or they are not 
 citizens. If they are not citizens, the South has no ground 
 in law or morals to claim representation for them. If they 
 are citizens, their disfranchisement is a crime against citizen 
 ship. For the colored people, who are denied citizenship en 
 masse in the South, are nevertheless counted and used as 
 equal citizens en masse to neutralize the effectiveness of citi 
 zenship in the North ; thus bringing about the curious 
 anomaly that the colored man is not a citizen to cast his 
 own vote, or share in the government, but he is a citizen, an 
 equal citizen, to offset or nullify a Northern citizen"^ vote and 
 promote Southern domination of the government. 
 
 But this condition must be regarded from still another 
 point of view. South Carolina has a white population of 
 557,807, while Colorado has a white population of about the 
 
 163 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 same size, being 529,046 ; and yet the white men of South 
 Carolina elect seven members of the House of Representatives, 
 while the same number of white men in Colorado elect only 
 three members. 
 
 North Carolina and Virginia have a combined white popu 
 lation of 2,456,458 ; Indiana has a white population of 
 2,458,502 ; and yet the white men of North Carolina and 
 Virginia jointly elect twenty members of the House, while 
 the same number of white men in Indiana elect only thirteen 
 members. 
 
 Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida have a combined white 
 population of 2,068,097 ; Wisconsin has a white population 
 of 2,057,911 ; and yet the white men of Alabama, Louisiana, 
 and Florida jointly elect nineteen members of the House, 
 while the same number of white men in Wisconsin elect only 
 eleven members. Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas have a 
 combined white population of 2,767,074 ; Massachusetts has 
 a white population of 2,769,074 ; and yet the white men of 
 Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas jointly elect twenty-six 
 members of the House, while the same number of white men 
 in Massachusetts elect only fourteen members. 
 
 Again, Louisiana with a white population of 769,612 
 elects seven members of the House, while Connecticut with a 
 white population of 892,424 elects only five members, and 
 Nebraska with a white population of 1,056,529 elects only six 
 members. 
 
 Mississippi with a white population of 641,200 elects eight 
 members of the House, while Kansas with a white population 
 of 1,416,319 elects only eight members. Georgia with a white 
 population of 1,181,294 elects eleven members of the House, 
 while Iowa with a white population of 2,218,667 elects only 
 eleven members. South Carolina with a white population of 
 557,807 elects seven members of the House, while Maine, 
 New Hampshire, and Delaware with a combined white popu 
 lation of 1,255,994 elect only seven members. Florida with 
 
 164 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 a white population of 297,333 elects three members of the 
 House, while Rhode Island with a white population of 
 419,050 elects only two members. 
 
 Expressed in the popular vernacular, it may be said that the 
 Southern leaders are playing their game with loaded dice. 
 Furthermore, as recounted, through the disfranchisement of 
 the colored race, the white people of the South elect about 
 fifty members of the House and about fifty members in the 
 electoral college which are based on the count of the negro 
 population. 
 
 The power thus gained and wielded is a standing peril to 
 republican government. It has happened in the memory, 
 not of "the oldest inhabitant," but of a majority of the 
 people now living, that a single vote in the electoral college 
 decided the election of a president of the United States. 
 Mr. Hayes was elected by a bare majority of one vote : re 
 ceiving 185 votes, to 184 for Mr. Tilden. 
 
 Not once but many times in the history of the govern 
 ment a single vote, or a small number of votes, has decided 
 the fate of a measure of greatest national importance in 
 Congress. 
 
 In a close and exciting campaign, or even in calm delibera 
 tion, these fifty votes unrighteously and unlawfully seized 
 and cast by the white people of the South may not only 
 determine the election of a president of the United States, 
 but may also revolutionize the great national policies of the 
 government. As we have seen, some of the great states of 
 the North would be practically disfranchised or deprived of 
 an equal share in the election of a president, and an equal 
 voice in matters of legislation. Such a miscarriage of justice 
 might occur at any time as would bring ruin to the great 
 financial, commercial, and industrial life of the nation. A 
 condition of affairs so manifestly unequal and unjust, and so 
 perilous, would seem to demand the application of a drastic 
 treatment. 
 
 165 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Another feature of this matter which should command the 
 serious attention of the American people is the decadence 
 of popular government in the South under the ascendency 
 of the present leadership. It is no longer the government of 
 the people, but the government of the " Jim Crow " leaders, 
 for the " Jim Crow " leaders, and by the " Jim Crow " 
 leaders. 
 
 The Honorable John S. Wise, a descendant of a former 
 governor of Virginia, in a public address said : " No re 
 publican form of government exists in Virginia to-day. The 
 Czar of Russia does not hold more absolute sway than is held 
 by the fractional oligarchy of whites in the Southern states. 
 By the present system of registration in Virginia, 100,000 
 names have been stricken from the lists in the last twelve 
 months. 
 
 "The government of the United States should say that 
 such a practice is either right or wrong. It must be one or 
 the other. The government has the right and the power to 
 stop it if it will but enforce that power. The indifference of 
 the government is forcing the colored men of the South to 
 become law-breakers. A crisis is surely approaching."" 
 
 The New York World says : " The World has noted the 
 travesty on popular government in South Carolina, where at 
 the recent election less than 40,000 votes were cast in a state 
 having more than 280,000 men of voting age. 
 
 " The showing in Louisiana was even worse. This Gulf 
 state has 325,000 citizens of voting age, yet the total vote 
 cast on November 4 was only 26,265, of which 22,218 were 
 Democratic and 4,047 Republican. The Times- Democrat 
 puts it in another way in saying that about one out of six 
 of the persons who can vote under the constitutional pro 
 visions took the trouble to pay their poll-tax, get registered, 
 go to the polls, and cast their ballots. The negroes, some 
 thing less than half the population, are, of course, for the most 
 part disfranchised. 
 
 166 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 "Here is a state having six representatives in Congress 
 elected by 22,218 voters the republican candidates getting 
 on an average only 578 votes each. There are several separ 
 ate Congressional districts in this city that cast more votes 
 than were polled in the entire state of Louisiana. This is a 
 state government neither republican in form nor democratic 
 in fact." 
 
 The following table will show the votes cast in the eight 
 congressional districts in Mississippi, as compared with the 
 first eight districts of Indiana : 
 
 IKDIANA. MISSISSIPPI 
 
 First District 41,397 8,245 
 
 Second District 42,788 2,528 
 
 Third District 38,007 1,146 
 
 Fourth District 41,793 2,834 
 
 Fifth District 47,333 3,081 
 
 Sixth District 44,705 1,774 
 
 Seventh District 48,456 2,022 
 
 Eighth District 49,693 1,433 
 
 Total 354,172 23,063 
 
 Such wholesale disfranchisement of the negroes has reacted 
 on the whites. They have ceased to go to the ballot-box. 
 And this gives the " Jim Crow " leaders their opportunity to 
 establish a corrupt oligarchy which rules with a rod of iron. 
 
 Fair and just election laws would result in bringing prac 
 tically every colored voter to the polls at every election ; for 
 the negro, whenever the opportunity is given him, takes 
 pride in the exercise of sovereignty. And the knowledge 
 that the colored vote would be cast at any election would 
 arouse and bring forth the white vote. Thus a healthy 
 political condition would result. Nothing would do so much 
 to promote good government in the South as the expectation 
 that large bodies of colored voters were sure to be at the 
 polls. It would rally the whites and secure the nomination 
 of the best men for offices. But this, the " Jim Crowites " 
 do not want, for their occupation would be gone. 
 
 167 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 These states are in the control of an imperious and un 
 scrupulous oligarchy, and, when the people fail to vote, it 
 fraudulently counts and makes such returns of votes as it 
 pleases. 
 
 For instance: the new disfranchising Constitution of 
 Alabama received a total of 108,613 votes ; but there are 
 232,294 white voters, and 181,471 colored voters in that 
 state making 413,765 of both races. So that only 
 about one-fourth of the voters gave approval to the new 
 constitution. 
 
 In the counting of these votes, numbering 108,613, glaring 
 frauds were committed. In Chambers county 4,604 votes 
 were returned for the Constitution ; yet the total white vote 
 of the county is only 3,457. Dallas county returned 8,125 
 votes for the Constitution ; yet Dallas county has but 2,525 
 white voters. Hale county returned 4,696 votes for the 
 Constitution ; yet this county has only 1,385 white voters. 
 Perry county returned 3,209 votes for the Constitution ; yet 
 this county has only 1,559 white voters. Wilcox county 
 returned 4,652 votes for the Constitution ; yet this county 
 has only 1,704 white voters. 
 
 This is the way officers are elected and laws and constitu 
 tions are made in the South. Palpable fraud is plainly 
 written on the face of these returns. 
 
 The plan is to use repeaters, or to keep the colored voters 
 from the ballot-box, and still count their votes to swell the 
 returns. County after county in Alabama show frauds in 
 the election returns. 
 
 Mr. Joseph C. Manning, a leading white citizen of Ala 
 bama, in a speech before the Middlesex Club of Boston, 
 Massachusetts, says: "The registered vote of about 181,000 
 voters in Alabama, out of a population of the voting age of 
 413,765, is notice to the country upon the part of the gov 
 erning power of this state that a majority of the voting 
 population is without a republican form of government, for 
 
 168 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 232,765 citizens of voting age in Alabama have, with but 
 scant exception, been illegally, unjustly, and outrageously 
 deprived of suffrage. Of the number of registered colored 
 voters there are not 3,000. 
 
 " Out of the total colored male population of over 21 years 
 of age in the State of Alabama there are 73,533 literate citi 
 zens. There are 11,123 colored citizens who own farms in 
 Alabama, 2,871 part owners, 116 owners and tenants, 72 
 managers, 56,202 cash tenants, 23,689 share tenants. The 
 report of the department of education of Alabama states 
 that 940 colored male teachers drew money from the public 
 funds in 1902. A stringent examination as to character and 
 education is required of applicants for license to teach in the 
 public schools of Alabama. There are fully 1,000 colored 
 male teachers engaged in the public and private schools of 
 the state. In Alabama there are also colored merchants, 
 colored bankers, colored artisans, colored physicians, colored 
 lawyers, colored editors, colored ministers, all of these num 
 bering not less than 5,000 citizens. Surely the 5,000 citizens 
 engaged in these various callings, surely the 1,000 colored 
 male teachers and the many thousand colored owners of their 
 own farm homes I declare that surely these citizens should 
 come up to the requirements of good citizenship and of 
 character at least under which test no white citizen whatever 
 was excluded by the board of registrars in 1902. Had the 
 registration been impartial no negro applying for a certificate 
 would have been refused registration, for certainly no white 
 man who applied was denied this privilege. Only one negro 
 was allowed to vote in my county, Tallapoosa, with a colored 
 population of 2,055. The negro principal of the colored 
 public school in the town in which I live was denied registra 
 tion. He was repeatedly told that the registrars were not 
 registering negroes at that day. It was never his day. This 
 man was fully qualified to register. Negroes of property and 
 good standing were humiliated by the same treatment 
 
 169 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 "Fellow-countrymen, there is a God of nations and of 
 men ; there is a standard of honor for governments and indi 
 viduals ; there is justice and there is injustice. Not in all the 
 history of the conduct of Christian governments and acts of 
 civilized men can there be found a parallel to the depravity 
 to which this Alabama autocracy, the progeny of the former 
 slave-holding Democracy, has come." 
 
 In South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, 
 and other states where disfranchising constitutions and laws 
 have been put in force, not a third of the voters of the states 
 have sanctioned with their ballots these constitutions. In 
 some cases the constitution was promulgated without being 
 submitted to the voters. The leaders were afraid of the 
 condemnation of the people. Many Southerners are opposed 
 to laws which can only be made and sustained through fraud 
 and force. Ex-Governor MacCorkle of West Virginia, at 
 the Montgomery conference, said : 
 
 "The franchise system, as it is at present constituted in 
 many of the states of the South, is, to say the least, practi 
 cally the policy of repression. Repression has been tried at 
 every stage of the world s history, and always with the same 
 unvarying result, utter and tremendous failure. It leads 
 nowhere. It raises no man. It demands no education. It 
 holds ignorance as dense as ever. It drives away intelligence. 
 It breeds discontent. It represses any rising inspiration of 
 the heart. It leaves the land at the end of the cycle just as 
 it found it at the beginning. It is the policy of deadly 
 inaction overridden by discontent." 
 
 The objective of such laws is not good government, but to 
 build up an office-holding oligarchy by keeping the races at 
 strife. 
 
 Another matter of importance connected with this sub 
 ject is the manner in which the colored man has used 
 his ballot. Has that ballot been cast on the side of good 
 government and for the national weal ? Have the larger 
 
 170 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 interests of the whole people been promoted by negro 
 suffrage ? 
 
 In the Reconstruction era, and in the years immediately 
 following, the negro s vote was cast strictly in accordance 
 with good sense, the dictates of humanity, and the highest 
 welfare of the republic. Even the temporary " carpet 
 bag" rule established by the negro s vote was demanded 
 by national exigency, and was preferable to the infamous 
 Black Code, which nullified the Proclamation of Eman 
 cipation and the Thirteenth Amendment, and practically 
 re-established slavery. There was no middle ground ; it 
 was a choice between the Black Code and all it meant, 
 and the temporary evils in such free government as could be 
 organized. 
 
 And the negro voted for free government. In so doing he 
 rendered an inestimable service to the nation. Let every 
 serious American reflect on this, that it was the negro 
 vote which elected General Grant as President of the United 
 States in 1868. That is to say, if the negro vote had been 
 suppressed in 1868 as it is to-day the votes of the solid 
 South added to the eighty scattering votes which Mr. 
 Seymour received in the North would have elected him 
 President over General Grant the hero of Appomattox. So 
 that in the very first presidential election following the war, it 
 was the negro s vote which saved from humiliating defeat the 
 greatest military genius of the age, the man above all 
 others then living to whom the nation owes its life. If Mr. 
 Seymour had been elected and the South had come back into 
 the Union, and by its solidity had gained the ascendency in 
 the government in- 1868, the gravity of the cotaplications 
 which would have ensued cannot be exaggerated. 
 
 In 1876 the negro vote again decided the presidential 
 election, giving the electoral vote of South Carolina, Florida, 
 and Louisiana to Mr. Hayes, whom a single vote would have 
 defeated. 
 
 171 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt, in his canvass for the governorship of New 
 York, was elected by about 17,000 majority ; and no one 
 doubts that it was 31,425 colored voters of the state of New 
 York who sealed his election. Governor Odell was elected 
 by about 9,000 majority, and without the colored vote his 
 canvass would have been hopeless. 
 
 At many points in the North the negro s vote has effected 
 the election of members of Congress and has been decisive in 
 local elections; and it has been cast on the side of good 
 government. 
 
 Probably the best demonstration of the safety and value 
 of the negro as a voter, of late years, is revealed in the 
 election returns for the year 1896. An examination of those 
 returns will prove beyond a doubt that the negro vote de 
 feated Mr. Bryan and elected Mr. McKinley as President of 
 the United States. 
 
 There are the facts : California gave Mr. McKinley eight 
 electoral votes by 2,797 majority ; but California has 3,711 
 colored voters. Delaware gave Mr. McKinley three electoral 
 votes by 3,630 majority; but Delaware has 8,374 colored 
 voters. Indiana gave Mr. McKinley fifteen electoral votes 
 by 18,181 majority ; but Indiana has 18,186 colored voters. 
 Kentucky gave Mr. McKinley twelve electoral votes by 281 
 majority ; but Kentucky has 74,728 colored voters. Mary 
 land gave Mr. McKinley eight electoral votes by 32,264 
 majority; but Maryland has 60,406 colored voters. West 
 Virginia gave Mr. McKinley six electoral votes by 11,487 
 majority ; but West Virginia has 14,726 colored voters. These 
 six states gave Mr. McKinley 52 electoral votes. 
 
 There can be no doubt of the colored vote being the decid 
 ing factor in each of these states, as that vote outnumbered 
 the majority in each state, and the colored vote is practically 
 wholly republican. If this vote were suppressed in these 
 states, Mr. McKinley s majorities would be wiped out in 
 each case. If these 52 votes are subtracted from the 271 
 
 172 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 electoral votes which Mr. McKinley received, it would leave 
 him 219. If these 52 votes be added to the 176 electoral 
 votes cast for Mr. Bryan, it would give him 228 electoral votes, 
 a majority of nine over Mr. McKinley, and he would have 
 been made president. 
 
 The evidence seems thus conclusive that, in the most 
 exciting campaign of a generation, a campaign involving 
 directly the vast financial interest of the nation, and with 
 it every business enterprise of whatsoever nature, and the 
 direct and immediate interest and welfare of every man, 
 woman, and child, that in this momentous campaign the 
 negro vote was the saving factor. It prevented a result 
 which would have ruinously affected every class of population. 
 The negro vote saved the country from the follies and crime 
 of free silver, free trade, and free riot. 
 
 An examination of the election returns of 1880 in Con 
 necticut, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Oregon, and Rhode 
 Island will also show that it was the negro vote in these 
 states which elected General Garfield to the presidency. 
 
 The returns of the election of 1888 also disclose the fact 
 that the negro vote in Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio, and 
 Rhode Island determined the election of General Benjamin 
 Harrison as president. 
 
 The credit is given to the negro vote because it is the only 
 vote that is contested, and gigantic efforts have been made 
 and are being made to destroy it. If it had been fully sup 
 pressed throughout the country, then, as we have seen, the 
 solid South would have defeated Grant in 1868, Hayes in 
 1876, Garfield in 1880, Harrison in 1888, and McKinley 
 in 1896. Besides, neither the McKinley nor the Dingley 
 tariff measures would have been possible if the negro vote 
 had been suppressed throughout the country as it is in 
 South Carolina and Mississippi to-day. 
 
 It has so happened that in each instance the majority in 
 the House of Representatives which has enacted the great 
 
 173 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 national policies of the government from the time of recon 
 struction, 1868, to the present has been due to the ballot in 
 the hands of the colored man. It thus becomes evident that if 
 by defamation and persecution of the colored man, his ballot 
 can be destroyed, the autocrats of the solid South would 
 have a clear chance to gain control of the government, shape 
 its destiny, and intrench the barbarous traditions of slavery. 
 The majority in the 58th Congress which passed the Panama 
 Canal bill and other important legislation is due to the negro 
 ballot. 
 
 Senator Blair of New Hampshire, in a recent address at 
 Washington, said : " The colored people are the only ones in 
 the South that have sense enough to vote the Republican 
 ticket, and disfranchisement is not only unwise, and unjust, 
 but a crime." 
 
 Here is the kernel of a great truth. The white people of 
 the South have voted persistently and solidly against every 
 measure of great national benefit for forty years. The 
 colored people have voted as persistently and as solidly, 
 wherever permitted to do so, in favor of such measures ; so 
 that while the white vote of the South has been inimical to 
 the great interests of the country, these have been saved by 
 the colored vote. 
 
 Thus the colored vote has proved a veritable godsend to 
 the nation. Without this vote the most important and 
 fruitful national policies would have been impossible of in 
 auguration. The negro vote is a failure only when it is sup 
 pressed by the intimidation, fraud, and shot-guns of the 
 whites. 
 
 The Union League Club of the city of New York, one of 
 the most influential of all political organizations aside from 
 the two great parties, has recently taken action which will 
 have important bearings on the whole question. This club 
 rendered the republic invaluable services in the dark days of 
 the rebellion, and it has proved a tower of strength in the 
 
 174 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 emergencies of subsequent years. At a recent meeting, it 
 unanimously adopted the following resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Government be requested to instruct 
 the district attorneys in the various states where an illegal 
 suppression of votes is alleged, to prosecute every case where 
 there has been a violation of the laws of the United States 
 in respect of the suffrage, if adequate evidence can be 
 obtained to justify a submission of such case to the grand 
 jury. 
 
 "Resolved, First, That Congress be requested and re 
 spectfully urged to investigate with thoroughness and impar 
 tiality the charges of a suppression of votes contrary to the 
 Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution 
 of the United States, and in every case where such reduction 
 is accomplished by a limitation of the franchise for any 
 reason, and that in proportion to the number of votes so dis 
 franchised, the representation of such state in Congress be 
 reduced ; and also to see that the Fifteenth Amendment be 
 in no way violated, either directly or by subterfuge ; and, 
 
 "Second, That where the decisions of the courts or the 
 practices at elections disclose the fact that the present statutes 
 are inadequate, amendatory acts be passed remedying the 
 defects disclosed." 
 
 These resolutions were based on a report of a committee 
 which had thoroughly investigated every phase of the ques 
 tion, and which was summarized as follows : 
 
 " The demoralizing effect of such a condition as this every 
 one must admit. The idea that the people of this country, 
 great and small, old and young, of every nation, kindred, and 
 tongue, are to be educated upon the theory that a continued 
 and wholesale violation of the fundamental law of the nation 
 can go unpunished must produce a frightful effect ; and there 
 has never been a time in the history of the country, when, if 
 it be true that these violations exist, there was a condition 
 at all like the present. 
 
 175 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " If the facts asserted in regard to this matter be true, 
 there is a deliberate nullification of the Constitution of the 
 United States, a thing which no country can or ought to 
 permit while it cherishes the idea that it is governed by law. 
 If this condition exists, we are far from our great ideal, for 
 we are a government of some of the people, by some of the 
 people, and for some of the people."" 
 
 Here is a moderate, conservative, dignified petition to the 
 Government of the United States to investigate certain evils, 
 wrongs, and crimes against a whole class of American citizens ; 
 evils, wrongs, and crimes which every man in the republic 
 knows to exist, and which are repugnant to civilization, ini 
 mical to good order, and in open violation of the Constitution 
 of the United States. 
 
 The Government is petitioned to use its lawful authority 
 to ameliorate these conditions. How is this calm, dispassion 
 ate, and dignified petition received ? 
 
 The "Jim Crowites" were greatly stirred up. Mr. Robert 
 C. Ogden, a prominent business man of New York, prac 
 tically voicing Southern sentiment, declared that the influence 
 of the petition would be as follows : 
 
 First. To injure the material, political, and educational 
 interest of the negro in the Southern states. 
 
 Second. To discourage the growth of academic freedom 
 in the South. The recent action of the board of trustees of 
 one of the most important of Southern colleges was a notable 
 victory for intellectual independence. The movement toward 
 academic freedom will be hindered just in proportion to 
 Northern use of the negro in party politics. 
 
 Third. A prominent representative of the opposition party 
 is seeking the Democratic nomination for the presidency 
 upon the negro issue. If the proposed action is taken it 
 will contribute powerfully toward securing that nomination. 
 
 Fourth. The Northern introduction of the color question 
 into Republican politics will make doubly sure the continuity 
 
 176 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 of the Democratic solidity of the South, and supply the very 
 weapons that Democracy needs in the fight against Republi 
 canism, thus adding to the difficulty of electing our national 
 candidate. 
 
 Fifth. It will retard and hinder the further progress of 
 the sober public opinion of the best South in the effort to 
 secure justice for the negro. 
 
 Mr. Ogden also affirms that he believes in the Fourteenth 
 and Fifteenth Amendments. He is like unto the old deacon 
 in Maine, who "believed in prohibition, but was agin its 
 enforcement. 11 
 
 Let us examine in detail Mr. Ogden s specific statements. 
 His first reason is the same old argument so vigorously em 
 ployed by the Southern leaders that if the nation shall 
 dare to interfere with them in their work of subjugating a 
 people they will take reprisals on the negro, cut down his 
 school privileges, deny him protection of the law, make life 
 hard for him, and otherwise maltreat him, or even lynch him. 
 They can at will foment race slaughter, like that at Kishineff, 
 and dignify such acts as race riots, but the whole world will 
 know that there was a race massacre. 
 
 But the Government should not be moved by such consider 
 ation ; it should go straight ahead and do what is right and 
 proper in the premises. When these leaders stir up race riots, 
 the Government and the great legions of law-abiding people 
 in the South can take care of that matter. There is a large 
 and increasing element among the Southern people who be 
 lieve that the leaders have gone entirely too far and have 
 brought nothing but disgrace on the South. 
 
 Mr. Ogden^s second reason is an insult to the Southern 
 people. " Academic freedom ? " Is not the South civilized ? 
 Is it not a Christian people ? Do they need " academic 
 freedom 11 to decide whether law and order should be ob 
 served ; whether an equal citizen should be outlawed and 
 forced into servitude, and the laws of the land and the laws 
 19 177 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 of God set at nought ; whether the Constitutional guaran 
 ties of American citizenship and manhood are myths ; and 
 whether a man living in South Carolina should be three 
 times as potential in Congress and in the electoral college 
 as a man in New Hampshire or Colorado ? 
 
 Does Mr. Ogden not know that while " academic freedom " 
 is incubating the Southern leaders are going straight ahead 
 fastening the chains of serfdom around the neck of a whole 
 race? Will he kindly inform the public just how long it 
 will be necessary to suspend the Constitution of the United 
 States in order to achieve this " academic freedom " ? 
 
 His third reason is childish. He is afraid that, if the 
 proposed action is taken, the South will "get mad," and 
 through the Democratic party nominate a man like Mr. 
 Gorman or Mr. Tillman for the presidency. Everybody 
 knows that the Democratic party has done rash things, but 
 it has done nothing so foolhardy as this. And if it should 
 make such a nomination, the day of election would disclose 
 that the Democratic party in the North was not only " out 
 of business," but stiff in the grasp of rigor mortis. Mr. 
 Ogden may rest contented. His fears will not materialize. 
 The Democratic party will not commit suicide. 
 
 His fourth reason would seem to indicate, if we did not 
 have good evidence to the contrary, that he had been asleep 
 forty years, twice as long as good old Rip Van Winkle. He 
 says, "The Northern introduction of the color question into 
 Republican politics will make doubly sure the continuity of 
 the Democratic solidity of the South." 
 
 If Mr. Ogden should jog his memory just a little, it would 
 tell him that the color question was in Republican politics at 
 the birth of the party, and it has been very much alive in 
 Republican politics ever since. The one thing that has dis 
 tinguished that party and has made it " the party of grand 
 moral ideas," that has caused it to represent before the world 
 the conscience of the American people, and brought to it its 
 
 178 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 greatest victories, is the color question in its politics. Its 
 highest glory and most magnificent achievements in peace 
 and in war are inseparably associated with the color question 
 in its politics. 
 
 If, because the Republican party upholds the Constitution 
 of the United States and demands that the vital issues settled 
 by the War of the Rebellion shall stay settled, and that serf 
 dom shall not take the place of slavery, and that all Ameri 
 can citizens shall have equal rights before the law, without 
 regard to race or color if these things shall " make doubly 
 sure the continuity of the Democratic solidity of the South," 
 then may the good Lord have mercy on the South. 
 
 Mr. Ogden ? s fifth reason is a flagrant impeachment of the 
 " best South." If this petition " will retard and hinder the 
 further progress of the sober public opinion of the best 
 South," then indeed the conditions of the social organism in 
 the South are worse than the average American would like 
 to believe. This would seem to prove that the barbarism 
 of slavery is a greater handicap on the whites than on the 
 colored people. 
 
 The " best South " ought to welcome most heartily any 
 lawful steps by the Government which will promote law and 
 order, and bring about an honest and righteous settlement of 
 the race question, guaranteeing the equal protection of the 
 rights and liberty of all classes and restoring the equality of 
 representation among the states. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, the trusted supporter of George 
 Washington, and exponent of the Constitution, said : 
 "There can be no truer principle than this, that every 
 individual of the community has an equal right to the pro 
 tection of Government. Can this be a righteous government 
 if partial distinctions are maintained?" 
 
 The French Constitution of 1 793 holds aloft this torch for 
 the illumination of the world : " Government is instituted 
 to insure to man the free use of his natural and inalienable 
 
 179 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 rights. These rights are equality, liberty, security, property. 
 All men are equal by nature and before the law. Law is the 
 same for all, be it protective or penal. Freedom is the power 
 by which men can do what does not interfere with the rights 
 of another ; its basis is nature ; its standard is justice ; its 
 protection is law ; its moral boundary is the maxim, Do not 
 unto others what you do not wish they should do unto 
 you. " 
 
 Inequalities before the law lead surely to abuses, wrongs, 
 oppression, and inhumanities. Unsettled questions exist re 
 gardless of the peace of a nation. There can be no peace 
 until South Carolina and Mississippi shall be as just in gov 
 ernment as Massachusetts and Minnesota ; until liberty and 
 law, for one and for all, shall be respected by all, even as 
 it is written in the Constitution of the republic. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States has rendered a 
 decision covering the vital questions of the Thirteenth, Four 
 teenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of 
 the United States. Let that decision (see Wallace s Reports, 
 16th volume) speak for itself. 
 
 Associate-Justice Miller, speaking for the court, said: 
 " The process of restoring to their proper relations with the 
 Federal Government and with other states those which had 
 sided with the Rebellion, undertaken under the proclamation 
 of President Johnson in 1865, and before the assembling of 
 Congress, developed the fact that, notwithstanding the formal 
 recognition by those states of the abolition of slavery, the 
 condition of the slave race would, without further protection 
 of the Federal Government, be almost as bad as it was before. 
 Among the first acts of legislation adopted by several of the 
 states in the legislative bodies which claimed to be in their 
 normal relations with the Federal Government, were laws 
 which imposed upon the colored race onerous disabilities and 
 burdens, and curtailed their rights in the pursuit of life, 
 liberty, and property to such an extent that their freedom 
 
 180 
 
FALSE ALARM OF NEGRO DOMINATION 
 
 was of little value, while they had lost the protection which 
 they had received from their former owners from motives 
 both of interest and humanity. 
 
 " They were in some states forbidden to appear in the 
 towns in any other character than menial servants. 
 
 "They were required to reside on and cultivate the 
 soil, without the right to own it or purchase it. They 
 were excluded from any occupation or gain, and were 
 not permitted to give testimony in the courts in any 
 case where a white man was a party. It was said that 
 their lives were at the mercy of bad men, either because 
 the laws for their protection were insufficient or were not 
 enforced. 
 
 "These circumstances, whatever of falsehood or miscon 
 ception may have been mingled with their presentation, 
 forced upon the statesmen who had conducted the Federal 
 Government in safety through the crisis of the Rebellion, and 
 who supposed that by the Thirteenth Article of Amendment 
 they had secured the results of their labors, the conviction 
 that something more was necessary in the way of Constitu 
 tional protection to the unfortunate race who had suffered so 
 much. They accordingly passed through Congress the pro 
 position for the Fourteenth Amendment, and they declined 
 to treat as restored to their full participation in the govern 
 ment of the Union the states which had been in insurrection 
 until they ratified that article by a formal vote of their 
 legislative bodies. 
 
 " Before we proceed to examine more critically the pro 
 visions of this amendment, on which the plaintiffs in error 
 rely, let us complete and dismiss the history of the recent 
 amendments, as that history relates to the general purpose 
 which pervades them all. 
 
 " A few years experience satisfied the thoughtful men who 
 had been the authors of the other two amendments, that, not 
 withstanding the restraints of these articles on the state, and 
 
 181 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the laws passed under the additional powers granted to Con 
 gress, these were inadequate for the protection of life, liberty, 
 and property, without which freedom to the negro was no boon. 
 They were in all those states denied the right of suffrage. 
 The laws were administered by the white man alone. It was 
 urged that a race of men distinctly marked as was the negro, 
 living in the midst of another and dominant race, could never 
 be fully secured in their person and their right without the 
 right of suffrage. 
 
 " Hence the Fifteenth Amendment, which declares that 
 6 the right of a citizen of the United States to vote shall not 
 be denied or abridged by any state on account of race, color, 
 or previous condition of servitude. 1 
 
 " The negro, having by the Fourteenth Amendment been 
 declared to be a citizen of the United States, is thus made a 
 voter in every state of the Union. 
 
 " We repeat, then, in the light of this recapitulation of 
 events almost too recent to be called history, but which are 
 familiar to us all on the most casual examination of the 
 language of these amendments, no one can fail to be im 
 pressed with the one pervading purpose found in them all, 
 lying at the foundation of each, and without which none of 
 them would have been suggested : WE MEAN THE FREEDOM 
 
 OF THE SLAVE RACE, THE SECURITY AND FIRM ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 THAT FREEDOM, AND THE PROTECTION OF THE NEWLY MADE 
 FREEMAN AND CITIZEN FROM THE OPPRESSION OF THOSE WHO HAD 
 FORMERLY EXERCISED UNLIMITED DOMINION OVER HIM. 
 
 " It is true that only the Fifteenth Amendment in terms 
 mentions the negro by speaking of his color and his slavery. 
 But it is just as true that each of the other articles was 
 addressed to the grievances of that race, and designed to 
 remedy them, as was the Fifteenth. " 
 
 This clean-cut, invincible decision of the highest tribunal 
 of the republic destroys every contention of the enemies of 
 liberty and makes impregnable the position of its friends. 
 
 182 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 THREE pen pictures have been made of President 
 Roosevelt which, taken together, show us the man. 
 One is drawn by the Honorable John D. Long, a 
 political partisan and personal friend, formerly Governor of 
 Massachusetts, and Secretary of the Navy during the Spanish- 
 American War. Another is painted by the New York 
 World, a political opponent, but honestly critical. The 
 third is drawn by a non-partisan, or independent, President 
 Eliot of Harvard University, the foremost educator in the 
 land, the Dean of American scholars. There are no more 
 discriminating nor more trustworthy sources by which a true 
 estimate of a man may be formed. 
 
 These are the pictures presented. John D. Long, depicts 
 him as follows: "Theodore Roosevelt. What an American 
 career ! What a fitting for his present great place ! Child 
 of the great metropolis, graduate of our own Harvard, a 
 citizen of the Western plains, touching indeed every phase 
 of our national life, a student of our history, a soldier of our 
 army, Governor of the Empire State, honest, earnest, brave, 
 high-minded, direct, forceful, and always, let us say here, a 
 true Republican, whoever else falls off! The people like him. 
 He preaches them sermons of manliness and right living, 
 fidelity to duty, and they believe that he is himself even a 
 better sermon than his sermons. There is no great question 
 that he does not face, whether it be the trusts, or the tariff, 
 or our duty to Cuba and the Philippines, or the purity of 
 the civil service, or the development of our trade, or the 
 welfare of the East, or West, or North, or South ! He 
 voices even more than the spirit of a party he voices the 
 spirit of the people." 
 
 183 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The New York World, his most powerful political oppo 
 nent, paints him thus : " President Roosevelt does not 
 carry his ideas of democratic equality quite so far as Thomas 
 Jefferson did. He respects all the conventions of official 
 society in public, but in his private and personal relations he 
 is a pretty thorough-going democrat. He often goes to 
 shake the grimy hand of an engine-driver who has carried 
 him safely on a railway journey. He is hail-fellow well 
 met with his old friends among the cowboys and the Rough- 
 Riders. And just now he has in Washington, as his guest, 
 his old Maine woods guide, with his wife and some friends, 
 who have all taken lunch with the President and Mrs. 
 Roosevelt in the White House. 
 
 " It is safe to say that none of our mushroom aristocracy, 
 and very few even of the older growth, would be thus familar 
 with their plain friends though a good type of the 
 independent native guide of the Adirondacks or the Maine 
 woods is at heart as thorough a gentleman, in the real mean 
 ing of the word, and is certainly much better company than 
 one half of the vapid men-folk who help to make up what is 
 called society. 
 
 " Yet, Mr. Roosevelt could boast, if he were weak enough, 
 of fine old Knickerbocker blood, and, though not rich in 
 the modern meaning of the word, he has always lived in an 
 atmosphere of \yealth, refinement, and culture. 
 
 " That he still believes, in respect to sterling worth un 
 adorned with either w r ealth or book-learning or social graces, 
 that a man s a man for a that, and that, though occupying 
 the highest station in the land, he has the courage of his 
 likings and the fortitude of his friendships, is a trait of his 
 character which explains something of that popularity which 
 the politicians do not understand and which even his mistakes 
 do not seriously impair. A very few Americans may dearly 
 love a lord. The great mass of them love and admire a 
 democrat like Lincoln, Grant, McKinley, and Roosevelt." 
 
 184 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 And President Eliot draws this portrait of him : " Theodore 
 Roosevelt, President of the United States, from his youth 
 a member of this society of scholars, now in his prime a 
 true type of the sturdy gentleman, and the high-minded 
 public servant in a democracy. Harvard delights to honor 
 him." 
 
 These three pictures, taken together, faithfully and clearly 
 represent the man. 
 
 The Right Honorable James Bryce of England, perhaps 
 the greatest living student of history learned, dispassion 
 ate, and philosophical says of President Roosevelt: "He is 
 among the greatest presidents America has had, and is to be 
 mentioned only with Washington and Lincoln." 
 
 It would naturally be supposed that in a republic of free 
 men where in President Roosevelt s own words " no 
 man is above the law and no man below it," the whole citi 
 zenry would have a just pride in such a chief-magistrate. 
 But the fact is that no President of the United States, with 
 the exception of Lincoln, has been so roundly abused, and so 
 heatedly denounced, as Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 It has happened repeatedly in the South that the mere 
 mention of his name, or the presentation of his pictures in 
 theatres and public halls has brought forth storms of hisses. 
 He has even been burned in effigy. Southerners who take 
 part in such performances or approve or condone them, or fail 
 to protest against them, injure themselves, by forfeiting the 
 respect of law-abiding people. Lincoln ! Roosevelt ! these 
 are the two men seemingly appointed of God to face the 
 hate and rancor of Southern leadership. Lincoln s victory 
 was complete, absolute. Roosevelt s triumph has come in 
 the overwhelming majority by which he has been elected to 
 succeed himself in the presidency. God and the right were 
 with Lincoln ; God and the right are with Roosevelt. 
 
 There are also noteworthy coincidences in the lives of 
 these men. 
 
 185 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Lincoln was born in the South. Roosevelt is of Southern 
 extraction on his maternal side. But in this the South finds 
 no appeasement. 
 
 Again, Lincoln stood between the colored race and their 
 continued enslavement. Roosevelt stands between the colored 
 race and a debasing and hopeless serfdom which does not even 
 afford the protection of slavery. Both stand firmly on the 
 Gospel of Christ and the Declaration of Independence. In 
 the lives of both, the laws of God and the laws of the re 
 public find their high exemplification. 
 
 What, then, is the head of the offending of President 
 Roosevelt, that he should be the object of such abuse and 
 resentment ? 
 
 These are facts : There are ten millions of colored people in 
 the United States, one-eighth of the entire population. The 
 vast body of them reside in the South. Though equal citizens 
 under the law, they are yet in an abnormal condition subject 
 to great wrongs, hardships, and inhumanities, not of their own 
 making. Mr. Roosevelt wished to consult with some well- 
 known, responsible persons with reference to the condition of 
 these people ; for he is the President of the South as well as 
 of the North, the President of the colored people just as he 
 is of the white people. No man who is worthy to be the 
 President of the United States would fail to have a deep 
 concern for the welfare of ten millions of loyal, patriotic 
 American citizens, especially were they seen to be under 
 grievous burdens, serious disadvantage, and debasing in 
 equalities. He therefore invited Principal Booker T. Wash 
 ington s presence at the White House for consultation. 
 
 Mr. Washington is the most widely known educator in the 
 colored race ; a man of sterling character ; conservative almost 
 to a fault, many think to the injury of his race ; of remarkable 
 mental gifts ; an executive of great ability ; a genius in diplo 
 macy. No white man in the South surpasses him ; few, if 
 any, equal him. In fact, a leading Southern white educator 
 
 186 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 has declared that he is the greatest man the South has pro 
 duced since the masterful Robert E. Lee. 
 
 Mr. Washington, in compliance with the President s invita 
 tion, travelled hundreds of miles to meet him in Washington 
 City. What was more natural or becoming than that the 
 President should invite him to dinner ? 
 
 This was President Roosevelt^s first offending. It was a 
 simple act of courtesy as a gentleman; it was an act which 
 any ruler or high official in any country might have per 
 formed with perfect grace and propriety. Yet it set the 
 South ablaze with rage. And oh ! how the big " Jim 
 Crowites," and the little "Jim Crowites," and the " me too " 
 "Jim Crowites," and the wee wee "Jim Crowites" did smite 
 the air with clenched fists and denounce the President ! 
 
 The following quotations show the exact nature of their 
 utterances : 
 
 Senator Carmack of Tennessee fires this hot shot : " It is 
 an out-and-out damnable outrage ! " 
 
 Senator Tillman of South Carolina, true to his nature, 
 demands blood and declares : " Now that Roosevelt has 
 eaten with that nigger Washington, we shall have to kill 
 a thousand niggers to get them back to their places." 
 
 The Scimitar, a paper published at Memphis, Tennessee, 
 makes this declaration : " The most damnable outrage 
 which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United 
 States was committed yesterday by the President, when he 
 invited a nigger to dine with him at the White House." 
 
 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee, says : 
 " The example of president or potentate cannot change our 
 views. If some coarse-fibred men cannot understand them 
 it is not the concern of the Southern people." 
 
 The News, Richmond, Virginia, declares : " At one stroke 
 and by one act he has destroyed regard for him. He has put 
 himself further from us than any man who has ever been in 
 the White House." 
 
 187 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Governor Candler of Georgia, with vulgar assumption, 
 thus explodes : " No self-respecting man can ally himself 
 with the President, after what has occurred. . . . And no 
 Southerner can respect any white man who would eat with a 
 negro." 
 
 The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, Louisiana, makes this 
 plaintive appeal : " The President of the United States has 
 entertained a negro at dinner in the White House. White 
 men of the South, how do you like it? White women of 
 the South, how do you like it ? " 
 
 Governor McSweeney of South Carolina declares : " No 
 white man who has eaten with a negro can be respected ; 
 it is simply a question of whether those who are invited 
 to dine are fit to marry the sisters and daughters of their 
 hosts." 
 
 But Japanese, Chinese, and Indians have eaten at the 
 White House without raising the thought of a marriage. Is 
 it in vogue among any order of society, that an invitation 
 to dine carries with it the expectation or the obligation of 
 marrying off sisters and daughters ? 
 
 The Enterprise, Birmingham, Alabama, says : " The in 
 cident of counselling with a negro and dining him establishes 
 a precedent humiliating to the South." 
 
 His reverence, Bishop Kelly of Savannah, Georgia, uses 
 the following intemperate language : " The recreant son of 
 a Southern mother, who can hobnob with the Kaiser s brother 
 and sit cheek by jowl with an Alabama negro." 
 
 And Senator Money of Mississippi, with a hypocrisy that 
 is at once amazing and amusing, declares : " Any white man 
 who should sit down to a meal with a negro would be ever 
 lastingly disgraced in the eyes of the South." 
 
 Bishop Kelly well knows, Senator Money well knows, and 
 the whole country well knows that white men of the South 
 have come into closer relations with negroes and committed 
 far grosser sins than that of sitting down to meat with a 
 
 188 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 reputable and representative colored person ; and in the eyes 
 of their fellows they suffered no disgrace. So that in this 
 particular they are certainly guilty of the charge of " strain 
 ing at a gnat and swallowing a camel." 11 
 
 During the sessions of the Congress, especially, and also at 
 other times, the President is accustomed to give receptions at 
 which the Supreme Court justices, the foreign ambassadors, 
 senators, and members of the House of Representatives, offi 
 cials of the army and navy, and high government function 
 aries and distinguished individuals may be bidden to come. 
 There are series of such receptions. To one of these recep 
 tions the President invited Mr. Lyons, the Register of the 
 Treasury of the United States, who happens to be a colored 
 man. The reception was given to officers of his class. Would 
 it have comported with the dignity and honor of the Presi 
 dent of the United States to invite every other government 
 official of this particular class and deliberately ignore the 
 Register of the United States simply on the ground of 
 color ? 
 
 If he was unworthy to be invited to the reception, he was 
 not worthy to be the Register of the Treasury. President 
 Roosevelt only fulfilled the considerations of official etiquette 
 and propriety and his duty as the President of all the people 
 when he invited Mr. Lyons. 
 
 This simple, gentlemanly act is the second offending of the 
 South on the part of the President. But the haters of the 
 negro railed at the President, in a manner shown by the fol 
 lowing brief quotations. 
 
 Judge William E. Eve, Augusta, Georgia, said : " The 
 invitation is a blow aimed not only at the South, but at the 
 whole white race, and should be resented, and the President 
 should be regarded and treated on the same plane with 
 negroes. 11 He seems to be oblivious of the fact that the 
 whole white race outside of the South most heartily com 
 mends and applauds the President. 
 
 189 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Governor Terrell of Georgia declared that he looked upon 
 the President and such a scandal with silent contempt. 
 
 Ex- Attorney- General Boykin Wright said : u It has done 
 great harm and is the greatest mistake ever made by a 
 president." 
 
 Representative Martin Calvin declared : " It is a blow 
 at every white man and woman." 
 
 Senator J. Rice Smith said : " The invitation was the 
 most disgusting act ever heard of on the part of any public 
 man." 
 
 The News, Richmond, Virginia, prints the following: 
 "There is just one thing for the Southern people to do. 
 They can and should hold themselves absolutely aloof from 
 any social recognition of Mr. Roosevelt. He should be 
 treated by Southern people precisely as if he were a negro. 
 
 " Our representatives in Congress should confine their 
 dealings with the President to the strictest formality. If he 
 should come South, he should be left to associate with the 
 negroes, whom he has chosen to regard as equals. He should 
 be treated in all respects by Southern people precisely as if 
 he were a negro, and with absolute indication that he is not 
 of our race or in any respect socially an equal with us or a 
 fit associate for us or any of us." 
 
 The country is familiar with various forms of the boycott, 
 but with nothing like this. What audacity ! what arrogance ! 
 A social boycott is declared against the President of the 
 United States by the lordly aristocracy of the South, and the 
 President is to be " treated in all respects by Southern people 
 precisely as if he were a negro," and with direct intimation 
 that "he is not of our race, or in any respect socially an 
 equal with us or a fit associate for us or any of us " 
 because he invited the Register of the Treasury, who happens 
 to be a colored man, to an official function ! 
 
 The third offence of the President is political in its nature. 
 The colored people compose about one-third of the total 
 
 190 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 population of the South. In some of the states they are 
 pre-eminently the tax-makers ; in all, their varied labors and 
 toils are valuable contributions to the public weal ; yet they 
 have been ruthlessly brushed aside by intimidations and by 
 the shot-gun policy, and have been denied representation 
 in the government. That the 557,807 whites of South 
 Carolina should by brute force seize the government of that 
 state and deny all representation to the 782,321 colored 
 people who make the taxes which support the government ; 
 or that the 641,200 whites of Mississippi should by murderous 
 methods seize that state and refuse all representation to the 
 907,630 colored people without whose fruitful toil the state 
 would be in hopeless decay and bankruptcy, is a wrong that 
 cries to Heaven. 
 
 The colored people are thus denied all representation in 
 the state and local governments. If, now, in addition to 
 this, they should be denied representation in the Federal 
 Government the door of hope would be closed hard and fast 
 against them. The influences which hold them to the politi 
 cal and civil life of the nation would be broken ; ceasing to 
 be citizens, they would cease to be treated as men. They 
 would become nondescripts, without a definite status. They 
 would be derelicts on the political sea,. and the nation would 
 have a far greater problem than ever before. 
 
 All other things being equal, the colored man has iden 
 tically the same right to office as the white man. The strong 
 arm of the Federal Government cannot be used to destroy 
 his status as a citizen of the United States, completing the 
 work of his enemies who have already sought to eliminate 
 him as a citizen of the state. The appointment of colored 
 men to Federal offices is not only just, but is absolutely 
 necessary to maintain the status of the race as citizens of the 
 United States. 
 
 President Roosevelt recognized this principle by appointing 
 to Federal offices properly equipped colored men as a just 
 
 191 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and righteous act, where their numbers and importance as 
 toilers warrant it. The appointment of Dr. William D. Crum 
 as Collector of the port of Charleston, South Carolina, was 
 entirely just and proper, but it stirred up a tempest of wrath 
 among the Southern leaders. 
 
 If the Federal Government should for one moment concede 
 that a citizen shall be denied the right to hold a public office 
 on the ground of his color or race, it would by such conces 
 sion negative the amendments to the Constitution, and thus 
 become a violator of the laws it has sworn to uphold and 
 enforce, and play directly into the hands of the lawless 
 elements. The right of citizenship and the ballot carries 
 with it the right to hold a public office. Nothing could be 
 more absurd, foolish, and even suicidal than the proposition 
 which is sometimes made to the effect that the colored man 
 should waive his right to public office and the ballot for 
 about fifty years with the hope of appeasing the implacable 
 elements of the South. Such a waiver would be tantamount 
 to alienation, and would put the race outside the pale of 
 citizenship. What guaranty is to be given, and who is to 
 give it, and how is it to be made secure, that political suicide 
 to-day will be incarnated into the blessings of liberty fifty 
 or a hundred years hence ? This, indeed, is the paradise of 
 a fool. Liberty is gained by eternal vigilance, and not by 
 political suicide. The upward struggles of mankind show 
 that the liberty and political and civil rights of a people 
 are to be regarded as more precious than meat or drink, 
 or houses and lands, and are more to be valued than even 
 life itself. Liberty and their manhood rights being estab 
 lished, these and all things shall be gradually added. Profit 
 ing by his past experience the colored man will not waive a 
 single right of an American citizen for fifty years, nor even 
 for fifty seconds. What free man would waive his liberty and 
 his rights at the behest of a class that is bent on forging 
 the chains of servitude around his neck ? Connivance with 
 
 192 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 the South in violating the Constitution would prove embar 
 rassing to the government and perilous to the social organism. 
 The upheavals which are shaking the foundations of Russia, 
 and the cry of the proletariat for liberty cast their shadows 
 and point their lessons. America ! the greatest and freest 
 country in the world will eschew the civilization that de 
 grades manhood and will hold true to her ideals of liberty 
 and the equality of her citizenship. 
 
 The fourth cause of offence by the President was also of a 
 political character. The post-office at Indianola, Mississippi, 
 a small town, three-fourths of its inhabitants being colored 
 people, had been filled for seven or eight years by Mrs. Cox, 
 an estimable and efficient postmistress. She is a refined 
 woman of unblemished character, and thoroughly competent 
 to discharge the duties of her office. She had given entire 
 satisfaction in the performance of all the obligations of this 
 little office for over seven years, and there was no complaint 
 against her. But she is colored, and the men who had 
 carried through the wholesale disfranchisement of the colored 
 race and had decided on its subjugation, held a public meet 
 ing and demanded her resignation, not because she was 
 incompetent, but on the ground of color alone. By brutal 
 and lawless intimidation she was expelled from her office and 
 exiled from the town. 
 
 The President declined to approve this flagrant violation 
 of law and unreasonable assault on an officer of the United 
 States Government, or to accept under such conditions the 
 resignation of the exiled postmistress, and requested that 
 the law-abiding element give her protection of the law. 
 Less than this he could not have done. Nevertheless, this 
 simple stand for law and order caused the most bitter hostility 
 throughout the South. 
 
 Senator Money of Mississippi declared : " No colored man, 
 no matter what his qualifications may be, should hold a 
 Federal office ; " and he added that the white people of the 
 13 193 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 South would have all colored men excluded from the army 
 and navy. 
 
 Mr. W. C. Chevis, editor of the Daily States, New Orleans, 
 said : " The Indianola incident and the Crum appointment, 
 determined upon after mature consideration on the part of 
 the President and his cabinet, cannot be interpreted as mean 
 ing anything else than a determination to cram an insult 
 down the throats of the white men of the South, and it is 
 accepted in this spirit here." 
 
 Mr. Charles W. Miller, editor of the Nashville Democrat, 
 said : " There is no doubt the action of President Roose 
 velt in these two cases has severed the last connecting link in 
 the chain of sympathy which bound him to the South." 
 
 Mr. J. S. McNeily, editor of the Vicksburg Herald, said : 
 " If there were a poll now, it would be found that the Presi 
 dent has completely alienated Southern sympathy by the 
 Crum appointment and closing the Indianola post-office." 
 
 Mr. J. C. Hempill, editor of the Charleston News-Courier, 
 declared that " The opening of the c door of hope to 
 Crum, President Roosevelt s selection for Collector of the 
 Port of Charleston, will be the closing of the door of hope 
 to many of Crum s race. In a thousand ways and in no way 
 that will be in violation of law, Crum s race will be the 
 sufferer." This is a distinct threat that the whites will take 
 reprisal on the colored people. That is, if they are not per 
 mitted to snuff out the liberty of that race, destroy their 
 citizenship, and force them into serfdom, they will in a thou 
 sand ways harass and torment them and make their life 
 unbearable. 
 
 The press despatches reported that " Messages are hourly 
 coming in from all parts of the surrounding country offering 
 assistance, arms, money, and men if they are needed." 
 
 Mayor J. L. Davis of Indianola said : " Conditions are 
 such that I would not advise Mrs. Cox to open the post- 
 office." 
 
 194 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 Major M. C. House, commanding the First Squadron of 
 Cavalry of Arkansas, sent this telegram to the governor of the 
 state : " Subject to your order, I tender my services with one 
 hundred and fifty cavalry to the good people of Indianola 
 for their protection against negro domination. " Such is the 
 Southern chivalry in the twentieth century. This gallant, 
 brave, and heroic major offers to march his squadron of cavalry, 
 one hundred and fifty strong, across the state of Arkansas into 
 the state of Mississippi, to prevent one little, lone, helpless 
 woman, who with her heart in her mouth had taken flight, 
 and whose life was at the mercy of a Mississippi lynching 
 mob, from forcing negro domination on Indianola, and maybe 
 from compelling all the whites of the state to pass under the 
 yoke. This valiant major is verily a subject for caricature. 
 
 The Atlanta News said : " The News has repeatedly 
 stated its reasons for objecting to the appointment of negroes 
 to Federal office ; it gives the negro a hope that he shall con 
 tinue as a political factor." 
 
 Senator Tillman said : " There might be no alternative 
 for the Southern people but to kill negroes to prevent them 
 from holding office. There are still ropes and guns in the 
 South." 
 
 The Atlanta Journal declared : " No matter how worthy 
 certain members of the African race may be in character and 
 capacity, yet they are unacceptable as office-holders to the 
 white people of the Southern States." The press despatches 
 reported " great excitement," " high feelings," " threats " 
 against " all negro postal clerks, letter carriers, and other 
 officials, in different parts of the South." A New Orleans 
 newspaper boldly demanded the assassination of colored men 
 appointed to Federal offices. 
 
 Governor James K. Vardaman of Mississippi declared that 
 * Anything that causes the negro to aspire above the 
 plow handle, the cook pot, in a word the functions of a ser 
 vant, will be the worst thing on earth for the negro," But 
 
 195 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the Boston Herald warns the Governor that "hitching a 
 negro to a mule will not settle the race question." 
 
 This same Governor Vardaman published in his own 
 newspaper the following insult to President Roosevelt : 
 " It is said that men follow the bent of their geniuses, and 
 that prenatal influences are often potent in shaping thoughts 
 and ideas in after life. Probably old lady Roosevelt, during 
 the period of gestation, was frightened by a dog, and that 
 fact may account for the qualities of the male pup that are 
 so prominent in Teddy. I would not do either an injustice, 
 but am disposed to apologize to the dog for mentioning it." 
 
 In reference to Principal Booker T. Washington, Governor 
 Vardaman has this to say : " I am opposed to negro voting ; 
 it matters not what his advertised moral and mental qualifi 
 cations may be. I am just as much opposed to Booker Wash 
 ington as a voter, with all his Anglo-Saxon reinforcements, as 
 I am to the cocoanut-headed, chocolate-colored, typical little 
 coon, Andy Dotson, who blacks my shoes every morning. 
 Neither is fit to perform the supreme functions of citizenship." 
 Governor Vardaman denounces the education of negroes and 
 publicly advocates murdering and lynching ; concerning which 
 the Boston Herald says: "It is a safe judgment that the 
 white men of Mississippi who want liberty to murder negroes 
 with impunity, or to beat them, or condemn them to the 
 slavery called peonage, or to cheat them of the wages of their 
 labor, or to debauch their daughters are, as a rule, supporters 
 of Vardaman." 
 
 These criticisms and denunciations of the President, al 
 though not the hundredth part of those which have appeared, 
 are sufficiently indicative of the dominant Southern senti 
 ment. Well might these people offer the prayer 
 
 " O ! wad some power the giftie gie us, 
 To see oursel s as ithers see us. " 
 
 At the recent Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, 
 called for the purpose of annulling certain provisions of the 
 
 196 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 Constitution of the United States by cancelling the citizenship 
 of the colored race, an influential politician of the state de 
 livered the valedictory address after the convention had 
 completed its work, saying : " We can all hope a great deal 
 from the Constitution we have adopted. It is not such an 
 instrument as we would have made if we had been a free 
 people. We are not a free people. We have not been since 
 the war. I fear it will be some time before we can call our 
 selves free. I have had that fact very painfully impressed 
 upon me for several years. If we were free, instead of hav 
 ing negro suffrage, we would have negro slavery ; instead of 
 having the United States Government, we would have the Con 
 federate States Government ; instead of paying $3,000,000 
 pension tribute, we would be receiving it ; instead of hav 
 ing many things that we have, we would have other and 
 better things. But to the extent that we are permitted to 
 govern ourselves and pay pension tribute to our conquerors, 
 we have framed as good an organic law, take it as a 
 whole, as the wisdom and patriotism of the state could have 
 desired/ 1 
 
 These utterances were received with hearty and prolonged 
 applause and cheering. 
 
 The presiding officer of the Louisiana Constitutional Con 
 vention, which was called for the same purpose, used these 
 words in his closing speech : " What care I whether it 
 [the Constitution] be more or less ridiculous or not ? Does n t 
 it meet the case ? Does n t it let the white man vote, and 
 does n t it stop the negro from voting ? and isn t that what 
 we came here for ? " 
 
 And another leading Southerner has declared with great 
 warmth and in language strenuously emphatic, if not ele 
 gant : " We have got our heel on the neck of the niggers and 
 we can hold them down ; and we have got a clutch on the 
 craw of the Yankees, and we can choke down their throats 
 our sentiments on the negro question." 
 
 197 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 In the midst of all these things President Roosevelt stands 
 calm, firm, serene. He could borrow the language of the 
 Apostle Paul and say : " None of these things move me." 
 He has beaten no retreat, evaded no responsibility, made 
 no apologies, but has met the issues in the only way that a 
 man worthy to be the President of the United States could 
 meet them and has defined his position as follows : " If I 
 could be absolutely assured of my election as president by 
 turning my back on the principles of human liberty as enun 
 ciated by Abraham Lincoln, I would be incapable of doing it 
 and unfit for president if I could be capable of doing it. I do 
 not expect to be elected president by those who would close 
 the door of hope against the Afro- American as a citizen. 
 If I am elected to this high office it must be on my record as 
 the executor of the law without favors or discriminations. 
 
 "The great majority of my appointments in every state 
 have been of white men. North and South alike, it has been 
 my sedulous endeavor to appoint only men of high character 
 and good capacity, whether white or black. But it has been 
 my consistent policy in every state where the numbers war 
 ranted it to recognize colored men of good repute and stand 
 ing in making appointments to office. I cannot consent to 
 take the position that the door of hope the door of oppor 
 tunity is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, 
 purely upon the grounds of race or color. . . . Such an 
 attitude would be, according to my convictions, funda 
 mentally wrong. ... It seems to me that it is a good 
 thing from every standpoint to let the colored man know 
 that if he shows in marked degree the qualities of good 
 citizenship the qualities which in a white man we feel 
 are entitled to reward then he will not be cut off from all 
 hope of similar reward." 
 
 President Roosevelt further says : " In this country of 
 all others, it behooves us to show an example to the world, 
 not by words only, but by deeds, that we have faith in the 
 
 198 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 doctrine that each man should be treated on his own worth 
 as a man, without regard to his creed or his race. 1 
 
 The line of cleavage between the President and the domi 
 nant Southern sentiment is unmistakable. Which of these 
 sentiments represents American civilization ? Which repre 
 sents American Christianity? Which represents the spirit 
 of humanity and the ideals of republican government? Is 
 there the slightest doubt that if the American people were 
 to be judged by the dominant Southern sentiment, they 
 would be regarded in the eyes of the civilized world as a 
 backward, retrograde people ? But happily there is a wide 
 gulf between " Jim Crowism " and Americanism. In no sense 
 does " Jim Crowism " represent American public opinion. 
 It does not represent even the sober second thought of the 
 South. It is the outgrowth of a diseased mind, a mind 
 infected by the virus of slavery ; and by a combination of 
 circumstances it has wrought much havoc. Although the 
 Southern leaders have organized secret, oath-bound societies 
 sworn to destroy the negro as a man, as a citizen, and as a 
 member of the social organization, yet, it is as certain as fate 
 that an aroused Southern conscience, and an enlightened 
 moral sense, and the irresistible public opinion of this re 
 public will ultimately triumph. 
 
 In this conflict, forced on the President by the reactionary 
 and retrograde elements in the South, the people of the 
 nation at large have not been indifferent spectators. They 
 have given him emphatic endorsement, and he has not been 
 without whole-souled supporters among the more thoughtful 
 and conservative Southerners. The spirit of the North, as in 
 the case of that at the South, is best represented by quoting 
 the actual words of some of the opinions that have been 
 vouchsafed. 
 
 President Eliot of Harvard has thus expressed himself: 
 " Harvard dined Booker Washington at the table last com 
 mencement, and Harvard conferred an honorary degree upon 
 
 199 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 him. This ought to show what Harvard thinks about the 
 matter." 
 
 President Hadley of Yale, President Tucker of Dartmouth, 
 President Angell of the University of Michigan, and other 
 leading educators give Mr. Roosevelt unqualified endorse 
 ment. They have entertained Mr. Washington and sat at 
 vneat with colored guests. 
 
 Bishop Potter of New York said : " He is fit to sit at 
 any table in the land. Yes, I see the Bourbons are in a fit 
 again ! As I entertained Mr. Washington at my table last 
 winter, and know that no more courteous and exact man 
 exists, I naturally feel that there is no reason in the outcry."" 
 
 The Methodist ministers of Philadelphia and vicinity, at 
 their regular meeting, commend the " courageous and broad- 
 minded act of our President, and we hail it with joy as an 
 auspicious omen that the weight of the great office of the 
 President of the United States is to be cast in the interest of 
 the equal rights of all our citizens before God under the laws 
 of the land." Other religious bodies in Chicago and in every 
 part of the North strongly uphold the President ; many 
 churches, separately, also endorsed his actions. 
 
 Governor Richard Yates of Illinois, son of the great war 
 
 governor, has said : " When we were in the crisis of a 
 
 great war we were not so particular about social equality, 
 
 whatever that is. We needed the negro and he helped us, 
 
 \ and now we will stand by him. All things being equal, he 
 
 * has exactly the same rights to the courtesies of the White 
 
 House that a white man has." 
 
 Some additional personal opinions are equally to the 
 point : 
 
 " It is time for Northern justice to demand that the negro 
 citizen be accorded the same honor and privileges which are 
 accorded to the white citizen. ... I marvel at the patience 
 of the negro. . . . He is demanding his rightful citizenship 
 and must have it." [Reverend G. S. Rollins of Minneapolis.] 
 
 200 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 " Our President, following in the wake of the immortal 
 Lincoln and the crowned McKinley, has contended and still 
 contends for the rights of the colored citizens. This has 
 called forth a storm of abuse in certain quarters. Two 
 million men gave themselves to help the negro to freedom, 
 and millions are ready to maintain him there." [Reverend 
 E. J. Smith of Cleveland, Ohio.] 
 
 "Every good citizen of the country admires President 
 Roosevelt, and every good citizen admires his guest." [Rev 
 erend George A. Gordon, D.D.] 
 
 " I have invited Booker Washington to my house. He 
 has been my guest at my table. When he comes to Boston 
 I shall be glad to do it again." [Major Henry L. Higginson.] 
 
 " I uphold the President in the bold stand he has taken." 
 [Professor Charles Eliot Norton.] 
 
 " The President is just right." [Moorfield Storey.] 
 
 " I think that President Roosevelt did perfectly right in 
 inviting Booker T. Washington to dine with him. The 
 President did a gracious act in inviting him to partake of his 
 hospitality." [Mrs. Mary A. Livermore.] 
 
 " If I were in Roosevelt s place, I would do the same thing 
 myself." [Professor Nathaniel S. Shaler, Dean of the Scien 
 tific School of Harvard University.] 
 
 "I heartily approve of President Roosevelt s course." 
 [Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson.] 
 
 "The President did just right." [Reverend Paul Revere 
 Frothingham.] 
 
 " I think the action of President Roosevelt in entertaining 
 Mr. Booker T. Washington at the Executive Mansion was 
 eminently wise, timely, and proper." [Henry B. Blackwell.] 
 
 " The President should have the privilege of inviting any 
 citizen of the United States to his dinner table, regardless of 
 race, color, or creed." [Major Charles G. Davis.] 
 
 "It was a fine object lesson and most encouraging. It 
 was the act of a gentleman, an act of unconscious, natural 
 
 201 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 simplicity. A democracy should be color blind."" [William 
 Lloyd Garrison.] 
 
 " It is not necessary for me to defend the conduct of the 
 President of the United States. He is well able to do that 
 himself. I cannot understand why men should criticise the 
 Christian act of a Christian magistrate in breaking bread with 
 one of the foremost figures of this age, simply because of his 
 color." [Reverend George C. Lorirner.] 
 
 "Our President at Washington recently invited to his 
 table a good man, a Christian man, a scholar, a gentleman ; 
 and any man who is privileged to have Booker Washington 
 to eat with him at his table should feel himself honored." 
 [Reverend Charles M. Sheldon, Topeka, Kansas.] 
 
 And the following expressions may be regarded as repre 
 senting the press of the North. The Boston Herald says : 
 " There has been no incident in politics for a score of years 
 that has so united the men who originally comprised the 
 Republican party in opinion with regard to a subject as the 
 attack upon President Roosevelt for calling Booker Washing 
 ton to his dining-table. Incidents which induced a lower 
 tone as regards public affairs have notoriously parted many 
 men of character and ability from that party association dur 
 ing that time ; but the raising of the color issue in this way 
 has been to them like a rallying note to the old standard. 
 . . . Here is genuine Republicanism of better days. They 
 stand by the President in being true to it. No men endorsed 
 his action in this matter more promptly and unreservedly 
 than those who have felt compelled to separate from the 
 Republican organization because its course has been objec 
 tionable in other respects. . . . 
 
 "Booker Washington is a superior man without regard 
 to his color. No man can see him and escape the feeling 
 that here is a superior example of human nature in its best 
 development, aside from accidental conditions as to race or 
 birth. The man rises above these, and appeals to something 
 
 202 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 they cannot seriously affect. He illustrates their unimpor 
 tance, as weighed in the scale of intellect and manhood, with 
 an effectiveness which makes race prejudice appear at its 
 worst when brought into operation against him. 11 
 
 The New York World says : " The President has right and 
 reason on his side in insisting upon a vote by the Senate upon 
 the nomination of Dr. Crum, the colored man whose nomina 
 tion as Collector of Customs at Charleston has been reported 
 adversely by the Committee on Commence. His position is 
 that he made the nomination deliberately, after ascertaining 
 the fitness of Dr. Crum for the office, and that as no objec 
 tion except his color is urged against the nominee he desires 
 to have a direct expression of the judgment of the Senate 
 upon the question at issue whether men, the represent 
 atives of 8,000,000 citizens equal in political rights, are to be 
 debarred from office at the South, on account of race, color, 
 or previous condition of servitude. We certainly hope that 
 the President will adhere to this attitude. The Republican 
 senators should not be permitted to escape a record upon 
 this question. If they are prepared to abandon these princi 
 ples and professions of their party in the past, they ought to 
 have the courage of their apostasy. If they are ready to 
 stand with the President in refusing to consent that the 
 door of hope, the door of opportunity, is to be shut upon 
 any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of 
 race or color, they ought to be willing and even anxious to 
 let the country know it. 
 
 "The World does not hesitate to say that it thinks the 
 Southern whites are making a serious mistake in reviving the 
 race issue in its extremest form against a President who has 
 made fewer appointments of colored men to office than any of 
 his predecessors." 
 
 The Evening Sun says : " The Indianola post-office row 
 seems to be a tempest in a teapot. Mississippi will hardly 
 secede or the South fly to arms, because the negro post- 
 203 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 mistress has retired to Alabama and the office is temporarily 
 closed. That excitable New Orleans sheet which accuses the 
 President of deliberately offending and insulting the white 
 people of the South does not understand Mr. Roosevelt s 
 position, and it seems to forget that the postmistress at 
 Indianola was an old incumbent who had shown herself 
 capable and trustworthy. The appointment and protection 
 of postmasters is a Federal matter and the Government must 
 not show weakness or vacillation in asserting its authority." 
 
 The Press says : " Those who applaud the President s 
 militant chivalry, however, must gain no little compensation 
 from the savage attitude struck by such organs as the New 
 Orleans States, which says : If President Roosevelt has 
 made up his mind to outrage and insult people of the South 
 by appointing and keeping in office obnoxious negroes [not 
 incompetent or corrupt negroes, mark you, but merely ob 
 noxious negroes, for all negroes are obnoxious to those people 
 of the South for whom this New Orleans paper speaks], 
 his negro appointees will be killed, just as the negro 
 appointees of other Republican Presidents have been put out 
 of the way? Yet if the enemies of his race policy will range 
 themselves alongside those for whom the New Orleans assassin 
 is spokesman the difficult road he must travel will be made 
 much easier." 
 
 The Tribune says : " The President has chosen exactly 
 the right moment to send to the Senate his long contem 
 plated nomination of Dr. Crum, to be Collector of the port 
 of Charleston. The persecution of the capable and respect 
 able postmistress of Indianola, Miss., solely on account of 
 color, has made an issue to be faced. The office of Collector 
 is considered too sacred to be profaned by an occupant with 
 a black skin, just as the postoffice at Indianola is considered 
 too sacred to be profaned by a woman with black skin, though 
 she profaned it for several years to the satisfaction of the 
 white community, until some of the loafers thought it was 
 
 204 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 time to assert their aristocratic Caucasianism and teach 
 4 niggers their place. Under such circumstances the dignity 
 of government and respect for the principles of its Constitu 
 tion call for an emphatic stand, not for negro office-holding 
 in general, but for the Government s right to appoint negroes 
 to office when it sees fit. The agitation against Dr. Crum 
 has practically amounted to a denial of that right, and the 
 President correctly judges that the way to defend the right 
 is to exercise it." 
 
 " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." The republic 
 has not been vigilant in the safeguarding of the liberty of 
 its citizens. In this matter it has fallen into apathy, and this 
 apathy was the opportunity of the reactionists. 
 
 In 1890 Mississippi violated the Constitution of the 
 United States, defied the national Government, and disre 
 garded the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, by the wholesale disfranchisement of the colored race. 
 If this movement had been promptly met by the reduction 
 of her representatives in the Congress and the electoral 
 college to the basis of her white population plus the actual 
 number of registered colored voters, no Southern state would 
 have followed her example. Nor would the white people of 
 Mississippi have consented to the reduction of their repre 
 sentatives in the Congress and the electoral college simply 
 for the glory of disfranchising the negroes. 
 
 If in the early stages the republic had displayed the same 
 horror over the various acts of violence in the South that 
 they did show over the Kishineff shame in far-off Russia, mob 
 rule and lynch law would not have become so firmly intrenched 
 on American soil. But the nation has remained quiescent, 
 notwithstanding the repeated nullification of its organic laws, 
 and the long train of frightful horrors that followed. This 
 quiescence has been interpreted by the reactionists as ac 
 quiescence, and they feel emboldened to proceed to crush and 
 keep in subjugation the colored race. 
 
 205 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 In dillydallying with the reactionists, the nation has been 
 playing with fire, and it is being burnt. These reactionists 
 are so well organized into secret clans that by the mere 
 " touch of the button " they can bring forth complaints and 
 threats at any time from every Southern centre in the form 
 of interviews on the necessity of " teaching the negroes their 
 place." It is, however, all for effect. 
 
 The attempt to " Jim-Crow " the President of the United 
 States and coerce the Government of the United States to dis 
 regard its own citizens on the ground of color alone and deny 
 them all share in the government is preposterous. But 
 neither Mr. Roosevelt nor the many thousands of people in the 
 North, churchmen, professional men, capitalists, bankers, men 
 of affairs, educators, sons of toil, and in fact representatives 
 of all classes who have broken bread at a feast where there was 
 a colored guest, will feel alarmed at the threats of violence, or 
 be degraded by the social " boycott " declared against them 
 by the Southern aristocrats. 
 
 The race problem has reached an acute stage in its de 
 velopment. The serpent of slavery was coddled and nursed 
 in the nations bosom and warmed into life ; it gained in 
 strength and power until it all but stung the republic to 
 death. If the more subtle and treacherous monster, serfdom, 
 shall be allowed to wind itself around the vitals of the re 
 public, it will strangle liberty and constitutional government. 
 Its sting may be even more destructive than that of the 
 serpent of slavery. 
 
 It ought not to be admitted even for a moment that any 
 class of citizens is above the law or any class is below the 
 law. Nor, on the ground of color alone, shall a citizen 
 otherwise entirely worthy and capable be denied the right 
 to participate in the government or hold an office under it. 
 
 It is true that any interference with plans of the reaction 
 ists to subjugate the colored race may produce more or less 
 trouble. Expressions of defiance are to be expected. Re- 
 
 206 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 prisals threatened on the colored people may be carried out 
 to some extent. But all that they can do is inconsequential 
 in comparison with the great national object to be attained. 
 To use the language of the decision of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, " We mean the freedom of the slave race, 
 the security and Jirm establishment of that freedom, and the 
 protection of the newly made freeman and citizen from, the 
 oppression of those who had formerly exercised unlimited 
 dominion over him" The path of duty is plain. 
 
 We have now to consider the political conditions in the 
 South which may be included under the significant term 
 " Lily-whitism." For some years there has been much 
 speculation about the organization of a new republican party 
 in the South. The old organization had rendered signal and 
 invaluable services to the republic in the hour of its greatest 
 need. To it belongs the credit of the establishment of the 
 first free governments in the South. It also gave the South 
 its first system of free public schools. Through it the nation 
 reconstructed the Southern states at the close of the War of 
 the Rebellion, and without it reconstruction with free govern 
 ment would have been impossible, and the fruits of the war 
 could not have been preserved. 
 
 But its constituency was largely colored men ; its leaders 
 were conservative Southerners and Northern men who had 
 settled in the South. Naturally these became a mark for the 
 great body of the Southern white people, because they stood 
 athwart the purposes of the latter and foiled their plans. 
 Nevertheless, these Republicans elected presidential electors, 
 and United States senators and representatives in Congress ; 
 notwithstanding the fact that in recent years they have been 
 opposed by the shot-gun policy. 
 
 Gross and serious charges of corruption were laid against 
 the old organization, but not always justly. For when one 
 considers the surrounding circumstances, the inflamed passions, 
 and chaotic conditions at the close of a great war, the cross 
 
 207 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 purposes of the contending parties, and how the organization 
 was hedged about and hampered by the great mass of the 
 whites it will be seen that great blunders and venality 
 were invited. But the organization was republican in princi 
 ples ; it was patriotic, it was liberty-loving, and it was just 
 to colored and white men alike. 
 
 The "Lily-white" Republican party which assumes in some 
 of the states to take the place of the old Republican party is 
 composed mainly of disappointed Democrats, men whose ambi 
 tions for power and thirst for office were not satisfied in their 
 own party. After bitterly opposing the Republican party for 
 years, and not receiving the recognition they sought in the 
 Democratic organization, they deserted to the Republican 
 party and proceeded at once by the same oppressive methods 
 formerly employed to harass and defeat republicanism, to 
 seize control of the Republican organization and oust those 
 who had been loyal and true to its standards for forty 
 years. 
 
 There is absolutely nothing to choose between the democ 
 racy of Tillman and Vardaman and this " Lily-whitism." 
 They are equally brutal, unrepublican, unmoral. The chief 
 aim of both is to oppress and degrade the members of the 
 colored race, destroy their manhood and citizenship, and 
 appropriate the offices. 
 
 In the course of American history there have arisen a 
 number of political parties, but each party has hitherto 
 stood for some definite principle, even though it may have 
 been some wild fad or quack nostrum, to be enforced as the 
 policy of the government. The Federalists, the Democrats, 
 the Whigs, the Free-Soilers, the Republicans, the Green- 
 backers, the Populists, the Prohibitionists these all stand 
 for certain governmental policies. 
 
 But what do the " Lily-white " Republicans stand for ? 
 Their platform might be expressed in a single sentence. 
 Condensed into common Southern speech, it would be: 
 
 208 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 " Down imd de niggers ; gin us de offices ; dot ^s what we stan 
 fir." 
 
 The " Lily-whites " have demanded the control of the Federal 
 patronage as a necessary condition for voting the Republican 
 ticket. They plaintively appealed to McKinley and took 
 the public into their confidence, promising that, if they 
 only had control of the Federal offices in the South, they 
 " would build up a respectable white Republican party." 
 
 The idea that these politicians, who publicly repudiate the 
 cardinal doctrine of republicanism the equality of rights 
 before the law for all American citizens and who have 
 assumed the name Republican for purposes of revenue only, 
 will " build up a respectable white Republican party " through 
 the use of the Federal patronage, is absurdly chimerical. 
 This " Lily-white " party is unique in American politics. Its 
 emblem should be the buzzard. It deserves to be known as 
 the " buzzard " party. It scents the carrion of office from 
 afar, and where the carrion is, there it will be found. Lily- 
 whitism is the antithesis of republicanism. If the Republi 
 can leaders coquette with this party they will cause the 
 disappearance of republican principles in the South. The 
 few ineffective votes gained in the South bought and in 
 fluenced through the bribes of Federal patronage will be 
 more than offset by the manifold loss of effective votes in 
 the North. 
 
 The republican conscience of the North will not uphold 
 "Lilv-whitism." The logical and immediate effect of recog 
 nizing or temporizing with this political movement will be to 
 encourage and strengthen "Jim Crowism," and thus further 
 complicate an already embarrassing and hazardous situation. 
 
 It will always be true that honorable Southerners, or those 
 without sinister motives, who may wish to vote the Republican 
 ticket will do so independently of the bribes of Federal 
 patronage. Such patronage has never built up a respectable 
 party. The Republican party itself came into power without 
 l* 209 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the possession of a single Federal office. And it has been 
 twice " put out of action " in spite of its possession of the 
 Federal offices. 
 
 Wherever the " Lily- whites," by their high-handed and 
 nnrepublican methods, have conquered Republican organiza 
 tions in the South, they have seriously injured the Repub 
 lican party. Their touch is death to republicanism. They 
 have rejected colored delegates regularly elected by the pre 
 cincts and have prohibited them from participating in district 
 and state conventions, solely on the ground of color, and 
 have expelled them from the floor of the convention. They 
 have in some cases obtained offices and used the power thereof 
 to oppress and degrade the colored voter, and it has been 
 necessary for the President repeatedly to intervene for the 
 protection of the colored citizen by dismissing them from the 
 public service. 
 
 In the removal of a " Lily-white " from office in Alabama, 
 Postmaster-general Payne, speaking for the President, said : 
 " Neither the administration nor the Republican party of the 
 North will stand for the exclusion of any section of our 
 people by reason of their race or color, . . . and the action 
 of the [Lily-white] Republican state convention referred to, 
 in arbitrarily excluding them, is not approved." 
 
 These men have no respect for the principles of the Re 
 publican party. They despise its history and cherish open 
 contempt for its great leaders and its legions of adherents. 
 This was shown by the conduct and words of Mr. W. S. 
 Robinson, the u Lily-white " member of the national com 
 mittee from North Carolina, at the dinner given by Senator 
 Hanna to the national Republican committee. This com 
 mittee was convened at Washington for the purpose of ar 
 ranging for the national Republican convention to nominate 
 a president of the United States. Senator Hanna, the 
 national chairman, gave a dinner complimentary to the 
 committee, at the Arlington Hotel. One of the members of 
 
 210 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 the committee, Mr. Judson Lyons, is a colored man. And it 
 may be stated that Mr. Lyons holds the high and important 
 position of Register of the Treasury of the United States. 
 
 Senator Hanna, with his guests some fifty-odd members 
 of the national Republican committee had seated themselves 
 around the banquet board. At this moment Mr. W. S. 
 Robinson, the " Lily-white " member from North Carolina, ar 
 rived. And on entering the room and seeing Mr. Lyons, 
 the colored member from Georgia, at one of the tables, he 
 "strode out in high dudgeon," and with great show of indig 
 nation exclaimed, " I came here a gentleman, and I shall cer- 
 tainlv go back one." He also said that no white man who 
 was a gentleman could eat in the same dining-room where 
 there was a negro seated at one of the tables. 
 
 This, surely, is a singular way for a gentleman to show his 
 high breeding. Mr. Robinson could have absented himself 
 from Senator Hannahs banquet or declined the invitation, 
 and that probably would have been the end of the matter. 
 But the manner in which he left the banquet-room, and the 
 excuse he gave to the press reporter implied that Senator 
 Hanna and his assembled guests were not gentlemen since 
 they could sit at meat with Register Lyons. His language 
 was, therefore, an insult to his host, an insult to every guest 
 at that banquet board, an insult to the national Republican 
 party in whose name they had assembled. Who will say 
 that such a man is a fit representative of the Republican 
 party in a state where there are 624,469 colored citizens ? 
 
 The more serious aspect of the case is that Mr. Robinson 
 has been indorsed by the " Lily- whites " of the South. These 
 men by treachery and force have seized some of the local 
 Republican organizations and shorn them of the Republican 
 principles and are making an audacious attempt to stampede 
 the national organization, or drag it from its moorings. This 
 incident is not a matter to be lightly regarded. It shows the 
 temper, spirit, and purpose of " Lily-whitism " to rule or 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 ruin. The national organization had to combat this same spirit 
 in the South in the great crises of the Reconstruction period. 
 
 Men of this character are not Republicans, but interlopers, 
 "wolves in sheep s clothing," who would rend and destroy 
 the organization and trample its principles under their 
 feet. They are a reproach to the party, an ulcer on the 
 organization. 
 
 Under such circumstances it is clearly the duty of the 
 national Republican organization, or the national commit 
 tee, to carry out such plans as may seem wise in reorganiz 
 ing the party along republican lines in the states where the 
 organization has been conquered by unrepublican methods, 
 and where the men who have loyally stood by the organiza 
 tion for forty years, and suffered untold hardships and risked 
 their lives for its principles, have been unjustly thrown out 
 by the interlopers, in order that the latter might place a lien 
 on the Federal offices. 
 
 Mr. Crumpacker in a recent speech in Congress utters a 
 warning to which it would be well for the nation to give ear : 
 " I have said enough, Mr. Speaker, to warn the House and 
 the country that the situation is rapidly crystallizing into a 
 policy of complete subjugation of the colored race in all the 
 fields of activity, . . . and slavery is its inevitable result. . . . 
 I have been admonished that if the race question were let 
 alone and the Constitution were ignored the solid South 
 would go to pieces politically and a white Republican party 
 would be built upon the ruins. A white Republican party in 
 the South is only possible by universal assent to the practical 
 enslavement of the negro. If that imaginary party should 
 at any time show any friendship for the colored man or any 
 sympathy with his struggles to better his condition, it would 
 at once fall under the ban of the hereditary prejudices, and 
 social and business proscription would be its fate. 
 
 " If the country will consent that the 8,000,000 colored 
 citizens shall be deprived of their rights, that lynching may go 
 
THE NEGRO IN POLITICS 
 
 on without let or hindrance as a necessary part of the process 
 of subjugation, there may be a white Republican party in the 
 South, but not otherwise. 
 
 " But can we afford the price ? A white Republican party ? 
 Shades of Lincoln and Seward, of Sumner and Chase! A 
 white Republican party only a little over a generation after 
 the death of the emancipator ! It is an impossibility. The 
 Republican party is the party of human liberty and equal 
 rights. It is based upon manhood, and not upon race or 
 color. The old Whig party forfeited its conscience and lost 
 its character temporizing with wrong, injustice, and human 
 oppression over half a century ago. The Republican party 
 will never make that mistake. Let the South continue to be 
 solid if it will, let the Republican party go down in defeat 
 if it must, but it will never surrender the great principles of 
 human liberty of which it was the born champion." 
 
 The national organization, in dealing with its loyal sup 
 porters in the South, cannot respect the wholesale disfranchise- 
 ment which contravenes the Constitution of the United States. 
 It must regard the fundamental condition of the Reconstruc 
 tion. It must stand for equal laws for all. Therefore it 
 must take the only just ground, that any citizen who has 
 voted the Republican ticket at any previous congressional 
 or presidential election, and wishes to continue as a member 
 of the Republican party of his state, shall have equal rights to 
 participate in the councils and elections of the party without 
 regard to unlawful disfranchisements. If the " Lily- whites " 
 shall wish in this event to return to their democratic or 
 populistic allegiance, then let them do that. 
 
 The Charleston News and Courier, a leading Southern 
 journal, very pointedly says : " There is no question about 
 it that the men who have gone into the Republican party 
 in the South in nine cases out of ten have gone in for the 
 money they could make out of it, for the prominence it 
 would give them, for the influence they would be able to 
 
 213 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 exert toward the accomplishment of their mean, selfish pur 
 poses. There ought to be no room in the Democratic party 
 for the returning Lily-whites. " 
 
 And these discredited creatures boast about organizing a 
 respectable white Republican party ! Republicanism is based 
 on the eternal certitudes of liberty, justice, equal rights, and 
 honest and orderly government. And in the onward sweep 
 of civilization these principles are sure to triumph. It will 
 assuredly prove true that no party, Democratic, Republican 
 or other, can gain and hold the favor of the great masses of 
 the American people which does not raise aloft and defend 
 these principles. 
 
 In the South the Republican party can afford to bide its 
 time. It can afford to be overborne by fraud and violence. 
 It can stand and suffer persecution for its cause s sake. But 
 it cannot afford to be un-American, un -republican, oppressive. 
 As " Lily-whitism " and "Jim Crowism," twin evils of bar 
 barism, shall wane in power, as they must, decreasing race 
 passions and strife, and as the South shall take the second 
 sober thought, many white people in the South will be at 
 tracted to the Republican party, not for the sake of the 
 offices, but because they accept the righteousness of its car 
 dinal principles and favor the great national policies of 
 government which it would enforce. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 \ 
 
 THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 THE colored race, like the white race, like every race, 
 has its criminals. It has many of them. Some people 
 think and say that it has more than its share in pro 
 portion to the other part of the population. This may be 
 true, or it may not be true. To discuss a matter of this 
 kind intelligently and fairly, attention must be given to the 
 conditions and environments of the class from which the 
 criminals come. 
 
 It is not to be disputed that while the web of the law 
 catches here and there a member from the higher or more 
 prosperous element of the social body, it most frequently 
 drags in criminals from the less fortunate, poorer, laboring 
 classes. The record of the police and other courts day by 
 day would show scores of the latter to one of the former. 
 
 Among the Southern whites, the preponderating element 
 consists of the higher or more prosperous class. A man who 
 can command good wages and steady employment, even 
 though he is obliged to work for a living, should be properly 
 classed among the higher or more prosperous element of the 
 community. The large majority of the whites belong to this 
 class. 
 
 On the other hand, the man who must take the most 
 menial places and receives small pay, at times hardly more 
 than enough to keep soul and body together, or must depend 
 on odd jobs and finds them unremunerative and scarce as a 
 rule, belongs to the less fortunate, poorer or common laboring 
 class. The great majority of the colored people belong to 
 this class. 
 
 It is true, however, that many thousands of colored people 
 are engaged in business pursuits, and to such an extent that 
 there is not a field of business in which they are not engaged ; 
 
 215 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and many have achieved remarkable success, some having even 
 gained a competency. Scores of thousands are the owners of 
 their own homes and farms and may be justly rated as 
 prosperous. 
 
 Many occupy commanding places in the professions, law, 
 medicine, theology, dentistry, and pharmacy. Some thirty 
 thousands of them are teachers in the public schools and in 
 stitutions of higher learning. Thousands are also in the 
 employment of the National Government, from the Register 
 of the Treasury of the United States and other important 
 Federal offices down through the various grades of clerkships 
 to the scrub-women. Some thousands are in the army and 
 navy. 
 
 Indeed there is not a walk or calling in American life in 
 which the negro has not forged ahead and won success. But 
 nevertheless, it would be unreasonable to suppose that in the 
 brief forty years of struggle in the rise from abject, demor 
 alizing slavery, in the face of tremendous odds and diffi 
 culties, the proportion of negroes commanding first-rate 
 positions and receiving remunerative wages would be as 
 great as among the whites with their long line of free 
 ancestry. 
 
 The general progress of the American negro has not only 
 been commensurate with his opportunities, but to many it 
 has been one of the wonders of the age. Nevertheless it 
 must be admitted that the great body of the colored people 
 belong to the less fortunate, the poorer or ordinary laboring 
 class. Their very condition the entailment of slavery 
 bears heavily upon them ; their lack of means and the denial 
 of remunerative employment and a fair chance for advance 
 ment handicaps them enormously in the race of life ; and 
 their environments are a serious detriment to them, living 
 as they do under degradingly oppressive laws and among 
 a people hostile to the recognition of their manhood and 
 citizenship. 
 
 216 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 Inasmuch as the great majority of the whites are in 
 cluded in the more fortunate element of the community, and 
 the larger body of the colored people through no fault of 
 their own, but because of the greed, avarice, and oppressions 
 of the whites constitute the less fortunate class, it is 
 obviously unfair and unreasonable to judge the Southern 
 negroes without regard to their opportunities, relations, and 
 surroundings. The many and disheartening disadvantages 
 under which they labor materially affect the question of 
 crime among them. 
 
 If, then, the total number of colored criminals waiving 
 for the time being the blighting and deadly effects of the 
 operation of race prejudice should be compared with the 
 total number of criminals who come, not from the whole 
 white race, but from that portion of it nearest to the colored 
 people in opportunities and circumstances, and which con 
 stitutes the ordinary laboring class of the whites, it may or 
 it may not be shown that the colored people have more than 
 their proportional share of criminals. But, be this as it may, 
 there are forces, manifold forces, irresistible and deadly forces, 
 such as no white man ever feels, no matter how ignorant, 
 depraved, or even dirty he may be, that are brought to bear 
 day bv day upon every member of the colored race, and 
 which are productive of criminality. Satan could hardly de 
 vise a scheme better arranged for manufacturing criminals in 
 the largest numbers and with the greatest expedition and 
 thoroughness, than the policy and methods adopted towards 
 the negro by the reactionists who at present are supported 
 by the dominant elements of the white people of the South. 
 
 The colored people are equal citizens ; they are copartners 
 in the government ; they are a material factor in its support 
 and defence; they are peaceful and law-abiding. When, 
 therefore, a wide-spread reign of terror, violence, and blood- 
 shedding is inaugurated to accomplish their abasement and 
 degradation ; when they are stripped of the protection of the 
 
 217 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 law, their manhood is trampled in the dust, and they are 
 made the victims of open, unremitting, and flagrant persecu 
 tions by a religious people, conditions exist which inevi 
 tably tend to the multiplication of criminals and the increase 
 of crime. The whites thus place themselves above the law, 
 and force the colored people below it. 
 
 Two immediate results follow. First, the whites, regarding 
 themselves as above the law, will hold it in contempt and will 
 be a law unto themselves recognizing and being controlled 
 by no law, save their own unrestrained passions, in dealing 
 with the colored man. They will feel free to treat him 
 according to their whims, whether good or evil. In the 
 second place, it depresses the colored man ; it blunts his 
 moral perceptions ; it confuses his moral conceptions ; it 
 deadens his sense of security under the law ; it chills in his 
 heart respect for the law and his faith in the honesty of the 
 whites; his faith in the justice of the courts is undermined; 
 he is enveloped in an atmosphere of doubt, distrust, despair, 
 or desperation. 
 
 Many of the weaker-minded among the negroes are driven 
 into crime ; some of the stronger- minded are perverted. Is 
 it not plain that when the idle, thriftless, or weaker- minded 
 negro, or the one criminally bent, sees the white people treat 
 with scorn, contempt, and even violence the legitimate aspira 
 tions and ambitions of the negro of probity, substance, and 
 intelligence, and refuse him the considerations due an honest 
 man and good citizen, simply because of the color of his skin, 
 he should naturally conclude that these things are of little or 
 no value, that being a " good negro " is of no moment, and 
 that the bad one is just as well off as a good one ? 
 
 The white people of the South are the only people in the 
 history of the world aside from the Boer republics of South 
 Africa, which a just and avenging God has removed from the 
 face of the earth after exacting a terrible and bloody atone 
 ment who with deliberation and premeditation have sought 
 
 218 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 to prevent a people as free as themselves under the law of the 
 land from making the most of their opportunities to advance 
 in a Christian civilization. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures say that out of the mouth of two or 
 three witnesses shall the truth be established. But any 
 number of Southerners, men in the highest stations of life, 
 may be put in the witness chair to testify against the South 
 in the wilful, deliberate, and violent persecution of the 
 colored people. 
 
 Mr. George W. Cable, formerly of Louisiana, and proba 
 bly the foremost literary man that the South has produced 
 since the War of the Rebellion, says : " There is scarcely one 
 public relation of life in the South where the negro is not 
 arbitrarily and unlawfully compelled to hold toward the 
 white man the attitude of an alien, a menial, and a probable 
 reprobate by reason of his color " ; and that the white man 
 "spurns his ambition, tramples upon his languishing self- 
 respect and indignantly refuses to let him either buy with 
 money or earn by excellence of inner life or outward behavior 
 the most momentary immunity from these public indignities, 
 even for his wife and daughters. Steamboat landing, railway 
 platform, theatre, concert hall, art display, public library, 
 public school, court-house, church, everything flourish the 
 hot branding iron of ignominious distinction."" 
 
 Mr. J. Temple Graves of Georgia says : " The negro, whom 
 a million died to free, is in present bond and future promise 
 still a slave, whipped by circumstances, trodden under foot of 
 iron and ineradicable prejudice ; shut out forever from the 
 heritage of liberty, and holding in his black hand the hollow 
 parchment of his franchise as a free man looks through a 
 slave s eyes at the impossible barriers which imprison him 
 forever. Straighten the hair and whiten the skin of the 
 negro, and the issue is closed." 
 
 Senator McEnery of Louisiana says : " The negro is in 
 ferior in every essential of manhood ; he ought not to aspire 
 
 219 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 to office ; he will be compelled to occupy an inferior and sub 
 ject place." 
 
 Mr. A. F. Thomas, of Lynchburg, Virginia, in discussing 
 the race question in a booklet written especially to influence 
 the recent Constitutional Convention of Virginia, says : " The 
 negro has progressed wonderfully ; his relative position is 
 much nearer the white man s standard of civilization now than 
 thirty years ago ; yet the fact is apparent that the races are 
 farther apart than they were the day the negro was emanci 
 pated. The nearer the negro approaches to the white man s 
 standard of civilization, the less love there is between them. 
 Looking backward to the time when our black mammies 
 were, in our esteem, second only to our mothers, and when 
 we played in perfect harmony with the negro children, and 
 contrasting it with the clearly defined relations that exist be 
 tween the races to-day, we readily see the difference. . . . 
 
 " A black man who has never committed a crime, who has 
 always lived up to his highest ideals, who has cultivated his 
 mind, whose moral character is roundly developed, who has 
 been frugal and industrious, and has accumulated wealth, 
 goes to a soda fountain to slake his thirst ; he offers in 
 exchange his money, but is refused for no other reason than 
 that he is black and belongs to a different race. A man, in 
 the land of his nativity, with the money to pay for the goods, 
 cannot, on account of race, buy the articles that are publicly 
 offered for sale. This condition exists to-day, thirty years 
 after the United States Constitution had proclaimed the civil 
 and political equality of all of its citizens. . . . 
 
 "If we take the view that the negro will remain here 
 indefinitely, then the only solution consistent with existence 
 is entire subordination. If this be true, it is the greatest 
 folly to educate him further than education may make him 
 more efficient in the sphere which he must occupy. Viewed 
 from this standpoint, he should be educated, not with a pur 
 pose of lifting him to a higher plane, but to increase his 
 
 220 
 
THE N-EGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 power to do those things which would make him most useful 
 to his masters. It should be an education of the hand rather 
 than the head. This condition, however much freedom the 
 race might nominally have, would be practically a mild form 
 of slavery." 
 
 Thus Mr. Thomas admits that the Southern leaders are 
 aiming at the establishment of "a mild form of slavery." 
 But the old system of slavery began as a comparatively mild 
 condition and gradually descended into the grossest form, 
 and almost wrecked the republic. A new "mild form of 
 slavery " would degenerate into even greater cruelties and in 
 humanities, and its inauguration would mark the beginning of 
 the end of republican government. It would be the death- 
 knell of free institutions. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the State Medical Association of 
 Georgia, one of its members, Dr. E. C. Ferguson, read a 
 paper intended to demonstrate that the negro is not a 
 human being. He attacked the negro s skin, mouth, lips, 
 chin, hair, nose, nostril, ears, and navel ; and compared him 
 with the horse, cow, and dog, and other animals. He 
 declared that the " negro is monkeylike ; has no sympathy 
 for his fellow-man ; has no regard for the truth, and when 
 the truth would answer his purpose the best, he will lie. He 
 is without gratitude or appreciation of anything done for 
 him ; is a natural born thief, will steal anything, no matter 
 how worthless. 
 
 " He has no morals. Turpitude is his ideal of all that 
 pertains to life. His progeny are not provided for at home 
 and are allowed to roam at large without restraint, and seek 
 subsistence as best they can, growing up like any animal." 
 
 Some of the things that Dr. Ferguson said in his address 
 
 are really not fit to print. And yet a body of scientific men 
 
 Southern gentlemen listened with approval and heartily 
 
 applauded this foul assault on a people who nursed with the 
 
 tenderest affection and all of a mother s love, their fathers 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, and themselves ; 
 and whose devotion, fidelity, and kindheartedness were never 
 challenged in two hundred and fifty years of service. If Dr. 
 Ferguson had a sense of humor, he would realize that his 
 sweeping and unqualified statement makes him not only a 
 dangerous competitor with the ablest negro in the art of 
 fabrication, but marks him as a man who may eclipse the 
 cleverest negro who " will lie even when the truth would 
 answer his purpose the best." 
 
 The Reverend Thomas Dixon. Jr., of North Carolina, 
 speaking at a church in Baltimore, said : " My deliberate 
 opinion of the negro is that he is not worth hell-room. If 
 I were the devil I would not let him in hell. 1 " 
 
 This same divine, in a book that he published, says : " The 
 more you educate, the more impossible you make his position 
 in a democracy. Education ! Can you change the color of 
 his skin, the kink of his hair, the bulge of his lips, the spread 
 of his nose, or the beat of his heart, with a spelling-book ? 
 The negro is a human donkey. You can train him, but you 
 can t make him a horse. Mate him with horse, you lose the 
 horse and get a larger donkey called a mule, incapable of 
 preserving his species." The moral obliquity, the want of 
 charity, the absence of dignity indicated by these words, 
 mark off their author as seriously beneath the standards 
 of thousands of educated colored men, whose life, words, and 
 conduct shame these critics into insignificance. 
 
 The Reverend Henry Frank advocates the re-establish 
 ment of slavery, and further says of the negro : " His native 
 sluggishness, and the evidence of his general extinction since 
 his emancipation, his imperceptible improvement since libera 
 tion, his startling lapse into barbarism, all must incline think 
 ing people to conclude that the freeing of the negro was a 
 disastrous failure." 
 
 Senator Tillman of South Carolina, the Mad Mullah of 
 American politics, has used on the floor of the United States 
 
 222 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 Senate and on the lecture platform these expressions : " Yes, 
 we have stuffed ballot-boxes, and will stuff them again; 
 we have cheated niggers in elections, and will cheat them 
 again ; we have disfranchised niggers, and will disfranchise 
 all we want to ; we have killed and lynched niggers and will 
 kill and lynch others ; we have burned niggers at the stake 
 and will burn others ; a nigger has no right to live anyhow, 
 unless a white man wants him to live. If you don t like it 
 you can lump it." 
 
 Cruel and scurrilous attacks and defamations of this char 
 acter against the colored people could be quoted in sufficient 
 quantities to fill a volume. But those just mentioned, taken 
 in connection with others recorded in these pages, may serve 
 to indicate the fierce and consuming flames of persecution 
 in the midst of which the colored man lives and moves and 
 has his being. 
 
 A people so vilely abused and outrageously persecuted 
 are made an easy mark for malevolence and race hatred. 
 Unrestrained abuse of the colored man leads surely to un 
 restrained oppression and violence. And these are not con 
 ditions which inspire a high morality or favor the upbuilding 
 of character ; they rather tend to strangle the self-respect and 
 debase the souls of the hapless victims and shape many of 
 them into criminals. The whites cannot sow to the wind 
 without reaping the whirlwind. 
 
 As might be expected, illustrations in the concrete of the 
 operation of this bitter persecution abound on every hand. 
 Laws are enacted and enforced in the spirit of persecution, 
 and the colored people are the victims of such laws ; often 
 they are condemned without even the form or semblance 
 of law. 
 
 Regarding the latter, planters have combined or conspired 
 in defiance of the law to arrest under false charges the 
 number of colored men needed for service, hold mock trials, 
 one of the conspirators acting as judge, condemn and sentence 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the helpless creatures to penal servitude; and then divide 
 the laborers among themselves, put them in chains, and 
 work them for long periods of time on their plantations. 
 And this crime is committed against liberty and humanity 
 rather than pay the small wages which agricultural laborers 
 command in the South ! 
 
 And as to the former, it would be difficult to find more 
 striking examples of " man s inhumanity to man" than some 
 of the crimes committed in the name and under the forms 
 of law on the colored people. In Alabama, Mississippi, 
 Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and some of the other 
 states, labor and contract laws are deliberately framed with 
 the view of facilitating the seizure of colored men and selling 
 them into practical slavery. 
 
 In a speech recently made in Congress touching this matter, 
 Mr. Edgar D. Crumpacker of Indiana said : " Under exist 
 ing conditions the standard of living among the colored peo 
 ple of the South is low, and the rate of wages is on the same 
 basis. The colored laborer is completely at the mercy of the 
 employer. In the state of South Carolina to-day there is a 
 qualified condition of industrial serfdom. Farm laborers are 
 compelled by the penal laws of the state to carry out their 
 contracts of employment, however unjust and unfair they 
 may be. They must perform all the labor reasonably re 
 quired of them by the contract or go to jail. If any one 
 knowingly shall employ a laborer in any kind of service who 
 is under contract to labor for another, he, too, is liable to 
 fine and imprisonment, even though the workman or his 
 family may be on the verge of starvation. 1 1 
 
 Under these laws the great mass of the colored laborers are 
 placed in the merciless grasp of the planters, who can readily 
 force them to accept any form of contract whatsoever. Some 
 of the planters, under a carefully devised system of paying the 
 laborers off in plantation " scrip " or " checks," which are 
 heavily discounted mediums, or by compelling the laborers 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 to buy their supplies at the " plantation store," where exor 
 bitant rates are charged, or by " padding "" the accounts of the 
 laborers, manage to bring them out in debt at the close of 
 each year. 
 
 And this system is carried on year after year, and the 
 colored man never gets ahead and so cannot leave his plan 
 tation prison-pen. The planter holds the laborer in debt as 
 long as it suits his convenience to do so. The laborer has 
 no relief in the law of the state. Such hardships drive many 
 colored people from the plantations to the cities. 
 
 In the name of the law, colored men may also be arrested 
 for debt and sold at public auction, into servitude. And 
 those laborers are compelled to work without pay while their 
 families are exposed to want and made to suffer ; the wages 
 which they ought to receive being divided between the 
 planters and the magistrates. 
 
 The following press despatch throws some light on this 
 matter: "The Federal grand jury at Montgomery is ex 
 pected to return indictments against ten prominent slave 
 holders to-morrow. They will be charged with the almost 
 forgotten crime of peonage. Robert M. Franklin is already 
 under indictment on the charge of keeping a negro in servi 
 tude for a year. 
 
 " The system was called to the attention of the Department 
 of Justice a month ago, and Chief Wilkie sent Captain 
 Dickey to Montgomery to investigate. His reports indicate 
 collusion between magistrates and plantation owners who 
 wanted cheap help. 
 
 " The plan is for a negro to be brought before the magis 
 trate on charges on which he is heavily fined. Some white 
 man offers to pay his fine and save him from jail if he will 
 agree to work for him until his wages reach the amount of 
 the fine. The negroes, it is alleged, are herded together and 
 treated like convicts. When they protest, so it is charged, 
 they are whipped and beaten until they are cowed, and when 
 15 225 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 they run away they are chased with dogs, and in case of 
 recapture, compelled to work in chains. They are constantly 
 under the eyes of armed guards, and are driven to the limit 
 of human endurance. They are fed only enough to keep 
 them alive." 
 
 As a further illustration of the operations of the system 
 the following press despatch will prove of interest : " The evi 
 dence in the case of Samuel W. Tyson in the Federal court 
 which ended yesterday makes it plain that slavery still exists 
 in the United States. Tyson was ordered to pay a thousand 
 dollars fine, but he handed over only one hundred and fifty 
 dollars and the remainder was suspended by the sympathetic 
 judge. 
 
 " Tyson runs a lumber mill in Coffee County. There were 
 three cases against him. He was charged with holding Will 
 Brown, Will Thornton, and Nick Anderson, all negroes, in 
 peonage. Anderson was fined five dollars for assault and 
 battery. E. L. Warren, a white man, confessed judgment for 
 Anderson. He sold Anderson to a white man named Grumpier 
 for sixty dollars, who in turn swapped him to Tyson for a 
 negro, Jerry Stoval, and a money consideration. 
 
 " The case of Brown was that Brown borrowed a dollar from 
 H. B. Grumpier and failed to pay it back. He was arrested, 
 put in jail, handcuffed, and sold to Tyson for ninety-six dollars 
 and fifty cents. Tyson later sold Brown to George Stephens 
 for thirty-six dollars and fifty cents. Thornton owed C. D. 
 Clemens some money that he could not pay. Clemens got 
 him and sold him to Tyson, who worked him under guard for 
 three months. 11 
 
 And again other press despatches, which are fully sustained 
 by the best authority, reveal with circumstantial detail the 
 criminal practices of planters, who, with the connivance of 
 the magistrates, imprison both colored men and women on 
 their plantations and rob them of the fruits of their labor. 
 " The Department of Justice is preparing to take up again 
 
 226 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 the subject of peonage in the South. Additional reports 
 have been received indicating that negroes are held in ser 
 vitude. Assistant Attorney General Purdy has issued in 
 structions to the United States attorney for the western 
 district of Louisiana to investigate a number of alleged 
 cases of peonage on plantations near Monroe, Ouachita parish, 
 and other points in that vicinity. Information regarding 
 these cases came to the department from Judge McDaniel, 
 assistant attorney for the southern district of Texas, to whom 
 complaint had been made by relatives of a number of negroes 
 alleged to have been illegally held. Some of the stories told 
 are sensational in the extreme. 
 
 " In addition to the charges made by negroes, the Texas 
 officials have forwarded the statement of a white man living 
 in Houston, who has made several trips through northern 
 Louisiana recently, and who says that many colored people 
 of both sexes are being illegally restrained of their liberty in 
 that region. 
 
 " A feature of the affair which makes it of unusual interest 
 is the intimation that some of the peace officers are in collusion 
 with those who are alleged to be holding the negroes. One 
 man, who claimed that he had escaped from a plantation south 
 of Shreveport, asked Judge McDanieFs assistance in securing 
 the release of his brother, who was still detained there. This 
 person asserted that whenever negroes who tried to escape 
 were caught, they were soundly beaten and taken back. 
 
 " If they succeeded in getting as far as Shreveport, he said, 
 they were taken in charge by the officers and immediately 
 returned. The owner of the plantation lived at Shreveport, 
 he claimed, and the officers worked in collusion with him. 
 
 " Not long ago A. U. Crenshaw, a negro, who lives at 
 Ledbetter, Texas, showed Judge McDaniel and Marshal 
 Hanson a letter from his brother, who, it was alleged, was 
 held in bondage near Monroe. This communication told of 
 awful conditions among the negroes there. 
 
 227 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " Crenshaw gave Marshal Hanson a sum of money, which 
 Hanson forwarded to the marshal of the western district of 
 Louisiana, with instructions that it be given to Crenshaw s 
 brother. Later the money order was returned by a man who 
 said he was the deputy marshal and was acting in the place of 
 the marshal, who had died, but that he could do nothing in 
 the premises, since the order was not payable to him. The 
 necessary change was made and the order sent on again. 
 Considerable time has elapsed and nothing has been heard 
 of it. 
 
 " A negro named Johnson, whose character has been 
 vouched for by white people who knew him in Texas, has 
 also written to Houston, claiming that he and his wife are 
 being held in bondage and are refraining from attempting to 
 escape because they fear they will be recaptured and beaten 
 or killed. 
 
 " All such letters have been sent out surreptitiously, the 
 writers being afraid to forward them through the regular 
 channels. 
 
 " Judge McDaniel expresses the opinion that hundreds of 
 negroes are being held in the region indicated." 
 
 The Independent of New York City, a leading family 
 journal, commissioned one of its representatives to examine 
 into this new form of slavery in the South, and it spreads 
 before its readers in a recent issue a typical case of a colored 
 man held in slavery for thirteen years. The narrative is har 
 rowing indeed, and the saddest reflection is that it is only one 
 of many thousands that may be chronicled in the same 
 state in which this occurred. 
 
 An additional feature is that a state senator, a maker of 
 the laws, was the owner of the slave camp, and thus the 
 oppressor of those who were equal citizens, subjecting them, 
 men and women, to the most humiliating treatment, and 
 filching from them all the fruits of their hard and exacting 
 toil. The experiences and observation of this colored man, 
 
 228 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 who was held in bondage and treated as a slave for that 
 length of time, as told by himself, are in part as follows : 
 
 " The senator had bought an additional thousand acres of 
 land, and to his already large cotton plantation he added two 
 great big saw-mills and went into the lumber business. 
 Within two years the senator had in all nearly two hun 
 dred negroes working on his plantation. . . . 
 
 " Two or three years before, or about a year and a half 
 after the senator had started his camp, he had established a 
 large store, which was called the commissary. All of us free 
 laborers were compelled to buy our supplies food, clothing, 
 etc. from that store. We never used any money in our 
 dealings with the commissary, only tickets or orders, and we 
 had a general settlement once each year, in October. In this 
 store we were charged all sorts of high prices for goods, be 
 cause every year we would come out in debt to our employer. 
 If not that, we seldom had more than five or ten dollars 
 coming to us and that for a whole year s work. Well, at 
 the close of the tenth year, when we kicked and meant to 
 leave the senator, he said to some of us with a smile (and I 
 never will forget that smile I can see it now) : Boys, I m 
 sorry you Ye going to leave me. I hope you will do well in 
 your new places so well that you will be able to pay me 
 the little balances which most of you owe me. 
 
 " Word was sent out for all of us to meet him at the com 
 missary at two o clock. There he told us that, after we had 
 signed what he called a written acknowledgment of our 
 debts we might go and look for new places. The store 
 keeper took us one by one and read to us statements of our 
 accounts. According to the books there was no man of us 
 who owed the senator less than $100; some of us were put 
 down for as much as $200. I owed 8165, according to the 
 bookkeeper. No one of us would have dared to dispute a 
 white man s word oh, no we were after getting away ; 
 and we had been told that we might go, if we signed the 
 
 229 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 acknowledgments. We would have signed anything, just to 
 get away. So we stepped up, we did, and made our marks. 
 That same night we were rounded up by a constable and ten 
 or twelve white men, who aided him, and were locked up, 
 every one of us, in one of the senator s stockades. The next 
 morning it was explained to us by the two guards appointed 
 to watch us that, in the papers we had signed the day before, 
 we had not only made acknowledgment of our indebtedness, 
 but that we had also agreed to work for the senator until 
 the debts were paid by hard labor. And from that day 
 forward we were treated just like convicts. Really we had 
 made ourselves lifetime slaves, or peons, as the laws called us. 
 But, call it slavery, peonage, or what not, the truth is we 
 lived in a hell on earth what time we spent in the senator s 
 peon camp. 
 
 " My wife fared better than I did, as did the wives of some 
 of the other negroes, because the white men about the camp 
 used these unfortunate creatures as their mistresses. When 
 I was first put in the stockade my wife was still kept for a 
 while in the Big House, 1 but my little boy, who was only nine 
 years old, was given away to a negro family across the river 
 in South Carolina, and I never saw or heard of him after 
 that. When I left the camp my wife had had two children 
 for some one of the white bosses, and she was living in fairly 
 good shape in a little house off to herself. But the poor 
 negro women who were not in the class with my wife fared 
 almost as bad as the helpless negro men. Most of the time 
 the women who were peons or convicts were compelled to wear 
 men s clothes. Sometimes, when I have seen them dressed 
 like men, and plowing or hoeing or hauling logs, or working 
 at the blacksmith s trade, just the same as men, my heart 
 would bleed and my blood would boil, but I was powerless to 
 raise a hand. It would have meant death on the spot to 
 have said a word. Of the first six women brought to the 
 camp, two of them gave birth to children after they had been 
 
 230 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 there not more than tvvel\ 7 e months and the babies had 
 white men for their fathers ! 
 
 " The stockades in which we slept were, I believe, the filth 
 iest places in the world. They were cesspools of nastiness. 
 During the thirteen years that I was there I am willing to 
 swear that a mattress was never moved after it had been 
 brought there, except to turn it over once or twice a month. 
 No sheets were used, only dark-colored blankets. Most of 
 the men slept every night in the clothing that they had 
 worked in all day. Some of the worst characters were made 
 to sleep in chains. The doors were locked and barred each 
 night, and tallow candles were the only lights allowed. 
 Really the stockades were but little more than cow-lots, 
 horse-stables or hog-pens. Strange to say, not a great num 
 ber of these people died while I was there, though a great 
 many came away maimed and bruised, and, in some cases, 
 disabled for life. 
 
 " It was a hard school, that peon camp was, but I learned 
 more there in a few short months by contact with those poor 
 fellows from the outside world than ever I had known before. 
 Most of what I learned was evil, and I now know that I 
 should have been better off without the knowledge, but much 
 of what I learned was helpful to me. Barring two or three 
 severe and brutal whippings which I received, I got along 
 very well, all things considered ; but the system is damnable. 
 A favorite way of whipping a man was to strap him down to 
 a log, flat on his back, and spank him forty or sixty times on 
 his bare feet and limbs with a shingle or a huge piece of 
 plank. When the man would get up with sore and blistered 
 feet and an aching body, if he could not then keep up with 
 the other men at work he would be strapped to the log 
 again, this time face downward, and would be lashed with a 
 buggy trace on his bare back. . . . 
 
 "One of the usual ways to secure laborers for a large 
 peonage camp is for the proprietor to send out an agent to 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the little courts in the towns and villages ; and where a man 
 charged with some petty offence has no friends or money, the 
 agent will urge him to plead guilty, with the understanding 
 that the agent will pay his fine, and in that way save him 
 from the disgrace of being sent to jail or the chain-gang! 
 For this high favor the man must sign beforehand a paper 
 signifying his willingness to go to the farm and work out the 
 amount of the fine imposed. When he reaches the farm he 
 has to be fed and clothed, to be sure, and these things are 
 charged up to his account. By the time he has worked out 
 his first debt another is hanging over his head, and so on and 
 so on, by a sort of endless chain, for an indefinite period ; as 
 in every case the indebtedness is arbitrarily arranged by the 
 employer. In many cases it is very evident that the court 
 officials are in collusion with the proprietors or agents, and 
 that they divide the graft 1 among themselves. As an 
 example of this dickering among the whites, every year many 
 convicts were brought to the senator s camp from a certain 
 county in South Georgia, way down in the turpentine district. 
 The majority of these men were charged with adultery. . . . 
 
 " I have been here in the district since they released me, 
 and I reckon 1 11 die either in a coal mine or an iron furnace : 
 it don t make much difference which. Either is better than 
 a Georgia peon camp. And a Georgia peon camp is hell 
 itself!" 
 
 This unfortunate man also relates the cruel and revolting 
 manner in which colored women were thrown across a barrel 
 and brutally flogged. 
 
 The New York World prints a picture of a "Stockade 
 Pen" in South Carolina, showing the hapless negroes at 
 work in convict garbs, surrounded by bloodhounds and 
 guards. And after stating that the negroes whom Abraham 
 Lincoln emancipated and whose emancipation a million men 
 died to seal are still held and treated as slaves, proceeds to 
 give these details : " Convict slaves are traded freely among 
 
 232 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 the land owners. They are forced to labor, for which they 
 receive no pay ; they are flogged, made to work when ill, 
 made the victims of man-hunts,"* and otherwise ill-used. 
 Women are treated with similar cruelty. 
 
 " When the stock of convicts gives out, innocent negroes, 
 it is now proved, are railroaded into the penitentiary, and 
 thence obtained by the men who become their masters. The 
 system has continued for years in open defiance of law and 
 humanity. These are facts now officially verified. 
 
 " The offenders are so well protected by money and influ 
 ence that it is doubtful if they can be punished, or even that 
 the practice can be stopped. If these proceedings are not at 
 first clear, here are the details : William A. Neal, of Ander 
 son, who was superintendent of the state penitentiary, and 
 who was tried in court for being short in his accounts, was 
 the first man to introduce the convict lease system in Ander 
 son County. A stockade was built and convicts from the 
 penitentiary, which was overcrowded with criminals, were 
 sent under guard to the place; it being arranged that the 
 state was to receive a revenue. 
 
 "The plan worked splendidly for the planters. The 
 expense was small, and the lash, freely administered, made the 
 negroes give the best of their efforts for the managers. 
 
 " At this time plans were quietly put on foot to seize 
 ignorant negroes, have mock trials, and commit them to the 
 stockades where their labor could be had for the scant food 
 offered and the expense of the convict garb and shackles. 
 
 " From the state stockade relatives of the managers built 
 private prisons on the big farms and a ransom was paid for 
 every negro seized and sent in. It was the same system of 
 shanghaiing transferred from the sea to the farm. 
 
 " Recent developments have given an inside view into the 
 operation of the prisons, and the discovery of the private 
 stockades has shown a more terrible condition than was at 
 first imagined. . . . 
 
 233 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " Not one of the freed slaves has dared to testify against 
 the man who outrageously ill-used him. There are too many 
 sharp eyes about, too many pistols, too many bloodhounds, 
 and the unfortunate creatures were long since cowed out of 
 every likeness to their manhood. More potent than any law 
 on earth is the unreasoning fear which the brutal slave 
 owners have succeeded in infusing into the very life-blood of 
 the creatures they have deprived of liberty. . . . 
 
 "The death of Will Hull, a poor negro, who had been 
 seized on a trumped-up charge and illegally committed to the 
 stockade, led to the investigation. Hull protested against 
 his incarceration, asked for a fair trial, and got a blow from a 
 club. Then the negro planned to escape, and at night, with 
 the chains still binding his legs, he stole forth. 
 
 " But the guards had orders to watch him. As Hull was 
 going away, a bullet from a 54-calibre rifle bored its way into 
 his brain and he fell dead. . . . 
 
 " The most appalling of the abuses is that women were 
 seized and made to work. They were whipped with cat-o- 
 nine- tails because they failed to scrub and work when com 
 mon humanity showed that they should have been in 
 hospitals ; and there was no protest. . . . 
 
 "When sport got dull on the stockade plantations, the 
 bloodhounds were called forth, and the speediest negroes were 
 unshackled. 
 
 " Sunday was the big day for sporting blood to boil, and 
 this thirst could only be satisfied with a vicious man-hunt. 
 The negroes were unshackled and sent running through 
 the swamps and over the hills. There was no danger of 
 making an effectual escape. Two hours after the negroes 
 left the pen, the dogs were unleashed. Men on horseback 
 were ready for the start, and with yelping and crying the 
 trail was followed and the man-hunt was on. Once a 
 negro failed to reach safety in a tree, and he was mangled 
 fearfully. 
 
 234 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 " The so-called contracts by which these negroes were 
 jailed gave the owners the right to sell or trade them as 
 they saw fit. They were used and handled as convicts, when 
 in fact they were free citizens. But laws are not a figure in 
 these dens of iniquity. 
 
 "The men had to wear stripes; and they had to bear 
 shackles. When night came and work had to stop they were 
 sent to the pens, locked in, and guarded. Long before day 
 light they were called out, and with the first dawn they were 
 toiling in the fields. When sickness made them unfit for 
 work, they were whipped and lashed for trifling. Even the 
 hot iron is said to have been used, and the grand jury is 
 searching for the slaves who were branded like wild cattle. 11 
 
 The World also says that the grand jury by its " verdict 
 accuses scores of wealthy South Carolinians of practices of 
 atrocious villany. r> 
 
 The Chicago Tribune of recent date prints this press de 
 spatch : " A special to the Tribune from Savannah says that 
 state senator Foye of Egypt, Georgia, has been brought here 
 under arrest by Federal officers on a charge of holding negroes 
 in bondage. Foye is one of the wealthiest men in south 
 Georgia and is a Democratic leader. He conducts several 
 large turpentine farms near Egypt, and Federal officers assert 
 that he is holding many negroes as slaves. The negroes are 
 confined at night in stockades and are worked in chains 
 during the day. 11 
 
 The gravity of the situation is emphasized in a recent event. 
 The Honorable William H. Moody, Attorney-General of the 
 United States, in filing a brief with the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, in a peonage case recently brought before 
 that high tribunal from Georgia, uses these startling words: 
 " Immediately upon the certification of this case to the su 
 preme court, several of the district judges in the fifth circuit, 
 in which numerous prosecutions for violations of this statute 
 were pending, refused to try any of the cases, and postponed 
 
 235 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the same to await the decision of the court in this case. It 
 is therefore quite evident that the executive arm of the law, 
 so far at least as the enforcement of this statute is concerned, 
 is practically paralyzed, even in the most typical and flagrant 
 cases. We think we may truthfully say that upon the decision 
 of this case hangs the liberty of thousands of persons, mostly 
 colored, it is true, who are now being held in a condition of 
 involuntary servitude, in many cases worse than slavery itself, 
 by the unlawful acts of individuals, not only in violation of 
 the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, but in viola 
 tion of the law which we have here under consideration." 
 
 Thus it is shown that forty years after the destruction of 
 slavery, a new system of servitude is in operation, concerning 
 which the Attorney-General of the United States informs the 
 Supreme Court of the United States that the executive arm 
 of the Government is paralyzed in dealing with it. If 
 the Southern leaders are given a free hand for fifty or a 
 hundred years more, the fate of the colored man will be worse 
 than in the blackest day of slavery. 
 
 The legislature of Georgia, a few years ago, appointed a 
 committee to investigate the operations of the penal system 
 of the state. The committee reported a shocking state of 
 affairs, both in chain-gangs and in many convict stockades 
 scattered over the state. It showed that colored men and 
 women were poorly fed ; worked to the limit of human 
 endurance and beyond it ; that the sick forced to work, in 
 some cases, had died while at the task ; that men were held 
 for years after their sentences had expired, because they were 
 profitable workmen ; that convicts were brutally flogged in 
 some cases whipped to death ; that they were shot to death at 
 times without justification ; and that they were subject to 
 many other inhumanities. But it appears that the condition 
 of these unfortunate people has not been bettered. 
 
 An official investigation of the penal system of Florida dis 
 closed even greater abuses. In this state it was shown that 
 
 236 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 convicts were murdered because they dared to protest against 
 being held after their sentences had expired ; and any com 
 plaint meant floggings and probable death. 
 
 The chain-gangs in Atlanta, Georgia, reek with horrible 
 inhumanities. In that city colored girls of tender age, who 
 were guilty of no other offence than that of " sassing back " 
 at the "Missus," have been sent to the chain-gang stockade. 
 The lesson of abject submission must be enforced. In this 
 stockade colored men and women are brutally beaten on the 
 slightest pretext. 
 
 Another horrible feature of the terrible system is that 
 colored women and girls are used for the purpose of training 
 the bloodhounds. These unfortunates, in some cases so poorly 
 and lightly clad as to sicken the moral sense of the ordinary 
 citizen, are summoned to " quarters," and at the crack of the 
 driver s whip they flee to the woods, and must climb trees be 
 fore the yelping bloodhounds can overtake them, or else their 
 bodies will be fearfully mangled. This is oft repeated. 
 
 A writer in the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican 
 says : " As one who has been in close contact with the social 
 systems of the Southern states and knows very well the work 
 ings of this penal system, particularly of Georgia, let me say 
 to you that the system of criminal justice, or rather injustice, 
 applied to the negro is but a system of the worst slavery in 
 itself. It is justified in the minds of men by the seldom 
 spoken, yet because silent, nevertheless potent, belief and con 
 viction that the nigger ought to be a slave anyway. 1 
 
 " Slavery fostered and has bequeathed to the population of 
 the South a cruelty and a crudity of criminal punishment 
 foreign to the humane spirit of our age ; and so outrageous is 
 the system that it would long ago have been abolished if it 
 were not for the fact that it is the negro who suffers most by 
 it. The penitentiaries, or convict settlements, for there are 
 no penitentiaries, are simply unspeakable. And the treat 
 ment of the convicts in the camps by lessees who pay the 
 
 237 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 state eleven dollars a year for an able-bodied man, is such 
 that an average of three years and five months of life in one 
 of these camps is the record, while no man has ever been 
 known to survive more than seventeen years. 
 
 " A few of the many cases that came under my personal 
 observation might be of general interest. I saw a boy twelve 
 years old sent to one of these camps for larceny, for a term of 
 three years. There are no places for juvenile offenders, and it 
 is not strange if their own chickens come home to roost in the 
 shape of rape and theft and general cussedness by young 
 criminals who have been schooled in these prisons. 
 
 44 1 saw a man who had served a term under a convict lease 
 in a brick company s camp and the condition of that man s 
 hands from handling hot bricks, and the condition of his back 
 from stripes received were suggestive of the very limit, not 
 only of human cruelty but the limit of human endurance as 
 well. 
 
 " I saw a man returned after a term of four years, and the 
 sides of the fellow, his elbows, his shoulders, hips, and the 
 side of his legs were hard and calloused from lying on his 
 sides in the mine, where the opening was not allowed to be 
 made sufficiently large for comfortable work, and where, he 
 told me, he had often worked far into the night, to send 
 up his stint" before the bucket came down with the order 
 to get in and come up ; only to return at sun-up in the 
 morning. 
 
 " A mother, half white, with her daughter lighter still, 
 about fifteen years old, came to me one day to inquire if any 
 redress could be had against the convict authorities for the 
 inhuman treatment of the girl, while serving a year s sentence 
 in the stockade for some trivial offence. She had been 
 whipped unmercifully, as scars on her shoulders and upper 
 back plainly showed, and I was afterward told by the 
 physician to whom I sent her for treatment that she had a 
 running sore on her hip, caused by a cut made by a strap in 
 
 238 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 the hands of the whipping boss. The whipping boss, 1 be 
 it known, is a legal functionary and an invariable and much 
 overworked adjunct to every convict settlement. This child, 
 for she was not more, and frail at that, was at the time I saw 
 her, shortly after her release, four months pregnant by one of 
 the guards ; which one she did not know. The mother s grief 
 was pitiful. There was nothing to be done. It is easy to 
 surmise what the remedy would have been had the color of 
 the skins of the respective parties been reversed. 
 
 " Two stalwart fellows came with a friend one night to 
 consult me about their situation. It was a sorry plight, 
 indeed. They had escaped from the chain-gang, after being 
 unmercifully beaten. Both were so cut and bruised across 
 the back that their shirts stuck in places to the open sores. 
 They were desperate and frantic with fear lest they should be 
 apprehended, and declared they would rather die than return 
 to the camp. This friend, at a loss to know what to do for 
 them, fearing to be seen in their company, brought them to 
 me. I could do nothing for them, but advised them to get 
 out of the country. They took the hint and started. 
 
 "The one least injured was overtaken by the bloodhounds 
 next day, and brought into court to be resentenced as an 
 escape," 1 which means, under the law, doubling his sentence. 
 He was shot a few weeks later, as it was said, in an attempt 
 to escape. The other I never heard from. This is no tale 
 of sixteenth-century barbarity, but of living, existing facts of 
 our own day and in our own land. I can make no more tell 
 ing comment on the negro-con vict-lease system than to quote 
 the language of one of Georgia s men, who sees in it a blot 
 upon our civilization and a disgrace to humanity. Dr. Felton, 
 a few years ago, while a member of the Georgia legislature, 
 said : If the fiends of hell had undertaken to devise a penal 
 system, devilish, barbarous, and malignant, they could not 
 have succeeded more fully than Georgia has succeeded in her 
 system. And what is true of Georgia is also true of the 
 
 239 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 whole South on this subject. Such a system is only possible 
 where two centuries of slavery have blunted human hearts to 
 all the finer instincts concerning the rights of the subject 
 race. One is prone to believe with Samuel Clemens that, 
 while there are many humorous things, one of the most 
 ludicrous is the fact that the white man thinks he is less 
 savage than the other savages. " 
 
 So the penal system in the South, which ought to be oper 
 ated for the punishment or correction of criminals, is proved 
 by the records of the United States courts and competent 
 witnesses to be itself an organized system of crime ; and is 
 administered in many instances by criminal officials who are 
 more deserving of punishment than the criminals in stripes. 
 These records also show that the makers of the law, the 
 magistrates of the law, and the sheriffs or guardians of the 
 law are in many instances participes criminis in the breaking 
 of the law and the violation of the liberty of citizens. 
 
 After a colored man or woman has passed through the 
 hands of such " schoolmasters " and such a " school of crime, 1 
 what hope is there for such a being ? The state courts take 
 no cognizance of these things. The white people have all 
 the power necessary to blot out these terrible evils in a week. 
 
 This must be conclusive, if one would but consider what 
 would be done if the case was reversed ? Suppose that colored 
 farmers were arresting white men and women on trumped-up 
 charges and working them by day in chains and sleeping them 
 in stockades and subjecting them to the same abuses which 
 colored men and women are now compelled to endure. Would 
 the whites submit to such conditions for twenty-four hours ? 
 If necessary, to wipe out such crimes, would not negro blood 
 flow as free as water ? These evils can be remedied and that 
 quickly, if there were a disposition to accomplish it. 
 
 They are allowed to exist because they are tributary to 
 the plans of the reactionists, to depress the spirit of the 
 colored people and aid in making them a subject race by 
 
 240 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 closing " the door of hope " to them. The leaders are acting 
 on the principle that every humiliation, oppression, or out 
 rage inflicted on the colored people helps to undermine the 
 itwrale of the race and make alienation and subjugation 
 easier. 
 
 There are illustrations in the concrete of other and more 
 sanguinary persecutions of which the colored people are the 
 helpless victims. These are riots and lynchings. The reac 
 tionists through secret societies, on the order of the Ku Klux 
 Klan, are thoroughly organized. They can produce riots 
 and lynchings as by clockwork. At Wilmington, North 
 Carolina, after rioting and shooting down colored men on 
 the streets for three days, the rioters were called off as sud 
 denly as they had assembled. 
 
 When the leaders pass the word for the rioters to act 
 they act. When they say stop the rioters stop. If they 
 decide that a lesson must be taught and negroes must be 
 lynched lynching takes place. If they think that there is 
 no particular need for lynching and the courts may act in a 
 given case the courts act. The white people can put down 
 lynchings and curb riotings whenever and wherever they may 
 make up their minds to do so. 
 
 Those lynchings and riots are a fearful strain on the nerves 
 of the colored people. No one is safe when the mob starts 
 out on its bloody work. Innocent people, who had not even 
 heard that a crime had been committed and who were not 
 suspecting the existence of the mob and by mere chance 
 came within its sphere of operation, have been done to 
 the death. 
 
 The lynchings in Statesboro 1 , Georgia, on the 16th and 
 17th of August, 1904, show order and method in the per 
 formance they were directed by a leading mind. A murder 
 had been committed. Two negroes were condemned to 
 death. Others were under arrest in jail awaiting trial. The 
 judge congratulates the community on its respect for law 
 16 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and order. All was quiet the night before. All is quiet 
 in the morning. But suddenly the mob appears, the two 
 negroes convicted are seized and burned alive at the stake. 
 There were guards on hand ; they had guns, but no bullets, 
 and so were brushed aside. The negroes were taken from 
 the court house the temple of justice. The judge and 
 others protested. But what does a Georgia mob care for 
 judges, justice, or law ? Members of the secret clans can get 
 on the jury and save their fellows from the penalty of the 
 law. 
 
 The affair is described in part by the following press de 
 spatch to the New York Sun : " Men, as they passed on the 
 street during the evening, looked at each other significantly, 
 as men lately initiated into the same mysteries, but there was 
 little said or heard in public. . . . 
 
 " There was no effort of any sort made on the part of the 
 mob at disguise. Everything was done in the broad open 
 daylight, without masks or other concealment. Men who 
 represented the wealth and the worth of the town openly 
 joined in the work of leading the mob. These were the ones 
 who led the rush on the court house and up the stairs to the 
 little room in which the prisoners were confined. The mob, 
 with its victims closely hemmed in, then proceeded to the 
 place of execution. Everything had been prepared. The 
 stake was a light-wood stump about seven feet high. The 
 negroes were bound to this by a stout chain. At their feet 
 light-wood knots were piled, and brushwood and splinters 
 reached to their waists. 
 
 " This done, a man mounted the top of the stump and 
 can after can of kerosene were handed up to him. Probably 
 twenty gallons were poured over them in liberal quantities 
 and they were ready for fire. Without a pause these prepa 
 rations had gone on. As they were finished a man stepped 
 forward and applied the match. The flames rose over the 
 negroes and they uttered a simultaneous groan. 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 " Reed seemed to bear the torture with fortitude and died 
 quickly. Within three minutes he had ceased to utter sounds, 
 and the only sign of life was the convulsive bending of the 
 left arm at the elbow. This soon ceased and he was burned 
 to a crisp. 
 
 " Cato seemed to die harder. Long after the life had left 
 Reed s body he continued to utter cries and to writhe in the 
 flames, which seemed to have less play at him than Reed. 
 Finally one of the mob leaned over and with a bludgeon 
 smashed Cato s head open and he seemed to give up the ghost. 
 His body then turned and took a horizontal position in the 
 fire and slowly burned to a crisp and then to ashes."" 
 
 After its work, the mob dispersed. The town was again 
 quiet until the next dav, when the mob suddenly renewed its 
 work and lynched three more negroes. 
 
 A special despatch to the New York World says : " * Regu 
 lators " are riding Bullock County ; one unidentified negro 
 has been riddled with bullets, two others perhaps fatally shot, 
 and everywhere negroes are being unmercifully whipped by 
 the bands. 
 
 " An absolute reign of terror exists throughout the coun 
 try. A crowd passed the house of Albert Roberts, an old 
 negro, living near Register, and fired a broadside into it. 
 The old negro, a thoroughly peaceable man, was mortally 
 wounded, and his seventeen -year-old son, Raymond, was 
 struck by several bullets. The negro was seventy-odd years 
 of age. . . . 
 
 " Wild spirits from surrounding counties have flocked to 
 Statesboro and are aiding in the whipping and assaulting of 
 the inoffensive negroes. . . . 
 
 " The unidentified body of a negro was found lying by the 
 roadside riddled with bullets eight miles from here. It was 
 at first believed to be that of Handy Bell, but men who 
 know him say that it was not he/ 1 
 
 The World editorially says : 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " The burning of negroes by a mob at Statesboro , Georgia, 
 yesterday, was one of the most barbarous and wanton crimes 
 ever committed in the name of lynch law. 
 
 " The victims had been convicted of murder, after a prompt 
 and fair trial, and had been sentenced to be hanged on Sep 
 tember 9th. So that the usual excuse of uncertain or delayed 
 legal justice was not present. Yet the mob overpowered 
 the militia without a shot having been fired, apparently 
 and took the condemned prisoners to the woods and burned 
 them at the stake. If Darkest Africa is any blacker than 
 this, travellers have failed to report it. Even the savages 1 
 rude forms of justice are respected." 
 
 The Southern leaders and their apologists are accustomed 
 to justify lynchings on the ground of the protection of 
 womanhood. Whenever they speak in public, in Congress 
 or elsewhere, the blood of negroes lynched is spattered on the 
 head of womanhood. To push womanhood to the front and 
 make it bear the brunt of barbarous crimes committed on 
 the negroes from " stark blood-lust overwhelming the appeal 
 to reason," which is absolutely true of the great majority of 
 lynchings, is unwise and merits the condemnation of chivalric 
 manhood. Negroes have been lynched in the South for every 
 crime ; and they have been lynched when no crime whatever 
 has been charged. The negro man, the woman, the youth 
 fourteen years of age, the child three years of age, the babe in 
 the mother s arms who could not lisp the word " mamma," 
 have been the victims of the lynching mobs. 
 
 The records of lynchings kept by the Chicago Tribune, a 
 reliable authority, show that only two or three out of every 
 ten colored persons lynched are even charged with the name 
 less offence. It has been proved that some of those charged 
 with the crime were innocent. In a particular instance a 
 white man who killed his wife while in a passion charged 
 one of the negroes who worked on his place with having 
 assaulted and murdered his wife. And this white man 
 
 244 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 headed the mob which lynched the negro. He made a full 
 confession on his death-bed of the negro s innocence. 
 
 Riotings and lynchings have become dominant features in 
 Southern life and their reflex influence has caused the enact 
 ment of bloody deeds in a few Northern communities. It 
 does not help matters to say that in Illinois, Kansas, or 
 Delaware a mob can burn a negro at the stake with all the 
 cruelties of a Georgia, Mississippi, or Texas mob. It is due 
 to Southern example ; and it has been proved that men from 
 the South have been the leaders of Northern mobs. It is 
 also true that many Southern men residing in the North, 
 and also visiting Southerners, seize every opportunity to 
 discredit the colored man and inflame passions against 
 him. 
 
 Senator Tillman, while on a visit North, referring to the 
 violence committed by a Northern mob, said : " I see you are 
 learning how to kill and burn niggers. 1 That s right ; let 
 the good work go on. Keep it up; you are getting some 
 sense." Other Southerners, through the press and in addresses, 
 have made statements calculated to inflame certain elements, 
 and doubtless have caused much mischief. The good people 
 of the North can and should call a halt to those Southerners 
 who are seeking to create strife between the races in the 
 North. The " strikes" among a few school children against 
 colored teachers or pupils are due to the barbarous teachings 
 of these Southern leaders. 
 
 The truth remains, however, that lynch-law does not 
 dominate any Northern state. It does dominate Southern 
 states. It has become a part of Southern civilization and is 
 publicly defended by many leading Southern men. The 
 ISKjrthern man in public life who should advocate lynching 
 would be disgraced. The Southern men who defend or 
 endorse it, like Tillman, Carmack, Vardaman, Richardson, 
 Graves, and Money, are honored in public life and kept in 
 high places. 
 
 245 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 To indicate how general lynchings have become in the 
 South, and to emphasize, if possible, the infamy of it, the 
 following cases may be cited : At Carrollton, Louisiana, 
 a negro man and two women were lynched : they were sus 
 pected of being implicated in a murder. In Smith County, 
 Mississippi, four negro men and one woman were lynched, and 
 eight or ten badly beaten, and most of the negroes ordered 
 to leave : they were suspected of wounding two white men. 
 In Mississippi, a negro woman was lynched ; " the mob 
 visited the woman s house and after tying her hands behind 
 her, took her to the bridge over Lick Creek. Here she was 
 shot through the head and her lifeless body was thrown into 
 the stream " : her offence was that her brother was charged 
 with stealing a pocket-book and she could not tell the mob 
 of his whereabouts, and so was lynched. 
 
 In Louisiana, a young negro was lynched because he 
 could not tell the whereabouts of his brother, who was 
 charged with theft. At Lewisburg, Tennessee, a negro was 
 lynched in the court-house yard : he was suspected of murder. 
 In St. James Parish, Louisiana, a negro charged with murder 
 was burned at the stake. At Florence, Alabama, a negro 
 was lynched by being " hamstrung, hung up by the heels like 
 a hog, and allowed slowly to bleed to death " : his offence was 
 that he had protested loudly against the killing of innocent 
 negroes. At or near Tuscombia, Alabama, three negroes 
 were lynched, because one had resisted arrest. 
 
 In South Carolina, a negro man and wife were intercepted 
 while on the way to Abbeville jail, taken from the sheriff, and 
 hanged on a bridge, and their bodies riddled with bullets : 
 they were suspected of murder. At Langley, South Carolina, 
 two negroes who had been wounded in a fight in the " Jim 
 Crow " car set apart for colored people, and which had been 
 invaded by whites, and whom the doctor said could not 
 possibly live, were taken from the jail and lynched. At 
 Newbern, Tennessee, two negroes were lynched : they were 
 
 246 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 suspected of murder. At Memphis, Tennessee, four negroes 
 were lynched for starting a grocery store, in competition with 
 a white man, in a colored settlement. 
 
 At Joplin, Missouri, several negroes were lynched, a number 
 of their homes were burned, and over a thousand were driven 
 out in one day. The home of postmaster Baker, of South 
 Carolina, was surrounded at night ; oil was poured on the 
 house and it was set on fire. When the family attempted to 
 escape, the mob opened fire on them. Mr. Baker was killed ; 
 his young babe in his arms was killed; his wife and two 
 daughters and a son were also shot. His only offence was 
 that he was a negro who held a Federal office. In Louisiana, 
 a leading negro minister was lynched because he advised 
 the colored people to become the owners of their own homes 
 and farms. In the same state, near Girard, a negro was 
 lynched ; the only offence that he was charged with was the 
 stealing of a bottle of " pop." 
 
 At Hodenville, Kentucky, a negro was lynched on the 
 court-house steps : he was charged with causing a white 
 boy to steal. At Brookside, Alabama, three white men shot 
 down an inoffensive negro just for fun one saying, " Watch 
 the coon jump." The negro was shot dead. 
 
 In one case a young white girl was made the executioner. 
 She put the rope around the victim s neck ; he was then 
 placed on the back of a horse ; the end of the rope was 
 thrown over the limb of a tree, and the little girl took 
 hold of the bridle of the horse and led it away, leaving 
 the victim hanging. The body was then riddled with bul 
 lets. Where else in civilization could such a spectacle be 
 witnessed ? 
 
 At Beach Still, Georgia, the negroes were having a dance, 
 when the hall was fired upon by white men ; two negroes 
 were killed, and nine wounded, including three women. In 
 Gunterville, Alabama, a negro was lynched ; the charge was 
 barn-burning. In South Carolina five negroes were lynched : 
 
 247 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 they were suspected of having burned a barn. It was after 
 wards proven that they were innocent. 
 
 The Boston Journal cites this case : " Viewed from any 
 standpoint the lynching of negro Robert White in Alabama 
 was a cowardly murder. A white man had killed all of 
 White s chickens. This resulted in a row and shots were 
 exchanged. No white participant in the affair was troubled, 
 but the negro was arrested, and while in the hands of an 
 officer, going to jail, he was seized by a mob of white men 
 and put to death. Every man in that mob was nothing less 
 than a murderer and should be so treated ; but the victim 
 was only a nigger who had no rights which white folks of 
 that sort respect, and the murderer will go scot free." 
 
 In Salisbury, North Carolina, two negro boys were taken 
 from the jail and lynched : they were suspected of murder. 
 
 Pierce City, Missouri, shows this record : " For nearly 
 fifteen hours to-day this town of 3,000 people has been in 
 the hands of a mob of armed men, determined to drive out 
 every negro. In addition to the lynching last night of 
 William Godley, accused falsely, it is believed, of murder, 
 and the shooting of his grandfather, French Godley, the mob 
 to-day burned Peter Hampton, an aged negro, alive in his 
 home, set the torch to the houses of five blacks and with the 
 aid of state militia rifles, stolen from the local company s 
 arsenal, drove dozens of negroes from town. After noon the 
 excitement died down, the mob gradually dispersing, more 
 from lack of negroes upon whom to wreak their hatred than 
 from any other cause. Many of the negroes who fled the 
 city are hiding in the surrounding woods, while others have 
 gone greater distances in seeking safety." 
 
 A colored camp-meeting in Mississippi was raided by 
 whites ; thirty colored people engaged in the worship of God 
 were killed, including the pastor, his wife, a daughter twelve 
 years of age, his younger child three years of age, and a 
 minister who was assisting in the meetings. The whites in- 
 
 248 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 terfered with the meeting. The killing was wanton ; there 
 were no charges against any of the colored people. 
 
 In South Carolina a number of colored men appeared at 
 the polls to vote, and a riot was started. Seven of the colored 
 men were captured and made to stand up on a log, and were 
 there shot to death : their offence was that they had at 
 tempted to vote. The white man who was running for 
 Congress and for whom they wanted to vote was also shot. 
 In Arkansas, fifteen negroes were lynched as a result of a 
 dispute in which a colored man doubted a white man s 
 word over a grocery bill. 
 
 The New York World) reviewing the crimes of 1901, says : 
 u Lynchings show one hundred and seven cases in the South, 
 nil colored . . . Race hatred is the cause of many crimes . . . 
 Thus ten persons were killed for no other cause than race 
 prejudice in the South last year. 11 Many of those lynched 
 for " cause " were innocent of crime. 
 
 The New York Journal describes a case in these words : 
 " Call to your mind the picture of the negro, with a rope 
 hanging around his neck, escaping from the mob the other 
 day and running to the sheriff with his face battered in. The 
 mob had wanted to lynch him because he would not confess 
 that some one else was guilty of arson." The Journal, re 
 ferring to another case, said : " Negroes are lynched for being 
 born into the world. 1 1 
 
 The Nashville (Tennessee) American gives an account of a 
 lynching in Mississippi as follows : "But there was a lynching 
 in that state that for fiendish brutality has not yet been sur 
 passed, even when the victims have been roasted at the stake. 
 It occurred at Doddsville, recently, and these are the circum 
 stances as related by local newspapers : Luther Holbert, a 
 negro, had a quarrel with a white man and, following the 
 usual Mississippi method, they exchanged shots, the negro 
 escaping and the white man being killed. The negro, 
 knowing the penalty for killing a white man in that section, 
 
 249 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 fled, of course, accompanied by his wife, who had had no 
 part in the quarrel. They were captured by the mob and 
 this is what was done to them, according to the statement of 
 an eye-witness in the Vicksburg Herald. 
 
 " When the two negroes were captured they were tied to 
 trees, and while the funeral pyres were being prepared they 
 were forced to suffer the most fiendish tortures. The blacks 
 were forced to hold out their hands while one finger at a time 
 was chopped off. The fingers were distributed as souvenirs. 
 The ears of the murderers were cut off. Holbert was 
 severely beaten, his skull was fractured, and one of his eyes, 
 knocked out with a stick, hung by a shred from the socket. 
 Neither the man nor the woman begged for mercy, nor made 
 a groan or plea. When the executioners came forward to 
 lop off fingers, Holbert extended his hand without being 
 asked. The most excruciating form of punishment consisted 
 in the use of a large corkscrew in the hands of one of the 
 mob. This instrument was bored into the flesh of the man 
 and the woman, in the arms, legs, and body, and pulled out, 
 the spiral tearing out big pieces of raw, quivering flesh every 
 time it was withdrawn. 
 
 " After these tortures the mutilated bodies were burned. 
 Had this negro outraged a white woman ? Oh, no ; he had 
 merely killed a white man who was shooting at him. His 
 wife had committed no crime, but simply fled with her hus 
 band. Yet she was made to share his fate, and with him to 
 suffer the most cruel and brutal tortures the devilish in 
 genuity of the degraded savages could devise."* "" 
 
 During the last ten years lynchings have averaged one hun 
 dred and fifty a year. Many of the victims were known to 
 be innocent at the time, but when the mob starts out it must 
 have blood, whether the victims are guilty or innocent. 
 Numerous riots and expulsions have also taken place. 
 
 A feature in connection herewith, worthy of note, is that 
 the coroner s jury, impanelled to uphold the law, as a rule 
 
 250 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 renders the stereotyped verdict that " The party or parties 
 came to their death at the hands of persons unknown. 1 And 
 this in the face of the fact that the press publishes the names 
 of the leaders of the mob, and of the man who fires the first 
 shot or lights the fire to burn the victim. Sometimes the 
 jury treats the matter as a joke ; in one case they rendered 
 the verdict that " the deceased came to his death by swinging 
 in the air." Again, that " the deceased came to his death by 
 taking too great a bite of hemp rope." At other times their 
 verdict is a direct incentive to crime ; as for instance this : 
 " We do not know who killed the deceased, but we con 
 gratulate the parties on their work." Members of the mobs 
 have also served on the coroner s jury. A grand jury re 
 turned this verdict in Louisiana : " The men who par 
 ticipated in the burning were among the best citizens of the 
 county, and nothing but a desire to protect those who are 
 nearest and dearest to them would move them to undertake 
 such measures." As to the savagery of the tortures inflicted 
 upon the victims, these additional facts may be given : Red- 
 hot iron has been used to burn the tongue from the mouth ; to 
 burn the flesh from the breast and back ; to burn out the eyes ; 
 to burn the flesh from the arms and legs ; to burn off the ears 
 and nose. The heart and the liver have been removed from 
 the body and cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs of 
 the lynching. Repeatedly, events have occurred which showed 
 that the negroes who were lynched were entirely innocent. 
 
 Press despatches gave the following case : " Charleston, 
 South Carolina, March 2, 1904. After taking a prominent 
 part in lynching three negroes, section-foreman Jones, of the 
 Atlantic Coast line, to-day confessed to the murder of his 
 wife, for which the innocent men were mobbed. 
 
 " One morning during the early part of May, 1902, the body 
 of Mrs. Jones was found in the dog house, in the rear of her 
 yard, at Ravenel. Her throat was cut from ear to ear and 
 her head crushed in. 
 
 251 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 "The news of the terrible crime soon spread over Coileton 
 county and armed parties were organized and the woods were 
 scoured for negroes, it having been stated that three negro 
 men were seen in the vicinity of the Jones house the morning 
 of the tragedy. The description of the negroes corresponded 
 with that of Jim Black, James Ford, and Thomas Fryer, who 
 had been in the neighborhood, but who had suddenly dis 
 appeared. 
 
 "After searching for the negroes for a week they were 
 arrested, taken to the scene of the crime, and swung to the 
 limbs of trees. Jones was present and was given the oppor 
 tunity of firing the first shots into their bodies. 
 
 " Several weeks ago section-foreman Jones was taken sick, 
 and Dr. Willis was called in to treat him ; but he had passed 
 all medical aid, for the disease with which he was afflicted had 
 wrecked his constitution, and he began to sink. Realizing 
 that he was about to die, Jones confessed to killing his wife. 
 
 " I know I am going to die, but I can t die until I tell all 
 about killing my wife, 1 he said to his physician. He then 
 recited the details of the crime, declaring that he killed his 
 wife in a moment of passion that morning in May before he 
 left for his work. He then carried the body from the house 
 and dumped it into the dog house, where it was found by his 
 little daughter a few hours afterward. Immediately after 
 making the confession he expired." 
 
 The first thought that may impress the average mind from 
 these recitals is that the negroes are not the only, or the chief, 
 or the worst criminals in the South. Colored criminals may 
 outnumber white criminals in the penal institutions, but they 
 may not be numerically stronger outside the penitentiary. 
 Practically all colored criminals, and many not criminals go 
 to the penitentiary, but many white criminals go to Canada, 
 or into political offices, or become " guards " or " bosses." 
 Crime has increased among the colored people since emanci 
 pation, but it should be remembered that there are nearly 
 
 252 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 three times as many colored people now as were emancipated. 
 Crime has also increased among the whites. Forty years ago 
 there were practically no whites in penitentiaries in the South, 
 but now there are thousands ; besides, there are hundreds of 
 white females in prison, a condition unheard of before the 
 War of the Rebellion. One of the greatest scandals of recent 
 times in the South was the brutal flogging of a white woman 
 in a prison in Georgia. 
 
 Another thought that will suggest itself is : Why are these 
 inhumanities permitted to exist in Christian, civilized com 
 munities ? The answer is : It is because of the virus of 
 slavery in the brain of the whites, called into activity by the 
 leaders to compass the subjugation of the colored race. It is 
 a part of a carefully evolved plan by the leaders. It is de 
 signed to put the race under the contempt of the whites and 
 to destroy its morale. 
 
 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in the Atlantic Monthly, 
 shows that the reign of terror and lynchings are in defence 
 neither of law nor of chastity, but " It is in defence of caste." 
 And he further says : " What the whole nation needs is 
 to deal with the negro race no longer as outcasts, but simply 
 as men and women. " The Boston Herald says : " In all the 
 years since the war it is probable that fifty negroes have been 
 murdered by white men for every white man murdered by 
 negroes, and a hundred negro women have been debauched 
 by white men for every white woman outraged by a negro. 11 
 
 Mies Caroline Pemberton, of one of the first families of 
 Philadelphia, in a communication to the Public Ledger of 
 that city, says : " In the first place, the crime of assault is 
 not peculiar to the negro race. It is practically unknown in 
 the West Indies, in South Africa, and South America, and 
 was never charged against the Southern negro until political 
 and social conditions ripened in the minds of Southern whites 
 a frantic desire to stigmatize the whole negro race as unworthy 
 to possess the rights of men. The crime of assault so fre- 
 
 253 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 quently charged against the negro as a race is part of the 
 political conspiracy to deprive him of his legal rights. It 
 has been proved over and over again that only a very small 
 proportion of negroes who are lynched in the South are even 
 charged with this crime ; and of those who are charged with 
 it, it is safe to conclude that a fair proportion is innocent. I 
 reach this last conclusion from knowledge of the fact that 
 the charge is often made against men of all races under con 
 ditions that make their comparative innocence almost a fore 
 gone conclusion. 
 
 " In regard to negro criminality, let me assure you that I 
 speak from personal experience when I assert that the average 
 working negro is as free from pronounced criminal tendencies 
 as the white man of the same class. I have for years employed 
 colored people in my own household, and found them both 
 trustworthy and efficient. . . . 
 
 " I have travelled over the muddy roads of Eastern Virginia 
 for many miles, and through the Black Belt of Alabama for 
 several days, with no other protector in each case than a negro 
 driver, and with no thought of harm coming to me. I have 
 visited colored schools in the South, taught by white Northern 
 women whose sole protectors were their black students and 
 a few colored instructors. The only people these gentle 
 women feared were the white men of the neighborhood, 
 whose threats against the school had at one time caused them 
 grave anxiety. The loyal devotion of the blacks to these 
 white women was something beautiful to see, and was proof 
 enough that the faithful character of the negro has not 
 changed since slavery ." 
 
 Mr. James S. Stemons, in the Philadelphia Record, says : 
 " Shame ! But who can point to any negro crime so loathsome 
 as the assault and murder by four white men of Jennie Bos- 
 schieter, in Paterson, New Jersey, four years ago ; or as that 
 of the two men in Wheeling, West Virginia, who, two years 
 ago, took a seventeen-year-old girl from her escort at the point 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 of a pistol, assaulted and murdered her, and threw her body 
 into the Ohio River ; of the nine men who a few days ago 
 assaulted a young girl in this city ; of the two brothers who 
 assaulted a five-year-old child ; or that of the more than a 
 dozen men who have within the past four years assaulted, in 
 some cases at the point of a pistol, their own daughters, 
 nieces, and cousins ? " 
 
 All these cases were committed by white men. And it 
 may be noted here that the Confederate Congress, in resolu 
 tions formally adopted in October, 1862, made this same charge 
 against the soldiers of the Union army. It was unjustly 
 pressed then ; it is unjustly pressed now, against the colored 
 people. No large body of people should be held responsible 
 for the acts of a few brutal individuals. All races have 
 developed brutal men. But neither in the North nor in the 
 South has the colored race developed the most elusive, danger 
 ous, and brutal criminals. 
 
 The colored race has produced no criminals or desperadoes 
 of heartless cruelty like the James brothers ; or the man 
 Holmes, who killed so many people, including several wives 
 and his own children, that he did not keep trace of them ; or 
 the Chicago boy bandits ; or the trained nurse who wiped out 
 several families by poisoning ; or some of the guards and 
 officials of the stockades or penitentiaries and the leaders of 
 the lynching mobs. 
 
 The Chicago Chronicle, referring to an editorial in the 
 Atlanta News, edited by Mr. John Temple Graves, in which 
 he advocates the systematic establishment of a reign of terror 
 and lynching, says : 
 
 " In his leading editorial last Friday he advocates not only 
 lynching, but a revival of the Ku Klux Klan. In that 
 editorial he declares that neither law nor statutes, nor 
 public opinion, nor armed forces, nor Federal courts, nor any 
 other courts will prevent the stern expression of the popular 
 horror of crime when it is committed by a negro expression 
 
 255 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 by burning at the stake the negro suspected of the crime 
 without trial or proof of any kind. 
 
 " This man threatens to revive the masked night-riding 
 murderers if an attempt is made to invoke national law and 
 courts for the protection not only of negroes but for the 
 preservation of Southern society from lapsing into that sav 
 agery and anarchy into which by admission of the Governor 
 of Georgia it has almost fallen in that state already." 
 
 In order to accomplish the subjugation of the colored race 
 and the destruction of its citizenship, these leaders would 
 plunge the South into a state of anarchy. 
 
 For forty years the negro has been harassed and harried on 
 the right and on the left, in front and behind. He has been 
 on the run, and has not had a moment to pause and catch his 
 breath or take his bearings. He has been, and is, fearfully 
 handicapped. Some of the whites of the South have been 
 kind, friendly, and helpful to him ; many have sympathized 
 with him in his tribulations and woes, but lacked the courage 
 to manifest it ; and a few have spoken out boldly against the 
 outrages and outlawry of which he has been the victim. But 
 the leaders and the organized South have allowed him no 
 quarter, shown him no mercy. 
 
 The proscriptions and oppressions which are laid on the 
 colored man either North or South on the ground of color 
 alone have made him extremely sensitive to any infraction 
 of his rights and liberty. And in desperation he has at times 
 struck back at the oppressor, although the lyncher s noose was 
 dangling in his face. 
 
 Much of the violence of which he is guilty, especially in 
 the North, is due to resentment that certain elements in the 
 North should seek to outrage him simply because of his 
 color. A community which denies a man a fair chance to 
 earn an honest living because of his color, thus driving him 
 into idleness, is in a manner responsible for the increase of 
 its criminals. 
 
 256 
 
THE NEGRO AND THE LAW 
 
 Every municipal or state law bearing on him enacted in 
 the South since his emancipation has been to degrade, 
 ostracize, and alienate him, and deprive him of his liberty, or 
 restrict him in the realization of his dreams of freedom. On 
 the other hand, it is a cheering truth that every law passed 
 in the North touching the negro has been to confirm and 
 make secure his freedom, protect his civil rights, guarantee 
 his ballot, and put him on the same footing with all other 
 citizens before the law. 
 
 In the passage of such laws in the North, Democrats and 
 members of other political parties have nobly aided the 
 Republicans in achieving the security and firm establish 
 ment of the liberty and rights of the colored citizen. 
 
 In the South, in the state of Texas, a colored man who had 
 been carrying the mail to and fro from the State House to 
 the post-office for fifteen years was discharged under the 
 new order of things, which prohibits the negro from being 
 recognized in any public or semi-public relation in the South. 
 Such repression is general. The Richmond, Virginia, city 
 council passed a resolution prohibiting the negro from being 
 employed in any position around the City Hall. The brother 
 hood of locomotive and steamboat firemen of the South at 
 their meeting at Norfolk, Virginia, passed resolutions protest 
 ing against the employment of negroes as firemen on loco 
 motives or steamboats. Other labor organizations have 
 placed the boycott on him. He is being driven to the wall. 
 The increase of crime is coincident with the increase of 
 oppression and outlawry. The organized South is respon 
 sible for the growth in crime. 
 
 How far how long are these things to go on ? 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox has published in the New York 
 Journal, a poem which, in part, runs as follows : 
 
 " Out of the wilderness, out of the night, 
 
 Has the black man crawled to the dawn of light ; 
 Beaten by lashes and bound by chains, 
 
 n 257 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 A beast of burden with soul and brains. 
 
 He has come through sorrow and need and woe, 
 
 And the cry of his heart is to know, to know ! 
 
 " Red with anguish his way has been. 
 This suffering brother of dusky skin, 
 For centuries fettered and bound to earth. 
 Slow his unfolding to freedom s birth 
 Slow his rising from burden and ban 
 To fill the stature of mortal man. 
 You must give him wings ere you tell him to fly 
 You must set the example and bid him try ; 
 Let the white man pay for the white man s crime 
 Let him work in patience and bide God s time. 
 
 " Out of the wilderness, out of the night, 
 Has the black man crawled to the dawn of light ; 
 He has come through the valley of great despair 
 He has borne what no white man ever can bear 
 He has come through sorrow and pain and woe, 
 And the cry of his heart is to know, to know ! " 
 
 258 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE RISE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 
 OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 PRESIDENT ALDERMAN of Tulane University, 
 New Orleans, Louisiana, a well-bred, high-minded, and 
 highly cultured Southerner, who holds his equipoise even 
 in that city which is the storm-centre of " Jim Crowism," in a 
 public address said : " Progress is measured by the distance 
 one has travelled as well as to the point one has reached." 
 He was speaking on the race question. The colored race, 
 judged by this standard, measured by this mete-wand, may 
 confidently invite comparison in their forty years of struggles 
 and ascent in civilization with any people in the world s 
 history. 
 
 Another Southerner, the Right Reverend Bishop Haygood, 
 one of the greatest men, greatest in heart, greatest in brain, 
 that the South has produced, speaking of the progress of the 
 colored race, said : " It s a marvel. It overturns all of our 
 preconceived ideas about the negro. We thought we knew 
 him, but we did n t. We must in honesty confess that he has 
 surprised us and taught us much we did not know and would 
 not have believed." 
 
 The Reverend A. B. Curry, D. D., of Memphis, Tennessee, 
 who at present represents a small but important class in 
 Southern life, but a class like " the mustard seed " of the 
 parable, that will certainly multiply and predominate as the 
 South shall take the sober second thought, preached a sermon 
 in his home city on the 27th of November, 1904, in which he 
 pays a deserved tribute to the colored man and paints a word 
 portrait of him which should command consideration because 
 of its truthfulness. The sermon was published in the Mem 
 phis Commercial Appeal, and carries its own commendation 
 of the mind and heart of the minister. 
 
 259 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Dr. Curry said in part : " I am not ashamed to say that I 
 have a tender feeling in my heart for the negro. I believe I 
 would be an ingrate if I did not have such feeling. My 
 helpless infancy and early childhood were watched over with 
 a tender care and affection second only to those of the 
 mother who bore me, and it was those of my faithful negro 
 nurse on the old plantation home in southern Georgia. . . . 
 
 " We criticise him and complain of him, but we don t want 
 to give him up. Let a labor agent go through the South, 
 seeking to induce the negroes to leave the country and he 
 becomes at once, to say the least, persona non grata. I have 
 known such agents in some localities to be fined and imprisoned. 
 That means that our country needs him. He is the best 
 laborer, for the kind of labor that needs to be done in the 
 South, that we have ever found. . . . 
 
 "A year ago, when there was a disagreement between 
 our steamboat companies and their negro roustabouts, an 
 effort was made to replace the latter with white men ; but it 
 was not successful. The white men could not do the work 
 satisfactorily ; and when I went up to St. Louis the past 
 summer on the river, I understood it. I do not believe there 
 is the white race living or any other race, not even the patient 
 Chinamen, who either could or would do the work the negro 
 roustabouts do, in the way they are required to do it. The 
 negro s great muscular-strength, his powers of endurance, his 
 healthfulness in a Southern climate, and his docility of spirit 
 make him an invaluable factor in the labor problem of the 
 South, and the present material development of the South is 
 due in no small measure to the brawn and muscle and willing 
 industry of the negro. . . . 
 
 " Twenty white tramps come to my door, begging, to one 
 negro. An able-bodied negro is almost never a beggar. What 
 he asks, and what the white man owes him, is a chance to 
 work along every avenue for which his mind and his hand 
 capacitate him, with a fair wage fully and promptly paid. . . . 
 
 260 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 " There is no more docile man, nor loyal friend than 
 the negro, when convinced of your disinterested love for 
 him. 
 
 " But we are told by some that the game is not worth the 
 candle ; that after all, the negro is incapable of a high civili 
 zation and of valuable achievement ; that he is destitute of 
 the noble traits of human nature. I cannot believe this, for 
 I remember when, during the Civil War, my two oldest 
 brothers, both still in their teens, went to the front, and my 
 father was called away on a similar mission, leaving my 
 mother and her little children to the care and protection of 
 the negro slaves, that sacred trust was kept with the utmost 
 fidelity ; and there were men among them who, if need arose, 
 would have laid down their lives through devotion to their 
 trust. . . . 
 
 " I have heard of a negro man, who, after freedom, re 
 moved from his old home in Virginia to Macon, Georgia. 
 There through industry and thrift he amassed a nice amount 
 of property. Hearing that his old master and mistress in 
 Virginia, unable to adjust themselves to changed conditions, 
 had become homeless and poor, he built them a comfortable 
 little home in Macon, brought them to it, and cared for them 
 till they died, and then carried their bodies back to the old 
 Virginia home for burial. 
 
 " When I was in the Palace of Fine Arts in St. Louis this 
 summer, I saw a picture before which I stood and wept. In 
 the distance was a battle scene ; the dust of tramping men 
 and horses, the smoke of cannon and rifles filled the air; 
 broken carriages and dead and dying men strewed the 
 ground. In the foreground was the figure of a stalwart 
 negro man, bearing in his strong arms the form of a fair- 
 haired Anglo-Saxon youth. It was the devoted body ser 
 vant of a young Southerner, bearing the dead body of his 
 young master from the field of carnage, not to pause or rest 
 till he had delivered it to those whose love for it only sur- 
 
 261 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 passed his own ; and underneath the picture were these 
 words: Faithful Unto Death ; and there are men before 
 me who have seen the spirit of that picture illustrated on 
 more than one field of battle. 
 
 " I do not think a race possessed of such qualities of heart, 
 capable of such noble, unselfish deeds, is to be despised among 
 the families of the earth. There is a place for it, and a work 
 for it to do, in the world. Is it asked, what will be the final 
 destiny of the negro in America ? We cannot tell, but let 
 us do our duty to the poor man at our gate in the spirit of 
 Christ, and leave results with God. We need not fear ; they 
 will be satisfactory. 11 
 
 Mr. Sarge Plunkett of Georgia, a sane Southerner on the 
 negro question, writing to the Atlanta Constitution, says : 
 " No matter how others may feel or have felt, the negro 
 in the South has been such a surprise to me that I am slow 
 to say what he will or will not accomplish ; I am even 
 slow to say that he is as inferior as we have heard he was. 
 The negro must lift himself, and while it goes mighty hard 
 with me to acknowledge it, he is lifting himself, and he will 
 keep on lifting up and up at every opportunity. On lines of 
 accumulation, the negro has done better than an old timer 
 would have ever thought he could do. I know negroes, 
 and we all know negroes, who could fc buy, as the saying 
 goes, every child of his old master. And I can tell you, as 
 a truth, that negroes who are able to do this that I have 
 hinted have more prestige, are more respectable if you please, 
 than these children I have mentioned. Sit down coolly and 
 contemplate the negroes as they were at the end of our war 
 and as they are to-day ; do this, after laying aside the preju 
 dice that you have and I have, and I feel more than a great 
 majority will have to acknowledge that the negro is not so 
 inferior as we thought he was. 
 
 " How well can many now living remember what a picture 
 they made about the time of Lee s surrender ! 
 
 262 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 " I admit that I was fooled about their capacity, and I 
 know that thousands of others were the same. If we had 
 been told then that there would be a black man developed 
 into what we know that Washington is, we would have 
 honestly thought it foolish and passed it as a joke. When I 
 pass out about the big negro colleges around Atlanta and 
 look upon the students there, I am bound to admit that they 
 are beyond anything that I ever dreamed they could be."" 
 
 And speaking of the possibilities of a great foreign war, 
 and the availability of the negro for service in the United 
 States army, Mr. Plimkett further urges : " If we should have 
 such a war as is contemplated, I take it that the negroes will 
 join our armies just as white men join. They will march 
 under the same Hag, wear the same uniform, and are bound 
 by right to be accorded all the honors that their actions 
 mav deserve. It is more than probable it is certain that 
 there will develop heroes and heroines from out of the race 
 of whom the poets will sing, and when this is accomplished, 
 then many other things will belong to them by right and the 
 natural consequences. When we get up such a war as will 
 call for the need of these negroes, and they are formed into 
 regiments and brigades, put on the blue, rally around the 
 flag, charge batteries, and do all the duties in a soldierly way, 
 then they will feel that they have rights here that they never 
 had before, and millions of people outside of their race will 
 feel the same about the matter." 
 
 This is precisely true. In the wars in which the negroes 
 have worn the blue, they have rallied around the flag, 
 charged on batteries even unto the jaws of death, and per 
 formed all their duties in such a soldierly way that millions 
 of people outside of their race believe them to be entitled 
 to all the honors that their actions may deserve even the 
 full enjoyment of American citizenship. 
 
 But it must be evident to Mr. Plunkett that the dominant 
 leaders of the South are not the kind of men who could be 
 
 263 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 moved by the influences of which he speaks, or by humane 
 or Christian or patriotic impulses. Neither the negro soldier 
 who charged Fort Wagner or San Juan Hill, nor the negro 
 educator who has been pronounced to be among the greatest 
 of living men, would be recognized by them as an American 
 among Americans. 
 
 What then becomes of the contention that it is the white 
 man of the South alone who knows the negro ? 
 
 The rise and achievements of the race have not been along 
 one line, or two lines, or three lines, but they have been 
 witnessed in every vocation, avenue, and calling of American 
 life. In the brief space of a single generation, the manu 
 mitted race has conquered places in all the multiple phases 
 of modern activities. Verily, " the republic is opportunity/ 1 
 
 The abolitionists, philanthropists, Christians, and human 
 itarians of the North, and those scattering, but greatly 
 deserving Southerners who in wisdom " faced the rising sun,"" 
 probably built better than they knew guided and upheld 
 by the wisdom and power of Jehovah, God when they 
 decided on the kind of education that should be open to the 
 colored race at the close of the war. They refused to regard 
 the colored race as a special race, and therefore needing a 
 special kind of education. They acted on the principle that 
 as the colored people were a part of the human race, then 
 any kind and every kind of education that was good enough 
 for a white man, was good enough for them. The putting 
 in force of this simple, common-sense idea made possible the 
 wonderful success of the colored people. 
 
 If they had yielded to a " craze " for industrial education 
 and devoted their strength to it, the colored race could not 
 have gained in a hundred years the great advance in civiliza 
 tion and the splendid achievements which now stand to its 
 credit after only a single generation of endeavor. For empha 
 sis on industrial education would have circumscribed the 
 mental vision, limited the aspirations, narrowed the ambitions, 
 
 264 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 stunted all higher and broader growth, and held the race 
 close down to the lines of hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water, which was the endless routine under the slave regime. 
 The colored race can work, it knows how to work, it will 
 work, and in an experience of two hundred and fifty years it 
 proved its value as the hardiest of toilers in every Southern 
 community. 
 
 The South acknowledged the value and profitableness of 
 the negro as a toiler and producer when it went to war and 
 fought four years with vast loss in blood and treasure to hold 
 him as a part of its system. It was divinely wise that the 
 colored race in beginning its new life of liberty was taught 
 to look also on the higher and greater things of life ; that the 
 mind was taken beyond its accustomed sphere ; that the 
 things denied it in slavery were open to it in freedom ; that 
 the mind might expand with the height and breadth of the 
 universe. 
 
 Schools were planted : the lower grades ; the preparatory 
 schools ; the normal schools ; the colleges ; the professional 
 schools. They began work almost simultaneously, in 
 some cases while the shock of war was still on ; in other 
 cases the instant that peace was declared. The work was 
 earned on with such rapidity and thoroughness, and there 
 was such hearty and overwhelming response from the colored 
 people who crowded and overflowed school-houses with their 
 children, and, for lack of room in-doors, sessions were held out- 
 of-doors under the oak and elm trees that the white 
 people of the South stood sullenly surprised, and the people 
 of the North gladly amazed. It meant a revolution in the 
 Southland irresistible, sweeping, all-embracing. It meant a 
 New South! 
 
 For a time this work of education was supported by the 
 National Government, supplemented by Northern benevolence 
 and by a nominal fee which was charged the colored parent 
 for each child. The people of the North contributed money 
 
 265 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 for this cause without stint ; chiefly through the several 
 religious denominations. In this work the Congregationalists, 
 Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Unitarians, 
 Friends, and other denominations, and hosts of individuals 
 heartily co-operated. But greater and better than the 
 money contributions, they gave thousands of their conse 
 crated, devoted, self-denying sons and daughters to this 
 humane, patriotic, Christ-like work. The brave men, and 
 it may be said, braver women, who left comforts, luxuries, 
 refinements of their Northern homes and went to the South 
 at the close of the war to teach and lift up a despised and 
 prostrate people, performed a service for humanity, for the 
 republic, for the kingdom of God in the world that will 
 go on with ever-increasing power and beneficent fruitage 
 through all the countless ages to come. 
 
 True, they were frequently hampered in their work by 
 irreconcilable Southerners ; their school-houses were some 
 times burned to the ground ; their homes stoned in the 
 night ; they were insulted on the streets ; they were, and 
 still are, socially boycotted ; they were sometimes murdered. 
 But their work went on. They conquered. The best South 
 to-day, notwithstanding the clamor and outlawry inspired 
 by " Jim Crowism," is being converted to the education of 
 the colored people. Some have materially assisted in the 
 work ; others have given it the support of tongue and pen ; 
 and still others have become efficient teachers. 
 
 Among the Northern men who rendered distinguished and 
 lasting service in the uplifting of the race was the Reverend 
 William W. Patton, D.D., late President of Howard Uni 
 versity, Washington, D. C. He was a man with a history ; 
 and the impress of his great life was stamped on thousands of 
 colored youths. He left school an ardent and uncompromis 
 ing abolitionist. His father was a distinguished Presbyterian 
 minister. But he entered the Congregational denomination, 
 as it offered and encouraged the greatest freedom for the 
 
 266 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 expression of his antislavery views. For ten years he was 
 the pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church at Hartford, 
 Connecticut, and made it a great antislavery centre. 
 
 In 1856, because of his antislavery reputation, he was 
 called to the First Congregational Church at Chicago, Illinois. 
 His sermons, lectures, and addresses soon made him a great 
 favorite in the West among all antislavery elements. He 
 aided in the organization of the American Missionary Asso 
 ciation, which was an organized protest against slavery, and 
 which, through its numerous schools, colleges, universities, 
 and churches has bestowed countless blessings on the South 
 and the nation. He also aided in organizing the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary. He was editor of the Advance. 
 
 Dr. Patton is the author of the words of the famous 
 " John Brown " song, which " express the moral issues of the 
 war in relation to slavery." It was as follows : 
 
 I 
 
 " Old John Brown s body lies a-raouldering in the grave, 
 While weep the sons of bondage, whom he ventured all to save ; 
 But though he lost his life in struggling for the slave, 
 His soul is marching on ! O Glory Hallelujah ! 
 
 II 
 
 " John Brown he was a hero, undaunted, true and brave. 
 And Kansas knew his valor, where he fought, her rights to save, 
 And now, though the grass grows green above his grave, 
 His soul is marching on ! O Glory Hallelujah ! 
 
 Ill 
 
 " He captured Harper s Ferry with his nineteen men so few, 
 And he frightened ** Old Virginny," till she trembled through and 
 
 through ; 
 
 They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew, 
 But his soul is marching on ! O Glory Hallelujah ! 
 
 IV 
 
 " John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see 
 Christ who of the bondman shall the Liberator be ; 
 And soon throughout the sunny South the slaves shall all be free, 
 For his soul is marching on ! O Glory Hallelujah ! " 
 
 267 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The entire song was afterward printed in the Chicago 
 Tribune, and became wonderfully popular in the Western 
 army. The " Jubilee Singers, 1 some years after, adopted 
 two of the stanzas for their use, thus giving them yet wider 
 currency. Wendell Phillips was accustomed at times to 
 quote the third stanza with great effect. 
 
 When the war came Dr. Patton announced from his 
 pulpit that the lecture-room of his church should be used 
 for the purpose of drilling the soldiers. He was made Vice- 
 President of the Sanitary Commission of the Northwest 
 and became its chief executive officer, visiting the seat of 
 war and looking after the sick and wounded soldiers and the 
 sanitary condition of hospitals. He was the inspirer of, and 
 chief figure in, the great mass meeting at Chicago which 
 sent a memorial to President Lincoln, urging him to issue a 
 proclamation freeing the slaves. He was chairman and 
 spokesman of the committee which bore the memorial ; 
 and he was ably assisted by Dr. John Dempster and the 
 Honorable Charles Walker. 
 
 President Lincoln talked with them freely. After the 
 conference Secretary Stanton said to Mr. Medill of the 
 Chicago Tribune : " Tell those Chicago clergymen who waited 
 on the President about the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
 that their interview finished the business." It was even so. 
 The Emancipation Proclamation was issued shortly afterward. 
 Scholar, preacher, editor, lecturer, organizer, teacher, president 
 of a university, invincible foe of slavery. Behold him ! 
 
 This recital will give some insight into the mental and 
 moral stamina and high character of the men and women who 
 planned and laid the foundation for the education and the 
 uplifting of the colored race. Among the pioneers in this 
 work, there should be mentioned : the Reverends M. E. 
 Strieby, James Powell, Simeon Gilbert, E. M. Cravath, E. A. 
 Ware, John G. Fee, G. W. Andrews, John Braden, John W. 
 Alvord, S. C. Logan, Luke Dorland [and his wife], R. S. 
 
 268 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 Rust, J. M. Walden, A. Webster [and his wife and son], L. 
 M. Dunton [and his wife], J. C. Hartzell, J. W. Hamilton, 
 E. . Williams, Amos Billings [and his wife], Samuel Loom is 
 [and his wife], Richard H. Allen, Alfred Owen, Theodore E. 
 Balch, D. W. Phillips, M. R. Miller, E. C. Mitchell, E. P. 
 Cowan, Isaac Rendall, A. Wescott, Dr. Tupper [and his 
 wife]; Professors C. W. Francis, A. K. Spence, Henry S. 
 Bennett, C. H. Richards, John A. Cole, A. J. Steele, Helen 
 C. Morgan ; Miss Cahill, Miss Welles, Miss Kate Moorehead, 
 Miss Helen Bayden , Mrs. S. J. Neil [widow of a Union 
 officer] ; Generals Clinton B. Fisk, George Whipple, E. 
 Whittlesey, Charles H. Howard, S. C. Armstrong, Alvord, 
 William Birney ; and Doctors G. W. Hubbard, D. S. Lamb, 
 and N. F. Graham, who have had such great success in pro 
 moting the education of colored youths in medicine, dentistry, 
 and pharmacy. Bishops Haven and Mallalieu were also 
 potent forces. General O. O. Howard who was at the head 
 of the Freedmen s Bureau was the mentor and rendered in 
 valuable services. It was a work in which thousands were 
 engaged, so that the above mention of a few individuals 
 to show the character of the whole will not appear invidious. 
 Every man and woman who enlisted in this second army of 
 invasion of the South, with spelling-books instead of muskets, 
 is worthy of mention and deserving of praise. All of them 
 faced ostracism, some fell martyrs. 
 
 In certain instances the law of compensation operated 
 most directly. Libby prison, which had become infamous 
 because of great cruelty inflicted upon Union soldiers impris 
 oned within it, was occupied and used as the first school for 
 the education of the colored race in Richmond, the Capital 
 of the Confederacy. The school which was started in this 
 former prison pen by the Reverends Nathaniel Colver and 
 Charles H. Correy has grown into Union University, the 
 leading institution conducted for the education of colored 
 youths by the Baptists of the North. 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Hampton Institute, which has the name of General Arm 
 strong so inseparably connected with it, had its beginning 
 under a colored teacher, Mrs. Mary S. Peake, who was em 
 ployed by the American Missionary Association to open and 
 conduct this school. General Armstrong afterwards took 
 charge of it and gave it wide and deserved fame, but it was 
 organi/ed by a colored person. 
 
 It was also in harmony with the law of compensation that 
 a number of colored people who had escaped from slavery 
 and settled in the North or in Canada and had taken ad 
 vantage of the schools, as also some who had been born free 
 or set free by the slaveholders, and some others who despite 
 the watchfulness of the master class had stolen a knowledge 
 of the three " R s " in the dead of the night by the light of 
 the light- wood torch that these, with more or less intel 
 lectual preparation, should have entered with enthusiasm 
 upon the work of educating their race. Among such may be 
 mentioned : Bishops Daniel A. Payne, H. M. Turner, and J. 
 W. Hood; Reverends H. R. Revell, J. B. Reeves, T. W. 
 Henderson, and Henry Highland Garnett ; Professors R. T. 
 Greener, F. L. Cardoza, John M. Langston, J. M. Gregory, 
 W. H. Crogman, and William S. Scarborough, the latter 
 being well known as a Greek scholar ; and William H. Jones, 
 James A. Bowley, John Shackelford, and P. B. S. Pinchback. 
 
 Naturally, this class was not large in numbers, but it was 
 important and forceful, and a great inspiration to the colored 
 people in their entrance upon the new life of liberty. Some of 
 these, and many other colored men whose chief qualification 
 was " mother wit," became leaders in religious and political 
 affairs among the colored people. Robert Brown Elliot and 
 Joseph H. Rainey, as members of Congress from South Caro 
 lina, and Major Martin R. Delaney of the Black Regiment, 
 are among the most conspicuous colored men of this period. 
 
 The graded schools and universities established were nu 
 merous and strategetically distributed. It is to these workers 
 
 270 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 and to these schools, and to the workers and to the schools 
 that followed, that may be attributed the regeneration of the 
 colored race which has been wrought. As a result of this 
 impetus the colored man can make this showing in a single 
 generation : 
 
 Educationally, his illiteracy has been cut down forty-seven 
 per cent, although there are nearly three times as many 
 colored people to-day as were emancipated. He fills the 
 common schools with 1,200,000 of his children ; 30,000 are 
 in schools for higher learning, and trade schools ; over 200 are 
 pursuing studies in Northern universities, or taking special 
 courses in European institutions. 
 
 There are about 2,000 negro graduates from colleges ; 
 more than 400 of these have graduated from white colleges 
 in the North or from institutions in Europe. Among the 
 Northern colleges and universities that have sent out colored 
 graduates are : Harvard, Yale, Michigan, Oberlin, Dartmouth, 
 Columbia, Brown, Kansas, Stanford, Iowa College, Ohio, Illi 
 nois, Bates, Williams, Indiana, Boston, Middlebury College, 
 Minnesota, Wellesley, Smith, Bowdoin, Denver, Amherst, 
 Beloit, New York University, Northwestern, Nebraska, Olivet, 
 Vassar, Radcliffe, Adelbert, Colby, Rutgers, Chicago, and the 
 Catholic University ; there are besides a score of others. 
 
 A number of negro students have won honors in Northern 
 colleges, as for instance R. T. Greener, W. M. Trotter, R. C. 
 Bruce, at Harvard, Marshall at Michigan, Pickens at Yale ; 
 and there are others that might be mentioned. 
 
 It may be noted that 278 colored women are among the 
 graduates of colleges ; many of them from colleges at the 
 North. American negroes have graduated from French, 
 German, and English institutions and some have prosecuted 
 successfully studies in Rome. 
 
 The following leading theological seminaries of the North 
 have sent out colored graduates : Andover, Princeton, Oberlin, 
 General Theological Seminary, Yale, Newton, Drew, Episcopal 
 
 271 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Theological School of Cambridge, Union, Hartford, Boston, 
 and others. In all about two hundred colored men have 
 graduated from Northern theological seminaries. 
 
 The Central Christian Advocate, one of the organs of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, pertinently remarks : " What 
 kind of negroes does America want ? The negro is here. 
 Nothing can uproot him from our soil. He is multiplying 
 rapidly. He is millions strong. He is walking about amid 
 our institutions, our rights, our constitutional guarantees. 
 What kind of a negro does America want ? That is a ques 
 tion that a generation hence will make the republic pause. 
 
 " No country is safe where vast masses of its citizens are 
 forced down under the proper exercise of their capacities. 
 That is but damming the flood that presses heavier on what 
 is, with each new repression and scorn. 
 
 " The long and the short of it is : The negro is capable of 
 being a man, and therefore he has a right to a man s chance. 
 Professor Shaler of Harvard says : The negro has mas 
 tered the English in a very remarkable manner. There are 
 tens of thousands of untrained blacks in this country who, 
 by their command of English phrase, are entitled to rank as 
 educated men. I believe, in general, that our negroes have 
 a better sense of English than the peasant class of Great 
 Britain. 1 " 
 
 Secretary Thirkield, in his address at the annual meeting 
 at Lincoln, Nebraska, said further : " The capacity of the negro 
 for genuine scholarship has never been more strongly stated 
 than by the Reverend J. E. Edwards, D.D., of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, in the Methodist Review for April, 
 1882 : In many instances it must be admitted and exam 
 ples are in this city (Petersburg, Virginia) that not only do 
 they make as rapid advances as the whites, but really acquire 
 thorough scholarship in the different departments of learn 
 ing and carry off medals for proficiency in mathematics and 
 in the languages that would be creditable to any one of any 
 
 272 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 race or color. It is idle, and only shows the inveteracy of 
 our prejudice, to shut our eyes to the fact that the negroes of 
 the coming generation are just as capable of scholarship and 
 culture as the whites. 1 
 
 " There is but one way to measure a man and that is by 
 his capacity. We did not do that when we kept the negro 
 in slavery. Let us beware failing to do it now, lest the God 
 whose thunderbolts are hot bring the republic once more to 
 a judgment day." 
 
 The colored man and woman quickly learned to put their 
 education into service ; it was not allowed to become a drug on 
 the market : about thirty thousand of them are now teachers 
 in the public and other schools, and hundreds are filling 
 professorships in institutions devoted more especially to the 
 higher education of their race. They have organized and 
 have complete control over a number of colleges, academies, 
 and industrial schools conducted by the several denominations, 
 as well as some independent schools. They are the patrons 
 of fifty high schools, five law schools, five medical schools, 
 and twenty-five theological schools devoted to the educa 
 tion of the race. 
 
 About two thousand negroes are now engaged in the prac 
 tice of law ; perhaps fifteen hundred are in the medical pro 
 fession, in which some have become specialists along various 
 lines; some have built and are conducting hospitals, as Doc 
 tors Williams in Chicago, Boyd in Nashville, McClennan in 
 Charleston, Mossel in Philadelphia, Purvis in Washington, 
 and others in other cities. There are several hundred dentists 
 and pharmacists. They have written and published four hun 
 dred books ; they own and publish three hundred newspapers, 
 and twelve magazines, some illustrated, and others devoted 
 to higher literature and criticism. 
 
 In the public service, individual distinctions have been 
 numerous. Two negroes have been members of the United 
 States Senate, Revells and Bruce ; and in the House of Repre- 
 18 273 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 sentatives these have seen service : Elliot, De Large, Cain, 
 Haralson, Lynch, Nash, Rainey, Ransier, Wells, Rapier, 
 Smalls, Turner, Ling, Lee, Cheatham, Murray, and White 
 and not one of these violated the decorum of his environments 
 by fisticuffs, or brought other scandal on himself or his race. 
 There have been in the diplomatic service of the United States, 
 in foreign countries : Bassett, Langston, Douglass, Greener, 
 Van Home, Garnet, Smyth, Astwood, Turner, Powell, Grimkc, 
 and Lyons. Negroes have filled the offices of Register of the 
 Treasury of the United States and Recorder of Deeds of the 
 District of Columbia ; Terrell and Hewlett are now exercis 
 ing judicial functions in the city of Washington. A number 
 have served as postmasters ; a few as collectors of ports 
 as Dancy, Smalls, and Crum. 
 
 Negroes have been employed in the United States secret 
 service and in other important positions. W. H. Lewis is 
 now assistant district attorney of the United States Court 
 at Boston, Massachusetts. One of the complaints of the 
 reactionists is that the people of the North are forcing negro 
 office-holders on the white people of the South, but do not 
 sanction the election or appointment of negroes to office in 
 the North. In discussing this matter the Atlanta Consti 
 tution has repeatedly referred to the Northerners who hold 
 that all things being equal the negro has the same right to 
 hold office as the white man, as " Yankee long-range phil 
 anthropists." This complaint is entirely without founda 
 tion. The liberty, the civil and political rights of the colored 
 man, so far as impartial laws can make them secure, are 
 absolutely assured in the North. Under them the colored man 
 is working out his destiny. Besides, the people of the North 
 have encouraged every effort he has made to free himself from 
 the blighting evils of slavery and rise to the stature of a man. 
 
 Colored men have been repeatedly elected or appointed to 
 offices in the North by the white people. D. A. Straker was 
 elected and re-elected to a judicial office in Detroit, Michi- 
 
 274 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 gan ; Ruffin was appointed a judge at Boston, Massachusetts ; 
 Mathews was elected a judge at Albany, New York ; Carr is an 
 assistant in the district attorney s office of New York City; a 
 colored lawyer fills a similar position in the city of Chicago ; 
 the city of Cleveland, Ohio, has elected Green and Smith, 
 colored men, to the state Senate and the House of Represen 
 tatives respectively ; Chicago has elected Morris to the legis 
 lature of Illinois ; Detroit elected Pelham and others ; Boston 
 has repeatedly elected colored men to the legislature : Reed, 
 Teamoh, and others; and colored men are enrolled in her 
 city council ; a colored man was chosen a member of the 
 governor s council in Massachusetts ; Philadelphia has elected 
 colored men to her city council, and hundreds have been 
 appointed on her police force and to various lines of service 
 in the city government. Rhode Island has repeatedly elected 
 colored men to her legislature, and Pennsylvania in the last 
 national election chose a colored man, J. W. Holmes, as a 
 presidential elector. 
 
 The Boston Herald, referring to the colored men who have 
 held positions in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says : " The list 
 includes an alderman, two representatives in the legislature, 
 seven members of the common council, a chief of the fire depart 
 ment, where he was the only man of African blood, a police 
 man in the service for nineteen years, a municipal bacteriolo 
 gist, a commander of a white post of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic, a trustee of the public library, and a woman almost 
 purely African in blood as principal of a public school in a 
 first-class residential district, with six white teachers as her 
 subordinates and with several hundred white pupils. Besides, 
 Harvard University has paid distinguished honors to not a few 
 men of color who have studied there. Cambridge is a city 
 which in its rank as a civilized community can certainly com 
 pare with any south of Mason and Dixon s line. And yet 
 none of its citizens would ever dream that in thus honoring 
 certain of their fellows with negro blood in their veins they 
 
 275 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 would render themselves liable to have a negro ask the hand 
 of their daughter in marriage a contingency that proverbi 
 ally is submitted for consideration as a poser when questions 
 as to negro equality are asked in the South. The thing is 
 that in Cambridge, as in many other intelligent and corres 
 pondingly unprejudiced communities, a man, whatever his 
 race, is regarded according to his capacity as a human being, 
 and not by the color of his skin, any more than by the 
 color of his eyes or hair."" 
 
 These are but a few of the instances of the election and 
 appointment of colored men to office in the North ; and they 
 are alike complimentary to the colored man, as evidence of 
 his rise in civilization, and to the broad, patriotic, and benev 
 olent policy of the people of the North in dealing with him. 
 
 Practically in every Northern state from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific, and from the Mason-Dixon line to the Great 
 Lakes, colored men have been and are enjoying political 
 preferment with the sanction of the great body of the people. 
 
 The number of colored men and women who are in the 
 employment of the Government of the United States in the 
 departments at Washington, and other places, will probably 
 be a surprise to many people. These colored men and 
 women reached the positions held, not through political pull 
 or favoritism, but by merit generally through the civil 
 service examinations. 
 
 The table on page 277, compiled from official data, shows 
 the number of colored employees in the service of the 
 Government, exclusive of the United States Capitol and the 
 judiciary. 
 
 In the activities of church life the colored man has prob 
 ably scored his greatest success. As a minister he was 
 unhampered by race prejudice ; his work was among his own 
 people. To this work he gave himself with an earnestness 
 and a spirit of self-sacrifice difficult to surpass. He freely 
 offered to God and his people the service of the best talents he 
 
 276 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 COLORED OFFICERS, CLERKS, AND OTHER EMPLOYEES IN THE SERVICE 
 OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNSIENT, 1904. 
 
 
 No. 
 
 Salaries 
 
 Diplomatic and consular service 
 
 13 
 
 $32 000 
 
 Department service : 
 State 
 
 10 
 
 7 600 
 
 
 596 
 
 391,834 
 
 War 
 
 122 
 
 94,910 
 
 
 42 
 
 29,736 
 
 Post-Office 
 
 103 
 
 66,840 
 
 Interior 
 
 219 
 
 167 260 
 
 
 17 
 
 13,520 
 
 Agriculture .... 
 
 100 
 
 53 272 
 
 Commerce and labor 
 
 125 
 
 78,856 
 
 Government Printing 1 Office 
 
 320 
 
 210 874 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission .... 
 District government, Washington, D. C. . . 
 Recorder of deeds .... 
 
 4 
 
 1,891 
 
 22 
 
 2,280 
 847,055 
 14,050 
 
 Service at large : 
 Customs and internal revenue 
 
 258 
 
 205,047 
 
 Post-Office at large 
 
 750 
 
 611,140 
 
 Land Office, New Orleans 
 
 3 
 
 7,800 
 
 Miscellaneous ... 
 
 5 
 
 2,400 
 
 Army Officers . 
 
 10 
 
 17,260 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 4,610 
 
 $2,853,734 
 
 
 
 
 Recapitulation by localities : 
 At foreign stations 
 
 13 
 
 $32,000 
 
 At Washington, D. C 
 At New York City 
 
 3,663 
 
 188 
 
 2,056,727 
 153,982 
 
 At New Orleans, Louisiana .... 
 
 108 
 
 96,740 
 
 At Atlanta, Georgia 
 
 Q4 
 
 65,780 
 
 At Savannah, Georgia . 
 
 42 
 
 32,766 
 
 At Augusta, Georgia 
 At Baltimore, Maryland .... 
 
 12 
 
 40 
 
 8,120 
 31,444 
 
 
 50 
 
 37,820 
 
 At miscellaneous points 
 
 390 
 
 321,095 
 
 Army Officers 
 
 10 
 
 17,260 
 
 Total 
 
 4 610 
 
 $2 853 734 
 
 
 
 
 possessed. He was, and in many cases is at the present time, 
 deficient in book learning, but there are essential qualities of 
 
 277 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 mind and heart which he did possess and knew how to use to 
 the glory of God and well-being of his fellow-men. Above 
 all else, the colored minister has demonstrated the ability of 
 the negro to organize great masses of the people into solid, 
 compact bodies, hold them under discipline, enforce laws in 
 the spirit of love, and make millions subservient to the teach 
 ings of the Christ. 
 
 In the religious denominations, the colored man has demon 
 strated his capacity for self-government. Take, for instance, 
 the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It has 6,429 
 ministers, 5,715 churches, 728,354 communicants, arid prop 
 erty valued at nearly $12,000,000 ; it conducts 25 schools, the 
 property value of which is $855,000 ; it publishes two weekly 
 papers and a monthly magazine ; it has a publishing house for 
 its Sunday School literature at Nashville, Tennessee, and a 
 publishing house at Philadelphia for books and periodicals ; 
 it has over 2,000 missions and about 15,000 members in 
 Africa, and, in addition, it has missions in Canada, Hayti, 
 and Bermuda, and also conducts schools in Sierra Leone, 
 Monrovia, and Cape Town, Africa, and in Bermuda and 
 Hayti. To operate this vast machinery over $500,000 is 
 now collected and expended annually. It has twelve bishops 
 and thirteen general officers ; one of the bishops is assigned to 
 Africa to watch over the work on that continent. 
 
 Another denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Zion, close in name and closer in sympathy and work to the 
 African Methodist Episcopal Church, operates along similar 
 lines. It has 3,810 ministers, 2,985 churches, and 542,422 
 members ; it has all the machinery of its sister body, and its 
 Christian Endeavor work is especially prosperous having 
 over 600 societies with more than 30,000 members. It has 
 seven bishops, a full complement of general offices, publishing 
 plants, and twelve colleges and schools, with Livingstone 
 College, Salisbury, North Carolina, founded by the eloquent 
 J. C. Price, at the head of its educational system. There 
 
 278 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 are several other colored Methodist bodies working along 
 these same general lines. 
 
 The colored Baptists are numerically the strongest denomi 
 nation among the colored people, having 10,726 ministers, 
 15,583 churches, and 1,615,321 communicants. It carries on 
 important missionary work in Africa, and has a large printing 
 and publishing plant at Nashville. And a unique fact is that 
 about forty-five newspapers in various cities are published in 
 the name of this denomination. It conducts a number of 
 schools. Not only in those just mentioned but practically in 
 all the denominations, the colored man has found a home 
 congenial to himself for the worship of God. 
 
 Dr. H. K. Carroll reports the following membership of 
 negro church bodies in the United States, not including 
 foreign mission membership, for the year 1903 : 
 
 Denominations 
 
 Ministers 
 
 Churches 
 
 Communi 
 cants 
 
 Baptists 
 
 10,729 
 
 15,614 
 
 1,625,330 
 
 Union American Methodists . . . 
 African Methodists 
 
 180 
 6,500 
 
 205 
 
 5,800 
 
 16,500 
 785,000 
 
 African Union Methodist Protestants 
 African Zion Methodists 
 Congregational Methodists .... 
 
 68 
 3,386 
 5 
 2,159 
 
 68 
 3,042 
 5 
 1,497 
 
 2,930 
 551,591 
 319 
 207,723 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterians .... 
 
 450 
 
 400 
 
 39,000 
 
 Total 
 
 23,477 
 
 26,631 
 
 3,228,393 
 
 
 
 
 
 A number of colored people are connected with separate 
 churches which are not independent denominations, but are 
 in fellowship with white denominations, and these may be 
 recorded as shown in the table, page 280. 
 
 These figures vary so slightly from those of another au 
 thority as to be practically the same. It is a matter of great 
 significance that colored men should be operating great or 
 ganizations, co-extensive with the jurisdiction of the republic 
 
 279 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Denominations 
 
 Ministers 
 
 Churches 
 
 Membership 
 
 Methodists (Methodist Episcopal) 
 
 
 
 245,954 
 
 Con^recrationalists 
 
 139 
 
 230 
 
 12 155 
 
 Episcopalians 
 
 85 
 
 200 
 
 15,000 
 
 Presbyterian s 
 
 209 
 
 353 
 
 21 341 
 
 
 
 
 
 and reaching beyond into foreign countries, touching in the 
 most direct way the hearts, interests, and welfare of millions 
 of people. This work goes on year after year so smoothly 
 that even many who are influenced by it scarcely realize its 
 proportions. These colored denominations own $41,000,000 
 in church property. A large percentage of the college-bred 
 colored men are in the colored ministry. Many thousands 
 of the colored ministers have had high, normal, or prepara 
 tory school training, and several thousands have had thor 
 ough theological training. There are colored physicians with 
 incomes of $5,000 a year and upwards, and colored lawyers 
 who earn equally large sums. 
 
 The colored race has successfully applied its education in 
 all the vocations of life ; in business enterprises in various 
 lines : life insurance ; building associations ; organized chari 
 ties ; slum, prison, and temperance work ; kindergartens, 
 and mother s meetings ; hospitals, nurseries, orphanages, and 
 homes ; benevolent club work ; farming and truck-gardens ; 
 savings-banks ; contributing to newspapers ; contributing to 
 magazines ; lectures ; papers before various bodies ; college 
 and student aid ; fraternal societies and orders ; theatricals ; 
 athletics ; stenography and typewriting ; telegraph operating ; 
 instrumental and vocal music ; inventions ; the several trades ; 
 and on through the long list of human endeavor. 
 
 In some of these it has won world-wide fame. In the 
 colored race there is probably more pathos and humor than 
 in any other race, probably than in all other races combined. 
 
 280 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 The Irish is the only other race that approaches it. These 
 two races furnish the humor that kills dull and heavy cares 
 and makes the people laugh. 
 
 The colored Jubilee singers have made their impress on 
 the civilized world. People of every degree have been 
 swayed and moved by them. In minstrelsy, Billy Kersands, 
 Sam Lucas, Tom Mclntosh, and others, will not be soon for 
 gotten. Several regular theatrical companies have delighted 
 audiences in this country and in Europe. " The South be 
 fore the War, 11 " In old Kentucky," " The Smart Set," and 
 the superb company, "Williams and Walker," and other 
 combinations have ministered to the public with satisfaction 
 and profit. In these lines the negro has been frequently 
 imitated, but not always with success. 
 
 In athletics, Harte, of Boston, won the championship as a 
 pedestrian ; Taylor, " the whirlwind " bicycle rider, broke 
 and made records and won fame in America, Europe, and Aus 
 tralia ; and in the " manly sport," Peter Jackson and George 
 Dixon held the championship for years against all comers. 
 
 About five hundred patents have been taken out by colored 
 men. A negro patented the first machine for pegging shoes. 
 Elijah McCoy has taken out twenty-seven patents, mostly for 
 lubricating ; Granville T. Woods, twenty-two, mostly elec 
 trical ; W. R. Purvis, sixteen ; Frank J. Farrell, ten. The 
 patents taken out by negroes cover appliances in domestic 
 and personal service, agriculture, transportation, manufactur 
 ing, and mining, and other lines of inventions. 
 
 In the fraternal and beneficial organizations the negro has 
 gained great triumphs. The order of True Reformers is 
 probably the leading fraternal organization. It was organ 
 ized in 1881 by William H. Browne, and chartered in 1883 
 under the laws of Virginia, with headquarters at Richmond. 
 It started with 100 members, and without capital. It now 
 numbers 72,000 members ; conducts a savings-bank with a 
 capital stock, paid up, of SI 00,000; has $300,000 on de- 
 
 281 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 posit ; 10,000 depositors ; conducts five stores in as many 
 cities, and which do a business of $100,000 a year ; it oper 
 ates two hotels ; it owns $400,000 worth of real estate ; it 
 employs over 800 negroes, and the total business transacted 
 aggregates $8,000,000. In its beneficiary department, it has 
 paid out in death claims $902,092.75 ; in sick benefits, it has 
 paid out a million dollars. It publishes its own newspaper 
 and its membership is represented in twenty-six states. 
 Hundreds of thousands of colored people are also in other 
 orders, including the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of 
 Pythias, Foresters, Elks, Good Templars, and other societies 
 intended to care for the sick and bury the dead. 
 
 But it is as artisans and as tillers of the soil that the negroes 
 meet with their greatest success. The colored man has put 
 his brain and his brawn into the trades and into farming 
 and domestic occupations. 
 
 The largely increased crops produced by negro laborers 
 the cotton crop alone has been doubled since emancipation 
 attest their increased efficiency and industry. The millions 
 of Afro-Americans engaged in agriculture, mining, manufac 
 turing industries, mechanical vocations and trades, fishing, 
 commerce, and transportation, and in domestic service and in 
 other lines make themselves felt in the life of the nation. 
 Mr. Henry W. Grady of Atlanta, just before his death about 
 ten years ago, in a speech in Boston, declared that the negro 
 through his labor contributed a billion dollars a year to the 
 wealth of the nation. He is contributing more than that 
 amount at the present time. 
 
 Mr. Morrell of Pennsylvania, in a speech in Congress, says : 
 "In forty years the number of farms operated by white 
 farmers increased 371,414, and of that number 148,601, or 
 40 per cent, were those of owners or managers, and 222,813, 
 or 60 per cent, those of tenants. In the period which wit 
 nessed this addition of white farmers in the South Atlantic 
 states 287,933 negroes had acquired control of farm land in 
 
 282 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 those states, of whom 202,578, or 70.4 per cent, were tenants, 
 and 85,355, or 29.6 per cent, were owners or managers. 
 
 " In considering these comparative figures, account should 
 be taken of the following facts : The negroes at the close of 
 the Civil War were just starting out upon their career as wage- 
 earners. They had no land and no experience as farm owners 
 or tenants, and none of them became farm owners by inheri 
 tance nor inherited money with which to buy land. Of the 
 371,414 white farmers added since 1860, very many were the 
 children of landowners and came into the possession of farm 
 land, or the wherewithal to purchase the same, by inheritance. 
 When this difference in the industrial condition of the two 
 races in 1860 is taken into account, the fact that the relative 
 number of owners among the negro farmers in the South 
 Atlantic states in 1900 was practically three-fourths as great 
 as the relative number of owners among the white farmers of 
 those states added in the same period marks a most note 
 worthy achievement. 
 
 "The statistics for the South Central states show about 
 the same proportions. 
 
 " As already stated, the total number of farms in the United 
 States operated by negroes in 1900 was 746,717. The value 
 of these farms, including buildings, tools, machinery, and live 
 stock, was $499,943,734. The value of the products of these 
 farms, inclusive of products fed to live stock on the premises, 
 was $255,751,145, and exclusive of products fed to live stock, 
 $229,907,702. The value of the negro farms was about 2J 
 per cent of the total valuation of the farm property of the 
 United States, while the value of the products of the negro 
 farms was about 6 per cent of the total value of the farm 
 products of the United States. 
 
 " Turning to the Southern states again, we find that the 
 corresponding proportions are greatly increased. In round 
 numbers the values of all the farm property in those states, 
 and of the negro farm property, were in 1900 as follows : 
 
 283 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 States 
 
 Total farm 
 values 
 
 Negro farm 
 values 
 
 Virginia 
 
 $323,000,000 
 
 $25,000,000 
 
 North Carolina . . 
 
 234,000,000 
 
 28 000 000 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 153,000,000 
 
 44,000,000 
 
 Georgia .... 
 
 228,000,000 
 
 49,000 000 
 
 Florida 
 
 54,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 Alabama . 
 
 179,000,000 
 
 47,000 000 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 204,000,000 
 
 86,000,000 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 198,000,000 
 
 38 000 000 
 
 Texas 
 
 962,000,000 
 
 56,000,000 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 181 000 000 
 
 34 000 000 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 $2,716,000,000 
 
 $413,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 " In other words, the value of the negro farm property in 
 these ten states is about 15 per cent of the total farm 
 property in those states, and if Texas be eliminated, a state 
 which is in much of its area not closely affiliated with the 
 South, and in which the negroes have comparatively small 
 interests, the proportion would be over 20 per cent. 
 
 " The figures in regard to the relative values of farm 
 products at the South are still more striking: 
 
 States 
 
 Total farm 
 products 
 
 Negro farm 
 products 
 
 
 $73,000,000 
 
 $8,000,000 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 79,000,000 
 
 13,000,000 
 
 
 62,000,000 
 
 25,000,000 
 
 
 92,000,000 
 
 27,000,000 
 
 
 16,000,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 
 81,000,000 
 
 27,000,000 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 91,000,000 
 
 47,000,000 
 
 
 66,000,000 
 
 19,000,000 
 
 Texas 
 
 209,000,000 
 
 21,000,000 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 66,000,000 
 
 16,000,000 
 
 Total 
 
 $835,000,000 
 
 $206,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 " Here the proportion of the products of negro farms, as 
 compared with the total farm products of the ten states, is 
 
 284 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 seen to be nearly 25 per cent, or, taking out Texas, nearly 
 30 per cent. 
 
 " In all parts of the country except the far West the per 
 centage of improved lands on farms operated by negroes is 
 greater than those of white farmers. In the South Central 
 states the farms of negroes had 68.3 per cent, while the 
 whites had but 28 per cent. The total acreage of negro 
 farms is about 40,000,000 acres." 
 
 The New York Workl, speaking of the achievements of the 
 colored man since his emancipation, says : " He owns 137,000 
 farms and homes worth 8725,000,000 ; he has personal 
 property to the value of $165,000,000 ; and he has raised 
 $10,000,000 for his own education ; his per capita possessions 
 amount to $72.50. To propose that the nation shall 
 step backward in the face of such a stepping forward, is a 
 curious way to argue the superiority of the dominant white 
 man/ 1 
 
 This is a practical age, and in such an age, it is the results 
 that count. The achievements briefly outlined above are 
 the direct results of the system of education which was planned 
 and executed by the pioneers who laid the foundation for the 
 rise of a race. They were men and women of mature thought, 
 ripe experience, broad-gauged intellect, great faith in God 
 and in the colored man as responsive to the same influences 
 as other men ; and their mental vision swept the whole field 
 of life rather than one phase of it. They acted on the advice 
 of Colonel Higginson forty years before he phrased it, to wit : 
 " What the whole nation needs is to deal with the negro race 
 no longer as outcasts, but simply as men and women." The 
 Afro-American must not permit himself to be " specialized." 
 Frederick Douglass was accustomed to say : " It is vastly 
 better for the race to be a part of the whole American people, 
 in the same sense as other races, than to be a little whole unto 
 itself." The splendid record which has been made would 
 have been absolutely impossible if emphasis had been put on 
 
 285 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 industrial education and the race had been treated as a special 
 order of humanity. 
 
 The leaders of the South ofttimes make the claim that the 
 white people are taxing themselves to educate the negroes, 
 and that they have spent on negro education over a hundred 
 million dollars since the emancipation. This is not a fair state 
 ment ; it is not the truth ; it is a myth. While the bulk of 
 the taxes in the South is paid by the white people, it is also 
 true that the productivity of the labor of the colored race on 
 farm and field, in the rice swamps and wooded lands, in 
 mines, factories, and workshops, and in all the diversified 
 forms of toil, constitutes an important element in those taxes. 
 The New York World is authority for the statement that 
 19,000 persons own the property of that city. Suppose 
 these 19,000 people should claim that they were taxing 
 themselves to educate the children of that city. The reply 
 would be quickly made that labor pays the taxes. 
 
 There are towns and cities in New England where one 
 family or a few families own the industries which give pros 
 perity to the communities. If the members of such family 
 or families should proclaim that they are taxing themselves 
 to educate the children of the thousands of working people 
 the answer would be given that labor pays the taxes. 
 
 In the South the masses of colored people are laborers ; 
 and the colored mari^s labor in the South pays the taxes for 
 the education of his children, exactly in the same sense that 
 a white man s labor in the North pays the taxes for the 
 education of his children. It may also be borne in mind 
 that the colored man contributes more than a billion dollars 
 a year, by his labor, to the wealth of the nation. So that 
 he contributes in a single year, ten times as much to the 
 common weal as the South has expended on his education 
 in forty years. Besides, much of the accumulated wealth of 
 the South represents the two hundred and fifty years of the 
 unrequited toil of the negro. In all fairness it can be said 
 
 286 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 that the colored man by direct and indirect taxes and by the 
 productivity of his toil is carrying his share of the burden 
 in educating his children. For generations his labor edu 
 cated the masters. 
 
 In the evolution of the home life the colored man has 
 accomplished notable triumphs. 
 
 The chief curse of slavery was the obliteration of the home. 
 As the home is the foundation of the social organism, the 
 colored people had to unlearn many things which the master 
 class had taught by precept and example for two and a 
 half centuries, before it was possible to begin aright the 
 development of the home life. 
 
 Under the old regime the country life was darker intellect 
 ually, morally, and spiritually than the city life, and the 
 closer contact of city life had its leavening influence. 
 
 Barriers apparently unsurmountable have been overcome. 
 The newly awakened desire for homes became a strenuous 
 passion, which has led to the secure establishment of the 
 family life on the legal and scriptural foundations. 
 
 While the colored man has been the master of his own 
 home for only forty years, yet in this brief period he has 
 bridged the chasm which divided him from his wife and 
 separated him from his children has unlearned the lessons 
 taught day by day in the years of his bondage has met 
 with heartiness all the responsibilities involved in the family 
 life, and now reaps and realizes to the full its joys, fruitage, 
 and blessedness. 
 
 No others among the cosmopolitan population of the 
 republic make greater sacrifices for the care and education 
 of their children, or are more solicitous about their future, 
 or take greater pride in their successes than these humble 
 people. 
 
 The colored mother, almost too poor for her poverty to 
 be understood, yet with a mother s love and anxiety for her 
 children will waste herself away in the kitchen or over the 
 
 287 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 wash-tub that her offspring may have the advantages of the 
 schools. Unmindful of herself, the pittance she earns goes 
 almost wholly to assist her children through college and 
 into the professions. 
 
 The illiterate father lengthens his hours of toil on the 
 plantation and practises economy and self-denial in many 
 directions in order that his promising sons and daughters 
 may receive an education and enter upon a life of broad 
 usefulness. 
 
 To this true appreciation of the home and the recognition 
 of its obligations may be ascribed not only much of the pros 
 perity, progress, and happiness which freedom has brought to 
 the colored race, but it is also the rock on which the race 
 must build to insure its salvation and a glorious future. 
 
 The negro race is struggling upward. It should have the 
 kind, the sympathetic hand. It has surpassed the expecta 
 tions of its friends ; and it has put to confusion its enemies 
 who have taken their last stand on the ground of color alone. 
 The rise and achievements of the race in American life and 
 civilization overthrow all their preconceived ideas. But 
 color cannot be a perpetual barrier in a republic. Manhood, 
 patriotism, thrift, and the nobler qualities of mind and heart 
 are superior to color and will break down such a barrier. 
 
 The colored people need only to continue to develop 
 along all lines and stand firmly for liberty ; be faithful to 
 the Church, patronize the school, support the colored press, 
 encourage professional men, cultivate the home life, practise 
 thrift and economy, be helpful to each other in all the lines 
 of endeavor, honor those North and South who champion the 
 cause of freedom, and love the flag of their country, and 
 these shall be unto them the forces of the Lord of Hosts 
 which shall overturn the oppressor and redeem a people. 
 
 It is noteworthy that no dangerous or un-American ten 
 dency has developed among the negroes. They are Americans 
 of Americans, and national to the core. 
 
 288 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COLORED RACE 
 
 The late Reverend Dr. J. E. Rankin, for many years 
 President of Howard University in the city of Washington, 
 a man as strong and inflexible in character as the granite 
 hills of his New England home, and whose presence was the 
 balm of light and sweetness, and who has accomplished a 
 grand and noble work to the uplift of humanity and the 
 glory of God, wrote these beautiful lines : 
 
 " I know no difference of race, 
 Of African or Saxon, 
 Of tawny skin, or rose-cheek face, 
 Of hair of crisp, or flaxen. 
 The soul within, that is the man, 
 There is God s image hidden, 
 And there He looks each guest to scan, 
 The bidden, and unbidden. 
 
 " One God in love broods over all, 
 One prayer to Him is taught us, 
 One name for mercy when we call, 
 One ransom Christ has brought us ; 
 One heart of meekness, lowly mind, 
 Life s counter-currents breasting, 
 One Father s house, we hope to find, 
 In God s own bosom resting." 
 
 M. Taine, in his " History of English Literature," Chap 
 ter I, gives a description of a certain people who may not 
 now be readily recognized. It is as follows : " Huge, white 
 bodies, with fierce, blue eyes, ravenous stomachs, of a cold 
 temperament, slow to love, home stayers, prone to brutal 
 drunkenness ; pirates at first, sea-faring, war, and pillage their 
 only idea of a freeman s work. Of all barbarians the most 
 cruelly ferocious. Torture and carnage, greed of danger, 
 fury of destruction, obstinate and frenzied, bravery of an 
 over-strung temperament, with a great and coarse appetite. 
 To shout, to drink, to gesticulate, to feel their veins heated 
 and swollen with wine, to hear and see around them the riotous 
 orgies, this was the first need of the Barbarians. 
 19 289 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 "They left the land and flocks to the women. They sold 
 as slaves their nearest relatives, and even their own children. 
 The Latin race never at first glance see in them aught but 
 large gross beasts, clumsy and ridiculous when not dangerous 
 and enraged/ 1 
 
 To what people does M. Taine refer ? This language 
 describes in one stage of their evolution the proud and 
 powerful Anglo-Saxon race, who are to-day the leaders and 
 light-bearers in the world s thought and civilization. In the 
 blaze of this bit of history, there is no ground for despair of 
 the American negro. 
 
 Christian education wrought the change in the Anglo- 
 Saxon. It will in any people. Let the adherents of the 
 Christian faith and the advocates of the commonalty of man 
 push the work of Christian education, and every step of its 
 advancement will strengthen the foundations of the republic, 
 promote the peace of society and the purity of the Church, 
 and multiply and realize the grand possibilities of Afro- 
 American citizens. And they and the whole nation may 
 sing, with a new meaning and power, Julia Ward Howe s 
 Battle Hymn of the Republic : 
 
 " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; 
 
 He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ; 
 He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword ; 
 His day is marching on. 
 Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. 
 
 " He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
 He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat ; 
 Oh ! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet ; 
 His truth is marching on. 
 Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. 
 
 " In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, 
 With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
 As he died to make men holy let us die to make men free ; 
 His word is marching on. 
 Glory, Glory, Hallelujah." 
 
 290 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE 
 NEGRO 
 
 THIS work would be regarded as incomplete if it did 
 not at least venture to point out a way to some prac 
 tical and substantial relief, and thus help to pave the 
 path for the amelioration and ultimate obliteration of in 
 tolerable conditions. That something can be done, that 
 something ought to be done, is the verdict of every patriotic 
 citizen. The unwisdom of permitting matters to drift along 
 until a dangerously acute state of affairs shall exist in the 
 South, breeding serious trouble, must be patent to all. 
 
 The Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, the Chicago 
 Tribune., and the New York Evening Post, three of the most 
 important and conservative journals in the country, have 
 repeatedly called the people s attention to the painfully 
 anomalous and threatening conditions in the South. Other 
 journals and leading citizens have sounded the alarm. The 
 nation remains amazingly apathetic, seemingly believing that 
 somehow in the order of Providence these evils will " pass 
 away." 
 
 It was so with regard to slavery. But deep-seated evils do 
 not cure themselves, and seldom die of their own corruption. 
 
 Is it either common-sense or prudent patriotism to drift 
 on until a settled condition, in essential respects worse than 
 slavery, disastrous and volcanic in its possibilities shall be 
 established in the South ? Is it not far better to face these 
 evils and eliminate them ? The manhood, the womanhood, 
 the statesmanship, the all-pervading principles of Christian 
 ity of the mighty republic are entirely competent to bring 
 this question to an equitable and righteous settlement. No 
 other settlement will be enduring. Compromise may post- 
 291 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 pone, but it cannot settle fundamental questions of liberty 
 and human rights. 
 
 " Truth crushed to earth shall rise again : 
 Th eternal years of God are hers." 
 
 The journals above mentioned have shown that the colored 
 people are becoming restless under long continued persecu 
 tions, ostracisms, and outrages. Here and there they are 
 beginning to take a stand under pressure. They have been 
 wonderfully blessed with conservative and Christian leaders, 
 who have succeeded in restraining all attempts at retaliation. 
 " Have faith in God : trust the American people : continue 
 to develop along all lines : all things are sure to come right " 
 this is the teaching of the colored leadership. 
 
 No people have ever displayed greater forbearance and 
 long-suffering than the free men of color. Colonel Higgin- 
 son, in an interesting magazine article, has taken great pains 
 to show that the colored man is " intensely human " in all 
 things and at every point. And here lies the danger, for 
 there is a limit to human endurance. 
 
 The dominant elements in the South make a fatal error 
 in assuming that they alone must have the final word on 
 the question utterly ignoring the colored man whose 
 interests are coequal with their own, and contemptuously 
 disregarding the nation whose interests, of necessity, are 
 paramount. 
 
 If the final word were in harmony with the Constitution 
 and laws of the United States there would indeed be no 
 problem. But when the final word contravenes or super 
 sedes the Constitution and laws of the United States, neither 
 the colored people nor the nation can or will accept its final 
 ity. The lesson of history should impress itself here : slavery 
 was forced on the nation by a radical and minor element 
 determined on building up a peculiar institution, and which 
 finally dragged the whole South into its support. 
 
 292 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 The War of the Rebellion was made on the life of the 
 republic by a radical and minor element determined on per 
 petuating this peculiar institution, and which dragooned the 
 whole South into it. 
 
 The peace of the nation is now blasted by a radical and 
 minor element determined on the destruction of the liberty 
 of the colored citizen and the building up of a new peculiar 
 institution ; and which has by incendiary speeches and writ 
 ings and by the machinations of secret conclaves, working 
 more stealthily than the Ku Klux Klans, united the white 
 people of the South against liberty and human progress, 
 without regard for the majesty of the law. 
 
 The Honorable Josiah Quincy, referring to the early days 
 of slavery, said : " Disgust at it was so general as to be little 
 less than universal. Among slaveholders, the language and 
 hope of putting an end to the evil as soon as possible was on 
 all tongues ; but alas ! it was far from being in all their 
 hearts. Some of the leaders saw the advantages derived 
 from it by the unity and identity of action and motive to 
 which it tended, and its effect in making Slave states move in 
 phalanx over the Free states. They clung to the institution 
 for the sake of power over the other states of the Union, and 
 while they were open in decrying it, they were assiduous in 
 promoting its interests and extending its influence. By 
 constantly declaring a detestation of slavery, they threw dust 
 into the eyes of the people of the Free states, while they never 
 ceased to seize every opportunity to embarrass the measures 
 which would advance the interests of the Free states, and at 
 the same time to strengthen and extend the interests of 
 the Slave states. We can trace their policy in history. 
 We now realize the result. With all their pretensions, the 
 leading slaveholders never lost sight for one moment of 
 perpetuating its existence and power." 
 
 There may be discerned a sameness in the methods of the 
 ante-bellum and the post-bellum leadership of the South. 
 
 293 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 "Dust," much dust, is being thrown into the eyes of the 
 people now by stock -phrases, dire threats, and bald subter 
 fuges. In the " Solid South " now there is the same " unity 
 and identity of action and motive," and its power in the 
 government is unduly magnified. Equal laws for all is the 
 antidote. In the light of history it is clear that a majority 
 of the American people did not at any time, from the begin 
 ning up to the present time, approve or justify the institu 
 tion of human slavery. Yet it grew and flourished and all 
 but brought death and destruction to the republic. 
 
 The vast majority of the American people are now uncom 
 promising in their opposition to a new and peculiar institution. 
 The fierce fires of war consumed the dross in the Constitu 
 tion, and that grand instrument as it stands, and the laws 
 made in connection therewith, leave no room for doubt that 
 the people demand a truly free republic with equal rights 
 for all Americans. 
 
 This simplifies the question and indicates the remedy. 
 
 First : The people should zealously and jealously guard 
 the offices of president and vice-president, and preserve them 
 from defilement and desecration by any persons tinctured 
 with caste or sectional prejudices, and who would exalt 
 these above the Constitution and laws of the land. 
 
 It is axiomatic that no citizen is worthy to be the presi 
 dent of the whole people who does not stand for equal laws 
 for the whole people. The Constitution and laws of the 
 United States are the paramount plank of any platform on 
 which a president may be elected : these make all citizens 
 equal before the law, and positively and absolutely forbid 
 all discrimination on account of race, color, or previous con 
 dition of servitude. Race or color should be neither a 
 credential to public favor or participation in the govern 
 ment, nor a bar against the full enjoyment of any immunity 
 or privilege under the government. 
 
 The people should see to it that only such men as measure 
 
 294 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 up to the constitutional standard shall be elevated to the 
 presidential office, or to the vice-presidency. 
 
 In guarding these offices, they will also be guarding 
 the various cabinet chairs, and thus the administration of 
 the government will be uninfluenced by the brutalism 
 of the traditions of slavery, or the "Jim Crowism" which at 
 present rules the South. 
 
 It is a travesty on free institutions, a jeer and sneer at 
 a righteous national sentiment which demands equality of 
 rights for all under the law, that the very men who are 
 foremost in working for the wholesale disfranchisement of the 
 colored people contrary to justice, reason, and the Consti 
 tution, and subjecting these people, who are equal citizens 
 with themselves, to gross humiliations and degradations, and 
 inflicting on them many inhumanities that these men are 
 now contending that one of their own number shall be 
 placed in the presidential or vice-presidential chair. Is this 
 not a mockery on civilization, a burlesque on republican 
 government ? 
 
 At the Virginia State Convention to elect delegates to the 
 National Democratic Convention, Governor Montague in an 
 address advocated the nomination of a Southern man on the 
 ticket, and at the very same time President Roosevelt was 
 roundly denounced because " he eateth with negroes and 
 drin keth with them." 
 
 Mississippi, at her state convention, nominated the Honor 
 able John Sharp Williams for vice-president, and yet this 
 Southerner, in a recent speech in the Congress, vociferously 
 declaimed against the recognition of the political and man 
 hood status of the colored man. Yoking the negro to a mule 
 is his loftiest idea of Americanism and humanitarianism. 
 Such a man the leader in a republic ! 
 
 It may interest the country to know that Mr. Williams 
 was elected by a total vote of 1,433, scarcely enough votes to 
 elect a constable in a Northern township. This shows the 
 
 295 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 farcical character of a Mississippi election. Think of it: 
 1,433 votes elect a member of the Congress from Mississippi 
 when the population basis is nearly 200,000. 
 
 Other Southern states are also urging favorite sons for 
 these highest offices, without a sign of compunction of con 
 science at the general nullification of the organic law and the 
 shameful injustices and persecutions forced on ten millions of 
 American citizens. 
 
 These men have already wrought the general ostracism of 
 the colored race throughout the South, and by imposing on 
 them systematic humiliations and degradations they seek to 
 take heart and hope out of the race and bring about its utter 
 demoralization, and then plead these very conditions which 
 they designedly created as the justification for harsher and 
 more oppressive laws. The possession of the office of presi 
 dent or of vice-president would greatly stimulate them in 
 putting the final touches on the heinous work, for it would be 
 construed as an endorsement by the people. 
 
 The Atlanta Constitution, a leading Southern journal, 
 with a snarl demands that the South be represented in one of 
 these offices. General Montague of Virginia cynically in 
 quires : " Is this not a reunited nation ? " 
 
 The following statement from the Boston Herald would 
 seem to cover the issue : " The people of the Northern states 
 do not carry their willingness to forgive and forget to the 
 extent of ignoring the attitude of a representative Southern 
 man toward questions of personal rights and public duty 
 that are living questions. 
 
 " For example, the people of the North, as a rule, believe in 
 the supremacy of the laws of the land and of the orderly 
 processes of the courts of justice in dealing with violators of 
 the law. They are not upholders of mob government and 
 lynch law, and they will be likely to distrust the influence in 
 the highest office of administration of one who has a record of 
 approval, or of tolerance, of lynch law in his own state. 
 
 296 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 They would object to a man of that kind from any section of 
 the country. 
 
 " But, in consideration of the notorious facts that this man 
 ner of lawlessness is more rife in the Southern states than 
 anywhere else, that it is sustained, apparently, by a more 
 powerful public sentiment, that vindictive murder by a mob 
 is rarely followed by any punishment of the murderers, any 
 Southern candidate for the chief magistracy of the nation 
 would need to have an especially clear and conspicuous record 
 of active fidelity to principles of orderly justice and Christian 
 humanity in order to obtain the confidence of communities 
 which have, and desire to continue having, assurance of the 
 reign of law, according to the standards of civilization. 
 
 " Again, the people of the North, as a rule, have a strong 
 feeling that there should be equality of rights at the ballot- 
 box. They do not object to a high standard of qualification, 
 and especially not to an educational qualification, nor strenu 
 ously, if it be deemed necessary anywhere, to a property 
 qualification. But they do not think it to be consistent with 
 democratic principles that men who are otherwise qualified 
 should be permanently debarred from exercise of this high 
 function of citizenship, on account of race, or of accidents of 
 birth or fortune, not necessarily involving moral turpitude 
 nor inability to understand, exercise, and conform to the obli 
 gations and the duties of a good citizen. They believe in 
 the equality of all men before the law, and they are afraid, 
 not without reason, that politicians who will resort to such 
 tricks and subterfuges as have been resorted to in several 
 Southern states, to keep intelligent and moral colored citizens 
 from the ballot-box, while allowing unintelligent and immoral 
 white citizens to have the suffrage, are not to be trusted with 
 implicit confidence to protect the rights of any citizens whose 
 opinions may not be agreeable to them. 
 
 "Furthermore, there is a prejudice in the North, not so 
 general and exacting as it ought to be, perhaps, that poli- 
 
 297 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 ticians should be trustworthy in the matter of keeping their 
 formal pledges to the people. The people are disposed to 
 hold their public men to a rather strict accountability in this 
 respect. They do not relish being fooled by men who ask 
 for power on a specific agreement that they will not exercise 
 it in a certain way, and, when power is obtained, use it in pre 
 cisely the way they assured the people they would not. The 
 recent action of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia, in 
 proclaiming a constitution without submitting it to the rati 
 fication of the people of the state, in violation of the condi 
 tions upon which a convention was authorized, is a case in 
 point. Nothing has happened in the last ten years, hardly 
 anything since Southern conventions chosen to oppose seces 
 sion voted for it, more influential to make Northern people 
 reluctant to trust Southern politicians. Men who will do 
 such a thing as if it were honorable must not complain if 
 their professions of public policy are regarded with sus 
 picion. This is not because they are Southern men, but be 
 cause of the exhibition of untrustworthiness they have given. 
 Northern men doing a similar thing could not command 
 Northern support as these Southern men seem to command 
 Southern support. 
 
 " Considering the matter in another light, it is to be said 
 that the people of the states where political opinion is free 
 and where the public men of either party are, as a rule, mut 
 ually tolerant and regardful of the rights of a]l citizens, have 
 a not unreasonable distrust of the narrowness of view and the 
 partiality of conduct of a statesman hailing from a section 
 where practically there is but one party, where generous tol 
 eration of differences of judgment concerning public affairs 
 is not the characteristic of the people, a state controlled, as 
 several Southern states are, by an oligarchy, instead of the 
 sovereign people, a state which is not democratic in the gen 
 eric sense of the term. It is not because these men belong to 
 a geographical section, but because they are of a certain char- 
 
 298 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 acter and represent a type of statesmanship which does not 
 stand broadly for the substantial ideals of American institu 
 tions equal rights and equal opportunities, secured by 
 impartial laws justly enforced. 1 1 
 
 When the South shall produce a man of broad and national 
 instincts, a devotee at the shrine of liberty, a man whose char 
 acter and public services shall give evidence that he is more 
 an American than a Southerner, who is true to the letter 
 and spirit of the Constitution and laws of this country, is 
 not the slave of caste or race prejudice, upholds the prin 
 ciples of equal rights, regarding " no man above the law and 
 none below it " the American people will welcome the day 
 as the harbinger of the era for which they have prayed and 
 wrought, and no honor in their power would be too great or 
 lofty for such a man. 
 
 Second : National aid for education is an imperative 
 necessity. 
 
 Among the colored people general illiteracy was the chief 
 heritage of slavery. Among the whites a heritage of dense 
 ignorance existed in great areas. Statutes and penal codes 
 prohibited the spelling-book to the colored people ; and the 
 policy pursued to keep the negro s mind in darkness also had 
 the effect of blackening the mental vision of the whites. 
 
 The strength of " Jim Crowism " lies largely in the illit 
 eracy among both the white and the colored people of the 
 South, powerfully sustained and influenced, of course, by the 
 virus of slavery in the brain of the whites. This, in a word, 
 is the true explanation of the distressing, disheartening, 
 demoralizing conditions in the Southland. 
 
 Education will raise the veil of mental darkness, and chase 
 away the clouds of ignorance, dispelling unreasonable antipa 
 thies, and ameliorating conditions generally. 
 
 It is not claimed here that education is the panacea or 
 " cure-all " for every ill under the sun. But it is affirmed, 
 without the least reservation or fear of contradiction, that 
 
 299 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Christian education is the greatest force in God s universe 
 for the regeneration and uplifting of the people and the 
 harmonizing of a nation. 
 
 In former years the three " R s ", reading, Yiting and Arith 
 metic, had the right of way in the education of the people ; 
 but in these later days these have given place to the three 
 " H s ", the education of the head, the hand and the 
 heart. 
 
 There is no risk in assuming that when this threefold, 
 symmetrical education, the highest type of Christian civili 
 zation, shall have become as general throughout the be 
 nighted South as it is in the great, free and prosperous North 
 great and prosperous, because educated and free, then 
 truly the vile " Jim Crowism " and its attendant lawlessness 
 will cease to disgrace the American name. This work of 
 education in the Southland is even now advancing. 
 
 The people of the North, patrons and devotees of educa 
 tion, sent the spelling-book in the trail of their armies 
 throughout their marches in the War of the Rebellion. And 
 when a place was captured, almost before the smoke of battle 
 had cleared away, the work of the schoolmaster was begun. 
 Children, young people, middle-aged people, old men and old 
 women were gathered into schools, both in the day-time and 
 at night, and the foundation for the education of a race was 
 laid. The barracks occupied by soldiers were, when vacated, 
 turned over to the community to be used for schools. Out 
 of such beginnings was developed the present school system 
 of the South. 
 
 The Republican organizations which achieved the recon 
 struction of the South at the close of the war took the cue 
 from this and gave the South its first system of free public 
 schools. These schools have grappled with the problem and 
 have been nobly reinforced by Northern benevolence. A 
 vast work has been done, but a work as vast, probably more 
 so, yet remains to be accomplished. 
 
 300 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 The financial power of the several states, ably seconded 
 though it is by Northern benevolence, falls far short of 
 meeting the emergency. Neither the several states nor the 
 benevolence of the North seem to have the capacity to 
 increase their working forces materially. 
 
 Supplemental aid from the national treasury is an abso 
 lute necessity, if the illiteracy which hangs over the South 
 like a black pall is to be lifted, thereby eliminating the 
 blighting and cankerous evils which are gnawing into the 
 heart of the republic and are a constant irritation and an 
 ever present disturber of the people s peace and prosperity. 
 
 The census of 1900 places the total number of white 
 illiterates, above ten years of age, at 3,200,746. The total 
 number of negro illiterates is given as 2,853,194. So that in 
 the country at large there are more illiterate whites than 
 negroes. It is therefore manifestly unjust to single out the 
 negro and make him the target for denunciations and the 
 object of oppression on the ground of illiteracy. The census 
 also reveals the rather startling truth that while the South 
 ern states have only twenty-four per cent of the total white 
 population of the United States, yet they nevertheless have 
 sixty-four per cent of the white illiterates over ten years of 
 age. Naturally, the mass of colored illiterates are also in 
 the South. The total negro school population that is, 
 from five to twenty years of age, aggregates 3,485,188. The 
 school facilities of the South do not reach half of the negro 
 children of school age; and a large percentage of the 
 whites are also without school privileges. If the utter inade 
 quacy of the length of the school term should be taken into 
 consideration a school term in many cases being from four 
 to eight vveeks in the year it could be said that the large 
 majority of the children of both races in the South are 
 growing up practically in ignorance and will greatly rein 
 force the present large army of illiterates which mark the 
 danger line in the life of the nation. 
 
 301 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Tenn 
 essee, in an address before the Southern Educational Society, 
 said : " Our duty to the new time in the South is the duty 
 of educating all the people. It is the task set by Jefferson 
 for Virginia in 1779, only changed and made more urgent 
 by the extension of suffrage to another race. This is the 
 real Southern problem : How shall we educate and train the 
 people ? It is the problem of the whole country, in fact. 
 How shall we educate all the people for intelligent citizen 
 ship, for complete living, and the true service of their God 
 and fellow-men ? 
 
 " Our conception of public education has grown very greatly 
 in these last years. It has grown in two ways : first, in 
 content, and second, in kind. This conception now includes 
 every human being ; we realize, now, that all must be edu 
 cated that every human being has a right to an educa 
 tion. God has a purpose in every soul He sends into the 
 world. The poorest, most helpless infant is not an accident, 
 a few molecules of matter, merely, but a plan of God, and 
 as such deserves to be trained for its work. Every child has 
 a right to a chance in life because God made him and made 
 him to do something. . . . 
 
 " But we must consider our problem more nearly and in 
 more detail. Our problem is the education of all the people 
 of the South. First, Who are this people ? In 1900 these 
 states south of the Potomac and east of the Mississippi con 
 tained, in round numbers, 16,400,000 people, 10,400,000 of 
 them white and 6,000,000 black. In these states there are 
 3,981,000 white and 2,420,000 colored children of school age 
 (5 to 20 years), a total of 6,401,000. They are distributed 
 among the states as follows. [See table on the next page.] 
 Only 60 per cent of them were enrolled in schools in 
 1900. The average daily attendance was only 70 per cent of 
 these enrolled. Only 42 per cent are actually at school. One 
 half of the negroes get no education whatever. ... In North 
 
 302 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 
 White 
 
 Colored 
 
 Total 
 
 
 436,000 
 
 269,000 
 
 705,000 
 
 West Virginia .... 
 
 342,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 357,000 
 
 
 491,000 
 
 263,000 
 
 754,000 
 
 South Carolina .... 
 
 218 000 
 
 342,000 
 
 560,000 
 
 Georgia 
 
 458,000 
 
 428,000 
 
 886,000 
 
 Florida 
 
 110,000 
 
 87 000 
 
 197 000 
 
 Alabama 
 
 390,000 
 
 340,000 
 
 730,000 
 
 Mississippi . . . 
 
 253 000 
 
 380 000 
 
 633 000 
 
 
 590,000 
 
 191,000 
 
 781 000 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 693 000 
 
 105 000 
 
 798 000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 3 981 000 
 
 2 420 000 
 
 6 401 000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carolina the average citizen gets only 2.6 years, in South 
 Carolina 2.5 years, in Alabama 2.4 years of schooling, both 
 private and public. . . . 
 
 " But why is it that the children get so little education ? 
 Have we no schools in the country ? Yes, but what kind of 
 schools ? The average value of a school property in North 
 Carolina is $180, in South Carolina $178, in Georgia $523, 
 and in Alabama $212. The average salary of a teacher in 
 North Carolina is $23.36, in South Carolina $23.20, in 
 Georgia $27, and in Alabama $27.50. The schools are open 
 in North Carolina an average of 70.8 days, in South Carolina 
 88.4, in Georgia 112, and in Alabama 78.3. The average 
 expenditure per pupil in average attendance is, in North Caro 
 lina 84.34, in South Carolina $4.44, in Georgia $6.64, and in 
 Alabama $3.10 per annum. In other words, in these states, 
 in schoolhouses costing an average of $276 each, under teachers 
 receiving the average salary of $25 a month, we are giving the 
 children in actual attendance 5 cents worth of education a day 
 for 87 days only in the year. In 1900 the percentage of illit 
 erates among males over 21 native whites, mind you, the 
 sons of native parents was, in Virginia 12.5, in North Caro 
 lina 19, in South Carolina 12.6, in Georgia 12.1, in Alabama 
 14.2, in Tennessee 14.5, and in Kentucky 15.5." 
 
 303 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 This exposition of the school facilities in the South, as 
 discouraging as it is, does not expose the worst side of the 
 question. The colored people are touched near to the heart, 
 for the provisions for the education of the millions of colored 
 children are woefully and alarmingly inadequate. Commis 
 sioner Harris of the Bureau of Education furnished the infor 
 mation that the state of Florida provides $1.89 per capita for 
 a full year, for the education of colored children, North Car 
 olina $1.02, and South Carolina only $.73. When it is con 
 sidered that Massachusetts spends $38.11 per capita for the 
 year on her school children, New York, $41.68, and Illinois, 
 $25.16 the contrast must leave a disturbing impression on 
 the mind of every thoughtful citizen. 
 
 It is evident the South cannot handle this problem alone. 
 More than half of its children of school age are practically 
 without schools to attend. The nation should come to the 
 rescue. A system of national schools under the Bureau of 
 Education, especially in the agricultural districts, generously 
 supported for about fifteen years, would efface illiteracy and 
 remove the excuse for unrighteous laws. And this would add 
 vastly more to the strength of the republic than more battle 
 ships and a larger army. 
 
 Horace Mann said : " Every follower of God and friend of 
 mankind will find the only sure means of carrying forward the 
 particular reform to which he is devoted, in universal edu 
 cation. In whatever department of philanthropy he may be 
 engaged, he will find that department to be only a segment 
 of the great circle of beneficence of which universal education 
 is the centre and circumference." 
 
 Third : Equalization of representation in the Congress and 
 the electoral college by reducing the number of Southern 
 representatives. 
 
 In a previous chapter the inequality of representation 
 has been clearly demonstrated. All that has been said there 
 would apply here. A white man in the South is entitled to 
 
 304 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 one marfs share in the government, but not more than one 
 man s share. When by circumventing the Constitution he 
 usurps power which makes him three times as strong at the 
 ballot-box as a man in New England, or the great West, 
 then the equilibrium of representative government is de 
 stroyed. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States says : " Represen- 
 tatives shall be apportioned among the several states accord 
 ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
 of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But 
 when the right to vote at any election for the choice of elec 
 tors for President and Vice-President of the United States, 
 representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers 
 of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied 
 to any of the male inhabitants of such state being 21 years 
 of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
 abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, 
 the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the 
 proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear 
 to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such 
 state. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appro 
 priate legislation the provisions of this article/ 1 
 
 So that the Constitution imposes on Congress the duty 
 of fixing representation and preserving the equilibrium of 
 the states in the government. 
 
 When the white people of several of the Southern states 
 summoned state conventions with the avowed purpose, pro 
 claimed boldly and above-board, to disfranchise the colored 
 voters and remove them from all share in the government, 
 they well knew the penalty provided in the Constitution to 
 meet such a case. They acted with their eyes wide open. 
 They ought not to haggle or balk now that the time has 
 come for Congress to act. 
 
 The National Republican Convention recently held in 
 Chicago wrote this plank in its platform : " We favor such 
 20 305 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Congressional action as shall determine whether by special 
 discrimination the elective franchise in any state has been 
 unconstitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand 
 that representation in Congress and in the electoral college, 
 shall be proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitu 
 tion of the United States/ 1 
 
 This plank, which is directly in line with the Constitution, 
 and simply seeks the equalization, the due proportioning, of 
 the several states in the affairs of the government, has set 
 the South ablaze. 
 
 But the country has come to know from exasperating ex 
 periences that anything and everything which would bring 
 to the reputable, talented, prosperous colored citizen a just 
 meed of recognition, or which would tend to prevent the 
 South from having unfair, undue advantage in the affairs of 
 the Government, would most certainly set the South ablaze. 
 
 The following expressions from representative Southern 
 sources will disclose how unreasoning and unreasonable is the 
 Southern mind on questions which may even remotely and 
 indirectly affect the colored people. 
 
 Colonel Watterson of Kentucky says : " President Roosevelt, 
 by injecting this dreadful racial problem into the contest, has 
 invited inevitable defeat." 
 
 Mr. Thomas F. Ryan of Virginia says : " Its real spirit is 
 found in that deliberate declaration about Southern repre 
 sentation, a spirit which foreshadows a new force bill and 
 makes inevitable a concerted movement to revive all the 
 evil passions to which such an appeal is made." 
 
 Colonel Henry B. Gray of Alabama says : " It boldly de 
 clares, in effect, that the Republican party is a negro party, 
 playing the negro above the Southern white man. It means 
 negro domination." 
 
 The Montgomery Advertiser says : u But there is one result 
 that is sure to follow this movement, and that is, that it will 
 still further solidify the South." 
 
 306 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 Congressman Patterson of Tennessee says : " The plank in 
 the Republican platform which threatens a reduction in the 
 representation of the Southern states is a revival of the worst 
 days of the bloody shirt ; is an insult to Southern manhood." 
 
 The Atlanta Constitution says : " The South got a slap in 
 the face in the shape of the Crumpacker threat to reduce its 
 representation because of local suffrage laws." 
 
 Senator Tillman of South Carolina says : " If Roosevelt 
 wants to force negro social equality on the South, we are 
 ready to meet that issue, and we will meet it, I think, to 
 begin with, in our platform." 
 
 Governor Vardaman of Mississippi says : " I sincerely hope 
 that the Democrats will accept the challenge and come out 
 squarely for the white man^s government. I do not believe 
 that any announcement that could be made by the conven 
 tion at St. Louis would go quite so straight to the heart of 
 the white American voters as a clear-cut declaration against 
 permitting negroes to participate in the government of the 
 nation." 
 
 These are a few of the multitudinous comments of leading 
 Southerners. The plank has not the remotest relation to 
 the question of social equality. The reduction of Southern 
 representation according to the constitutional limitations 
 would not alter or in any way affect the standing of a single 
 colored man in the whole South. 
 
 It would not add one single colored voter to the electorate 
 of any of the states. It would not disqualify a single white 
 voter. The Southern leaders could continue to carry elec 
 tions unopposed or by a practically unanimous vote. For the 
 colored man would be as much out of politics as at present. 
 
 There are two expressions bearing on this plank which are 
 of unusual interest. The Honorable John Sharp Williams, 
 in his kevnote speech at the National Democratic Convention 
 at St. Louis, said : 
 
 " The real object of the Republican party, in so far as the 
 
 307 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 plank is concerned, however specious the phraseology in 
 which it is clothed, is to reduce Southern representation, 
 without reducing that of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
 other states, or wherever the negroes are disfranchised, not 
 as such, but because of ignorance, by an educational qualifi 
 cation, or because of any other right reason, in any other 
 constitutional way. 
 
 " Disfranchisement of a negro in Mississippi for ignorance 
 is a horrible thing, disfranchisement of a white man for ig 
 norance in Massachusetts or Connecticut is a part of New 
 England higher education. 1 
 
 " Let not the business interest of the country deceive it 
 self ; let those controlling it prepare, if Roosevelt is elected 
 on this platform, for another period of uncertainty, unrest, 
 business disturbance, and race war in the Southern states, in 
 stead of that peace and prosperity, which both races now 
 enjoy and which has been rendered possible only by home 
 rule and by white supremacy. 
 
 " In keeping with all this, consider the negro Santo Bam 
 bino scene in the Republican National Convention ; the wild 
 adoration of my little Alabama coon , or was it a Georgia 
 6 coon ? Why was it all thus prearranged, and by whom ? 
 Who were the two little white girls placed on the same plat 
 form with the little negro boy to march around with him 
 carrying flags ? Who pretends that it was accidental ? 
 What was the pretended lesson to be taught? What is 
 the subtle, symbolical meaning of it all ? It is the begin 
 ning over of the old scheme, revived for political advantage, 
 to retain as a Republican asset the solid negro vote in In 
 diana, Illinois, New Jersey and like-conditioned states 
 this time without price in money paid by disturbing all 
 over the Southland peace and order, by demoralizing reviv 
 ing industries, unsettling business and labor, disintegrating 
 society, and, as a remote effect, if successful, hybridizing the 
 race there and Africanizing its civilization." 
 
 308 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 Are not these the utterances of the ranting negrophobist 
 playing to the mob to excite and inflame race passions and 
 strife, rather than those of the calm and wise statesman hand 
 ling a delicate and weighty question? Every man in this 
 country knows, and Mr. Williams himself knows, despite his 
 evasions, that the colored man is disfranchised in Mississippi 
 and other Southern states on the ground of color alone. 
 There is not a reputable citizen, white or colored, who 
 would protest against the disfranchisement of the ignorant 
 or degraded white or black man. The demand is that there 
 shall be one law, applicable alike to both races. Such a law 
 applies in every Northern state. 
 
 The people of the North have, at the solicitation of South 
 erners, during late years invested considerable money in the 
 railways and street-car systems of the South, and other large 
 sums have been invested in factories and various industries 
 and in building up the waste places. This generous outpour 
 ing of Northern capital, coupled with Northern hustle and 
 brains and the hard and faithful toil and drudgery of the 
 colored people, are the two greatest factors in the development 
 of prosperity of the former slave states the New South. 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Williams has the hardihood to threaten 
 the American people with the direst consequences if, in the 
 exercise of their sovereign will as free men, they shall dare elect 
 Mr. Roosevelt as the President of the United States. " Pre 
 pare," says he, " if Roosevelt is elected on this platform, for 
 another period of uncertainty, unrest, business disturbance, 
 and race war in the Southern states. 11 This is a reckless 
 challenge. 
 
 It means that if the reactionists, a radical and minor 
 element, are not permitted to force on the republic a new 
 peculiar institution with incalculable possibilities for evil, 
 destructive of liberty and constitutional government, degrad 
 ing the white man as well as the colored, burdening the 
 country with a problem greater and graver than slavery, and 
 
 309 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 securing through this institution enhanced and undue politi 
 cal power, which would be a revolting injustice to every state 
 of the North and West, then they will make reprisal on 
 Northern capital invested in the South and bring about a 
 race war on the negroes. 
 
 However, he will not be able to make good his threat so far 
 as the business interests of the South are concerned, the 
 good sense of Southern business men will take care of that ; 
 but he or his friends can make reprisal on the negroes or 
 make "bonfires" of them at will. But public opinion can be 
 depended upon to stay the hand. 
 
 What possible connection is there between the reduction 
 of Southern representation to the proper, constitutional 
 basis and the "hybridizing" of the South? 
 
 Such reduction certainly does not bring the races any 
 closer together. It does not alter the status one way or 
 another of a single colored man, nor change the status of a 
 white man. 
 
 As to the hybridizing plaint, Mr. Williams should go slow. 
 For all the hybrids in the South are children of white men. 
 All the hybridizing which has been done there is the work 
 of white men. But why denounce the hybrids ? They have 
 absolutely no responsibility in the matter. Would Mr. 
 Williams dare to go a step further and pour the vials of 
 wrath and indignation on all the fathers of the hybrids ? 
 
 The colored man is far more concerned about keeping the 
 white man from entering his back door than he is about 
 knocking at the white man s front door for social recognition. 
 Such good offices as may come to him, he may accept, but 
 he does not clamor for more. 
 
 The truth is that "hybridizing" can progress in the South 
 only so far as the whites themselves shall carry it. And the 
 colored man would rejoice in the day when the honor of his 
 wife and daughter shall be respected and they shall become 
 immune from the taint. 
 
 310 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 The people of the North will not go into hysterics because 
 a white child and a colored child waved the flag of the 
 United States in the presence of ten thousand American 
 patriots. Colored men fought and died for that flag even 
 when threatened with death, if captured, by those for whom 
 Mr. Williams speaks. 
 
 The people of the North want the colored child to love 
 and honor "Old Glory" even as the white child honors and 
 loves it. And it may come to pass that the little colored 
 boy, James B. Cashin, the son of a reputable colored citizen, 
 whom Mr. Williams denounces as an Alabama " coon," in his 
 maturity shall fight and die in the defence and honor of the 
 flag of his country. In all the days of slavery colored chil 
 dren and white children, boys and girls, freely played and 
 romped together and ate out of the same plate with their 
 fingers. There was no protest against it. 
 
 Another expression of surpassing interest is the plank in 
 the platform adopted at the National Democratic Convention, 
 which reads as follows : " The race question has brought 
 countless woes to this country. The calm wisdom of the 
 American people should see to it that it brings no more. 
 
 "To revive the dead and hateful race and sectional ani 
 mosities in any part of our common country means confusion, 
 distraction of business, and the reopening of wounds now 
 happily healed. North, South, East, and West have but 
 recently stood together in line of battle, from the walls of 
 Peking to the hills of Santiago, and as sharers of a common 
 glory and a common destiny we should share fraternally the 
 common burdens. 
 
 "We therefore deprecate and condemn the Bourbon-like, 
 selfish, and narrow spirit of the recent Republican Convention 
 at Chicago, which sought to kindle anew the embers of 
 racial and sectional strife, and we appeal from it to the 
 sober common-sense and patriotic spirit of the American 
 people." 
 
 311 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 The chief significance of this plank is the fact that it is 
 a demonstration that the reactionists and radical leaders of 
 the South have accomplished the remarkable feat of captur 
 ing the National Democratic party, horse and foot, and have 
 "Jim-Crowed "it. 
 
 The thoughts in this plank are simply the echo of the 
 speech of Mr. Williams, supplemented by the views of Sena 
 tor Tillman and Governor Vardaman. The merest glance 
 at the proceedings of this convention will show that it was 
 dominated by the extreme reactionists of the South. For 
 instance : Congressman Williams of Mississippi was the tem 
 porary chairman and keynote speech-maker; Congressman 
 Champ Clark of Missouri was permanent chairman ; Senator 
 Daniels of Virginia was chairman of the committee on res 
 olutions; Senator Tillman of South Carolina was the " High- 
 cockalorum " ; and he and Senator Carmack of Tennessee, 
 Governor Vardaman of Mississippi, and Senator Bailey of 
 Texas were the referees and censors and directors of the entire 
 proceedings from the beginning to the end. It would seem 
 a joke to regard these men as representing Americanism. 
 Who would urge their fitness to fix the standard of American 
 life and shape the destiny of the American republic ? 
 
 It was an ill omen that this great national gathering should 
 have been, to all practical purposes and intents, turned into a 
 sectional, a Southern pow-wow. And it is noticeable that in 
 this aggregation not once was the commanding voice of an 
 eminent or a trusted Northern leader heard above the din, 
 nor was such a leader assigned an important post. The 
 South was in the saddle and the extreme reactionists held 
 the reins. 
 
 What, indeed, could be more preposterous than that this 
 free nation of 80,000,000 people should surrender their gov 
 ernment to the control or influence of Tillman and Varda 
 man and their cohorts that dominated the convention ? The 
 thought of it makes the brain reel. 
 
 312 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 Mr. James S. Henry, a special and responsible newspaper 
 correspondent, reports in the Philadelphia Press that, " From 
 Pettigrevv, of South Dakota, who was a member of the com 
 mittee (on resolutions), it is learned that the South s only 
 vigorous contention was for something against the nigger 1 ." 
 And the South got its " Jim Crow " plank, as predicted by 
 Senator Tillman and Governor Vardaman. 
 
 A strange fatuity has followed the Democratic party by 
 reason of overbearing Southern leaders. In the days of 
 slavery it became the helpless tool of the slaveholder. In 
 1864, in the great crisis of the war, and a year after the chi- 
 valric Lee had been hopelessly beaten and driven back from 
 Gettysburg and the invasion of the North, it declared "the 
 experiment of war a failure." 
 
 In 1868 it declared the reconstruction of the South as 
 " unconstitutional, revolutionary, null and void. 11 
 
 In 1876 a streak of sanity came to it, and it " recognized 
 the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled 
 for all time to come by the war. 11 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Cleveland saved it from "daftness. 1 
 
 In 1894, in the midst of President Cleveland^ second ad 
 ministration, it broke loose from all restraint, and not even 
 the well-known firmness and cleverness of the President could 
 "doctor 11 its mania. It "pitch-forked 11 him, repudiated 
 him, threw him overboard, and went wildly daft. 
 
 In 1896 it fell a victim to Populism, free silver, and other 
 fads. In 1900 it did likewise. And in 1904 it became the 
 helpless prey to the microbes of " Jim Crowism ", and adopted 
 a "Jim Crow " plank which is intended by its sponsors to 
 get the people s endorsement for a new peculiar institution, 
 more dangerous and less excusable than slavery. 
 
 Not a word of criticism is here directed against Judge 
 Parker, the eminent New York jurist who was nominated for 
 the presidency of the United States, and not a syllable un 
 favorable against Senator Davis, the distinguished citizen of 
 
 313 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 West Virginia who was nominated for the vice-presidency, 
 for they both represent the best class of Americans ; and not 
 a word of disparagement to the progressive and prosperous 
 commonwealth of West Virginia, which is rather to be con 
 gratulated on having such a worthy and distinguished citizen 
 within her borders. 
 
 But the " Jim-Crowing" of the convention was a national 
 misfortune, as it lends plausibility to the Southerner s declara 
 tion : " We have got our heel on the neck of the niggers 
 and we can hold them down ; and we have got a clutch in 
 the craw of the Yankees and we will choke down their 
 throats our views on the negro question." 
 
 Successful choking was done when the convention swal 
 lowed the " Jim Crow " plank. This plank is a compound of 
 cupidity, cunning, hypocrisy, and mendacity, and will confuse 
 no one. Historically it was not " the race question," but in 
 truth the slaveholders a minor element of the people, 
 who threatened, at the time of the founding of the govern 
 ment, not to enter the Union unless slavery was recognized, 
 saying that it was temporary, and promising its certain 
 abolition, and who afterwards strengthened and fastened the 
 barbarous institution on the republic who are responsible 
 for the countless woes to this country. 
 
 And it is those who have inherited the ideas of the slave 
 holders that are now exerting all their powers and chican 
 ery in defiance of the laws of God and the laws of their 
 country and the moral sentiment of mankind, and regard 
 less of a most costly and bitter experience along lines 
 which, if continued, will as certainly bring other countless 
 woes to this country. Indeed, the calm wisdom of the 
 American people should see to it, yes, will see to it, that 
 the South is saved from the folly of its leaders, and the 
 republic from the crime of serfdom. 
 
 " North, South, East, and West have but recently stood 
 together in line of battle, from the walls of Peking to the 
 
 314 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 hills of Santiago." This is mendacious ! Was ever the 
 truth so mutilated in order to serve a mean and base 
 purpose ? It is a matter of public knowledge that the very 
 first regiment summoned from the Western barracks to the 
 front in the Spanish- American War, by General Miles, who 
 was at that time at the head of the army, was a colored 
 regiment. 
 
 It was ungrudgingly stated at the time and universally 
 accepted, that the chief honors won in the fights around the 
 hills of Santiago were fully shared by colored soldiers, the 
 Ninth and Tenth colored cavalry, and the Twenty-fourth 
 and Twenty-fifth colored infantry. It is not intended to 
 underrate to any degree the invaluable services of their white 
 comrades in arms who contributed to the victory ; but 
 while there were of course others, Colonel Roosevelt s Rough 
 Riders and the Ninth and Tenth colored cavalry were the 
 two forces which make forever memorable the Santiago 
 campaign. But for the timely and heroic charge of these 
 colored soldiers, San Juan Hill would to-day mark the great 
 est defeat and humiliation that American arms have ever 
 met. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt, by far the most heroic figure in that 
 war, said : " I know the bravery and character of the negro 
 soldier. He saved my life at Santiago and I have had occa 
 sion to say so in many articles and speeches. The Rough 
 Riders were in a bad position when the Ninth and Tenth 
 Cavalry (colored) came rushing up the hill carrying every 
 thing before them." 
 
 The New York Journal, concerning this battle, said : " The 
 two most picturesque and most characteristically American 
 commands in General Shatter s army bore off the great 
 honors of the day, in which all won honor. No man can 
 read the story in to-day s Journal of the Rough Riders 
 charge on the block house at El Caney, of Theodore Roose 
 velt s mad daring in the face of what seemed certain death, 
 
 315 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 without having his pulses beat faster and some reflected light 
 of the fire of battle gleam from his eyes. 
 
 "And over against this scene of the cowboy and the 
 college graduate, the New York man about town and the 
 Arizona bad man, united in one coherent war machine, 
 set the picture of the Tenth United States Cavalry 
 the famous colored regiment. Side by side with Roose 
 velt s men they fought these black men. Scarce used 
 to freedom themselves, they are dying that Cuba may be 
 free. 
 
 "Their marksmanship was magnificent, say the eye-wit 
 nesses. Their courage was superb. They bore themselves 
 like veterans and gave proof positive that out of natures 
 naturally peaceful, careless, and playful, military discipline 
 and an inspiring cause can make soldiers worthy to rank with 
 Caesar s legions or Cromwell s army. 
 
 "The Rough Riders and the Black Regiment. In these 
 two commands is an epitome of almost our whole national 
 character."" 
 
 And further : hard by the walls of Peking, and in the Philip 
 pine Islands, the colored soldiers, at the command of the 
 Government of the United States, in defence of its flag, have 
 but recently stood together in line of battle with their white 
 compatriots and moistened the parched sands of that tropical 
 land with their warm life-blood. 
 
 The late President McKinley, in an address to the State 
 Normal and Industrial School for colored persons at Prairie 
 View, Texas, shortly before his death, said : " In our recent 
 war with Spain your race displayed distinguished qualities of 
 gallantry upon more than one field. You were in the fight 
 at El Caney, and San Juan Hill ; the black boys helping 
 to emancipate the oppressed people of Cuba ; and your race 
 is in the Philippines carrying the flag, and they have carried 
 it stainless in honor and in its glory." He also said : " Your 
 race is moving on and has a promising future before it. It 
 
 316 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 has been faithful to the government of the United States. It 
 has been true and loyal and law-abiding. " 
 
 Be true, then, to the truth and history. The colored sol 
 diers are the Southerners who won the greatest glory in the 
 Spanish-American War. 
 
 Is it a " Bourbon-like, selfish, and narrow spirit, 11 to demand 
 that no section of the country shall enjoy unfair and undue 
 advantage in representation in the government over any 
 other section ? Should it " kindle anew the embers of racial 
 and sectional strife," to equalize representation in a repre 
 sentative government according to the basis and limitations 
 of the Constitution ? For what does the Constitution exist ? 
 Or is the " solid South " above and beyond the Constitution 
 of the United States ? 
 
 Are the immense, incalculable business, financial, industrial, 
 and commercial interests of this republic best safeguarded 
 by giving a white man in South Carolina or Mississippi three 
 times as much power at the ballot-box, in the electoral col 
 lege and in the Congress, as a man in New York, or Wiscon 
 sin, or Indiana, or New Jersey, or Connecticut ? Did not the 
 " solid South vote for free silver and free trade in the last 
 two national elections ? 
 
 The facts and figures given in a previous chapter prove 
 beyond all cavil or question that it was the negro vote that 
 elected Mr. McKinley in 1896 and saved the country from 
 disasters and woes which words can hardly overstate. 
 
 The New York World., speaking of some of the grave and 
 serious consequences the nation escaped through Mr. Bryan s 
 defeat in 1896 and for whom the " solid South 11 voted, says : 
 "The free-riot 1 plank was quite as obnoxious as the free- 
 silver plank. The resolution proposing to deny the right of 
 private contract in money transactions was likewise bad. 
 The intimation that the Supreme Court would be packed to 
 secure the reversal of distasteful decisions was scandalous. 
 The postponement of tariff reform until the money question 
 
 317 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 has been settled as the cheap-money men wanted it settled, 
 was a betrayal of the traditional Democratic principle upon 
 which the party has elected its only presidents since the 
 war. The opposition to the use by Federal courts of the 
 writ of injunction was calculated to leave the Government 
 powerless in the face of emergencies requiring prompt ac 
 tion to protect life, industry, and property against mobs and 
 conspiracies."" 
 
 The votes unjustly wielded by the " solid South " are the 
 greatest menace that faces the nation, and may in a close or 
 doubtful election produce embarrassments bordering on chaos. 
 The South has seized powers unlawfully, by wholesale dis- 
 franchisements. And wholesale disfranchisement in the 
 South effects the partial disfranchisement of every Northern 
 state. 
 
 The demand, therefore, for equalization of representation 
 in the electoral college and in the Congress, and the preser 
 vation of the balance of power among the states of the 
 Union is of vital concern to the whole people. 
 
 It is a condition, not a theory, that faces the country. 
 
 The combined white population of South Carolina and 
 Mississippi, according to the census of 1900, is 1,199,007, and 
 these two states elect 15 members to the Congress; while the 
 combined white population of the states of Minnesota and 
 Nebraska is 2,793,562, being 1,594,555 greater than the 
 white population of South Carolina and Mississippi, and yet 
 they elect only 15 Congressmen. The states of Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have a 
 total white population of 2,757,262, being 1,558,417 greater 
 than the white population of South Carolina and Mississippi, 
 and yet they elect only 15 members of the Congress. 
 
 By this Southern method 1,594,555 white people in Min 
 nesota and Nebraska or 1,558,417 white people in the New 
 England states named above have no voice in their govern 
 ment and are practically disfranchised. 
 
 318 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana have a total 
 white population of 1,928,719 and elect 22 Congressmen ; 
 while Ohio has a white population of 4,060,204, being 
 2,031,485 greater than that of the three named Southern 
 states, yet elects only 21 members of Congress. 
 
 The states of Indiana and New Jersey have a total white 
 population of 4,270,825, being 2,242,146 greater than 
 the combined white population of South Carolina, Missis 
 sippi, and Louisiana, and yet elect only 23 members of 
 Congress. 
 
 By this Southern method 2,031,485 white people in Ohio 
 or 2,342,106 white people in Indiana and New Jersey are 
 deprived of a political status and are without a share in their 
 government. 
 
 By massing the colored population of South Carolina, Miss 
 issippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama, the injus 
 tice and inequality will appear even more flagrant and 
 condemnable. 
 
 The total colored population of these states is 4,433,605. 
 The Southern leaders refuse to recognize the colored man as 
 the equal of the white man at the ballot-box in the South, 
 nevertheless they count him, and play him as the equal of 
 the white man in the North in order to secure unfair, undue 
 representation in the government. 
 
 By appropriating to themselves full representation for 
 these 4,433,605 colored citizens and playing them against 
 great Northern states, they can effectively achieve the political 
 effacement of the 4,060,204 white citizens of Ohio ; or the 
 4,734,873 white citizens of Illinois ; or the 4,270,825 white 
 citizens of Indiana and New Jersey ; or the 4,456,474 white 
 citizens of the north central states Wisconsin and Michigan ; 
 or the 4,209,881 white citizens of Kansas, Minnesota, and 
 Nebraska, or even completely neutralize, nullify in the elec 
 toral college and in Congress the voice of the great Empire 
 City of New York with its imperial interests, together with 
 
 319 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island and Delaware 
 thrown in for good measure. 
 
 Furthermore, by taking representation on these 4,433,605 
 colored people they completely offset, negative in Congress 
 and the electoral college, the entire white population of all 
 the states west of the Rocky Mountains, namely California, 
 Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah, to 
 which we can add North Dakota and South Dakota, and still 
 have 1,153,508 negroes left to overwhelm and negative white 
 voters in other states. 
 
 It is as true now as in the days of slavery that the " solid 
 South " grasps the " advantages derived from the unity and 
 identity of action and motive," and would 4< move in phalanx " 
 over the great states of the North, by dividing them, and 
 catching here and there a few Congressmen and presidential 
 electors. 
 
 But will not the methods employed to make and keep a 
 "solid South " also make a solid rather than a divided 
 North? A North solid, however, only for justice, the right, 
 and constitutional government. 
 
 The " solid South " wields approximately 50 votes in the 
 electoral college and also in Congress based on its colored 
 citizens. All the New England states taken together have 
 only 29 votes. What freeman of the North, whether Demo 
 crat or Republican, Socialist or Prohibitionist, or of whatsoever 
 party, would condone this flaming injustice and crying wrong, 
 which destroys representative government and menaces free 
 institutions ? He must regard himself as the third-of-a-man, 
 for the white man in South Carolina or Mississippi is three 
 times as potential at the ballot-box and in the affairs of the 
 government as he. 
 
 This question is greater than party. It cannot be 
 smothered or brushed aside by the hypocritical shrieks of 
 sectionalism. The only sectionalism in this republic is that 
 which is fomented, kept alive, and forced on the people by 
 
 320 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 the un-American, perverse attitude of the leaders of the 
 "solid South." 
 
 The Constitution of the United States is plain, explicit, 
 mandatory. It imposes on the Congress the duty of equalizing 
 representation in the government. Whether the Southern 
 constitutions which have wrought wholesale disfranchisement 
 of the colored citizen are constitutional or unconstitutional, in 
 whole or in part, is not a matter of particular concern to 
 Congress in equalizing representation in the government. 
 The Southern leaders have proved themselves experts and 
 pastmasters in framing laws for the oppression and degrada 
 tion of others. They may, by circumlocutory wordings and 
 cunningly devised phrases, and the skilful manipulation of 
 sentences, have succeeded to some extent, at least, in cheating 
 the Constitution of the United States. But it may be dis 
 covered that cheating one section by " a grandfather clause," 
 does not invalidate other sections. 
 
 But the disfranchising constitutions and laws of the South 
 ern states are not constitutional, for the reason that they are 
 a fraudulent restraint on liberty and representative govern 
 ment, and were so intended to be. 
 
 The presiding officer of the Louisiana Constitutional Con 
 vention, in his closing address, said : " What care I whether 
 it [the Constitution] be more or less ridiculous, or not? 
 Does n t it meet the case ? Does n t it let the white man 
 vote, and does n t it stop the negro from voting ? and is n t 
 that what we came here to accomplish ? " Thus these lead 
 ers themselves brand their constitutions as frauds, and even 
 glory in the fraudulent work. But Congress is master of the 
 situation. 
 
 So that it matters not a particle whether the Southern 
 constitutions are constitutional in whole or in part, if the 
 fact exists that there are bodies of " the male inhabitants, . . . 
 21 years of age and citizens of the United States " in sufficient 
 numbers to attract attention and destroy the equilibrium of 
 21 321 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 representation in the government, and who have not " par 
 ticipated in rebellion or other crime," and yet are denied 
 " the right to vote " ; in whatsoever state such bodies of 
 " male citizens " are denied " the right to vote," it is the 
 imperative duty of Congress to reduce " the basis of repre 
 sentation therein to the proportion which the number of 
 such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
 citizens 21 years of age in such state." 
 
 The enforcement of this section of the Constitution of the 
 United States will prevent the republic from being ruled by 
 an oligarchy. For although an oligarchy may seize states 
 and under one pretence or another disfranchise large bodies 
 of the citizens, it cannot count those so disfranchised as a 
 basis of its representation in the government. This too 
 must promote and strengthen the broader liberty of the 
 people. 
 
 Mr. Hardwick of Georgia, in a recent speech in the Con 
 gress, said : " If Congress should be unwise enough to elect to 
 exercise this discretionary power vested in it by section 5 of 
 Article XIV, it will not only be the most serious strain of the 
 present cordial relations so happily existing between the sec 
 tions, but it will require a readjustment of the basis of rep 
 resentation that will not start at the Potomac and at Rio 
 Grande, but will stretch from Hatteras to the Golden Gate, 
 from Maine to Florida, and will embrace in its majestic sweep 
 every state and Territory in the Union and even our new 
 islands of the sea." This threat is characteristically Southern. 
 
 The only " cordial relations " that can bind together the 
 sections of a republic are based on the equality of representa 
 tion. Inequality destroys cordiality ; they cannot coexist. 
 The fundamental guarantee of "cordial relations," between 
 the sections is the equal obedience of the sections to the 
 Constitution of the United States. 
 
 In equalizing representation, it would be fair, wise, and 
 just to yield every Southern state full representation for its 
 
 322 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 entire white citizenship, supplemented by the number of 
 colored citizens actually enrolled as voters. This informa 
 tion is easily accessible. As the laws and constitution of 
 some of the Southern states were made for the expressed 
 purpose, openly and publicly avowed, of disfranchising the 
 colored citizens, it would not be necessary to follow the in 
 tricacies, windings, and tricks as to how the details are worked 
 out. The main purpose and results only are worthy of 
 consideration. 
 
 The Northern states should have identically the same 
 basis ; its entire white citizenship plus its registered colored 
 votes. But as no colored man in the North is disfranchised, 
 practically the whole colored citizenship would be counted. 
 
 The South is estopped from all complaints, because it 
 would have the full and unrestricted power to enlarge, at 
 any time, its electorate and thus increase its representation. 
 
 Reducing Southern representation would not of course 
 settle the question of suffrage, but it would be a start in 
 the right direction. It would chill the disposition of the 
 states for wholesale disfranchisement. States covet more, 
 not less power. The struggle will go on until impartial laws 
 shall regulate the suffrage in every state. The better South 
 will assert itself. The Fifteenth Amendment is an impreg 
 nable fortress, and no law which the reactionist s ingenuity 
 :an invent can keep all colored men from the ballot-box. 
 No one who now has the franchise can lose it. 
 
 The work of the schoolroom will gradually remove all the 
 artificial barriers which now exist and the approach to the 
 ballot-box will be greatly facilitated. 
 
 Some fears have been expressed that the Southern leaders 
 might even accept reduction of representation in order to get 
 rid of the negro vote, and that such reduction might be con 
 strued as an endorsement by the nation of wholesale dis 
 franchisement. These fears are illogical and groundless, and are 
 entirely without a basis in reason, political science, or history. 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 In the first place, the Southern leaders would oppose re 
 duction of representation to the limit of their power, for 
 the sake of their own political salvation. But even if they 
 should accept it, it must still be remembered that the South 
 ern leaders are not the Southern people, but only a very small 
 fraction of them. A majority of the whites would not view 
 reduction of representation with the same complacency that 
 they show for the disfranchisement of the colored race. As 
 a matter of fact, many Southerners are opposed to wholesale 
 disfranchisement, and regard the " grandfather clause "as a 
 subterfuge reproachful to Southern manhood. The inflamed 
 South is not the sober South. The sober South would never 
 give up one third of its representatives in Congress and also 
 in the electoral college in order to uphold a flagrantly un 
 moral and disastrous policy. More than this the sober 
 South would shrink from thus publicly and directly impeach 
 ing itself in the eyes of civilization and Christianity. 
 
 There should be no temporizing or half-way measures, but 
 reduction should be based, in full, on that proportion of the 
 colored population not represented on the list of registered 
 voters. The South being thus shorn of one third of its 
 power, it would be much easier to enact such additional laws 
 as the nation may adjudge necessary to enforce the Fifteenth 
 Amendment. But nothing can be more certain than that 
 
 O 
 
 the sober South will break away from the reactionists at this 
 point, or before it is reached, rather than provoke the nation 
 to the enactment of further legislation. It is already realized 
 that the madness of the reactionists has produced the woes of 
 the South. As sure as the sun shall shine the Southern people, 
 under a patriotic, noble-hearted, and broad-minded leadership, 
 will rise in revolt and overthrow the " Jim Crowites " andj 
 reactionists and wipe out any policy which would thus de- r 
 stroy the power, dignity, and standing of their states, and 
 which would relegate such states to the position of " pocket- 
 boroughs," or " sage-brush " communities. 
 
 324 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 In the second place, the reduction of representation would 
 not be an endorsement of wholesale disfranchisement, but 
 only the application of the penalty. If a man commits a 
 theft or any other offence, and the law is invoked and he is 
 duly punished, no sane person would ever pretend that the 
 invocation of the law and the punishment of the offender is 
 an endorsement of the crime. Such reasoning would over 
 turn civilization. Penalties operate correctionallv, and not 
 as endorsements of offences whatever their character. Re 
 duction of representation would punish, and also, at the same 
 time, work out the correction of the offence of wholesale dis 
 franchisement. How ? Such reduction would have the im 
 mediate effect of making the entire colored population a 
 valuable asset in the political life of the South ; whereas, as 
 things stand now, the colored man is a political nonentity. 
 
 The reactionists disfranchised him because they saw that 
 under present conditions nothing was to be gained by allow 
 ing him the ballot, and that by denying him the ballot noth 
 ing was to be lost. The colored man was thus counted, in so 
 far as his own recognition was concerned, simply as a cipher 
 in the political equation of Southern life. In politics, as in 
 other matters, things go by values. In the economy of life, 
 everything of value is put to use. Make the negro of politi 
 cal value to the South, just as he is of industrial value, and 
 the South will protect his ballot because it will serve its 
 interests to do so. Reduction of representation would in 
 stantly reverse present conditions and put a political value 
 on the head of every colored man. The reactionists could 
 not then treat the colored man as a cipher, and at the same 
 time profit by the full representation based on the colored 
 population to strengthen their oligarchy. The colored man 
 would have inherent political value ; and to secure its bene 
 fits, the South would be compelled to recognize his right to 
 cast his own ballot. He would thus be transformed from a 
 cipher into a unit ; from a mere abstraction into a political 
 
 325 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 personality. His ballot would be restored under just and 
 equal laws, and he would be protected and assisted in the 
 wise use of it by the conservative and patriotic elements. 
 For it would mean five more votes in Congress and as 
 many in the electoral college for Georgia ; four votes each 
 for North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, and 
 Alabama ; five more for Mississippi, and a corresponding 
 increase in other states according to the colored population. 
 Is any man crazy enough to believe that a majority of the 
 white people of South Carolina, that old and historic com 
 monwealth, rich in renown and prestige, would surrender four 
 of her seven representatives in the Congress and the electoral 
 college at the beck of Senator Tillman, simply to carry out 
 a degrading, unmoral, and unrighteous policy, injurious alike 
 to its white and colored citizens ; or that Mississippi would 
 give up five of her eight Congressmen and electors at the 
 dictation of Governor Vardaman ; or that the great state of 
 Georgia would cut her congressional and electoral delegation 
 in half to humor the frenzy of the Honorable John Temple 
 Graves, or as a tribute to the social-equality bogyman ? 
 
 Such a condition, even if it were possible, would only be 
 transient. It would provoke revolt. The liberal and patri 
 otic elements would desire and could have no better platform 
 than such an issue on which to appeal to the people to save 
 the prestige, power, and honor of their commonwealths and 
 demand fair and equal laws for all the people. 
 
 When the white people of the South shall thus approach 
 the suffrage question with honest purposes, and in the broad 
 spirit of patriotism and humanity, and enact fair and honest 
 election laws, taking every needful precaution to insure good 
 government by the rule of intelligence, thrift, character, and 
 property ; punishing alike the man who sells his vote and the 
 man who bribes it ; prohibiting the use of money in cam 
 paigns except for specified purposes ; eliminating from poli 
 tics the ignorant, vicious, shiftless, and criminal classes whether 
 
 326 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 white or colored ; discarding the unholy and un-American 
 policy of the reactionists in violating the Constitution and 
 subjugating the colored race; assuring the colored man of 
 the protection of his civil and political rights ; giving him 
 considerate treatment, recognizing his right to representa 
 tion in the government and so dividing his vote, they shall 
 have the hearty good-will, applause, and benediction of every 
 honest man and patriotic citizen of the land ; for the race 
 question will then be solved, and in the only way that it can 
 be solved, by respecting the ethics of the Christ and by the 
 due observance of the organic law of the republic ; and it 
 will be removed from the arena of politics. 
 
 The solemn appeals and warnings of two eminent Amer 
 icans may fittingly close this chapter. One is of the South, 
 the other of the North. Both are of national reputation, 
 and represent the best type of American manhood. 
 
 Ex-Governor William O. Bradley, of Kentucky, in a recent 
 address, said : " Men of the North, we come from the battle 
 field, consecrated to freedom with the blood of your brave 
 sons. In their names, and by their memories, the disfran 
 chised South appeals to you for justice. Shall it be said that 
 your sons marched and fought and died in vain ? Shall it 
 be said that a nation can exist part slave and part free? 
 Are people free who are forced to bear the burden and yet 
 denied the highest privilege of citizenship? If it be true 
 that warrant may not be found in the Constitution to pre 
 vent disfranchisement, then we beg that you no longer permit 
 the disfranchised and oppressed to be estimated for the pur 
 pose of increasing the electoral strength of their oppressors. 11 
 
 And the late Mr. James G. Blaine, in the North American 
 Review, after affirming that the South " wrongfully gains " 
 a " great number of electoral votes, 11 " by reason of its 
 unlawful seizure of political power, 11 goes on to say : " Our 
 institutions have been tried by the fiery test of war and have 
 survived. It remains to be seen whether the attempt to 
 
 327 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 govern the country by the power of a solid South unlaw 
 fully consolidated, can be successful. No thoughtful man can 
 consider these questions without deep concern. The mighty 
 power of a republic with a continent for its possession, can 
 only be wielded permanently by being wielded honestly. 
 In a fair and generous struggle for partisan power let us not 
 forget those issues and those ends which are above party. 
 Organized wrong will ultimately be met by organized resist 
 ance. . . . Impartial suffrage is our theory. It must become 
 our practice. Any party of American citizens can bear to 
 be defeated. No party of American citizens will bear to be 
 defrauded. The men who are interested in a dishonest count 
 are units. The men who are interested in an honest count 
 are millions. I wish to speak for the millions of all political 
 parties, and in their name to declare that the republic must 
 be strong enough, and shall be strong enough, to protect the 
 weakest of its citizens in all their rights. To this simple and 
 sublime principle let us, in the lofty language of Burke, 
 attest the retiring generations, let us attest the advancing 
 generations, between which, as a link in the great chain of 
 eternal order, we stand. " 
 
 And there may be added these forceful words from the 
 New York World : " If the Southern Democrats who are 
 forcing these measures do not perceive their ultimate inevita 
 ble consequences, they are lacking in political understanding. 
 The preponderating vote of the Northern states will not con 
 sent permanently to representation in Congress and in the 
 electoral college of millions of disfranchised inhabitants in 
 the Southern states. Especially is this true when the dis 
 franchising qualifications apply and are intended to operate 
 not against illiteracy or shiftlessness or unworthiness, but 
 solely against color. . . . 
 
 " Back, however, of the questions of political expediency 
 and of the equality growing out of the representation of 
 non-voters is the deeper question of constitutional guarantees 
 
 328 
 
THE NATIONAL DUTY TO THE NEGRO 
 
 and of the anomaly and danger in a republic of an enormous 
 number of citizens disfranchised for their color alone. 11 
 
 Colonel T. VV. Higginson read a poem before the Phi 
 Beta Kappa Society at the late Commencement of Harvard 
 College, which concludes as follows : 
 
 ** The humbler friends who ne er betrayed a trust, 
 And never in defeat yet turned their back, 
 Stood firm till gunshot strewed them in the dust. 
 Why need they pardon ? For their faces black ! 
 
 " A hundred thousand negroes filled your ranks, 
 When most depleted, with their manhood strong. 
 Shall we not still keep warm the nation s thanks 
 While lingering days those modest lives prolong ? 
 
 " They saved you ; charged Fort Wagner ; they held out, 
 Held the coast safe that Sherman might pass through, 
 You built Shaw s statue; can you calmly doubt 
 That those who marched with him should vote, like you ? 
 
 " Not fit to live, some say ; an alien race, 
 Oh, set them all aside ! advisers cry. 
 Their birth a shame, their color a disgrace. 
 Not fit to live ? You trusted them to die ! 
 
 ** Not on these walls your tribute need be paid, 
 But in that outer world your teachings rule ; 
 Here by your thoughts a nobler conscience made 
 Gives to the nation s life a loftier school. 
 
 " To praise one s self by flattering all the great 
 How easy ! Worthier honors then were won 
 When Harvard kept her cherished laurels late 
 And placed them on a humbler Washington. 
 
 " Within this hall she cried, * Protect the low, 
 Till all earth s children from this life are whirled 
 To see fulfilled the debts we vainly owe, 
 And find God s justice in a nobler world. " 
 
CHAPTER X 
 PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 PRINCE TALLEYRAND, probably the most resource 
 ful, astute, and remarkable European diplomatist of 
 his day, said : " There is one who is wiser than Vol 
 taire, and has more understanding than Napoleon and all 
 ministers; and that one is Public Opinion." 
 
 In the equitable settlement of complex and vital issues 
 incident to the life of a free and self-governing nation the 
 arbitrament of the sword being eliminated public opinion 
 is the court of last resort. Its mandates are imperative and 
 final. From its inexorable decrees there is no escape. It 
 inspires, formulates, and executes the laws of a people. The 
 public opinion of the nation is and of necessity must be para 
 mount : the peace and prosperity, the honor and dignity, the 
 good order and safety, and the perpetuity and sovereignty of 
 the nation are dependent on this. For the laws of a self- 
 governing nation represent the consensus of the public opin 
 ion of the nation. 
 
 If South Carolina and Mississippi can violate with open 
 defiance and impunity certain sections of the Constitution 
 of the United States at will, what is to prevent Utah and 
 Wyoming from overthrowing other sections, and still other 
 states from nullifying remaining sections ? How much of 
 the Constitution is to be left intact ? 
 
 If this wonderful instrument, the grandest charter of 
 liberty on the face of the earth " the hope of man " can 
 thus be torn into tatters and threads, of what avail is the con 
 sensus of public opinion, the saving salt of a nation s life ? 
 What becomes of national honor, authority, sovereignty? 
 When the public opinion of this nation shall cease to be 
 sovereign then the republic is dead. The public opinion 
 
 330 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 of this nation, in the free exercise of its plenary and sovereign 
 powers, removed the fetters of slavery, and made the colored 
 people citizens; acknowledging to them the birthright which 
 belongs to every man " the inalienable rights " of " life, 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness" ; and it is the preroga 
 tive and binding duty of the nation to make the full enjoy 
 ment of these natural rights and privileges secure and 
 complete. 
 
 The United States being a nation, the allegiance and 
 loyalty of the citizen is not to a state or section, but to the 
 nation. It must necessarily follow, as a corollary, that the 
 highest, the supreme, prerogative of the nation is the pro 
 tection of the citizen. The relation is reciprocal. This in 
 volves the very life of the nation itself. In the protection 
 of its citizens the nation finds its own protection. 
 
 President Lincoln, in the heat of the antislavery agitation, 
 declared: "This nation cannot continue to exist half free 
 and half slave." He was right. 
 
 President Garfield, in his inaugural address, twenty years 
 after the slaveholders 1 unsuccessful rebellion against the re 
 public, said: "There is no middle ground for the negro race 
 between slavery and equal citizenship." He was right. 
 
 There was no peace with the nation half free and half 
 slave. There can be no peace with the nation half free and 
 half serf. "Men may cry peace! peace! but there is no 
 peace." The extreme and unreasonable, the unchristian 
 and un-American attitude of the South is "the fly in the 
 ointment," the disturber of the public peace. 
 
 No one will deny that it ought to be, and is, a most ardent 
 and even sacred desire of every good citizen, that peace and 
 concord, unity and good fellowship shall exist between the 
 several sections of the country and among all of its inhabi 
 tants. But the essential, the elementary condition of this 
 consummation most devoutly to be wished for, is a fair and 
 faithful, a just and honorable administration of the law for 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 all the people "without regard to race, color or previous 
 condition of servitude." 
 
 The policy pursued by the South, and portrayed in these 
 pages and proved by evidence unquestioned and incontrover 
 tible a policy of mob rule and lynch law; oppressive, pre 
 scriptive, and unlawful legislation ; harsh persecutions and 
 general ostracism; and debasement of all colored people, 
 regardless of their moral worth, their thrift and industry, 
 their superior mental endowments, their value to the com 
 munity, or their service and sacrifices for the nation in the 
 storm and stress of war is not constructive of the peace of 
 the nation, but on the contrary is destructive of the very 
 foundations of peace. 
 
 When one class of citizens seize local governments and 
 inflict gross wrongs and inhumanities on another class of 
 equal citizens, in defiance of the organic law, it is a matter 
 of concern to the whole people. The familiar phrases " hands 
 off," "no interference," "we will settle the question to suit 
 ourselves," smack of haughtiness but not wisdom, of audacity 
 but not honesty, and will deceive no one. 
 
 "Hands off " when the liberty and hope of ten millions 
 of American citizens are being openly assassinated ? 
 
 " No interference " when these people are being stripped 
 and despoiled of every essential manhood right of a free 
 American ? 
 
 "We will settle the question to suit ourselves" when 
 that settlement leads to serfdom with abuses even blacker 
 and more bestial than slavery ? 
 
 If a colored man pre-eminent in character and of superior 
 talent, a high officer of the government is invited to a func 
 tion at the White House, or another of admitted ability and 
 standing is appointed to a Federal office, the churlish and 
 childish plaint is made: "It is an insult to the white 
 people of the South." A social boycott is flauntingly pro 
 claimed against the President of the United States and the 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 demand made that he shall "be treated in all respects by 
 Southern people precisely as if he were a negro, and with 
 absolute indication that he is not of our race, or in any re 
 spect socially an equal with us or a fit associate for us or 
 any of us." The press reports show that many leading 
 Southerners have absented themselves from the social func 
 tions at the White House, as if by this childish act they 
 could coerce the President to violate the liberty and rights 
 of citizens whom his oath of office binds him to protect. 
 
 If a Northern man has the temerity to make a manly plea 
 for fair and honorable treatment of the colored people and 
 condemns oppression, he is met with the charge of " stirring 
 up sectional strife", "waving the bloody shirt % and is de 
 nounced as the " fool-friend " of the negro. 
 
 The social and business boycott is rigorously applied to 
 any white person in the South who may treat the educated 
 and cultured negro with the courtesy due a gentleman. The 
 Northern man residing in the South and who is the victim of 
 this un-American code and who does not show the colored 
 man the kindness or courtesy he would show if residing in 
 the North, is paraded as being as hostile as the Southerner 
 to the recognition of the colored man. 
 
 Principal Booker T. Washington, admittedly the most 
 distinguished Southerner living and pronounced by Mr. 
 Carnegie one of the greatest men of the age, registers in an 
 Indiana hotel : the next morning a white chambermaid re 
 fuses to make up his bed, because a "nigger" had slept in it. 
 She at once becomes the heroine of every " Jim Crowite " in 
 the South. Letters of congratulation are poured in upon her. 
 Subscriptions are made up in various parts of the South, and 
 thousands of dollars are showered upon her. Her coura 
 geous act consisted in offering an unprovoked insult to an un 
 offending gentleman. Mr. Washington sends his daughter 
 to a Northern boarding-school : the demand is made that 
 Southern white girls shall leave the school. 
 
 333 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 An Italian, keeping a restaurant in a Mississippi town, 
 sells a colored man a meal ; his place is immediately raided 
 and he is driven from his home. Any incident is seized upon 
 to inflame passions against the colored man. 
 
 During the riots in New Orleans, a Northern white man 
 was arrested, and fined twenty-five dollars for protesting 
 against the killing of innocent negroes and admitting to 
 the judge he had said that "A negro in body and soul 
 is as good as a white man." At Memphis, Tennessee, a 
 Northern white man who justified President Roosevelt in 
 dining Principal Booker T. Washington was promptly 
 thrashed. And the cry has gone forth that " no quarter " 
 shall be given to any one who shall dare to interpose against 
 this policy. Is this not choking Southern ideas down North 
 ern throats with a remarkable vehemence ? 
 
 These things are sufficient to cause the patriots of 1861 to 
 turn in their graves. Did they destroy slavery and save the 
 Union only to have the cardinal doctrine of the Southern 
 Confederacy re-enacted into law throughout the Southland, 
 and forced on the nation as slavery was forced on it ? This 
 is not a basis which makes for the peace of the republic, nor 
 will the people be silent in the consummation of such a sin 
 against Heaven and crime against humanity. 
 
 The American people lack neither courage nor conscience. 
 The issues thus raised must be bravely met and overcome, as 
 have other issues equally perplexing and menacing. 
 
 The South was wrong, even if it was united, on the slavery 
 question but public opinion destroyed slavery. 
 
 The South was wrong, even if it was united, in making war 
 on the republic but public opinion saved the republic. 
 
 The South was wrong, even if it was united, in its threats 
 to shoot colored soldiers and their white officers when cap 
 tured but public opinion kept the colored soldiers on the 
 firing line and protected them. 
 
 The South was wrong, even if it was united, in passing the 
 
 334 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 Black Code but public opinion destroyed the Black 
 Code. 
 
 The South was wrong, even if it was united, in its hos 
 tility to the great measures of reconstruction but public 
 opinion achieved the reconstruction it wanted. 
 
 The South is wrong, even if it is united, in the extreme un- 
 American, and unholy attitude assumed to-day and public 
 opinion will be found equal to the task of dealing with it. 
 
 Public opinion spoke through the ballot-box in the na 
 tional election held in the fall of 1904. The overwhelming 
 vote given in support of the victorious candidate attests the 
 adherence of the people to the principles advocated in these 
 pages. Never before in the history of the republic have the 
 people, the true American sovereigns, given such an emphatic 
 demonstration of their power through the instrumentality 
 of the ballot-box, and so splendidly and gloriously confirmed 
 their devotion to the principles of liberty and constitutional 
 government. 
 
 Every state in which there was a free and fair expression 
 of public opinion was carried by President Roosevelt by ma 
 jorities which daze the political mind. New York gave 
 175,000 majority, Illinois 300,000, Michigan 206,000, Kansas 
 126,000, Minnesota 126,000, Wisconsin 130,000, Nebraska 
 85,000, Massachusetts 92,000, California 125,000, Ohio 
 240,000, Connecticut 75,000, Indiana nearly 100,000, Wash 
 ington 72,000, and Pennsylvania over 500,000. In ten 
 states his majority ranged from 100,000 to more than 
 500,000 ; and his combined majorities in fifteen states ex 
 ceeded Judge Parker s total vote. 
 
 The total vote cast in the thirteen Southern states, includ 
 ing Maryland, which Judge Parker carried, was 2,033,226, of 
 which he received 1,238,878. The total vote polled in the 
 thirty-two states carried by President Roosevelt was 
 11,475,270. But it must be remembered that the South, 
 while casting only 15 per cent of the whole number of votes 
 
 335 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 polled, nevertheless has 34 per cent of the presidential elec 
 tors. About one-third of these electors are based on the 
 colored population, who in large measure are disfranchised by 
 trick election laws. This is like killing the sheep, and yet 
 still expecting to possess and be benefited by the annual crop 
 of wool. 
 
 The continuance of such gross inequality invites gravest 
 consequences in case of a close election. It is a most impres 
 sive fact that President Roosevelt s majorities alone in the 
 four states of New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania 
 were greater in the aggregate than the total vote cast for 
 Judge Parker in the thirteen Southern states, including 
 Maryland. President Roosevelt s popular majority, at large, 
 was 2,547,578, being more than twice as great as the whole 
 number of votes polled by his opponent in the " solid South." 
 
 The political cataclysm struck and shook to the centre the 
 border states, and West Virginia and Missouri enrolled 
 themselves on the side of progress and humanity ; Maryland 
 half yielded, and " Old Kentucky " weakened. 
 
 The former seceding states stand alone, isolated, embit 
 tered, out of touch with the liberal and progressive ideas of 
 the sister states, without reconciliation to the popular will, 
 and refusing to keep step in the march of civilization and to 
 the " music of the Union." The following post-election ex 
 pressions from leaders of the " solid South " will disclose the 
 poverty of the South, in its public life, in capable, sober, 
 constructive, statesmanlike leadership. The Louisville 
 Courier- Journal says : " From Theodore Roosevelt we ask no 
 quarter and expect none. He is infinitely a worse enemy of 
 the white men and women of the South than any of the radi 
 cal leaders of the past." 
 
 In the Huntsville, Alabama, Mercury, Mr. Robert T. Bently 
 says : " It appearing that Theodore Roosevelt, the head and 
 front of the Republican party, which represents the danger 
 ous policies of civilization, protective tariff, imperialism, and 
 
 336 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 social equality, has been elected President of the United 
 States by a strictly sectional vote, and has established an in 
 surmountable barrier between the North and South, I feel 
 constrained to express my humble opinion, as a true and 
 patriotic American citizen of the South, that, if the Republi 
 can party should continue its dangerous policies for the next 
 four years and should triumph in the next national election, 
 the thirteen states which voted for Alton B. Parker should 
 secede from the union and by force of arms resist an oppres 
 sion which means the early fall of our great republic." 
 
 In an interview, General John W. A. Sanford, one of the 
 oldest and best-known citizens of the South, says that " the 
 South is practically ostracized. There is one policy for 
 the South to pursue that it may retain its prestige, its honor, 
 and all it holds dear in its social as well as political life. 
 Abjure national politics, participate in no future national 
 political conventions. Allow the Northern Democrats and 
 Northern Republicans to hold their own conventions and 
 vote their own tickets. Let the South select and elect its 
 own electoral ticket and vote in the electoral college for that 
 party or candidate whose principles are more in accord with 
 our own policies, and whose policies will promote in the 
 greatest degree the peace, power, and prosperity of the 
 Southern people. And when we become more populous and 
 more wealthy, the Northerners will court the Southerners, 
 our interests will be more respected, and our views of govern 
 ment will receive greater consideration from the political 
 parties of the Northern states." 
 
 The Atlanta Journal says : " Let the South remain true 
 to its traditions, true to the principle of white supremacy, 
 true to the principles of democracy, and let it stand by itself in 
 national politics until its support is sought on its own terms" 
 
 The Journal and the Atlanta Constitution also demand that 
 the South shall nominate its own candidate for the presi 
 dency at the next election. 
 
 22 337 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 Judge J. M. Chilton says : " We had as well recognize 
 this position and make the best of it. In my opinion the 
 South ought never again, at least for several years to come, 
 enter a national Democratic convention or any sort of 
 national political convention. The Southern states which 
 have been thus driven to solidification should hold a Southern 
 convention and align themselves with that one of the North 
 ern parties which will promise us most. Let them fight it out 
 with their own reds and socialists. Let the South give its 
 aid to that one of the parties which is least objectionable. 
 In such a position the South will hold the balance of power, 
 and it will not be long before we will be accorded the 
 position and influence to which we are justly entitled." 
 
 The News and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, says : 
 " The North was also solid, and solid without cause ; solid 
 on sectional lines for a sectional party, a sectional candidate, 
 and for sectional purposes. 11 
 
 The Columbia State declares that, "if trouble is provoked, 
 the negroes will be the chief sufferers, and a dozen Roosevelts 
 cannot help them. " 
 
 Senator Car mack of Tennessee denounces " the pharisaical 
 people of New England," and " the rotten politicians of the 
 North," and " the press of the North " for " misrepresenting 
 the Southern people." 
 
 The Honorable John Sharp Williams of Mississippi goes 
 to South Carolina, the cradle of the former secession, and 
 preaches a new rebellion against the republic. This time, 
 however, thanks to his discretion, it is to be a bloodless war. 
 He advises the South to uphold its nullification of the Con 
 stitution of the United States by refusing to obey any law 
 the sovereign people of the republic may enact through their 
 representatives in Congress to equalize representation. 
 
 The New York World makes the following comment on 
 Mr. Williams 1 speech : " Martyrdom was joined to nullifica 
 tion in the doctrine of passive resistance which John 
 
 338 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 Sharp Williams, the Democratic leader of the House, preached 
 to the people of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Friday night. 
 
 " On the assumption that Congress might reduce Southern 
 representation in accordance with the provisions of the Four 
 teenth Amendment, Mr. Williams proceeded to lay out a 
 programme of passive resistance for the South. I know 
 of no power on earth or in heaven, except a direct interven 
 tion of God/ he said, * that can force a state legislature to 
 pass a bill redistricting a state so that it shall contain four 
 or five or six Congressional districts instead of seven or 
 eight. 1 
 
 " Mr. Williams then advised the Southern states to pay 
 no attention to an act reducing representation, if one should 
 be passed, but to elect their Representatives on the old basis 
 and send them to Washington. The House would refuse 
 to seat them and would withhold the payment of salaries. 
 Judicial proceedings could then be instituted to determine 
 whether the act of Congress was constitutional. In the 
 mean time all the Southern states would be without repre 
 sentation and would stand as a visible object-lesson to the 
 flinty-hearted brethren of the North. . . . 
 
 " But if the question of reducing representation in accord 
 ance with the Fourteenth Amendment were under serious con 
 sideration in Republican councils, the blame would rest upon 
 the South alone or, more specifically, upon the sinister 
 cunning that devised the grandfather clause and the 
 other discriminating franchise provisions in the new state 
 constitutions. 
 
 " Nobody in the North is disposed to quarrel with the 
 South for disfranchising ignorance, for disfranchising vicious- 
 ness, or for disfranchising shiftlessness. The objection is to 
 a policy that disfranchises only negro ignorance, viciousness, 
 and shiftlessness, while assuring the franchise to the most 
 worthless white trash that can prove a voting grandfather 
 or get a political committee to pay his poll taxes. . . . 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 " Mr. Williams gives his whole case away when he says 
 that he and his friends would be willing to submit gracefully 
 to reduced representation if the country would repeal the 
 Fifteenth Amendment. What the Southern politicians wish 
 to do is not to withhold the suffrage from the elements that 
 pollute it, but to disfranchise forever such men as Booker 
 T. Washington and Professor Du Bois, along with the most 
 depraved levee loafers, for the crime of not having white 
 skins. 
 
 " To such a programme the country will never give its 
 consent, and Mr. Williams wastes his breath in suggesting 
 it. The American people are not yet ready to surrender the 
 fundamental principle of their institutions that in respect 
 of political rights all men are created equal, and that the 
 republic is opportunity."* When the South asks this sur 
 render it is asking the impossible."" 
 
 The plan of Congressman 14-33 Williams (the numerals 
 indicate the total number of votes he received in his canvass 
 for Congress) has about as much common-sense in it as that 
 of the man who attempted to drain the ocean by emptying 
 buckets of water on the beach. The republic will not be 
 coerced, nor can the government be destroyed by sulking. 
 A way will be found under the Constitution to elect dele 
 gations at large, and voters will be found to vote for them. 
 The South must repeal its "grandfather" constitutions and 
 other trick election laws which defraud the people of an 
 equal share in their government, and enact fair laws, or 
 representation must be reduced. 
 
 These leaders present the South in a pitiable plight before 
 the eyes of the world. It is indeed a matter for deep lamen 
 tation and profound regret that a land so wonderfully blessed 
 by nature, and with the members of one class of its population, 
 at their best, so hospitable and chivalric, and with the other 
 class so peaceful, responsive, and hard-toiling, should become 
 the prey of unbalanced leaders and wild reactionists. The 
 
 340 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 justice which man owes to man ; the righteousness which God 
 exacts of all ; the peace and fraternity which are the nation s 
 meed ; and the love, charity, and helpfulness which the Christ 
 teaches apparently find no place in their minds, hearts, or 
 works. 
 
 Why does not the South accept with the same heartiness 
 and in the same spirit of patriotism and fraternity the result 
 of the election that has been made manifest in every hamlet 
 of other sections of the republic ? Why should it remain 
 offensively sectional, to its own detriment and the marring of 
 the peace of the nation ? Why does it cling so tenaciously to 
 the barbarous traditions of slavery which are out of harmony 
 with the age, repugnant to the national conscience and ideals, 
 and frowned upon and disowned by the whole civilized world ? 
 
 The Honorable Thomas E. Watson of Georgia, candidate 
 of the People s party for president in the last campaign, 
 gives the philosophy of the matter in a recent speech in say 
 ing : " The politicians keep the negro question alive in the 
 South to perpetuate their hold on public office. The negro 
 question is the joy of their lives. It is their very existence. 
 They fatten on it. With one shout of nigger ! they can 
 run the native Democrats into their holes at any hour of the 
 day." Nevertheless, the tremendous uprising of the people 
 on election day and the unprecedented avalanche of ballots 
 which carried Mr. Roosevelt to the presidential chair, after a 
 campaign of abuse and detraction, cannot fail to have a so 
 bering effect ; and the prophecy may even be ventured that a 
 show of firmness in upholding the Constitution by an aroused 
 public opinion will mark the opening of a new era in the 
 Southland the beginning of the end of the dominion of 
 incapable, rancorous, implacable reactionaries. The hand 
 writing is on the wall. The people have spoken. The 
 meaning of the election is plain. 
 
 It means that the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth 
 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States are 
 
 341 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 incontestable ; that the liberty and citizenship of the colored 
 man are no longer open to challenge and are not to be the 
 foot-ball of " cheap- John " politicians ; that he shall take his 
 place before the law in common with other races and thus 
 work out his destiny. It means the overwhelming condem 
 nation of wholesale disfranchisement, lynch-law and burnings 
 at the stake, prescriptive laws, the attempt to inaugurate a 
 new form of slavery, and the rampant and unbridled "Jim 
 Crowism " which was constantly flaunted in the face of the 
 nation and offered gross insults and indignities to the 
 President of the United States. 
 
 For, indeed, it was not the tariff, nor the gold standard, 
 nor the trusts, nor imperialism, nor the Philippines, nor large 
 expenditures for the army and navy, nor all of these com 
 bined that aroused and rallied the sovereigns of the land to 
 the Roosevelt standard. The party in opposition did not 
 propose any summary or radical changes along any of these 
 lines. But it was because "the people loved him for the 
 enemies he has made," and because he stood as firm as ad 
 amant against the assaults and traducings of the reactionists 
 and proclaimed his ceaseless devotion to the ideals of liberty 
 as held by Abraham Lincoln, and for a republic of law, or 
 derly government, equal rights and opportunities, and " the 
 door of hope " for all Americans without regard to race, 
 color, or creed, or whether rich or poor because his per 
 sonality embodied the American ideal. 
 
 The New York World, which has been repeatedly quoted, 
 is generally regarded as the leading Democratic organ of the 
 country. It has always been friendly to the South and has 
 rendered it invaluable services. No one would accuse it of 
 leaning toward the colored man or fawning upon him. But 
 in its discussion of the race question it has been fair, firm, 
 and fearless. It has emphasized some thoughts since the 
 election which the white people should ponder over, calmly 
 weigh, and digest. In various issues it says : 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 " The American people will never accept the dictum that 
 a negro scholar is the inferior of a white ignoramus, that a 
 negro gentleman is the inferior of a white blackguard, that a 
 man s title to consideration rests on the color of his skin and 
 not on his character and his achievements. 
 
 " The World hopes that this little lesson has finally been 
 thoroughly learned. . . . 
 
 " Never before in our history were so many votes cast for 
 a candidate for office. Black and white, Protestant and 
 Catholic, Jew and Gentile, vied with one another in testify 
 ing at the ballot-box their faith in Mr. Roosevelt s purposes 
 and their confidence in his statesmanship. . . . 
 
 " If the South wishes to take the negro question out of 
 national politics the quickest way is to stop burning negroes 
 at the stake and to abandon the un-American notion that the 
 meanest of white scoundrels is better than the most industri 
 ous, intelligent, honorable negro. 
 
 " If the race question played any part in the recent cam 
 paign, the South alone is to blame. It was the South that 
 raised the Booker T. Washington issue. It was the South 
 that advanced the monstrous doctrine that the better quali 
 fied a negro was to hold a Federal office the more objection 
 able was his appointment. . . . 
 
 " You cannot convince the people of the North that it is a 
 heinous crime for a President of the United States to lunch 
 with a Booker T. Washington, whatever the color of the 
 Washington s skin may be. They will no more worry about 
 equality between American and African than about equality 
 between American and Chinese, when the President invites 
 the Chinese Minister to dinner. " 
 
 The white people of the South must come back to the first 
 principles of liberty, constitutional government, and fraternity. 
 They are in fact and by right, and should be in spirit, a har 
 monious part of the Union cheerfully co-operating with 
 other sections in enacting and administering just and equal 
 
 343 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 laws and adding to the moral grandeur of the republic. 
 Isolation is a mistaken policy. It bodes no good to the 
 South. It keeps alive sectionalism and bitterness. The 
 South is the chief sufferer. The policy is childish. It rests 
 absolutely in the power of the South, and it alone, to destroy 
 sectionalism. This will be a truly harmonious nation arid 
 the last vestige of sectionalism will disappear when the white 
 people of the South, like the people of the North, shall ac 
 cept in good faith the constitutional amendments which 
 manumitted the slave and restored him to his place in the 
 brotherhood of men. And in recornposing the relations 
 between the races there are two elemental truths which 
 will count mightily in an honorable, a righteous, and lasting 
 settlement. 
 
 The first of these is, that the white people, deep down in 
 their hearts, do not hate the colored people. As paradoxical 
 as it may sound, they really love them. They would not 
 exchange them for any class of laborers in the wide world. 
 
 The second is this : The colored people do not hate the 
 whites ; on the contrary, they cherish genuine friendship and 
 affection for them. The races are not as far apart as it may 
 seem. 
 
 The excessive bitterness, rank intolerance and contempt, 
 and the extreme and violent forms of prejudice displayed 
 toward the whole colored race are not an expression of the 
 true heart of the whites. They are rather due to the arti 
 ficial conditions and influences purposely created by the 
 Bourbons, the pernicious and mischievous leaders, to 
 strengthen and aggrandize their political power and establish 
 an oligarchy. The entailments of slavery made it possible 
 for them to inflame the whites beyond reason and drive the 
 mass of them into stark madness on the race question. 
 To undo their work : the repeal of all prescriptive laws ; the 
 enactment of impartial suffrage and acknowledgment of the 
 right of its rewards to office based on good citizenship and 
 
 344 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 merit ; the protection of life, liberty and property ; the due 
 punishment of all criminals according to law and not color ; 
 the protection of the laborer and the elimination of all 
 forms of peonage ; the overthrow of mob-rule and the guar 
 anty of equal rights before the law for all, white and colored 
 alike these should become the self-imposed task of the best 
 and decent elements of the South. Thus could they bring 
 peace to the nation, and reconciliation between the races ; 
 thus could they vindicate the honor of the South and eman 
 cipate its name from shame. 
 
 From the womb of the South itself, there surely will come 
 men with the honesty, courage and statesmanship of those 
 beacon lights in the early history of the nation men like 
 Henry and John Laurens, Pinckney and Gadsden of South 
 Carolina ; Jefferson, George Mason, Madison, and Randolph 
 of Virginia ; and Luther Martin of Maryland who cried 
 out against the wrong of oppression and servitude at the 
 very incipiency of the nation s birth. What they denounced 
 as a wrong then is a crime in the light of to-day. 
 
 The advent into public life of men of their mental calibre, 
 political honesty, and moral courage men broad in states 
 manship, liberal-minded, invincible to passion and prejudice, 
 devoted to free institutions will be the harbinger of better 
 days for both the white and colored people of the Sunny 
 South, as it will also mean the overturn and banishment 
 into political oblivion of the reactionists, the negrophobists, 
 the "Jim Crowites" and the whole brood of those who fatten 
 on public office or public patronage by preaching hatred and 
 strife between the races, and who are the worst enemies the 
 Southern people have to fear. 
 
 The nation longs for peace, but peace which is purchased 
 at the sacrifice of the dictates of justice and humanity and 
 the vital principles of Christianity is not only too costly in 
 price but it is a worthless peace. It is worthless because the 
 conscience of the American people will not accept it. It 
 
 345 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 would not even bridge over matters. The mere announce- 
 ment of peace purchased at such a price would open wide 
 the flood gates of agitation and strife. 
 
 The dominant leadership of the South is endeavoring to 
 turn back the hands of the dial of time and engraft on the 
 republic the leading principles of the Southern Confederacy. 
 Thus they would achieve by indirect action what failed oi 
 accomplishment by open rebellion, the perpetual subjuga 
 tion and servitude of a people. 
 
 The Honorable Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President oi 
 the Confederacy, made this historical declaration in a speech 
 delivered at Savannah, Georgia, on the 21st of March, 1861, 
 less than a month before " Old Glory " was fired on at Fort 
 Sumter : " The new Constitution has put at rest forever all 
 the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution 
 African slavery as it exists among us, the proper status of 
 the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immedi 
 ate cause of the rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, 
 in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the rock upon which 
 the old Union would split. 1 He was right. What was con 
 jecture with him is now a realized fact. But whether he 
 fully comprehended the great truth upon which that great 
 rock stood and stands may be doubted. 
 
 "The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the 
 leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old 
 Constitution, were, that the enslavement of the African was 
 in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in 
 principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil 
 they knew not well how to deal with ; but the general 
 opinion of the men of the day was that, somehow or other 
 in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent 
 arid pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the 
 Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. 
 
 "The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential 
 guarantee to the institution while it should last ; and hence 
 
 346 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 no argument can be justly used against the Constitutional 
 guaranties thus secured, because of the common sentiment of 
 the day. These ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. 
 They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. 
 This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea 
 of a government built upon it : when the storm came and 
 the wind blew, it fell. Our new government is founded upon 
 exactly the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid, its 
 corner-stone rests, upon the truth that the negro is not 
 equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the 
 superior race, is his natural and normal condition. 
 
 " This, our new government, is the first, in the history of 
 the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and 
 moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its 
 development, like all other truths in the various departments 
 of science. It has been so even among us. Many who hear 
 me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not gener 
 ally admitted, even in this day." 
 
 Mr. Stephens emphasizes the statement that the Confeder 
 ate government was " the first in the history of the world " 
 to make human slavery its foundation-stone. It will probably 
 be the last. 
 
 He lived to learn, however, that no government in the his 
 tory of the world ever had such a fitful, transient, and mal 
 odorous existence. It died a-borning, in the very throes and 
 agonies of its own travail, and without the pity of a single 
 civilized nation. The Almighty did not permit it to darken 
 the earth or curse humanity with its presence save as a 
 scourge and punishment to the nation, and to cleanse and 
 purge it of the sin and crime of slavery. 
 
 When the storm came and the wind blew, it fell. But the 
 government based on the immortal and divine principles of 
 justice and equality for all stood the severest tests and 
 shocks of the greatest war of these ages, and vindicated the 
 principles held by Jefferson arid most of the leading states- 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 men of his time that " the enslavement of the African was 
 in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in 
 principle, socially, morally, and politically." 
 
 It may also be noted that Mr. Stephens further said of the 
 Southern Confederacy, that "its foundations are laid, its 
 corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not 
 equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the 
 superior race, is his natural and normal condition. 1 
 
 The principles enunciated by Mr. Stephens are monstrously 
 inhuman. The people of the United States are superior in 
 many things to the people of the Latin republics of South 
 America, but does that give the right to North America to 
 conquer or deport the inhabitants of South America and hold 
 them in " slavery, subordination to the superior race," as 
 their "natural and normal condition"? 
 
 Some nations in Europe are distinctly superior to other 
 nations. But what nation, arrogating its superiority would 
 dare to make the attempt to conquer or deport the inhabi 
 tants of a weaker country and make slaves of them ? 
 
 Mr. Stephens, however, speaking in 1861, was uttering the 
 exact thoughts and even words that are proclaimed by 
 Southern leaders to-day, on the floors of the Congress, in the 
 halls of legislation, on the lecture platform, sometimes in the 
 pulpit, and frequently in the public press. Truly, some 
 neither learn nor forget. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was far wiser than Mr. Stephens ; he said : 
 " If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong." 
 
 And it would seem to follow that " if outraging and op 
 pressing a man on the ground of color is not wrong, then 
 nothing is wrong." 
 
 The truth of God, the sentiment of civilization, and the 
 public opinion of the country were with Mr. Lincoln; and 
 because of this, in the Constitution of the United States it is 
 written : " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex 
 cept as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have 
 
 348 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. 11 
 " All persons born or naturalized in the United States 
 and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the 
 United States and of the state wherein they reside/ 1 
 " No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
 the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." 
 " Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, 
 or property without due process of law, nor deny to any 
 person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the 
 laws." " The right of the citizens of the United States to 
 vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or 
 by any state, on account of race, color, or previous condition 
 of servitude." 
 
 There are also guaranties for the right to the writ of 
 habeas corpus ; for freedom of speech ; for a free press ; 
 to keep and bear arms ; for a public and speedy trial ; to 
 be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to 
 be confronted with the witnesses ; to compulsory process for 
 the attendance of one s own witnesses ; to have counsel ; to 
 trial by jury ; immunity from bill of attainder ; from ex 
 post facto laws ; from unreasonable searches and seizures ; 
 from trial for a capital or otherwise infamous crime 
 unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury ; 
 from being compelled to testify against one s self; from 
 excessive bail ; from excessive fines ; from cruel or unusual 
 punishment. 
 
 Not one of these righteous, humane laws is honestly ob 
 served in the South with regard to the colored man. There 
 is, on the contrary, a general repudiation of them ; and in 
 many essential respects, the South is governed by the galvan 
 ized corpse of the Southern Confederacy rather than by the 
 Constitution of the United States. It has often been demon 
 strated that the life of a colored man is not held as sacred in 
 the South as the life of a robin on the Boston Common, or 
 a swan on the lakes of Lincoln Park in Chicago. 
 
 349 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 But two vital considerations may apply here : one divine ; 
 one human. 
 
 First, "the thunderbolts of God are still hot," and "right 
 eousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." 
 
 Second, the American people have shown in their history 
 that when they make up their minds to do a thing, they do 
 it ; when they determine to accomplish a result, they will find 
 a way or make it. 
 
 The particular manner of the co-operation between the 
 divine and the human powers may not be thoroughly under 
 stood. The fact of the co-operation, however, human history 
 abundantly illustrates. God s hand can be plainly seen in 
 the history of this republic. There is more than euphony in 
 these words of Holy Writ : " Righteousness exalteth a nation ; 
 but sin is a reproach to any people." Sin is not without its 
 wages. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson wrote : " Indeed I tremble for my 
 country when I reflect that God is just ; that His justice 
 cannot sleep forever." 
 
 The hour came; God s justice did awaken; the country 
 was convulsed and shocked from centre to circumference, and 
 the best blood of the nation paid the atonement. The lesson 
 should not be forgotten. 
 
 The humiliations, outrages, and inhumanities now forced 
 on the colored man, contrary to law, human and divine, are 
 a sin and a reproach to the nation. Public opinion is the 
 remedial agent ; it is all-potent because the truth and God 
 are behind it. 
 
 A cloud of witnesses speak from the skies. Some of these 
 were " workmen who laid the keel," and were on the deck at 
 the launching of the Ship of State. Others were at quarters, 
 on guard, and at the wheel through all the trying ordeals 
 and the perilous voyages of a century and a quarter. The 
 voices of the most eminent men and women now living are 
 also heard with no uncertain sound. They plead for right- 
 
 350 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 eousness, for justice, for humanity ; and in the name of 
 God. 
 
 Fundamentally, a nation is wise in so far as it is righteous ; 
 it is strong and powerful in so far as it is just ; it is safe and 
 invincible in so far as it has the favor of the God of battles. 
 
 From the depth of hearts warmed with the fire of liberty, 
 and with love for their country, faith in humanity, and 
 abiding confidence in the Almighty and Righteous Ruler 
 of the universe the illustrious fathers and the glorious sons 
 of the republic speak out. Will the South give ear ? Will 
 the nation take heed ? Hear them ! 
 
 Thomas Jefferson says : " And with what execration 
 should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half the 
 citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms 
 those into despots, and these into enemies ; destroys the 
 morale of the one part, and the amor patriae of the 
 other. . . . And can the liberties of a nation be thought 
 secure when we have removed their only firm basis a con 
 viction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the 
 gift of God, that they are not to be violated but with His 
 wrath ? " 
 
 Mr. Bancroft, writing of Mr. Jefferson says : " The heart 
 of Jefferson in writing the Declaration, and of Congress in 
 adopting it, beat for all humanity ; the assertion of right 
 was made for all mankind and all coming generations, with 
 out any exception whatever ; for the proposition which 
 admits of exceptions can never be self-evident." 
 
 The last public act of Benjamin Franklin was the signing 
 and presentation of a memorial to Congress as President of 
 the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, in which these words 
 occur : " That mankind are all formed by the same Al 
 mighty Being, alike objects of His care, and equally designed 
 for the enjoyment of happiness, the Christian religion teaches 
 us to believe, and the political creed of Americans fully coin 
 cides with the position. They have observed, with real 
 
 351 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 satisfaction, that many important and salutary powers are 
 vested in you for promoting the welfare and securing the 
 blessings of liberty to the people of the United States ; and 
 as they conceive that these blessings ought rightfully to 
 be administered without distinction as to color, to all de 
 scriptions of people, so they indulge themselves in the pleas 
 ing expectations that nothing which can be done for the 
 relief of the unhappy objects of their care will be omitted 
 or delayed. 
 
 " From the persuasion that equal liberty was originally the 
 position, and is still the birthright, of all men, and influ 
 enced by the strong ties of humanity and the principles of 
 their institutions, your memorialists conceive themselves 
 bound ... to promote a general enjoyment of the bless 
 ings of freedom." 
 
 To General Lafayette, who denounced slavery as " a crime 
 blacker than any African s face," and labored for its aboli 
 tion, George Washington wrote : " Would to God a like 
 spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the 
 people of this country." 
 
 Washington also declared that, " the propitious smiles of 
 Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards 
 the eternal rules of order and right." 
 
 The Honorable Henry Laurens of South Carolina, Presi 
 dent of the Continental Congress, minister to Holland, and 
 commissioner with Franklin and Jay to negotiate peace with 
 Great Britain, left on record these emphatic words : " I am 
 not one of those who arrogate the peculiar care of Providence 
 in each fortunate event ; nor one of those who dare trust 
 in Providence for defence and security of their own liberty, 
 while they enslave and wish to continue in slavery thousands 
 who are as well entitled to freedom as themselves." 
 
 The Reverend Isaac Backus of Massachusetts, says : " The 
 American Revolution was built upon the principle that all men 
 are born with an equal right to liberty and property." 
 
 352 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 The voices of George Mason of Virginia, and Livingston of 
 New York ; Gadsden of South Carolina, and the Adamses of 
 Massachusetts ; Alexander Hamilton of New York, and 
 John Tyler of Virginia; Roger Sherman of Connecticut, 
 and Luther Martin of Maryland ; Joshua Atherton of New 
 Hampshire, and George Tucker of Virginia ; Rufus King of 
 Massachusetts, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia, and a 
 host of others these all express the sentiment of liberty 
 and humanity. 
 
 Of special significance are the declarations of the Honor 
 able John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, and thus the first final authority in in 
 terpreting the Constitution and laws under it ; he says : " I 
 believe that God governs the world ; and I believe it to be a 
 maxim in His as in our Court, that those who ask for equity 
 ought to do it." And again : "Till America comes into this 
 measure her prayers to Heaven for liberty will be impious. 11 
 And further : " To contend for our own liberty and to deny 
 that blessing to others involves an inconsistency not to be 
 excused. . . . 
 
 " What act of public or private justice and philanthropy 
 can occasion more pleasing emotions in the breast of Chris 
 tians, or be more agreeable to Him who shed His blood for 
 the redemption of men, than such as tend to restore the 
 oppressed to their natural rights, and to raise unfortunate 
 members of the same great family with ourselves from the 
 abject situation of beasts of burden, bought and sold and 
 worked for the benefit and at the pleasure of persons who 
 were not created more free, more rational, more immortal, 
 nor with more extensive rights and privileges, than they were." 
 
 Concerning the discordant note of Chief Justice Taney, 
 which was the embodiment of the slaveholders 1 idea, that the 
 negro " had no rights which the white man was bound to re 
 spect, 11 Mr. George Livermore, in his Historical Research, says : 
 "It shocked the moral sentiment of our own community, 
 23 353 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 and excited the indignant rebuke of some of the most eminent 
 jurists and statesmen of Europe, who declared the sentiments 
 to be so execrable as to be almost incredible. " The 
 Honorable George Bancroft says : " He has not only denied 
 the rights of manhood, the liberties of mankind, but has not 
 left a foothold for the liberty of the white man to rest upon. 
 . . . No nation can adopt that judgment as its rule, and live ; 
 the judgment has in it no element of political vitality." 
 
 If black men can be put into practical slavery, or be op 
 pressed, the same kind of power can force white men into 
 practical slavery, or under the rod of oppression. 
 
 * Fleecy locks and dark complexions, 
 Do not alter nature s claim ; 
 Skins may differ, but affections 
 
 Dwell in black and white the same." 
 
 i 
 
 This idea of Justice Taney, however, is the central idea 
 in the plan of campaign of Southern leaders. And this ac 
 counts for the "Jim Crow" laws and the "Jim Crowism" 
 which disgraces the South and is the shame of the nation. 
 
 A press despatch recently reports : " Thomas Grades, a well- 
 dressed negro, is more familiar to-day with the 6 Jim Crow 
 laws of Virginia than he was when he left New York. He 
 was dragged from a train at Alexandria and taken to the 
 station house, where he said he was unfamiliar with the law, 
 and on payment of $10 collateral for his appearance was re 
 leased. Grades had travelled from New York in comfortable 
 fashion, but at the Virginia end of the long bridge the con 
 ductor requested him to go forward to the little pen set aside 
 for negroes. He refused, and at Alexandria the entire force 
 was employed to drag him from the car. After depositing 
 the $10 he proceeded on his journey in the Jim Crow 1 
 pen." 
 
 Is this civilization ? Is it Christianity ? Is it not barbar 
 ous ? Yet every colored person regardless of the excellence 
 of his inner life, or outward behavior, whatever his talents, 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 possessions, or high standing in the republic, is subject to 
 these barbarous laws of the South. A colored woman or 
 schoolgirl is treated the same way. In every case first-class 
 fare is demanded and paid, and " Jim Crow " accommodations 
 are forced on them. Sad, indeed, that the ineffable mean 
 ness of it does not appeal to the higher sense of justice, the 
 spirit of humanity or the Christian ethics of the white people 
 of the South. 
 
 A colored man travels from the city of Washington, 
 the nation s capital, to the Pacific coast. The time required 
 is about five days, and the distance is over three thousand 
 miles. He may be a high official of the government, de 
 spatched on public business. The train stops at various 
 places for breakfast, for dinner, for luncheon, for supper. 
 Every person on board of the train, except a colored person, 
 can freely buy refreshments or meals. But no colored person, 
 not even the Register of the Treasury of the United States, 
 who is a colored man, can cross the threshold of a single 
 dining-room, or even slake his thirst with a cup of coffee, or 
 munch a sandwich at a lunch counter. And yet it is written 
 in the Holy Scriptures : "And whosoever shall give to 
 drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, 
 in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall not 
 lose his reward. 11 " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 11 
 
 The colored man. government official, minister, or bishop of 
 a great denomination, with money in his pockets, cannot buy 
 food and drink to refresh his body. Not in all civili/ation 
 outside the boundary of the South is such a condition possi 
 ble, nor even among semi-civilized people, and hardly among 
 the savages. The negro has " no right which the white man 
 [that is, the Southern white man] is bound to respect." 
 
 The harsh and discordant words of Chief Justice Taney 
 may, however, serve to emphasize the strength of the spirit 
 of liberty in the American heart. That spirit has survived 
 
 355 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 every assault and is the abiding heritage of the American 
 people. 
 
 But the sons of the republic, like the fathers, also speak 
 for liberty and humanity. President Garfield said : " And 
 this thing we will remember ; we will remember our allies 
 who fought with us. Soon after the struggle began, we 
 looked behind the army of white rebels, and saw four millions 
 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies ; 
 and we found that the hearts of these four millions were 
 God-inspired with the spirit of liberty, and that they were 
 our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag, but in 
 all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black 
 skin. Our prisoners escaping from the starvation of prisons, 
 fleeing to our lines by the light of the North Star, never 
 feared to enter the black man s cabin and ask for bread. In 
 all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was 
 ever betrayed by a black man or woman. And now that we 
 have made them free, so long as we live we will stand by 
 these black allies. We will stand by them until the sun of 
 liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine 
 with equal ray upon every man, black or white, throughout 
 the Union." 
 
 General Sherman said : " The South went out of the 
 Union ; it came back with five-fifths voting power based on 
 the negro population. And it is not fair ; it is not just ; it 
 is not honorable for the South to suppress the negro vote." 
 
 Mr. Elaine said : " No human right on this continent is 
 more completely guaranteed than the right against dis- 
 franchisement on account of race, color, or previous condition 
 of servitude, as embodied in the Fifteenth Amendment of the 
 Constitution of the United States." And he further says : 
 " Without the right of citizenship his (the negro V) freedom 
 could be maintained only in name, and without the elective 
 franchise his citizenship would have no legitimate and no 
 authoritative protection." 
 
 356 
 
PUBLIC OPINION OMNIPOTENT 
 
 General Grant in his Memoirs, said : " Four millions of 
 human beings held as chattels have been liberated ; the ballot 
 has been given to them ; the free schools of the country have 
 been opened to their children. The nation still lives, and 
 the people are just as free to avoid social intimacy with the 
 blacks as ever they were, or as they are with white people." 
 
 President Benjamin Harrison said : " As long as free 
 suffrage shall be held by our people to be a jewel above 
 price ; as long as each for himself shall claim its free exer 
 cise and shall generously and manfully insist upon an equally 
 free exercise of it by every other man, our government will 
 be preserved and our development will not find its climax 
 until the purpose of God in establishing this government 
 shall have spread throughout the world government of the 
 people, for the people, and by the people." 
 
 And with the voices of these sons of the republic are 
 heard the voices of Logan, John Sherman, Stanton, Chase, 
 Sheridan, Longfellow, Whittier, Joshua R. Giddings, McKin- 
 ley, and a mighty host of others a glorious company speak 
 ing as it were from the skies to the American people. 
 
 The vast body of the American people to-day think the 
 same thoughts and would say the same words. And their 
 
 O J 
 
 voice is the voice of God speaking through the human heart. 
 
 Public opinion is omnipotent. Let it speak in thunder 
 tones ! Its commanding voice will be heard, respected, and 
 obeyed. 
 
 It will prevail because it carries with it the grandeur of 
 noble conviction, the majesty of the truth, the sovereignty of 
 the right, and the power and determination of execution. 
 
 Kipling s " Recessional," penned in celebration of the fif 
 tieth anniversary of the reign of Victoria, that most gracious 
 queen and sovereign of a world empire, in essentials perhaps 
 the most illustrious ruler the world has ever seen, embodies at 
 once the hopes, doubts, vanities, and fears; the struggles, 
 triumphs, and prayers of a people. 
 
 357 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF SLAVERY 
 
 It points the way to greatness and glory because it points 
 the way to the mind of God. 
 
 Its lesson cannot fail to impress the American heart. 
 
 ** God of our fathers, known of old, 
 
 Lord of our far flung battle line, 
 Beneath whose awful Hand we hold 
 
 Dominion over palm and pine 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget lest we forget ! 
 
 " The tumult and the shouting dies; 
 
 The captains and the kings depart: 
 Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, 
 
 An humble and a contrite heart. 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget lest we forget ! 
 
 " Far-called, our navies melt away; 
 
 On dune and headland sinks the fire: 
 Lo, all our pomp of yesterday 
 
 Is one with Nineveh and Tyre ! 
 Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, 
 Lest we forget lest we forget ! 
 
 ** If, drunk with sight of power, we loose 
 
 Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, 
 Such boasting as the Gentiles use, 
 
 Or lesser breeds without the Law 
 Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
 Lest we forget lest we forget ! 
 
 " For heathen heart that puts her trust 
 
 In reeking tube and iron shard, 
 All valiant dust that builds on dust, 
 
 And guarding calls not Thee to guard, 
 For frantic boast and foolish word 
 Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord ! 
 
 "Amen." 
 
 358 
 
We invite your attention 
 to a selected list of our 
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 on the following pages 
 
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TWO RKMARKA.BLE BOOKS 
 
 INDIAN STORY AND SONG 
 FROM NORTH AMERICA 
 
 By ALICE C. FLETCHER 
 
 Holder of the Thaw Fellowship, Peabody Museum, Harvard University. 
 
 Containing thirty songs harmonized from the native melo 
 dies, with the stories of their origin. The Washington Star 
 says : " Here is a virtually new vein opened. Certain musical 
 exhibitions by Omaha Indians at the trans-Mississippi Exposi 
 tion inspired Miss Fletcher to pursue the subject; and the 
 result is a book which is certain to open many minds, be 
 clouded by much prejudice and ignorance, to the beauties of 
 the aboriginal nature. The volume presents the music and 
 native words of a number of Indian songs, from a variety of 
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 rhythm and melody. The principles underlying Indian music, 
 as far as they have been deduced, are also given, with general 
 observations on this hitherto neglected subject." 
 I2mo, cloth, decorative, $1.25. 
 
 THE MIDDLE FIVE 
 
 INDIAN BOYS AT SCHOOL 
 
 By FRANCIS LA FLESCHE 
 
 With a frontispiece in color by Angel de Cora. 
 
 This fascinating book, which has been aptly called "An 
 
 Indian Tom Brown at Rugby," is not only one of the best 
 
 boys books ever published, but has also an importance quite 
 
 beyond its fiction value. The author and the illustrator are 
 
 both American Indians, and the former, in this description of 
 
 the education of little Indians into civilized life, has drawn 
 
 largely from his own early experience, giving to the book a 
 
 genuineness which should render it indispensable to those 
 
 who would rightly understand the Indian and his capabilities. 
 
 i6mo, cloth, decorative, $1.25. 
 
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THREE IMPORTANT VOLUMES 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 
 
 (i5th thousand) 
 By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 
 
 This book, Mr. Washington s most important contribution to 
 literature, recites briefly the history of the Negro race in 
 America and their present conditions. But the main body of 
 the work is devoted to the expression of the author s theories 
 as to what will better their condition ; and he explains fully 
 the practical working out of his theories of industrial educa 
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 " A work that should command the attention of every person 
 interested in the future conditions of the United States." 
 Philadelphia, Inquirer. 
 
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 TUSKEGEE : Its Story and its Work 
 By MAX BENNETT THRASHER 
 
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 do people think of Tuskegee ? is answered in this book." 
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 THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLAS3 
 By CHARLES W. CHESNUTT 
 
 An intensely interesting sketch of the first American negro 
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 The Literary News says : " Mr. Chesnutt has come nearer to 
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THe Writings of 
 
 Charlotte PerRins Oilman 
 
 (Charlotte Perkins Stetson) 
 
 WOMEN AND ECONOMICS. A Study of the 
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PARIS AND THE SOCIAL 
 REVOLUTION 
 
 A Study of the Revolutionary Element in the Various 
 Classes of Parisian Life. 
 
 By ALVAN FRANCIS SANBORN. 
 
 With seventy illustrations by VAUGHAN TROWBRIDGE. 
 
 Mr. Sanborn is well known as a sympathetic and intelligent 
 student of modern social conditions. During several years of 
 his residence in Paris he has been making, with exceptional 
 opportunities for the task, an exhaustive study of the revo 
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 society, from the anarchist labourer to the leading writers and 
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 socialist or anarchist, are just as truly revolutionary in spirit. 
 
 In the present volume Mr. Sanborn tells who and what the 
 revolutionist is, what he wants and how he expects to get it, 
 and how he gets himself heard. He shows what part in the 
 revolutionary movement is being taken by the labourer, the 
 criminal, the student, and by the literature and the art of 
 to-day. Although the work is thoroughly scientific in its 
 spirit and therefore an important contribution to sociology, 
 the treatment is such as to make the book of great popular 
 interest, and the chapters on modern literary and artistic Me 
 in Paris give a new light on these interesting subjects. 
 
 While the study is of foreign life, its appeal has no national 
 limitations. In portraying conditions in Paris it discloses the 
 principles of human nature that underlie feelings of unrest 
 which are world-wide in their manifestation, and its interpreta 
 tion of these principles will prove full of suggestion to the 
 thinking American reader who wishes to understand the trend 
 of radical thought in his own country. 
 
 The remarkable drawings by Mr. Vaughan Trowbridge, 
 who accompanied Mr. Sanborn during his journeys of obser 
 vation in the preparation of the book, are so closely related to 
 the text that the interest of both is greatly enhanced. 
 
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A Standard Library of Biography 
 
 Stte BEACON BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 OF EMINENT AMERICANS 
 Edited by M. A. De Wolfe Howe 
 
 THE aim of this series is to furnish brief, readable, and 
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 whose personalities have impressed themselves most 
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 the lives of our great men." 
 
 For list of titles see next page. 
 
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THE BEACON BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 The following volumes are issued : 
 
 Louis Agassiz, by Alice Bache Gould. 
 John James Audubon, by John Burroughs. 
 Edwin Booth, by Charles Townsend Copeland. 
 Phillips Brooks, by M. A. De Wolfe Howe. 
 John Brown, by Joseph Edgar Chamberlin. 
 Aaron Burr, by Henry Childs Merwin. 
 James Fenimore Cooper, by W. B. Shubrick Clymer. 
 Stephen Decatur, by Cyrus Townsend Brady. 
 Frederick Douglass, by Charles W. Chesnutt. 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Frank B. Sanborn. 
 David G. Farragut, by James Barnes. 
 Ulysses 3. Grant, by Owen Wister. 
 Alexander Hamilton, by James Schouler. 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, by Mrs. James T. Fields. 
 Father Hecker, by Henry D. Sedgwick, Jr. 
 Sam Houston, by Sarah Barnwell Elliott. 
 " Stonewall " Jackson, by Carl Hovey. 
 Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas E. Watson. 
 Robert E. Lee, by William P. Trent. 
 Henry W. Longfellow, by George Rice Carpenter. 
 James Russell Lowell, by Edward Everett Hale, Jr. 
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 Thomas Paine, by Ellery Sedgwick. 
 Daniel Webster, by Norman Hapgood. 
 Walt Whitman, by Isaac Hull Platt. 
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AN INDISPENSABLE BOOK 
 FOR EVERY BUSINESS MAN 
 
 Gf>e THEORY of ADVERTISING 
 
 A Simple Exposition of the Principles of Psychology 
 in their Relation to Successful Advertising. 
 
 By WALTER DILL SCOTT, Ph.D., 
 
 Director of the Psychological Laboratory of Northwestern 
 University. 
 
 THE most practical and useful book on its important 
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 help to every business man who feels it necessary to 
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 underlie the whole subject, thereby enabling him to make an 
 intelligent application of these principles to the requirements 
 of the special case in hand. Copiously illustrated with repro 
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 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS, BOSTON 
 
WITH WALT WHITMAN 
 IN CAMDEN 
 
 A Diary Record of Conversations kept by 
 HORACE TRAUBEL 
 
 With many important letters, documents, and other manu 
 script. Copiously illustrated with portraits and facsimiles. 
 
 The publication of the initial volume of this diary is one of 
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 and one which should attract wide-spread interest among all 
 classes of readers. For nineteen years Mr. Traubel was most 
 intimately associated with Walt Whitman in Camden. During 
 the greater part of this period he saw the poet daily. In 1887 
 he began to record, consecutively and faithfully, the conversa 
 tions and events of each meeting, whether important or seem 
 ingly trivial ; and this record was continued until the poet s 
 death in 1892. 
 
 In preparing the diary for publication Mr. Traubel has made 
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 informally presented, just as it occurred, and the result is a 
 picture of the daily life and thought of Whitman during his 
 last years, when his judgments and his personality were finally 
 matured, such as we have of no other great author, possibly 
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 of the greatest of his contemporaries, including Emerson, Al- 
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 Tennyson, Symonds, Gosse, Carpenter, Dowden, etc. 
 
 All of the letters (many of which are now first published), 
 fall naturally into place in the diary, having been discussed by 
 Whitman; and therefore the conversations give his estimates 
 and opinions of contemporary men and events. 
 
 It is expected that the work in its entirety will extend to 
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 LEAVES OF GRASS. Including Sands at Seventy, Good 
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POSTHUMOUSLY PUBLISHED 
 WRITINGS OF WALT WHITMAN 
 
 AN AMERICAN PRIMER. 
 
 Edited with a foreword by HORACE TRAUBEL. 
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 A NEW BEACON BIOGRAPHY 
 
 WALT WHITMAN. 
 
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